Dardan

"Thou, who alone Troy's sorrows deign'st to hear, / and us, the gleanings of the Danaan spear, / poor world-wide wanderers and in desperate case, / has ta'en to share thy city and thy cheer, / meet thanks nor we, nor what of Dardan race / yet roams the earth, can give to recompense thy grace."

"Lo, now to Priam, with exulting cries, / the Dardan shepherds drag a youth unknown, / with hands fast pinioned, and in captive guise. / Caught on the way, by cunning of his own, / this end to compass, and betray the town. / Prepared for either venture, void or fear, / the crafty purpose of his mind to crown, / or meet sure death."

Sighing, he replies "'Tis here, / the final end of all the Dardan power, / the last, sad day has come, the inevitable hour. / Troy was, and we were Trojans, now, alas! / no more, for perished is the Dardan fame. / Fierce Jove to Argos biddeth all to pass, / and Danaans rule a city wrapt in flame."

Sooth, then, shall she return / to Sparta and Mycenae, ay, and see / home, husband, sons and parents, safe and free, / with Ilian wives and Phrygians in her train, / a queen, in pride of triumph? Shall this be, / and Troy have blazed and Priam's self been slain, / and Trojan blood so oft have soaked the Dardan plain?

"Not so; though glory wait not on the act; / though poor the praise, and barren be the gain, / vengeance on feeble woman to exact, / yet praised hereafter shall his name remain, / who purges earth of such a monstrous stain. / Sweet is the passion of vindictive joy, / sweet is the punishment, where just the pain, / sweet the fierce ardour of revenge to cloy, / and slake with Dardan blood the funeral flames of Troy."

"Not oft-blamed Paris, nor the hateful charms / of Helen; Heaven, unpitying Heaven to-day / hath razed the Trojan towers and reft the Dardan sway."

This Polydorus Priam from the war / to Thracia's King in secret had consigned / with store of gold, when, girt with siege, he saw / Troy's towers, and trust in Dardan arms resigned.

"Brave hearts, the land that bore / your sires shall nurse their Dardan sons again. / Seek out your ancient mother; from her shore / through all the world the AEneian house shall reign, / and sons of sons unborn the lasting line sustain."