Vix tempero animo, vix dolor frenos capit.
Sic, cum feras vestigat, & longo sagax
Loro tenetur Umber, ac presso vias
Scrutator ore; dum procul lento suem
Odore sentit, paret, & tacito locum 500
Rostro pererrat: præda cum propior fuit,
Cervice tota pugnat, & gemitu vocat
Dominum morantem, seque retinenti eripit.
Cum spirat ira sanguinem, nescit tegi.
Tamen tegatur. aspice, ut multo gravis 505
Squallore vultus obruat mœstos coma:
Quam fæda jaceat barba. præstatur fides.
Fratrem juvat videre: complexus mihi
Redde expetitos. quidquid iraram suit,
Transierit. ex hoc sanguis ac pietas die 510
Colantur: animis odia damnata excidant.
THY. Diluere possem cuncta, nisi talis fores.
Sed fateor, Atreu, fateor, admisi omnia
Quæ credidisti. pessimam causam meam
Hodierna pietas fecit, est prorsus nocens, 515
Quicunque visus tam bono fratri est nocens.
Lacrimis agendum est: supplicem primus vides.
Hæ te precantur pedibus intactæ manus.
Ponatur omnis ira, & ex animo tumor
Erasus abeat: obsides fidei accipe 520
Hos innocentes. ATR. Frater, a genubus manus
Aufer, meosque potius amplexus pete.
Vos quoque, senum præsidia, tot juvenes, meo
Pendete collo, squallidam vestem exue,
Oculisque nostris parce, & omatus cape 525
Pares meis; lætusque fraterni imperii
Capesse partem, major hæc laus est mea,
Fratri paternum reddere incolumi decus.
Habere regnum, casus est: virtus, dare.
THY. Dii paria, frater, pretia pro tantis tibi 500
Meritis rependant. regiam capitis notam
appear, but his sons too, a regular family party! I can scarcely preserve my equanimity, and it is with great difficulty, that I can keep my anger in subjugation! Just as when the blood-hound is on the track, and is then being held in by a leather strap, at the same time that he is following up that track, with his nose pressing the ground, and is obedient, whilst he is detecting the boar's whereabout with a feeble scent at a distance only, and wanders here, wanders there silently; but when his quarry draws nearer, he strains away at the collar, and sets up a loud bark, as if he would remind his master of his being kept back, and forthwith breaks away from the hand that held him! So when an angry man has made
