diff options
Diffstat (limited to '29358-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 29358-h/29358-h.htm | 11503 |
1 files changed, 11503 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/29358-h/29358-h.htm b/29358-h/29358-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..365d188 --- /dev/null +++ b/29358-h/29358-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11503 @@ +<!-- saved from url=(0022)http://internet.e-mail --> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Aeneids Of Virgil, translated by William Morris. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .notes {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; padding: .5em; + margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; right: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i11 {display: block; margin-left: 5.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i13 {display: block; margin-left: 6.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i17 {display: block; margin-left: 8.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i19 {display: block; margin-left: 9.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i21 {display: block; margin-left: 10.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i22 {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i23 {display: block; margin-left: 11.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i24 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i25 {display: block; margin-left: 12.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i26 {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i28 {display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i30 {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i32 {display: block; margin-left: 16em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i33 {display: block; margin-left: 16.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i34 {display: block; margin-left: 17em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i35 {display: block; margin-left: 17.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i36 {display: block; margin-left: 18em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i37 {display: block; margin-left: 18.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i38 {display: block; margin-left: 19em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i39 {display: block; margin-left: 19.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i41 {display: block; margin-left: 20.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i42 {display: block; margin-left: 21em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i43 {display: block; margin-left: 21.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i44 {display: block; margin-left: 22em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i60 {display: block; margin-left: 30em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 4.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Æneids of Virgil, by Virgil + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Æneids of Virgil + Done into English Verse + +Author: Virgil + +Translator: William Morris + +Release Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #29358] +[Last updated: September 25, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ÆNEIDS OF VIRGIL *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>THE ÆNEIDS OF VIRGIL</h1> + +<h3>DONE INTO ENGLISH VERSE</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>WILLIAM MORRIS</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF 'THE EARTHLY PARADISE'</h4> + +<h3><i>THIRD IMPRESSION</i></h3> + +<p class="center"> +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.<br /> +39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON<br /> +NEW YORK AND BOMBAY<br /> +<br /><br />1900</p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's note: Table of Contents generated for the HTML version.</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#BOOK_I"><b>BOOK I.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_II"><b>BOOK II.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_III"><b>BOOK III.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_IV"><b>BOOK IV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_V"><b>BOOK V.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_VI"><b>BOOK VI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_VII"><b>BOOK VII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_VIII"><b>BOOK VIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_IX"><b>BOOK IX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_X"><b>BOOK X.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_XI"><b>BOOK XI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOOK_XII"><b>BOOK XII.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE ÆNEIDS OF VIRGIL.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="BOOK_I" id="BOOK_I"></a>BOOK I.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS AND HIS TROJANS BEING DRIVEN TO LIBYA BY A TEMPEST, HAVE GOOD +WELCOME OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lo I am he who led the song through slender reed to cry,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And then, come forth from out the woods, the fields that are thereby</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>In woven verse I bade obey the hungry tillers' need:</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Now I, who sang their merry toil, sing Mars and dreadful deed.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By heavenly might for Juno's wrath, that had no mind to sleep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set his Gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span><span class="i0">And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Say, Muse, what wound of godhead was whereby all this must come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How grieving, she, the Queen of Gods, a man so pious drave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To win such toil, to welter on through such a troublous wave:</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—Can anger in immortal minds abide so fierce and fell?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a city of old time where Tyrian folk did dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called Carthage, facing far away the shores of Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tiber-mouth; fulfilled of wealth and fierce in arms was she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men say Juno loved her well o'er every other land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea e'en o'er Samos: there were stored the weapons of her hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there her chariot: even then she cherished the intent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make her Lady of all Lands, if Fate might so be bent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet had she heard how such a stem from Trojan blood should grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, blooming fair, the Tyrian towers should one day overthrow,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That thence a folk, kings far and wide, most noble lords of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should come for bane of Libyan land: such web the Parcæ dight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Seed of Saturn, fearing this, and mindful how she erst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her beloved Argive walls by Troy the battle nursed—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Nay neither had the cause of wrath nor all those hurts of old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Failed from her mind: her inmost heart still sorely did enfold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That grief of body set at nought in Paris' doomful deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hated race, and honour shed on heaven-rapt Ganymede—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So set on fire, that Trojan band o'er all the ocean tossed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those gleanings from Achilles' rage, those few the Greeks had lost,</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She drave far off the Latin Land: for many a year they stray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such wise as Fate would drive them on by every watery way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Lo, what there was to heave aloft in fashioning of Rome!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now out of sight of Sicily the Trojans scarce were come</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And merry spread their sails abroad and clave the sea with brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Juno's heart, who nursed the wound that never thence would pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spake out:<br /></span> +<span class="i11">"And must I, vanquished, leave the deed I have begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor save the Italian realm a king who comes of Teucer's son?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Fates forbid it me forsooth? And Pallas, might not she<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burn up the Argive fleet and sink the Argives in the sea</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For Oileus' only fault and fury that he wrought?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hurled the eager fire of Jove from cloudy dwelling caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rent the ships and with the wind the heaped-up waters drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And him a-dying, and all his breast by wildfire smitten through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whirl of waters swept away on spiky crag to bide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I, who go forth Queen of Gods, the very Highest's bride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sister, must I wage a war for all these many years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one lone race? What! is there left a soul that Juno fears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Henceforth? or will one suppliant hand gifts on mine altar lay?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So brooding in her fiery heart the Goddess went her way</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto the fatherland of storm, full fruitful of the gale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æolia hight, where Æolus is king of all avail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And far adown a cavern vast the bickering of the winds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And roaring tempests of the world with bolt and fetter binds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They set the mountains murmuring much, a-growling angrily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About their bars, while Æolus sits in his burg on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, sceptre-holding, softeneth them, and strait their wrath doth keep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea but for that the earth and sea, and vault of heaven the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They eager-swift would roll away and sweep adown of space:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For fear whereof the Father high in dark and hollow place</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hath hidden them, and high above a world of mountains thrown</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And given them therewithal a king, who, taught by law well known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now draweth, and now casteth loose the reins that hold them in:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom did suppliant Juno now in e'en such words begin:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Father of the Gods and men hath given thee might enow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Æolus, to smooth the sea, and make the storm-wind blow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearken! a folk, my very foes, saileth the Tyrrhene main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing their Troy to Italy, and Gods that were but vain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set on thy winds, and overwhelm their sunken ships at sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or prithee scattered cast them forth, things drowned diversedly.</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Twice seven nymphs are in my house of body passing fair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of whom indeed Deïopea is fairest fashioned there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give her thee in wedlock sure, and call her all thine own<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wear away the years with thee, for thy deserving shown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To me this day; of offspring fair she too shall make thee sire."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To whom spake Æolus: "O Queen, to search out thy desire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is all thou needest toil herein; from me the deed should wend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou mak'st my realm; the sway of all, and Jove thou mak'st my friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou givest me to lie with Gods when heavenly feast is dight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er the tempest and the cloud thou makest me of might."</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith against the hollow hill he turned him spear in hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hurled it on the flank thereof, and as an ordered band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By whatso door the winds rush out o'er earth in whirling blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And driving down upon the sea its lowest deeps upcast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The East, the West together there, the Afric, that doth hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heart fulfilled of stormy rain, huge billows shoreward rolled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith came clamour of the men and whistling through the shrouds</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And heaven and day all suddenly were swallowed by the clouds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away from eyes of Teucrian men; night on the ocean lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pole thunders unto pole, and still with wildfire glare the skies,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all things hold the face of death before the seamen's eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now therewithal Æneas' limbs grew weak with chilly dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He groaned, and lifting both his palms aloft to heaven, he said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O thrice and four times happy ye, that had the fate to fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before your fathers' faces there by Troy's beloved wall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tydides, thou of Danaan folk the mightiest under shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why might I never lay me down upon the Ilian field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why was my soul forbid release at thy most mighty hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where eager Hector stooped and lay before Achilles' wand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where huge Sarpedon fell asleep, where Simoïs rolls along</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The shields of men, and helms of men, and bodies of the strong?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus as he cried the whistling North fell on with sudden gale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drave the seas up toward the stars, and smote aback the sail;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then break the oars, the bows fall off, and beam on in the trough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She lieth, and the sea comes on a mountain huge and rough.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These hang upon the topmost wave, and those may well discern<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea's ground mid the gaping whirl: with sand the surges churn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three keels the South wind cast away on hidden reefs that lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midmost the sea, the Altars called by men of Italy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A huge back thrusting through the tide: three others from the deep</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The East toward straits, and swallowing sands did miserably sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dashed them on the shoals, and heaped the sand around in ring:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one, a keel the Lycians manned, with him, the trusty King<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Orontes, in Æneas' sight a toppling wave o'erhung,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And smote the poop, and headlong rolled, adown the helmsman flung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then thrice about the driving flood hath hurled her as she lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hurrying eddy swept above and swallowed her from day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo! things swimming here and there, scant in the unmeasured seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The arms of men, and painted boards, and Trojan treasuries.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now Ilioneus' stout ship, her that Achates leal</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And Abas ferried o'er the main, and old Aletes' keel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The storm hath overcome; and all must drink the baneful stream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through opening leaky sides of them that gape at every seam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But meanwhile Neptune, sorely moved, hath felt the storm let go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the turmoil of the main with murmur great enow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The deep upheaved from all abodes the lowest that there be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So forth he put his placid face o'er topmost of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there he saw Æneas' ships o'er all the main besprent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojans beaten by the flood and ruin from heaven sent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Juno's guile and wrathful heart her brother knew full well:</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So East and West he called to him, and spake such words to tell:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What mighty pride of race of yours hath hold upon your minds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That earth and sea ye turmoil so without my will, O winds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That such upheaval and so great ye dare without my will?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom I—But first it comes to hand the troubled flood to still:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For such-like fault henceforward though with nought so light ye pay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go get you gone, and look to it this to your king to say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ocean's realm and three-tined spear of dread are given by Fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not unto him but unto me? he holds the cliffs o'ergreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine houses, Eurus; in that hall I bid him then be bold,</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thine Æolus, and lord it o'er his winds in barred hold."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying and swifter than his word he layed the troubled main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And put to flight the gathered clouds, and brought the sun again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with him Triton fell to work, and fair Cymothoë,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thrust the ships from spiky rocks; with triple spear wrought he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lift, and opened swallowing sands, and laid the waves alow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then on light wheels o'er ocean's face soft gliding did he go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, like as mid a people great full often will arise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge riot, and all the low-born herd to utter anger flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sticks and stones are in the air, and fury arms doth find:</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then, setting eyes perchance on one of weight for noble mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And noble deeds, they hush them then and stand with pricked-up ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he with words becomes their lord, and smooth their anger wears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—In such wise fell all clash of sea when that sea-father rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And looked abroad: who turned his steeds, and giving rein to those,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flew forth in happy-gliding car through heaven's all-open way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas' sore forewearied host the shores that nearest lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretch out for o'er the sea, and turn to Libyan land this while.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There goes a long firth of the sea, made haven by an isle,</span><span class='linenum'>159</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Against whose sides thrust out abroad each wave the main doth send<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is broken, and must cleave itself through hollow bights to wend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge rocks on this hand and on that, twin horns of cliff, cast dread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On very heaven; and far and wide beneath each mighty head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hushed are the harmless waters; lo, the flickering wood above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wavering shadow cast adown by darksome hanging grove:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In face hereof a cave there is of rocks o'erhung, made meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With benches of the living stone and springs of water sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The house of Nymphs: a-riding there may way-worn ships be bold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lie without the hawser's strain or anchor's hookèd hold.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That bight with seven of all his tale of ships Æneas gained,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there, by mighty love of land the Trojans sore constrained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leap off-board straight, and gain the gift of that so longed-for sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lay their limbs with salt sea fouled adown upon the strand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first Achates smote alive the spark from out the flint,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And caught the fire in tinder-leaves, and never gift did stint<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of feeding dry; and flame enow in kindled stuff he woke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Ceres' body spoilt with sea, and Ceres' arms they took,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sped the matter spent with toil, and fruit of furrows found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They set about to parch with fire and 'twixt of stones to pound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas scaled the cliff and far and wide he swept</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The main, if anywhere perchance the sea his Antheus kept,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tossed by the wind, if he might see the twi-banked Phrygians row;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If Capys, or Caïcus' arms on lofty deck might show.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any ship there was in sight, but on the strand he saw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three stags a-wandering at their will, and after them they draw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole herd following down the dales long strung out as they feed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So still he stood, and caught in hand his bow and shafts of speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weapons that Achates staunch was bearing then and oft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first the very lords of those, that bore their heads aloft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With branching horns, he felled, and then the common sort, and so</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their army drave he with his darts through leafy woods to go:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor held his hand till on the earth were seven great bodies strown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each of all his ships might have one head of deer her own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence to the haven gat he gone with all his folk to share,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that good wine which erst the casks Acestes made to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave them as they went away on that Trinacrian beach,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He shared about; then fell to soothe their grieving hearts with speech:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O fellows, we are used ere now by evil ways to wend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O ye who erst bore heavier loads, this too the Gods shall end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye, ye have drawn nigh Scylla's rage and rocks that inly roar,</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And run the risk of storm of stones upon the Cyclops' shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, call aback your ancient hearts and put your fears away!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This too shall be for joy to you remembered on a day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through diverse haps, through many risks wherewith our way is strown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We get us on to Latium, the land the Fates have shown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be for peaceful seats for us: there may we raise up Troy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abide, endure, and keep yourselves for coming days of joy."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake his voice: but his sick heart did mighty trouble rack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, glad of countenance, he thrust the heavy anguish back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they fall to upon the prey, and feast that was to dight,</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And flay the hide from off the ribs, and bare the flesh to sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some cut it quivering into steaks which on the spits they run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some feed the fire upon the shore, and set the brass thereon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so meat bringeth might again, and on the grass thereby,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilled with fat of forest deer and ancient wine, they lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when all hunger was appeased and tables set aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of missing fellows how they fared the talk did long abide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom, weighing hope and weighing fear, either alive they trow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or that the last and worst has come, that called they hear not now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chief of all the pious King Æneas moaned the pass</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of brisk Orontes, Amycus, and cruel fate that was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Lycus, and of Bias strong, and strong Cloanthus gone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now an end of all there was, when Jove a-looking down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From highest lift on sail-skimmed sea, and lands that round it lie,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shores and many folk about, in topmost burg of sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood still, and fixed the eyes of God on Libya's realm at last:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom, as through his breast and mind such cares of godhead passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spake Venus, sadder than her due with bright eyes gathering tears:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O thou, who rulest with a realm that hath no days nor years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both Gods and men, and mak'st them fear thy thunder lest it fall,</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What then hath mine Æneas done so great a crime to call?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What might have Trojan men to sin? So many deaths they bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Gainst whom because of Italy is shut the wide world's door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it not surely promised me that as the years rolled round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood of Teucer come again should spring from out the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Roman folk, such very lords, that all the earth and sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their sway should compass? Father, doth the counsel shift in thee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This thing indeed atoned to me for Troy in ashes laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the miserable end, as fate 'gainst fate I weighed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now the self-same fortune dogs men by such troubles driven</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So oft and oft. What end of toil then giv'st thou, King of heaven?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antenor was of might enow to 'scape the Achæan host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And safe to reach the Illyrian gulf and pierce Liburnia's coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the inmost realms thereof to pass Timavus' head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence through nine mouths midst mountain roar is that wild water shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cast itself on fields below with all its sounding sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there he made Patavium's town and Teucrian seats to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave the folk their very name and Trojan arms did raise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now settled in all peace and rest he passeth quiet days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we, thy children, unto whom thou giv'st with bowing head</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The heights of heaven, our ships are lost, and we, O shame! betrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are driven away from Italy for anger but of one.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Is this the good man's guerdon then? is this the promised throne?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Sower of the Gods and men a little smiled on her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a countenance as calms the storms and upper air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He kissed his daughter on the lips, and spake such words to tell:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Cytherean, spare thy dread! unmoved the Fates shall dwell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thee and thine, and thou shalt see the promised city yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en that Lavinium's walls, and high amidst the stars shalt set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great-souled Æneas: nor in me doth aught of counsel shift</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But since care gnaws upon thine heart, the hidden things I lift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Fate, and roll on time for thee, and tell of latter days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great war he wars in Italy, and folk full wild of ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He weareth down, and lays on men both laws and wallèd steads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the third summer seeth him King o'er the Latin heads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the third winter's wearing brings the fierce Rutulians low.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereon the lad Ascanius, Iulus by-named now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And Ilus was he once of old, when Ilium's city was,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilleth thirty orbs of rule with rolling months that pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the town Lavinium shifts the dwelling of his race,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And maketh Alba-town the Long a mighty fencèd place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here when for thrice an hundred years untouched the land hath been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the rule of Hector's folk, lo Ilia, priestess-queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes heavy with the love of Mars, and bringeth twins to birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath yellow hide of foster-wolf thence, mighty in his mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes Romulus to bear the folk, and Mavors' walls to frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the word himself was called the Roman folk to name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On them I lay no bonds of time, no bonds of earthly part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give them empire without end: yea, Juno, hard of heart,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span><span class="i0">Who wearieth now with fear of her the heavens and earth and sea,</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall gather better counsel yet, and cherish them with me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Roman folk, the togaed men, lords of all worldly ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such is the doom. As weareth time there come those other days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein Assaracus shall bind Mycenæ of renown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Phthia, and shall lord it o'er the Argives beaten down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then shall a Trojan Cæsar come from out a lovely name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ocean-stream shall bound his rule, the stars of heaven his fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Julius his name from him of old, the great Iulus sent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him too in house of heaven one day 'neath spoils of Eastlands bent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, happy, shalt receive; he too shall have the prayers of men.</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The wars of old all laid aside, the hard world bettereth then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Vesta and the hoary Faith, Quirinus and his twin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now judge the world; the dreadful doors of War now shut within<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their iron bolts and strait embrace the godless Rage of folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, pitiless, on weapons set, and bound in brazen yoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hundred knots aback of him foams fell from bloody mouth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such words he spake, and from aloft he sent down Maia's youth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cause the lands and Carthage towers new-built to open gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And welcome in the Teucrian men; lest Dido, fooled of fate,</span><span class='linenum'>299</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Should drive them from her country-side. The unmeasured air he beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With flap of wings, and speedily in Libya set his feet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straightway there his bidding wrought, and from the Tyrians fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God willing it, their hearts of war; and Dido first of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Took peace for Teucrians to her soul, and quiet heart and kind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now good Æneas through the night had many things in mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set himself to fare abroad at first of holy day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To search the new land what it was, and on what shore he lay</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Driven by the wind; if manfolk there abode, or nought but deer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For waste it seemed), and tidings true back to his folk to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So in that hollow bight of groves beneath the cavern cleft,</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">All hidden by the leafy trees and quavering shades, he left<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ships: and he himself afoot went with Achates lone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaking in hand two slender spears with broad-beat iron done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But as he reached the thicket's midst his mother stood before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who virgin face, and virgin arms, and virgin habit bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Spartan maid; or like to her who tames the Thracian horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harpalyce, and flies before the hurrying Hebrus' course.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For huntress-wise on shoulder she had hung the handy bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And given all her hair abroad for any wind to blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, naked-kneed, her kirtle long had gathered in a lap:</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She spake the first:<br /></span> +<span class="i21">"Ho youths," she said, "tell me by any hap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If of my sisters any one ye saw a wandering wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With quiver girt, and done about with lynx's spotted hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or following of the foaming boar with shouts and eager feet?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So Venus; and so Venus' son began her words to meet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I have not seen, nor have I heard thy sisters nigh this place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O maid:—and how to call thee then? for neither is thy face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mortals, nor thy voice of men: O very Goddess thou!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! Phœbus' sister? or of nymphs whom shall I call thee now?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whosoe'er thou be, be kind and lighten us our toil,</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And teach us where beneath the heavens, which spot of earthly soil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are cast forth; unlearned of men, unlearned of land we stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By might of wind and billows huge here driven from out our way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our right hands by thine altar-horns shall fell full many a host."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Spake Venus: "Nowise am I worth so much of honour's cost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tyrian maids are wont to bear the quiver even as I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And even so far upon the leg the purple shoe-thong tie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Punic realm thou seest here, Agenor's town and folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But set amidst of Libyan men unused to bear the yoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dido is Lady of the Land, who fled from Tyre the old,</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And from her brother: weary long were all the ill deed told,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long its winding ways, but I light-foot will overpass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her husband was Sychæus hight, of land most rich he was<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all Phoenicians: she, poor wretch! loved him with mighty love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose father gave her, maid, to him, and first the rites did move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wedlock: but as King of Tyre her brother did abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pygmalion, more swollen up in sin than any man beside:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mad hatred yoked the twain of them, he blind with golden lust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Godless with stroke of iron laid Sychæus in the dust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwares before the altar-horns; nor of the love did reck</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His sister had, but with vain hope played on the lover sick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made a host of feignings false, and hid the matter long.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till in her sleep the image came of that unburied wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her husband dead; in wondrous wise his face was waxen pale:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His breast with iron smitten through, the altar of his bale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hooded sin of evil house, to her he open laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And speedily to flee away from fatherland he bade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the help of travel showed earth's hidden wealth of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty mass that none might tell of silver and of gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore moved hereby did Dido straight her flight and friends prepare:</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They meet together, such as are or driven by biting fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or bitter hatred of the wretch: such ships as hap had dight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They fall upon and lade with gold; forth fare the treasures bright</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of wretch Pygmalion o'er the sea, a woman first therein.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so they come unto the place where ye may see begin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The towers of Carthage, and the walls new built that mighty grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bought the Byrsa-field good cheap, as still the name shall show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So much of land as one bull's hide might scantly go about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—But ye forsooth, what men are ye, from what land fare ye out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whither go ye on your ways?"</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i33">Her questioning in speech<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He answered, and a heavy sigh from inmost heart did reach:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess, might I tread again first footsteps of our way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if the annals of our toil thine hearkening ears might stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet Vesper first on daylight dead should shut Olympus' door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Troy the old, if yet perchance your ears have felt before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That name go by, do we come forth, and, many a water past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A chance-come storm hath drifted us on Libyan shores at last.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am Æneas, God-lover; I snatched forth from the foe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Gods to bear aboard with me, a fame for heaven to know.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I seek the Italian fatherland, and Jove-descended line;</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Twice ten the ships were that I manned upon the Phrygian brine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Goddess-mother led the way, we followed fate god-given;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now scarce seven are left to me by wave and east-wind riven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I through Libyan deserts stray, a man unknown and poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Asia cast, from Europe cast,"<br /></span> +<span class="i35">She might abide no more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear his moan: she thrusts a word amidst his grief and saith:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Nay thou art not God's castaway, who drawest mortal breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fairest to the Tyrian town, if aught thereof I know.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set on to Dido's threshold then e'en as the way doth show.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For take the tidings of thy ships and folk brought back again</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">By shifting of the northern wind all safe from off the main:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless my parents learned me erst of soothsaying to wot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But idly. Lo there twice seven swans disporting in a knot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom falling from the plain of air drave down the bird of Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From open heaven: strung out at length they hang the earth above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now seem choosing where to pitch, now on their choice to gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As wheeling round with whistling wings they sport in diverse ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with their band ring round the pole and cast abroad their song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought otherwise the ships and youth that unto thee belong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hold haven now, or else full sail to harbour-mouth are come.</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Set forth, set forth and tread the way e'en as it leadeth home."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, she turned, from rosy neck the light of heaven she cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her hair ambrosial the scent of Gods went past<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the wind, and o'er her feet her skirts fell shimmering down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And very God she went her ways. Therewith his mother known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a word he followed up a-fleeing from his eyes:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah cruel as a God! and why with images and lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou beguile me? wherefore then is hand to hand not given<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we to give and take in words that come from earth and heaven?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such wise he chided her, and then his footsteps townward bent:</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Venus with a dusky air did hedge them as they went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And widespread cloak of cloudy stuff the Goddess round them wrapped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest any man had seen them there, or bodily had happed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across their road their steps to stay, and ask their dealings there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she to Paphos and her home went glad amidst the air:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is her temple, there they stand, an hundred altars meet,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Warm with Sabæan incense-smoke, with new-pulled blossoms sweet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But therewithal they speed their way as led the road along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now they scale a spreading hill that o'er the town is hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And looking downward thereupon hath all the burg in face.</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas marvels how that world was once a peasants' place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He marvels at the gates, the roar and rattle of the ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hot-heart the Tyrians speed the work, and some the ramparts raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some pile the burg high, some with hand roll stones up o'er the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some choose a place for dwelling-house and draw a trench around;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some choose the laws, and lords of doom, the holy senate choose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These thereaway the havens dig, and deep adown sink those<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The founding of the theatre walls, or cleave the living stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In pillars huge, one day to show full fair the scene upon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As in new summer 'neath the sun the bees are wont to speed</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their labour in the flowery fields, whereover now they lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The well-grown offspring of their race, or when the cells they store<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With flowing honey, till fulfilled of sweets they hold no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or take the loads of new-comers, or as a watch well set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drive off the lazy herd of drones that they no dwelling get;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well speeds the work, and thymy sweet the honey's odour is.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Well favoured of the Fates are ye, whose walls arise in bliss!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas cries, a-looking o'er the housetops spread below;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, wonderful to tell in tale, hedged round with cloud doth go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the thickest press of men, and yet of none is seen.</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A grove amid the town there is, a pleasant place of green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where erst the Tyrians, beat by waves and whirling of the wind,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dug out the token Juno once had bidden them hope to find,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An eager horse's head to wit: for thus their folk should grow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far-famed in war for many an age, of victual rich enow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There now did Dido, Sidon-born, uprear a mighty fane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Juno, rich in gifts, and rich in present godhead's gain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On brazen steps its threshold rose, and brass its lintel tied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on their hinges therewithal the brazen door-leaves cried.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now within that grove again a new thing thrusting forth</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Gan lighten fear; for here to hope Æneas deemed it worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trust his fortune beaten down that yet it might arise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there while he abode the Queen, and wandered with his eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er all the temple, musing on the city's fate to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er the diverse handicraft and works of mastery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo there, set out before his face the battles that were Troy's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wars, whereof all folk on earth had heard the fame and noise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King Priam, the Atridæ twain, Achilles dire to both.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He stood, and weeping spake withal:<br /></span> +<span class="i36">"Achates, lo! forsooth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What place, what land in all the earth but with our grief is stored?</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo Priam! and even here belike deed hath its own reward.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo here are tears for piteous things that touch men's hearts anigh:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast off thy fear! this fame today shall yet thy safety buy."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And with the empty painted thing he feeds his mind withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore groaning, and a very flood adown his face did fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there he saw, as war around of Pergamus they cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here fled the Greeks, the Trojan youth for ever following fast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There fled the Phrygians, on their heels high-helmed Achilles' car;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not far off, fair with snowy cloths, the tents of Rhesus are;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">He knew them weeping: they of old in first of sleep betrayed,</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Tydides red with many a death a waste of nothing made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And led those fiery steeds to camp ere ever they might have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One mouthful of the Trojan grass, or drink of Xanthus' wave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo again, where Troilus is fleeing weaponless,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy youth, and all too weak to bear Achilles' stress,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By his own horses, fallen aback, at empty chariot borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet holding on the reins thereof; his neck, his tresses torn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er face of earth, his wrested spear a-writing in the dust.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile were faring to the fane of Pallas little just<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wives of Troy with scattered hair, bearing the gown refused,</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sad they and suppliant, whose own hands their very bosoms bruised,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While fixed, averse, the Goddess kept her eyes upon the ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice had Achilles Hector dragged the walls of Troy around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er his body, reft of soul, was chaffering now for gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep groaned Æneas from his heart in such wise to behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The car, the spoils, the very corpse of him, his fellow dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see the hands of Priam there all weaponless outspread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, thrust amidst Achæan lords, his very self he knew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Eastland hosts he saw, and arms of Memnon black of hue.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There mad Penthesilea leads the maids of moony shield,</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Amazons, and burns amidst the thousands of the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with her naked breast thrust out above the golden girth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The warrior maid hath heart to meet the warriors of the earth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while Æneas, Dardan lord, beholds the marvels there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, all amazed, stands moving nought with eyes in one set stare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo cometh Dido, very queen of fairest fashion wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By youths close thronging all about unto the temple brought.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, e'en as on Eurotas' rim or Cynthus' ridges high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diana leadeth dance about, a thousandfold anigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The following Oreads gather round, with shoulder quiver-hung</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She overbears the Goddesses her swift feet fare among,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And great Latona's silent breast the joys of godhead touch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, such was Dido; joyously she bore herself e'en such<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst them, eager for the work and ordered rule to come;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then through the Goddess' door she passed, and midmost 'neath the dome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High raised upon a throne she sat, with weapons hedged about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And doomed, and fashioned laws for men, and fairly sifted out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dealt their share of toil to them, or drew the lot as happed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There suddenly Æneas sees amidst a concourse wrapped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antheus, Sergestus, and the strong Cloanthus draw anigh,</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And other Teucrians whom the whirl, wild, black, all utterly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had scattered into other lands afar across the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amazed he stood, nor stricken was Achates less than he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By joy, by fear: they hungered sore hand unto hand to set;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But doubt of dealings that might be stirred in their hearts as yet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So lurking, cloaked in hollow cloud they note what things betide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their fellows there, and on what shore the ships they manned may bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whence they come; for chosen out of all the ships they bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bidding of peace, and, crying out, thus temple-ward they fare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now when they were entered in, and gained the grace of speech,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From placid heart Ilioneus the elder 'gan beseech:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Queen, to whom hath Jove here given a city new to raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with thy justice to draw rein on men of wilful ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We wretched Trojans, tossed about by winds o'er every main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pray thee forbid it from our ships, the dreadful fiery bane.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Spare pious folk, and look on us with favouring kindly eyes!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We are not come with sword to waste the Libyan families,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor drive adown unto the strand the plunder of the strong:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No such high hearts, such might of mind to vanquished folk belong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a place, Hesperia called of Greeks in days that are,</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">An ancient land, a fruitful soil, a mighty land in war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Œnotrian folk first tilled the land, whose sons, as rumours run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now call it nought but Italy from him who led them on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thitherward our course was turned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When sudden, stormy, tumbling seas, Orion rose on us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wholly scattering us abroad with fierce blasts from the south,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave us, sea-swept, by shallows blind, to straits with wayless mouth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to thy shores we few have swum, and so betake us here.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What men among men are ye then? what country's soil may bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such savage ways? ye grudge us then the welcome of your sand,</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And fall to arms, and gainsay us a tide-washed strip of strand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if men-folk and wars of men ye wholly set at nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet deem the Gods bear memory still of good and evil wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas was the king of us; no juster was there one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No better lover of the Gods, none more in battle shone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if the Fates have saved that man, if earthly air he drink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor 'neath the cruel deadly shades his fallen body shrink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought need we fear, nor ye repent to strive in kindly deed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With us: we have in Sicily fair cities to our need.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fields we have; Acestes high of Trojan blood is come.</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now suffer us our shattered ships in haven to bring home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cut us timber in thy woods, and shave us oars anew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then if the Italian cruise to us, if friends and king are due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Italy and Latium then full merry wend we on.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But if, dear father of our folk, hope of thy health be gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thee the Libyan water have, nor hope Iulus give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the Sicanian shores at least, and seats wherein to live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence hither came we, and the King Acestes let us seek."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake he, and the others made as they the same would speak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan-folk with murmuring mouth.</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Dido, with her head hung down, in few words answer gave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Let fear fall from you, Teucrian men, and set your cares aside;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard fortune yet constraineth me and this my realm untried<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hold such heed, with guard to watch my marches up and down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who knoweth not Æneas' folk? who knoweth not Troy-town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The valour, and the men, and all the flame of such a war?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, surely nought so dull as this the souls within us are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor turns the sun from Tyrian town, so far off yoking steed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So whether ye Hesperia great, and Saturn's acres need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or rather unto Eryx turn, and King Acestes' shore,</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Safe, holpen will I send you forth, and speed you with my store:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea and moreover, have ye will in this my land to bide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This city that I build is yours: here leave your ships to ride:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trojan and Tyrian no two wise at hands of me shall fare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And would indeed the King himself, Æneas, with us were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driven by that self-same southern gale: but sure men will I send,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid them search through Libya from end to utmost end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest, cast forth anywhere, he stray by town or forest part."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span><span class="i0">Father Æneas thereupon high lifted up his heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor stout Achates less, and both were fain the cloud to break;</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And to Æneas first of all the leal Achates spake:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born, what thought hereof ariseth in thy mind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All safe thou seest thy ships; thy folk fair welcomed dost thou find:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One is away, whom we ourselves saw sunken in the deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all things else the promised word thy mother gave us keep."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, even as he spake the word the cloud that wrapped them cleaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the open space of heaven no dusk behind it leaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there Æneas stood and shone amid the daylight clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With face and shoulders of a God: for loveliness of hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mother breathed upon her son, and purple light of youth,</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And joyful glory of the eyes: e'en as in very sooth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hand gives ivory goodliness, or when the Parian stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or silver with the handicraft of yellow gold is done:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal unto the Queen doth he begin to speak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unlooked-for of all men:<br /></span> +<span class="i24">"Lo here the very man ye seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trojan Æneas, caught away from Libyan seas of late!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, who alone of toils of Troy hast been compassionate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who takest us, the leavings poor of Danaan sword, outworn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With every hap of earth and sea, of every good forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To city and to house of thine: to thank thee to thy worth,</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dido, my might may compass not; nay, scattered o'er the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan folk, for what thou dost may never give thee meed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if somewhere a godhead is the righteous man to heed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If justice is, or any soul to note the right it wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May the Gods give thee due reward. What joyful ages brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy days to birth? what mighty ones gave such an one today?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now while the rivers seaward run, and while the shadows stray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er hollow hills, and while the pole the stars is pasturing wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still shall thine honour and thy name, still shall thy praise abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What land soever calleth me."</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i30">Therewith his right hand sought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His very friend Ilioneus, his left Serestus caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then the others, Gyas strong, Cloanthus strong in fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sidonian Dido marvelled much, first at the hero's sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then marvelled at the haps he had, and so such word doth say:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born, what fate is this that ever dogs thy way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such great perils? What hath yoked thy life to this wild shore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And art thou that Æneas then, whom holy Venus bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Anchises, Dardan lord, by Phrygian Simoïs' wave?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Teucer unto Sidon come a memory yet I have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, driven from out his fatherland, was seeking new abode</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">By Belus' help: but Belus then, my father, over-rode<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cyprus the rich, and held the same as very conquering lord:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So from that tide I knew of Troy and bitter Fate's award,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knew of those Pelasgian kings—yea, and I knew thy name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He then, a foeman, added praise to swell the Teucrian fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft was glad to deem himself of ancient Teucer's line.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So hasten now to enter in 'neath roofs of me and mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me too a fortune such as yours, me tossed by many a toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath pleased to give abiding-place at last upon this soil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learned in illhaps full wise am I unhappy men to aid."</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such tale she told, and therewith led to house full kingly made</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas, bidding therewithal the Gods with gifts to grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet their fellows she forgat upon the sea-beat place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sendeth them a twenty bulls, an hundred bristling backs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of swine, an hundred fatted lambs, whereof his ewe none lacks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gifts and gladness of the God.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the gleaming house within with kingly pomp is dight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the midmost of the hall a banquet they prepare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cloths laboured o'er with handicraft, and purple proud is there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great is the silver on the board, and carven out of gold</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The mighty deeds of father-folk, a long-drawn tale, is told,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought down through many and many an one from when their race began.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas, through whose father's heart unquiet love there ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent on the swift Achates now unto the ships to speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear Ascanius all these haps, and townward him to lead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For on Ascanius well beloved was all his father's thought:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal gifts good to give from Ilium's ruin caught<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He bade him bring: a cope all stiff with golden imagery;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With saffron soft acanthus twine a veil made fair to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Argive Helen's braveries, brought from Mycenæ erst,</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When she was seeking Pergamos and wedding all accursed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mother Leda gave her these and marvellous they were.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sceptre too that Ilione in days agone did bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eldest-born of Priam's maids; a neckchain pearl bestrown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, doubly wrought with gold and gems, a kingly-fashioned crown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to the ships Achates went these matters forth to speed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Cytherea in her heart turned over new-wrought rede,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New craft; how, face and fashion changed, her son the very Love</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For sweet Ascanius should come forth, and, gift-giving, should move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Queen to madness, make her bones the yoke-fellows of flame.</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Forsooth the doubtful house she dreads, the two-tongued Tyrian name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bitter Juno burneth her, and care the night doth wake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now therefore to the winged Love such words as this she spake:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O son, my might, my only might, who fearest nought at all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How his, the highest Father's bolts, Typhœus' bane, may fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thee I flee, and suppliant so thy godhead's power beseech:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy brother, e'en Æneas, tossed on every sea-side beach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest; all the fashioning of wrongful Juno's hate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest; oft upon my grief with sorrow wouldst thou wait.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him now Phœnician Dido holds, and with kind words enow</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Delays him there, but unto what Junonian welcomes grow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fear me: will she hold her hand when thus the hinge is dight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now therefore am I compassing to catch their craft in flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To ring the Queen about with flame that her no power may turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she may cling to me and sore for mine Æneas yearn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now hearken how I counsel thee to bring about my will:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kingly boy his father calls, he whom I cherish still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To that Sidonian city now is ready dight to fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gifts, the gleanings of the sea and flames of Troy, doth bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom soaked in sleep forthwith will I in high Cythera hide,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or in Idalium's holy place where I am wont to bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest any one the guile should know and thrust themselves between:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou with craft his fashion feign, and with his face be seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well known of all, for no more space than one night's wearing by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so, when Dido, gladdest grown, shall take thee up to lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon her breast 'twixt queenly board and great Lyæus' wave,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thou the winding of her arms and kisses sweet shalt have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then breathe the hidden flame in her and forge thy venomed guile."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His lovesome mother Love obeyed, and doffed his wings awhile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as Iulus goeth now rejoicing on his way.</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Venus all Ascanius' limbs in quiet rest doth lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cherished in her goddess' breast unto Idalian groves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She bears him, where the marjoram still soft about him moves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And breatheth sweet from scented shade and blossoms on the air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love wrought her will, and bearing now those royal gifts and rare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the Tyrians joyous went, e'en as Achates led.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when he came into the house, there on her golden bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hangings proud Queen Dido lay amidmost of the place:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The father then, Æneas, then the youth of Trojan race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There gather, and their bodies cast on purple spread abroad.</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Folk serve them water for their hands, and speed the baskets stored<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Ceres, and the towels soft of close-clipped nap they bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within were fifty serving-maids, whose long array had care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To furnish forth the meat and drink, and feed the house-gods' flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred more, and youths withal of age and tale the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set on the meat upon the board and lay the cups about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now through that wide joyous door came thronging from without<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tyrians, and, so bidden, lie on benches painted fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wonder at Æneas' gifts, and at Iulus there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flaming countenance of God, and speech so feigned and fine;</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They wonder at the cope and veil with that acanthus twine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chiefly that unhappy one doomed to the coming ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor hungry hollow of her heart nor burning eyes may fill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all beholding: gifts and child alike her heart do move.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But he, when he had satisfied his feignèd father's love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clipped Æneas all about, and round his neck had hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went to the Queen, who with her eyes and heart about him clung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whiles would strain him to her breast—poor Dido! knowing nought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What God upon her bosom sat; who ever had in thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Acidalian mother's word, and slowly did begin</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To end Sychæus quite, and with a living love to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her empty soul at rest, and heart unused a weary tide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the feasting first was stayed, and boards were done aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great beakers there they set afoot, and straight the wine they crowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shout goes up within the house, great noise they roll around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty halls: the candles hang adown from golden roof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All lighted, and the torches' flame keeps dusky night aloof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now a heavy bowl of gold and gems the Queen bade bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fill with all unwatered wine, which erst used Belus king,</span><span class='linenum'>729</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all from Belus come: therewith through the hushed house she said:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Jupiter! they say by thee the guesting laws were made;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make thou this day to Tyrian folk, and folk come forth from Troy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A happy day, and may our sons remember this our joy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mirth-giver Bacchus, fail thou not from midst our mirth! be kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Juno! and ye Tyrian folk, be glad this bond to bind!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and on the table poured the glorious wave of wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then touched the topmost of the bowl with dainty lip and fine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, egging on, to Bitias gave: nought slothful to be told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The draught he drained, who bathed himself within the foaming gold;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span><span class="i0">Then drank the other lords of them: long-haired Iopas then</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Maketh the golden harp to sing, whom Atlas most of men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Erst taught: he sings the wandering moon and toiling of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whence the kind of men and beasts, how rain and fire begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arcturus, the wet Hyades, and twin-wrought Northern Bears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And why so swift the winter sun unto his sea-bath fares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what delayeth night so long upon the daylight's hem.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then praise on praise the Tyrians shout, the Trojans follow them.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile unhappy Dido wore the night-tide as it sank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In diverse talk, and evermore long draughts of love she drank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a thing of Priam asked, of Hector many a thing:</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With what-like arms Aurora's son had come unto the King;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What were the steeds of Diomed, how great Achilles was.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last she said:<br /></span> +<span class="i18">"But come, O guest, tell all that came to pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From earliest tide; of Danaan craft, and how thy land was lorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thine own wanderings; for as now the seventh year is worn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thee a-straying wide away o'er earth and sea hath borne."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_II" id="BOOK_II"></a>BOOK II.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS TELLETH TO DIDO AND THE TYRIANS THE STORY OF TROY'S OVERTHROW.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All hearkened hushed, and fixed on him was every face of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from the couch high set aloft Æneas thus began:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Unutterable grief, O Queen, thou biddest me renew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The falling of the Trojan weal and realm that all shall rue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath Danaan might; which thing myself unhappy did behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and was no small part thereof. What man might hear it told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Dolopes, or Myrmidons, or hard Ulysses' band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And keep the tears back? Dewy night now falleth from the land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of heaven, and all the setting stars are bidding us to sleep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if to know our evil hap thy longing is so deep,</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">If thou wilt hear a little word of Troy's last agony,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though memory shuddereth, and my heart shrunk up in grief doth lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will begin.<br /></span> +<span class="i13">By battle broke, and thrust aback by Fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the wearing of the years, the Danaan lords yet wait<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And build a horse up mountain-huge by Pallas' art divine,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fair fashioning the ribs thereof with timbers of the pine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And feign it vowed for safe return, and let the fame fly forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Herein by stealth a sort of men chosen for bodies' worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid its darkness do they shut; the caverns inly lost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in the belly of the thing they fill with armed host.</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an island known of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rich in wealth before the realm of Priam had its fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now but a bay and roadstead poor, where scarcely ships may ride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thither now they sail away in desert place to hide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We thought them gone, and that they sought Mycenæ on a wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereat the long-drawn grief of Troy fell off from every mind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The gates are opened; sweet it is the Dorian camp to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dwellings waste, the shore all void where they were wont to be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here dwelt the band of Dolopes, here was Achilles set,</span><span class='linenum'>29</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And this was where their ships were beached; here edge to edge we met.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some wonder at unwedded maid Minerva's gift of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That baneful mountain of a horse; and first Thymœtes saith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twere good in walls to lead the thing, on topmost burg to stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether such word the fate of Troy or evil treason planned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know not: Capys and the rest, who better counsel have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid take the fashioned guile of Greeks, the doubtful gift they gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tumble it adown to sea, with piled-up fire to burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or bore the belly of the beast its hidden holes to learn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So cleft atwain is rede of men abiding there in doubt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But first before all others now with much folk all about</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Laocoon the fiery man runs from the burg adown,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shouts from far:<br /></span> +<span class="i20">'O wretched men, how hath such madness grown?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deem ye the foe hath fared away? Deem ye that Danaan gifts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May ever lack due share of guile? Are these Ulysses' shifts?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For either the Achæans lurk within this fashioned tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or 'tis an engine wrought with craft bane of our walls to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To look into our very homes, and scale the town perforce:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some guile at least therein abides: Teucrians, trust not the horse!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatso it is, the Danaan folk, yea gift-bearing I fear.'</span><span class='linenum'>49</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus having said, with valiant might he hurled a huge-wrought spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the belly of the beast swelled out with rib and stave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It stood a-trembling therewithal; its hollow caverns gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From womb all shaken with the stroke a mighty sounding groan.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And but for God's heart turned from us, for God's fate fixed and known,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He would have led us on with steel to foul the Argive den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou, O Troy, wert standing now, thou Priam's burg as then!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo, where Dardan shepherds lead, with plenteous clamour round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A young man unto Priam's place with hands behind him bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who privily had thrust himself before their way e'en now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The work to crown, and into Troy an open way to show</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto the Greeks; a steadfast soul, prepared for either end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or utterly to work his craft or unto death to bend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eager to see him as he went around the Trojans flock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On every side, and each with each contend the man to mock.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo now, behold the Danaan guile, and from one wrong they wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learn ye what all are like to be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For as he stood in sight of all, bewildered, weaponless,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And let his eyes go all around the gazing Phrygian press,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He spake:<br /></span> +<span class="i9">'What land shall have me now, what sea my head shall hide?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What then is left of deed to do that yet I must abide?</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No place I have among the Greeks, and Dardan folk withal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My foemen are, and bloody end, due doom, upon me call.