475
By force of mortal man, Achilles' self
Except, whom an immortal mother bore.
But tell me yet again; use no disguise;
Where left'st thou, at thy coming forth, your Chief,
The valiant Hector? where hath he disposed 480
His armor battle-worn, and where his steeds?
What other quarters of your host are watch'd?
Where lodge the guard, and what intend ye next?
Still to abide in prospect of the fleet?
Or well-content that ye have thus reduced 485
Achaia's host, will ye retire to Troy?
To whom this answer Dolon straight returned
Son of Eumedes. With unfeigning truth
Simply and plainly will I utter all.
Hector, with all the Senatorial Chiefs, 490
Beside the tomb of sacred Ilius sits
Consulting, from the noisy camp remote.
But for the guards, Hero! concerning whom
Thou hast inquired, there is no certain watch
And regular appointed o'er the camp; 495
The native[17] Trojans (for _they_ can no less)
Sit sleepless all, and each his next exhorts
To vigilance; but all our foreign aids,
Who neither wives nor children hazard here,
Trusting the Trojans for that service, sleep. 500
To whom Ulysses, ever wise, replied.
How sleep the strangers and allies?--apart?
Or with the Trojans mingled?--I would learn.
So spake Ulysses; to whom Dolon thus,
Son of Eumedes. I will all unfold, 505
And all most truly. By the sea are lodged
The Carians, the Paeonians arm'd with bows,
The Leleges, with the Pelasgian band,
And the Caucones. On the skirts encamp
Of Thymbra, the Maeonians crested high, 510
The Phrygian horsemen, with the Lycian host,
And the bold troop of Mysia's haughty sons.
But wherefore these inquiries thus minute?
For if ye wish to penetrate the host,
These who possess the borders of the camp 515
Farthest removed of all, are Thracian powers
Newly arrived; among them Rhesus sleeps,
Son of Eioneus, their Chief and King.
His steeds I saw, the fairest by these eyes
Ever beheld, and loftiest; snow itself 520
They pass in whiteness, and in speed the winds,
With gold and silver all his chariot burns,
And he arrived in golden armor clad
Stupendous! little suited to the state
Of mortal man--fit for a God to w