and was bringing a son-in-law’s aid to Priam and his
Phrygians—poor boy! to have given no heed to the
warnings of his heaven-struck bride! Seeing them
gathered in a mass and nerved for battle, I begin thereon:—‘Young
hearts, full of unavailing valour, if your desire 30
is set to follow a desperate man, you see what the plight
of our affairs is—gone in a body from shrine and altar
are the gods who upheld this our empire—the city you
succour is a blazing ruin; choose we then death, and rush
we into the thick of the fight. The one safety for vanquished 35