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And with that wail our hearts were turned, and somewhat backward hung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The press of men: we bade him say from whence his blood was sprung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what he did, and if indeed a captive we might trust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thus he spake when now all fear from off his heart was thrust:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Whatso betide, to thee, O King, the matter's verity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will I lay bare unto the end, nor Argive blood deny:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This firstly; for if Fate indeed shaped Sinon for all bale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make him liar and empty fool her worst may not avail.</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Perchance a rumour of men's talk about your ears hath gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Telling of Palamedes' fame and glory that he won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Belus: traitors' word undid him innocent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By unjust doom for banning war the way of death he went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slain by Pelasgian men, that now his quenchèd light deplore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fellow to him, and nigh akin, I went unto the war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent by my needy father forth, e'en from my earliest years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now while he reigned in health, a king fair blooming mid his peers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In council of the kings, I too had share of name and worth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But after he had gone his way from land of upper earth,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thrust down by sly Ulysses' hate, (I tell all men's belief),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then beaten down I dragged my life through shadowy ways of grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heavily I took the death of him my sackless friend,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor held my peace, O fool! but vowed revenge if time should send<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A happy tide; if I should come to Argos any more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A victor then: so with my words I drew down hatred sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the first fleck of my ill; Ulysses ever now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would threaten with some new-found guilt, and mid the folk would sow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark sayings, and knowing what was toward, sought weapons new at need;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wearied till with Calchas now to help him to the deed.—</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—But why upturn these ugly things, or spin out time for nought?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For if ye deem all Greekish men in one same mould are wrought:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is enough. Come make an end; Ulysses' hope fulfil!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With great price would the Atridæ buy such working of their will.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then verily to know the thing and reach it deep we burned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So little in Pelasgian guile and evil were we learned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He takes the tale up; fluttering-voiced from lying heart he speaks:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The longing to be gone from Troy fell oft upon the Greeks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft they fain had turned their backs on war without an end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(I would they had), and oft as they were e'en at point to wend</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A tempest would forbid the sea, or southern gale would scare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chiefly when with maple-beams this horse that standeth here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They fashioned, mighty din of storm did all the heavens fulfil.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So held aback, Eurypylus we sent to learn the will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Phœbus: from the shrine he brought such heavy words as these:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With blood and with a virgin's death did ye the winds appease</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>When first ye came, O Danaan folk, unto the Ilian shore;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>With blood and with an Argive soul the Gods shall ye adore</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For your return.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i16">'Now when that word men's ears had gone about</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their hearts stood still, and tremors cold took all their bones for doubt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What man the Fates had doomed thereto, what man Apollo would.</span><span class='linenum'>121</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amidst us then the Ithacan drags in with clamour rude<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calchas the seer, and wearieth him the Gods' will to declare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that craftsmaster's cruel guile had many bade beware<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In words, and many silently foresaw the coming death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice five days Calchas holdeth peace and, hidden, gainsayeth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speak the word that any man to very death should cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till hardly, by Ulysses' noise sore driven, at the last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He brake out with the speech agreed, and on me laid the doom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All cried assent, and what each man feared on himself might come,</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Gainst one poor wretch's end of days with ready hands they bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now came the evil day; for me the rites do men prepare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The salted cakes, the holy strings to do my brows about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I needs must say I brake my bonds, from Death's house gat me out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And night-long lay amid the sedge by muddy marish side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till they spread sail, if they perchance should win their sailing tide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor have I hope to see again my fatherland of old;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My longed-for father and sweet sons I never shall behold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On whom the guilt of me who fled mayhappen men will lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with their death for my default the hapless ones shall pay.</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But by the might of very God, all sooth that knoweth well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By all the unstained faith that yet mid mortal men doth dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If aught be left, I pray you now to pity such distress!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pity a heart by troubles tried beyond its worthiness!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His weeping won his life of us, and pity thereunto,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Priam was the first who bade his irons to undo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hand-bonds, and in friendly words unto the man he speaks:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Whoso thou art, henceforward now forget thy missing Greeks;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt be ours: but learn me now, who fain the sooth would wot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore they built this world of horse, what craftsman him begot,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And what to do? What gift for Gods; what gin of war is he?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake. The other, wise in guile and Greekish treachery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both palms of his from bonds new-freed raised toward the stars above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, 'O eternal fires!' he cried, 'O might that none may move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear witness now! ye altar-stones, ye wicked swords I fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye holy fillets of the Gods bound round my fore-doomed head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I all hallowed Greekish rites may break and do aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may hate the men and bring all hidden things to light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If aught lie hid; nor am I held by laws my country gave!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, O Troy, abide by troth, and well thy saviour save,</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">If truth I bear thee, if great things for great I pay thee o'er!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'All hope the Danaans had, all trust for speeding on the war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Pallas' aid was ever set: yet came a day no less<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When godless Diomed and he, well-spring of wickedness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ulysses, brake the holy place that they by stealth might gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fate-fulfilled Palladium, when, all the burg-guards slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They caught the holy image up, and durst their bloody hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay on the awful Goddess there and touch her holy bands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flood-tide of the Danaan hope ebbed from that very day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might failed them, and the Goddess-maid turned all her heart away:</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Token whereof Tritonia gave by portent none might doubt:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce was the image set in camp when suddenly flashed out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce fire from staring eyes of her, and salt sweat oozed and fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er all her limbs, and she from earth, O wonderful to tell!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Leapt thrice, still holding in her hand the quivering spear and shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Calchas bade us turn to flight across the wavy field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Singing how ruin of Pergamos the Argive steel shall lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till Argos give the signs again, and we the God bring back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hollow of the curved keel across the tumbling main.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this is why they sought their home, Mycenæ's land, again,</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there they dight them arms and God, and presently unwares<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will be on you across the sea—Calchas such doom declares.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So warned hereby for Godhead's hurt, in stolen Palladium's stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Atonement for their heavy guilt, this horse they fashionèd.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But him indeed did Calchas bid to pile so mountain-high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a might of mingled beams, and lead up to the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest it within the gates should come, or mid the walls, and lest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath their ancient Pallas-faith the people safe should rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For if upon Minerva's gift ye lay a godless hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then mighty ruin (and would to God before his face might stand</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That ruin instead) on Priam's might, and Phrygian folk shall fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if your hands shall lead it up within the city wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Asia, free and willing it, to Pelops' house shall come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mighty war; and that same fate our sons shall follow home.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Caught by such snares and crafty guile of Sinon the forsworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By lies and lies, and tears forced forth there were we overborne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We, whom Tydides might not tame, nor Larissæan king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Achilles; nor the thousand ships, and ten years' wearying.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now another, greater hap, a very birth of fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was thrust before us wretched ones, our sightless hearts to stir.</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Laocoon, chosen out by lot for mighty Neptune's priest,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Would sacrifice a mighty bull at altars of the feast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, away from Tenedos, o'er quiet of the main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(I tremble in the tale) we see huge coils of serpents twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breasting the sea, and side by side swift making for the shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose fronts amid the flood were strained, and high their crests upbore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blood-red above the waves, the rest swept o'er the sea behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the unmeasured backs of them coil upon coil they wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While sends the sea great sound of foam. And now the meads they gained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The burning eyes with flecks of blood and streaks of fire are stained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their mouths with hisses all fulfilled are licked by flickering tongue.</span><span class='linenum'>211</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bloodless we flee the sight, but they fare steadfastly along<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Laocoon; and first each serpent round doth reach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One little body of his sons, and knitting each to each,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And winding round and round about, the unhappy body gnaws:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then himself, as sword in hand anigh for help he draws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They seize and bind about in coils most huge, and presently<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are folded twice about his midst, twice round his neck they tie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their scaly backs, and hang above with head and toppling mane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he both striveth with his hands to rend their folds atwain,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His fillets covered o'er with blood and venom black and fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And starward sendeth forth withal a cry most horrible,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The roaring of a wounded bull who flees the altar-horn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shaketh from his crest away the axe unhandy borne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But fleeing to the shrines on high do those two serpents glide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reach the hard Tritonia's house, and therewithin they hide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the Goddess' very feet and orbèd shield of dread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then through our quaking hearts indeed afresh the terror spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all men say Laocoon hath paid but worthily</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For guilt of his, and hurt of steel upon the holy tree,</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When that unhappy wicked spear against its flank he threw.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They cry to lead the image on to holy house and due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Pallas' godhead to adore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We break adown our rampart walls and bare the very town:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All gird themselves unto the work, set wheels that it may glide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath his feet, about his neck the hempen bond is tied<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To warp it on: up o'er the walls so climbs the fateful thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fruitful of arms; and boys about and unwed maidens sing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy songs, and deem it joy hand on the ropes to lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It enters; through the city's midst it wends its evil way.</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—O land! O Ilium, house of Gods! O glorious walls of war!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Dardan walls!—four times amidst the threshold of our door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It stood: four times with sound of arms the belly of it rung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But heedless, maddened hearts and blind, hard on the ropes we hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor but amidst the holy burg the monster's feet we stay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then Cassandra oped her mouth to tell the fateful day,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her mouth that by the Gods' own doom the Teucrians ne'er might trow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then on this day that was our last we bear the joyous bough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poor wretches! through the town to deck each godhead's holy place.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the heavens are faring round, night falls on ocean's face,</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Enwrapping in her mighty shade all earthly things and sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the guile of Myrmidons: silent the Teucrians lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the town, and Sleep her arms o'er wearied bodies slips.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the Argive host comes forth upon its ordered ships<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Tenedos, all hushed amid the kind moon's silent ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking the well-known strand, when forth there breaks the bale-fire's blaze</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">On the king's deck: and Sinon, kept by Gods' unequal fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Danaans hid in horse's womb undoes the piny gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In stealthy wise: them now the horse, laid open to the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gives forth again, and glad from out the hollow wood they fare;</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thessandrus, Sthenelus, the dukes, and dire Ulysses pass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slipped down along a hanging rope, Thoas and Acamas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peleian Neoptolemus, and Machaon the first,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Menelaüs, and the man who forged the guile accursed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Epeos. Through the city sunk in sleep and wine they break,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slain are the guards, at gates all oped their fellows in they take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all their bands confederate are met at last in one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It was the time when that first peace of sick men hath begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By very gift of God o'er all in sweetest wise to creep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Hector comes before mine eyes amid the dreams of sleep,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Most sorrowful to see he was, and weeping plenteous flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en as torn behind the car, black with the dust and blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His feet all swollen with the thong that pierced them through and through.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe worth the while for what he was! How changed from him we knew!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Hector come from out the fight in arms Achilles lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Hector that on Danaan decks the Phrygian firebrands tost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foul was his beard, and all his hair was matted up with gore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his body were the wounds, the many wounds he bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around his Troy. I seemed in sleep, I weeping e'en as he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speak unto the hero first in voice of misery:</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O Light of Troy, most faithful hope of all the Teucrian men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What stay hath held thee back so long? from what shore com'st thou then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long-looked-for Hector? that at last, so many died away,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Such toil of city, toil of men, we see thy face today,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We so forewearied? What hath fouled in such an evil wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy cheerful face? what mean these hurts thou showest to mine eyes?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nought: nor my questions void and vain one moment turned his speech;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who from the inmost of his heart a heavy groan did reach:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'O Goddess-born, flee forth,' he said, 'and snatch thee from the fire!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The foeman hath the walls, and Troy is down from topmost spire.</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For Priam and for country now enough. If any hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might have kept Pergamos, held up by mine it yet should stand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her holy things and household gods Troy gives in charge to thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take these as fellows of thy fate: go forth the walls to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great walls thou shalt build, when thou the sea hast wandered o'er.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and from the inner shrine forth in his hands he bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great Vesta, and the holy bands, and fire that never dies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the city's turmoiled woe was wrought in diverse wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though my father's house aback apart from all was set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hedged about with many trees, clearer and clearer yet</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The sounds grew on us, ever swelled the weapons' dread and din.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shake off sleep and forthwithal climb up aloft and win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To topmost roof: with ears pricked up I stand to hearken all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when before the furious South the driven flame doth fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among the corn: or like as when the hill-flood rolls in haste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To waste the fields and acres glad, the oxen's toil to waste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tearing the headlong woods along, while high upon a stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unready shepherd stands amazed, and hears the sound come on.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then was their faith made manifest, then Danaan guile lay bare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deïphobus' wide house e'en now, o'ertopped by Vulcan's flare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shows forth its fall; Ucalegon's is burning by its side:</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The narrow seas Sigæum guards gleam litten far and wide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shout of men ariseth now, and blaring of the horn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mad, I catch my weapons up though idly they be borne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But burned my heart to gather folk for battle, and set forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the burg in fellowship; for fury and great wrath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrust on my heart: to die in arms, it seemed a good reward.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo, now Panthus newly slipped from 'neath the Achean sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Panthus the son of Othrys, priest of Phœbus' house on high;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His holy things and vanquished Gods, his little lad thereby</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He drags, and as a madman runs, to gain our doorway set.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Panthus, how fares it at the worst? what stronghold keep we yet?'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce had I said, when from his mouth a groan and answer fares:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Troy's latest day has come on us, a tide no struggling wears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time was, the Trojans were; time was, and Ilium stood; time was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glory of the Teucrian folk! Jove biddeth all to pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Argos now: in Troy afire the Danaans now are lords;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horse high set amidst the town pours forth a flood of swords,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Sinon, of the victors now, the flame is driving home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High mocking: by the open gates another sort is come,</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As many thousands as ere flocked from great Mycenæ yet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Others with weapons ready dight the narrow ways beset,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ban all passage; point and edge are glittering drawn and bare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ready for death: and scarcely now the first few gatewards dare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle, and blind game of Mars a little while debate.'</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Spurred by such speech of Othrys' son, and force of godhead great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid fire and steel I follow on as grim Erinnys shows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where call the cries, where calls the shout that ever heavenward goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rhipeus therewith, and Epytus the mighty under shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dymas and Hypanis withal their fellowship now yield;</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Met by the moon they join my side with young Corœbus; he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Mygdon, at that tide in Troy-town chanced to be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drawn thither by Cassandra's love that burned within his heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So he to Priam service gave, and helped the Phrygian part:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy! that the warning word of his God-maddened love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He might not hearken on that day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now when I see them gathered so to dare the battle's pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus I begin:<br /></span> +<span class="i13">'O fellows fair, O hardy hearts in vain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If now ye long to follow me who dares the utterance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And certain end, ye see indeed what wise our matters chance.</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Gods, who in the other days our lordship mighty made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are gone from altar and from shrine: a town of flames ye aid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall on a very midst the fire and die in press of war!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One hope there is for vanquished men, to cherish hope no more.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith the fury of their minds I feed, and thence away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As ravening wolves by night and cloud their bellies' lust obey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bitter-sharp is driving on, the while their whelps at home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dry-jawed await them, so by steel, by crowd of foes we come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the very death; we hold the city's midmost street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Black night-tide's wings with hollow shade about our goings meet.</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O ruin and death of that ill night, what tongue may set it forth!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or who may pay the debt of tears that agony was worth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ancient city overthrown, lord for so many a year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The many bodies of the slain, that, moveless, everywhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie in the street, in houses lie, lie round the holy doors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Gods. But not alone that night the blood of Teucrians pours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For whiles the valour comes again in vanquished hearts to bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And conquering Danaans fall and die: grim grief on every side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fear on every side there is, and many-faced is death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Androgeus, whom a mighty band of Danaans followeth,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">First falleth on the road of us, and, deeming us to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fellow-folk, in friendly words he speaketh presently:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Haste on, O men! what sloth is this delayeth so your ways?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While others hand and haul away in Pergamos ablaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! fellows, from the lofty ships come ye but even now?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But with the word, no answer had wherein at all to trow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He felt him fallen amid the foe, and taken in the snare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then foot and voice aback he drew, and stood amazèd there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one who through the thicket thrusts, and unawares doth tread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon a snake, and starts aback with sudden rush of dread</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From gathering anger of the thing and swelling neck of blue:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, quaking at the sight of us, Androgeus backward drew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we fall on with serried arms and round their rout we crowd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fell them knowing nought the place, and with all terror cowed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So sweet the breath of fortune was on our first handicraft.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But with good-hap and hardihood Corœbus' spirit laughed;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Come, fellows, follow up,' he cries, 'the way that fortune shows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This first of times, and where belike a little kind she grows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Change we our shields, and do on us the tokens of the Greeks;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether with fraud or force he play what man of foeman seeks,</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, these themselves shall give us arms.'<br /></span> +<span class="i41">He spake, and forth did bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Androgeus' high-crested helm and shield emblazoned fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And did it on, and Argive sword he girt unto his thigh:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Rhipeus did, and Dymas did, and all did joyously,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each man wholly armed himself with plunder newly won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then mingled with the Greeks we fare, and no God helps us on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a battle there we join amid the eyeless night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a Danaan send adown to Orcus from the light:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some fled away unto the ships, some to the safe sea-shore,</span><span class='linenum'>399</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or smitten with the coward's dread climbed the great horse once more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there they lie all close within the well-known womb of wood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! what skills it man to trust in Gods compelled to good?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For lo, Cassandra, Priam's maid, with hair cast all about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Pallas' house and innermost of holy place dragged out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straining with her burning eyes in vain to heaven aloft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her eyes, for they in bonds had bound her tender palms and soft.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought bore Corœbus' maddened mind to see that show go by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the middle of their host he flung himself to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all we follow and fall on with points together set.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first from that high temple-top great overthrow we get</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From weapons of our friends, and thence doth hapless death arise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From error of the Greekish crests and armour's Greekish guise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then crying out for taken maid, fulfilled thereat with wrath,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The gathered Greeks fall in on us: comes keenest Ajax forth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sons of Atreus, all the host of Dolopes are there:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As whiles, the knit whirl broken up, the winds together bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strive, the West wind and the South, the East wind glad and free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Eastland steeds; sore groan the woods; and Nereus stirs the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From lowest deeps, and trident shakes, and foams upon the wave:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They even to whom by night and cloud great overthrow we gave,</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Through craft of ours, and drave about through all the town that while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now show themselves, and know our shields and weapons worn for guile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first of all; our mouths unmeet for Greekish speech they tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then o'er us sweeps the multitude; and first Corœbus fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Peneleus before the Maid who ever in the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prevaileth most; fell Rhipeus there, the heedfullest of right<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all among the Teucrian folk, the justest man of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods deemed otherwise. Dymas and Hypanis died then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shot through by friends, and not a whit availed to cover thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Panthus, thine Apollo's bands or plenteous piety.</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ashes of Ilium, ye last flames where my beloved ones burned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear witness mid your overthrow my face was never turned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Danaan steel and Danaan deed! if fate had willed it so<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I should fall, I earned my wage.<br /></span> +<span class="i37">Borne thence away, we go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pelias and Iphitus and I; but Iphitus was spent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By eld, and by Ulysses' hurt half halting Pelias went.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So unto Priam's house we come, called by the clamour there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where such a mighty battle was as though none otherwhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet burned: as though none others fell in all the town beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There all unbridled Mars we saw, the Danaans driving wide</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Against the house; with shield-roofs' rush the doors thereof beset.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The ladders cling unto the walls, men by the door-posts get<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some foothold up; with shielded left they meet the weapons' rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While on the battlements above grip with the right they gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardans on the other side pluck roof and pinnacle<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From off the house; with such-like shot they now, beholding well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The end anigh, all death at hand, make ready for the play:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gilded beams, the pomp and joy of fathers passed away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They roll adown, and other some with naked point and edge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nether doorways of the place in close arrayment hedge.</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Blazed up our hearts again to aid this palace of a king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stead their toil, to vanquished men a little help to bring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A door there was, a secret pass into the common way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all King Priam's houses there, that at the backward lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one goes by: in other days, while yet the lordship was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hapless Andromache thereby unto the twain would pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone, or leading to the king Astyanax her boy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thereby now I gain the tower, whence wretched men of Troy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In helpless wise from out their hands were casting darts aloof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was a tower, a sheer height down, builded from highest roof</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Up toward the stars; whence we were wont on Troy to look adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence away the Danaan ships, the Achæan tented town.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the highest stage hereof the steel about we bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just where the joints do somewhat give: this from its roots we tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heave it up and over wall, whose toppling at the last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bears crash and ruin, and wide away the Danaans are down cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath its fall: but more come on: nor drift of stones doth lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor doth all kind of weapon-shot at any while grow slack.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo, Pyrrhus in the very porch forth to the door doth pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exulting; bright with glittering points and flashing of the brass;</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—E'en as a snake to daylight come, on evil herbage fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, swollen, 'neath the chilly soil hath had his winter bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now, his ancient armour doffed, and sleek with youth new found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With front upreared his slippery back he coileth o'er the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up 'neath the sun; his three-cleft tongue within his mouth gleams clear:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with him Periphas the huge, Achilles' charioteer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now shield-bearer Automedon and all the Scyrian host<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Closed on the walls and on the roof the blazing firebrands tost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pyrrhus in forefront of them all catches a mighty bill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beats in the hardened door, and tears perforce from hinge and sill</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The brazen leaves; a beam hewn through, wide gaped the oak hard knit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into a great-mouthed window there, and through the midst of it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May men behold the inner house; the long halls open lie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bared is the heart of Priam's home, the place of kings gone by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And close against the very door all armèd men they see.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That inner house indeed was mazed with wail and misery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inmost chambers of the place an echoing hubbub hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of women's cries, whose clamour smites the far-off stars of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the house so mighty great the fearful mothers stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wind their arms about the doors, and kisses on them lay.</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Pyrrhus with his father's might comes on; no bolt avails,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man against the might of him; the door all battered fails,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The door-leaves torn from off of hinge tumble and lie along:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might maketh road; through passage forced the entering Danaans throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slay the first and fill the place with armour of their ranks.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nay nought so great is foaming flood that through its bursten banks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks forth, and beateth down the moles that 'gainst its going stand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And falls a fierce heap on the plain, and over all the land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drags off the herds and herd-houses.<br /></span> +<span class="i36">There saw I Pyrrhus wild<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With death of men amidst the door, and either Atreus' child;</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And Hecuba and hundred wives her sons wed saw I there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Priam fouling with his blood the very altars fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose fires he hallowed: fifty beds the hope of house to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The doorways proud with outland gold and war-got bravery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sunk into ash; where fire hath failed the Danaans are enow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Belike what fate on Priam fell thou askest me to show:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For when he saw the city lost, and his own house-door stormed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how in bowels of his house the host of foemen swarmed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ancient man in vain does on the arms long useless laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About his quaking back of eld, and girds himself with blade</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of no avail, and fareth forth amid the press to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A very midmost of the courts beneath the naked sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty altar stood: anear a bay exceeding old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The altar and the Gods thereof did all in shadow hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round about that altar-stead sat Hecuba the queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many daughters: e'en as doves all huddled up are seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath the black storm they cling about the dear God's images.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when in arms of early days King Priam now she sees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She crieth: 'O unhappy spouse! what evil heart hast thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With weapons thus to gird thyself, or whither wilt thou now?</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Today availeth no such help, and no such warder's stay</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">May better aught; not even were my Hector here today.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But come thou hither unto me; this altar all shall save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or we shall die together here!'<br /></span> +<span class="i32">Her arms about she gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And took him, and the elder set adown in holy stead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo! now one of Priam's sons, Polites, having fled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Pyrrhus' murder through the swords and through the foeman's throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Runs wounded through the empty hall from out the cloister long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And burning Pyrrhus, hard at heel, the deadly hurt doth bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grip of hand is on him now, and now the point of spear.</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But as he rushed before their eyes, his parents' face beneath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He fell, and with most plenteous blood shed forth his latest breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Priam, howsoever nigh the very death might grip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Refrained him nothing at the sight, but voice and wrath let slip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Ah, for such wickedness,' he cried, 'for daring such a deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If aught abide in heaven as yet such things as this to heed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May the Gods give thee worthy thanks, and pay thee well-earned prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou hast set the death of sons before my father's eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou thy murder's fouling thus in father's face hast flung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not he, Achilles, whence indeed thou liar hast never sprung,</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Was such a foe to Priam erst; for shamfast meed he gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To law and troth of suppliant men, and rendered to the grave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bloodless Hector dead, and me sent to mine own again.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake the elder, and cast forth a toothless spear and vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That forthwith from the griding brass was put aback all spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the shield-boss' outer skin hung down, for nothing sent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Pyrrhus cried: 'Yea tell him this, go take the tidings down</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To Peleus' son my father then, of Pyrrhus worser grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all these evil deeds of mine! take heed to tell the tale!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now die!'<br /></span> +<span class="i9">And to the altar-stone him quivering did he hale,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sliding in his own son's blood so plenteous: in his hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pyrrhus his left hand wound, his right the gleaming sword made bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That even to the hilts thereof within his flank he hid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such was the end of Priam's day, such faring forth fate bid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Troy all aflame upon the road, all Pergamus adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He, of so many peoples once the mighty lord and crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So many lands of Asia once, a trunk beside the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge with its headless shoulders laid, a nameless corpse is he.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then first within the compassing of bitter fear I was;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The image of my father dear by me all mazed did pass,</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When I beheld the like-aged king gasping his life away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through cruel wound: upon mine eyes forlorn Creusa lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wasted house, my little one, Iulus', evil end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I look aback to see what folk about me yet do wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all, foredone, had fallen away, their weary bodies spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some all amid the fire had cast, some unto earth had sent.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alone was I of all men now, when lo, in Vesta's house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abiding, and in inmost nook silent and lurking close,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Helen the seed of Tyndarus! the clear fires give her light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As there she strayeth, turning eyes on every shifting sight;</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She, fearful of the Teucrian wrath for Pergamus undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fearful of the Danaan wrath and husband left alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wasting fury both of Troy and land where she was born,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">She hid her by the altar-stead, a thing of Gods forlorn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forth blazed the wildfire in my soul, wrath stirred me up to slake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My vengeance for my dying home, and ill's atonement take.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! should she come to Sparta safe, and her Mycenæ then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the hard-won triumphing go forth a Queen of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And see her husband and her home, her parents and her sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Served by the throng of Ilian wives and Phrygian vanquished ones?</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall Priam so be slain with sword; shall Troy so blaze aloft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall the sea-beach the Dardan blood have sweat so oft and oft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this? Nay, nay: and though forsooth no deed to blaze abroad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The slaying of a woman be, nor gaineth fame's reward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet still to quench an evil thing and pay the well-earned meed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is worthy praise, and joy it were unto the full to feed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart's fell flame, and satisfy these ashes well beloved.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such things my soul gave forth; such things in furious heart I moved.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, my holy mother now, ne'er seen by eyes of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So clear before, athwart the dark in simple light did shine;</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">All God she was; of countenance and measure was she nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But her the heaven-abiders see; so my right hand she caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And held me, and from rosy mouth moreover added word:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O son, what anger measureless thy mighty grief hath stirred?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why ragest thou? or whither then is gone thy heed of me?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou not first behold the place where worn by eld is he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises, left? Wilt thou not see if yet thy wife abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Creusa, or Ascanius yet? The Greekish bands fare wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About them now on every hand, and but my care withstood</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The fire had wafted them away or sword had drunk their blood.</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Laconian Helen's beauty cursed this overthrow ne'er wrought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor guilty Paris; nay, the Gods, the Gods who pity nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have overturned your lordship fair, and laid your Troy alow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold! I draw aside the cloud that all abroad doth flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dulling the eyes of mortal men, and darkening dewily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The world about. And look to it no more afeard to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of what I bid, nor evermore thy mother's word disown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There where thou seest the great walls cleft, and stone torn off from stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seest the waves of smoke go by with mingled dust-cloud rolled,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Neptune shakes the walls and stirs the foundings from their hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mighty trident, tumbling down the city from its base.</span><span class='linenum'>611</span><br /> +<span class="i0">There by the Scæan gates again hath bitter Juno place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first of all, and wild and mad, herself begirt with steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calls up her fellows from the ships.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look back! Tritonian Pallas broods o'er topmost burg on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All flashing bright with Gorgon grim from out her stormy sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very Father hearteneth on, and stays with happy might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Danaans, crying on the Gods against the Dardan fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatch flight, O son, whiles yet thou may'st, and let thy toil be o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I by thy side will bring thee safe unto thy father's door.'</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and hid herself away where thickest darkness poured.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then dreadful images show forth, great Godheads are abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very haters of our Troy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then indeed before mine eyes all Ilium sank in flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And overturned was Neptune's Troy from its foundations deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as betideth with an ash upon the mountain steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round which sore smitten by the steel the acre-biders throng,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And strive in speeding of the axe: and there it threateneth long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, shaken, trembleth nodding still with heavy head of leaf;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till overcome by many hurts it groans its latest grief,</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And torn from out the ridgy hill, drags all its ruin alow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I get me down, and, Goddess-led, speed on 'twixt fire and foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And point and edge give place to me, before me sinks the flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when unto my father's door and ancient house I came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I was fain of all things first my father forth to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the mountain-tops, and first I sought to find him there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still he gainsayed to spin out life now Troy was lost and dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or suffer exile: 'Ye whose blood is hale with youth,' he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Ye other ones, whose might and main endureth and is stout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See ye to flight while yet ye may!</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Full surely if the heavenly ones my longer life had willed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They would have kept me this abode: the measure is fulfilled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that the murder I have seen, and lived when Troy-town fell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O ye, depart, when ye have bid my body streaked farewell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hand itself shall find out death, or pity of my foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who seek my spoils: the tomb methinks a little thing to lose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forsooth I tarry overlong, God-cursed, a useless thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since when the Father of the Gods, the earth-abiders' King,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blew on me blast of thunder-wind and touched me with his flame.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His deed was stubborn as his word, no change upon him came.</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But all we weeping many tears, my wife Creusa there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius, yea and all the house, besought him not to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All things to wrack with him, nor speed the hastening evil tide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He gainsaith all, and in his will and home will yet abide.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So wretchedly I rush to arms with all intent to die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what availeth wisdom now, what hope in fate may lie?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'And didst thou hope, O father, then, that thou being left behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My foot would fare? Woe worth the word that in thy mouth I find!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if the Gods are loth one whit of such a town to save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou with constant mind wilt cast on dying Troy-town's grave</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Both thee and thine, wide is the door to wend adown such ways;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Pyrrhus, red with Priam's blood, is hard at hand, who slays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son before the father's face, the father slays upon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The altar. Holy Mother, then, for this thou ledst me on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through fire and sword!—that I might see our house filled with the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father old, Ascanius, Creusa lying low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All weltering in each other's blood, and murdered wretchedly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arms, fellows, arms! the last day's light on vanquished men doth cry.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! give me to the Greeks again, that I may play the play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another while: not unavenged shall all we die today.'</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So was I girt with sword again, and in my shield would set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My left hand now, and was in point from out of doors to get,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, my wife about my feet e'en in the threshold clung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still to his father reaching out Iulus tender-young:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'If thou art on thy way to die, then bear us through it all;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if to thee the wise in arms some hope of arms befall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then keep this house first! Unto whom giv'st thou Iulus' life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy father's, yea and mine withal, that once was called thy wife?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span><span class="i0">So crying out, the house she filled with her exceeding moan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When sudden, wondrous to be told, a portent was there shown;</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For as his woeful parents' hands and lips he hangs between,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On topmost of Iulus' head a thin peaked flame is seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with the harmless touch of fire, whence clearest light is shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Licks his soft locks and pastures round the temples of his head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quaking with awe from out his hair we fall the fire to shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring the water of the well the holy flame to slake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But joyous to the stars aloft Anchises raiseth eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with his hands spread out abroad to very heaven he cries:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Almighty Jove, if thou hast will toward any prayers to turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look down on us this while alone; if aught our goodness earn,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Father, give help and strengthen us these omens from the sky!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had the elder said the word ere crashing suddenly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It thundered on the left, and down across the shades of night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ran forth a great brand-bearing star with most abundant light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clear above the topmost house we saw it how it slid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightening the ways, and at the last in Ida's forest hid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then through the sky a furrow ran drawn out a mighty space,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Giving forth light, and sulphur-fumes rose all about the place.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My father vanquished therewithal his visage doth upraise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saith a word unto the Gods that holy star to praise:</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Now, now, no tarrying is at all, I follow where ye lead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Father-Gods heed ye our house and this my son's son heed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is your doom; and Troy is held beneath your majesty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I yield, O son, nor more gainsay to go my ways with thee.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake; and mid the walls meanwhile we hear the fire alive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still clearer, and the burning place more nigh the heat doth drive.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O hasten, father well-beloved, to hang about my neck!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, here my shoulders will I stoop, nor of the labour reck.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whatsoever may befall, the two of us shall bide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One peril and one heal and end: Iulus by my side</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall wend, and after us my wife shall follow on my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye serving-folk, turn ye your minds these words of mine to meet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scant from the city is a mound and temple of old tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Ceres' lone, a cypress-tree exceeding old beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kept by our fathers' worshipping through many years agone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thither by divers roads go we to meet at last in one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, father, take thy fathers' Gods and holy things to hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For me to touch them fresh from fight and murder were o'erbold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A misdeed done against the Gods, till in the living flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I make a shift to wash me clean.'</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I stooped my neck and shoulders broad e'en as the word I said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A forest lion's yellow fell for cloth upon them laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And took my burden up: my young Iulus by my side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holding my hand, goes tripping short unto his father's stride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My wife comes after: on we fare amidst a mirky world.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I, erewhile as nothing moved by storm of weapons hurled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, who the gathering of the Greeks against me nothing feared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now tremble at each breath of wind, by every sound am stirred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore troubled for my fellows both, and burden that I bore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now we draw anigh the gates, and all the way seemed o'er,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When sudden sound of falling feet was borne upon our ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal my father cries, as through the dusk he peers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Haste, son, and get thee swift away, for they are on us now;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">I see the glittering of the brass and all their shields aglow.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What Godhead nought a friend to me amidst my terror there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatched wit away I nothing know: for while I swiftly fare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By wayless places, wandering wide from out the road I knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Creusa, whether her the Fates from me unhappy drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether she wandered from the way, or weary lagged aback,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought know I, but that her henceforth mine eyes must ever lack.</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor turned I round to find her lost, nor had it in my thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till to that mound and ancient house of Ceres we were brought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, all being come together now, there lacked but her alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there her fellows' hopes, her son's, her husband's were undone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On whom of men, on whom of Gods, then laid I not the guilt?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What saw I bitterer to be borne in all the city spilt?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius and Anchises set the Teucrian Gods beside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give unto my fellows there in hollow dale to hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I unto the city turn with glittering weapons girt;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Needs must I search all Troy again, and open every hurt,</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And into every peril past must thrust my head once more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first I reach the walls again and mirk ways of the door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby I wended out erewhile; and my old footsteps' track<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I find, and mid the dusk of night with close eyes follow back;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While on the heart lies weight of fear, and e'en the hush brings dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence to the house, if there perchance, if there again she tread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I go: infall of Greeks had been, and all the house they hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'neath the wind the ravening fire to highest ridge is rolled.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span><span class="i0">The flames hang o'er, with raging heat the heavens are hot withal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still on: I look on Priam's house and topmost castle-wall;</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And in the desert cloisters there and Juno's very home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, Phœnix and Ulysses cursed, the chosen wards, are come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To keep the spoil; fair things of Troy, from everywhither brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rapt from the burning of the shrines, Gods' tables rudely caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beakers utterly of gold and raiment snatched away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are there heaped up; and boys and wives drawn out in long array<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand trembling round about the heap.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now withal I dared to cast my cries upon the dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fill the streets with clamour great, and, groaning woefully,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Creusa,' o'er and o'er again without avail I cry.</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as I sought and endlessly raved all the houses through<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A hapless shape, Creusa's shade, anigh mine eyen drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And greater than the body known her image fashioned was;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stood amazed, my hair rose up, nor from my jaws would pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My frozen voice, then thus she spake my care to take away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Sweet husband, wherefore needest thou with such mad sorrow play?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without the dealing of the Gods doth none of this betide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they, they will not have thee bear Creusa by thy side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor will Olympus' highest king such fellowship allow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long exile is in store for thee, huge plain of sea to plough,</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then to Hesperia shalt thou come, where Lydian Tiber's wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wealthiest meads of mighty men with gentle stream doth lave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There happy days and lordship great, and kingly wife, are born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thee. Ah! do away thy tears for loved Creusa lorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall not see the Myrmidons' nor Dolopes' proud place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wend my ways to wait upon the Greekish women's grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, daughter of the Dardan race, I, wife of Venus' son;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me the great Mother of the Gods on Trojan shore hath won.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Farewell, and love the son we loved together once, we twain.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She left me when these words were given, me weeping sore, and fain</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To tell her much, and forth away amid thin air she passed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there three times about her neck I strove mine arms to cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thrice away from out my hands the gathered image streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the breathing of the wind or wingèd thing of dreams.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And so at last, the night all spent, I meet my folk anew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there I found great multitude that fresh unto us drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wondered thereat: wives were there, and men, and plenteous youth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All gathered for the faring forth, a hapless crowd forsooth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From everywhere they draw to us, with goods and courage set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To follow o'er the sea where'er my will may lead them yet.</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now o'er Ida's topmost ridge at last the day-star rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dawn in hand: all gates and doors by host of Danaan foes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were close beset, and no more hope of helping may I bide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I turned and took my father up and sought the mountain-side.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_III" id="BOOK_III"></a>BOOK III.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS TELLS OF HIS WANDERINGS AND MISHAPS BY LAND AND BY SEA.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now after it had pleased the Gods on high to overthrow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Asian weal and sackless folk of Priam, and alow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proud Ilium lay, and Neptune's Troy was smouldering on the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For diverse outlands of the earth and waste lands are we bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driven by omens of the Gods. Our fleet we built beneath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antandros, and the broken steeps of Phrygian Ida's heath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwitting whither Fate may drive, or where the Gods shall stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there we draw together men.<br /></span> +<span class="i36">Now scarce upon the way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was summer when my father bade spread sails to Fate at last.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weeping I leave my fatherland, and out of haven passed</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Away from fields where Troy-town was, an outcast o'er the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With folk and son and Household Gods and Greater Gods to keep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far off a peopled land of Mars lies midst its mighty plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tilled of the Thracians; there whilom did fierce Lycurgus reign.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas ancient guesting-place of Troy: our Gods went hand in hand</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">While bloomed our weal: there are we borne, and on the hollow strand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set my first-born city down, 'neath evil fates begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And call the folk Æneadæ from name myself had won.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unto Dione's daughter there, my mother, and the rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sacrificed upon a day to gain beginning blest,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And to the King of Heavenly folk was slaying on the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A glorious bull: at hand by chance a mound at topmost bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cornel-bush and myrtle stiff with shafts close set around:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereto I wend and strive to pluck a green shoot from the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I with leafy boughs thereof may clothe the altars well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, a portent terrible and marvellous to tell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the first stem that from the soil uprooted I tear out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oozes black drops of very blood, that all the earth about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is stained with gore: but as for me, with sudden horror chill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My limbs fall quaking, and my blood with freezing fear stands still.</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet I go on and strive from earth a new tough shoot to win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may search out suddenly what causes lurk within;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And once again from out the bark blood followeth as before.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I turn the matter in my mind: the Field-Nymphs I adore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And him, Gradivus, father dread, who rules the Thracian plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pray them turn the thing to good and make its threatenings vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when upon a third of them once more I set my hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And striving hard thrust both my knees upon the opposing sand—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Shall I speak now or hold my peace?—a piteous groan is heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out the mound, and to mine ears is borne a dreadful word:</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Why manglest thou a wretched man? O spare me in my tomb!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spare to beguilt thy righteous hand, Æneas! Troy's own womb</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bore me, thy kinsman; from this stem floweth no alien gore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me! flee forth the cruel land, flee forth the greedy shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am Polydore: pierced through, by harvest of the spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'ergrown, that such a crop of shafts above my head doth bear.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I stood amazed: the wildering fear the heart in me down-weighed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My hair rose up, my frozen breath within my jaws was stayed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy Priam privily had sent this Polydore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For fostering to the Thracian king with plenteous golden store.</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In those first days when he began to doubt the Dardan might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Having the leaguered walls of Troy for ever in his sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This king, as failed the weal of Troy and fortune fell away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned him about to conquering arms and Agamemnon's day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He brake all right, slew Polydore, and all the gold he got<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perforce: O thou gold-hunger cursed, and whither driv'st thou not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hearts of men?<br /></span> +<span class="i18">But when at length the fear from me did fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the chosen of the folk, my father first of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I show those portents of the Gods and ask them of their will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All deem it good that we depart that wicked land of ill,</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And leave that blighted guesting-place and give our ships the breeze.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore to Polydore we do the funeral services,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth is heaped up high in mound; the Death-Gods' altars stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woeful with bough of cypress black and coal-blue holy band;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wives of Ilium range about with due dishevelled hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cups of the warm and foaming milk unto the dead we bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bowls of holy blood we bring, and lay the soul in grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cry a great farewell to him, the last that he shall have.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But now, when we may trust the sea and winds the ocean keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unangered, and the South bids on light whispering to the deep,</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Our fellows crowd the sea-beach o'er and run the ships adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the haven are we borne, and fadeth field and town.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Amid the sea a land there lies, sweet over everything,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loved of the Nereids' mother, loved by that Ægean king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great Neptune: this, a-wandering once all coasts and shores around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Bow-Lord good to Gyaros and high Myconos bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade it fixed to cherish folk nor fear the wind again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There come we; and that gentlest isle receives us weary men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In haven safe we land, and thence Apollo's town adore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King Anius, who, a king of men, Apollo's priesthood bore,</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His temples with the fillets done and crowned with holy bays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meets us, and straight Anchises knows, his friend of early days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So therewith hand to hand we join and houseward get us gone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There the God's fane I pray unto, the place of ancient stone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Thymbræan, give us house and home, walls to the weary give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In folk and city to endure: let Pergamus twice live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Troy twice built, left of the Greeks, left of Achilles' wrath!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, whom to follow? where to go? wherein our home set forth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Father, give us augury and sink into our heart!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had I said the word, when lo all doors with sudden start</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fell trembling, and the bay of God, and all the mountain side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was stirred, and in the opened shrine the holy tripod cried:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There as a voice fell on our ears we bowed ourselves to earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'O hardy folk of Dardanus, the land that gave you birth</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">From root and stem of fathers old, its very bosom kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall take you back: go fare ye forth, your ancient mother find:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shall Æneas' house be lords o'er every earth and sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The children of his children's sons, and those that thence shall be.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So Phœbus spake, and mighty joy arose with tumult mixed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As all fell wondering where might be that seat of city fixed,</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where Phœbus called us wandering folk, bidding us turn again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat my father, musing o'er the tales of ancient men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saith: 'Hearken, lords, and this your hope a little learn of me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is an isle of mightiest Jove called Crete amid the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred cities great it hath, that most abundant place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the hill of Ida is, and cradle of our race.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence Teucer our first father came, if right the tale they tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When borne to those Rhœtean shores he chose a place to dwell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A very king: no Ilium was, no Pergamus rose high;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He and his folk abode as then in dales that lowly lie:</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thence came Earth-mother Cybele and Corybantian brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Ida's thicket; thence the hush all hallowed came to pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence the lions yoked and tame, the Lady's chariot drag.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On then! and led by God's command for nothing let us lag!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Please we the winds, and let our course for Gnosian land be laid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor long the way shall be for us: with Jupiter to aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third-born sun shall stay our ships upon the Cretan shore.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, all the offerings due he to the altar bore,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span><span class="i0">A bull to Neptune, and a bull to thee, Apollo bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A black ewe to the Storm of sea, to Zephyr kind a white.</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fame went that Duke Idomeneus, thrust from his fathers' land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had gone his ways, and desert now was all the Cretan strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That left all void of foes to us those habitations lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ortygia's haven then we leave, and o'er the sea we fly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Naxos of the Bacchus ridge, Donusa's green-hued steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Olearon, and Paros white, and scattered o'er the deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All Cyclades; we skim the straits besprent with many a folk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And diverse clamour mid the ships seafarers striving woke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each eggs his fellow; On for Crete, and sires of time agone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rising up upon our wake a fair wind followed on.</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And so at last we glide along the old Curetes' strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straightway eager do I take the city wall in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And call it Pergamea, and urge my folk that name who love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love of hearth and home to raise a burg their walls above.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the more part of the ships are hauled up high and dry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wedding and to work afield the folk fall presently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I give laws and portion steads; when suddenly there fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From poisoned heaven a wasting plague, a wretched thing to tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On limbs of men, on trees and fields; and deadly was the year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men must leave dear life and die, or weary sick must bear</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their bodies on: then Sirius fell to burn the acres dry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The grass was parched, the harvest sick all victual did deny.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then bids my father back once more o'er the twice-measured main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Phœbus and Ortygia's strand, some grace of prayer to gain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What end to our outworn estate he giveth? whence will he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we should seek us aid of toil; where turn to o'er the sea?