226 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Poor king Priam ! Napoleon'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 rube." 



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

 parentuni, coneidit." 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 life 

 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 his 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 forrnam," 



and rent the heavens with her howlings, 



" Externasque novo latratu terruit auras." 



Then, becoming distracted with the remembrance of 

 her misfortunes, a veteruni memor ilia maloruin/' she 

 took off howling into the fields of Thrace, — 



" Turn quo que Sithonios ululavjt mcesta per agros." 



