26
The secret cause, to Venus only known,
Blends with her fears a joy she dares not own.
For now the Ruler of the realms of shade
Through winding caverns hath to pass essayed—
Where bruised Enceladus is groaning laid.
Through all his frame the tortured giant feels
The trampling coursers, and the grinding wheels;
Which, deep indented, leave their smoking track,
In sulphurous lines, along his sinewy back;
As wild he writhes beneath the doubled load,
Bearing at once Sicania and the God,
And feebly with his snakes obstructs the road.
As when the miner's art, with hidden toil,
Has worked a passage through the stubborn soil,
Within the walls a strangely open'd gate
Betrays the town to unexpected fate;
From secret caves the soldiers rise to light,
And spring, like earth-born warriors, to the fight:
Ev'n so, resolved to find or make a way,
The third Saturnian struggles into day:
Rocks piled on rocks impede his wandering car,
And guard Jove's realm with adamantine bar:
Till he, at such delays indignant grown,
With mighty sceptre smites the solid stone.