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Night falleth, and all lives of earth doth sleep on bosom bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, the holy images, the Phrygian House-gods there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en them I bore away from Troy and heart of burning town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were present to the eyes of me in slumber laid adown,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clear shining in the plenteous light that over all was shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the great moon anigh her full through windows fashionèd.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then thus they fall to speech with me, end of my care to make:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The thing that in Ortygia erst the seer Apollo spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here telleth he, and to thy doors come we of his good will:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee and thine arms from Troy aflame fast have we followed still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We 'neath thy care and in thy keel have climbed the swelling sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we shall bear unto the stars thy sons that are to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give thy city majesty: make ready mighty wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For mighty men, nor toil of way leave thou, though long it fall.</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shift hence abode; the Delian-born Apollo ne'er made sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These shores for thee, nor bade thee set thy city down in Crete:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a place, the Westland called of Greeks in days that are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An ancient land, a fruitful soil, a mighty land of war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Œnotrian folk first tilled the land, whose sons, as rumours run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now call it nought but Italy, from him who led them on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is our very due abode: thence Dardanus outbroke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iasius our father thence, beginner of our folk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come rise, and glad these tidings tell unto thy father old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No doubtful tale: now Corythus, Ausonian field and fold</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let him go seek, for Jupiter banneth Dictæan mead.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All mazed was I with sight and voice of Gods; because indeed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was not sleep, but face to face, as one a real thing sees.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">I seemed to see their coifèd hair and very visages,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over all my body too cold sweat of trembling flowed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I tore my body from the bed, and, crying out aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stretched my upturned hands to heaven and unstained gifts I spilled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the hearth, and joyfully that worship I fulfilled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises next I do to wit and all the thing unlock;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, he saw the twi-branched stem, twin fathers of our stock,</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And how by fault of yesterday through steads of old he strayed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O son, well learned in all the lore of Ilium's fate,' he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Cassandra only of such hap would sing; I mind me well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of like fate meted to our folk full oft would she foretell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft would call to Italy and that Hesperian home.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But who believed that Teucrian folk on any day might come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Hesperia's shores? or who might trow Cassandra then?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yield we to Phœbus, follow we as better counselled men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The better part.'<br /></span> +<span class="i17">We, full of joy, obey him with one mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From this seat too we fare away and leave a few behind;</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With sail abroad in hollow tree we skim the ocean o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when our keels the deep sea made, nor had we any more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The land in sight, but sea around, and sky around was spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A coal-blue cloud drew up to us that, hanging overhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bore night and storm, and mirky gloom o'er all the waters cast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith the winds heap up the waves, the seas are rising fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And huge; and through the mighty whirl scattered we toss about;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The storm-clouds wrap around the day, and wet mirk blotteth out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavens, and mid the riven clouds the ceaseless lightnings live.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So are we blown from out our course, through might of seas we drive,</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor e'en might Palinurus self the day from night-tide sift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor have a deeming of the road atwixt the watery drift.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still on for three uncertain suns, that blind mists overlay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en so many starless nights, across the sea we stray;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on the fourth day at the last afar upon us broke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mountains of another land, mid curling wreaths of smoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fall the sails, we rise on oars, no sloth hath any place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eager seamen toss the spray and sweep the blue sea's face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And me first saved from whirl of waves the Strophades on strand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now welcome; named by Greekish name Isles of the Sea, they stand</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amid the great Ionian folk: Celæno holds the shores,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And others of the Harpies grim, since shut were Phineus' doors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against them, and they had to leave the tables they had won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No monster woefuller than they, and crueller is none<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all God's plagues and curses dread from Stygian waters sent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wingèd thing with maiden face, whose bellies' excrement<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is utter foul; and hookèd hands, and face for ever pale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hunger that no feeding stints.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Borne thither, into haven come, we see how everywhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The merry wholesome herds of neat feed down the meadows fair,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all untended goatish flocks amid the herbage bite.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With point and edge we fall on them, and all the Gods invite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea very Jove, to share the spoil, and on the curvèd strand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We strew the beds, and feast upon rich dainties of the land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, with sudden dreadful rush from out the mountains hap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Harpy folk, and all about their clanging wings they flap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And foul all things with filthy touch as at the food they wrench,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And riseth up their grisly voice amid the evilest stench.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once more then 'neath a hollow rock at a long valley's head,</span><span class='linenum'>229</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where close around the boughs of trees their quavering shadows shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We dight the boards, and once again flame on the altars raise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again from diverse parts of heaven, from dusky lurking-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shrieking rout with hookèd feet about the prey doth fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fouling the feast with mouth: therewith I bid my company<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To arms, that with an evil folk the war may come to pass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They do no less than my commands, and lay along the grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their hidden swords, and therewithal their bucklers cover o'er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore, when swooping down again, they fill the curvèd shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With noise, Misenus blows the call from off a watch-stead high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hollow brass; our folk fall on and wondrous battle try,</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Striving that sea-fowl's filthy folk with point and edge to spill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nought will bite upon their backs, and from their feathers still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glanceth the sword, and swift they flee up 'neath the stars of air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half-eaten meat and token foul leaving behind them there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on a rock exceeding high yet did Celæeno rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy seer! there breaks withal a voice from out her breast:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'What, war to pay for slaughtered neat, war for our heifers slain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O children of Laomedon, the war then will ye gain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sackless Harpies will ye drive from their own land away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let this sink into your souls, heed well the words I say;</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Father unto Phœbus told a tale that Phœbus told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To me, and I the first-born fiend that same to you unfold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye sail for Italy, and ye, the winds appeased by prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall come to Italy, and gain the grace of haven there:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet shall ye gird no wall about the city granted you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till famine, and this murder's wrong that ye were fain to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drive you your tables gnawed with teeth to eat up utterly.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and through the woody deeps borne off on wings did fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sudden fear fell on our folk, and chilled their frozen blood;</span><span class='linenum'>259</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their hearts fell down; with weapon-stroke no more they deem it good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seek for peace: but rather now sore prayers and vows they will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether these things be goddesses or filthy fowls of ill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father Anchises on the strand stretched both his hands abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, bidding all their worship due, the Mighty Ones adored:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Gods, bring their threats to nought! O Gods, turn ye the curse, we pray!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be kind, and keep the pious folk!'<br /></span> +<span class="i34">Then bade he pluck away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hawser from the shore and slack the warping cable's strain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The south wind fills the sails, we fare o'er foaming waves again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the helmsman and the winds have will that we should fare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now amidmost of the flood Zacynthus' woods appear,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dulichium, Samos, Neritos, with sides of stony steep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide course from cliffs of Ithaca, Laertes' land, we keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cursing the soil that bore and nursed Ulysses' cruelty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now open up Leucata's peaks, that fare so cloudy high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over Apollo, mighty dread to all seafarers grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But weary thither do we steer and make the little town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We cast the anchors from the bows and swing the sterns a-strand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal since we at last have gained the longed-for land,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span><span class="i0">We purge us before Jupiter and by the altars pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then on the shores of Actium's head the Ilian plays we play.</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Anointed with the sleeking oil there strive our fellows stripped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In wrestling game of fatherland: it joys us to have slipped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By such a host of Argive towns amidmost of the foe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, the sun still pressing on, the year about doth go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And frosty winter with his north the sea's face rough doth wear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A buckler of the hollow brass of mighty Abas' gear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I set amid the temple-doors with singing scroll thereon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Æneas hangeth armour here from conquering Danaans won.</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then I bid to leave the shore and man the thwarts again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard strive the folk in smiting sea, and oar-blades brush the main.</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The airy high Phæacian towers sink down behind our wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And coasting the Epirote shores Chaonia's bay we make,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so Buthrotus' city-walls high set we enter in.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There tidings hard for us to trow unto our ears do win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How Helenus, e'en Priam's son, hath gotten wife and crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Pyrrhus come of Æacus, and ruleth Greekish town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that Andromache hath wed one of her folk once more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All mazed am I; for wondrous love my heart was kindling sore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give some word unto the man, of such great things to learn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So from the haven forth I fare, from ships and shore I turn.</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as it happed Andromache was keeping yearly day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pouring sad gifts unto the dead, amidst a grove that lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outside the town, by wave that feigned the Simoïs that had been,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blessing the dead by Hector's mound empty and grassy green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which she with altars twain thereby had hallowed for her tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when she saw me drawing nigh with armour that Troy bears</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">About me, senseless, throughly feared with marvels grown so great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She stiffens midst her gaze; her bones are reft of life-blood's heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She totters, scarce, a long while o'er, this word comes forth from her:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Is the show true, O Goddess-born? com'st thou a messenger</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alive indeed? or if from thee the holy light is fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where then is Hector?'<br /></span> +<span class="i23">Flowed the tears e'en as the word she said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with her wailing rang the place: sore moved I scarce may speak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This word to her, grown wild with grief, in broken voice and weak:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'I live indeed, I drag my life through outer ways of ill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doubt not, thou seest the very sooth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas! what hap hath caught thee up from such a man downcast?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath any fortune worthy thee come back again at last?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth Hector's own Andromache yet serve in Pyrrhus' bed?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She cast her countenance adown, and in a low voice said:</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'O thou alone of Trojan maids that won a little joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bidden to die on foeman's tomb before the walls of Troy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who died, and never had to bear the sifting lot's award,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose slavish body never touched the bed of victor lord!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We from our burning fatherland carried o'er many a sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Achillæan offspring's pride the yoke-fellow must be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must bear the childbed of a slave: thereafter he, being led<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Leda's child Hermione and that Laconian bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Helenus his very thrall me very thrall gave o'er:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But there Orestes, set on fire by all the love he bore</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His ravished wife, and mad with hate, comes on him unaware<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before his fathers' altar-stead and slays him then and there.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By death of Neoptolemus his kingdom's leavings came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Helenus, who called the fields Chaonian fields by name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the land Chaonia, from Chaon of Troy-town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Pergamus and Ilian burg on ridgy steep set down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What winds, what fates gave thee the road to cross the ocean o'er?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or what of Gods hath borne thee on unwitting to our shore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What of the boy Ascanius? lives he and breathes he yet?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom unto thee when Troy yet was——</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The boy then, of his mother lost, hath he a thought of her?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do him Æneas, Hector gone, father and uncle, stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To valour of the ancient days, and great hearts' glorious gain?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such tale she poured forth, weeping sore, and long she wept in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great floods of tears: when lo, from out the city draweth nigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord Helenus the Priam-born midst mighty company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knows his kin, and joyfully leads onward to his door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though many a tear 'twixt broken words the while doth he outpour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So on; a little Troy I see feigned from great Troy of fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Pergamus, a sandy brook that hath the Xanthus name,</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On threshold of a Scæan gate I stoop to lay a kiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon, too, all Teucrian folk are wrapped in friendly city's bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And them the King fair welcomes in amid his cloisters broad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they amidmost of the hall the bowls of Bacchus poured,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The meat was set upon the gold, and cups they held in hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So passed a day and other day, until the gales command<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sails aloft, and canvas swells with wind from out the South:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith I speak unto the seer, such matters in my mouth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'O Troy-born, O Gods' messenger, who knowest Phœbus' will,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The tripods and the Clarian's bay, and what the stars fulfil,</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And tongues of fowl, and omens brought by swift foreflying wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, tell the tale! for of my way a happy heartening thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All shrines have said, and all the Gods have bid me follow on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Italy, till outland shores, far off, remote were won:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone Celæno, Harpy-fowl, new dread of fate set forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmeet to tell, and bade us fear the grimmest day of wrath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ugly hunger. How may I by early perils fare?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or doing what may I have might such toil to overbear?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So Helenus, when he hath had the heifers duly slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prays peace of Gods, from hallowed head he doffs the bands again,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And then with hand he leadeth me, O Phœbus, to thy door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My fluttering soul with all thy might of godhead shadowed o'er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There forth at last from God-loved mouth the seer this word did send:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O Goddess-born, full certainly across the sea ye wend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By mightiest bidding, such the lot the King of Gods hath found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All fateful; so he rolls the world, so turns its order round.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Few things from many will I tell that thou the outland sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May'st sail the safer, and at last make land in Italy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other things the Parcæ still ban Helenus to wot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saturnian Juno's will it is that more he utter not.</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">First, from that Italy, which thou unwitting deem'st anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thinking to make in little space the haven close hereby,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long is the wayless way that shears, and long the length of land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first in the Trinacrian wave must bend the rower's wand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On plain of that Ausonian salt your ships must stray awhile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou must see the nether meres, Ææan Circe's isle,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ere thou on earth assured and safe thy city may'st set down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I show thee tokens; in thy soul store thou the tokens shown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou with careful heart shalt stray the secret stream anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'neath the holm-oaks of the shore shalt see a great sow lie,</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That e'en now farrowed thirty head of young, long on the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She lieth white, with piglings white their mother's dugs around,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That earth shall be thy city's place, there rest from toil is stored.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shudder at the coming curse, the gnawing of the board,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Fates shall find a way thereto; Apollo called shall come.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But flee these lands of Italy, this shore so near our home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That washing of the strand thereof our very sea-tide seeks;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For in all cities thereabout abide the evil Greeks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There now have come the Locrian folk Narycian walls to build;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Lyctian Idomeneus Sallentine meads hath filled</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With war-folk; Philoctetes there holdeth Petelia small,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now by that Melibœan duke fenced round with mighty wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover, when your ships have crossed the sea, and there do stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the altars raised thereto your vows ashore ye pay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be veiled of head, and wrap thyself in cloth of purple dye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest 'twixt you and the holy fires ye light to God on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some face of foeman should thrust in the holy signs to spill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now let thy folk, yea and thyself, this worship thus fulfil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let thy righteous sons of sons such fashion ever mind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when, gone forth, to Sicily thou comest on the wind,</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And when Pelorus' narrow sea is widening all away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your course for leftward lying land and leftward waters lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How long soe'er ye reach about: flee right-hand shore and wave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In time agone some mighty thing this place to wrack down drave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So much for changing of the world doth lapse of time avail.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It split atwain, when heretofore the two lands, saith the tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had been but one, the sea rushed in and clave with mighty flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hesperia's side from Italy, and field and city stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drawn back on either shore, along a sundering sea-race strait.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Scylla on the right hand lurks, the left insatiate</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Charybdis holds, who in her maw all whirling deep adown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sucketh the great flood tumbling in thrice daily, which out-thrown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice daily doth she spout on high, smiting the stars with brine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Scylla doth the hidden hole of mirky cave confine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With face thrust forth she draweth ships on to that stony bed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Manlike above, with maiden breast and lovely fashioned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to the midst, she hath below huge body of a whale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unto maw of wolfish heads is knit a dolphin's tail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis better far to win about Pachynus, outer ness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Sicily, and reach long round, despite the weariness,</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Than have that ugly sight of her within her awful den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear her coal-blue baying dogs and rocks that ring again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now furthermore if Helenus in anything have skill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or aught of trust, or if his soul with sooth Apollo fill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of one thing, Goddess-born, will I forewarn thee over all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spoken o'er and o'er again my word on thee shall fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty Juno's godhead first let many a prayer seek home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Juno sing your vows in joy, with suppliant gifts o'ercome<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Lady of all Might; and so, Trinacria overpast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shalt thou be sped to Italy victorious at the last.</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When there thou com'st and Cumæ's town amidst thy way hast found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Holy Meres, Avernus' woods fruitful of many a sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There the wild seer-maid shalt thou see, who in a rock-hewn cave</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Singeth of fate, and letteth leaves her names and tokens have:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whatso song upon those leaves the maiden seer hath writ<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She ordereth duly, and in den of live stone leaveth it:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There lie the written leaves unmoved, nor shift their ordered rows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the hinge works round, and thence a light air on them blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, when the door doth disarray among the frail leaves bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To catch them fluttering in the cave she never hath a care,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor will she set them back again nor make the song-words meet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So folk unanswered go their ways and loathe the Sibyl's seat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, count not the cost of time that there thou hast to spend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Although thy fellows blame thee sore, and length of way to wend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Call on thy sails, and thou may'st fill their folds with happy gale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draw nigh the seer, and strive with prayers to have her holy tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beseech her sing, and that her words from willing tongue go free:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So reverenced shall she tell thee tale of folk of Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wars to come; and how to 'scape, and how to bear each ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a happy end at last thy wandering shall fulfil.</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now is this all my tongue is moved to tell thee lawfully:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, let thy deeds Troy's mightiness exalt above the sky!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So when the seer from loving mouth such words as this had said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then gifts of heavy gold and gifts of carven tooth he bade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be borne a-shipboard; and our keels he therewithal doth stow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Dodonæan kettle-ware and silver great enow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A coat of hookèd woven mail and triple golden chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A helm with noble towering crest crowned with a flowing mane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The arms of Pyrrhus: gifts most meet my father hath withal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And steeds he gives and guides he gives,</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fills up the tale of oars, and arms our fellows to their need.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Anchises still was bidding us meanwhile to have a heed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of setting sail, nor with the wind all fair to make delay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom with words of worship now doth Phœbus' servant say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Anchises, thou whom Venus' bed hath made so glorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Care of the Gods, twice caught away from ruin of Pergamus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, there the Ausonian land for thee, set sail upon the chase:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet needs must thou upon the sea glide by its neighbouring face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far off is that Ausonia yet that Phœbus open lays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fare forth, made glad with pious son! why tread I longer ways</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of speech, and stay the rising South with words that I would tell?'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And therewithal Andromache, sad with the last farewell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brings for Ascanius raiment wrought with picturing wool of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Phrygian coat; nor will she have our honour wax acold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But loads him with the woven gifts, and such word sayeth she:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Take these, fair boy; keep them to be my hands' last memory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tokens of enduring love thy younger days did win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Hector's wife Andromache, the last gifts of thy kin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou, of my Astyanax the only image now!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such eyes he had, such hands he had, such countenance as thou,</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And now with thee were growing up in equal tale of years.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then I, departing, spake to them amid my rising tears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Live happy! Ye with fortune's game have nothing more to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While we from side to side thereof are hurried swift away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your rest hath blossomed and brought forth; no sea-field shall ye till,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking the fields of Italy that fade before you still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye see another Xanthus here, ye see another Troy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made by your hands for better days mehopes, and longer joy:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And soothly less it lies across the pathway of the Greek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ever I that Tiber flood and Tiber fields I seek</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall enter, and behold the walls our folk shall win of fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twin cities some day shall we have, and folks confederate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Epirus and Hesperia; from Dardanus each came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One fate had each: them shall we make one city and the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One Troy in heart: lo, let our sons of sons' sons see to it!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Past nigh Ceraunian mountain-sides thence o'er the sea we flit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence the sea-way to Italy the shortest may be made.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in the meanwhile sets the sun, the dusk hills lie in shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, choosing oar-wards, down we lie on bosom of the land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wished for: by the water-side and on the dry sea-strand</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">We tend our bodies here and there; sleep floodeth every limb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ere the hour-bedriven night in midmost orb did swim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought slothful Palinurus rose, and wisdom strives to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all the winds: with eager ear the breeze he drinketh in;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He noteth how through silent heaven the stars soft gliding fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arcturus, the wet Hyades, and either Northern Bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through and through he searcheth out Orion girt with gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So when he sees how everything a peaceful sky foretold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He bloweth clear from off the poop, and we our campment shift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And try the road and spread abroad our sail-wings to the lift.</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now, the stars all put to flight, Aurora's blushes grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we behold dim fells afar and long lands lying low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en Italy. Achates first cries out on Italy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Italy our joyous folk glad salutation cry.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises then a mighty bowl crowned with a garland fair,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And filled it with unwatered wine and called the Gods to hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High standing on the lofty deck:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'O Gods that rule the earth and sea, and all the tides of storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make our way easy with the wind, breathe on us kindly breath!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then riseth up the longed-for breeze, the haven openeth</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As nigh we draw, and on the cliff a fane of Pallas shows:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith our fellow-folk furl sail and shoreward turn the prows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bow-wise the bight is hollowed out by eastward-setting flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But over-foamed by salt-sea spray thrust out its twin horns stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While it lay hidden; tower-like rocks let down on either hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twin arms of rock-wall, and the fane lies backward from the stand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But I beheld upon the grass four horses, snowy white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grazing the meadows far and wide, first omen of my sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father Anchises seeth and saith: 'New land, and bear'st thou war?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For war are horses dight; so these war-threatening herd-beasts are.</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet whiles indeed those four-foot things in car will well refrain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tamed beneath the yoke will bear the bit and bridle's strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there is yet a hope of peace.'<br /></span> +<span class="i33">Then on the might we call<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Pallas of the weapon-din, first welcomer of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And veil our brows before the Gods with cloth of Phrygian dye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that chief charge of Helenus we do all rightfully,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Argive Juno worship there in such wise as is willed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We tarry not, but when all vows are duly there fulfilled,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span><span class="i0">Unto the wind our sail-yard horns we fall to turn about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave the houses of the Greeks, and nursing fields of doubt.</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And next is seen Tarentum's bay, the Herculean place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If fame tell true; Lacinia then, the house of Gods, we face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Caulon's towers, and Scylaceum, of old the shipman's bane.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then see we Ætna rise far off above Trinacria's main;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afar the mighty moan of sea, and sea-cliffs beaten sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We hearken, and the broken voice that cometh from the shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea leaps high upon the shoals, the eddy churns the sand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then saith Anchises: 'Lo forsooth, Charybdis is at hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those rocks and stones the dread whereof did Helenus foretell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save ye, O friends! swing out the oars together now and well!'</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor worser than his word they do, and first the roaring beaks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth Palinurus leftward wrest; then all the sea-host seeks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sail and oar the waters wild upon the left that lie:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upheaved upon the tossing whirl we fare unto the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then down unto the nether Gods we sink upon the wave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice from the hollow-carven rocks great roar the sea-cliffs gave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice did we see the spray cast forth and stars with sea-dew done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the wind left us weary folk at sinking of the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the Cyclops' strand we glide unwitting of the way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Locked from the wind the haven is, itself an ample bay;</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But hard at hand mid ruin and fear doth Ætna thunder loud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whiles it blasteth forth on air a black and dreadful cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That rolleth on a pitchy wreath, where bright the ashes mix,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heaveth up great globes of flame and heaven's high star-world licks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And other whiles the very cliffs, and riven mountain-maw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It belches forth; the molten stones together will it draw</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Aloft with moan, and boileth o'er from lowest inner vale.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This world of mountain presseth down, as told it is in tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enceladus the thunder-scorched; huge Ætna on him cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From all her bursten furnaces breathes out his fiery blast;</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And whensoe'er his weary side he shifteth, all the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trinacrian trembleth murmuring, and heaven is smoke-clad o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In thicket close we wear the night amidst these marvels dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor may we see what thing it is that all that noise hath shed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For neither showed the planet fires, nor was the heaven bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With starry zenith; mirky cloud hung over all the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mist of dead untimely tide the moon was hidden close.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when from earliest Eastern dawn the following day arose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fair Aurora from the heaven the watery shades had cleared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, suddenly from out the wood new shape of man appeared.</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unknown he was, most utter lean, in wretchedest of plight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoreward he stretched his suppliant hands; we turn back at the sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gaze on him: all squalor there, a mat of beard we see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And raiment clasped with wooden thorns; and yet a Greek is he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, sent erewhile to leaguered Troy in Greekish weed of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when he saw our Dardan guise and arms of Troy afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feared at the sight he hung aback at first a little space,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But presently ran headlong down into our sea-side place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tears and prayers:<br /></span> +<span class="i23">'O Teucrian men, by all the stars,' he cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'By all the Gods, by light of heaven ye breathe, O bear me wide</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Away from here! to whatso land henceforth ye lead my feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is enough. That I am one from out the Danaan fleet,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And that I warred on Ilian house erewhile, most true it is;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For which, if I must pay so much wherein I wrought amiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then strew me on the flood and sink my body in the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To die by hands of very men shall be a joy to me.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake with arms about our knees, and wallowing still he clung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto our knees: but what he was and from what blood he sprung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We bade him say, and tell withal what fate upon him drave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His right hand with no tarrying then Father Anchises gave</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto the youth, and heartened him with utter pledge of peace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So now he spake when fear of us amid his heart did cease:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Luckless Ulysses' man am I, and Ithaca me bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hight Achemenides, who left that Adamastus poor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father (would I still were there!) by leaguered Troy to be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here while my mates aquake with dread the cruel threshold flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They leave me in the Cyclops' den unmindful of their friend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A house of blood and bloody meat, most huge from end to end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mirky within: high up aloft star-smiting to behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is he himself;—such bane, O God, keep thou from field and fold!</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Scarce may a man look on his face; no word to him is good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On wretches' entrails doth he feed and black abundant blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Myself I saw him of our folk two hapless bodies take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his huge hand, whom straight he fell athwart a stone to break<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As there he lay upon his back; I saw the threshold swim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With spouted blood, I saw him grind each bloody dripping limb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw the joints amidst his teeth all warm and quivering still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—He payed therefore, for never might Ulysses bear such ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor was he worser than himself in such a pinch bestead:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For when with victual satiate, deep sunk in wine, his head</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fell on his breast, and there he lay enormous through the den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snorting out gore amidst his sleep, with gobbets of the men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mingled blood and wine; then we sought the great Gods with prayer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drew the lots, and one and all crowded about him there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bored out with a sharpened pike the eye that used to lurk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enormous lonely 'neath his brow overhanging grim and mirk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As great a shield of Argolis, or Phœbus' lamp on high;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so our murdered fellows' ghosts avenged we joyously.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—But ye, O miserable men, flee forth! make haste to pluck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The warping hawser from the shore!</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For even such, and e'en so great as Polypheme in cave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shuts in the wealth of woolly things and draws the udders' wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred others commonly dwell o'er these curving bights,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unutterable Cyclop folk, or stray about the heights.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice have the twin horns of the moon fulfilled the circle clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While I have dragged out life in woods and houses of the deer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gardens of the beasts; and oft from rocky place on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trembling I note the Cyclops huge, hear foot and voice go by.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And evil meat of wood-berries, and cornel's flinty fruit</span><span class='linenum'>649</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The bush-boughs give; on grass at whiles I browse, and plucked-up root<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wandering all about, at last I see unto the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your ships a-coming: thitherward my steps in haste I bore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whate'er might hap enough it was to flee this folk of ill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather do ye in any wise the life within me spill.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And scarcely had he said the word ere on the hill above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very shepherd Polypheme his mountain mass did move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A marvel dread, a shapeless trunk, an eyeless monstrous thing,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who down unto the shore well known his sheep was shepherding;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pine-tree in the hand of him leads on and stays his feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woolly sheep his fellows are, his only pleasure sweet,</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The only solace of his ill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when he touched the waters deep, and mid the waves was come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He falls to wash the flowing blood from off his eye dug out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gnashing his teeth and groaning sore he walks the sea about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none the less no wave there was up to his flank might win.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afeard from far we haste to flee, and, having taken in<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our suppliant, who had earned it well, cut cable silently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bending to the eager oars sweep out along the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He heard it, and his feet he set to follow on the sound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when his right hand failed to reach, and therewithal he found</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He might not speed as fast as fares the Ionian billow lithe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then clamour measureless he raised, and ocean quaked therewith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through every wave, and inwardly the land was terrified<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Italy, and Ætna boomed from many-hollowed side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all the race of Cyclops stirred from woods and lofty hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down rushes to the haven-side and all the haven fills;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Ætna's gathered brethren there we see; in vain they stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glowering grim-eyed with heads high up in heaven, a dreadful band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of councillors: they were as when on ridge aloft one sees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The oaks stand thick against the sky, and cone-hung cypresses,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Jove's lofty woods, or thicket where Diana's footsteps stray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then headlong fear fell on our folk in whatsoever way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To shake the reefs out spreading sail to any wind that blew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Helenus had bid us steer a midmost course and true<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis, lest to death we sail o'er-close:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So safest seemed for backward course to let the sails go loose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, from out Pelorus' strait comes down the northern flaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And past Pantagia's haven-mouth of living stone we draw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the gulf of Megara by Thapsus lying low.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such names did Achemenides, Ulysses' fellow, show,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As now he coasted back again the shore erst wandered by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In jaws of the Sicanian bay there doth an island lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against Plemyrium's wavy face; folk called it in old days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ortygia: there, as tells the tale, Alpheus burrowed ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his own Elis 'neath the sea, and now by mouth of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Arethusa, blendeth him with that Sicilian brine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We pray the isle's great deities, e'en as we bidden were:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence we pass the earth o'erfat about Helorus' mere;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then by Pachynus' lofty crags and thrust-forth rocks we skim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Camarina showeth next a long way off and dim;</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her whom the Fates would ne'er be moved: then comes the plain in sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Gela, yea, and Gela huge from her own river hight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Acragas the very steep shows great walls far away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begetter of the herds of horse high-couraged on a day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then thee, Selinus of the palms, I leave with happy wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And coast the Lilybean shoals and tangled skerries blind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But next the firth of Drepanum, the strand without a joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will have me. There I tossed so sore, the tempests' very toy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O woe is me! my father lose, lightener of every care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of every ill: me all alone, me weary, father dear,</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">There wouldst thou leave; thou borne away from perils all for nought!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, neither Helenus the seer, despite the fears he taught,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor grim Celæno in her wrath, this grief of soul forebode.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the latest of my toils, the goal of all my road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For me departed thence some God to this your land did bear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So did the Father Æneas, with all at stretch to hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell o'er the fateful ways of God, and of his wanderings teach:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here he hushed him at the last and made an end of speech.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_IV" id="BOOK_IV"></a>BOOK IV.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>HEREIN IS TOLD OF THE GREAT LOVE OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE, AND THE +WOEFUL ENDING OF HER.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the Queen, long smitten sore with sting of all desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With very heart's blood feeds the wound and wastes with hidden fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still there runneth in her mind the hero's valiancy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glorious stock; his words, his face, fast in her heart they lie:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor may she give her body peace amid that restless pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the next day Phœbus' lamp lit up the lands again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now Aurora from the heavens had rent the mist apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sick-souled her sister she bespeaks, the sharer of her heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sister, O me, this sleepless pain that fears me with unrest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O me, within our house and home this new-come wondrous guest!</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ah, what a countenance and mien! in arms and heart how strong!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surely to trow him of the Gods it doth no wisdom wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For fear it is shows base-born souls. Woe's me! how tossed about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By fortune was he! how he showed war's utter wearing out!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, but my heart for ever now were set immovably<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never to let me long again the wedding bond to tie,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Since love betrayed me first of all with him my darling dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And were I not all weary-sick of torch and bridal bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This sin alone of all belike my falling heart might trap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, Anna, I confess it thee, since poor Sychæus' hap,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">My husband dead, my hearth acold through murderous brother's deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This one alone hath touched the quick; this one my heart may lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto its fall: I feel the signs of fire of long agone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet I pray the deeps of earth beneath my feet may yawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray the Father send me down bolt-smitten to the shades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pallid shades of Erebus, the night that never fades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before, O Shame, I shame thy face, or loose what thou hast tied!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He took away the love from me, who bound me to his side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That first of times. Ah, in the tomb let love be with him still!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The tears arisen as she spake did all her bosom fill.</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Anna saith: "Dearer to me than very light of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must thou alone and sorrowing wear all thy youth away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor see sweet sons, nor know the joys that gentle Venus brings?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deem'st thou dead ash or buried ghosts have heed of such-like things?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So be it that thy sickened soul no man to yield hath brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Libya as in Tyre; let be Iarbas set at nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And other lords, whom Africa, the rich in battle's bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath nursed: but now, with love beloved,—must thou be foe to this?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, hast thou not within thy mind amidst whose bounds we are?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here the Gætulian cities fierce, a folk unmatched in war,</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And hard Numidia's bitless folk, and Syrtes' guestless sand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie round thee: there Barcæans wild, the rovers of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Desert for thirst: what need to tell of wars new-born in Tyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And of thy murderous brother's threats?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Meseems by very will of Gods, by Juno's loving mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Ilian keels run down their course before the following wind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, what a city shalt thou see! how shall the lordship wax<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a spouse! with Teucrian arms our brothers at our backs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto what glory of great deeds the Punic realm may reach!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, go seek the grace of Gods, with sacrifice beseech;</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then take thy fill of guest-serving; weave web of all delays:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wintry raging of the sea, Orion's watery ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The way-worn ships, the heavens unmeet for playing seaman's part."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, she blew the flame of love within her kindled heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave her doubtful soul a hope and loosed the girth of shame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then straight they fare unto the shrines, by every altar's flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying for peace; and hosts they slay, chosen as custom would,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Phœbus, Ceres wise of law, Father Lyæus good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But chiefest unto Juno's might, that wedlock hath in care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There bowl in hand stands Dido forth, most excellently fair,</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And pours between the sleek cow's horns; or to and fro doth pace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the altars fat with prayer, 'neath very godhead's face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And halloweth in the day with gifts, and, gazing eagerly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the host's yet beating heart, for answering rede must try.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Woe's me! the idle mind of priests! what prayer, what shrine avails<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild with love!—and all the while the smooth flame never fails<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To eat her heart: the silent wound lives on within her breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy Dido burneth up, and, wild with all unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ever strays the city through: as arrow-smitten doe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwary, whom some herd from far hath drawn upon with bow</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amid the Cretan woods, and left the swift steel in the sore,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unknowing: far in flight she strays the woods and thickets o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath Dictæ's heights; but in her flank still bears the deadly reed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now midmost of the city-walls Æneas doth she lead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shows him the Sidonian wealth, the city's guarded ways;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now she falls to speech, and now amidst a word she stays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then at the dying of the day the feast she dights again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, witless, once again will hear the tale of Ilium's pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And once more hangeth on the lips that tell the tale aloud.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But after they were gone their ways, and the dusk moon did shroud</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her light in turn, and setting stars bade all to sleep away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lone in the empty house she mourns, broods over where he lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hears him and sees him, she apart from him that is apart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, by his father's image smit, Ascanius to her heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She taketh, if her utter love she may thereby beguile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No longer rise the walls begun, nor play the youth this while<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In arms, or fashion havens forth, or ramparts of the war:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broken is all that handicraft and mastery; idle are<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty threatenings of the walls and engines wrought heaven high.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now when the holy wife of Jove beheld her utterly</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Held by that plague, whose madness now not e'en her fame might stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then unto Venus, Saturn's seed began such words to say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Most glorious praise ye carry off, meseems, most wealthy spoil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou and thy Boy; wondrous the might, and long to tell the toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereas two Gods by dint of craft one woman have o'erthrown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But well I wot, that through your fear of walls I call mine own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In welcome of proud Carthage doors your hearts may never trow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But what shall be the end hereof? where wends our contest now?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">What if a peace that shall endure, and wedlock surely bound,</span><span class='linenum'>99</span><br /> +<span class="i0">We fashion? That which all thine heart was set on thou hast found.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Dido burns: bone of her bone thy madness is today:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So let us rule these folks as one beneath an equal sway:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the doom be that she shall take a Phrygian man for lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to thine hand for dowry due her Tyrian folk award."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Venus felt that Juno's guile within the word did live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lordship due to Italy to Libya fain would give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thus she answered her again: "Who were so overbold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gainsay this? or who would wish war against thee to hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If only this may come to pass, and fate the deed may seal?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But doubtful drifts my mind of fate, if one same town and weal</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Jove giveth to the Tyrian folk and those from Troy outcast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If he will have those folks to blend and bind the treaty fast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art his wife: by prayer mayst thou prove all his purpose weighed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set forth, I follow."<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Juno then took up the word and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Yea, that shall be my very work: how that which presseth now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May be encompassed, hearken ye, in few words will I show:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas and the hapless queen are minded forth to fare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For hunting to the thicket-side, when Titan first shall bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tomorrow's light aloft, and all the glittering world unveil:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On them a darkening cloud of rain, blended with drift of hail,</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Will I pour down, while for the hunt the feathered snare-lines shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And toils about the thicket go: all heaven will I awake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thunder, and their scattered folk the mid-mirk shall enwrap:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Dido and the Trojan lord on one same cave shall hap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will be there, and if to me thy heart be stable grown,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In wedlock will I join the two and deem her all his own:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there shall be their bridal God."<br /></span> +<span class="i37">Then Venus nought gainsaid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, nodding yea, she smiled upon the snare before her laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Aurora risen up had left the ocean stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gateward throng the chosen youth in first of morning's beam,</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And wide-meshed nets, and cordage-toils and broad-steeled spears abound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Massylian riders go their ways with many a scenting hound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lords of Carthage by the door bide till the tarrying queen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall leave her chamber: there, with gold and purple well beseen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mettled courser stands, and champs the bit that bids him bide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last she cometh forth to them with many a man beside:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cloak of Sidon wrapped her round with pictured border wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her quiver was of fashioned gold, and gold her tresses caught;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gathering of her purple gown a golden buckle had.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then come the Phrygian fellows forth; comes forth Iulus glad;</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea and Æneas' very self is of their fellowship,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And joins their band: in goodliness all those did he outstrip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en such as when Apollo leaves the wintry Lycian shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Xanthus' stream, and Delos sees, his mother's isle once more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And halloweth in the dance anew, while round the altars shout<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Cretans and the Dryopes, and painted Scythian rout:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He steps it o'er the Cynthus' ridge, and leafy crown to hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His flowing tresses doth he weave, and intertwines the gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his shoulders clang the shafts. Nor duller now passed on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, from his noble face such wondrous glory shone.</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So come they to the mountain-side and pathless deer-fed ground,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And lo, from hill-tops driven adown, how swift the wild goats bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the ridges: otherwhere across the open lea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Run hart and hind, and gathering up their hornèd host to flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid a whirling cloud of dust they leave the mountain-sides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here the boy Ascanius the midmost valley rides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glad, swift-horsed, now these he leaves, now those he flees before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fain were he mid deedless herds to meet a foaming boar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or see some yellow lion come the mountain-slopes adown.</span><span class='linenum'>159</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile with mighty murmuring sound confused the heavens are grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thereupon the drift of rain and hail upon them broke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith the scattered Trojan youth, the Tyrian fellow-folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Venus' Dardan son, scared through the meadows fly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To diverse shelter, while the streams rush from the mountains high.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Dido and the Trojan lord meet in the self-same cave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Earth, first-born of everything, and wedding Juno gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The token; then the wildfires flashed, and air beheld them wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er their bridal wailed the nymphs in hill-tops overhead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That day began the tide of death; that day the evil came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more she heedeth eyes of men; no more she heedeth fame;</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No more hath Dido any thought a stolen love to win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But calls it wedlock: yea, e'en so she weaveth up the sin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Straight through the mighty Libyan folks is Rumour on the wing—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rumour, of whom nought swifter is of any evil thing:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She gathereth strength by going on, and bloometh shifting oft!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little thing, afraid at first, she springeth soon aloft;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her feet are on the worldly soil, her head the clouds o'erlay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth, spurred by anger 'gainst the Gods, begot her as they say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Cœus and Enceladus the latest sister-birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift are her wings to cleave the air, swift-foot she treads the earth:</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A monster dread and huge, on whom so many as there lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The feathers, under each there lurks, O strange! a watchful eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there wag tongues, and babble mouths, and hearkening ears upstand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many: all a-dusk by night she flies 'twixt sky and land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud clattering, never shutting eye in rest of slumber sweet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By day she keepeth watch high-set on houses of the street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or on the towers aloft she sits for mighty cities' fear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lies and ill she loves no less than sooth which she must bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She now, rejoicing, filled the folk with babble many-voiced,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And matters true and false alike sang forth as she rejoiced:</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">How here was come Æneas now, from Trojan blood sprung forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom beauteous Dido deemed indeed a man to mate her worth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How winter-long betwixt them there the sweets of sloth they nursed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmindful of their kingdoms' weal, by ill desire accursed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This in the mouth of every man the loathly Goddess lays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence to King Iarbas straight she wendeth on her ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To set his mind on fire with words, and high his wrath to lead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He, sprung from Garamantian nymph and very Ammon's seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred mighty fanes to Jove, an hundred altars fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had builded in his wide domain, and set the watch-fire there,</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The everlasting guard of God: there fat the soil was grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With blood of beasts; the threshold bloomed with garlands diverse blown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He, saith the tale, all mad at heart, and fired with bitter fame,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amidmost of the might of God before the altars came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And prayed a many things to Jove with suppliant hands outspread:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Jupiter, almighty lord, to whom from painted bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The banqueting Maurusian folk Lenæan joy pours forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou behold? O Father, is our dread of nothing worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou art thundering? Yea, forsooth, a blind fire of the clouds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An idle hubbub of the sky, our souls with terror loads!</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A woman wandering on our shore, who set her up e'en now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little money-cheapened town, to whom a field to plough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lordship of the place we gave, hath thrust away my word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wedlock, and hath taken in Æneas for her lord:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now this Paris, hedged around with all his gelding rout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mæonian mitre tied to chin, and wet hair done about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sits on the prey while to thine house a many gifts we bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still cherishing an idle tale who our begetters were."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Almighty heard him as he prayed holding the altar-horns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the war-walls of the Queen his eyes therewith he turns,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sees the lovers heeding nought the glory of their lives;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Mercury he calls to him, and such a bidding gives:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Go forth, O Son, the Zephyrs call, and glide upon the wing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the duke of Dardan men in Carthage tarrying,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who hath no eyes to see the walls that fate to him hath given:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speak to him, Son, and bear my words down the swift air of heaven:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fairest mother promised us no such a man at need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor claimed him twice from Greekish sword to live for such a deed.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span><span class="i0">But Italy, the fierce in war, the big with empire's brood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was he to rule; to get for us from glorious Teucer's blood</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That folk of folks, and all the world beneath his laws to lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if such glory of great deeds nought stirreth him today,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor for his own fame hath he heart the toil to overcome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet shall the father grudge the son the towered heights of Rome?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What doth he? tarrying for what hope among the enemy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hath no eyes Ausonian sons, Lavinian land to see?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him to ship! this is the doom; this word I bid thee bear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake: his mighty father's will straight did the God prepare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To compass, and his golden shoes first bindeth on his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en those which o'er the ocean plain aloft on feathers fleet,</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or over earth swift bear him on before the following gale:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then his rod he takes, wherewith he calleth spirits pale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Orcus, or those others sends sad Tartarus beneath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And giveth sleep and takes away, and openeth eyes to death;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rod that sways the ocean-winds and rules the cloudy rack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now winging way he comes in sight of peak and steepy back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of flinty Atlas, on whose head all heaven is set adown—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Atlas with the piny head, and never-failing crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mirky cloud, beat on with rain and all the winds that blow:</span><span class='linenum'>249</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A snow-cloak o'er his shoulders falls, and headlong streams overflow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ancient chin; his bristling beard with plenteous ice is done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There hovering on his poisèd wings stayed that Cyllenian one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all his gathered body thence sent headlong toward the waves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then like a bird the shores about, about the fishy caves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Skims low adown upon the wing the sea-plain's face anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise 'twixt heaven and earth Cyllene's God did fly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now, his mother's father great a long way left behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the sandy Libya's shore he clave the driving wind.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when the cot-built place of earth he felt beneath his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw Æneas founding towers and raising houses meet:</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Starred was the sword about him girt with yellow jasper stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cloak that from his shoulders streamed with Tyrian purple shone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair things that wealthy Dido's hand had given him for a gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who with the gleam of thready gold the purple web did shift.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then brake the God on him: "Forsooth, tall Carthage wilt thou found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O lover, and a city fair raise up from out the ground?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me! thy lordship and thy deeds hast thou forgotten quite?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very ruler of the Gods down from Olympus bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath sent me, he whose majesty the earth and heavens obey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the word he bade me bear adown the windy way.</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What dost thou? hoping for what hope in Libya dost thou wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy days? if glorious fated things thine own soul may not stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heart thou lackest for thy fame the coming toil to wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Think on Ascanius' dawn of days and hope inherited,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom is due the Italian realm and all the world of Rome!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when from out Cyllenius' mouth such word as this had come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst his speech he left the sight of men that die from day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mid thin air from eyes of folk he faded far away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sore the sight Æneas feared, and wit from out him drave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His hair stood up, amidst his jaws the voice within him clave.</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bewildered by that warning word, and by that God's command,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He yearneth to depart and flee, and leave the lovely land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, what to do? and with what word may he be bold to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace of the Queen all mad with love? what wise shall he begin?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hither and thither now he sends his mind all eager-swift,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And bears it diversely away and runs o'er every shift:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last, as many things he weighed, this seemed the better rede.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mnestheus, Sergestus, straight he calls, Sergestus stout at need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bids them dight ship silently and bring their folk to shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dight their gear, and cause thereof with lying cover o'er;</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While he himself, since of all this kind Dido knoweth nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor of the ending of such love may ever have a thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will seek to draw anigh the Queen, seek time wherein the word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May softliest be said to her, the matter lightliest stirred.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So all they glad his bidding do, and get them to the work.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But who may hoodwink loving eyes? She felt the treason lurk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About her life, and from the first saw all that was to be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fearing indeed where no fear was. That Rumour wickedly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Told her wild soul of ship-host armed and ready to set out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart died in her; all aflame she raves the town about,</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">E'en as a Thyad, who, soul-smit by holy turmoil, hears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voice of Bacchus on the day that crowns the triple years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mirk Cithæron through the night hath called her clamorous.