for me, or for, my martial band? Or come sad tidings from our native land? Our fathers live (our first, most tender care), Thy good Menoetius breathes the vital air, And hoary Peleus yet extends his days; Pleased in their age to hear their children's praise. Or may some meaner cause thy pity claim? Perhaps yon relics of the Grecian name, Doom'd in their ships to sink by fire and sword, And pay the forfeit of their haughty lord? Whate'er the cause, reveal thy secret care, And speak those sorrows which a friend would share." A sigh that instant from his bosom broke, Another follow'd, and Patroclus spoke: "Let Greece at length with pity touch thy breast, Thyself a Greek; and, once, of Greeks the best! Lo! every chief that might her fate prevent, Lies pierced with wounds, and bleeding in his tent: Eurypylus, Tydides, Atreus' son, And wise Ulysses, at the navy groan, More for their country's wounds than for their own. Their pain soft arts of pharmacy can ease, Thy breast alone no lenitives appease. May never rage like thine my soul enslave, O great in vain! unprofitably brave! Thy country slighted in her last distress, What friend, what man, from thee shall hope redress? No--men unborn, and ages yet behind, Shall curse that fierce, that unforgiving mind. "O man unpitying! if of man thy race; But sure thou spring'st not from a soft embrace, Nor ever amorous hero caused thy birth, Nor ever tender goddess brought thee forth: Some rugged rock's hard entrails gave thee form, And raging seas produced thee in a storm, A soul well suiting that tempestuous kind, So rough thy manners, so untamed thy mind. "If some dire oracle thy breast alarm, If aught from Jove, or Thetis, stop thy arm, Some beam of comfort yet on Greece may shine, If I but lead the Myrmidonian line: Clad in thy dreadful arms if I appear, Proud Troy shall tremble, and desert the war; Without thy person Greece shall win the d