Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/365

Rh Of beasts of chase that haunt the Arcadian hills,

Wild hog, and bear, and mountain-deer, and roe;

Last, of our quarters with the Arcadian chiefs.

For courteous entertainment, welcome warm,

Sad, reverential homage, had our prince

From all, for his great lineage and his woes;

All which he own'd, and praised with grateful mind.

But still over his speech a gloom there hung,

As of one shadow'd by impending death;

And strangely, as we talk'd, he would apply

The story of spots mention'd to his own;

Telling us, Arnê minded him, he too

Was saved a babe, but to a life obscure,

Which he, the seed of Heracles, dragg'd on

Inglorious, and should drop at last unknown,

Even as those dead unepitaph'd, who lie

In the stone coffins at Orchomenus.

And, then, he bade remember how we pass'd

The Mantineän Sanctuary, forbid

To foot of mortal, where his ancestor,

Named Æpytus like him, having gone in,

Was blinded by the outgushing springs of brine.

Then, turning westward to the Adder's Hill—

Another ancestor, named, too, like me,

Died of a snake-bite, said he, on that brow;

Still at his mountain-tomb men marvel, built

Where, as life ebb'd, his bearers laid him down.

So he play'd on; then ended, with a smile:

This region is not happy for my race.

We cheer'd him; but, that moment, from the copse

By the lake-edge, broke the sharp cry of hounds;

The prickers shouted that the stag was gone.

We sprang upon our feet, we snatch'd our spears,

We bounded down the swarded slope, we plunged