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A crime of most abhorrent die

In her whose wedded bliss is young!

The violated marriage tie

Is told by every foreign tongue—

Since naught to hide the guilty tale

From slanderous townsmen can avail.

Envy is wealth's perpetual foe,

'Gainst which the humble mutter low.

Ev'n when the great Alcides came

To Sparta, seat of ancient fame,

Bringing destruction on the prophet maid;

He fell, who saw the wasting fire

For Helen's baneful charms aspire,

And low in dust Troy's splendid fabrics laid.

Orestes with his youthful head

To hospitable Strophius fled,

His aged friend, who dwelt below

Parnassus' elevated brow.

At length with valiant arm he gave

His mother and Ægisthus to the grave.

Now, friends, in devious track I stray

From the direct and beaten way;

Slave to some arbitrary gale,

That guides the pliant vessel's sail.

Muse, if by compact or for gain

A mercenary voice thou raise,

Exaggerate in varied strain

The subject of thy venal praise.

Let Trasydæus now inspire

Thy lay, or his triumphant sire,

The Pythian victor, they whose fame

Shines with a bright and glorious flame.

Late conquerors in th' Olympic car,

And the renown'd equestrian war,

With naked limbs in Pytho's race,

They rushing through the stadium's space,