ye perish on a barbarous coast? Is this your fate, to glut the dogs with gore, Far from your friends, and from your native shore? Say, great Eurypylus! shall Greece yet stand? Resists she yet the raging Hector's hand? Or are her heroes doom'd to die with shame, And this the period of our wars and fame?" Eurypylus replies: "No more, my friend; Greece is no more! this day her glories end; Even to the ships victorious Troy pursues, Her force increasing as her toil renews. Those chiefs, that used her utmost rage to meet, Lie pierced with wounds, and bleeding in the fleet. But, thou, Patroclus! act a friendly part, Lead to my ships, and draw this deadly dart; With lukewarm water wash the gore away; With healing balms the raging smart allay, Such as sage Chiron, sire of pharmacy, Once taught Achilles, and Achilles thee. Of two famed surgeons, Podalirius stands This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands; And great Machaon, wounded in his tent, Now wants that succour which so oft he lent." To him the chief: "What then remains to do? The event of things the gods alone can view. Charged by Achilles' great command I fly, And bear with haste the Pylian king's reply: But thy distress this instant claims relief." He said, and in his arms upheld the chief. The slaves their master's slow approach survey'd, And hides of oxen on the floor display'd: There stretch'd at length the wounded hero lay; Patroclus cut the forky steel away: Then in his hands a bitter root he bruised; The wound he wash'd, the styptic juice infused. The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow, The wound to torture, and the blood to flow. [Illustration: HERCULES.] HERCULES. BOOK XII. ARGUMENT. THE BATTLE AT THE GRECIAN WALL. The Greeks having retired into their intrenchments, Hector attempts to force them; but it proving impossible to pass the ditch, Polydamas advises to q