Page:The Lusiad (Camões, tr. Mickle, 1791), Volume 2.djvu/74

Through every rank the headlong fury ran,
And first red slaughter in the court began.
Of spousal vows, and widow'd bed defiled,
Loud fame the beauteous Leonore reviled.
The adulterous noble in her presence bled,
And, torn with wounds, his numerous friends lay dead.
No more those ghastly deathful nights amaze,
When Rome wept tears of blood in Scylla's days:
More horrid deeds Ulysses' towers beheld:
Each cruel breast where rankling envy swell'd,
Accused his foe as minion of the queen;
Accused, and murder closed the dreary scene.
All holy ties the frantic transport braved,
Nor sacred priesthood nor the altar saved.
Thrown from a tower, like Hector's son of yore,
The mitred head was dashed with brains and gore.
Ghastly with scenes of death, and mangled limbs,
And, black with clotted blood each pavement swims.

With all the fierceness of the female ire,
When rage and grief to tear the breast conspire,
The queen beheld her power, her honours lost,
And ever when she slept th' adulterer's ghost,