The slippery passage now their feet betray,
When soon in miserable heaps o' th' way,
Men, horse, arms, in wild confusion lay.
Now pregnant clouds, with whirling blasts are torn,
And, bursting, are deliver'd of a storm:
Large stones of hail the troubl'd heavens shoot,
That by tempestuous winds are whirl'd about;
So thick it pours, whole clouds of snow and hail,
Like frozen billows, on their armour fall:
The earth lay vanquished under mighty snow,
An icy damp the vanquisht heavens know,
And vanquisht waters now no longer flow.
Thus all but C?¦sar yield; on his huge lance
The hero leaning, did secure advance.
Alcmena's son did less securely rush,
From the proud height of rising Caucasus;
Or Jove himself, when down the steep he prest
Those sons of earth, that durst his heaven molest.
While raging C?¦sar scales th' aspiring height,
Big with the news, fame takes before her flight;
And from Mount Palatine approaching ills,
To frighted Rome, thus dreadfully she tells:
A numerous fleet is riding o'er the main,
The melted Alps are hid with C?¦sar's train.
That reeking from a German conquest come,
And with a like destruction threaten Rome.
Now arms, blood, death, and dismal scenes of war,
Are to their eyes presented by their fear;
With dreadful thoughts of coming war possest,
A wilder tumult raigns in every breast.
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