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unto Æneas at the last herself she speaketh thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O thou forsworn! and hast thou hoped with lies to cover o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such wickedness, and silently to get thee from my shore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our love, it hath not held thee back? nor right hand given in faith<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awhile agone? nor Dido doomed to die a bitter death?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, e'en beneath the winter heavens thy fleet thou gatherest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In haste to fare across the main amid the north's unrest</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O cruel! What if land unknown and stranger field and fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou sought'st not; if the ancient Troy stood as in days of old;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wouldst thou not still be seeking Troy across the wavy brine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Yea, me thou fleest. O by these tears, by that right hand of thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since I myself have left myself unhappy nought but this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by our bridal of that day and early wedding bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ever I were worthy thanks, if sweet in aught I were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pity a falling house! If yet be left a space for prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O then I pray thee put away this mind of evil things!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because of thee the Libyan folks, and those Numidian kings,</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hate me, and Tyrians are my foes: yea, and because of thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My shame is gone, and that which was my heavenward road to be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My early glory.—Guest, to whom leav'st thou thy dying friend?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since of my husband nought but this is left me in the end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why bide I till Pygmalion comes to lay my walls alow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till taken by Getulian kings, Iarbas' slave I go?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! if at least ere thou wert gone some child of thee I had!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If yet Æneas in mine house might play a little lad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en but to bring aback the face of that beloved one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then were I never vanquished quite, nor utterly undone."</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake: he, warned by Jove's command, his eyes still steadfast held,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, striving, thrust his sorrow back, howso his heart-strings swelled:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last he answered shortly thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i33">"O Queen, though words may fail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell thy lovingkindness, ne'er my heart belies the tale:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still shall it be a joy to think of sweet Elissa's days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While of myself I yet may think, while breath my body sways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Few words about the deed in hand: ne'er in my mind it came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As flees a thief to flee from thee; never the bridal flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did I hold forth, or plight my troth such matters to fulfil.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">If fate would let me lead a life according to my will,</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Might I such wise as pleaseth me my troubles lay to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Troy-town surely would I bide among the ashes blest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of my beloved, and Priam's house once more aloft should stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New Pergamus for vanquished men should rise beneath my hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now Grynean Phœbus bids toward Italy the great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To reach my hand; to Italy biddeth the Lycian fate:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is my love, there is my land. If Carthage braveries<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lovely look of Libyan walls hold fast thy Tyrian eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why wilt thou grudge the Teucrian men Ausonian dwelling-place?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If we too seek the outland realm, for us too be there grace!</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Father Anchises, whensoever night covereth up the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dewy dark, and whensoe'er the bright stars come to birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His troubled image midst of sleep brings warning word and fear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius weigheth on my heart with wrong of head so dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom I beguile of fateful fields and realm of Italy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, even now God's messenger sent from the Jove on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Bear witness either head of us!) bore doom of God adown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eager wind: I saw the God enter the fair-walled town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In simple light: I drank his voice, yea with these ears of mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cease then to burn up with thy wail my burdened heart and thine!</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Perforce I follow Italy."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now this long while, as he spake, athwart and wild she gazed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here and there her eyeballs rolled, and strayed with silent look<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His body o'er; and at the last with heart of fire outbroke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Traitor! no Goddess brought thee forth, nor Dardanus was first<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thine ill race; but Caucasus on spiky crags accurst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begot thee; and Hyrcanian dugs of tigers suckled thee.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Why hide it now? why hold me back lest greater evil be?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For did he sigh the while I wept? his eyes—what were they moved?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath he been vanquished unto tears, or pitied her that loved?</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—Ah, is aught better now than aught, when Juno utter great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea and the Father on all this with evil eyen wait?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All faith is gone! I took him in a stranded outcast, bare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea in my very throne and land, ah fool! I gave him share.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His missing fleet I brought aback; from death I brought his friends.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Woe! how the furies burn me up!—Now seer Apollo sends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now bidding send the Lycian lots; now sendeth Jove on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His messenger to bear a curse adown the windy sky!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such is the toil of Gods aloft; such are the cares that rack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their souls serene.—I hold thee not, nor cast thy words aback.</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Go down the wind to Italy! seek lordship o'er the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only I hope amid the rocks, if any God there be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt drink in thy punishment and call on Dido's name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full oft: and I, though gone away, will follow with black flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when cold death from out my limbs my soul hath won away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will be with thee everywhere; O wretch, and thou shalt pay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, I shall hear; the tale of all shall reach me midst the dead."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith she brake her speech athwart, and sick at heart she fled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The outer air, and turned away, and gat her from his eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving him dallying with his fear, and turning many wise</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The words to say. Her serving-maids the fainting body weak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear back unto the marble room and on the pillows streak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But god-fearing Æneas now, however fain he were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To soothe her grief and with soft speech assuage her weary care,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Much groaning, and the heart of him shaken with loving pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet went about the God's command and reached his ships again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fall the Teucrians on indeed, and over all the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roll the tall ships; the pitchy keel swims in the sea once more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bear the oars still leaf-bearing: they bring the might of wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwrought, so fain of flight they are,</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo now their flitting! how they run from all the town in haste!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the ants, the winter-wise, are gathered whiles to waste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heap of corn, and toil that same beneath their roof to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth goes the black troop mid the mead, and carries forth the prey<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the grass in narrow line: some strive with shoulder-might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And push along a grain o'ergreat, some drive the line aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or scourge the loiterers: hot the work fares all along the road.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah Dido, when thou sawest all what heart in thee abode!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What groans thou gavest when thou saw'st from tower-top the long strand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A-boil with men all up and down; the sea on every hand</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Before thine eyes by stir of men torn into all unrest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O evil Love, where wilt thou not drive on a mortal breast?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, she is driven to weep again and pray him to be kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And suppliant, in the bonds of love her lofty heart to bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest she should leave some way untried and die at last for nought.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Anna, thou seest the strand astir, the men together brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every side, the canvas spread calling the breezes down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While joyful on the quarter-deck the sea-folk lay the crown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sister, since I had might to think that such a thing could be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall have might to bear it now: yet do one thing for me,</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Poor wretch, O Anna: for to thee alone would he be kind,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">That traitor, and would trust to thee the inmost of his mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou alone his softening ways and melting times dost know.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sister, speak a suppliant word to that high-hearted foe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never swore at Aulis there to pluck up root and branch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojan folk; for Pergamus no war-ship did I launch:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises' buried ghost from tomb I never tore away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why will his ears be ever deaf to any word I say?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where hurrieth he? O let him give his wretched love one gift;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him but wait soft sailing-tide, when fair the breezes shift.</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No longer for the wedding past, undone, I make my prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor that he cast his lordship by, and promised Latium fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For empty time, for rest and stay of madness now I ask,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till Fortune teach the overthrown to learn her weary task.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sister, I pray this latest grace; O pity me today,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And manifold when I am dead the gift will I repay."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So prayed she: such unhappy words of weeping Anna bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bears again and o'er again: but him no weeping stirs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any voice he hearkeneth now may turn him from his road:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God shut the hero's steadfast ears; fate in the way abode.</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As when against a mighty oak, strong growth of many a year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this side and on that the blasts of Alpine Boreas bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Contending which shall root it up: forth goes the roar, deep lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The driven leaves upon the earth from shaken bole on high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But fast it clingeth to the crag, and high as goes its head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To heaven aloft, so deep adown to hell its roots are spread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so by ceaseless drift of words the hero every wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is battered, and the heavy care deep in his bosom lies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steadfast the will abides in him; the tears fall down for nought.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ah, and unhappy Dido then the very death besought,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Outworn by fate: the hollow heaven has grown a sight to grieve.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the helping of her will, that she the light may leave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She seeth, when mid the frankincense her offering she would lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy water blackening there, O horrible to say!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wine poured forth turned into blood all loathly as it fell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which sight to none, not e'en unto her sister, would she tell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover, to her first-wed lord there stood amidst the house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A marble shrine, the which she loved with worship marvellous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bound it was with snowy wool and leafage of delight;</span><span class='linenum'>459</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thence heard she, when the earth was held in mirky hand of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange sounds come forth, and words as if her husband called his own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er and o'er his funeral song the screech-owl wailed alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long his lamentable tale from high aloft was rolled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a saying furthermore of god-loved seers of old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fears her with dreadful memory: all wild amid her dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cruel Æneas drives her on, and evermore she seems<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left all alone; and evermore a road that never ends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mateless, and seeking through the waste her Tyrian folk, she wends.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As raving Pentheus saw the rout of that Well-willing Folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When twofold sun and twofold Thebes upon his eyes outbroke:</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or like as Agamemnon's son is driven across the stage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fleeing his mother's fiery hand that bears the serpent's rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While there the avenging Dreadful Ones upon the threshold sit.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when she gave the horror birth, and, grief-worn, cherished it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And doomed her death, then with herself she planned its time and guise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to her sister sorrowing sore spake word in such a wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Covering her end with cheerful face and calm and hopeful brow:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Kinswoman, I have found a way, (joy with thy sister now!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby to bring him back to me or let me loose from him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Adown beside the setting sun, hard on the ocean's rim,</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lies the last world of Æthiops, where Atlas mightiest grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon his shoulder turns the pole with burning stars bestrown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A priestess thence I met erewhile, come of Massylian seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The warden of the West-maid's fane, and wont the worm to feed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mingling for him the honey-juice with poppies bearing sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby she maketh shift on tree the hallowed bough to keep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She by enchantment takes in hand to loose what hearts she will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But other ones at need will she with heavy sorrows fill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she hath craft to turn the stars and back the waters beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Call up the ghosts that fare by night, make earth beneath thy feet</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cry out, and ancient ash-trees draw the mountain-side adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear heart, I swear upon the Gods, I swear on thee, mine own<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy dear head, that I am loath with magic craft to play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But privily amid the house a bale for burning lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath the bare heaven, and pile on it the arms that evil one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left in the chamber: all he wore, the bridal bed whereon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My days were lost: for so 'tis good: the priestess showeth me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All tokens of the wicked man must perish utterly."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No more she spake, but with the word her face grew deadly white.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Anna sees not how she veiled her death with new-found rite,</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor any thought of such a deed her heart encompasseth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fears she heavier things to come than at Sychæus' death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore she takes the charge in hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the Queen, that bale being built amid the inner house</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Neath the bare heavens, piled high with fir and cloven oak enow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangeth the garlands round the place, and crowns the bale with bough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That dead men use: the weed he wore, his very effigy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His sword, she lays upon the bed, well knowing what shall be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There stand the altars, there the maid, wild with her scattered hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calls Chaos, Erebus, and those three hundred godheads there,</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And Hecate triply fashionèd to maiden Dian's look;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Water she scattered, would-be wave of dark Avernus' brook;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And herbs she brought, by brazen shears 'neath moonlight harvested,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All downy-young, though inky milk of venomed ill they shed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She brings the love-charm snatched away from brow of new-born foal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere yet the mother snatcheth it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dido herself the altars nigh, meal in her hallowed hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one foot of its bindings bare, and ungirt raiment stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dying calls upon the Gods, and stars that fateful fare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then if any godhead is, mindful and just to care</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For unloved lovers, unto that she sendeth up the prayer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now night it was, and everything on earth had won the grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of quiet sleep: the woods had rest, the wildered waters' face:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was the tide when stars roll on amid their courses due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the tilth is hushed, and beasts, and birds of many a hue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all that is in waters wide, and what the waste doth keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thicket rough, amid the hush of night-tide lay asleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slipping off the load of care forgat their toilsome part.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ne'er might that Phœnician Queen, that most unhappy heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sink into sleep, or take the night unto her eyes and breast:</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her sorrows grow, and love again swells up with all unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever midst her troubled wrath rolls on a mighty tide;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thus she broods and turns it o'er and o'er on every side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah, whither now? Shall I bemocked my early lovers try,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And go Numidian wedlock now on bended knee to buy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, who so often scorned to take their bridal-bearing hands?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or shall I, following Ilian ships, bear uttermost commands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Teucrian men, because my help their lightened hearts makes kind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because the thank for deed I did lies ever on their mind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if I would, who giveth leave, or takes on scornful keel</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The hated thing? Thou knowest not, lost wretch, thou may'st not feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What treason of Laomedon that folk for ever bears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What then? and shall I follow lone the joyous mariners?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, hedged with all my Tyrian host, upon them shall I bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driving again across the sea those whom I scarce might tear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Sidon's city, forcing them to spread their sails abroad?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, stay thy grief with steel, and die, and reap thy due reward!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, sister, conquered by my tears, wert first this bane to lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On my mad soul, and cast my heart in that destroyer's way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why was I not allowed to live without the bridal bed,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sackless and free as beasts afield, with no woes wearièd?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why kept I not the faith of old to my Sychæus sworn?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such wailing of unhappy words from out her breast was torn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas on the lofty deck meanwhile, assured of flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was winning sleep, since every need of his was duly dight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo! amid the dreams of sleep that shape of God come back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed once again to warn him thus: nor yet the face did lack<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span><span class="i0">Nor anything of Mercury; both voice and hue was there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loveliness of youthful limbs and length of yellow hair:</span><span class='linenum'>559</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born, and canst thou sleep through such a tide as this?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seest thou not how round about the peril gathered is?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, witless, hear'st not Zephyr blow with gentle, happy wind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For treason now and dreadful deed she turneth in her mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assured of death; and diversely the tide of wrath sets in.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why fleest thou not in haste away, while haste is yet to win?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt behold the sea beat up with oar-blade, and the brand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gleam dire against thee, and one flame shall run adown the strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thee tomorrow's dawn shall take still lingering on this shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up! tarry not! for woman's heart is shifting evermore."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, amid the mirk of night he mingled and was lost.</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And therewithal Æneas, feared by sudden-flitting ghost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatching his body forth from sleep, stirs up his folk at need:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Wake ye, and hurry now, O men! get to the thwarts with speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bustle to unfurl the sails! here sent from heaven again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A God hath spurred us on to flight, and biddeth hew atwain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hempen twine. O holy God, we follow on thy way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatso thou art; and glad once more thy bidding we obey.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O be with us! give gracious aid; set stars the heaven about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bless our ways!"<br /></span> +<span class="i19">And from the sheath his lightning sword flew out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as he spake: with naked blade he smote the hawser through,</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all are kindled at his flame; they hurry and they do.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shore is left, with crowd of keels the sight of sea is dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eager they whirl the spray aloft, as o'er the blue they skim.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now Aurora left alone Tithonus' saffron bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first light of another day across the world she shed.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when the Queen from tower aloft beheld the dawn grow white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw the ships upon their way with fair sails trimmed aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the haven shipless left, and reach of empty strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then thrice and o'er again she smote her fair breast with her hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rent her yellow hair, and cried, "Ah, Jove! and is he gone?</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shall a very stranger mock the lordship I have won?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why arm they not? Why gather not from all the town in chase?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ho ye! why run ye not the ships down from their standing-place?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quick, bring the fire! shake out the sails! hard on the oars to sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—What words are these, or where am I? What madness changeth me?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy Dido! now at last thine evil deed strikes home.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, better when thou mad'st him lord—lo whereunto are come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His faith and troth who erst, they say, his country's house-gods held<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while he took upon his back his father spent with eld?</span><span class='linenum'>599</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Why! might I not have shred him up, and scattered him piecemeal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the sea, and slain his friends, his very son, with steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius on his father's board for dainty meat to lay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But doubtful, say ye, were the fate of battle? Yea, O yea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What might I fear, who was to die?—if I had borne the fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among their camp, and filled his decks with flame, and son and sire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quenched with their whole folk, and myself had cast upon it all!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—O Sun, whose flames on every deed earth doeth ever fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Juno, setter-forth and seer of these our many woes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hecate, whose name howled out a-nights o'er city crossway goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Avenging Dread Ones, Gods that guard Elissa perishing,</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O hearken! turn your might most meet against the evil thing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O hearken these our prayers! and if the doom must surely stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, the wicked head, must gain the port and swim aland,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If Jove demand such fixèd fate and every change doth bar,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet let him faint mid weapon-strife and hardy folk of war!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let him, exiled from his house, torn from Iulus, wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beseeching help mid wretched death of many and many a friend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when at last he yieldeth him to pact of grinding peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then short-lived let his lordship be, and lovèd life's increase.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let him fall before his day, unburied on the shore!</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo this I pray, this last of words forth with my blood I pour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye, O Tyrians, 'gainst his race that is, and is to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feed full your hate! When I am dead send down this gift to me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No love betwixt the peoples twain, no troth for anything!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou, Avenger of my wrongs, from my dead bones outspring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear the fire and the sword o'er Dardan-peopled earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now or hereafter; whensoe'er the day brings might to birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray the shore against the shore, the sea against the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sword 'gainst sword—fight ye that are, and ye that are to be!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So sayeth she, and everywise she turns about her mind</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">How ending of the loathèd light she speediest now may find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And few words unto Barce spake, Sychæus' nurse of yore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the black ashes held her own upon the ancient shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Dear nurse, my sister Anna now bring hither to my need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid her for my sprinkling-tide the running water speed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid her have the hosts with her, and due atoning things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So let her come; but thou, thine head bind with the holy strings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am minded now to end what I have set afoot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And worship duly Stygian Jove and all my cares uproot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Setting the flame beneath the bale of that Dardanian head."</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake; with hurrying of eld the nurse her footsteps sped.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Dido, trembling, wild at heart with her most dread intent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rolling her blood-shot eyes about, her quivering cheeks besprent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With burning flecks, and otherwhere dead white with death drawn nigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burst through the inner doorways there and clomb the bale on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilled with utter madness now, and bared the Dardan blade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gift given not for such a work, for no such ending made.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, when upon the Ilian gear her eyen had been set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bed well known, 'twixt tears and thoughts awhile she lingered yet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then brooding low upon the bed her latest word she spake:</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O raiment dear to me while Gods and fate allowed, now take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This soul of mine and let me loose from all my woes at last!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, I have lived, and down the way fate showed to me have passed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now a mighty shade of me shall go beneath the earth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A glorious city have I raised, and brought my walls to birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Avenged my husband, made my foe, my brother, pay the pain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happy, ah, happy overmuch were all my life-days' gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If never those Dardanian keels had drawn our shores anigh."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake: her lips lay on the bed: "Ah, unavenged to die!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let me die! Thus, thus 'tis good to go into the night!</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now let the cruel Dardan eyes drink in the bale-fire's light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bear for sign across the sea this token of my death."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her speech had end: but on the steel, amid the last word's breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They see her fallen; along the blade they see her blood foam out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her hands besprent therewith: wild fly the shrieks about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lofty halls, and Rumour runs mad through the smitten town.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The houses sound with women's wails and lamentable groan;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The mighty clamour of their grief rings through the upper skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas e'en as if all Carthage fell mid flood of enemies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or mighty Tyre of ancient days,—as if the wildfire ran</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rolling about the roof of God and dwelling-place of man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Half dead her sister heard, and rushed distraught and trembling there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With nail and fist befouling all her face and bosom fair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She thrust amidst them, and by name called on the dying Queen:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O was it this my sister, then! guile in thy word hath been!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this was what the bale, the fire, the altars wrought for me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where shall I turn so left alone? Ah, scorned was I to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For death-fellow! thou shouldst have called me too thy way to wend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One sword-pang should have been for both, one hour to make an end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built I with hands, on Father-Gods with crying did I cry</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To be away, a cruel heart, from thee laid down to die?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O sister, me and thee, thy folk, the fathers of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy city hast thou slain——O give, give water to my hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let me wash the wound, and if some last breath linger there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let my mouth catch it!"<br /></span> +<span class="i23">Saying so she reached the topmost stair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to her breast the dying one she fondled, groaning sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with her raiment strove to staunch the black and flowing gore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Dido strove her heavy lids to lift, but back again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They sank, and deep within her breast whispered the deadly bane:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three times on elbow struggling up a little did she rise,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thrice fell back upon the bed, and sought with wandering eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The light of heaven aloft, and moaned when it was found at last.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then on her long-drawn agony did Juno pity cast,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her hard departing; Iris then she sent from heaven on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade her from the knitted limbs the struggling soul untie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For since by fate she perished not, nor waited death-doom given,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But hapless died before her day by sudden fury driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not yet the tress of yellow hair had Proserpine off-shred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor unto Stygian Orcus yet had doomed her wandering head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Iris ran adown the sky on wings of saffron dew,</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And colours shifting thousandfold against the sun she drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And overhead she hung: "So bid, from off thee this I bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hallowed to Dis, and charge thee now from out thy body fare."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake and sheared the tress away; then failed the life-heat spent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And forth away upon the wind the spirit of her went.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_V" id="BOOK_V"></a>BOOK V.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS MAKING FOR ITALY IS STAYED BY CONTRARY WINDS, WHEREFORE HE SAILETH +TO SICILY, AND, COMING TO THE TOMB OF HIS FATHER ANCHISES, HOLDETH +SOLEMN GAMES THEREAT, AND IN THE END GOETH HIS WAY TO ITALY AGAIN.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas with his ships the mid-sea way did hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steadfast, and cut the dusky waves before the north wind rolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still looking back upon the walls now litten by the flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hapless Dido: though indeed whence so great burning came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They knew not; but the thought of grief that comes of love defiled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How great it is, what deed may come of woman waxen wild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through woeful boding of the sooth the Teucrians' bosoms bore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the ships the main sea held, nor had they any more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The land in sight, but sea around and sky around was spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A coal-blue cloud drew up to them, that hanging overhead</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bore night and storm: feared 'neath the dark the waters trembling lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then called the helmsman Palinure from lofty deck on high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ah, wherefore doth such cloud of storm gird all the heavens about?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What will ye, Father Neptune, now?"</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i36">Therewith he crieth out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gather all the tackling in, and hard on oars to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slopeth sail across the wind; and so such word doth say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Great-souled Æneas, e'en if Jove my borrow now should be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath such a sky I might not hope to make our Italy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The changed winds roar athwart our course, and from the west grown black<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They rise; while o'er the face of heaven gathers the cloudy rack.</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor have we might to draw a-head, nor e'en to hold our own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore since Fortune hath prevailed, by way that she hath shown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whither she calleth, let us turn: methinks the way but short<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To brother-land of Eryx leal and safe Sicanian port,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I may read the stars aright that erst I bare in mind."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quoth good Æneas: "Now for long that suchwise would the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw, and how thou heldest head against it all in vain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shift sail and go about; what land may sweeter be to gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whither would I liefer turn my keels from beat of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than that which yet the Dardan lord Acestes holds for me,</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That holds my very father's bones, Anchises, in its breast?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They seek the haven therewithal, and fair and happy west<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swelleth the sails: o'er whirl of waves full speedily they wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glad to that familiar sand they turn them in the end:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But there Acestes meeteth them, who from a mountain high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All wondering had seen afar the friendly ships draw nigh.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With darts he bristled, and was clad in fell of Libyan bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him erst unto Crimisus' flood a Trojan mother fair<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span><span class="i0">Brought forth: and now, forgetting nought his mother's folk of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He welcomes them come back again with wealth of field and fold,</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And solaces the weary men with plenteous friendly cheer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the stars in first of dawn fled from the morrow clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas called upon the shore assembly of his folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And standing high aloft on mound such words to tell he spoke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O mighty Dardan men, O folk from blood of Godhead born,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The yearly round is all fulfilled, with lapse of months outworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since when my godlike father's husk and bones of him we laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the mould, and heavy sad the hallowed altars made:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now meseems the day is here, for evermore to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bitter day, a worshipped day.—So God would have it be!</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea should it find me outcast man on great Getulia's sand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or take me in the Argive sea, or mid Mycenæ's land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet yearly vows, and pomps that come in due recurring while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still should I pay, and gifts most meet upon the altar pile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now to my father's bones, indeed, and ashes are we brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By chance; yet not, meseems, without the Godhead's will and thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are we come here, to lie in peace within a friendly bay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So come, and let all worship here the glory of the day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pray we the winds, that year by year this worship may be done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In temples dedicate to him within my city won.</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Troy-born Acestes giveth you two head of hornèd beasts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For every ship; so see ye bid the House-gods to your feasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both them of Troy and them our host Acestes loveth here.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover, if the ninth dawn hence Aurora shall uprear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For health of men, and with her rays earth's coverlit shall lift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Teucrians will I fast set forth the race for galleys swift:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then whosoe'er is fleet of foot, or bold of might and main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or with the dart or eager shaft a better prize may gain,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or whoso hath the heart to play in fight-glove of raw hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let all be there, and victory's palm and guerdon due abide.</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clean be all mouths! and gird with leaves the temple of the head."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His mother's bush he did on brow e'en as the word he said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The like did Helymus, the like Acestes ripe of eld,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The like the boy Ascanius, yea, and all that manner held.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then from that council to the tomb that duke of men did pass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid many thousands, he the heart of all that concourse was.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, worshipping, on earth he pours in such wise as was good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two cups of mere wine, two of milk, and two of holy blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scatters purple flowers around; and then such words he said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Hail, holy father! hail once more! hail, ashes visited</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Once more for nought! hail, father-shade and spirit sweet in vain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forbid with me that Italy to seek, that fated plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With me Ausonian Tiber-flood, whereso it be, to seek."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake: but from the lowest mound a mighty serpent sleek<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drew seven great circles o'er the earth, and glided sevenfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Passing in peace the tomb around, and o'er the altars rolled:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blue stripèd was the back of him, and all his scales did glow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With glitter of fine flecks of gold; e'en as the cloud-hung bow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand shifting colours fair back from the sun he cast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas wondered at the sight; but on the serpent passed,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And 'twixt the bowls and smoothèd cups his long array he wound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tasting the hallowed things; and so he gat him underground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the tomb again, and left the altars pastured o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heartened hereby, his father's soul Æneas worshipped more,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And, doubtful, deemeth it to be Anchises' guardian ghost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or godhead of the place: so there he slayeth double host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As custom would; two black-backed steers, and e'en as many swine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And calleth on his father's soul with pouring of the wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On great Anchises' glorious ghost from Acheron set free.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out their plenty therewithal his fellows joyfully</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Give gifts, and load the altar-stead, and smite the steers adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While others serve the seething brass, and o'er the herbage strown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set coaly morsels 'neath the spit, and roast the inner meat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the looked-for day was come with simple light and sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Phaeton's horses shining bright the ninth dawn in did bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fame and the name Acestes had the neighbouring people stir<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fill the shore with joyful throng, Æneas' folk to see:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But some were dight amid the games their strife-fellows to be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There first before the eyes of men the gifts to come they lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the course; as hallowed bowls, and garlands of green bay,</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And palms, the prize of victory, weapons, and raiment rolled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In purple, and a talent's weight of silver and of gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then blast of horn from midst the mound the great games halloweth in:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Four ships from all the fleet picked out will first the race begin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heavy oars; well matched are they for speed and rowers' tale:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hereof did Mnestheus' eager oars drive on the speedy Whale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mnestheus to be of Italy, whence cometh Memmius' name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The huge Chimæra's mountain mass was Gyas set to tame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There on that city of a ship threesome its rowing plies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan youth; the banks of oars in threefold order rise.</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sergestus next, the name whereof the Sergian house yet bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is ferried by the Centaur great: last in blue Scylla steers</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cloanthus, whence the name of thee, Cluentius, man of Rome.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far mid the sea a rock there is, facing the shore-line's foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, beat by overtoppling waves, is drowned and hidden oft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time the stormy North-west hides the stars in heaven aloft:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But otherwhiles it lies in peace when nought the sea doth move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And riseth up a meadow fair that sunning sea-gulls love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There a green goal Æneas raised, dight of a leafy oak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be a sign of turning back to that sea-faring folk,</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That fetching compass round the same their long course they might turn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So then by lot they take their place: there on the deck they burn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The captains, goodly from afar in gold and purple show:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other lads with poplar-leaf have garlanded the brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the oil poured over them their naked shoulders shine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They man the thwarts; with hearts a-stretch they hearken for the sign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With arms a-stretch upon the oars; hard tugs the pulse of fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About their bounding hearts, hard strains the lust of glory dear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the clear horn gives the sound, forthwith from where they lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They leap away; the seamen's shouts smite up against the sky,</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The upturned waters froth about as home the arms are borne:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So timely they the furrows cut, and all the sea uptorn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is cloven by the sweep of oars and bows' three-headed push.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Nay, nought so swift in twi-yoke race forth from the barriers rush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The scattered headlong chariots on to wear the space of plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor eager so the charioteers shake waves along the rein<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above the hurrying yoke, as hung over the lash they go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Then with the shouts and praise of men, and hope cast to and fro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rings all the grove; the cliff-walled shore rolleth great voice around,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And beating 'gainst the mountain-side the shattering shouts rebound.</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Before the others Gyas flies, and first the waves doth skim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betwixt the throng and roar, but hard Cloanthus presseth him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, better manned, is held aback by sluggish weight of pine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twixt Whale and Centaur after these the edge of strife is fine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hard they struggle each with each to win the foremost place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now the Whale hath it; beaten now is foregone in the race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the huge Centaur; head and head now follow on the two,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the long keel of either one the salt sea furrows through.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now they drew anigh the holm, the goal close on them gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Gyas first and conquering there amid the whirl of wave</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto the helmsman of his ship, Menœtes, cries command:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And why so far unto the right? turn hither to this hand!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hug thou the shore; let the blades graze the very rocks a-lee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let others hold the deep!"<br /></span> +<span class="i26">No less unto the wavy sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Menœtes, fearing hidden rocks, still turns away the bow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gyas would shout him back again: "Menœtes, whither now?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steer for the rocks!"<br /></span> +<span class="i21">And therewithal, as back his eyes he cast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sees Cloanthus hard at heel and gaining on him fast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, grazing on this hand and that the rocks and Gyas' ship,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now suddenly by leeward course a-head of all doth slip,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And leaving clear the goal behind hath open water's gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then unto Gyas' very bones deep burns the wrathful pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor did his cheeks lack tears indeed: forgetting honour's trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgetting all his fellows' weal, Menœtes doth he thrust</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Headlong from off the lofty deck into the sea adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And takes the tiller, helmsman now and steering-master grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cheers his men, and toward the shore the rudder wresteth round.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Menœtes, heavy, hardly won up from the ocean's ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For he was old, and floods enow fulfilled his dripping gear,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made for the holm and sat him down upon the dry rock there:</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Teucrians laughed to see him fall, and laughed to see him swim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laugh to see him spue the brine back from the heart of him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Mnestheus' and Sergestus' hope began anew to spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they might outgo Gyas yet amid his tarrying:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of whom Sergestus draws ahead and nears the rocky holm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not by all his keel indeed the other did o'ercome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But by the half; the eager Whale amidships held her place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Mnestheus midst the men themselves now to and fro did pace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Egging them on: "Now, now!" he cries; "up, up, on oar-heft high!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fellows of Hector, whom I chose when Troy last threw the die!</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now put ye forth your ancient heart, put forth the might of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith amid Getulian sand, Ionian sea ye bore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart and might ye had amidst Malea's following wave!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, Mnestheus, seek not victory now, nor foremost place to save.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Yet, O my heart! but let them win to whom thou giv'st the crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Neptune!—but the shameful last! O townsmen, beat it down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ban such horror!"<br /></span> +<span class="i22">Hard on oars they lie mid utter throes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And quivereth all the brazen ship beneath their mighty blows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea's floor slippeth under them; the ceaseless pantings shake</span><span class='linenum'>199</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their limbs and parchèd mouths, and still the sweat-streams never slake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But very chance those strivers gave the prize they struggled for,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Since now Sergestus, hot at heart, while to the stony shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clingeth innerward, is come into the treacherous strait,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hapless driveth on the rocks thrust forth for such a fate:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cliffs are shaken and the oars against the flinty spikes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snap crashing, and the prow thrust up yet hangeth where it strikes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up start the seafarers, and raise great hubbub tarrying;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sprits all iron-shod and poles sharp-ended forth they bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear her off, and gather oars a-floating in the wash.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Mnestheus, whetted by his luck, joyful, with hurrying dash</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of timely-beating oars, speeds forth, and praying breezes on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er waters' slope adown the sea's all open way doth run:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en as a pigeon in a cave stirred suddenly from rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who in the shady pumice-rock hath house and happy nest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scared 'neath the roof she beateth forth with mighty flap of wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flieth, borne adown the fields, till in soft air she swings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And floateth on the flowing way, nor scarce a wing doth move;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—So Mnestheus, so the Whale herself, the latter waters clove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So with the way erst made on her she flew on swift and soft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first Sergestus doth she leave stayed on the rock aloft,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Striving in shallows' tanglement, calling for help in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And learning with his broken oars a little way to gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Gyas and Chimæra's bulk he holdeth hard in chase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, from her lack of helmsman lost, must presently give place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now at very end of all Cloanthus is the last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With whom to deal: his most he strives, and presseth on him fast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily shout thrusts on shout, and all with all goodwill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cry on the chase; their echoing noise the very lift doth fill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These, thinking shame of letting fall their hardly-gotten gain</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of glory's meed, to buy the praise with very life are fain;</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Those, fed on good-hap, all things may, because they deem they may:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The twain, perchance, head laid to head, had won the prize that day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if Cloanthus both his palms had stretched to seaward there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And called upon the Gods to aid and poured forth eager prayer:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Gods, whose lordship is the sea, whose waters I run o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now glad will I, your debtor bound, by altars on the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring forth for you a snow-white bull, and cast amid the brine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His inner meat, and pour abroad a flowing of fair wine."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and all the Nereids' choir hearkened the words he said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down 'neath the waves, and Phorcus' folk, and Panopea the maid;</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the sire Portunus thrust the keel with mighty hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon its way, and arrow-swift it flew on toward the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift as the South, and there at rest in haven deep it lies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now Anchises' seed, all men being summoned in due wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proclaims Cloanthus victor there by loud-voiced herald's shout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with green garland of the bay he does his brows about;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then biddeth them to choose the gifts, for every ship three steers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wine, and every crew therewith great weight of silver bears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glorious gifts he adds withal to every duke of man:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gold-wrought cloak the victor hath, about whose rim there ran</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A plenteous double wavy stream of Melibœan shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leafy Ida's kingly boy thereon was pictured well.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A-following up the fleeing hart with spear and running fleet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eager he seemed as one who pants; then him with hookèd feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jove's shield-bearer hath caught, and up with him from Ida flies,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there the ancient masters stretch vain palms unto the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While bark of staring hunting-hound beats fierce at upper air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then next for him who second place of might and valour bare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mail-coat wove of polished rings with threefold wire of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which from Demoleos the King had stripped in days of old,</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A conqueror then by Simoïs swift beneath high-builded Troy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He giveth now that lord to have a safeguard and a joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its many folds his serving-men, Phegeus and Sagaris,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce bore on toiling shoulders joined, yet clad in nought but this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift ran Demoleos following on the Trojans disarrayed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A third gift then he setteth forth, twin cauldrons brazen made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And silver bowls with picturing fret and wrought with utter pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now when all had gotten gifts, and glorying in their gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were wending with the filleting of purple round the brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, gotten from the cruel rock with craft and toil enow,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With missing oars, and all one board unhandy and foredone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ship inglorious and bemocked, Sergestus driveth on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—As with an adder oft it haps caught on the highway's crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aslant by brazen tire of wheel, or heavy pebble thrown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By wayfarer, hath left him torn and nigh unto his end:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who writhings wrought for helpless flight through all his length doth send,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one half fierce with burning eyes uprears a hissing crest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other half, with wounds all halt, still holding back the rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He knitteth him in many a knot and on himself doth slip.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en such the crawling of the oars that drave the tarrying ship.</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But they hoist sail on her, and so the harbour-mouth make shift</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To win: and there Æneas gives Sergestus promised gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blithe at his saving of the ship, and fellows brought aback:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A maid he hath, who not a whit of Pallas' art doth lack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Crete she is, and Pholoë called, and twins at breast she bears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now all that strife being overpast, the good Æneas fares<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To grassy meads girt all about by hollow wooded hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where theatre-wise the racing-course the midmost valley fills.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereto the hero, very heart of many a thousand men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now wendeth, and on seat high-piled he sits him down again.</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">There whosoever may have will to strive in speedy race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hearteneth on with hope of gift, and shows the prize and grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So from all sides Sicilians throng, and Trojan fellowship.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euryalus and Nisus first.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euryalus for goodliness and youth's first blossom famed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nisus for fair love of the youth; then after these are named<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diores, of the blood of kings from Priam's glorious race;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Salius and Patron next; the one of Acarnanian place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other from Arcadian blood of Tegeæa outsprung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then two Trinacrians, Helymus and Panopes the young,</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In woodcraft skilled, who ever went by old Acestes' side;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many others else there were whom rumour dimmed doth hide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now amidmost of all these suchwise Æneas spake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Now hearken; let your merry hearts heed of my saying take:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man of all the tale of you shall henceforth giftless go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two Gnosian spears to each I give with polished steel aglow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An axe to carry in the war with silver wrought therein.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This honour is for one and all: the three first prize shall win,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And round about their heads shall do the olive dusky-grey.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A noble horse with trappings dight the first shall bear away;</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A quiver of the Amazons with Thracian arrows stored<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The second hath; about it goes a gold belt broidered broad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gem-wrought buckle delicate to clasp it at the end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But gladdened with this Argive helm content the third shall wend."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All said, they take their places due, and when the sign they hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forthwith they leave the bar behind and o'er the course they bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like drift of storm-cloud; on the goal all set their eager eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But far before all shapes of man shows Nisus, and outflies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very whistling of the winds or lightning on the wing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, though the space be long betwixt, comes Salius following;</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And after Salius again another space is left,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then Euryalus is third;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And after him is Helymus: but lo, how hard on heel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diores scuds! foot on his foot doth Helymus nigh feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoulder on shoulder: yea, and if the course held longer out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He would slip by him and be first, or leave the thing in doubt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, spent, unto the utmost reach and very end of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They came, when in the slippery blood doth luckless Nisus fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en where the ground was all a-slop with bullocks slain that day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the topmost of the grass be-puddled with it lay:</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">There, as he went the victor now, exulting, failed his feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From off the earth, and forth he fell face foremost down to meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The midst of all the filthy slime blent with the holy gore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet for Euryalus his love forgat he none the more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For rising from the slippery place in Salius' way he thrust,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who, rolling over, lay along amid the thickened dust.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth flies Euryalus, and flies to fame and foremost place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His own friend's gift, mid beat of hands and shouts that bear him grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next came in Helymus, and next the palm Diores bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But over all the concourse set in hollow dale, and o'er</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The heads of those first father-lords goes Salius' clamouring speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who for his glory reft away by guile doth still beseech.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But safe goodwill and goodly tears Euryalus do bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lovelier seemeth valour set in body wrought so fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him too Diores backeth now, and crieth out on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose palm of praise and third-won place shall fail and pass him by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If the first glory once again at Salius' bidding shift.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then sayeth Father Æneas: "O fellows, every gift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall bide unmoved: the palm of praise shall no man now displace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet for my sackless friend's mishap give me some pity's grace."</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and unto Salius gave a mighty lion's hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Getulian born, with weight of hair and golden claws beside:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Nisus spake: "If such great gifts are toward for beaten men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou must pity those that fall, what gift is worthy then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Nisus? I, who should have gained the very victory's crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If me, as Salius, Fate my foe had never overthrown."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And even as he speaks the word he showeth face and limb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foul with the mud. The kindest lord, the Father, laughed on him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade them bring a buckler forth, wrought of Didymaon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spoil of the Greeks, from Neptune's house and holy doors undone;</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there unto the noble youth he gives that noble thing.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But now, the race all overpassed and all the gift-giving,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quoth he: "If any valour hath, or heart that may withstand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him come forth to raise his arm with hide-begirded hand."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, for the fight to come he sets forth glories twain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A steer gilt-horned and garlanded the conquering man should gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sword and noble helm should stay the vanquished in his woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tarrying was there: Dares straight his face to all doth show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And riseth in his mighty strength amidst the murmur great:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He who alone of all men erst with Paris held debate,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And he who at the mound wherein that mightiest Hector lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had smitten Butes' body huge, the winner of the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who called him come of Amycus and that Bebrycian land:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Dares stretched him dying there upon the yellow sand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such was the Dares that upreared his head against the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And showed his shoulders' breadth and drave his fists to left and right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With arms cast forth, as heavy strokes he laid upon the air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they sought a man for him, midst all the concourse there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was none durst meet him: not a hand the fighting-glove would don:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore, high-hearted, deeming now the prize from all was won,</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He stood before Æneas' feet nor longer tarrièd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with his left hand took the steer about the horn and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born, if no man dares to trust him in the play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What end shall be of standing here; must I abide all day?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid them bring forth the gifts."<br /></span> +<span class="i32">Therewith they cried out one and all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan folk, to give the gifts that due to him did fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with hard words Acestes now Entellus falls to chide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As on the bank of grassy green they sat there side by side,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Entellus, bravest hero once of all men, and for nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thou wilt let them bear away without a battle fought</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Such gifts as these. And where is he, thy master then, that God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Eryx, told of oft in vain? where is thy fame sown broad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all Trinacria, where the spoils hung up beneath thy roof?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nay," said he, "neither love of fame nor glory holds aloof<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beaten by fear, but cold I grow with eld that holdeth back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My blood is dull, my might gone dry with all my body's lack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, had I that which once I had, that which the rascal there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trusts in with idle triumphing, the days of youth the dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then had I come into the fight by no gift-giving led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No goodly steer: nought heed I gifts."</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i39">And with the last word said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fighting gloves of fearful weight amidst of them he cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith the eager Eryx' hands amid the play had passed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full oft; with hardened hide of them his arms he used to bind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men's hearts were mazed; such seven bull-hides each other in them lined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So stiff they were with lead sewn in and iron laid thereby;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chief of all was Dares mazed, and drew back utterly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the great-souled Anchises' seed that weight of gauntlets weighed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here and there he turned about their mighty folds o'erlaid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then drew the elder from his breast words that were like to these:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah, had ye seen the gloves that armed the very Hercules,</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And that sad battle foughten out upon this country shore!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these are arms indeed that erst thy kinsmen Eryx bore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, ye may see them even now flecked with the blood and brain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With these Alcides he withstood; with these I too was fain</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of war, while mightier blood gave might, nor envious eld as yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On either temple of my head the hoary hairs had set.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if this Dares out of Troy refuse our weapons still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And good Æneas doom it so, and so Acestes will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My fight-lord; make the weapons like: these gloves of Eryx here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take aback: be not afraid, but doff thy Trojan gear."</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and from his back he cast his twifold cloak adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And naked his most mighty limbs and shoulders huge were shown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the midmost of the sand a giant there he stood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith Anchises' seed brought forth gloves even-matched and good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so at last with gear alike the arms of each he bound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then straightway each one stretched aloft on tip-toe from the ground:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They cast their mighty arms abroad, nor any fear they know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while their lofty heads they draw abackward from the blow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so they mingle hands with hands and fall to wake the fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one a-trusting in his youth and nimbler feet and light;</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The other's bulk of all avail, but, trembling, ever shrank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His heavy knees, and breathing short for ever shook his flank.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full many a stroke those mighty men cast each at each in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick fall they on the hollow sides; the breasts ring out again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With mighty sound; and eager-swift the hands full often stray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round ears and temples; crack the jaws beneath that heavy play:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one set strain, not moving aught, heavy Entellus stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By body's sway and watchful eye shunning the dart of hands:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Dares is as one who brings the gin 'gainst high-built town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or round about some mountain-hold the leaguer setteth down:</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now here now there he falleth on, and putteth art to pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At every place, and holds them strait with onset all in vain.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Entellus, rising to the work, his right hand now doth show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upreared; but he, the nimble one, foresaw the falling blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above him, and his body swift writhed skew-wise from the fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entellus spends his stroke on air, and, overborne withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heavy thing, falls heavily to earth, a mighty weight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As whiles a hollow-eaten pine on Erymanthus great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or mighty Ida, rooted up, to earthward toppling goes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Teucrian and Trinacrian folk with wondrous longing rose,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shouts went skyward: thither first the King Acestes ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pitying his like-aged friend raised up the fallen man;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who neither slackened by his fall, nor smit by any fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gets back the eagerer to the fight, for anger strength doth stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shame and conscious valour lights his ancient power again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In headlong flight his fiery wrath drives Dares o'er the plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whiles his right hand showereth strokes, his left hand raineth whiles.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tarrying and no rest there is; as hail-storm on the tiles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rattleth, so swift with either hand the eager hero now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beats on and batters Dares down, and blow is laid on blow.</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the Father Æneas no longer might abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entellus' bitter rage of soul or lengthening anger's tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But laid an end upon the fight therewith, and caught away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dares foredone, and soothing words in such wise did he say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Unhappy man, what madness then hath hold upon thine heart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feel'st not another might than man's, and Heaven upon his part?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yield to the Gods!"<br /></span> +<span class="i20">So 'neath his word the battle sank to peace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Dares his true fellows took, trailing his feeble knees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lolling his head from side to side, the while his sick mouth sent</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The clotted blood from out of it wherewith the teeth were blent.