That the dark womb of time concealed a day,
Which should, disclosed, the gloomy gold betray:
All should at once be ravished from his eyes,
And Jove's own progeny enjoy the prize.
For this, the fruit he loftily immured,
And a fierce dragon the strait pass secured;
For this, all strangers he forbade to land,
And drove them from the inhospitable strand,
To Perseus then: 'Fly quickly, fly this coast,
Nor falsely dare thy acts and race to boast.'