BOOK II.
Canto the First.
Beneath a tree, whose heaped-up burthen swayed
In the high wind, and made a hustling sound,
As of a distant host that scale a hill,
Autarces and Encolyon gravely sat.
Sometimes they spake aloud, then murmured low,
Then paused as if perplexed,—looked round and snuffed
The odour of wood-fires in the fresh forest air,—
And then again addressed them to their theme.
Of cloudy-brained Orion they discoursed,
Lost to companionship, and led by dreams.
In the high wind, and made a hustling sound,
As of a distant host that scale a hill,
Autarces and Encolyon gravely sat.
Sometimes they spake aloud, then murmured low,
Then paused as if perplexed,—looked round and snuffed
The odour of wood-fires in the fresh forest air,—
And then again addressed them to their theme.
Of cloudy-brained Orion they discoursed,
Lost to companionship, and led by dreams.
"Once," said Autarces, "he was great on earth;
A worker in iron, and a hunter fleet
A worker in iron, and a hunter fleet
