Ev'n now the herald of the gods appear'd:
Waking I saw him, and his message heard.
From Jove he came commission'd, heav'nly bright With radiant beams, and manifest to sight (The sender and the sent I both attest)These walls he enter'd, and those words express'd.
Fair queen, oppose not what the gods command;Forc'd by my fate, I leave your happy land."Thus while he spoke, already she began, With sparkling eyes, to view the guilty man;From head to foot survey'd his person o'er, Nor longer these outrageous threats forebore:
"False as thou art, and, more than false, forsworn!
Not sprung from noble blood, nor goddess-born, But hewn from harden'd entrails of a rock!
And rough Hyrcanian tigers gave thee suck!
Why should I fawn? what have I worse to fear?
Did he once look, or lent a list'ning ear, Sigh'd when I sobb'd, or shed one kindly tear?-All symptoms of a base ungrateful mind, So foul, that, which is worse, 'tis hard to find.
Of man's injustice why should I complain?
The gods, and Jove himself, behold in vain Triumphant treason; yet no thunder flies, Nor Juno views my wrongs with equal eyes;Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and Truth is now no more!
I sav'd the shipwrack'd exile on my shore;With needful food his hungry Trojans fed;I took the traitor to my throne and bed:
Fool that I was- 't is little to repeat The rest- I stor'd and rigg'd his ruin'd fleet.
I rave, I rave! A god's command he pleads, And makes Heav'n accessary to his deeds.
Now Lycian lots, and now the Delian god, Now Hermes is employ'd from Jove's abode, To warn him hence; as if the peaceful state Of heav'nly pow'rs were touch'd with human fate!
But go! thy flight no longer I detain-
Go seek thy promis'd kingdom thro' the main!