Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/163

For so Religion and the Gods ordain;
That if you violate with Hands prophane
Minerva's Gift, your Town in Flames shall burn,
(Which Omen, O'ye Gods, on Grecia turn!)
But if it climb, with your assisting Hands, 255
The Trojan Walls, and in the City stands;
Then Troy shall Argos and Mycenæ burn,
And the reverse of Fate on us return.
 With such Deceits he gain'd their easie Hearts,
Too prone to credit his perfidious Arts. 260
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$What Diomede, nor Thetis greater Son,
A thousand Ships, nor ten years Siege had done:
False Tears and fawning Words the City won.
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$A greater Omen, and of worse portent,
Did our unwary Minds with fear torment; 265
Concurring to produce the dire Event.
Laocoon, Neptune's Priest by Lot that Year,
With solemn Pomp then sacrific'd a Steer.
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$When, dreadful to behold, from Sea we spy'd
Two Serpents rank'd abreast, the Seas divide, 270
And smoothly sweep along the swelling Tide.
Their flaming Crests above the Waves they show,
Their Bellies seem to burn the Seas below:
Their speckled Tails advance to steer their Course, 274
And on the sounding Shoar the flying Billows force.
And now the Strand, and now the Plain they held,
Their ardent Eyes with bloody streaks were fill'd;