"Let others clasp thee now, soon mine once more

With me thou'lt dwell, and bone will chafe with bone." Such was the tone her plaintive chidings wore :

I strove to grasp the phantom-it was gone.

VIII.

THE SURPRISE.

Disce, quid Esquilias hac nocte fugarit aquosas.

Now learn how marshy Esquiline was scared so yesternight, When all the new-park neighbours hurried forth in wildered plight.

Long 'neath an aged dragon's care Lanuvium's walls have been,
And many a one goes there to see a sight so seldom seen.
A hallowed path abruptly leads down to his den abysmal,
Through which is sent-O maiden fair! beware all paths so
dismal-

The tribute of this hungry snake, claimed as the year comes round,

What time he writhes and hisses in the deep dark underground.
Such are the rites to which the girls go down with pallid face,
When rashly in the serpent's mouth their helpless hands they
place.

If maid she be who proffers it, the food he quickly takes,
While in the tender virgin's hands the very basket shakes.

If chaste, they soon return, and clasp the necks of parents dear,

And rustics shout with joyful heart, ""Twill be a fruitful year."

With ponies twain, clipped tail and mane, my Cynthia thither drove ;

She laid the blame on Juno's name, but Venus' web she wove. O Appian Way! declare how gay in triumph then she shone, As o'er thy pavement rough with flying wheels she thundered

on;

While from a tavern out of view the sound of bickerings came,
If not on my account, at least with damage to my fame :
For, forward leaning o'er the pole, a scandal to behold,
She plied along the rugged road the reins with daring bold.

Yon shaven fop's silk-cushioned car I leave now out of sight, And dogs of the Molossian breed with collars gleaming bright; Ere long he'll stuff his venal skin with prize-ring's filthy fare, And odious whiskers will o'ergrow those cheeks now smooth and bare.

Since she so often left me thus, and still abroad would range, I thought I'd shift my camp, and try another for a change.

On Aventine, near Dian's shrine, dwells Phyllis, who no doubt

Is dull when sober; in her cups she's charming out and out. There's Teia in Tarpeia's grove, and prettier girl there's

none;

But then, when she is warmed with wine, she's game for more than one.

Well, I resolved to ask them in, and spend with them the

night,

In pleasure's bowers to cull the flowers and raptures of delight.

We sought the greenhouse; for the three was set a sofa there.
Dost wonder how the trio sat? I sat between the pair.
We'd Lygdamus for waiter-crystal summer-service; wine
The produce of Methymna, with the smack of turpentine ;
A gipsy flutist; Phyllis played the bones in charming style,
So trim and neat, with smile so sweet as roses rained the

while;

A dwarf besides, shrunk up into his limbs, a dumpy thing, Who tossed his stumpy hands, and made the hollow boxwood

ring.

But though the lamps were often trimmed, the flame would burn not well,

And off its legs, face uppermost, at last the table fell.

And while I tried the dice for luck with oft-repeated throws,
By some untoward chance the cursèd aces always rose.
They sung, 'twas vain; exposed their charms-I had as well
been blind :

Woe's me! Lanuvium's gates alone were ever in my mind,— When suddenly the door-posts shook, the hinges creaked, a din Of whispered murmurs at the door, like some one coming in— 'Twas Cynthia! bang the leaves went wide-it was no vain presage

Not with elaborated hair, but beautiful in rage.

Down from my thewless fingers fell the goblet on the floor,
My lips, though steeped in rosy wine, a deathlike pallor wore.
Her eyes flash fire, she raves as only woman can : I ween,
In captured city ne'er before was witnessed such a scene.
She thrusts her wrathful nails in Phyllis' face; while, wan with

fear,

Loud Teia shouts, "From yonder pools bring water quickly here."

The sleeping Romans ope their eyes in fright, and one and all, With hurrying feet, dash through the street to see the midnight

brawl.

The quaking pair, with ruffled hair, and tunics flying free,
Rush up the dismal alley to the nearest shop they see.
Now Cynthia revels in the rout; returns, the combat o'er,
And with her vixen hands my face with slaps belabours sore.
She bites my neck-here is the mark-till blood profusely
flows;

But still my eyes, that were to blame, receive the heaviest blows.
And when she'd tired her arms, and wreaked her vengeance

to the dregs,

Poor Lygdamus, who'd hid beneath the sofa's hinder legs, Is trundled out, and humbly sues for aid on bended knee. "Poor soul," I cried, "'tis vain; I'm but a captive here with thee."

With suppliant hands I begged for peace, and; moved by slow degrees,

She let me touch her feet at last, and said in words like these:

"If thou wouldst have forgiveness for the wrong that thou hast done,

Then list to my conditions as I name them one by one:
Ne'er more in fine attire thou'lt stroll in Pompey's pillar'd
shade,

Nor seek the lustful Forum with the combat's sand o'erlaid;
Nor stare around the theatre, neck bent from side to side,
To where the women sit, nor lounge by litter open wide.
And first of all, let Lygdamus, the cause of all my pain,
Be sold, and drag on both his legs the slave's ignoble chain.”

Such were the terms imposed: I answered, "Lady, I agree." She proudly smiled to see me bend beneath her stern decree. She smoked each luckless spot whereon my stranger-nymphs had been,

And then with water from the spring washed all the threshold clean.

The dress and hood I had put on she bade me change once

more,

And thrice with burning sulphur all my head besprinkled o'er. The fumigation done, she changed the bedclothes sheet by sheet:

Our quarrel o'er, in bed once more we lay in concord sweet.

IX.

HERCULES AND CACUS.

Amphitryoniades qua tempestate juvencos.

WHEN, Erythea, from thy stalls Alcides drave the kine,
He wandered to the lofty hills of steer-browsed Palatine,
And, weary, stayed his weary herd Velabrum's lake beside,
Where o'er the unborn city's breast the boatman's pinnace

plied.

Nor there with Cacus, faithless host, his flock unscathed remained;

For soon with theft the shrine of Jove the godless robber stained.

Within an awful den this Cacus dwelt-a tenant dire,

Who belched from forth three gaping mouths three flames of living fire.

And lest the place should show a trace of such an act of bale, He turned the oxen round, and dragged them caveward by the tail.