AMYNTAS.
161
That though he ridiculed my servitude,
It was more eligible than his freedom.
Our amorous speculation soon was broken;
A cry above us our attention drew;
And in the instant that we heard the cry,
We saw a man fall from the height; his fall
Was by some herbs and bushes checked, which grew
Close, and projecting from the rocky steep:
But there he stopped not; onward still he rushed,
And on the ground, just at our feet, he lighted.
But by that intercepting prominence,
His fall was gentler, and his life preserved:
Yet had the broken shock it's violence;
More than an hour bereft of sense he lay:
We knew him straight; and for awhile continued
As stunned as he, with wonder, and with grief.
As he returned from temporary death,
We from our stupefaction too recovered.
It was more eligible than his freedom.
Our amorous speculation soon was broken;
A cry above us our attention drew;
And in the instant that we heard the cry,
We saw a man fall from the height; his fall
Was by some herbs and bushes checked, which grew
Close, and projecting from the rocky steep:
But there he stopped not; onward still he rushed,
And on the ground, just at our feet, he lighted.
But by that intercepting prominence,
His fall was gentler, and his life preserved:
Yet had the broken shock it's violence;
More than an hour bereft of sense he lay:
We knew him straight; and for awhile continued
As stunned as he, with wonder, and with grief.
As he returned from temporary death,
We from our stupefaction too recovered.
Thyrsis
