Who gazes on him, and with wondering eyes
Beholds the new majestick figure rise,
His glowing features, and celeftial light,
And all the God difcover'd to her fight.
'HEN now Agenor had his daughter loft,
He fent his fon to fearch on every coast;
And fternly bid him to his arms reftore
The darling maid, or fee his face no more,
But live an exile in a foreign clime;
Thus was the father pious to a crime.
The restless youth fearch'd all the world around;
But how can feve in his amours be found?
When tir'd at length with unfuccessful toil,
To fhun his angry Sire and native foil,
He goes a fuppliant to the Delphick dome ;
There asks the God what new-appointed home
Should end his wand'rings, and his toils relieve.
The Delphick oracles this answer give.
"Behold among the fields a lonely Cow, "Unworn with yokes, unbroken to the plow; "Mark well the place where firft fhe lays her down, "There measure out thy walls, and build thy town, "And from thy guide Baotia call the land,
"In which the deftin'd walls and town fhall stand.
No fooner had he left the dark abode, Big with the promise of the Delphick God,
When in the fields the fatal Cow he view'd,
Nor gall'd with yokes, nor worn with fervitude:
Her gently at a distance he purfu'd;
And, as he walk'd aloof, in filence pray'd
To the great Power whofe counfels he obey'd.
Her way through flowery Panopè fhe took,
And now, Cephifus, crofs'd thy filver brook;
When to the Heavens her spacious front she rais'd,
And bellow'd thrice, then backward turning gaz'd
On thofe behind, 'till on the deftin'd place
She ftoop'd, and couch'd amid the rifing grafs.
Cadmus falutes the foil, and gladly hails
The new-found mountains, and the nameless vales,
And thanks the Gods, and turns about his eye
To fee his new dominions round him lye;
Then fends his fervants to a neighbouring grove
For living ftreams, a facrifice to Jove.
O'er the wide plain there rose a shady wood
Of aged trees; in its dark bosom stood
A bushy thicket, pathless and unworn,
O'er-run with brambles, and perplex'd with thorn:
Amidst the brake a hollow Den was found,
With rocks and fhelving arches vaulted round.
Deep in the dreary Den, conceal'd from day,
Sacred to Mars, a mighty Dragon lay,
Bloated with poison to a monftrous fize;
Fire broke in flashes when he glance'd his eyes:
His towering creft was glorious to behold,
His shoulders and his fides were scal'd with gold;
Three tongues he brandifh'd when he charg'd his foes;
His teeth ftood jaggy in three dreadful rows.
The Tyrians in the Den for water fought,
And with their urns explor'd the hollow vault:
From fide to fide their empty urns rebound,
And rouse the fleepy Serpent with the sound.
Strait he beftirs him, and is seen to rife;
And now with dreadful hiffings fills the skies,
And darts his forky tongues, and rouls his glareing eyes.
The Tyrians drop their veffels in the fright,
All pale and trembling at the hideous fight.
Spire above fpire uprear'd in air he stood,
And gazing round him, over-look'd the wood:
Then floating on the ground, in circles rowl'd ;
Then leap'd upon them in a mighty fold.
Of fuch a bulk, and fuch a monstrous fize,
The Serpent in the polar circle lyes,
That stretches over half the Northern skies.
In vain the Tyrians on their arms rely,
In vain attempt to fight, in vain to fly:
All their endeavours and their hopes are vain;
Some die entangled in the winding train;
Some are devour'd; or feel a loathfom death,
Swoln up with blafts of peftilential breath.
And now the scorching Sun was mounted high,
In all its luftre, to the noon-day sky;
When, anxious for his friends, and fill'd with cares,
To fearch the woods th' impatient Chief prepares.
A Lion's hide around his loins he wore,
The well-pois'd Jav'lin to the field he bore
Inur'd to blood; the far-destroying Dart,
And, the best weapon," an undaunted Heart.
Soon as the youth approach'd the fatal place,
He faw his fervants breathless on the grass;
The scaly foe amid their corps he view'd,
Basking at ease, and feasting in their blood.
"Such friends, he cries, deferv'd a longer date;
But Cadmus will revenge, or share their fate,
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