Page:The Lusiad (Camões, tr. Mickle, 1791), Volume 2.djvu/99

Octavius' legions left the field in flight,
While happier Marcus triumph'd in the fight.

When endless night had seal'd his mortal eyes,
And brave Alonzo's spirit sought the skies,
The second of the name, the valiant John,
Our thirteenth monarch, now ascends the throne.
To seize immortal fame, his mighty mind,
What man had never dared before, design'd;
That glorious labour which I now pursue,
Through seas unsail'd to find the shores that view
The day-star, rising from his watery bed,
The first grey beams of infant morning shed.
Selected messengers his will obey;
Through Spain and France they hold their vent'rous way:
Through Italy they reach the port that gave
The fair Parthenope an honoured grave;
That shore which oft has felt the servile chain,
But now smiles happy in the care of Spain.
Now from the port the brave advent'rers bore,
And cut the billows of the Rhodian shore;
Now reach the strand where noble Pompey bled;
And now, repair'd with rest, to Memphis sped;
And now, ascending by the vales of Nile,
Whose waves pour fatness o'er the grateful soil,

Through