</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They lead him to the ships; then, called, they take the helm and sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But leave Entellus' bull and palm, the victory's due reward;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, high of heart, proud in the beast his conquering hand did earn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born," he said, "and ye, O Teucrians, look, and learn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What might was in my body once, ere youth it had to lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what the death whence Dares saved e'en now ye draw aback."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and at the great bull's head straightway he took his stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As there it bode the prize of fight, and drawing back his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose to the blow, and 'twixt the horns sent forth the hardened glove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And back upon his very brain the shattered skull he drove.</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Down fell the beast and on the earth lay quivering, outstretched, dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While over him from his inmost breast such words Entellus said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Eryx, this soul, a better thing, for Dares doomed to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give thee, and victorious here my gloves and craft lay by."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forth now Æneas biddeth all who have a mind to strive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At speeding of the arrow swift, and gifts thereto doth give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with his mighty hand the mast from out Serestus' keel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Uprears; and there a fluttering dove, mark for the flying steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tied to a string he hangeth up athwart the lofty mast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then meet the men; a brazen helm catches the lots down cast:</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And, as from out their favouring folk ariseth up the shout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hippocoon, son of Hyrtacus, before the rest leaps out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Mnestheus, who was victor erst in ship upon the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes after: Mnestheus garlanded with olive greenery.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third-come was Eurytion, thy brother, O renowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Pandarus, who, bidden erst the peace-troth to confound,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wert first amid Achæan host to send a wingèd thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But last, at bottom of the helm, Acestes' name did cling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who had the heart to try the toil amid the youthful rout.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then with their strength of all avail they bend the bows about</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Each for himself: from quiver then the arrows forth they take:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first from off the twanging string through heaven there went the wake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of shaft of young Hyrtacides, and clave the flowing air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, flying home, amid the mast that stood before it there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It stuck: the mast shook therewithal; the frighted, timorous bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fluttered her wings; and mighty praise all round about was heard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then stood forth Mnestheus keen, and drew his bow unto the head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aiming aloft; and shaft and eyes alike therewith he sped;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, worthy of all pitying, the very bird he missed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But had the hap to shear the knots and lines of hempen twist</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whereby, all knitted to her foot, she to the mast was tied:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But flying toward the winds of heaven and mirky mist she hied.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then swift Eurytion, who for long had held his arrow laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On ready bow-string, vowed, and called his brother unto aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sighted her all joyful now amidst the void of sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And smote her as she clapped her wings 'neath the black cloud on high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then dead she fell, and mid the stars of heaven her life she left,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, falling, brought the shaft aback whereby her heart was cleft.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Acestes now was left alone, foiled of the victory's prize.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No less the father sent his shot aloft unto the skies,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fain to set forth his archer-craft and loud-resounding bow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then to men's eyes all suddenly a portent there did show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty sign of things to come, the ending showed how great</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">When seers, the shakers of men's hearts, sang over it too late.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, flying through the flowing clouds, the swift reed burned about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And marked its road with flaming wake, and, eaten up, died out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid the thin air: as oft the stars fly loose from heaven's roof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And run adown the space of sky with hair that flies aloof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trinacrian men and Teucrian men, staring aghast they stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying the Gods: but mightiest Æneas held for good</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That tokening, and Acestes takes as one all glad at heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loadeth him with many gifts, and suchwise speaks his part:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Take them, O father, for indeed by such a sign I wot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Olympus' King will have thee win all honour without lot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This gift thou hast, Anchises' self, the ancient, had before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bowl all stamped with images, which Cisseus once of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Thracian, to my father gave, that he might bear the same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A very tokening of his love and memory of his name."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, a garland of green bay he doth his brows about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And victor over all the men Acestes giveth out:</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor did the good Eurytion grudge his honour so preferred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though he alone from height of heaven had brought adown the bird:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he came next in gift-giving who sheared the string, and last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was he who set his wingèd reed amidmost of the mast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now had Æneas called to him, ere yet the match was done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The child of Epytus, the guard, and fellow of his son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beardless Iulus, and so spake into his faithful ear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Go thou and bid Ascanius straight, if ready dight with gear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hath that army of the lads, and fair array of steeds,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To bring unto his grandsire now, himself in warlike weeds,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That host of his."<br /></span> +<span class="i19">The lord meanwhile biddeth all folk begone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who into the long course had poured, and leave the meadow lone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then come the lads: in equal ranks before their fathers' eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shine upon their bitted steeds, and wondering murmurs rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From men of Troy and Sicily as on their ways they fare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Due crown of well-ordainèd leaves bindeth their flowing hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each a pair of cornel shafts with iron head doth hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some the polished quiver bear at shoulder: limber gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ringing the neck with twisted stem, high on the breast is shown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three companies of horse they are by tale, and up and down</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Three captains ride, and twice six lads each leadeth to the war:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In bands of even tale they shine, and like their leaders are.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their first array all glad at heart doth little Priam lead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who from his grandsire had his name, thy well-renowned seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Polites, fated to beget Italian folk: him bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Thracian piebald flecked with white, whose feet were white before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And white withal the crest of him that high aloft he flung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next Atys came, from whence the stem of Latin Atii sprung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young Atys, whom Iulus young most well-beloved did call:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iulus last, in goodliness so far excelling all,</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon a horse of Sidon came, whom that bright Dido gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be a token of her love, her memory to save.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On horses of Acestes old, Trinacrian-nurtured beasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The others of the youth are borne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With praise they greet their fluttering hearts and look on them with joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those Dardan folk, who see in them the ancient eyes of Troy.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But after they had fared on steed the concourse all about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the faces of their folk, Epytides did shout<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The looked-for sign afar to them, and cracked withal his whip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then evenly they fall apart, in threesome order slip</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their cloven ranks; but, called again, aback upon their way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They turn, and threatening levelled spears against each other lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then they to other onset now and other wheeling take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In bands opposed, and tanglements of ring on ring they make;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So with their weapons every show of very fight they stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now they bare their backs in flight, and now they turn the spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hostile wise; now side by side in plighted peace they meet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en as they tell of Labyrinth that lies in lofty Crete,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A road with blind walls crossed and crossed, an ever-shifting trap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of thousand ways, where he who seeks upon no sign may hap,</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But midst of error, blind to seize or follow back, 'tis gone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise Troy's little ones the tangle follow on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At top of speed, and interweave the flight and battle's play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the dolphins, swimming swift amid the watery way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleave Libyan or Carpathian sea and sport upon the wave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This guise of riding, such-like play, his folk Ascanius gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once more, when round the Long White Stead the walls of war he drew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withal the Ancient Latin Folk he taught the games to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Suchwise as he a lad had learned with lads from Troy that came:</span><span class='linenum'>599</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That same the Albans taught their sons; most mighty Rome that same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Took to her thence, and honoured so her sires of yore agone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now name of Troy and Trojan host the play and boys have won.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus far unto the Holy Sire the games were carried through,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">When Fortune turned her faith at last and changed her mind anew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For while the diverse hallowed games about the tomb they spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saturnian Juno Iris fair from heights of heaven hath sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the Ilian ships, and breathed fair wind behind her ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sore she brooded, nor had spent her wrath of ancient days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So now the maid sped swift along her thousand-coloured bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swiftly ran adown the path where none beheld her go.</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there she saw that gathering great, and swept the strand with eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw the haven void of folk, the ships unheeded lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But far away on lonely beach the Trojan women weep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lost Anchises; and all they look ever on the deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid their weeping: "Woe are we! what waters yet abide!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What ocean-waste for weary folk!" So one and all they cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all they yearn for city's rest: sea-toil is loathsome grown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So she, not lacking craft of guile, amidst them lighted down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she hath put away from her God's raiment and God's mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And but as wife of Doryclus, the Tmarian man, is seen,</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Old Beroë, who once had sons and lordly race and name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the Dardan mother-folk such wise the Goddess came:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O wretched ones!" she said, "O ye whom armed Achæan hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dragged not to death before the walls that stayed your fatherland!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy folk! and why hath Fate held back your doom till now?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seventh year is on the turn since Troy-town's overthrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we all seas the while, all lands, all rocks and skies that hate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The name of guest, have wandered o'er, and through the sea o'ergreat<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span><span class="i0">Still chase that fleeing Italy mid wallowing waters tossed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, here is Eryx' brother-land; Acestes is our host;</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What banneth us to found our walls and lawful cities gain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Fatherland! O House-Gods snatched from midst the foe in vain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall no walls more be called of Troy? Shall I see never more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Xanthus or Simoïs, like the streams where Hector dwelt of yore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come on, and those unhappy ships burn up with aid of me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For e'en now mid the dreams of sleep Cassandra did I see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gave me burning brand, and said, 'Here seek your Troy anew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the house that ye shall have.'—And now is time to do!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tarrying with such tokens toward! Lo, altars four are here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Neptune: very God for us heart and the fire doth bear!"</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, first she caught upon the fiery bane, and raised<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her hand aloft, and mightily she whirled it as it blazed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cast it: but the Ilian wives, their straining hearts are torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their souls bewildered: one of them, yea, and their eldest-born,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pyrgo, the queenly fosterer of many a Priam's son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cried: "Mothers, nay no Beroë, nay no Rhoeteian one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wife of Doryclus is this: lo, Godhead's beauty there!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold the gleaming of her eyes, note how she breathes the air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Note ye her countenance and voice, the gait wherewith she goes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, I myself left Beroë e'en now amidst her woes;</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sick, sad at heart that she alone must fail from such a deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor bear unto Anchises' ghost his glory's righteous meed."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such were the words she spake to them.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now those mothers, at the first doubtful, with evil eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gazed on the ships awhile between unhappy craving stayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For land they stood on, and the thought of land that Fortune bade:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo! with even spread of wings the Goddess rose to heaven,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And in her flight the cloudy lift with mighty bow was riven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, wildered by such tokens dread, pricked on by maddened hearts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shrieking they snatch the hearthstone's fire and brand from inner parts;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While some, they strip the altars there, and flaming leaf and bough</span><span class='linenum'>661</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cast forth: and Vulcan, let aloose, is swiftly raging now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the thwarts, along the oars, and stems of painted fir.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now with news of flaming ships there goes a messenger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eumelus, to Anchises' tomb, and theatre-seats, and they<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look round themselves and see the soot black in the smoke-cloud play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then first Ascanius, e'en as blithe the riding-play he led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So eager now he rode his ways to camp bewilderèd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nowise might they hold him back, his masters spent of breath.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O what new madness then is this? What, what will ye?" he saith.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O wretched townswomen, no foe, no camp of Argive men</span><span class='linenum'>671</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ye burn, but your own hopes ye burn. Lo, your Ascanius then!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith before their feet he cast his empty helm afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dight wherewithal he stirred in sport that image of the war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thither now Æneas sped, and crowd of Teucrian folk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereat the women diversely along the sea-shore broke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fleeing afeard, and steal to woods and whatso hollow den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And loathe their deed, and loathe the light, as changed they know again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their very friends, and Juno now from every heart is cast.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But none the less the flaming rage for ever holdeth fast</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With might untamed; the fire lives on within the timbers wet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The caulking sends forth sluggish smoke, the slow heat teeth doth set</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon the keel; to inmost heart down creeps the fiery bale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all the might of mighty men nor rivers poured avail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then good Æneas from his back the raiment off him tore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And called the Gods to aid, and high his palms to heaven upbore:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Great Jove, if not all utterly a hater thou art grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Trojan folk, and if thy love of old yet looketh down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On deeds of men, give to our ships to win from out the flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Father, now, and snatch from death the feeble Teucrian name,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or else thrust down the remnant left, if so we merit aught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bolt of death, and with thine hand sweep us away to nought!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had he given forth the word, ere midst outpouring rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black storm rageth measureless, and earthly height and plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shake to the thundering; all the sky casts forth confusèd flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most black with gathering of the South: then all the ship-hulls stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilled with water of the heavens; the half-burned oak was drenched,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until at last to utmost spark the smouldering fire is quenched,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the ships escaped the bane of fiery end save four.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, shaken by such bitter hap, Father Æneas bore</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This way and that; and turned the cares on all sides in his breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether amid Sicilian fields to set him down in rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgetting Fate, or yet to strive for shores of Italy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the old Nautes, whom erewhile had Pallas set on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By her exceeding plenteous craft and lore that she had taught:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She gave him answers; telling him how wrath of God was wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how it showed, and what the law of fate would ask and have:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This man unto Æneas now such words of solace gave:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Goddess-born, Fate's ebb and flow still let us follow on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whate'er shall be, by bearing all must Fortune's fight be won.</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Dardan Acestes have ye here, sprung of the Godhead's seed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take his goodwill and fellowship to help thee in thy rede.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give him the crews of those burnt ships; to him let such-like go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As faint before thy mighty hope and shifting weal and woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mothers weary of the sea, the elders spent with years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whatsoever feeble is and whatsoever fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Choose out, and in this land of his walls let the weary frame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they their town by leave of thee shall e'en Acesta name."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So was he kindled by the speech of that wise ancient friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet still down every way of care his thought he needs must send.</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the wain of mirky night was holding middle sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, his father's image seemed to fall from heaven the high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And suddenly Anchises' lips such words to him poured forth:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O son, that while my life abode more than my life wert worth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O son, well learned in Ilium's fates, hither my ways I take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Jove's commands, who even now the fiery bane did slake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid thy ships, and now at last in heaven hath pitied thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yield thou to elder Nautes' redes; exceeding good they be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very flower of all thy folk, the hearts that hardiest are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take thou to Italy; for thee in Latium bideth war</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With hardy folk of nurture rude: but first must thou be gone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To nether dwelling-place of Dis: seek thou to meet me, son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across Avernus deep: for me the wicked house of hell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dusk unhappy holdeth not; in pleasant place I dwell,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Elysium, fellowship of good: there shall the holy Maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Sibyl, bring thee; plenteous blood of black-wooled ewes being paid:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shalt thou learn of all thy race, and gift of fated walls.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now farewell: for dewy night from mid way-faring falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The panting steeds of cruel dawn are on me with their breath."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and midst thin air he fled as smoke-wreath vanisheth.</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Where rushest thou?" Æneas cried: "where hurriest thou again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom fleest thou? who driveth thee from these embraces fain?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, the flame asleep in ash he busied him to wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And worshipped with the censer full and holy-kneaded cake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sacred Vesta's shrine and God of Pergamean wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then for his fellows doth he send, Acestes first of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And teacheth them of Jove's command, and what his sire beloved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had bidden him, and whitherwise his heart thereto was moved.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tarrying there was therein, Acestes gainsaid nought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They write the mothers on the roll; thither a folk is brought,</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Full willing hearts, who nothing crave the great reward of fame:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they themselves shape thwarts anew; and timbers gnawed by flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make new within their ships again, and oars and rudders fit.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little band it is by tale, but valour lives in it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas marketh out the city with the plough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, portioning the houses out, bids Troy and Ilium grow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith Acestes, Trojan king, joys in his lordship fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sets forth the court, and giveth laws to fathers gathered there:<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span><span class="i0">Then on the head of Eryx huge a house that neareth heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Venus of Idalia is reared: a priest is given</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And holy grove wide spread around, where old Anchises lay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now all the folk for nine days' space have made them holyday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And worshipped God; and quiet winds have lowly laid the main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever gentle Southern breath woos to the deep again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then all along the hollow shore ariseth weeping great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'twixt farewells and many a kiss a night and day they wait:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea e'en the mothers, yea e'en they to whom so hard and drear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea had seemed, a dreadful name they had no heart to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are fain to go, are fain to take all toil the way may find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom good Æneas solaceth with friendly words and kind,</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As to Acestes' kindred heart weeping he giveth them.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three calves to Eryx then he bids slay on the ocean's hem;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wind and weather an ewe lamb; then biddeth cast aloose:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he himself, begarlanded with olive clippèd close,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stands, cup in hand, on furthest prow, and casts upon the brine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inner meat, and poureth forth the flowing of the wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They gather way; springs up astern the fair and following breeze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fellows strive in smiting brine and sweep the level seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But meanwhile Venus, sorely stirred by cares and all unrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath speech of Neptune, pouring forth complaining from her breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The cruel wrath that Juno bears, and heart insatiate,</span><span class='linenum'>781</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Drive me, O Neptune, prayer-fulfilled upon thy power to wait:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She softeneth not by lapse of days nor piety's increase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yielding unto Jove and Fate from troubling will she cease.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis not enough to tear away from heart of Phrygian folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their city by her cruel hate; nor with all ills to yoke</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Troy's remnant; but its ash and bones through death she followeth on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! doth her own heart know the deed that all this wrath hath won?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be thou my witness how of late she stirred up suddenly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild tumult of the Libyan sea! all waters with the sky</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She mingled, trusting all in vain to storm of Æolus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This in thy very realm she dared.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en now mad hearts to Trojan wives by wickedness she gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And foully burned his ships; and him with crippled ship-host drave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To leave his fellow-folk behind upon an outland shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee let the remnant left sail safe thine ocean o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let them come where into sea Laurentian Tiber falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If right I ask, and unto these Fate giveth fateful walls."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Saturn's son, the sea-tamer, gave forth such words as these:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"'Tis utter right, O Cytherean, to trust thee to my seas,</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whence thou wert born; and I myself deserve no less; e'en I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who oft for thee refrain the rage of maddened sea and sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor less upon the earth my care Æneas did embrace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Xanthus and Simoïs witness it!—When, following up the chace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The all-unheartened host of Troy 'gainst Troy Achilles bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a thousand gave to death; choked did the rivers roar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any way might Xanthus find to roll his flood to sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas then in hollow cloud I caught away, when he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would meet Pelides' might with hands and Gods not strong enow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, that was when from lowest base I wrought to overthrow</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The walls of that same Troy forsworn my very hands had wrought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now cast all thy fear away, my mind hath shifted nought;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Avernus' haven shall he reach, e'en as thou deemest good,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And one alone of all his folk shall seek amidst the flood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One head shall pay for all the rest."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So when these words had brought to peace the Goddess' joyful heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Father yokes his steeds with gold, and bridles the wild things<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With o'erfoamed bit, and loose in hand the rein above them flings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And light in coal-blue car he flies o'er topmost of the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waves sink down, the heaped main lays his waters peacefully</span><span class='linenum'>820</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Before the thunder of his wheels; from heaven all cloud-flecks fail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, diverse bodies of his folk; lo, many a mighty whale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Glaucus' ancient fellowship, Palæmon Ino's son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tritons swift, and all the host that Phorcus leadeth on;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maid Panopea and Melite, Cymodoce the fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nesæa, Spio, and Thalia, with Thetis leftward bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now to Æneas' overstrained heart the kindly joy and soft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sinks deep: herewith he biddeth men raise all the masts aloft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At swiftest, and along the yards to spread the sails to wind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So all sheet home together then; then leftward with one mind</span><span class='linenum'>830</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They tack; then tack again to right: the yard-horns up in air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shift and shift, while kindly winds seaward the ship-host bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But first before all other keels did Palinurus lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The close array, and all were charged to have his course in heed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now the midmost place of heaven had dewy night drawn nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'neath the oars on benches hard scattered the shipmen lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who all the loosened limbs of them to gentle rest had given;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, the very light-winged Sleep stooped from the stars of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrusting aside the dusky air and cleaving night atwain:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The sackless Palinure he sought with evil dreams and vain.</span><span class='linenum'>840</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So on the high poop sat the God as Phorbas fashionèd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as he sat such-like discourse from out his mouth he shed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Iasian Palinure, unasked the waves our ship-host bear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft blow the breezes steadily; the hour for rest is here:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay down thine head, steal weary eyes from toil a little space,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will do thy deeds awhile and hold me in thy place."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Palinure with scarce-raised eyes e'en such an answer gave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"To gentle countenance of sea and quiet of the wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deem'st thou me dull? would'st have me trow in such a monster's truth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shall I mine Æneas trust to lying breeze forsooth,</span><span class='linenum'>850</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I, fool of peaceful heaven and sea so many times of old?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying to the helm he clung, nor ever left his hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the while the stars above his eyen toward them drew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, the God brought forth a bough wet with Lethean dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sleepy with the might of Styx, and shook it therewithal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over his brow, and loosed his lids delaying still to fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But scarce in first of stealthy sleep his limbs all loosened lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, weighing on him, did he tear a space of stern away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rolled him, helm and wrack and all, into the flowing wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Headlong, and crying oft in vain for fellowship to save:</span><span class='linenum'>860</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then Sleep himself amid thin air flew, borne upon the wing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No less the ship-host sails the sea, its safe way following<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Untroubled 'neath the plighted word of Father Neptune's mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to the Sirens' rocks they draw, a dangerous pass forsooth</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In yore agone, now white with bones of many a perished man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence ever roared the salt sea now as on the rocks it ran;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the Father felt the ship fare wild and fitfully,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her helmsman lost; so he himself steered o'er the night-tide sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore weeping; for his fellow's end his inmost heart did touch:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Palinure, that trowed the sky and soft seas overmuch,</span><span class='linenum'>870</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now naked on an unknown shore thy resting-place shall be!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_VI" id="BOOK_VI"></a>BOOK VI.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS COMETH TO THE SIBYL OF CUMÆ, AND BY HER IS LED INTO THE +UNDER-WORLD, AND THERE BEHOLDETH MANY STRANGE THINGS, AND IN THE END +MEETETH HIS FATHER, ANCHISES, WHO TELLETH HIM OF THE DAYS TO COME.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake he weeping, and his host let loose from every band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until at last they draw anigh Cumæ's Euboean strand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They turn the bows from off the main; the toothèd anchors' grip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes fast the keels; the shore is hid by many a curvèd ship.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hot-heart the youthful company leaps on the Westland's shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Part falleth on to seek them out the seed of fiery store<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That flint-veins hide; part runneth through the dwellings of the deer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thicket steads, and each to each the hidden streams they bare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But good Æneas seeks the house where King Apollo bides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty den, the secret place set far apart, that hides</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The awful Sibyl, whose great soul and heart he seeketh home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Seer of Delos, showing her the hidden things to come:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so the groves of Trivia and golden house they gain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Dædalus, as tells the tale, fleeing from Minos' reign,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Durst trust himself to heaven on wings swift hastening, and swim forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the road ne'er tried before unto the chilly north;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So light at last o'er Chalcis' towers he hung amid the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, come adown to earth once more, to thee he hallowed here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Phœbus, all his wingèd oars, and built thee mighty fane:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Androgeus' death was on the doors; then paying of the pain</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">By those Cecropians; bid, alas, each year to give in turn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seven bodies of their sons;—lo there, the lots drawn from the urn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But facing this the Gnosian land draws up amid the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is the cruel bull-lust wrought, and there Pasiphaë<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Embraced by guile: the blended babe is there, the twiformed thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Minotaur, that evil sign of Venus' cherishing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the tangled house and toil that ne'er should be undone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ruth of Dædalus himself a queen's love-sorrow won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he himself undid the snare and winding wilderment.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guiding the blind feet with the thread. Thou, Icarus, wert blent</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Full oft with such a work be sure, if grief forbade it not;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But twice he tried to shape in gold the picture of thy lot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twice the father's hands fell down.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Long had their eyes read o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such matters, but Achates, now, sent on a while before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was come with that Deïphobe, the Glaucus' child, the maid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Phœbus and of Trivia, and such a word she said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The hour will have no tarrying o'er fair shows for idle eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twere better from an unyoked herd seven steers to sacrifice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en so many hosts of ewes in manner due culled out."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake; her holy bidding then the warriors go about,</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor tarry: into temple high she calls the Teucrian men,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where the huge side of Cumæ's rock is carven in a den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where are an hundred doors to come, an hundred mouths to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence e'en so many awful sounds, the Sibyl's answers flow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But at the threshold cried the maid: "Now is the hour awake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For asking—Ah, the God, the God!"<br /></span> +<span class="i36">And as the word she spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the door, all suddenly her visage and her hue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were changed, and all her sleekèd hair, and gasping breath she drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the rage her wild heart swelled, and greater was she grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor mortal-voiced; for breath of God upon her heart was blown</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As He drew nigher:<br /></span> +<span class="i20">"Art thou dumb of vows and prayers, forsooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trojan Æneas, art thou dumb? unprayed, the mighty mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of awe-mazed house shall open not."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">Even such a word she said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then hushed: through hardened Teucrian bones swift ran the chilly dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straight the king from inmost heart the flood of prayers doth pour:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Phœbus, who all the woe of Troy hast pitied evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who Dardan shaft and Paris' hands in time agone didst speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against Achilles' body there, who me withal didst lead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the seas that go about so many a mighty land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through those Massylian folks remote, and length of Syrtes' sand,</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Till now I hold that Italy that ever drew aback;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now perchance a Trojan fate we, even we may lack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye now, O Gods and Goddesses, to whom a stumbling-stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was Ilium in the days of old, and Dardan folk's renown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May spare the folk of Pergamus. But thou, O holiest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Maid that knowest things to come, grant thou the Latin rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Teucrian men, and Gods of Troy, the straying way-worn powers!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For surely now no realm I ask but such as Fate makes ours.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Phœbus and to Trivia then a temple will I raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A marble world; in Phœbus' name will hallow festal days:</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thee also in our realm to be full mighty shrines await,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There will I set thine holy lots and hidden words of fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said to my folk, and hallow there well-chosen men for thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Holy One: But give thou not thy songs to leaf of tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest made a sport to hurrying gales confusedly they wend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sing them thou thyself, I pray!"<br /></span> +<span class="i38">Therewith his words had end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the Seer-maid, not yet tamed to Phœbus, raves about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cave, still striving from her breast to cast the godhead out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But yet the more the mighty God her mouth bewildered wears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taming her wild heart, fashioning her soul with weight of fears.</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">At last the hundred mighty doors fly open, touched of none,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the air the answer floats of that foreseeing one:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Thou, who dangers of the sea hast throughly worn away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abides thee heavier toil of earth: the Dardans on a day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall come to that Lavinian land,—leave fear thereof afar:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet of their coming shall they rue. Lo, war, war, dreadful war!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tiber bearing plenteous blood upon his foaming back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Simoïs there, nor Xanthus' stream, nor Dorian camp shall lack:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, once again in Latin land Achilles is brought forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God-born no less: nor evermore shall mighty Juno's wrath</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fail Teucrian men. Ah, how shalt thou, fallen on evil days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all Italian lands and folks thine hands beseeching raise!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, once again a stranger bride brings woeful days on Troy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once more the wedding of a foe.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But thou, yield not to any ill, but set thy face, and wend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bolder where thy fortune leads; the dawn of perils' end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence least thou mightest look for it, from Greekish folk shall come."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Suchwise the Seer of Cumæ sang from out her inner home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dreadful double words, wherewith the cavern moans again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As sooth amid the mirk she winds: Apollo shakes the rein</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Over the maddened one, and stirs the strings about her breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when her fury lulled awhile and maddened mouth had rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hero Æneas thus began:<br /></span> +<span class="i24">"No face of any care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O maiden, can arise on me in any wise unware:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, all have I forecast; my mind hath worn through everything.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One prayer I pray, since this they call the gateway of the King<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Nether-earth, and Acheron's o'erflow this mirky mere:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O let me meet the eyes and mouth of my dead father dear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O open me the holy gate, and teach me where to go!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bore him on these shoulders once from midmost of the foe,</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From flame and weapons thousandfold against our goings bent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My yoke-fellow upon the road o'er every sea he went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Gainst every threat of sea and sky a hardy heart he held,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though worn and feeble past decay and feebleness of eld.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, he it was who bade me wend, a suppliant, to thy door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seek thee out: O holy one, cast thou thy pity o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father and son! All things thou canst, nor yet hath Hecaté<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set thee to rule Avernus' woods an empty Queen to be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, Orpheus wrought with Thracian harp and strings of tuneful might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To draw away his perished love from midmost of the night.</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, Pollux, dying turn for turn, his brother borrowed well,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And went and came the road full oft—Of Theseus shall I tell?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or great Alcides? Ah, I too from highest Jove am sprung."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such were the words he prayed withal and round the altars clung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then she fell speaking:<br /></span> +<span class="i24">"Man of Troy, from blood of Godhead grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises' child, Avernus' road is easy faring down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All day and night is open wide the door of Dis the black;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thence to gain the upper air, and win the footsteps back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the deed, this is the toil: Some few have had the might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beloved by Jove the just, upborne to heaven by valour's light,</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Sons of God. 'Twixt it and us great thicket fills the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That slow Cocytus' mirky folds all round about embrace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if such love be in thine heart, such yearning in thee lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To swim twice o'er the Stygian mere and twice to see with eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Black Tartarus, and thou must needs this idle labour win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearken what first there is to do: the dusky tree within<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lurks the gold bough with golden leaves and limber twigs of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To nether Juno consecrate; this all these woods enfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim shadowy places cover it amid the hollow dale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To come unto the under-world none living may avail</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Till he that growth of golden locks from off the tree hath shorn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this fair Proserpine ordained should evermore be borne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her very gift: but, plucked away, still faileth not the thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another golden stem instead hath leafy tide of spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So throughly search with eyes: thine hand aright upon it lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou hast found: for easily 'twill yield and come away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If the Fates call thee: otherwise no might may overbear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its will, nor with the hardened steel the marvel mayst thou shear.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">—Ah! further,—of thy perished friend as yet thou nothing know'st,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose body lying dead and cold defileth all thine host,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While thou beseechest answering words, and hangest on our door:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, bring him to his own abode and heap the grave mound o'er;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring forth the black-wooled ewes to be first bringing back of grace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So shalt thou see the Stygian groves, so shalt thou see the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hath no road for living men."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">So hushed her mouth shut close:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sad-faced and with downcast eyes therefrom Æneas goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leaves the cave, still turning o'er those coming things, so dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So dark to see. Achates fares nigh fellow unto him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever 'neath like load of cares he lets his footsteps fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many diverse words they cast each unto each withal,</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What was the dead friend and the grave whereof the seer did teach.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they gat them down at last upon the barren beach,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They saw Misenus lying dead by death but lightly earned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Misenus, son of Æolus; no man more nobly learned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In waking up the war with brass and singing Mars alight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great Hector's fellow was he erst, with Hector through the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thrust, by horn made glorious, made glorious by the spear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when from Hector life and all Achilles' hand did tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dardan Æneas' man became that mightiest under shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor unto any worser lord his fellowship would yield.</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now while by chance through hollow shell he blew across the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And witless called the very Gods his singing-foes to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The envious Triton caught him up, if ye the tale may trow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sank the hero 'twixt the rocks in foaming waters' flow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore about him weeping sore were gathered all the men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And good Æneas chief of all: the Sibyl's bidding then</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Weeping they speed, and loiter not, but heap the tree-boughs high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the altar of the dead to raise it to the sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then to the ancient wood they fare, high dwelling of wild things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They fell the pine, and 'neath the axe the smitten holm-oak rings;</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With wedge they cleave the ashen logs, and knitted oaken bole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full fain to split; and mighty elms down from the mountains roll.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Amid the work Æneas is, who hearteneth on his folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As with such very tools as they he girds him for the stroke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But through the sorrow of his heart such thought as this there strays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And looking toward the waste of wood such word as this he prays:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O if that very golden bough would show upon the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In such a thicket and so great; since all she told of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seer-maid, O Misenus lost, was true and overtrue!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But scarcely had he spoken thus, when lo, from heaven there flew</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Two doves before his very eyes, who settled fluttering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the green grass: and therewithal that mightiest battle-king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knoweth his mother's birds new-come, and joyful poureth prayer:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O, if a way there be at all, lead ye amid the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead on unto the thicket place where o'er the wealthy soil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rich bough casteth shadow down! Fail not my eyeless toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Goddess-mother!"<br /></span> +<span class="i20">So he saith, and stays his feet to heed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What token they may bring to him, and whitherward they speed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So on they flutter pasturing, with such a space between,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As they by eyes of following folk may scantly well be seen;</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when Avernus' jaws at last, the noisome place, they reach,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They rise aloft and skim the air, and settle each by each</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon the very wished-for place, yea high amid the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the changed light through twigs of gold shines forth diversedly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As in the woods mid winter's chill puts forth the mistletoe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bloometh with a leafage strange his own tree ne'er did sow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with his yellow children hath the rounded trunk in hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So in the dusky holm-oak seemed that bough of leafy gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As through the tinkling shaken foil the gentle wind went by:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then straight Æneas caught and culled the tough stem greedily,</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And to the Sibyl's dwelling-place the gift in hand he bore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less meanwhile the Teucrians weep Misenus on the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And do last service to the dead that hath no thanks to pay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first fat fagots of the fir and oaken logs they lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pile a mighty bale and rich, and weave the dusk-leaved trees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between its sides, and set before the funeral cypresses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over all in seemly wise the gleaming weapons pile:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But some speed fire bewavèd brass and water's warmth meanwhile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wash all o'er and sleek with oil the cold corpse of the dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes up the wail; the limbs bewept they streak upon the bed,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And cast thereon the purple cloths, the well-known noble gear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then some of them, they shoulder up the mighty-fashioned bier,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sad service! and put forth the torch with faces from him turned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fashion of the fathers old: there the heaped offerings burned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frankincense, the dainty meats, the bowls o'erflowed with oil.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the ashes were sunk down and fire had rest from toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The relics and the thirsty ash with unmixed wine they wet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the gleaned bones in brazen urn doth Corynæus set,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span><span class="i0">Who thrice about the gathered folk the stainless water bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from the fruitful olive-bough light dew he sprinkled o'er,</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And cleansed the men, and spake withal last farewell to the dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But good Æneas raised a tomb, a mound huge fashionèd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laid thereon the hero's arms and oar and battle-horn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath an airy hill that thence Misenus' name hath borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still shall bear it, not to die till time hath faded out.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This done, those deeds the Sibyl bade he setteth swift about:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A deep den is there, pebble-piled, with mouth that gapeth wide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Black mere and thicket shadowy-mirk the secret of it hide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over it no fowl there is may wend upon the wing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'scape the bane; its blackened jaws bring forth such venoming.</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Such is the breath it bears aloft unto the hollow heaven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to the place the Greekish folk have name of Fowl-less given.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here, first of all, four black-skinned steers the priestess sets in line,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the foreheads of all these out-pours the bowl of wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then 'twixt the horns she culleth out the topmost of the hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lays it on the holy fire, the first-fruits offered there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cries aloud on Hecaté, of might in heaven and hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While others lay the knife to throat and catch the blood that fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Warm in the bowls: Æneas then an ewe-lamb black of fleece<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smites down with sword to her that bore the dread Eumenides,</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And her great sister; and a cow yet barren slays aright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thee, O Proserpine, and rears the altars of the night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the Stygian King, and lays whole bulls upon the flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pouring rich oil upon the flesh that rush of fire o'ercame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now, when sunrise is at hand, and dawning of the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth falls moaning 'neath their feet, the wooded ridges sway,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And dogs seem howling through the dusk as now she drew anear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Goddess. "O be far away, ye unclean!" cries the seer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Be far away! ah, get ye gone from all the holy wood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, Æneas, draw thy steel and take thee to the road;</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now needeth all thine hardihood and steadfast heart and brave."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and wildly cast herself amidst the hollow cave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But close upon her fearless feet Æneas followeth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Gods, who rule the ghosts of men, O silent shades of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chaos and Phlegethon, hushed lands that lie beneath the night!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me speak now, for I have heard: O aid me with your might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To open things deep sunk in earth, and mid the darkness blent.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All dim amid the lonely night on through the dusk they went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On through the empty house of Dis, the land of nought at all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as beneath the doubtful moon, when niggard light doth fall</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon some way amid the woods, when God hath hidden heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And black night from the things of earth the colours dear hath driven.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, in the first of Orcus' jaws, close to the doorway side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Sorrows and Avenging Griefs have set their beds to bide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There the pale kin of Sickness dwells, and Eld, the woeful thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Fear, and squalid-fashioned Lack, and witless Hungering,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shapes terrible to see with eye; and Toil of Men, and Death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Sleep, Death's brother, and the Lust of Soul that sickeneth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And War, the death-bearer, was set full in the threshold's way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those Well-willers' iron beds: there heartless Discord lay,</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whose viper-breeding hair about was bloody-filleted.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But in the midst a mighty elm, dusk as the night, outspread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its immemorial boughs and limbs, where lying dreams there lurk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As tells the tale, still clinging close 'neath every leaf-side mirk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withal most wondrous, many-shaped are all the wood-beasts there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Centaurs stable by the porch, and twi-shaped Scyllas fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hundred-folded Briareus, and Lerna's Worm of dread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell hissing; and Chimæra's length and fire-behelmèd head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gorgons and Harpies, and the shape of that three-bodied Shade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then smitten by a sudden fear Æneas caught his blade,</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And turned the naked point and edge against their drawing nigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And but for her wise word that these were thin lives flitting by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All bodiless, and wrapped about in hollow shape and vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With idle sword had he set on to cleave the ghosts atwain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To Acheron of Tartarus from hence the road doth go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That mire-bemingled, whirling wild, rolls on his desert flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all amid Cocytus' flood casteth his world of sand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This flood and river's ferrying doth Charon take in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dread in his squalor: on his chin untrimmed the hoar hair lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most plenteous; and unchanging flame bides in his staring eyes:</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Down from his shoulders hangs his gear in filthy knot upknit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he himself poles on his ship, and tends the sails of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crawls with load of bodies lost in bark all iron-grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grown old by now: but fresh and green is godhead's latter day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down thither rushed a mighty crowd, unto the flood-side borne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mothers and men, and bodies there with all the life outworn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of great-souled heroes; many a boy and never-wedded maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And youths before their fathers' eyes upon the death-bale laid:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">As many as the leaves fall down in first of autumn cold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many as the gathered fowl press on to field and fold,</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From off the weltering ocean-flood, when the late year and chill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath driven them across the sea the sunny lands to fill.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There stood the first and prayed him hard to waft their bodies o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hands stretched out for utter love of that far-lying shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that grim sailor now takes these, now those from out the band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While all the others far away he thrusteth from the sand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas wondered at the press, and moved thereby he spoke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Say, Maid, what means this river-side, and gathering of the folk?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What seek the souls, and why must some depart the river's rim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While others with the sweep of oars the leaden waters skim?"</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereon the ancient Maid of Days in few words answered thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Anchises' seed, thou very child of Godhead glorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou seest the deep Cocytus' pools, thou seest the Stygian mere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By whose might Gods will take the oath, and all forswearing fear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all the wretched crowd thou seest are they that lack a grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Charon is the ferryman: those borne across the wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are buried: none may ever cross the awful roaring road<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until their bones are laid at rest within their last abode.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred years they stray about and wander round the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then they at last have grace to gain the pools desired so sore."</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There tarried then Anchises' child and stayed awhile his feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid many thoughts, and sore at heart, for such a doom unmeet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there he saw all sorrowful, without the death-dues dead,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Leucaspis, and Orontes, he that Lycian ship-host led;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom, borne from Troy o'er windy plain, the South wind utterly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'erwhelming, sank him, ships and men, in swallow of the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo ye now, where Palinure the helmsman draweth nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lately on the Libyan sea, noting the starry sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell from the high poop headlong down mid wavy waters cast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His sad face through the plenteous dusk Æneas knew at last,</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And spake:<br /></span> +<span class="i12">"What God, O Palinure, did snatch thee so away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From us thy friends and drown thee dead amidst the watery way?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speak out! for Seer Apollo, found no guileful prophet erst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By this one answer in my soul a lying hope hath nursed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who sang of thee safe from the deep and gaining field and fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of fair Ausonia: suchwise he his plighted word doth hold!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The other spake: "Apollo's shrine in nowise lied to thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King of Anchises, and no God hath drowned me in the sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But while I clung unto the helm, its guard ordained of right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And steered thee on, I chanced to fall, and so by very might</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Seaward I dragged it down with me. By the rough seas I swear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart, for any hap of mine, had no so great a fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As for thy ship; lest, rudderless, its master from it torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid so great o'ertoppling seas it yet might fail forlorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three nights of storm I drifted on, 'neath wind and water's might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the sea-plain measureless; but with the fourth day's light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There saw I Italy rise up from welter of the wave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And striving with my hookèd hands hold on the rocks to get:</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then slow I swam unto the land, that me well-nigh did save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But fell the cruel folk on me, heavy with raiment wet,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span><span class="i0">The fools, they took me for a prey, and steel against me bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now the waves have me, and the winds on sea-beach roll me o'er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But by the breath of heaven above, by daylight's joyous ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By thine own father, by the hope of young Iulus' days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatch me, O dauntless, from these woes, and o'er me cast the earth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As well thou may'st when thou once more hast gained the Veline firth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or if a way there be, if way thy Goddess-mother show,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For not without the will of Gods meseemeth wouldst thou go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er so great floods, or have a mind to swim the Stygian mere,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then give thine hand, and o'er the wave me woeful with thee bear,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That I at least in quiet place may rest when I am dead."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake he, but the priestess straight such word unto him said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Palinure, what godless mind hath gotten hold of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou the grim Well-willers' stream and Stygian flood wouldst see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unburied, and unbidden still the brim wilt draw anear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hope not the Fates of very God to change by any prayer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But take this memory of my words to soothe thy wretched case:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all their cities far and wide the people of the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driven by mighty signs from heaven, thy bones shall expiate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And raise thee tomb, and year by year with worship on thee wait;</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there the name of Palinure shall dwell eternally."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So at that word his trouble lulled, his grief of heart passed by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little while he joyed to think of land that bore his name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So forth upon their way they went and toward the river came;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when from Stygian wave their path the shipman's gaze did meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As through the dead hush of the grove shoreward they turned their feet,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">He fell upon them first with words and unbid chided them:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Whoe'er ye be who come in arms unto our river's hem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say what ye be! yea, speak from thence and stay your steps forthright!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the very place of shades, and sleep, and sleepful night;</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And living bodies am I banned in Stygian keel to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor soothly did I gain a joy, giving Alcides fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ferrying of Pirithoüs and Theseus time agone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though come of God they were and matched in valiancy of none:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sought the guard of Tartarus chains on his limbs to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the King's own seat he dragged the quaking beast away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those strove to carry off the Queen from great Dis' very bed."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Amphrysian prophet answering, few words unto him said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"But here are no such guiles as this, so let thy wrath go by:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our weapons bear no war; for us still shall the door-ward lie</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And bark in den, and fright the ghosts, the bloodless, evermore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall chaste Proserpine for us pass through her kinsman's door:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trojan Æneas, great in arms and great in godly grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes down through dark of Erebus to see his father's face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if such guise of piety may move thine heart no whit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At least this bough "—(bared from her weed therewith she showeth it)—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Know ye!"<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Then in his swelling heart adown the anger sank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor spake he more; but wondering at that gift a God might thank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fateful stem, now seen once more so long a time worn by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He turned about his coal-blue keel and drew the bank anigh</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The souls upon the long thwarts set therewith he thrusteth out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clears the gangway, and withal takes in his hollow boat</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The huge Æneas, 'neath whose weight the seamed boat groans and creaks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plenteous water of the mere lets in at many leaks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last the Hero and the Maid safe o'er the watery way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He leaveth on the ugly mire and sedge of sorry grey.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The three-mouthed bark of Cerberus here filleth all the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As huge he lieth in a den that hath them full in face:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the adders she beheld upon his crest upborne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sleepy morsel honey-steeped, and blent of wizards' corn,</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She cast him: then his threefold throat, all wild with hunger's lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He opened wide, and caught at it, and sank his monstrous back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there he lay upon the earth enormous through the cave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas caught upon the pass the door-ward's slumber gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fled the bank of that sad stream no man may pass again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many sounds they heard therewith, a wailing vast and vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For weeping souls of speechless babes round the first threshold lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom, without share of life's delight, snatched from the breast away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black day hurried off, and all in bitter ending hid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And next were those condemned to die for deed they never did:</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For neither doom nor judge nor house may any lack in death:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seeker Minos shakes the urn, and ever summoneth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hushed-ones' court, and learns men's lives and what against them stands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The next place is of woeful ones, who sackless, with their hands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Compassed their death, and weary-sick of light without avail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast life away; but now how fain to bear the poor man's bale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the heaven, the uttermost of weary toil to bear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But law forbiddeth: the sad wave of that unlovely mere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is changeless bond; and ninefold Styx compelleth to abide.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor far from thence behold the meads far spread on every side,</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Mourning Meads—in tale have they such very name and sign.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There those whom hard love ate away with cruel wasting pine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are hidden in the lonely paths with myrtle-groves about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor in the very death itself may wear their trouble out:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Phædra he saw, Procris he saw, and Eriphyle sad.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Baring that cruel offspring's wound her loving body had:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Evadne and Pasiphaë, Laodamia there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw, and Cænis, once a youth and then a maiden fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shifted by the deed of fate to his old shape again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Midst whom Phoenician Dido now, fresh from the iron bane,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Went wandering in the mighty wood: and when the Trojan man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First dimly knew her standing by amid the glimmer wan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en as in earliest of the month one sees the moon arise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or seems to see her at the least in cloudy drift of skies—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He spake, and let the tears fall down by all love's sweetness stirred:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Unhappy Dido, was it true, that bitter following word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou wert dead, by sword hadst sought the utter end of all?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it thy very death I wrought? Ah! on the stars I call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I call the Gods and whatso faith the nether earth may hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To witness that against my will I left thy field and fold!</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But that same bidding of the Gods, whereby e'en now I wend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through dark, through deserts rusty-rough, through night without an end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave me with doom. Nor held my heart in anywise belief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That my departure from thy land might work thee such a grief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O stay thy feet! nor tear thyself from my beholding thus.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom fleest thou? this word is all that Fate shall give to us."