No slavish soul shall bind this arm with chains,
And unreveng'd triumph it o're the plains.
Bold with success still to new conquests lead,
Come, my companions, thus my cause I'le plead,
The sword shall plead our cause, for to us all
Does equal guilt, and equal danger, call:
Oblig'd by you I conquer'd, not alone.
Since to be punisht is the victor's crown,
Fortune invokt begin the offer'd war,
My cause is pleaded when you bravely dare,
With such an army, who success can fear.
Thus C?¦sar spoke: from the propitious sky
Descending eagles, boding victory,
Drive the slow winds before 'em as they fly.
From the left side of a dark wood proceed
Unwonted crys, which dying, flames succeed.
The sun-beams with unusual brightness rise
And spread new glories round the gilded skies.
New fir'd with omens of the promis'd day,
C?¦sar o're untrod mountain leads the way;
Where th' frozen earth o're-clad with ice and snows,
At first not yielding to their horses blows,
A dreadful quiet in dull stiffness shows.
But when their trembling hoofs had burst the chain,
And soften'd milky clouds of hardned rain;
So quick the melted snows to rivers run,
That soon a deluge from the mountains sprung.
But thus you'd think 'twere done by fates decrees,
For the flood stopt, and billows rising freeze,
And yielding waves but now are rocks of ice.
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