Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/111

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BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
37

prisoner." "Dog!" said Pindar, "let your ransom stay with your friends! But your carcass shall be left for the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field." With that he raised his sword, and with a mighty stroke, cleft the wretched Modern in twain, the sword pursuing the blow, and one half lay panting on the ground, to be trod in pieces by the horses' feet, the other half was borne by the frighted steed through the field. This Venus took and washed it seven times in ambrosia, then struck it thrice with a sprig of amaranth; upon which the leather grow round and soft, and the leaves turned into feathers, and being gilded before, continued gilded still: so it became a dove, and she harnessed it to her chariot. * Hiatus valde

deflendus in MS.

Day being far spent, and the numerous forces of the Moderns half inclining to a retreat, there issued forth from a squadron of their heavy-armed foot,The Episode of B-ntl-y and W-tt-n. a captain whose name was B-ntl-y, the most deformed of all the Moderns, tall, but without shape or comeliness,