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such were the words Æneas spake to soothe her as she stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With stern eyes flaming, while his heart swelled with the woeful flood:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, turned away, her sick eyes still she fixed upon the earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor was her face moved any more by all his sad words' birth</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Than if Marpesian crag or flint had held her image so:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last she flung herself away, and fled, his utter foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the shady wood, where he, her husband of old days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gives grief for grief, and loving heart beside her loving lays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor less Æneas, smitten sore by her unworthy woes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tears and pity followeth her as far away she goes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But thence the meted way they wear, and reach the outer field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where dwell apart renownèd men, the mighty under shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Tydeus meets him; there he sees the great fight-glorious man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Parthenopæus; there withal Adrastus' image wan;</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there the Dardans battle-slain, for whom the wailing went<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To very heaven: their long array he saw with sad lament:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glaucus and Medon there he saw, Thersilochus, the three<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antenor-sons, and Polyphoete, by Ceres' mystery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made holy, and Idæus still in car with armèd hand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There on the right side and the left the straying spirits stand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor is one sight of him enough; it joyeth them to stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pace beside, asking for why he wendeth such a way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the lords of Danaan folk, and Agamemnon's hosts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold the man and gleaming arms amid the dusky ghosts,</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They fall a-quaking full of fear: some turn their back to fly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As erst they ran unto the ships; some raise a quavering cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But never from their gaping vain will swell the shout begun.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now Deïphobus he sees, the glorious Priam's son;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all his body mangled sore, his face all evilly hacked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face and hands; yea, and his head, laid waste, the ear-lobes lacked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nostrils cropped unto the root by wicked wound and grim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarcely he knew the trembling man, who strove to hide from him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those torments dire, but thus at last he spake in voice well known:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O great in arms, Deïphobus, from Teucer's blood come down,</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who had the heart to work on thee such bitter wicked bale?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who had the might to deal thee this? Indeed I heard the tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, tired with slaying of the Greeks on that last night of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon a heap of mingled death thou didst to slumber fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I myself an empty tomb on that Rhœtean coast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set up to thee, and thrice aloud cried blessing on thy ghost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy name and arms still keep the place; but thee I found not, friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To set thee in thy fathers' earth ere I too needs must wend."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To him the child of Priam spake: "Friend, nought thou left'st undone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All things thou gav'st Deïphobus, and this dead shadowy one:</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">My Fates and that Laconian Bane, the Woman wicked-fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have drowned me in this sea of ills: she set these tokens here.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How midst a lying happiness we wore the last night by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Thou know'st: yea; overwell belike thou hold'st that memory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now when the baneful Horse of Fate high Pergamus leapt o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With womb come nigh unto the birth of weaponed men of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She, feigning hallowed dance, led on a holy-shouting band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Phrygian maids, and midst of them, the bale-fire in her hand,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span><span class="i0">Called on the Danaan men to come, high on the castle's steep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But me, outworn with many cares and weighed adown with sleep,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The hapless bride-bed held meanwhile, and on me did there press<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep rest and sweet, most like indeed to death's own quietness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith my glorious wife all arms from out the house withdrew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stole away from o'er my head the sword whose faith I knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called Menelaüs to the house and opened him the door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thinking, forsooth, great gift to give to him who loved so sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To quench therewith the tale gone by of how she did amiss.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why linger? They break in on me, and he their fellow is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ulysses, preacher of all guilt.—O Gods, will ye not pay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Greeks for all? belike with mouth not godless do I pray.</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—But tell me, thou, what tidings new have brought thee here alive?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is it blind strayings o'er the sea that hither doth thee drive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or bidding of the Gods? Wherein hath Fortune worn thee so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou, midst sunless houses sad, confused lands, must go?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as they gave and took in talk, Aurora at the last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In rosy wain the topmost crown of upper heaven had passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the fated time perchance in suchwise had they spent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But warning of few words enow the Sibyl toward him sent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Night falls, Æneas, weeping here we wear the hours in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hard upon us is the place where cleaves the road atwain;</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On by the walls of mighty Dis the right-hand highway goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our way to that Elysium: the left drags on to woes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill-doers' souls, and bringeth them to godless Tartarus."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake Deïphobus: "Great seer, be not o'erwroth with us:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will depart and fill the tale, and unto dusk turn back:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go forth, our glory, go and gain the better fate I lack!"</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And even with that latest word his feet he tore away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But suddenly Æneas turned, and lo, a city lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide-spread 'neath crags upon the left, girt with a wall threefold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round about in hurrying flood a flaming river rolled,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">E'en Phlegethon of Tartarus, with rattling, stony roar:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In face with adamantine posts was wrought the mighty door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such as no force of men nor might of heaven-abiders high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May cleave with steel; an iron tower thence riseth to the sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there is set Tisiphone, with girded blood-stained gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, sleepless, holdeth night and day the doorway of the town.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great wail and cruel sound of stripes that city sendeth out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And iron clanking therewithal of fetters dragged about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then fearfully Æneas stayed, and drank the tumult in:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O tell me, Maiden, what is there? What images of sin?</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What torments bear they? What the wail yon city casts abroad?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then so began the seer to speak: "O glorious Teucrian lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On wicked threshold of the place no righteous foot may stand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when great Hecate made me Queen of that Avernus land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She taught me of God's punishments and led me down the path.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—There Gnosian Rhadamanthus now most heavy lordship hath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heareth lies, and punisheth, and maketh men confess<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their deeds of earth, whereof made glad by foolish wickedness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They thrust the late repentance off till death drew nigh to grip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those guilty drives Tisiphone, armed with avenging whip,</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And mocks their writhings, casting forth her other dreadful hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled with the snakes, and crying on her cruel sister's band.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then at last on awful hinge loud-clanging opens wide</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Door of Doom:—and lo, behold what door-ward doth abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the porch, what thing it is the city gate doth hold!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More dreadful yet the Water-worm, with black mouth fiftyfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath dwelling in the inner parts. Then Tartarus aright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gapes sheer adown; and twice so far it thrusteth under night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As up unto the roof of heaven Olympus lifteth high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the ancient race of Earth, the Titan children, lie,</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cast down by thunder, wallowing in bottomless abode.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There of the twin Aloidæ the monstrous bodies' load<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw; who fell on mighty heaven to cleave it with their hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they might pluck the Father Jove from out his glorious lands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Salmoneus I saw withal, paying the cruel pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fire of Jove and heaven's own voice on earth he needs must feign:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He, drawn by fourfold rush of steeds, and shaking torches' glare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidmost of the Grecian folks, amidst of Elis fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went glorying, and the name of God and utter worship sought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O fool! the glory of the storm, and lightning like to nought,</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He feigned with rattling copper things and beat of horny hoof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him the Almighty Father smote from cloudy rack aloof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But never brand nor pitchy flame of smoky pine-tree cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As headlong there he drave him down amid the whirling blast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tityon, too, the child of Earth, great Mother of all things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There may ye see: nine acres' space his mighty frame he flings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His deathless liver still is cropped by that huge vulture's beak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That evermore his daily meat doth mid his inwards seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fruitful of woe, and hath his home beneath his mighty breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose heart-strings eaten, and new-born shall never know of rest.</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of Lapithæ, Pirithoüs, Ixion, what a tale!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er whom the black crag hangs, that slips, and slips, and ne'er shall fail</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To seem to fall. The golden feet of feast beds glitter bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there in manner of the kings is glorious banquet dight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, the Furies' eldest-born is crouched beside it there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And banneth one and all of them hand on the board to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And riseth up with tossing torch, and crieth, thundering loud.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here they that hated brethren sore while yet their life abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The father-smiters, they that drew the client-catching net,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brooders over treasure found in earth, who never yet</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Would share one penny with their friends—and crowded thick these are—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those slain within another's bed; the followers up of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unrighteous; they no whit ashamed their masters' hand to fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here prisoned bide the penalty: seek not to know their tale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of punishment; what fate it is o'erwhelmeth such a folk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some roll huge stones; some hang adown, fast bound to tire or spoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mighty wheels. There sitteth now, and shall sit evermore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Theseus undone: wretch Phlegyas is crying o'er and o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His warning, and in mighty voice through dim night testifies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Be warned, and learn of righteousness, nor holy Gods despise.'</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This sold his fatherland for gold; this tyrant on it laid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This for a price made laws for men, for price the laws unmade:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This broke into his daughter's bed and wedding-tide accursed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All dared to think of monstrous deed, and did the deed they durst.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor, had I now an hundred mouths, an hundred tongues at need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An iron voice, might I tell o'er all guise of evil deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or run adown the names of woe those evil deeds are worth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So when Apollo's ancient seer such words had given forth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Now to the road! fulfil the gift that we so far have brought!</span><span class='linenum'>629</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Haste on!" she saith, "I see the walls in Cyclops' furnace wrought;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And now the opening of the gates is lying full in face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where we are bidden lay adown the gift that brings us grace."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and through the dusk of ways on side by side they wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wear the space betwixt, and reach the doorway in the end.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas at the entering in bedews his body o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With water fresh, and sets the bough in threshold of the door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, all being done, the Goddess' gift well paid in manner meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They come into a joyous land, and green-sward fair and sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the happiness of groves, the blessèd dwelling-place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therein a more abundant heaven clothes all the meadows' face</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With purple light, and their own sun and their own stars they have.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here some in games upon the grass their bodies breathing gave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or on the yellow face of sand they strive and play the play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some beat the earth with dancing foot, and some, the song they say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there withal the Thracian man in flowing raiment sings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the measure of the dance on seven-folded strings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now he smites with finger-touch, and now with ivory reed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here is Teucer's race of old, most lovely sons indeed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High-hearted heroes born on earth in better days of joy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ilus was there, Assaracus, and he who builded Troy,</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">E'en Dardanus. Far off are seen their empty wains of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And war-weed: stand the spears in earth, unyoked the horses are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And graze the meadows all about; for even as they loved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chariot and weapons, yet alive, and e'en as they were moved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To feed sleek horses, under earth doth e'en such joy abide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Others he saw to right and left about the meadows wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feasting; or joining merry mouths to sing the battle won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the scented laurel grove, whence earthward rolleth on</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The full flood that Eridanus athwart the wood doth pour.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, they who in their country's fight sword-wounded bodies bore;</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo, priests of holy life and chaste, while they in life had part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, God-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phœbus' heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they whose good deeds left a tale for men to name them by:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all they had their brows about with snowy fillets bound.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now unto them the Sibyl spake as there they flowed around,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Musæus first; for him midmost the crowd enfolds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Higher than all from shoulders up, and reverently beholds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Say, happy souls, and thou, O bard, the best earth ever bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What land, what place Anchises hath? for whose sake came we here,</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And swam the floods of Erebus and every mighty wave."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, lightly answering her again, few words the hero gave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"None hath a certain dwelling-place; in shady groves we bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And meadows fresh with running streams, and beds by river-side:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if such longing and so sore the heart within you hath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'ertop yon ridge and I will set your feet in easy path."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake and footed it afore, and showeth from above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shining meads; and thence away from hill-top down they move.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Sire Anchises deep adown in green-grown valley lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the spirits prisoned there, but soon to wend to day,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Was gazing with a fond desire: of all his coming ones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was he reckoning up the tale, and well-loved sons of sons:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their fate, their haps, their ways of life, their deeds to come to pass.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when he saw Æneas now draw nigh athwart the grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He stretched forth either palm to him all eager, and the tears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poured o'er his cheeks, and speech withal forth from his mouth there fares:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O come at last, and hath the love, thy father hoped for, won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er the hard way, and may I now look on thy face, O son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give and take with thee in talk, and hear the words I know?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So verily my mind forebode, I deemed 'twas coming so,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And counted all the days thereto; nor was my longing vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I have thee, son, borne o'er what lands, how many a main!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How tossed about on every side by every peril still!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, how I feared lest Libyan land should bring thee unto ill!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then he: "O father, thou it was, thine image sad it was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, coming o'er and o'er again, drave me these doors to pass:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My ships lie in the Tyrrhene salt—ah, give the hand I lack!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give it, my father; neither thus from my embrace draw back!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His face was wet with plenteous tears e'en as the word he spake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thrice the neck of him beloved he strove in arms to take;</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thrice away from out his hands the gathered image streams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the breathing of the wind or wingèd thing of dreams.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But down amid a hollow dale meanwhile Æneas sees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A secret grove, a thicket fair, with murmuring of the trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Lethe's stream that all along that quiet place doth wend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er which there hovered countless folks and peoples without end:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as when bees amid the fields in summer-tide the bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Settle on diverse flowery things, and round the lilies white</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Go streaming; so the fields were filled with mighty murmuring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unlearned Æneas fell aquake at such a wondrous thing,</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And asketh what it all may mean, what rivers these may be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who the men that fill the banks with such a company.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then spake Anchises: "These are souls to whom fate oweth now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New bodies: there they drink the draught by Lethe's quiet flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The draught that is the death of care, the long forgetfulness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sure to teach thee of these things, and show thee all their press,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And of mine offspring tell the tale, for long have I been fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou with me mightst more rejoice in thine Italia's gain."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Father, may we think it then, that souls may get them hence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To upper air and take once more their bodies' hinderance?</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">How can such mad desire be to win the worldly day?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Son, I shall tell thee all thereof, nor hold thee on the way."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith he takes the tale and all he openeth orderly:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In the beginning: earth and sky and flowing fields of sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stars that Titan fashioned erst, and gleaming moony ball,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An inward spirit nourisheth, one soul is shed through all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That quickeneth all the mass, and with the mighty thing is blent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence are the lives of men and beasts and flying creatures sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whatsoe'er the sea-plain bears beneath its marble face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quick in these seeds is might of fire and birth of heavenly place,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ere earthly bodies' baneful weight upon them comes to lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere limbs of earth bewilder them and members made to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence fear they have, and love, and joy, and grief, and ne'er may find</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The face of heaven amid the dusk and prison strait and blind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, e'en when out of upper day their life at last is borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the ill of wretched men is utterly outworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all the bane their bodies bred; and sure in wondrous wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The plenteous ill they bore so long engrained in them it lies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So therefore are they worn by woes and pay for ancient wrong:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some of them are hung aloft the empty winds among;</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And some, their stain of wickedness amidst the water's heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is washed away; amidst the fire some leave their worser part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each his proper death must bear: then through Elysium wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are we sent forth; a scanty folk in joyful fields we bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till in the fulness of the time, the day that long hath been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath worn away the inner stain and left the spirit clean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heavenly essence, a fine flame of all unmingled air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All these who now have turned the wheel for many and many a year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God calleth unto Lethe's flood in mighty company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they, remembering nought indeed, the upper air may see</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Once more, and long to turn aback to worldly life anew."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Anchises therewithal his son, and her the Sibyl drew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the concourse, the great crowd that such a murmuring sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And took a mound whence they might see the spirits as they went<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In long array, and learn each face as 'neath their eyes it came.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come now, and I of Dardan folk will tell the following fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what a folk from Italy the world may yet await,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most glorious souls, to bear our name adown the ways of fate.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span><span class="i0">Yea, I will set it forth in words, and thou thy tale shalt hear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo ye, the youth that yonder leans upon the headless spear,</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fate gives him nighest place today; he first of all shall rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blent blood of Troy and Italy, unto the earthly skies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silvius is he, an Alban name, thy son, thy latest born;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He whom thy wife Lavinia now, when thin thy life is worn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beareth in woods to be a king and get a kingly race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence comes the lordship of our folk within the Long White Place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Procas standeth next to him, the Trojan people's fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Capys, Numitor, and he who bringeth back thy name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Silvius Æneas, great in war, and great in godliness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ever he in that White Stead may bear the kingdom's stress.</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo ye, what youths! what glorious might unto thine eyes is shown!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they who shade their temples o'er with civic oaken crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These build for thee Nomentum's walls, and Gabii, and the folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fidenian, and the mountains load with fair Collatia's yoke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pometii, Bola, Cora, there shall rise beneath their hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Inuus' camp: great names shall spring amid the nameless lands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then Mavors' child shall come on earth, his grandsire following,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Ilia's womb, Assaracus' own blood, to birth shall bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Romulus:—lo, see ye not the twin crests on his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how the Father hallows him for day with his own dread</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">E'en now? Lo, son! those signs of his; lo, that renownèd Rome!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose lordship filleth all the earth, whose heart Olympus' home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with begirdling of her wall girds seven great burgs to her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rejoicing in her man-born babes: e'en as the Earth-Mother<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the Phrygian cities goes with car and towered crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glad in the Gods, whom hundred-fold she kisseth for her own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All heaven-abiders, all as kings within the house of air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, turn thine eyeballs hitherward, look on this people here,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thy Roman folk! Lo Cæsar now! Lo all Iulus' race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who 'neath the mighty vault of heaven shall dwell in coming days.</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And this is he, this is the man thou oft hast heard foretold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Augustus Cæsar, sprung from God to bring the age of gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aback unto the Latin fields, where Saturn once was king.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the Garamantian folk and Indians shall he bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath his sway: beyond the stars, beyond the course of years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the Sun-path lies the land, where Atlas heaven upbears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his shoulders turns the pole with burning stars bestrown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and e'en now the Caspian realms quake at his coming, shown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By oracles of God; and quakes the far Mæotic mere,</span><span class='linenum'>799</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sevenfold Nile through all his mouths quakes in bewildered fear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not so much earth did Hercules o'erpass, though he prevailed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pierce the brazen-footed hind, and win back peace that failed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Erymanthus' wood, and shook Lerna with draught of bow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Liber turning vine-wreathed reins when he hath will to go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Adown from Nysa's lofty head in tiger-yokèd car.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forsooth then shall we doubt but deeds shall spread our valour far?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall fear forsooth forbid us rest in that Ausonian land?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But who is this, the olive-crowned, that beareth in his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy things? I know the hair and hoary beard of eld<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of him, the Roman king, who first a law-bound city held,</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sent out from little Cures' garth, that unrich land of his,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto a mighty lordship: yea, and Tullus next is this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who breaks his country's sleep and stirs the slothful men to fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And calleth on the weaponed hosts unused to war's delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But next unto him Ancus fares, a boaster overmuch;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea and e'en now the people's breath too nigh his heart will touch.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And wilt thou see the Tarquin kings and Brutus' lofty heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fasces brought aback again by his avenging part?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He first the lordship consular and dreadful axe shall take;</span><span class='linenum'>819</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The father who shall doom the sons, that war and change would wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pain of death, that he thereby may freedom's fairness save.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy! whatso tale of thee the after-time may have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The love of country shall prevail, and boundless lust of praise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Drusi and Decii lo afar! On hard Torquatus gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He of the axe: Camillus lo, the banner-rescuer!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But note those two thou seest shine in arms alike and clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now souls of friends, and so to be while night upon them weighs:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me! what war shall they awake if e'er the light of days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They find: what host each sets 'gainst each, what death-field shall they dight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The father from the Alpine wall, and from Monœcus' height</span><span class='linenum'>830</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Comes down; the son against him turns the East's embattlement.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O children, in such evil war let not your souls be spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor turn the valour of your might against the heart of home.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou first, refrain, O thou my blood from high Olympus come;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast thou the weapons from thine hand!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo to the Capitol aloft, for Corinth triumphing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One glorious with Achæan deaths in victor's chariot goes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mycenæ, Agamemnon's house, and Argos he o'erthrows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea and Æacides himself the great Achilles' son;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Avenging so the sires of Troy and Pallas' house undone.</span><span class='linenum'>840</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Great Cato, can I leave thee then untold? pass Cossus o'er?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or house of Gracchus? Yea, or ye, twin thunderbolts of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye Scipios, bane of Libyan land? Fabricius, poor and strong?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or thee, Serranus, casting seed adown the furrows long?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fabii, where drive ye me outworn? Thou Greatest, thou art he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who bringest back thy country's weal by tarrying manfully.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Others, I know, more tenderly may beat the breathing brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And better from the marble block bring living looks to pass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Others may better plead the cause, may compass heaven's face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mark it out, and tell the stars, their rising and their place:</span><span class='linenum'>850</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But thou, O Roman, look to it the folks of earth to sway;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this shall be thine handicraft, peace on the world to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To spare the weak, to wear the proud by constant weight of war."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So mid their marvelling he spake, and added furthermore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Marcellus lo! neath Spoils of Spoils how great and glad he goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And overtops all heroes there, the vanquisher of foes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, he shall prop the Roman weal when tumult troubleth all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ride amid the Punic ranks, and crush the rising Gaul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hang in sire Quirinus' house the third war-taken gear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake Æneas, for he saw following Marcellus near</span><span class='linenum'>860</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A youth of beauty excellent, with gleaming arms bedight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet little glad of countenance with eyes that shunned the light:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O father, who is he that wends beside the hero's hem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His son belike, or some one else from out that mighty stem?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What murmuring of friends about! How mighty is he made!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But black Night fluttereth over him with woeful mirky shade."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then midst the rising of his tears father Anchises spoke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O son, search not the mighty woe and sorrow of thy folk!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Fates shall show him to the world, nor longer blossoming<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall give. O Gods that dwell on high, belike o'ergreat a thing</span><span class='linenum'>870</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Roman tree should seem to you, should this your gift endure!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How great a wail of mighty men that Field of Fame shall pour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Mavors' mighty city walls: what death-rites seest thou there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Tiber, as thou glidest by his new-wrought tomb and fair!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No child that is of Ilian stock in Latin sires shall raise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such glorious hope; nor shall the land of Romulus e'er praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fair and great a nursling child mid all it ever bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goodness, and faith of ancient days, and hand unmatched in war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas for all! No man unhurt had raised a weaponed hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against him, whether he afoot had met the foeman's band,</span><span class='linenum'>880</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or smitten spur amid the flank of eager foaming horse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O child of all men's ruth, if thou the bitter Fates mayst force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art Marcellus. Reach ye hands of lily-blooms fulfilled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I will scatter purple flowers, and heap such offerings spilled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the spirit of my child, and empty service do."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereafter upon every side they strayed that country through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid wide-spreading airy meads, and sight of all things won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But after old Anchises now through all had led his son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kindled love within his heart of fame that was to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then did he tell him of the wars that he himself should see,</span><span class='linenum'>890</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And of Laurentian peoples taught, and town of Latin folk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how from every grief to flee, or how to bear its stroke.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now twofold are the Gates of Sleep, whereof the one, men say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is wrought of horn, and ghosts of sooth thereby win easy way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other clean and smooth is wrought of gleaming ivory,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But lying dreams the nether Gods send up to heaven thereby.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All said, Anchises on his son and Sibyl-maid doth wait<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the last, and sends them up by that same ivory gate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wears the way and gains his fleet and fellow-folk once more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So for Caieta's haven-mouth by straightest course they bore,</span><span class='linenum'>900</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Till fly the anchors from the bows and sterns swing round ashore.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_VII" id="BOOK_VII"></a>BOOK VII.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>ÆNEAS AND HIS TROJANS TAKE LAND BY THE TIBER-MOUTH, AND KING LATINUS +PLIGHTETH PEACE WITH THEM; WHICH PEACE IS BROKEN BY THE WILL OF JUNO, +AND ALL MEN MAKE THEM READY FOR WAR.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou also, O Æneas' nurse, Caieta, didst avail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en dying, unto these our shores to leave a deathless tale:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet thy glory guards the place, thy bones have won it name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within the great Hesperian land, if that be prize of fame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But good Æneas, when at last all funeral rites were paid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the grave heaped, when in a while the ocean's face was laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went on his way with sails aloft, and left the port behind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faint winds breathe about the night, the moon shines clear and kind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the quivering shining road the wide seas gleaming lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But next the beach of Circe's land their swift ships glide anigh,</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where the rich daughter of the Sun with constant song doth rouse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The groves that none may enter in, or in her glorious house<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burneth the odorous cedar-torch amidst the dead of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While through the slender warp she speeds the shrilling shuttle light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence they hear the sound of groans, and wrath of lions dread</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fretting their chains; and roaring things o'er night-tide fallen dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bristled swine and cagèd bears cried bitter-wild, and sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the shapes of monstrous wolves the howling seaward bore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These from the likeness of mankind had cruel Circe won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By herbs of might, and shape and hide of beasts upon them done.</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But lest the godly Trojan folk such wickedness should bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest borne into the baneful bay they bring their keels o'er near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their sails did Father Neptune fill with fair and happy breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sped their flight and sent them swift across the hurrying seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now reddened all the sea with rays, and from the heavenly plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The golden-hued Aurora shone amidst her rosy wain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fell the winds and every air sank down in utter sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now the shaven oars must strive amid the sluggish deep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith Æneas sees a wood rise from the water's face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there it is the Tiber's flood amidst a pleasant place,</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With many a whirling eddy swift and yellowing with sand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks into sea; and diversely above on either hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fowl that love the river-bank and haunt the river-bed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweetened the air with plenteous song and through the thicket fled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there Æneas bids his folk shoreward their bows to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And joyfully he entereth in the stream's o'ershadowed way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To aid, Erato! while I tell what kings, what deedful tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What manner life, in Latin land did anciently abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When first the stranger brought his ships to that Ausonian shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea help me while I call aback beginnings of the war.</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O Goddess, hearten thou thy seer! dread war my song-speech saith:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It tells the battle in array, and kings full fain of death,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Tyrrhene host, all Italy, spurred on the sword to bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, greater matters are afoot, a mightier deed I stir.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The king Latinus, old of days, ruled o'er the fields' increase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cities of the people there at rest in long-drawn peace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Faunus and Laurentian nymph, Marica, do we learn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he was born: but Faunus came of Picus, who must turn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thee, O Saturn, for his sire: 'twas he that blood began.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, as God would, this king had got no son to grow a man,</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For he who first had dawned on him in earliest youth had waned:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A daughter only such a house, so great a world sustained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now ripe for man, the years fulfilled that made her meet for bed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her much folk of Latin land were fain enow to wed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all Ausonia: first of whom, and fairest to be seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was Turnus, great from fathers great; and him indeed the queen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was fain of for her son-in-law with wondrous love of heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But dreadful portents of the Gods the matter thrust apart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidmost of the inner house a laurel-tree upbore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its hallowed leaves, that fear of God had kept through years of yore:</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Father Latinus first, they said, had found it there, when he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built there his burg and hallowed it to Phœbus' deity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on Laurentian people thence the name thereof had laid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On whose top now the gathered bees, O wondrous to be said!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne on with mighty humming noise amid the flowing air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had settled down, and foot to foot all interwoven there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sudden swarm they hung adown from off the leafy bough.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But straight the seer cries out: "Ah me! I see him coming now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stranger man; I see a host from that same quarter come</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To this same quarter, to be lords amidst our highest home."</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But further, while the altar-fires she feeds with virgin brands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maid Lavinia, and beside her ancient father stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Out! how along her length of hair the grasp of fire there came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the tiring of her head was caught in crackling flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there her royal tresses blazed, and blazed her glorious crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gem-wrought, and she one cloud of smoke and yellow fire was grown:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wrapped therein, the fiery God she scattered through the house:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sure it seemed a dreadful thing, a story marvellous:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For they fell singing she should grow glorious of fame and fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But unto all her folk should be the seed of huge debate.</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So troubled by this tokening dread forth fareth now the king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Faunus' fane, his father-seer, to ask him counselling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath Albunea the high, whose wood, the thicket most of worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resoundeth with the holy well and breathes the sulphur forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whence the folk of Italy and all Œnotrian land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seek rede amidst of troublous time. Here, when the priest in hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath borne the gifts, and laid him down amidst the hush of night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the strown fells of slaughtered ewes, and sought him sleep aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He seeth wondrous images about him flit and shift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hearkeneth many a changing voice, of talk with Gods hath gift,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And holdeth speech with Acheron, from deep Avernus come.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There now the sire Latinus went seeking the answers home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there an hundred woolly ewes in order due did slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And propped upon the fells thereof on bed of fleeces lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till from the thickets inner depths the sudden answer came:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Seek not thy daughter, O my son, to wed to Latin name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the bridal set on foot let not thy troth be given:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy sons are coming over sea to raise our blood to heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sons of sons' sons from their stem shall see beneath their feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All things for them to shift and doom; all things the sun may meet,</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As to and fro he wendeth way 'twixt either ocean wave."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such warnings of the silent night that father Faunus gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut up betwixt his closed lips Latinus held no whit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But through Ausonia flying fame had borne the noise of it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When that Laomedontian folk at last had moored their ships<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the grassy-mounded bank whereby the river slips.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas and Iulus fair, and all their most and best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath a tall tree's boughs had laid their bodies down to rest:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They dight the feast; about the grass on barley-cakes they lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What meat they had,—for even so Jove bade them do that day,—</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And on the ground that Ceres gave the woodland apples pile.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so it happed, that all being spent, they turn them in a while<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Ceres' little field, and eat, egged on by very want,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dare to waste with hands and teeth the circle thin and scant<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where fate lay hid, nor spare upon the trenchers wide to fall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah!" cries Iulus, "so today we eat up board and all."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas all his jest-word; but its sound their labour slew at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swift his father caught it up, as from his mouth it passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stayed him, by the might of God bewildered utterly.</span><span class='linenum'>119</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then forthwith: "Hail," he cried, "O land that Fate hath owed to me!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And ye, O House-gods of our Troy, hail ye, O true and kind!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is your house, this is your land: my father, as I mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such secrets of the deeds of Fate left me in days of yore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'O son, when hunger driveth thee stranded on outland shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To eat the very boards beneath thy victual scant at need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There hope for house, O weary one, and in that place have heed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To set hand first unto the roof, and heap the garth around.'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So this will be that hunger-tide: this waited us to bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our wasting evils at the last.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So come, and let us joyfully upon the first of dawn</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Seek out the land, what place it is, what men-folk there abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where their city; diversely leaving the haven-side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now pour out the bowls to Jove, send prayer upon the way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sire Anchises, and the wine again on table lay."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and with the leafy bough his temples garlanded,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the Spirit of the Soil forthwith the prayer he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Earth, the eldest-born of Gods, to Nymphs, to Streams unknown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As yet: he called upon the Night, and night-tide's signs new shown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Idæan Jove, the Phrygian Queen, the Mother, due and well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He called on; and his parents twain in Heaven and in Hell.</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But thrice the Almighty Father then from cloudless heaven on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave thunder, showing therewithal the glory of his sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All burning with the golden gleam, and shaken by his hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sudden rumour ran abroad amid the Trojan band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That now the day was come about their fateful walls to raise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So eagerly they dight the feast, gladdened by omen's grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring the beakers forth thereto and garland well the wine.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when the morrow's lamp of dawn across the earth 'gan shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shore, the fields, the towns of folk they search, wide scattering:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here they come across the pools of that Numician spring:</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This is the Tiber-flood; hereby the hardy Latins dwell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But therewithal Anchises' seed from out them chose him well<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An hundred sweet-mouthed men to go unto the walls renowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where dwelt the king, and every one with Pallas' olive crowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To carry gifts unto the lord and peace for Teucrians pray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So, bidden, nought they tarry now, but swift-foot wear the way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But he himself marks out the walls with shallow ditch around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And falls to work upon the shore his first abode to found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In manner of a camp, begirt with bank and battlement.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile his men beheld at last, when all the way was spent,</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Latin towers and roofs aloft, and drew the walls anigh:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There were the lads and flower of youth afield the city by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Backing the steed, or mid the dust a-steering of the car,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or bending of the bitter bow, hurling tough darts afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By strength of arm; for foot or fist crying the challenging.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fares a well-horsed messenger, who to the ancient king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bears tidings of tall new-comers in outland raiment clad:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So straight Latinus biddeth them within his house be had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he upon his father's throne sat down amidmost there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High on an hundred pillars stood that mighty house and fair,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">High in the burg, the dwelling-place Laurentian Picus won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awful with woods, and worshipping of sires of time agone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here was it wont for kings to take the sceptre in their hand,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Here first to raise the axe of doom: 'twas court-house of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This temple, and the banquet-hall; here when the host was slain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fathers at the endlong boards would sit the feast to gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There too were dight in cedar old the sires of ancient line<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there was fashioned Italus, and he who set the vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sabinus, holding yet in hand the image of the hook;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Saturn old, and imaging of Janus' double look,</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Stood in the porch; and many a king was there from ancient tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who in their country's battle erst the wounds of Mars would bide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal were many arms hung on the holy door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There hung the axes crookèd-horned, and taken wains of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crested helms, and bolts and locks that city-gates had borne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spears and shields, and thrusting-beaks from ships of battle torn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There with Quirinus' crooked staff, girt in the shortened gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With target in his left hand held, was Picus set adown,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horse-tamer, whom Circe fair, caught with desire erewhile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smote with that golden rod of hers, and, sprinkling venom's guile,</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Made him a fowl, and colours fair blent on his shifting wings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In such a temple of the Gods, in such a house of kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Latinus sat when he had called those Teucrian fellows in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his quiet mouth and grave such converse did begin:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What seek ye, sons of Dardanus? for not unknown to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is that your city or your blood; and how ye crossed the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That have I heard. But these your ships, what counsel or what lack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath borne them to Ausonian strand o'er all the blue sea's back?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ye have strayed from out your course, or, driven by stormy tide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For such things oft upon the sea must seafarers abide),</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Have entered these our river-banks in haven safe to lie,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Flee not our welcome, nor unknown the Latin folk pass by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seed of Saturn, bound to right by neither law nor chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But freely following in the ways whereof the God was fain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea now indeed I mind a tale, though now with years outworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How elders of Aurunce said that mid these fields was born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Dardanus, who reached at last the Phrygian Ida's walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Thracian Samos, that the world now Samothracia calls:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Tuscan stead of Corythus he went upon his ways;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose throne is set in golden heaven, the star-besprinkled place,</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who adds one other to the tale of altared deities."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ended, but Ilioneus followed in words like these:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O king, O glorious Faunus' child, no storm upon the main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave us amid the drift of waves your country coast to gain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And neither star nor strand made blind the region of our road;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we by counsel and free will have sought out thine abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outcast from such a realm as once was deemed the mightiest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Sun beheld, as o'er the heaven she ran from east to west.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jove is the well-spring of our race; the Dardan children joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Jove for father; yea, our king, Æneas out of Troy,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who sends us to thy door, himself is of the Highest's seed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How great a tempest was let loose o'er our Idæan mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From dire Mycenæ Sent; what fate drave either clashing world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Europe and Asia, till the war each against each they hurled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His ears have heard, who dwells afar upon the land alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ocean beats; and his no less the bondman of the zone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That midmost lieth of the four, by cruel sun-blaze worn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, from that flood we come to thee, o'er waste of waters borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying a strip of harmless shore our House-Gods' home to be,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And grace of water and of air to all men lying free.</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">We shall not foul our land's renown; and thou, thy glory fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know, and plenteous fruit of thanks this deed of thine shall bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor ever may embrace of Troy Ausonia's soul despite.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now by Æneas' fates I swear, and by his hand of might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether in troth it hath been tried, or mid the hosts of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That many folks—yea, scorn us not that willingly we bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These fillets in our hands today with words beseeching peace—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That many lands have longed for us, and yearned for our increase.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But fate of Gods and Gods' command would ever drive us home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To this your land: this is the place whence Dardanus was come,</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And hither now he comes again: full sore Apollo drave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Tuscan Tiber, and the place of dread Numicius' wave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover, here some little gifts of early days of joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Giveth our king, a handful gleaned from burning-tide of Troy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises at the altar erst would pour from out this gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This was the gear that Priam used when in the guise of old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He gave his gathered folk the law; sceptre, and holy crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weed the work of Ilian wives."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now while Ilioneus so spake Latinus held his face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Musing and steadfast, on the ground setting his downcast gaze,</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rolling his eyes all thought-fulfilled; nor did the broidered gear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of purple move the King so much, nor Priam's sceptre fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As on his daughter's bridal bed the thoughts in him had rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ancient Faunus' fateful word he turned within his breast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here was the son, the fate-foretold, the outland wanderer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called on by equal doom of God the equal throne to share;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He from whose loins those glorious sons of valour should come forth</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To take the whole world for their own by utter might of worth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At last he spake out joyfully: "God grace our deed begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his own bidding! man of Troy, thine asking shall be done:</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I take your gifts: nought shall ye lack from King Latinus' hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Riches of Troy, nor health and wealth of fat and fruitful land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let Æneas come himself if he so yearn for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If he be eager for our house, and would our fellow be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor let him fear to look upon friends' faces close anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Part of the peace-troth shall be this, my hand in his to lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now bear back unto your king this bidding that I send:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a daughter; her indeed with countryman to blend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The answers of my father's house forbid, and many a sign<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent down from heaven: from over sea comes one to wed our line;</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They say this bideth Latin Land; a man to raise our blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up to the very stars of heaven: that this is he fate would,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think, yea hope, if any whit my heart herein avail."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and bade choose horses out from all his noble tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereof three hundred sleek and fair stood in the stables high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These biddeth he for Teucrian men be led forth presently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wing-footed purple-bearing beasts, with pictures o'er them flung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of woven stuff, and, on their breasts are golden collars hung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold-housed are they, and champ in teeth the yellow-golden chain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to Æneas, absent thence, a car and yoke-beasts twain</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He sends: the seed of heaven are they, and breathing very fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blood of those that Circe stole when she beguiled her sire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That crafty mistress, winning them, bastards, from earthy mare.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So back again Æneas' folk high on their horses fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing Latinus' gifts and words, and all the tale of peace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo, where great Jove's bitter wife comes from the town of Greece,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Argos wrought of Inachus, and holds the airy way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far off she sees Æneas' joy, and where the ship-host lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Dardans: yea from Sicily and far Pachynus head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She seeth him on earth at last and raising roofèd stead,</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all the ships void: fixed she stood, smit through with bitter wrath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shook her head: then from her breast the angry words came forth:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah, hated race! Ah, Phrygian fates that shear my fates atwain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was there no dead man's place for you on that Sigean plain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had ye no might to wend as slaves? gave Troy so poor a flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To burn her men, that through the fire and through the swords ye came?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think at last my godhead's might is wearied and gone by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I have drunk enough of hate, and now at rest may lie:— I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">who had heart to follow up those outcasts from their land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as they fled o'er all the sea still in their path would stand.</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Against these Teucrians sea and sky have spent their strength for nought:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was Syrtes aught, or Scylla aught, or huge Charybdis aught?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo now the longed-for Tiber's breast that nation cherisheth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe from the deep and safe from me: while Mars might do to death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those huge-wrought folk of Lapithæ: the very Father-God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave up the ancient Calydon to Dian's wrath and rod.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was the guilt of Lapithæ? what crime wrought Calydon?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I, the mighty spouse of Jove, who nought have left undone<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span><span class="i0">My evil hap might compass, I who ran through all craft's tale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am vanquished of Æneas now. But if of no avail</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">My godhead be, I will not spare to pray what is of might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since Heaven I move not, needs must I let loose the Nether Night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! say it is not fated me the Latin realm to ban,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lavinia must be fated wife of this same Trojan man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet may I draw out time at least, and those great things delay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At least may I for either king an host of people slay:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For father and for son-in-law shall plenteous price be paid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Trojan and Rutulian blood shalt thou be dowered, O maid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bellona's self shall bridal thee; not Cisseus' seed alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was big with brand; not she alone with wedding-ring has shone:</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, and this too is Venus' child; another Paris comes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kindle deadly torch again in new-born Trojan homes."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake she terrible, and sank into the earth below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea to the nether night, and stirred Alecto, forge of woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the dread Goddesses' abode: sad wars she loveth well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And murderous wrath, and lurking guile, and evil deeds and fell:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Pluto loathes her; yea, e'en they of that Tartarean place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her sisters, hate her: sure she hath as many a changing face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many a cruel body's form, as her black snakes put forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom in such wise Juno spake and whetted on her wrath:</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Win me a work after thine heart, O Virgin of the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest all my fame, unstained of old, my glory won aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give place: lest there Æneas' sons Latinus overcome<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By wedlock, and in Italy set up their house and home:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, who the brothers of one heart canst raise up each 'gainst each,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And overturn men's homes with hate, and through the house-walls' breach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear in the stroke and deadly brand—a thousand names hast thou,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>—<br /> +<span class="i0">A thousand arts of ill: Stir up thy fruitful bosom now;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be render of the plighted peace; of war-seed be the sower;</span><span class='linenum'>339</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That men may yearn for arms, and ask, and snatch in one same hour."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereon Alecto, steeped at heart with Gorgon venoming.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sought Latium first and high-built house of that Laurentian king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the silent threshold stood whereby Amata lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whose hot heart a woman's woe and woman's wrath did play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About those Teucrian new-comers and Turnus' bridal bed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On her she cast an adder blue, a tress from off her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sent it to her breast to creep her very heart-strings through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she, bewildered by the bane, may all the house undo.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So he betwixt her bosom smooth and dainty raiment slid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crawled as if he touched her not, and maddened her yet hid,</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And breathed the adder's soul in her: the dreadful wormy thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seemed the wrought gold about her neck, or the long silken string<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knit her hair, and slippery soft it glided o'er her limbs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now while first the plague begins, and soft the venom swims,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Touching her sense, and round her bones the fiery web is pressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet her soul had caught the flame through all her poisoned breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still soft, and e'en as mothers will, she spake the word and said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her woes about her daughter's case, and Phrygian bridal bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To Teucrian outcasts shall our maid, Lavinia, wedded be?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Father, hast thou nought of ruth of her, forsooth, and thee?</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor of the mother, whom that man forsworn shall leave behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing the maiden o'er the sea with the first northern wind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, not e'en so the Phrygian herd pierced Lacedæmon's fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bore Ledæan Helen off unto the Trojan hold.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nay, where is gone thine hallowed faith, thy kinsomeness of yore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine hand that oft to Turnus' hand, thy kinsman, promise bore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, if we needs must seek a son strange to the Latin folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Father Faunus' words on thee are e'en so strait a yoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I deem, indeed, that every land free from our kingdom's sway<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is stranger land, and even so I deem the Gods would say:</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And Turnus comes, if we shall seek beginning of his race.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Inachus, Acrisius old, and mid Mycenæ's place."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when she thus had said in vain, and saw Latinus still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withstand her: when all inwardly the maddening serpent's ill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath smitten through her heart of hearts and passed through all her frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily the hapless one, with dreadful things aflame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raves through the city's length and breadth in God-wrought agonies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As 'neath the stroke of twisted lash at whiles the whip-top flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which lads all eager for the game drive, ever circling wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round some void hall; it, goaded on beneath the strip of hide,</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From circle unto circle goes; the silly childish throng<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still hanging o'er, and wondering how the box-tree spins along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while their lashes make it live: no quieter she ran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the mid city, borne amid fierce hearts of many a man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then in the wilderness she feigns the heart that Bacchus fills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stirs a greater madness up, beginning greater ills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mid the leafy mountain-side her daughter hides away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To snatch her from the Teucrian bed, the bridal torch to stay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foaming: "Hail, Bacchus! thou alone art worthy lord to wed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This virgin thing: for thee she takes the spear's soft-fruited head,</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For thee she twinkleth dancing feet, and feeds her holy hair."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The rumour flies, and one same rage all mother-folk doth bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heart-kindled by the Fury's ill, to roofs of all unrest:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They flee the house and let the wind play free o'er hair and breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While others fill the very heavens with shrilly quivering wail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And skin-clad toss about the spear the wreathing vine-leaves veil:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she ablaze amidst of them upholds the fir-lit flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sings her daughter's bridal song, and sings of Turnus' name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rolling her blood-shot eyes about; then eager suddenly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She shouts: "Ho, mothers! Latin wives, wherever ye may be,</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hearken! if in your righteous souls abideth any love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of lorn Amata; if your souls a mother's right may move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast off the fillets from your locks, with me the madness bear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So through the woodland wilderness and deserts of the deer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alecto drave the Queen around, with Bacchus' stings beset<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when she deemed enough was wrought that rage of hers to whet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that Latinus' rede and house was utterly undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forthwith away on dusky wings is borne that evil one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the bold Rutulian's wall: a city, saith the tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raised up by Danaë for her Acrisian folks' avail</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When on the hurrying South she fled: Ardea in days of yore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our fathers called it; nor as yet is name thereof passed o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though wealth be gone: there Turnus lay within his house on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And midmost sleep of dusky night was winning peacefully.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When there Alecto cruel face and hellish body shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to an ancient woman's like her shape she fashionèd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrinkling her forehead villanous; and hoary coifèd hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She donned, and round about it twined the olive-garland fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seemed the ancient Calybé of Juno's holy place;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And so with such a word she thrust before the hero's face:</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Turnus, and wilt thou bear it now, such labour spent in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give thy folk to Dardan men, the outcasts of the main?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The King gainsays thy wedding couch, and dowry justly bought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By very blood, and for his throne an outland heir is sought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, thou bemocked, and thrust thyself mid perils none shall thank;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For cloaking of the Latin peace o'erthrow the Tuscan rank!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty Saturn's Seed herself hath bid me openly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bear thee this, while thou in peace of middle night shouldst lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So up! be merry! arm the lads! bid wend from out the gate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up, up, and arm! The Phrygian folk who in the fair stream wait,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burn thou their dukes of men with fire! burn every painted keel!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis heavenly might that biddeth this. Let King Latinus feel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy strength, and learn to know at last what meaneth Turnus' sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless he grant the wedding yet, and hold his plighted word."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But therewithal the young man spake, and answered her in scorn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Thou errest: tidings of all this failed nowise to be borne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto mine ears, how stranger ships the Tiber-flood beset.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, make me not so sore afeared,—belike she minds me yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Juno, the Queen of Heaven aloft.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, mother, Eld the mouldy-dull, the empty of all sooth,</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Tormenteth thee with cares in vain, and mid the arms of kings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bemocks the seer with idle shows of many fearful things.