despair. 
  Thus day by day, they still the chase renew;
  At night encamp; till now in straiter bounds
  The circle lessens, and the beasts perceive
  The wall that hems them in on every side. 
  And now their fury bursts, and knows no mean;
  From man they turn, and point their ill-judged rage
  Against their fellow brutes.  With teeth and claws
  The civil war begins; grappling they tear. 
  Lions on tigers prey, and bears on wolves: 
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  Horrible discord! till the crowd behind
  Shouting pursue, and part the bloody fray. 
  At once their wrath subsides; tame as the lamb
  The lion hangs his head, the furious pard,
  Cowed and subdued, flies from the face of man,
  Nor bears one glance of his commanding eye. 
  So abject is a tyrant in distress! 
     At last within the narrow plain confined,
  A listed field, marked out for bloody deeds,
  An amphitheatre more glorious far
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  Than ancient Rome could boast, they crowd in heaps,
  Dismayed, and quite appalled.  In meet array
  Sheathed in refulgent arms, a noble band
  Advance; great lords of high imperial blood,
  Early resolved to assert their royal race,
  And prove by glorious deeds their valour’s growth
  Mature, ere yet the callow down has spread
  Its curling shade.  On bold Arabian steeds
  With decent pride they sit, that fearless hear
  The lion’s dreadful roar; and down the rock
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  Swift-shooting plunge, or o’er the mountain’s ridge
  Stretching along, the greedy tiger leave
  Panting behind.  On foot their faithful slaves
  With javelins armed attend; each watchful eye
  Fixed on his youthful care, for him alone
  He fears, and to redeem his life, unmoved
  Would lose his own.  The mighty Aurengzebe,
  From his high-elevated throne, beholds
  His blooming race; revolving in his mind
  What once he was, in his gay spring of life,
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  When vigour strung his nerves.  Parental joy
  Melts in his eyes, and flushes in his cheeks. 
  Now the loud trumpet sounds a charge.  The shouts
  Of eager hosts, through all the circling line,
  And the wild bowlings of the beasts within
  Rend wide the welkin, flights of arrows, winged
  With death, and javelins launched from every arm,
  Gall sore the brutal bands, with many a wound
  Gored through and through.  Despair at last prevails,
  When fainting nature shrinks, and rouses all
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  Their drooping courage.  Swelled with furious rage,
  Their eyes dart fire; and on the youthful band
  They rush implacable.  They their broad shields
  Quick interpose; on each devoted head
  Their flaming falchions, as the bolts of Jove,
  Descend unerring.  Prostrate on the ground
  The grinning monsters lie, and their foul gore
  Defiles the verdant plain.  Nor idle stand
  The trusty slaves; with pointed spears