Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/206

166 Veil'd by the night, secure the Trojan lies.

Burning with wrath, he view'd his soldiers fall.

"Thou youth accurst, thy life shall pay for all!"

Quick from the sheath his flaming glaive he drew,

And, raging, on the boy defenceless flew.

Nisus, no more the blackening shade conceals,

Forth, forth he starts, and all his love reveals;

Aghast, confus'd, his fears to madness rise,

And pour these accents, shrieking as he flies;

"Me, me,—your vengeance hurl on me alone;

Here sheathe the steel, my blood is all your own;

Ye starry Spheres! thou conscious Heaven! attest!

He could not—durst not—lo! the guile confest!

All, all was mine,—his early fate suspend;