Meantime the virgin huntress was not slow To expel the shaft from her contracted bow; Beneath his car the fasten’d arrow stood, And from the wound appear’d the trickling blood. She blush’d for joy: but Meleagrus raised His voice with loud applause, and the fair archer praised. He was the first to see, and first to show His friends the mark of the successful blow. “Nor shall thy valour want the praises due,” He said; a virtuous envy seized the crew; They shout; the shouting animates their hearts, And all at once employ their thronging darts; But, out of order thrown, in air they join, And multitude makes frustrate the design. With both his hands, the proud Ancaeus takes And flourishes his double-biting axe; Then, forward to his fate, he took a stride Before the rest, and to his fellows cried: “Give place, and mark the difference, if you can, Between a woman warrior and a man. The boar is doom’d, nor, though Diana lend Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.” Thus boasted he; then, stretch’d on tiptoe stood