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, 'tis for thee to watch God's house, and ward the images,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let men deal with peace and war; for they were born for these."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But at such word Alecto's wrath in utter fire outbrake;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">A tremor ran throughout his limbs e'en as the word he spake;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fixed stared his eyes, the Fury hissed with Serpent-world so dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And such a mighty body woke: then rolling in her head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her eyes of flame, she thrust him back, stammering and seeking speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As on her head she reared aloft two adders each by each,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sounded all her fearful whip, and cried from raving mouth:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo, I am she, the mouldy-dull, whom Eld, the void of sooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bemocks amid the arms of kings with empty lies of fear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look, look! for from the Sisters' House, the Dread Ones, come I here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And war and death I have in hand."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and on the youth she cast her torch and set its blaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mirky gleam of smoke-wreathed flame, amidmost of his heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mighty dread his slumber brake, and forth from every part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From bones and body, burst the sweat, and o'er his limbs 'gan fall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wild he cries for arms, and seeks for arms from bed and wall:</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The sword-lust rageth in his soul, and wicked thirst of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So was it as at whiles it is, when with a mighty roar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The twiggen flame goes up about the hollow side of brass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water leapeth up therewith, within comes rage to pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while the cloudy foaming flood spouts up a bubbling stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the sea refrains no more; the black cloud flies in air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to the dukes of men he shows how peace hath evil end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on Latinus biddeth them in weed of war to wend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they may save their Italy, and thrust the foemen forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he will fare unto the field more than the twain of worth,</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Teucrians and Latins: so he saith, and calls the Gods to aid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then eagerly Rutulian men to war and battle bade:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For some his glorious beauty stirred, and some his youth drave on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some his sires; and some were moved by deeds his hand had done.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while he fills Rutulian souls with love for glorious things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alecto to the Teucrians wends on Stygian-fashioned wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fresh guile spying out the place where goodly on the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With toils and speed 'gainst woodland beasts, Iulus waged the war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here for his hounds Cocytus' Maid a sudden madness blent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crossing the nostrils of the beasts with long familiar scent,</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As eagerly they chased a hart. This first began the toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kindled field-abiders' souls to war and deadly broil.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a hart most excellent, a noble hornèd thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Tyrrheus' sons had stolen from its own dam's cherishing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fostered: he, their father, had the kingly herd to heed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well was trusted far and wide, the warden of the mead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to their sister Sylvia's hand the beast was used, and oft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She decked him lovingly, and wreathed his horns with leafage soft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And combed him oft, and washed him oft in water of the well.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tame to her hand, and used enow amid manfolk to dwell,</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He strayed the woods; but day by day betook him evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his own will at twilight-tide, to that familiar door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him now Iulus' hunting hounds mad-eager chanced to stir<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afar from home, and floating whiles adown the river fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whiles on bank of grassy green beguiling summer's flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith Ascanius, all afire with lust of noble fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned on the beast the spiky reed from out the curvèd horn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor lacked the God to his right hand; on was the arrow borne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With plenteous whirr, and smote the hart through belly and through flank;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who, wounded, to the well-known house fled fast, and groaning shrank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the stalls of his abode, and bloody, e'en as one</span><span class='linenum'>501</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who cries for pity, filled the place with woefulness of moan.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then first the sister Sylvia there, smiting her breast, cried out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calling to aid the hardy hearts of field-folk thereabout;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swifter than the thought they came; for still that bitter Bane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lurked in the silent woods: this man a half-burned brand did gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For weapon; that a knotted stake: whate'er came first to hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seeker's wrath a weapon made: there Tyrrheus cheers his band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come from the cleaving of an oak with foursome driven wedge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Panting and fierce he tossed aloft the wood-bill's grinded edge.</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But she, that Evil, on the watch, noting the death anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Climbs up upon the stall-house loft, and from its roof on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Singeth the shepherd's gathering sign, and through the crookèd horn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sends voice of hell: and e'en therewith, as forth the notes were borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forest trembled; the deep woods resounded; yea afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mere of Trivia heard the sound, and that white water, Nar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bears the sulphur down its stream; the Veline well-springs heard:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mothers caught up their little ones, and trembled sore afeard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then hurrying at the voice sent forth by the dread war-horn's song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hardy-hearted folk of fields from everywhither throng,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With weapons caught in haste: and now the Trojan folk withal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pour from their opened gates, and on to aid Ascanius fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the battle is arrayed; and now no war they wake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where field-folk strive with knotty club or fire-behardened stake;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with the two-edged sword they strive: the meadows bristle black<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With harvest of the naked steel: the gleaming brass throws back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the clouds that swim aloft the smiting of the sun:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">As when the whitening of the wind across the flood doth run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And step by step the sea gets up, and higher heaps the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until heaven-high it sweeps at last up from its lowest cave.</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And here, by dint of whistling shaft in forefront of the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A youth, e'en Tyrrheus' eldest son, by name of Almo hight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was laid alow: there in his throat the reedy bane abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shut with blood the path of speech, the tender life-breath's road.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a body fell around: there, thrusting through the press<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With peaceful word, Galæsus old died in his righteousness;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Most just of men; most rich erewhile of all Ausonian land:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Five flocks of bleaters once he had: five-fold came home to hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His herds of neat: an hundred ploughs turned up the earth for him.</span><span class='linenum'>539</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while they wrought these deeds of Mars mid doubtful fate and dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Goddess, strong in pledge fulfilled, since she the war had stained<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With very blood, and death of men in that first battle gained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaveth the Westland, and upborne along the hollow sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Juno such a word of pride sets forth victoriously:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo thou, the discord fashioned fair with misery of fight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come let them join in friendship now, and troth together plight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now, since I have sprinkled Troy with that Ausonian blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will do more, if thereunto thy will abideth good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all the cities neighbouring to war my word shall bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in their souls the love of Mars and maddening fire shall fling</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Till all strike in, and all the lea crops of my sowing bear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Juno answered: "Full enough there is of fraud and fear;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fast stands the stumbling-block of war, and hand to hand they fight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sword that Fate first gave to them hath man's death stained aright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forsooth let King Latinus now and Venus' noble son<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Join hand to hand, and hold high feast for such a wedding won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thee, the Father of the Gods, lord of Olympus high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will nowise have a-wandering free beneath the worldly sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give place; and whatso more of toil Fortune herein may make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Myself shall rule."</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i20">Such words as these Saturnian Juno spake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the wing the Evil rose, with snaky sweeping whirr,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking Cocytus' house, and left the light world's steep of air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midst Italy a place there is 'neath mountains high set down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose noble tale in many a land hath fame and great renown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The valley of Amsanctus called, hemmed in by woody steep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On either side, and through whose midst a rattling stream doth leap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With clattering stones and eddying whirl: a strange den gapeth there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very breathing-hole of Dis; an awful place of fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty gulf of baneful breath that Acheron hath made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he brake forth: therein as now the baneful Fury laid</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her hated godhead, lightening so the load of earth and heaven.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No less meanwhile did Saturn's Queen still turn her hand to leaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That war begun. The shepherd folk rush from the battle-wrack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the city of the king, bearing their dead aback,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almo the lad, Galæsus slain with changed befoulèd face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bid Latinus witness bear, and cry the Gods for grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turnus is there, and loads the tale of bale-fire and the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swells the fear: "The land shall have a Teucrian host for lord:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Phrygians shall ye foul your race and drive me from your door."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then they, whose mothers midst the wood God Bacchus overbore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lead the dance—Amata's name being held in nowise light—</span><span class='linenum'>581</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Together draw from every side, and weary for the fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, all with froward heart and voice cry out for war and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That signs of heaven forbid so sore, that high God gainsayeth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And King Latinus' house therewith beset they eagerly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he unmoved against them stands as crag amid the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As crag amid the sea, that stands unmoved and huge to meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The coming crash, while plenteously the waves bark round its feet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vain is the roaring on the rocks and rattling shingly crash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wrack from off its smitten sides falls down amid the wash.</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when no might is given him their blindness to o'ercome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the road fell Juno would the matter must win home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore called the father on the Gods and emptiness of air:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ah, broken by the Fates," he cried, "amid the storm we bear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye with your godless blood yourselves shall pay the penalty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy men! But Turnus, thou, thine ill deed bideth thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With woe enough, and overlate the Gods shalt thou adore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For me, my rest is gained, my foot the threshold passeth o'er;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet is my happy ending spilled."<br /></span> +<span class="i34">Nor further would he say;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, hedged within his house, he cast the reins of rule away.</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In Latium of the Westland world a fashion was whilome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence hallowed of the Alban folk, held holy thence by Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth's mightiest thing: and this they used what time soe'er they woke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mars unto battle; whether they against the Getic folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ind, Araby, Hyrcanian men, fashioned the woeful wrack,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or mid the dawn from Parthian men the banners bade aback.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For twofold are the Gates of War—still bear they such a name—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hallowed by awe of Mars the dread, and worship of his fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut by an hundred brazen bolts, and iron whose avail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall never die: nor ever thence doth door-ward Janus fail.</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now when amid the Fathers' hearts fast is the war-rede grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Consul, girt in Gabine wise, and with Quirinus gown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made glorious, doth himself unbar the creaking door-leaves great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he himself cries on the war; whom all men follow straight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while their brazen yea-saying the griding trumpets blare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In e'en such wise Latinus now was bidden to declare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle 'gainst Æneas' folk, and ope the gates of woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But from their touch the Father shrank, and fleeing lest he do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The evil deed, in eyeless dark he hideth him away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then slipped the Queen of Gods from heaven, and ended their delay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For back upon their hinges turned the Seed of Saturn bore</span><span class='linenum'>621</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The tarrying leaves, and burst apart the iron Gates of War,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all Ausonia yet unstirred brake suddenly ablaze:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some will go afoot to field, and some will wend their ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aloft on horses dusty-fierce: all seek their battle-gear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some polish bright the buckler's face and rub the pike-point clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fat of sheep; and many an axe upon the wheel is worn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They joy to rear the banners up and hearken to the horn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now five mighty cities forge the point and edge anew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On new-raised anvils; Tibur proud, Atina staunch to do,</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ardea and Crustumerium's folk, Antemnæ castle-crowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They hollow helming for the head; they bend the withe around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For buckler-boss: or other some beat breast-plates of the brass,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or from the toughened silver bring the shining greaves to pass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now fails all prize of share and hook, all yearning for the plough;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The swords their fathers bore afield anew they smithy now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now is the gathering-trumpet blown; the battle-token speeds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this man catches helm from wall; this thrusteth foaming steeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To collar; this his shield does on, and mail-coat threesome laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of golden link, and girdeth him with ancient trusty blade.</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Muses, open Helicon, and let your song awake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell what kings awoke to war, what armies for whose sake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filled up the meads; what men of war sweet mother Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bore unto flower and fruit as then; what flame of fight ran high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ye remember, Holy Ones, and ye may tell the tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we—a slender breath of fame scarce by our ears may sail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mezentius first, the foe of Gods, fierce from the Tuscan shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the battle wends his way, and armeth host of war:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lausus, his son, anigh him wends;—no lovelier man than he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save Turnus, the Laurentine-born, the crown of all to see.—</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lausus, the tamer of the horse, the wood-deer's following bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who led from Agyllina's wall a thousand men in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy was he to have more mirth than 'neath Mezentius' sway;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy that other sire than he had given him unto day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The goodly Aventinus next, glorious with palm of prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the grass his chariot shows and steeds of victories,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sprung from the goodly Hercules, marked by his father's shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Hydra girded hundred-fold with adders fills the field:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him Rhea the priestess on a day gave to the sun-lit earth,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">On wooded bent of Aventine, in secret stolen birth;</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The woman mingled with a God, what time that, Geryon slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The conquering man of Tiryns touched the fair Laurentian plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And washed amidst the Tuscan stream the bulls Iberia bred.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These bear in war the bitter glaive and darts with pilèd head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With slender sword and Sabine staff the battle they abide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he afoot and swinging round a monstrous lion's hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose bristly brow and terrible with sharp white teeth a-row<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hooded his head, beneath the roof where dwelt the king did go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All shaggy rough, his shoulders clad with Herculean cloak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then next twin brethren wend away from Tibur's town and folk,</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whose brother-born, Tiburtus, erst had named that citied place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Catillus, eager Coras they, men of the Argive race;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In forefront of the battle-wood, mid thick of sleet they fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like as two centaurs cloud-begot, that down the mountains bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving the high-piled Homole, and Othrys of the snow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hurrying hoofs: the mighty wood yields to them as they go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tangle of the thicket-place before them gives aback.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor did Præneste's raiser-up from field of battle lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Cæculus, whom king of men mid cattle of the mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All ages of the world have trowed was Vulcan's very seed</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Found on the hearth: from wide away gathered his rustic band:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those housed upon Præneste's steep; they of the Juno land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Gabii: abiders near cool Anio, they that dwell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Hernic rocks, the stream-bedewed: they whom thou feedest well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anagnia rich; the foster-sons of Amasenus' coast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all had arms, or clash of shield, or war-wain; but the most</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cast the grey plummets forth, and some, the dart in hand they bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the head the fallow fell of woodland wolf they wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For helming: now with all of them the left foot goes aground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naked and bare; but with the hide untanned the left is bound.</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Messapus lo, the horse-tamer, a child by Neptune won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er by the fire to be spilled, nor by the steel undone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His folk this long while sunk in peace, a battle-foolish band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He calleth suddenly to fight, and taketh sword in hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æqui Falisci are of these, Fescennium's folk of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These lie upon Flavinium's lea, and hold Soracte's hight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mere and mound of Ciminus, Capena's woodland broad.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With measured footfalls on they go, a-singing of their lord:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As whiles the snowy swans will fare amid the world of cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Returning from their feeding-field; far goes the song and loud,</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whose notes along their necks they pour: the flood resounds, and all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Asian marish beat with song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce might ye deem the brazen ranks of such a mighty host<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were gathered there: but rather fowl a-driving toward the coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An airy cloud of hoarse-voiced things drawn from the wallowing sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo sprung from ancient Sabine blood comes Clausus presently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leading a mighty host, himself a very host of war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whom the Claudian tribe and race hath spread itself afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through Latium, since the Sabine folk was given a share in Rome:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With him the Amiternian host and old Quirites come;</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Eretus' host and they that keep Mutusca's olive gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The biders in Nomentum's wall, and Veline Rosea's plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bristling rocks of Tetricæ and high Severus' flank,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Casperia and Foruli and wet Himella's bank;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The drinkers of the Tiber-stream and Fabaris, and folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cool Nursia sends, and Horta's troop, and men of Latin yoke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they whom hapless Allia parts with wash of waters wan:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many as on Lybian main the tumbling waves roll on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When fierce Orion falls to sleep in wintry waters' lair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or thick as stand the wheaten ears the young sun burneth there</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On Hermus' plain or Lycia's lea a-yellowing for the hook:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud clashed the shields, and earth afeared beneath their footfalls shook.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Halæsus, Agamemnon's blood, a foe to Troy inbred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next yoked the horses to the car; a thousand men he led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce folk for Turnus: they that hoe the vine-fair Massic soil;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they that from their lofty hills adown unto the broil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aruncan fathers sent, and they of Sidicinum's lea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All who leave Cales, all whose homes beside Vulturnus be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shoally water: with them went Saticula's fierce band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And host of Oscans: slender shafts are weapons of their hand,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Which same to toughened casting-thong amid the fight they tie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bucklered left and scanty blade they come to blows anigh.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor, Œbalus, shalt thou unsung from this our story fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Telon on nymph Sebethis begat as tells the tale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Teleboan Capreæ he reigned o'er waxen old;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose son might not abide to sit within his father's fold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But even then held neath his sway the country far and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sarrastes' folk, and all the plain along the Sarnus side.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span><span class="i0">Celenna's lea, and Batulum, and folk of Rufra's town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those on whom Abella's walls, the apple-rich, look down.</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But these are wont to hurl the spear after the Teuton wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their heads are helmed with e'en such bark as on the holm-oak lies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All brazen-wrought their targets gleam, their brazen sword-blades flash.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas Nursæ in the heart of hills sent thee to battle-clash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Ufens, well renowned of fame, and rich in battle's grace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose folk are roughest lived of men, eager for woodland chase;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æquiculi they hight; who dwell on land of little gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever armed they till the earth, and ever are they fain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drive the spoil from hour to hour, and live upon the prey.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Umbro of the hardy heart went on the battle-way;</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Priest was he of Marruvian folk; about his helm was bent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The happy olive, leaf and twig: him King Archippus sent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wont was he with his hand and voice the bitter viper-kind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And water-worms of evil breath in bonds of sleep to bind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he would soothe the wrath of them, and dull their bite by craft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet nothing might he heal the hurt that came of Dardan shaft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, nothing might the sleepy song avail against his bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All herbs on Marsian mountains plucked were nought thereto and vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anguitia's thicket wept for thee, Fucinus wave of glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thin wan waters wept for thee.</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Most goodly Virbius went to war, Hippolytus' own son:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mother fair Aricia sent this battle-glorious one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From fostering of Egeria's wood, from out the marish place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where standeth Dian's altar rich fulfilled of plenteous grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For folk say, when Hippolytus, undone by step-dame's lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had paid unto his father's wrath that utmost penalty,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">He, piecemeal torn by maddened steeds, yet came aback to live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the starry firmament, and air that heaven doth give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought back to life by healing herbs and Dian's cherishing:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the Almighty Father, wroth that any mortal thing</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Should rise again to light of life from nether shadows wan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beat down with bolt to Stygian wave the Phœbus-gotten man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The finder of such healing craft, the wise in such an art.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Trivia's lovingkindness hid Hippolytus apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the nymph Egeria's wood she held him many a day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone in woods of Italy he wore his life away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deedless, his very name all changed, and Virbius by-named then.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So for this cause to Trivia's fane and hallowed grove do men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drive horn-foot steeds, because, o'ercome by sea-beasts dread of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Piecemeal the chariot and the man they strewed about the shore.</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No less his son would drive the steeds across the level plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all their heat, and rush to war aloft in battle-wain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now mid the forefront Turnus self of body excellent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strode sword in hand: there by the head all others he outwent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His threefold crested helm upbore Chimæra in her wrath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where very flame of Ætna's womb her jaws were pouring forth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fiercer of her flames was she, and madder of her mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As bloomed the battle young again with more abundant blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on the smoothness of his shield was golden Io shown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With upraised horns, with hairy skin, a very heifer grown,—</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A noble tale;—and Argus there was wrought, the maiden's ward;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And father Inachus from bowl well wrought the river poured.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A cloud of foot-folk follow him; his shielded people throng</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The meadows all about; forth goes the Argive manhood strong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aruncan men and Rutuli, Sicanians of old years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sacranian folk, Labicus' band the blazoned shield-bearers:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy thicket-biders, Tiber; those that holy acres till<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside Numicus, those that plough Rutulian holt and hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ridges of Circæi: they whose meadows Anxur Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looks down on, where Feronia joys amid her fair green grove;</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where Satura's black marish lies, where chilly Ufens glides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking a way through lowest dales, till in the sea he hides.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And after these from Volscian folk doth fair Camilla pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leading a mighty host of horse all blossoming with brass;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A warrior maid, whose woman's hands unused to ply the rock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unused to bear Minerva's crate, were wise in battle's shock.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very winds might she outgo with hurrying maiden feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or speed across the topmost blades of tall unsmitten wheat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor ever hurt the tender ears below her as she ran;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or she might walk the middle sea, and cross the welter wan,</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor dip the nimble soles of her amid the wavy ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From house and field the youth pours forth to wonder and to gaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crowd of mothers stands at stare all marvelling, and beholds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her going forth; how kingly cloak of purple dye enfolds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her shining shoulders, how the clasp of gold knots up her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how a quiver Lycian-wrought the Queen herself doth bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shepherd's staff of myrtle-wood steel-headed to a spear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_VIII" id="BOOK_VIII"></a>BOOK VIII.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>THE LATINS SEEK HELP OF DIOMEDE, AND ÆNEAS OF EVANDER, TO WHOM HE GOETH +AS A GUEST. VENUS CAUSETH VULCAN TO FORGE ARMOUR AND WEAPONS FOR HER SON +ÆNEAS.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Turnus from Laurentum's burg the battle-sign upreared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When with their voices hard and shrill the gathering trumpets blare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he had stirred his war-steeds on and clashed his weed of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All troubled were the minds of men, and midst of tumult sore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All Latium swore the battle oath, and rage of men outbroke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus then, and Ufens great, the dukes of warring folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mezentius, scorner of the Gods, these drive from every side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The folk to war, and waste the fields of tillers far and wide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Venulus is sent withal to Diomedes' town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pray for aid, and tell him how the Teucrians are come down</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On Latium: how Æneas comes with ship-host, carrying<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His vanquished House-Gods, calling him the Fate-ordainèd King;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How many a folk of Italy hath joined the Dardan lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How that his name in Latin land is grown a mighty word—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What thing the man will build from this, what way the prize of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If Fortune aid him he shall turn—through this thou see'st more light</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Than cometh to King Turnus yet or King Latinus eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So goes the world in Latium now, and noting how all lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojan hero drifts adown a mighty tide of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hither now his swift thought speeds, now thither bids it fare,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sends it diversely about by every way to slip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As quivering light of water is in brazen vessel's lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smit by the sun, or casting back the image of the moon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It flitteth all about the place, and rising upward soon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smiteth the fashioned ceiling spread beneath the tiling steep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night fell, and over all the world the earthly slumber deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held weary things, the fowl of air, the cattle of the wold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the bank beneath the crown of heaven waxen cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father Æneas, all his heart with woeful war oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay stretched along and gave his limbs the tardy meed of rest:</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When lo, between the poplar-leaves the godhead of the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Tiber of the lovely stream, arose before his face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A veil of linen grey and thin the elder's body clad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And garlanding of shady sedge the tresses of him had;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus Æneas he bespeaks to take away his woe:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Seed of Gods, who bearest us Troy-town from midst the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who savest Pergamus new-born no more to die again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long looked-for on Laurentine earth and fields of Latin men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is your sure abiding-place, your House-Gods' very stead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn not, nor fear the battle-threats, for now hath fallen dead</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The swelling storm of godhead's wrath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lest thou think I forge for thee an idle dream of sleep,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amid the holm-oaks of the shore a great sow shalt thou see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who e'en now farrowed thirty head of young; there lieth she<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All white along, with piglings white around her uddered sides:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That earth shall be thy dwelling-place; there rest from toil abides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From thence Ascanius, when the year hath thrice ten times rolled round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall raise a city, calling it by Alba's name renowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No doubtful matters do I sing,—but how to speed thee well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And win thee victor from all this, in few words will I tell:</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Arcadian people while agone, a folk from Pallas come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Following Evander for their king, have borne his banners home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chosen earth, and reared their town amid a mountain place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Pallanteum named, from him who first began their race:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This folk against the Latin men for ever wages fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid them as fellows to thy camp, and treaty with them plight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I by bank and flow of flood will straightly lead thee there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While thou with beating of the oars the stream dost overbear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arise, arise, O Goddess-born, when the first star-world sets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make prayer to Juno in due wise; o'ercome her wrath and threats</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With suppliant vows: victorious grown, thou yet shalt worship me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I am that abundant flood whom thou today dost see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweeping the bank and cleaving way amid the plenteous earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blue Tiber, sweetest unto heaven of all the streams of worth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is my mighty house; my head from lofty cities sweeps."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The River spake, and hid himself amid the watery deeps;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But night and slumber therewithal Æneas' eyes forsook;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He rose and toward the dawning-place and lights of heaven 'gan look,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And duly in his hollow hand he lifted water fair</span><span class='linenum'>69</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From out the stream, and unto heaven in such wise poured his prayer:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Nymphs, Laurentian Nymphs, from whence the race of rivers springs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou, O father Tiber fair, with holy wanderings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cherish Æneas; thrust from me the bitter following bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What pool soe'er may nurse thy spring, O pityer of my pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whatso land, O loveliest, thy stream may issue forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ever will I give thee gifts, and worship well thy worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horned river, of all Westland streams the very king and lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only be with me; faster bind thy great God-uttered word."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus having said, two twi-banked keels he chooseth from the fleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mans the oars and dights his folk with gear and weapons meet.</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo meanwhile a wondrous sign is thrust before his eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For on the green-sward of the wood a snow-white sow there lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down by the strand, her little ones, like-hued, about her pressed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom god-loving Æneas slays to thee, O mightiest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Juno, at thine altar-fires hallowing both dam and brood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now while the long night wore away, the swelling of his flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had Tiber soothed, and eddying back in peace the stream was stayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the manner of a mere the water's face was laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or as a pool, that so the oars unstrained their work may ply.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So now they speed their journey forth amid a happy cry;</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The oiled fir slips along the seas, the waves fall wondering then,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woods, unused, fall wondering sore to see the shields of men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shine far up stream; to see the keels bepainted swimming there:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But day and night, with beat of oars, the watery way they wear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And conquer reaches long, o'erlaid with many a shifting tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cleave the forest fair and green along the waveless sea.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unto the midmost crown of heaven had climbed the fiery sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By then the walls, and far-off burg, and few roofs one by one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They see; the place raised high as heaven by mightiness of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where in those days Evander had an unrich, scanty home:</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So thither swift they turned their prows, and toward the city drew.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That day it chanced the Arcadian King did yearly honour do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Amphitryon's mighty son, and on the God did call<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In grove before the city-walls: Pallas, his son, withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle-lords, the senate poor of that unwealthy folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast incense there; with yet warm blood the altars were a-smoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they saw the tall ships glide amidst the dusky shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of woody banks, and might of men on oars all silent laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scared at the sudden sight they rise, and all the boards forsake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Pallas, of the hardy heart, forbids the feast to break,</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While he, with weapon caught in haste, flies forth to meet the men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crieth from a mound afar:<br /></span> +<span class="i30">"Fellows, what drave you then?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whither wend ye on your ways by road untried before?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What folk and from what home are ye? and is it peace or war?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake the father Æneas the lofty deck aboard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As with the peaceful olive-bough he reached his hand abroad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Troy's folk ye see and weapons whet against the Latin side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom they have driven forth by war amid their plenteous pride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We seek Evander: go ye forth and tell him this, and say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That chosen dukes of Troy are come for plighted troth to pray."</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sound of such a mighty name smote Pallas with amaze:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Come forth," he said, "whoso ye be: before my father's face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say what ye would; come to our Gods and in our house be guest."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying he gave his hand to him, and hard his right hand pressed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith they leave the river-bank, and wend amidst the wood:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But spake Æneas to the king fair friendly words and good:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O best of Greeks, whom fortune wills that I should now beseech,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unto thee the suppliant staff of olive garlands reach,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I feared thee not for Arcas' seed or Duke of Danai,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor for thy being to Atreus' twins a kinsman born anigh:</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rather my heart, and holy words that Gods have given forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our fathers' kin, the world-wide tale that goeth of thy worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bind me to thee, and make me fain of what Fate bids befall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now Dardanus, first setter-up and sire of Ilian wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Born of Electra, Atlas' child, as Greekish stories say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came to the Teucrians: Atlas huge Electra gave today,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Atlas, who on his shoulders rears the round-wrought heavenly house:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Mercury thy father is, whom Maia glorious<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conceived, and shed on earth one day on high Cyllene cold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Atlas Maia too begot, if we may trow tale told,</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That very Atlas who the stars of heavenly house doth raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So from one root the race of us wends on its twofold ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stayed by these things none else I sent, nor guilefully have sought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assaying of thee, but myself unto thyself I brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mine own head; and here I stand a suppliant at thy door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that same Daunian folk of men drive us with bitter war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fall on thee: if us they chase, what stay but utterly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(So deem they) all the Westland earth beneath their yoke shall lie,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">With all the upper flood of sea, and nether waters' wash.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take troth and give it: hearts are we stout in the battle's clash,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">High-counselled souls, men well beheld in deeds that try the man."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He ended: but Evander's look this long while overran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face, his speaking eyes, and all his body fair to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then in few words he answered thus:<br /></span> +<span class="i36">"How sweet to welcome thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Best heart of Troy! and how I mind the words, and seem to hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises' voice, and see the face that mighty man did bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I remember Priam erst, child of Laomedon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came to Hesione's abode, to Salamis passed on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence would wend his ways to seek Arcadia's chilly place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blossom of the spring of life then bloomed upon my face,</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When on the Teucrian lords I looked with joy and wonderment;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Priam, too: but loftier there than any other went<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises; and his sight in me struck youthful love awake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I yearned to speak unto the man, and hand in hand to take:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fain I met him, led him in to Phineus' wallèd place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, departing, gave to me a noble arrow-case<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Lycian shafts; a cloak thereto, all shot across with gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And golden bridles twain, that now Pallas, my son, doth hold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, then, the right hand that ye sought is joined in troth to thine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when tomorrow's light once more upon the world shall shine,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Glad, holpen, shall I send you forth and stay you with my store.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, since here ye come our friends, with us the Gods adore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At this our hallowed yearly feast, which ill it were to stay:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be kind, and with your fellows' boards make friends without delay."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith he bids bring forth once more the wine-cups and the meat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he himself sets down the men upon a grassy seat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But chiefly to the bed bedight with shaggy lion's skin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He draws Æneas, bidding him the throne of maple win.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then vie the chosen youth-at-arms, the altar-priest brings aid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bear in roasted flesh of bulls, and high the baskets lade</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With gifts of Ceres fashioned well, and serve the Bacchus' joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So therewithal Æneas eats and men-at-arms of Troy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of undivided oxen chines and inwards of the feast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the lust of meat was dulled and hunger's gnawing ceased,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saith King Evander:<br /></span> +<span class="i20">"This high-tide that we are holding thus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This ordered feast, this altar raised to God all-glorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No idle task of witch-work is, that knoweth not the Gods<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ancient days: O Trojan chief, we, saved from fearful odds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here worship, and give glory new to deeds done gloriously.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Note first the crag, whose world of stones o'ertoppleth there anigh;</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What stone-heaps have been cast afar, how waste and wild is grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mountain-house, what mighty wrack the rocks have dragged adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therein a cave was erst, that back a long way burrowing ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held by the dreadful thing, the shape of Cacus, monster-man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A place the sun might never see, for ever warm and wet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With reek of murder newly wrought; o'er whose proud doorways set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heads of men were hanging still wan mid the woeful gore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vulcan was father of this fiend; his black flame did he pour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth from his mouth, as monster-great he wended on his ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to our aid, as whiles it will, brought round the lapse of days</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The help and coming of a God: for that most mighty one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All glorious with the death and spoils of threefold Geryon,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alcides, our avenger came, driving the victor's meed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His mighty bulls, who down the dale and river-bank did feed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Cacus, mad with furious heart, that nought undared might be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of evil deeds, or nought untried of guile and treachery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave from the fold four head of bulls of bodies excellent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en so many lovely kine, whose fashion all outwent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which same, that of their rightful road the footprints clean might lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tail-foremost dragged he to his den, turning their way-marks back;</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And so he hid them all away amid that stonydark,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor toward the cave might he that sought find any four-foot mark.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Meanwhile, his beasts all satiate, from fold Amphitryon's son<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now gets them ready for the road, and busks him to be gone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, the herd falls bellowing, and with its sorrow fills<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woodland as it goes away, and lowing leaves the hills.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith a cow gave back the sound, and in the cavern hid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lowed out, and in despite his heed all Cacus' hope undid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily Alcides' ire and gall of heart outbroke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fury, and his arms he caught and weight of knotty oak,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And running, sought the hill aloft that thrusteth toward the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then first our folk saw Cacus scared and trouble in his eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in a twinkling did he flee, no eastern wind as fleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeking his den, and very fear gave wings unto his feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But scarcely was he shut therein, and, breaking down the chains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had dropped the monstrous rock that erst his crafty father's pains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hung there with iron; scarce had he blocked the doorway with the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, the man of Tiryns there, who with his heart aflame<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span><span class="i0">Eyed all the entries, here and there turning about his face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gnashing his teeth: afire with wrath, thrice all that hilly place</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of Aventine he eyeth o'er, thrice tries without avail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rocky door, thrice sits him down awearied in the dale.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There was a peakèd rock of flint with ragged edges dight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which at the cave's back rose aloft exceeding high to sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A dwelling meet for evil fowl amidst their nests to bide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This, that hung o'er the brow above the river's leftward side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard from the right he beareth on, and shakes, and from its roots<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrencheth it loose, and suddenly adown the bent side shoots.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then ringeth all the mighty heaven with thunder of its wrack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The banks are rent, the frighted stream its waters casteth back;</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Cacus' den and kingly house showed all uncovered there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The inmost of the shadowy cave was laid undoored and bare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if the inner parts of earth 'neath mighty stroke should gape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unlocking all the house of hell, showing that country's shape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wan land all forlorn of God: there shows the unmeasured pit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ghosts aquake with light of day shot through the depths of it.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But Cacus, caught unwares by day whereof he had no doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imprisoned in the hollow rock, in strange voice bellowing out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alcides fell on from above, calling all arms to aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plenteous cast of boughs and stones upon the monster laid;</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While he, since now no flight availed to 'scape that peril's hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pours from his mouth a mighty smoke, O wondrous to be told!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enwrapping all the house about with blinding misty shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatching the sight from eyes of men, and rolling on the cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A reeking night with heart of fire and utter blackness blent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alcides' spirit bore it nought; his body swift he sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With headlong leap amid the fire where thickest rolled the wave</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of smoke, and with its pitchy mist was flooding all the cave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cacus he catcheth in the dark spueing out fire in vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knitteth him in knot about, and, strangling him, doth strain</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The starting eyes from out of him, and throat that blood doth lack:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the mirk house is opened wide; the doors are torn aback;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stolen kine, that prey his oath foreswore to heaven are shown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the feet is dragged today the body hideous grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor may men satiate their hearts by gazing on the thing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fearful eyes, the face of him, the man-beast's fashioning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bristled breast; those jaws of his, whence faded is the flame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hence is this honour celebrate, and they that after came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still kept the day all joyfully; Potitius wrought it first,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This feast of mighty Hercules; the house Pinarian nursed,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The altar of the grove he reared, which Mightiest yet we call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever more, in very sooth, shall mightiest be of all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So come, O youths, these glorious deeds I bid you glorify:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wreathe round your hair, put forth your hands and raise the cup on high!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Call on the God whom all we love, and give the wine full fain!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake: the leaf of Hercules, the poplar coloured twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaded his hair; the leaves entwined hung down aback his head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy beaker filled his hand: then merry all men sped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the table poured their gift, and called the Gods to hear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile unto the slopes of heaven the Western Star drew near,</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And then the priests, and chief thereof, Potitius, thither came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All clad in skins, as due it was, and bearing forth the flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New feast they dight, and gifts beloved of second service bring,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And on the altar pile again the plates of offering.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Salii then to singing-tide heart-kindled go around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The altars; every brow of them with poplar leafage bound:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here the youths, the elders there, set up the song of praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sing the deeds of Hercules: How, on his first of days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The monsters twain his stepdame sent, the snakes, he crushed in hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how in war he overthrew great cities of the land,</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Troy and Œchalia: how he won through thousand toils o'ergreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That King Eurystheus laid on him by bitter Juno's fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O thou Unconquered, thou whose hand beat down the cloud-born two,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pholeus, Hylæus, twin-wrought things, and Cretan monsters slew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou who slew'st the lion huge 'neath that Nemean steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Stygian mere hath quaked at thee, the ward of Orcus deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quaked in his den above his bed of half-gnawed bones and blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At nothing fashioned wert thou feared; not when Typhœus stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aloft in arms: nor from thine heart fell any rede away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When round thee headed-manifold the Worm of Lerna lay.</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O very child of Jupiter, O Heaven's new glory, hail!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fail not thy feast with friendly foot, nor us, thy lovers, fail!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With such-like song they sing the praise, and add to all the worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cave of Cacus, and the beast that breathed the wildfire forth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woods sing with them as they sing; the hills are light with song.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So, all the holy things fulfilled, they wend their ways along<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the city: the old king afoot was with them there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade Æneas and his son close to his side to fare,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span><span class="i0">And as he went made light the way with talk of many a thing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas wonders, and his eyes go lightly wandering</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O'er all; but here and there they stay, as, joyful of his ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He asks and hears of tokens left by men of earlier days.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake the King Evander, he who built up Rome of old:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"These woods the earth-born Fauns and Nymphs in time agone did hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men from out the tree-trunk born and very heart of oak;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No fashion of the tilth they knew, nor how the bulls to yoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor how to win them store of wealth, or spare what they had got;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tree-boughs only cherished them and rugged chase and hot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then from Olympus of the heavens first Saturn came adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fleeing the war of Jupiter and kingdom overthrown:</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He laid in peace the rugged folk amid the mountains steep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scattered about, and gave them laws, and willed them well to keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The name of Latium, since he lay safe hidden on that shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They call the days the Golden Days that 'neath that king outwore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid such happiness of peace o'er men-folk did he reign.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But worsened time as on it wore, and gathered many a stain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then the battle-rage was born, and lust of gain outbroke:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then came the host Ausonian; then came Sicanian folk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft and o'er again the land of Saturn cast its name.</span><span class='linenum'>329</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then kings there were, and Thybris fierce, of monstrous body came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whom the Tiber flood is named by us of Italy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its old true name of Albula being perished and gone by.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Me, driven from my land, and strayed about the ocean's ends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almighty Fortune and the Fate no struggling ever bends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set in these steads; my mother's word well worshipped hither drave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nymph Carmentis; and a god, Apollo, wayfare gave."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, as he spake, hard thereunto the altar-stead doth show,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And gate that by Carmentis' name the Roman people know;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An honour of the olden time to nymph Carmentis, she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faithful seer, who first foretold what mighty men should be</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas' sons; how great a name from Pallanteum should come.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the great grove that Romulus hallowed the fleer's home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He showeth, and Lupercal set beneath the cliff acold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called of Lycæan Pan in wise Parrhasia used of old.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereafter Argiletum's grove he shows and bids it tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A very witness, where and how the guesting Argus fell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next, then, to the Tarpeian stead and Capitol they went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All golden now, but wild of yore with thickets' tanglement:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en then at its dread holiness the folk afield would quake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tremble sore to look upon its cliff-besetting brake.</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This grove," saith he, "this hill thou seest with thicket-covered brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some godhead haunts, we know not who: indeed Arcadians trow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That very Jove they there have seen, when he his blackening shield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath shaken whiles and stirred the storm amidst the heavenly field.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look therewithal on those two burgs with broken walls foredone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There thou beholdest tokens left by folk of long agone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one did Father Janus old, and one did Saturn raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Janiculum, Saturnia, they hight in ancient days."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Amid such talk they reach the roofs whereunder did abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unrich Evander; and they see the herd-beasts feeding wide</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And lowing through the Roman Courts amid Carinæ's shine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when they came unto the house, "Beneath these doors of mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conquering Alcides went," he said; "this king's house took him in.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Have heart to scorn world's wealth, O guest, and strive thou too to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A godhead's worth: take thou no scorn of our unrich estate."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and 'neath the narrow roof Æneas' body great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He led withal, and set him down; and such a bed was there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As 'twas of leaves, and overlaid with skin of Libyan bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night falleth, and its dusky wings spreads o'er the face of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Venus, fearful in her soul (nor less than fear 'twas worth),</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sore troubled by Laurentine threats and all the tumult dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bespeaketh Vulcan, as she lay upon his golden bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holiness of very love amidst her words she bore:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When Argive kings were wasting Troy predestined with their war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were wracking towers foredoomed to fall mid flames of hating men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No help of thine for hapless ones, no arms I asked for then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrought by thy craft and mastery: nor would I have thee spend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy labour, O beloved spouse, to win no happy end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though many things to Priam's house meseemeth did I owe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oftentimes I needs must weep Æneas' pain and woe.</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But now that he by Jove's command Rutulian shores hath won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am thy suppliant, asking arms, a mother for her son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying thy godhead's holiness: time was when Nereus' seed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tithonus' wife, with many tears could bend thee to thy need.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look round, what peoples gather now; what cities shut within<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their barrèd gates are whetting sword to slay me and my kin."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake: with snowy arms of God she fondled him about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wound him in her soft embrace, while yet he hung in doubt:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sudden the wonted fire struck home; unto his inmost drew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old familiar heat, and all his melting bones ran through:</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No otherwise than whiles it is when rolls the thunder loud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gleaming of the fiery rent breaks up the world of cloud.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In glory of her loveliness she felt her guile had gained.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then spake the Father, overcome by Love that ne'er hath waned:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Why fish thy reasons from the deep? where is thy trust in me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I prithee, O my God and Love? Had such wish weighed on thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, also, had it been my part to arm the Teucrian hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor had the Almighty Sire nor Fate forbidden Troy to stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Priam might have held it out another ten years yet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now if thou wouldst wage the war, if thus thy soul is set,</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thy longing shall have whatsoe'er this craft of mine may lend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever in iron may be done, or silver-golden blend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever wind and fire may do: I prithee pray no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But trust the glory of thy might."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">So when his words wore o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He gave the enfolding that she would, and shed upon her breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He lay, and over all his limbs he drew the sleepy rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the midmost night was worn, and slumber, past its prime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had faded out, in sooth it was that woman's rising-time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who needs must prop her life with rock and slender mastery</span><span class='linenum'>409</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That Pallas gives: she wakes the ash and flames that smouldering lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, adding night unto her toil, driveth her maids to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long task before its kindled light, that she may keep from sin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her bride-bed; that her little ones well waxen-up may be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise that Might of Fire, no sluggard more than she,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To win his art and handicraft from that soft bed arose.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon the flank of Sicily there hangs an island close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Lipari of Æolus, with shear-hewn smoky steep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath it thunder caves and dens Ætnæan, eaten deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With forges of the Cyclops: thence men hear the anvils cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath mighty strokes, and through the cave the hissing sparkles fly</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From iron of the Chalybes, and pants the forge with flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The house is Vulcan's, and the land Vulcania hath to name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thither the Master of the Fire went down from upper air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Cyclop folk in mighty den were forging iron gear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pyracmon of the naked limbs, Brontes and Steropes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thunderbolt half-fashioned yet was in the hands of these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Part-wrought, suchwise as many an one the Father casts on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From all the heaven, but otherwhere unfinished from the birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three rays they wrought of writhen storm, three of the watery wrack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor do the three of ruddy flame nor windy winging lack:</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And now the work of fearful flash, and roar, and dread they won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blent amid their craftsmanship the flame that followeth on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But otherwhere they dight the wain and wingèd wheels of Mars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith the men and walls of men he waketh up to wars.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There angry Pallas's arms they wrought and Ægis full of fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set the gold and serpent scales, and did with mighty care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The knitted adders, and for breast of very God did deck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gorgon rolling eyen still above her severed neck.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Do all away," he said, "lay by the labour so far done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cyclops of Ætna, turn your minds to this one thing alone:</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Arms for a great man must be wrought; betake ye to your might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betake ye to your nimble hands and all your mastery's sleight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hurry tarrying into haste."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i16">No more he spake: all they<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall swift to work and portion out the labour of the day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brazen rivers run about with metal of the gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft the Chalyb bane-master flows in the forges' hold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty shield they set on foot to match all weapons held<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Latin men, and sevenfold ring on ring about it weld.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, in windy bellows' womb some in the breezes take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give them forth, some dip the brass all hissing in the lake,</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all the cavern is agroan with strokes on anvil laid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There turn and turn about betwixt, with plenteous might to aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They rear their arms; with grip of tongs they turn the iron o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while the Lemnian Father thus speeds on the Æolean shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lovely light Evander stirs amid his lowly house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And morning song of eave-dwellers from sleep the king doth rouse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Riseth that ancient man of days and on his kirtle does,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And both his feet he binds about with bonds of Tyrrhene shoes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Tegeæan sword he girds to shoulder and to side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the left he flings aback the cloak of panther-hide.</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Moreover, from the threshold step goes either watchful ward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two dogs to wit, that follow close the footsteps of their lord.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So to the chamber of his guest the hero goes his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well mindful of his spoken word and that well-promised stay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor less Æneas was afoot betimes that morning-tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Pallas and Achates went each one their lord beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So met, they join their right hands there and in the house sit down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And win the joy of spoken words, that lawful now hath grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thuswise speaks Evander first:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O mightiest duke of Trojan men,—for surely, thou being safe,</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">My heart may never more believe in Troy-town's vanquishing,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle-help that I may give is but a little thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For such a name: by Tuscan stream on this side are we bound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On that side come Rutulian arms to gird our walls with sound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But 'tis my rede to join to you a mighty folk of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wealthy lordship: chance unhoped this hope for us hath dight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So draw thou thither whereunto the Fates are calling on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not far hence is a place of men, on rock of yore agone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built up; Agylla's city 'tis, where glorious folk of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Lydian folk, on Tuscan hills pitched their abode of yore.</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A many years of blooming once they had, until the king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mezentius held them 'neath his pride and cruel warfaring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why tell those deaths unspeakable, and many a tyrant's deed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May the Gods store them for the heads of him and all his seed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, yea, dead corpses would he join to bodies living yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hand to hand, O misery! and mouth to mouth would set;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, drenched with gore and drenched with dew of death, must they abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A foul embrace unspeakable, and long and long they died.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worn out at last, his folk in arms beset his house about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And him therein all mad with rage, cut off his following rout,</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And cast the wildfire therewithal over his roof on high:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, amidst the slaughter slipped, to fields of Rutuli<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made shift to flee, and there is held a guest by Turnus' sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So by just anger raised today Etruria is abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crying with Mars to aid, 'Give back the king to pay the cost!'