And bay’d with opening mouths of hungry hounds, He on the foe turns with collected might, Who still eludes him with an airy flight; And, wheeling round, the scaly armour tries Of his thick sides; his thinner tail now plies; Till, from repeated strokes, out gush’d a flood, And the waves redden’d with the streaming blood. At last the dropping wings, befoam’d all o’er, With flaggy heaviness their master bore: A rock he spied, whose humble head was low, Bare at an ebb, but cover’d at a flow. A ridgy hold, he, thither flying, gain’d, And with one hand his bending weight sustain’d; With the other, vig’rous blows he dealt around, And the home thrusts the expiring monster own’d. In deaf’ning shouts the glad applauses rise, And peal on peal runs rattling through the skies. The saviour-youth the royal pair confess, And with heaved hands their daughter’s bridegroom bless The beauteous bride moves on, now loosed from chains, The cause, and sweet reward, of all the hero’s pains.