Page:The Iliad in a Nutshell, or Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Wesley (1726).djvu/50

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555 He now the watry Monarch flying found,
And struck his winged Heel with suddain Dart.
But good Prassæus^[1] soon reveng'd the Wound,
Transfix'd the Mouse, and tore his hairy Heart.
Pelides fell; e'er yet the fatal Stroke,
560 Incens'd Troxartes struck, the bleeding Hero spoke.

LVII.
O King, if Gifts may move, of Jewels rare
My Ransom take, a rich and precious Hoard,
Which dying Peleus gave to me, his Heir;
Which erst my great Progenitors had stor'd,
565 Spoils of the Waters! Heaps of yellow Ore,
My willing Subjects for their Prince shall give:
Reject not then with Scorn the proffer'd Store.
Enchain me, let me serve, but let me live.
Better alive sad Slav'ry to sustain,
570 Than dead o'er all the Ghosts of Chiefs and Kings to reign.^[2]

1. v. 557. Prassæus.] Call'd from Garlick.
2. v. 570. It it no wonder the Heroes are so unwilling to die when the Poet provides no better Entertainment for them in the next World, than the worst they could meet with in this.

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