Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/198

158 And all the realms, which now the Latins sway,

The labours of to-night shall well repay.

But thou, my generous youth, whose tender years

Are near my own, whose worth my heart reveres,

Henceforth, affection, sweetly thus begun,

Shall join our bosoms and our souls in one;

Without thy aid, no glory shall be mine,

Without thy dear advice, no great design;

Alike, through life, esteem'd, thou godlike boy,

In war my bulwark, and in peace my joy."

To him Euryalus:—"No day shall shame

The rising glories which from this I claim.

Fortune may favour, or the skies may frown,

But valour, spite of fate, obtains renown.

Yet, ere from hence our eager steps depart,

One boon I beg, the nearest to my heart:

My mother, sprung from Priam's royal line,

Like thine ennobled, hardly less divine,

Nor Troy nor king Acestes' realms restrain

Her feeble age from dangers of the main;

Alone she came, all selfish fears above,

A bright example of maternal love.

Unknown, the secret enterprise I brave,

Lest grief should bend my parent to the grave;

From this alone no fond adieus I seek,

No fainting mother's lips have press'd my cheek;