BOOK III
MASSILIA
WITH canvas yielding to the western wind
The navy sailed the deep, and every eye
Gazed on Ionian billows. But the chief
Turned not his vision from his native shore
Now left for ever, while the morning mists
Drew down upon the mountains, and the cliffs.
Faded in distance till his aching sight
No longer knew them. Then his wearied frame
Sank in the arms of sleep. But Julia's shape,
In mournful guise, dread horror on her brow, 10
Rose through the gaping earth, and from her tomb
Erect,[1] in form as of a Fury spake:
'Driven from Elysian fields and from the plains
'The blest inhabit, when the war began,
'I dwell in Stygian darkness where abide
'The souls of all the guilty. There I saw
'Th' Eumenides with torches in their hands
'Prepared against thy battles; and the fleets[2]
'Which by the ferryman of the flaming stream
'Were made to bear thy dead: while Hell itself 20
'Relaxed its punishments; the sisters three
The navy sailed the deep, and every eye
Gazed on Ionian billows. But the chief
Turned not his vision from his native shore
Now left for ever, while the morning mists
Drew down upon the mountains, and the cliffs.
Faded in distance till his aching sight
No longer knew them. Then his wearied frame
Sank in the arms of sleep. But Julia's shape,
In mournful guise, dread horror on her brow, 10
Rose through the gaping earth, and from her tomb
Erect,[1] in form as of a Fury spake:
'Driven from Elysian fields and from the plains
'The blest inhabit, when the war began,
'I dwell in Stygian darkness where abide
'The souls of all the guilty. There I saw
'Th' Eumenides with torches in their hands
'Prepared against thy battles; and the fleets[2]
'Which by the ferryman of the flaming stream
'Were made to bear thy dead: while Hell itself 20
'Relaxed its punishments; the sisters three
- ↑ Reading adscenso, as Francken (Leyden, 1896).
- ↑ So'The rugged Charon fainted,
And asked a navy, rather than a boat,
To ferry over the sad world that came.'
(Ben Jonson, 'Catiline,' Act i., scene I.)
