Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

3i 1-333] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. I.
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Belgarum qui colla jugo subducit Ibero,
Et Domino insidiis detraxit sceptra nefandis,
Quae nunc illicitis male parta tuetur in armis.
Barbara bella parat, nova regnaque sanguine quaerit.
Nam sitis in sobole haec crescit vesana cruoris;
Qualis in Hyrcanis saxa inter inhospita silvis
EfFera pollutas quae semper sanguine fauces
Tygris habet, cum jam facilis data copia praedae
Saevit in annosum stomacho latrante parentem,
Et fremitu ruit ingenti, et simul ore cruento
Involat in praedam pedibusque eviscerat uncis.
Sic ille in socerum insurgit nil tale merentem
Ambitione furens, et inanes mente triumphos
Somniat injustis dum cuncta patere rapinis
Posse putat, magno accendit tria regna tumultu,
Irritatque ultro heroes, Martemque lacessit.
Est Dea Tartarei monstrum furiale barathri
Impia Gorgoneis Alecto armata colubris,
Cuncta cavernoso ex-superans portenta sub orco.
Huic caedes et bella placent, dirique tumultus,
Iraque insidiaeque, et sunt certamina curae ;
Haec nunc Coccyti sedem Stygiamque paludem
Linquit, et anguicomum superis caput extulit arvis,
necks of the Belgians from the Spanish yoke, and by wicked arts
won the sceptre from its lord, which now, wrongfully acquired, is
held by unlawful power), he prepares barbarous wars, and seeks
new kingdoms by blood—for this raging thirst for blood ever
increases in the offspring. As amid the inhospitable rocks of the
Hyrcanian forest, the fierce tiger, with jaws ever stained with
blood, turns with rage—even when food is plentiful—against his
sire, and with gory fangs falls upon the prey and tears it with his
feet and claws ; so that prince, raging with ambition, rises against
his father-in-law (little deserving such treatment), dreams of empty
triumphs, while he thinks that he is able to lay open all things to
his unjust rapine, and setting fire to three kingdoms, he excites
beyond measure their brave men, and provokes war.
There is an impious goddess, a dire monster in the depths of
Tartarus, armed with Gorgon snakes, Alecto by name, surpassing
all the powers of darkness. To her, carnage, war, tumult, anger,
treachery, are ever pleasing, and her chief care. She now leaves
her seat by the Stygian Lake, and raising her snake-crowned head