Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/267

Book 15. Thus while he linger'd, his Design was heard; A speedy Process form'd, and Death declar'd. Witness there needed none of his Offence; Against himself the Wretch was Evidence: Condemn'd, and destitute of human Aid, To him, for whom he suffer'd, thus he pray'd. O Pow'r, who hast deserv'd in Heav'n a Throne, Not giv'n, but by thy Labours made thy own, Pity thy Suppliant, and protect his Cause, Whom thou hast made obnoxious to the Laws. A Custom was of old, and still remains, Which Life, or Death by Suffrages ordains: White Stones, and Black within an Urn are cast; The first absolve, but Fate is in the last. The Judges to the common Urn bequeath Their Votes, and drop the Sable Signs of Death; The Box receives all Black, but, pour'd from thence, The Stones came candid forth; the Hue of Innocence. Thus Alemonides his Safety won, Preserv'd from Death by Alcumena's Son: Then to his Kinsman-God his Vows he pays, And cuts with prosp'rous Gales th' Ionian Seas: He leaves Tarentum, favour'd by the Wind, And Thurine Bays, and Temises, behind; Soft Sybaris, and all the Capes that stand Along the Shore, he makes in sight of Land; Still doubling, and still coasting, till he found The Mouth of Æsaris, and promis'd Ground; Then saw, where, on the Margin of the Flood, The Tomb, that held the Bones of Croton stood: Here, by the Gods Command, he built, and wall'd The Place predicted; and Crotona call'd. Thus Fame, from time to time, delivers down The sure Tradition of th' Italian Town. Here dwelt the Man divine, whom Samos bore, But now Self-banish'd from his Native Shore, Be-