He said; and bending o’er his chariot, flung
Athwart the fiery steeds the smarting thong;
The bounding shafts upon the harness play,
Till night descending intercepts the way. 
To Diocles at Pherae they repair,
Whose boasted sire was sacred Alpheus’ heir;
With him all night the youthful stranger stay’d,
Nor found the hospitable rites unpaid,
But soon as morning from her orient bed
Had tinged the mountains with her earliest red,
They join’d the steeds, and on the chariot sprung,
The brazen portals in their passage rung.

To Pylos soon they came; when thus begun
To Nestor’s heir Ulysses’ godlike son: 

“Let not Pisistratus in vain be press’d,
Nor unconsenting hear his friend’s request;
His friend by long hereditary claim,
In toils his equal, and in years the same. 
No farther from our vessel, I implore,
The courses drive; but lash them to the shore. 
Too long thy father would his friend detain;
I dread his proffer’d kindness urged in vain.”

The hero paused, and ponder’d this request,
While love and duty warr’d within his breast. 
At length resolved, he turn’d his ready hand,
And lash’d his panting coursers to the strand. 
There, while within the poop with care he stored
The regal presents of the Spartan lord,
“With speed begone (said he); call every mate,
Ere yet to Nestor I the tale relate: 
’Tis true, the fervour of his generous heart
Brooks no repulse, nor couldst thou soon depart: 
Himself will seek thee here, nor wilt thou find,
In words alone, the Pylian monarch kind. 
But when, arrived, he thy return shall know
How will his breast with honest fury glow!”
This said, the sounding strokes his horses fire,
And soon he reached the palace of his sire.

“Now (cried Telemachus) with speedy care
Hoist every sail, and every oar prepare.” 
Swift as the word his willing mates obey,
And seize their seats, impatient for the sea.

Meantime the prince with sacrifice adores
Minerva, and her guardian aid implores;
When lo! a wretch ran breathless to the shore,
New from his crime; and reeking yet with gore. 
A seer he was, from great Melampus sprung,
Melampus, who in Pylos flourish’d long,
Till, urged by wrongs, a foreign realm he chose,
Far from the hateful cause of all his woes. 
Neleus his treasures one long year detains,
As long he groan’d in Philacus’ chains: 
Meantime, what anguish and what rage combined
For lovely Pero rack’d his labouring mind! 
Yet ’scaped he death; and vengeful of his wrong
To Pylos drove the lowing herds along: 
Then (Neleus vanquish’d, and consign’d the fair
To Bias’ arms) he so sought a foreign air;
Argos the rich for his retreat he chose,
There form’d his empire; there his palace rose. 
From him Antiphates and Mantius came: 
The first begot Oicleus great in fame,