“When Greece was injured in the Spartan prince, And met at Aulis to avenge the offence, ’Twas a dead calm, or adverse blasts, that reign’d, And in the port the wind-bound fleet detain’d: Bad signs were seen, and oracles severe Were daily thunder’d in our general’s ear; That by his daughter’s blood we must appease Diana’s kindled wrath, and free the seas. Affection, interest, fame, his heart assail’d; But soon the father o’er the king prevail’d: Bold, on himself he took the pious crime, As angry with the gods as they with him. No subject could sustain their sovereign’s look, Till this hard enterprise I undertook: I only durst the imperial power control, And undermined the parent in his soul: Forced him to exert the king for common good, And pay our ransom with his daughter’s blood. Never was cause more difficult to plead, Than where the judge against himself decreed: Yet this I won by dint of argument; The wrongs his injured brother underwent, And his own office, shamed him to consent.