e battles by the Xanthus, is the
following:--

A powerful Tuscan warrior, infuriated by the ill fighting of his men,
distinguishes himself by an extraordinary feat. Clasping round the body,
and so unhorsing a lighter antagonist, he rides off with him; snaps the
javelin, which his captive still grasps, near the head, and with its point
probes and aims for a vulnerable place. The unfortunate Latine, as he lies
across the horse's neck, struggles, and will baffle the deathly blow.
Landseer could suggest no more vivid comparison, than one which leaps into
your own imagination--a snake soused upon by an eagle.

"So stoops the yellow eagle from on high,
And bears a speckled serpent through the sky,
Fastening his crooked talons on the prey:
The prisoner hisses through the liquid way;
Resists the royal hawk, and though oppresst,
She fights in columns and erects her crest:
Turn'd to her foe, she stiffens every scale,
And shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threat'ning tail.
Against the victor all defence is weak;
The imperial bird still plies her with his beak,
He tears her bowels, and her heart he gores,
Then clasps his pinions and securely soars."

A glorious paraphrase!

This is an incident more like a knight of Ariosto's, the terrible Sarazin
Rhodomont, or Orlando himself, than Homer's, who did not, indeed, combat
on horseback.

But speaking of the moderns, we will venture to say, that if Virgil has
copied, he is also an original who has been copied. And we will ask, who
is the prototype of the ladies, turned knights, who flourish in favour
with our poets of romance?--with Ariosto, with Tasso, with our own
Spenser? Who but the heroic virgin ally of the Rutulian prince--who but
CAMILLA?

We name her, however, neither for her own sake, nor for Virgil's, but for
Dryden's, who seems also to have taken her into favour, and to have
written, with a peculiar spirit and feeling, the parts of the poem which
represent her in action.

She leads her Amazons into Italian fields, warring against the fate-driven
fugitives of overthrown Troy. Whence were her Amazon followers? Whence is
She? Her history her divine patroness, Diana, relates. Her father, the
strong-limbed, rude-souled Metabus, a wild and intractable Volscian king,
fled from the face and from the pursuit of his people. He bore, in his
arms, one dear treasure; a companion of his flight; yet an infant--this
daughter. He flies. The Amasenus, i