226 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Poor king Priam ! a^'apoleon's sorrows, sad and piercing 

 as they were, did not come up to those of this ill-fated 

 monarch. The Greeks first set his town on fire, and 

 then began to bully : — 



Incensa Danai dominantur in urbe." 



One of his sons was slain before his face ; " ante ora 

 parentum, concidit." Another was crushed to mummy 

 by boa constrictors ; "immensis orbibus angues." His 

 city was razed to the ground, jacet Ilion ingens." 

 And Pyrrhus ran him through with his sword, capulo 

 tenus abdidit ensem." This last may be considered as 

 a fortunate stroke for the poor old king. Had his Kfe 

 been spared at this juncture he could not have lived 

 long. He must have died broken-hearted. He would 

 have seen his son-in-law, once master of a noble stud, 

 now, for want of a horse, obliged to carry off his father, 

 up hill, on his own back, " cessi et sublato, montem 

 genitore petivi." He would have heard of his grand- 

 son being thrown neck and heels from a high tower^ 

 mittitur Astyanax illis de turribus." He would have 

 been informed of Ms wife tearing out the eyes of king 

 Odrysius with her finger-nails, " digitos in perfida 

 lumina condit." Soon after this, losing all appearance 

 of woman, she became a bitch, 



'* Perdidit infelix hominis post omnia formam," 



and rent the heavens with her bowlings, 



" Externasque novo latratu terruit auras." 



Then, becoming distracted with the remembrance of 

 her misfortunes, "veterum memor ilia malorum,^' she 

 took off howling into the fields of Thrace, — 



•* Turn quoque Sithonios uliUavit moesta per agros." 