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, I will make thee now the captain of their host:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For down the whole coast goes the roar from out their ship-host's pack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They cry to bear the banners forth; but them still holdeth back</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The ancient seer, thus singing Fate: <i>Mæonia's chosen peers,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The heart and flower of men of old, whom grief's just measure bears</i></span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Against the foe; souls that your king hath stirred to righteous wrath,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No man of Italy is meet to lead this army forth;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Seek outland captains.</i> Then, indeed, the Tuscan war array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feared by such warnings of the Gods, amidst these meadows lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tarchon himself hath hither sent sweet speakers, bearing me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their lordships' kingly staff and crown, and signs of royalty;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bidding take the Tuscan land and join their camp of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But eld adull with winter frost and spent with days of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My body over-old for deeds begrudged such government.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would have stirred my son, but he, with Sabine mother blent,</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shared blood of this Italian land: but thee the Fates endow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With years and race full meet hereto; the Gods call on thee now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go forth, O captain valorous of Italy and Troy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, I will give thee Pallas here, my hope and darling joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid him 'neath thy mastery learn in battle to be bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And win the heavy work of Mars, and all thy deeds behold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, wondering at thy valiancy, win through his earliest years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two hundred knights of Arcady, the bloom of all it bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give thee; in his own name, too, like host shall Pallas bring."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had he said, and still their gaze unto the earth did cling,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas of Anchises born and his Achates true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For many thoughts of matters hard their minds were running through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Cytherea gave a sign amid the open sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For from the left a flash of light went quivering suddenly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sound went with it, and all things in utter turmoil fared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clangour of the Tyrrhene trump along the heavens blared.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">They look up; ever and anon a mighty clash they hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gleams they see betwixt the clouds, amid the sky-land clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The glitter of the arms of God, the thunder of their clang.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The man of Troy, while others' hearts amazed and fearful hang,</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Knoweth the sound, the promised help, his Goddess-mother's meed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saith: "Yea, verily, O host, to ask is little need<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hap this portent draweth on: the Gods will have me wend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The God that made me promised erst such heavenly signs to send<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If war were toward; and through the sky she promised to bear down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arms Vulcan-fashioned for my need.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me for poor Laurentium's folk! what death, what bloody graves!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Ah, Turnus, thou shalt pay it me!—how many 'neath thy waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Father Tiber, shalt thou roll the shields and helms of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bodies of the mighty ones! Cry war, oath-breakers, then!"</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And as he spake the word he rose from off the lofty throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the slaked fire of Hercules roused on the altar-stone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And joyfully he drew anear the God of yesterday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And little House-Gods: chosen ewes in manner due they slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Evander and the youth of Troy together side by side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then to the ships they wend their ways, where yet their fellows bide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There men to follow him in fight he chooseth from the peers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower of hardy hearts; the rest the downlong water bears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deedless they swim adown the stream, Ascanius home to bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tidings of his coming sire and matters flourishing.</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But horses get such Teucrian men as are for Tyrrhene mead;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By lot they choose Æneas one which yellow lion's weed</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Goes all about; full fair it shone, for it was golden-clawed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sudden through the little town the rumour flies abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knights will speedily ride forth to Tyrrhene kingly stead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fear redoubleth mothers' prayers, and nigher draweth dread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In peril's hand, and greater still the face of Mars doth grow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Father Evander strains the hand of him that needs must go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clinging with tears insatiate, and such a word doth say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O me! would Jove bring back again the years long worn away!</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Were I as when the foremost foes upon Præneste's field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I felled, and burnt victoriously a heap of shield on shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When with this very hand I sent King Herilus to Hell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose dam, Feronia, at his birth,—wild is the tale to tell,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had given him gift of threefold life; three times the sword to shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thrice to fall upon the field: yet did this right hand take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That threefold life away from him, thrice spoiled him of his gear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O were I such, ne'er would I break from thine embracing dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O son; nor had Mezentius erst, the tyrant neighbour lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In my despite so many deaths wrought with his cruel sword,</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor widowed this our city here of such a host of sons.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ye, O Gods!—thou Mightiest, King of all heavenly ones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Jove, have pity now, I pray, upon the Arcadian King,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear a father's prayers! for if your mighty governing,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If Fate shall keep my Pallas safe, and I may live to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face again,—if he return to keep our unity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then may I live, and any toil, such as ye will, abide!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, Fortune, if thou threatenest ill, and misery betide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let me now, yea, now indeed, the cruel life break through,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span><span class="i0">While yet my fear is unfulfilled and hope may yet come true;</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While thee, belovèd joy of eld, I wrap mine arms around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere yet the tale of evil hap mine ancient ears may wound."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus at their last departing-tide the father poured the prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom, fainting now, the serving-men back within doors must bear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While forth from out the open gate the host of horsemen ride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas and Achates leal in forefront of their pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then the other Trojan lords: amidst the company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In cloak adorned and painted arms, was Pallas fair to see:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en such as Lucifer, when he bathed in the ocean stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The light beloved of Venus well o'er every starry beam,</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hath raised his holy head in heaven and down the darkness rent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fearful mothers on the walls their eyen after sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Following the dusty cloud of them and ranks of glittering brass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mid the thicket places there by nighest road they pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto their end in weed of war: with shout and serried band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clattering hooves of four-foot things shake down the dusty land.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is a mighty thicket-place by chilly Cæres' side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By ancient dread of fathers gone held holy far and wide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A place that hollow hills shut in and pine-wood black begirds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men say that to Silvanus erst, the God of fields and herds,</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The old Pelasgi hallowed it, and made a holy day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en those who in the time agone on Latin marches lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No great way hence the Tuscan folk and Tarcho held them still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In guarded camp; the host of them from rising of a hill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might now be seen, as far and wide they spread about the field.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father Æneas and his folk, the mighty under shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speed hither, and forewearied now their steeds and bodies tend.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But through the clouds of heavenly way doth fair white Venus wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing the gift; who when she saw in hidden valley there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her son afar, apart from men by river cool and fair,</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then kind she came before his eyes, and in such words she spake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"These promised gifts, my husband's work, O son, I bid thee take:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So shalt thou be all void of doubt, O son, when presently<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laurentines proud and Turnus fierce thou bidst the battle try."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake the Cytherean one and sought her son's embrace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hung the beaming arms upon an oak that stood in face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, made glad by godhead's gift, and such a glory great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marvelleth and rolleth o'er it all his eyes insatiate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turns the pieces o'er and o'er his hands and arms between;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The helm that flasheth flames abroad with crest so dread beseen:</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The sword to do the deeds of Fate; the hard-wrought plates of brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blood-red and huge; yea, e'en as when the bright sun brings to pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its burning through the coal-blue clouds and shines o'er field and fold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The light greaves forged and forged again of silver-blend and gold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spear, and, thing most hard to tell, the plating of the shield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there the tale of Italy and Roman joy afield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Master of the Fire had wrought, not unlearned of the seers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or blind to see the days before. The men of coming years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius stem, all foughten fields, were wrought in due array.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the green den of Mavors there the fostering she-wolf lay,</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The twin lads sporting round the beast, clung to her udders there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sucked the nursing mother-wolf, and nothing knew of fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she, with lithe neck turned about, now this now that caressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And either body with her tongue for hardy shaping pressed.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rome had he done anigh thereto and Sabine maidens caught<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From concourse of the hollow seats when roundway games were wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There for the sons of Romulus the sudden war upstarts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Tatius, the old king of days, and Cures' hardy hearts.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then those two kings, the battle quenched, yet clad in battle-gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand with the bowl in hand before the fire of Jupiter,</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As each to each o'er slaughtered sow the troth of peace they plight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Anigh is Metius piecemeal dragged by foursome chariots light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Ah, Alban, by the troth of words 'twere better to abide!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Tullus strews his lying flesh about the thicket wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor sprinkling of a traitor's blood the bramble-bushes lack.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was Porsena bidding men take outcast Tarquin back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while his mighty leaguer lay about the city's weal.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For freedom there Æneas' sons were rushing on the steel:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As full of wrath, as one who threats, might ye behold his frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because that Cocles was of heart to break the bridge adown;</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And Clœlia from her bursten bonds was swimming o'er the flood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On topmost of Tarpeian burg the warden Manlius stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the house of God, and held the Capitol high-set;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereon with straw of Romulus the roof was bristling yet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There fluttering mid the golden porch the silver goose was done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seer that told of Gaulish feet unto the threshold won:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then through the brake the Gauls were come, and held the castle's height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the shielding of the mirk and gift of shadowy night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All golden are the locks of these, and golden is their gear,</span><span class='linenum'>659</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And fair they shine in welted coats; their milk-white necks do bear</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The twisted gold; each one in hand two Alpine spears doth wield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And guarded are their bodies well with plenteous length of shield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Salii in their dancing game; the naked Luperci,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With crests that bore the tuft of wool and shields from out the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There had he wrought: the mothers chaste in softly-gliding car<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bore holy things the city through. Yea, he had wrought afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very house of Tartarus, and doors of Dis the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dooms of evil: there wert thou hung on the beetling steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Catiline, and quaking sore 'neath many a fiendly face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Cato gave the good their laws in happy hidden place.</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The image of the swelling sea amidst of these there lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All golden, with the blue o'erfoamed with flecks of hoary spray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dolphins shining silver-white with tail-stroke swept the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gathered in an orbèd band the flowing waters clave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the midst were brazen fleets and show of Actium's wars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all Leucate set a-boil with ordered game of Mars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There might ye see; and all the flood lit up with golden light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Augustus Cæsar, leading on Italian men to fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Father-folk, and Household Gods, and Gods of greater name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood high on deck: his joyful brow flashed forth a twofold flame,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His father's star above his head is shining glory-clear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wind to aid and God to aid, Agrippa otherwhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leads on the host from high; whose brows with glorious battle-sign<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are decked; for with the crown of beaks, the ship-host's prize, they shine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Antony, with outland force and arms wrought diversely,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Victorious from the morning-folks and ruddy-stranded sea,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bore Egypt and the Eastland might and Bactria's outer ends;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And after him—O shame to tell!—a wife of Egypt wends.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They rush together; all the sea is beaten into foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Torn by the great three-tynèd beaks and oar-blades driven home:</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They seek the deep: ye might have thought that uptorn Cyclades<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swam o'er the main, that mountains met high mountains on the seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a world of towered ships fall on those folks of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hempen flame they fling from hand; they cast the dart afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wingèd steel, and Neptune's lea reddens with death anew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Queen amidst calls on her host with timbrel fashioned due<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Egypt's guise, nor looks aback the adders twain to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Barking Anubis, shapes of God wild-wrought and diversely<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Gainst Neptune and 'gainst Venus fair, and 'gainst Minerva's weal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Put forth the spear; and Mavors' wrath was fashioned forth in steel</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amidst the fight: the Dreadful Ones stooped evil-wrought from heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Discord stalked all glad at heart beneath her mantle riven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And after her, red scourge in hand, did dire Bellona go.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All this Apollo, Actian-housed, beheld, and bent his bow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From high aloft, and with his fear all Egypt fell to wrack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Ind and Araby; and all Sabæans turned the back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then once again the Queen was wrought, who on the winds doth cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spreadeth sail; and now, and now, the slackened sheet lets fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Lord of Fire had wrought her there wan with the death to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne on, amid the death of men, by wind and following sea.</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Nile was wrought to meet them there, with body great to grieve,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the folding of his cloak the vanquished to receive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take them to his bosom grey, his flood of hidden home.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">There Cæsar threefold triumphing, borne on amidst of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three hundred shrines was hallowing to Gods of Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the city; glorious gift that nevermore shall die;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while all ways with joy and game and plenteous praising rang.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all the temples altars were; in all the mothers sang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the altars; on the earth the steers' due slaughter lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on the snow-white threshold there of Phœbus bright as day</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He sat and took the nations' gifts, and on the glorious door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hung them up: in long array the tamed folks went before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As diverse in their tongues as in their arms and garments' guise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Nomads had he fashioned there, that Mulciber the wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Afric's all ungirded folk; Carians and Leleges,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shafted Geloni: softlier there Euphrates rolled his seas;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Morini, the last of men, the hornèd Rhine, were there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Danæ untamed, Araxes loth the chaining bridge to bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So on the shield, his mother's gift by Vulcan fashioned fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wondereth, blind of things to come but glad the tale to see,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And on his shoulder bears the fame and fate of sons to be.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_IX" id="BOOK_IX"></a>BOOK IX.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>IN THE MEANTIME THAT ÆNEAS IS AWAY, TURNUS AND THE LATINS BESET THE +TROJAN ENCAMPMENT, AND MISS BUT A LITTLE OF BRINGING ALL THINGS TO RUIN.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now while a long way off therefrom do these and those such deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saturnian Juno Iris sends from heaven aloft to speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Turnus of the hardy heart, abiding, as doth hap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within his sire Pilumnus' grove in shady valley's lap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Thaumas' child from rosy mouth in suchwise doth bespeak:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Turnus, what no one of the Gods might promise, didst thou seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day of Fate undriven now hath borne about for thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, he hath left his town, and ships, and company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sought the lordship Palatine and King Evander's house;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay more, hath reached the utmost steads, the towns of Corythus</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And host of Lydians, where he arms the gathered carles for war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why doubt'st thou? now is time to call for horse and battle-car.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Break tarrying off, and make thy stoop upon their camp's dismay."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake, and on her poisèd wings went up the heavenly way,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And in her flight with mighty bow cleft through the cloudy land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The warrior knew her, and to heaven he cast up either hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with such voice of spoken things he followed as she fled:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Iris, glory of the skies, and who thy ways hath sped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the clouds to earth and me? Whence this so sudden clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of weather? Lo, the midmost heaven I see departed shear,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And through the zenith stray the stars: such signs I follow on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whoso ye be that call to war."<br /></span> +<span class="i32">And therewithal he won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the stream, and from its face drew forth the water fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying the Gods, and laid a load of vows upon the air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the host drew out to war amid the open meads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wealth of painted gear and gold, and wealth of noble steeds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus leads the first array, and Tyrrheus' children ward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The latter host, and in the midst is Turnus' self the lord.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such is the host as Ganges deep, arising mid the hush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sevenfold rivers' solemn flow, or Nile-flood's fruitful rush,</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When he hath ebbed from off the fields and hid him in his bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the Teucrians see the cloud of black dust grow to head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From far away, and dusty-dark across the plain arise:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first from off the mound in face aloud Caïcus cries:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ho! what is this that rolleth on, this misty, mirky ball?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swords, townsmen, swords! Bring point and edge; haste up to climb the wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ho, for the foeman is at hand!"<br /></span> +<span class="i32">Then, with a mighty shout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojans swarm through all the gates and fill the walls about;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For so Æneas, war-lord wise, had bidden them abide</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">At his departing; if meantime some new hap should betide,</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They should not dare nor trust themselves to pitch the fight afield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But hold the camp and save the town beneath the ramparts' shield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, though shame and anger bade go forth and join the play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bolt and bar the gates no less and all his word obey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And armed upon the hollow towers abide the coming foe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus, flying forward fast, outwent the main host slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a score of chosen knights is presently at hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the town: borne on he was on horse of Thracian land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White-flecked, and helmeted was he with ruddy-crested gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Who will be first with me, O youths, play with the foe to hold?</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lo, here!" he cried; and on the air a whirling shaft he sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The first of fight, and borne aloft about the meadows went.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fellows take it up with shouts, and dreadful cry on rolls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fast they follow, wondering sore at sluggard Teucrian souls,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That men should shun the battle pitched, nor dare the weapon-game,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But hug their walls. So round the walls, high-horsed, with heart aflame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He rides about, and tries a way where never was a way:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a wolf the sheep-fold full besetteth on a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And howleth round about the garth, by wind and rain-drift beat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the middle of the night, while safe the lamb-folk bleat</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Beneath their mothers: wicked-fierce against them safe and near<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He rageth; hunger-madness long a-gathering him doth wear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With yearning for that blood beloved to wet his parchèd jaws.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so in that Rutulian duke to flame the anger draws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he beholdeth walls and camp: sore burnt his hardy heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For shifts to come at them; to shake those Teucrians shut apart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out their walls and spread their host about the meadows wide.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So on the ships he falls, that lay the campment's fence beside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hedged all about with garth and mound and by the river's flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the burning crieth on his folk of joyous mood,</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And eager fills his own right hand with branch of blazing fir:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily they fall to work whom Turnus' gaze doth stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the host of them in haste hand to the black torch lays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They strip the hearths; the smoky brand sends forth pitch-laden blaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And starward soot-bemingled flame drave Vulcan as he burned.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Say, Muse, what God from Teucrian folk such sore destruction turned?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who drave away from Trojan keels so mighty great a flame?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old is the troth in such a tale, but never dies its fame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time Æneas first began on Phrygian Ida's steep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To frame his ships, and dight him there to ride upon the deep,</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Berecynthian Mother-Queen spake, as the tale doth fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the Godhead of great Jove:<br /></span> +<span class="i32">"Son, grant unto my prayer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That which thy lovèd mother asks from heaven all tamed to peace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wood of pines I have, beloved through many years' increase.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a thicket on my height wherein men worship me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim with the blackening of the firs and trunks of maple-tree:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These to the Dardan youth in need of ship-host grudged I nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in my anxious soul as now is born a troubling thought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do off my dread, and let, I pray, a mother's prayers avail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That these amid no shattering sea or whirling wind may fail;</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let it avail them that my heights first brought them unto birth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Answered her son, that swayeth still the stars that rule the earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O mother, whither call'st thou Fate? what wouldst thou have them be?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall keels of mortal fashioning gain immortality?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shall Æneas well assured stray every peril through?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall this be right? hath any God the power such things to do?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No less when they have done their work, and safe in Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie in the haven, which soe'er have overpassed the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And borne the Duke of Dardan men to that Laurentine home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From such will I take mortal shape, and bid them to become</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Queens of the sea-plain, such as are Doto the Nereus child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Galatea, whose bosoms cleave the foaming waters wild."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake and swore it by the flood his Stygian Brother rules,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by its banks that reek with pitch o'er its black whirling pools,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the bowing of his head did all Olympus shake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the promised day was come, nor will the Parcæ break<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The time fulfilled; when Turnus' threat now bade the Mother heed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she from those her holy ships should turn the fire at need.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange light before the eyes of men shone forth; a mighty cloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ran from the dawning down the sky, and there was clashing loud</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of Ida's hosts, and from the heavens there fell a voice of fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That through Rutulia's host and Troy's fulfillèd every ear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Make no great haste, O Teucrian men, these ships of mine to save!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor arm thereto! for Turnus here shall burn the salt sea wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sooner than these, my holy pines. But ye—depart, go free!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Mother biddeth it: depart, Queens, Goddesses, of sea!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Straightway the ships brake each the chain that tied them to the bank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, as the dolphins dive adown, with plunging beaks they sank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to the deeps, from whence, O strange! they come aback once more;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">As many brazen beaks as erst stood fast beside the shore,</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So many shapes of maidens now seaward they wend their ways.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Appalled were those Rutulian hearts; yea, feared with all amaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus sat mid frighted steeds: the rough-voiced stream grew black;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, Tiberinus from the deep his footsteps drew aback.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Turnus of the hardy heart, his courage nothing died;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmoved he stirs their souls with speech, unmoved he falls to chide:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"These portents seek the Teucrians home; the very Jupiter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatches their wonted aid from them, that might not bide to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rutulian fire and sword: henceforth the sea-plain lacketh road<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Teucrian men: their flight is dead, and half the world's abode</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Is reft from them: and earth, forsooth, upon our hands it waits,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thousands of Italian swords. For me, I fear no Fates:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For if the Phrygians boast them still of answering words of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough for Venus and the Fates that Teucrian men have trod<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair Ausonia's fruitful field: and answering fates have I:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wicked folk with edge of sword to root up utterly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For stolen wife: this grief hath grieved others than Atreus' sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And other folk may run to arms than those Mycenian ones.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Enough one downfall is, say ye?—Enough had been one sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, I had deemed all womankind your hatred well might win.</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—Lo, these are they to whom a wall betwixt the sword and sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little tarrying of a ditch,—such toys the death to ward!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give hearts of men! What, saw they not the war-walls of Troy-town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fashioning of Neptune's hand, amid the flame sink down?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ye, my chosen, who is dight with me to break the wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we upon their quaking camp with point and edge may fall?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">No need I have of Vulcan's arms or thousand ships at sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against these Teucrians; yea, though they should win them presently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tuscan friendship: deeds of dusk and deedless stolen gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that Palladium, and the guards of topmost castle slain,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let them not fear: we shall not lurk in horse's dusky womb:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In open day to gird your walls with wildfire is the doom.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let them not deem they have to put the Danaans to the proof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pelasgian lads that Hector's hand for ten years held aloof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—But come, since all the best of day is well-nigh worn to end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Joy in our good beginning, friends, and well your bodies tend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bide in hope and readiness the coming of the fight."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith Messapus hath the charge with outguards of the night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To keep the gates, and all the town with watch-fires round to ring:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice seven are chosen out to hold the town inleaguering</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of Rutuli: an hundred youths, they follow each of these;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A purple-crested folk that gleam with golden braveries:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They pace the round, they shift the turn, or scattered o'er the grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Please heart and soul with wine, and turn the empty bowl of brass:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The watch-fires shine around in ring; through sport and sleeplessness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their warding weareth night away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Trojans from their walls of war look down on all these things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They hold the heights in arms, and search the great gate's fastenings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hurrying fear; or, spear in hand, gangway to battlement</span><span class='linenum'>169</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They yoke. There Mnestheus urged the work; there hot Serestus went;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They whom Æneas, if perchance the time should call thereto,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had made first captains of the host, lords of all things to do.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So all the host along the walls the peril shareth out,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Falling to watch, and plays its part in turn and turn about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nisus was warder of the gate, the eager under shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Hyrtacus, whom erst did huntress Ida yield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto Æneas' fellowship, keen with the shaft and spear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euryalus, his friend, stood by, than whom none goodlier<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went with Æneas or did on the battle-gear of Troy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Youth's bloom unshorn was on his cheek, scarce was he but a boy.</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Like love the twain had each for each; in battle side by side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They went; and now as gatewards twain together did abide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Nisus saith: "Doth very God so set the heart on fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euryalus, or doth each man make God of his desire?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My soul is driving me to dare the battle presently,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or some great deed; nor pleased with peace at quiet will it be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou seest how those Rutulian men trust in their warding keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How wide apart the watch-fires shine; how slack with wine and sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men lie along; how far and wide the hush o'er all things lies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Note now what stirreth in my mind, what thoughts in me arise:</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They bid call back Æneas now, fathers, and folk, and all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And send out men to bear to him sure word of what doth fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now if the thing I ask for thee they promise,—for to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The deed's fame is enough,—meseems beneath yon mound I see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A way whereby to Pallanteum in little space to come."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Euryalus, by mighty love of glory smitten home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood all amazed, then answered thus his fiery-hearted friend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Nisus, wilt thou yoke me not to such a noble end?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shall I send thee unto deeds so perilous alone?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">My sire Opheltes, wise in war, nourished no such an one,</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Reared mid the terror of the Greeks and Troy-town's miseries;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet with thee have I been wont to deedless deeds like these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Following Æneas' mighty heart through Fortune's furthest way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here is a soul that scorns the light, and deems it good to pay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With very life for such a fame as thou art brought anear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Saith Nisus: "Nay, I feared of thee no such a thing, I swear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No such ill thought; so may he bring thy friend back with the prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great Jove, or whosoe'er beholds these things with equal eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if some hap (thou seest herein how many such may fall),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If any hap, if any God bear me the end of all,</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fain were I thou wert left: thine age is worthier life-day's gain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let there be one to buy me back snatched from amidst the slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give me earth: or if e'en that our wonted fortune ban,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do thou the rites, and raise the tomb unto the missing man;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor make me of thy mother's woe the fashioner accurst:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She who, O friend, alone of all our many mothers durst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To follow thee, nor heeded aught of great Acestes' town."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He said: "For weaving of delay vain is thy shuttle thrown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor is my heart so turned about that I will leave the play:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us be doing!"<br /></span> +<span class="i18">Therewithal he stirs the guards, and they</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Come up in turn, wherewith he leaves the warding-stead behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And goes with Nisus, and the twain set forth the prince to find.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All other creatures, laid asleep o'er all the earthly soil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let slip the cares from off their hearts, forgetful of their toil,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But still the dukes of Trojan men and chosen folk of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held counsel of that heavy tide that on the kingdom bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was to do, or who would go Æneas' messenger.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shield on arm, and leaned upon the length of shafted spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They stand amid their stronghold's mead: in eager haste the twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nisus and young Euryalus, the presence crave to gain,</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For matters great and worth the time: straight doth Iulus take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those hurried men to him, and bids that Nisus speech should wake.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then saith the son of Hyrtacus: "Just-hearted, hearken now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Folk of Æneas, neither look upon the things we show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As by our years. The Rutuli slackened by wine and sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie hushed, and we have seen whereby upon our way to creep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en by the double-roaded gate that near the sea-strand lies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their fires are slaked, and black the smoke goes upward to the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ye will suffer us to use this fortune that doth fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We will go seek Æneas now and Pallanteum's wall:</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ye shall behold him and his spoils from mighty victory wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come hither presently: the way shall fail our feet in nought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For we have seen the city's skirts amid the valleys dim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In daily hunt, whereby we learned the river's uplong brim."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake Aletes weighty-wise, heart-ripe with plenteous eld:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Gods of our fathers, under whom the weal of Troy is held,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye have not doomed all utterly the Teucrian folk undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When ye for us such souls of youth, such hardy hearts have won."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span><span class="i0">So saying by shoulder and by hand he took the goodly twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While all his countenance and cheeks were wet with plenteous rain,</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"What gifts may I deem worthy, men, to pay such hearts athirst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For utmost glory? certainly the fairest and the first<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods and your own hearts shall grant: the rest your lord shall give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Godly Æneas; and this man with all his life to live,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius here, no memory of such desert shall lack."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But I," Ascanius breaketh in, "whose father brought aback<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is all my heal—Nisus, I pray by those great Gods of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By him of old, Assaracus, by hoary Vesta's shrine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring back my father! whatsoe'er is left with me today<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Fate or Faith, into your breasts I give it all away.</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O give me back the sight of him, and grief is all gone by.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two cups of utter silver wrought and rough with imagery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give you, which my father took from wracked Arisbe's hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two tripods eke, two talents' weight of fire-beproven gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A beaker of the time agone, Sidonian Dido's gift.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if we hap to win the day and spoil of battle shift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If we lay hand on Italy and staff of kingship bear,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye saw the horse that bore today gold Turnus and his gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That very same, the shield withal, and helm-crest ruddy dyed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy gifts, O Nisus, from the spoil henceforth I set aside.</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Moreover of the mother-folk twice six most excellent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My sire shall give, and captive men with all their armament,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal the kingly field, Latinus' garden-place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, O boy most worshipful, whom nigher in the race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine own years follow, thee I take unto mine inmost heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Embracing thee my very friend in all to have a part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any glory of my days without thee shall I seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether I fashion peace or war; all that I do or speak</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">I trust to thee."<br /></span> +<span class="i18">In answer thus Euryalus 'gan say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"No day henceforth of all my life shall prove me fallen away</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From this my deed: only may fate in kindly wise befall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor stand against me: now one gift I ask thee over all:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a mother born on earth from Priam's ancient race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who wretched in the land of Troy had no abiding-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor in Acesta's steadfast wall; with me she still must wend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her, who knows nought of this my risk, whatever may be the end<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto thy safeguard do I leave: Night and thy right hand there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be witness that my mother's tears I had no heart to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But solace thou her lack, I pray; comfort her desert need;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea let me bear this hope with me, and boldlier shall I speed</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amid all haps."<br /></span> +<span class="i16">Touched to the heart the Dardans might not keep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their tears aback, and chief of all did fair Iulus weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The image of his father's love so flashed upon his soul:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal he spake the word:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All things I duly answer for worthy thy deed of fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy mother shall my mother be, nor lack but e'en the name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be Creusa: store of thanks no little hath she won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bore thee. Whatsoever hap thy valorous deed bear on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By this my head, whereon my sire is wont the troth to plight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever I promised thee come back, with all things wrought aright,</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thy mother and thy kin shall bide that very same reward."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So spake he, weeping, and did off his shoulder-girded sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All golden, that with wondrous craft Lycaon out of Crete<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had fashioned, fitting it withal in ivory scabbard meet.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And Mnestheus unto Nisus gives a stripped-off lion's hide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shaggy coat; and helm for helm giveth Aletes tried.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then forth they wend in weed of war, and they of first estate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young men and old, went forth with them, and leave them at the gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With following vows; and therewithal Iulus, goodly-wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who far beyond his tender years had mind of manly thought,</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Charged them with many messages unto his father's ear,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vain words the night-winds bore away and gave the clouds to bear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forth now they wend and pass the ditch, and through the mirk night gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The baneful camp: yet ere their death they too shall be the bane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of many: bodies laid in sleep and wine they see strewed o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The herbage, and the battle-cars upreared along the shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mid the reins and wheels thereof are men and weapons blent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wine-jars: so Hyrtacides such word from tooth-hedge sent:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Euryalus, the hand must dare, the time cries on the deed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here lies the way: do thou afar keep watch and have good heed,</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lest any hand aback of us arise 'gainst thee and me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here will I make a waste forsooth, and wide thy way shall be."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He speaks, and hushes all his voice, and so with naked blade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Falls on proud Rhamnes; who, as happed, on piled-up carpets laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid his sleep was blowing forth great voice from inner breast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A king he was; king Turnus' seer, of all belovèd best;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet nought availed his wizardry to drive his bane away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three thralls unware, as heeding nought amid the spears they lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He endeth: Remus' shield-bearer withal and charioteer,</span><span class='linenum'>329</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Caught 'neath the very steeds: his sword their drooping necks doth shear;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then from their lord he takes the head, and leaves the trunk to spout<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gushes of blood: the earth is warm with black gore all about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beds are wet. There Lamyrus and Lamus doth he slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And young Serranus fair of face, who played the night away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For many an hour, until his limbs 'neath God's abundance failed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And down he lay: ah! happier 'twere if he had still prevailed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make the live-long night one game until the morning cold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As famished lion Nisus fares amid the sheep-filled fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When ravening hunger driveth on; the soft things, dumb with dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He draggeth off, devouring them, and foams from mouth blood-red.</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less the death Euryalus hath wrought; for all aflame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wades in wrath, and on the way slays many lacking name:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fadus, Herbesus therewithal, Rhœtus and Abaris;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwary they: but Rhœtus waked, and looking on all this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fulfilled of fear was hiding him behind a wine-jar pressed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The foe was on him as he rose; the sword-blade pierced his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up to the hilts, and drew aback abundant stream of death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His purple life he poureth forth, and, dying, vomiteth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blent blood and wine. On death-stealth still onward the Trojan went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And toward Messapus' leaguer drew, where watch-fires well-nigh spent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He saw, and horses all about, tethered in order due,</span><span class='linenum'>351</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cropping the grass: but Nisus spake in hasty words and few,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeing him borne away by lust of slaughter overmuch:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hold we our hands, for dawn our foe hasteth the world to touch:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep have we drunk of death, and cut a road amid the foe."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The gear of men full goodly-wrought of silver through and through</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">They leave behind, and bowls therewith, and carpets fashioned fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Natheless Euryalus caught up the prophet Rhamnes' gear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gold-bossed belt, which Cædicus, the wealthy man of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent to Tiburtine Remulus, that he his name might hold,</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Though far he were; who, dying, gave his grandson their delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he being dead, Rutulian men won them in war and fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These now he takes, and all for nought does on his valorous breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dons Messapus' handy helm with goodly-fashioned crest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith they leave the camp and gain the road that safer lay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But horsemen from the Latin town meantime were on the way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sent on before to carry word to Turnus, lord and king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While in array amid the fields the host was tarrying.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three hundred knights, all shielded folk, 'neath Volscens do they fare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now they drew anigh the camp and 'neath its rampart were,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When from afar they saw the twain on left-hand footway lurk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because Euryalus' fair helm mid glimmer of the mirk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betrayed the heedless youth, and flashed the moonbeams back again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor was the sight unheeded: straight cries Volscens midst his men:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Stand ho! why thus afoot, and why in weapons do ye wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whither go ye?"<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Nought had they an answer back to send,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But speed their fleeing mid the brake, and trust them to the night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horsemen cast themselves before each crossway known aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every outgoing there is with guard they girdle round.</span><span class='linenum'>379</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rough was the wood; a thicket-place where black holm-oaks abound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the tanglement of thorns choked up on every side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The road but glimmering faintly out from where the foot-tracks hide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blackness of overhanging boughs and heavy battle-prey</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hinder Euryalus, and fear beguiles him of the way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nisus comes out, and now had won unwitting from the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reached the place from Alba's name called Alban Meadows now;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where King Latinus had as then his high-built herd-houses.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there he stands, and, looking round, his fellow nowhere sees:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hapless Euryalus! ah me, where have I left thy face?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where shall I seek thee, gathering up that tangle of the ways</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Through the blind wood?"<br /></span> +<span class="i26">So therewithal he turns upon his track,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Noting his footsteps, and amid the hushed brake strays aback,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hearkening the horse-hoofs and halloos and calls of following folk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor had he long abided there, ere on his ears outbroke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great clamour, and Euryalus he sees, whom all the band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath taken, overcome by night, and blindness of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wildering tumult: there in vain he strives in battle-play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, what to do? What force to dare, what stroke to snatch away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The youth? Or shall he cast himself amid the swords to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hasten down the way of wounds to lovely death anigh?</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then swiftly, with his arm drawn back and brandishing his spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He looks up at the moon aloft, and thuswise poureth prayer:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To aid, thou Goddess! Stay my toil, and let the end be good!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Latonian glory of the stars, fair watcher of the wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If ever any gift for me upon thine altars gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father Hyrtacus; if I for thee the hunting drave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If aught I hung upon thy dome, or set upon thy roof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give me to break their gathered host, guide thou my steel aloof!"</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and in the shafted steel set all his body's might,</span><span class='linenum'>409</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And hurled it: flying forth the spear clave through the dusk of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, reaching Sulmo turned away, amidst his back it flew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And brake there; but the splintering shaft his very heart pierced through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er he rolleth, vomiting the hot stream from his breast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then heave his flanks with long-drawn sobs and cold he lies at rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On all sides then they peer about: but, whetted on thereby,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quivering shaft from o'er his ear again he letteth fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid their wilderment the spear whistleth through either side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Tagus' temples, and wet-hot amidst his brain doth bide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce Volscens rageth, seeing none who might the spear-shot send,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or any man on whom his wrath and heat of heart to spend.</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But thou, at least, with thine hot blood shalt pay the due award<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For both," he cries; and therewithal, swift drawing forth the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He falleth on Euryalus. Then, wild with all affright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nisus shrieks out, and cares no more to cloak himself with night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hath no heart to bear against so great a misery.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"On me, me! Here—I did the deed! turn ye the sword on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rutulians!—all the guilt is mine: he might not do nor dare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May heaven and those all-knowing stars true witness of it bear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only with too exceeding love he loved his hapless friend."</span><span class='linenum'>429</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such words he poured forth, but the sword no less its way doth wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Piercing the flank and rending through the goodly breast of him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rolls Euryalus in death: in plenteous blood they swim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His lovely limbs, his drooping neck low on his shoulder lies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when the purple field-flower faints before the plough and dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or poppies when they hang their heads on wearied stems outworn,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">When haply by the rainy load their might is overborne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Nisus falls amidst of them, and Volscens seeks alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For aught that any man may do: save him he heedeth none.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About him throng the foe: all round the strokes on him are laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thrust him off: but on he bears, whirling his lightning blade,</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Till full in Volscens' shouting mouth he burieth it at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tearing the life from out the foe, as forth his own life passed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, ploughed with wounds, he cast him down upon his lifeless friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so in quietness of death gat resting in the end.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O happy twain, if anywise my song-craft may avail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out the memory of the world no day shall blot your tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While on the rock-fast Capitol Æneas' house abides,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while the Roman Father still the might of empire guides.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Rutuli, victorious now with spoils and prey of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sorrowing still, amid the camp the perished Volscens bore.</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor in the camp was grief the less, when they on Rhamnes came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bloodless; and many a chief cut off by one death and the same;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Serranus dead and Numa dead: a many then they swarm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the dead and dying men, and places wet and warm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With new-wrought death, and runnels full with plenteous foaming blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then one by one the spoils they note; the glittering helm and good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus owned: the gear such toil had won back from the dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But timely now Aurora left Tithonus' saffron bed,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span><span class="i0">And over earth went scattering wide the light of new-born day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun-flood flowed, and all the world unveiled by daylight lay.</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Turnus, clad in arms himself, wakes up the host to arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every lord to war-array bids on his brazen swarms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men with diverse tidings told their battle-anger whet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover (miserable sight!) on upraised spears they set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those heads, and follow them about with most abundant noise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euryalus and Nisus dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas' hardy sons upon their leftward wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand in array; for on the right the river girdeth all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In woe they ward the ditches deep, and on the towers on high</span><span class='linenum'>469</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Stand sorrowing; for those heads upreared touch all their hearts anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Known overwell to their sad eyes mid the black flow of gore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith in wingèd fluttering haste, the trembling city o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes tell-tale Fame, and swift amidst the mother's ears doth glide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And changed she was, nor in her bones the life-heat would abide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shuttle falls from out her hand, unrolled the web doth fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a woman's hapless shrieks she flieth to the wall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rending her hair, beside herself, she faced the front of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heedless of men, and haps of death, and all the weapons' flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the very heavens she filled with wailing of her grief:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O son, and do I see thee so? Thou rest and last relief</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of my old days! hadst thou the heart to leave me lone and spent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O cruel! might I see thee not on such a peril sent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was there no time for one last word amid my misery?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A prey for Latin fowl and dogs how doth thy body lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On lands uncouth! Not e'en may I, thy mother, streak thee, son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy body dead; or close thine eyes, or wash thy wounds well won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or shroud thee in the cloth I wrought for thee by night and day,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">When hastening on the weaving-task I kept eld's cares at bay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where shall I seek thee? What earth hides thy body, mangled sore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And perished limbs? O son, to me bringest thou back no more</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Than this? and have I followed this o'er every land and sea?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O pierce me through, if ye be kind; turn all your points on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rutulians! Let me first of all with battle-steel be sped!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father of Gods, have mercy thou! Thrust down the hated head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the House of Tartarus with thine own weapon's stress,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since otherwise I may not break my life-days' bitterness."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their hearts were shaken with her wail, and Sorrow fain will weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in all men their battle-might unbroken lay asleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Actor and Idæus take that flaming misery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As bade Ilioneus, and young Iulus, sore as he</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Went weeping: back in arms therewith they bear her 'neath the roof.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the trump with brazen song cast fearful sound aloof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chiding to war; and shouts rise up and belloweth back the heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And forth the Volscians fare to speed the shield-roof timely driven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some men fall on to fill the ditch and pluck the ramparts down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some seek approach and ladders lay where daylight rends the crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wall-wards, and would get them up where stands the hedge of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thinner of men: against their way the Teucrian warders pour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All weapon-shot: with hard-head pikes they thrust them down the steep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long was the war wherein they learned the battle-wall to keep.</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Stones, too, of deadly weight they roll, if haply they may break<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shield-roof of the battle-rush; but sturdily those take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All chances of the play beneath their close and well-knit hold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet fail they; for when hard at hand their world of war was rolled,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">A mighty mass by Teucrians moved rolls on and rushes o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fells the host of Rutuli and breaks the tiles of war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor longer now the Rutuli, the daring hearts, may bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To play with Mars amid the dark, but strive the walls to clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With storm of shaft and weapon shot.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now Mezentius otherwhere, a fearful sight to see,</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Was tossing high the Tuscan pine with smoke-wreathed fiery heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Neptune's child, the horse-tamer Messapus, played his part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rending the wall, and crying out for ladders to be laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Speak, Song-maids: thou, Calliope, give thou the singer aid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell what wise by Turnus' sword the field of fight was strown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What death he wrought; what man each man to Orcus sent adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall to with me to roll abroad the mighty skirts of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye, Goddesses, remember all, and ye may tell it o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a tower built high overhead, with gangways up in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set well for fight, 'gainst which the foe their utmost war-might bear,</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all Italians strive their most to work its overthrow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gainst whom the Trojans ward it well, casting the stones below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the hollow windows speed the shot-storm thick and fast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Turnus first of all his folk a flaming firebrand cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fixed it in the turret's flank: wind-nursed it caught great space<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of planking, and amid the doors, consuming, kept its place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then they within, bewildered sore, to flee their ills are fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all for nought; for while therein they huddle from the bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And draw aback to place yet free from ruin, suddenly</span><span class='linenum'>539</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O'erweighted toppleth down the tower, and thundereth through the sky.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Half-dead the warders fall to earth by world of wrack o'erborne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pierced with their own shafts, and their breasts with hardened splinters torn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, Lycus and Helenor came alone of all their peers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alive to earth: Helenor, now in spring-tide of his years:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bond-maid Licymnia privily to that Mæonian king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had borne the lad, and sent him forth to Troy's beleaguering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With arms forbidden, sheathless sword and churl's unpainted shield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when he saw himself amidst the thousand-sworded field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Turnus, Latins on each side, behind, and full in face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a wild beast hedged about by girdle of the chase</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Rages against the point and edge, and, knowing death anear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaps forth, and far is borne away down on the hunter's spear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise the youth falls on where thickest spear-points lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the middle of the foe he casts himself to die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Lycus, nimbler far of foot, betwixt the foemen slipped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betwixt the swords, and gained the wall, and at the coping gripped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And strove to draw him up with hand, the friendly hands to feel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Turnus both with foot and spear hath followed hard at heel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mocks him thus in victory: "How was thy hope so grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of 'scaping from my hand, O fool?"</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i36">Therewith he plucks him down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From where he hung, and space of wall tears downward with the man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when it chanceth that a hare or snowy-bodied swan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jove's shield-bearer hath borne aloft in snatching hookèd feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or lamb, whose mother seeketh him with most abundant bleat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some wolf of Mars from fold hath caught.<br /></span> +<span class="i42">Goes up great cry around:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They set on, and the ditches filled with o'erturned garth and mound,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">While others cast the blazing brands on roof and battlement.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ilioneus with mighty stone, a shard from hillside rent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lucetius felled, as fire in hand unto the gate he drew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Liger felled Emathion, for craft of spear he knew;</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Asylas Corynæus, by dint of skill in bowshaft's ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cæneus Ortygius fells, and him, victorious, Turnus slays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Itys, Clonius, Promolus, Dioxippus withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Sagaris, and Idas set on topmost turret-wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Capys slays Privernus; him Themilla's light-winged spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had grazed, whereon he dropped his shield, and his left hand did bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the hurt; when lo, thereto the wingèd shaft did win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nailed the hand unto the side, and, buried deep within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burst all the breathing-ways of life with deadly fatal sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, where standeth Arcens' child in goodly weed of war,</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fair with his needle-painted cloak, with Spanish scarlet bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Noble of face: Arcens, his sire, had sent him to the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From nursing of his mother's grove about Symæthia's flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby Palicus' altar stands, the wealthy and the good.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mezentius now laid by his spear, and took his whistling sling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whirled it thrice about his head at length of tugging string,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the flight of molten lead his midmost forehead clave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the deep abundant sand his outstretched body gave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then first they say Ascanius aimed his speedy shafts in war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith but fleeing beasts afield he used to fright before:</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But now at last his own right hand the stark Numanus slays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who had to surname Remulus, and in these latter days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King Turnus' sister, young of years, had taken to his bed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He in the forefront of the fight kept crying out, and said</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Things worthy and unworthy tale: puffed up with pride of place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New-won he went, still clamouring out his greatness and his grace.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O twice-caught Phrygians, shames you nought thus twice amid the wars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lie in bonds, and stretch out walls before the march of Mars?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, these are they who woke the war the wives of us to wed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What God sent you to Italy? what madness hither sped?</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Here are no Atreus' sons, and no Ulysses word-weaver.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A people hard from earliest spring our new-born sons we bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the stream, and harden us with bitter frost and flood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our lads, they wake the dawning-chase and wear the tangled wood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our sport is taming of the horse and drawing shafted bow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our carles, who bear a world of toil, and hunger-pinching know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tame earth with spade, or shake with war the cities of the folk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, all our life with steel is worn; afield we drive the yoke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With spear-shaft turned about: nor doth a halting eld of sloth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weaken our mightiness of soul, or change our glory's growth.</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">We do the helm on hoary hairs, and ever deem it good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drive the foray day by day, and make the spoil our food.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ye—the raiment saffron-stained, with purple glow tricked out—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These are your heart-joys: ye are glad to lead the dance about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sleeve-coated folk, O ribbon-coifed, not even Phrygian men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Phrygian wives, to Dindymus the high go get ye then!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear the flute's twi-mouthèd song as ye are wont to do!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Berecynthian Mother's box and cymbals call to you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Ida: let men deal with war, and drop adown your swords."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That singer of such wicked speech, that caster forth of words,</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ascanius brooked not: breasting now his horse-hair full at strain,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">He aimed the shaft, and therewithal drew either arm atwain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stood so; but to Jupiter first suppliant fell to pray:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Jove Almighty, to my deeds, thus new-begun, nod yea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I myself unto thy fane the yearly gifts will bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring before thine altar-stead a snow-white gilt-horned steer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose head unto his mother's head is evenly upborne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of age to spurn the sand with hoof and battle with the horn."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Father heard, and out of heaven, wherein no cloud-fleck hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His leftward thunder fell, wherewith the fateful bow outrung,</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The back-drawn shaft went whistling forth with dreadful sound, and sped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pierce the skull of Remulus and hollow of his head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Go to, then, and thy mocking words upon men's valour call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The twice-caught Phrygians answer back Rutulians herewithal."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This only word Ascanius spake: the Teucrians raise their cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shout for joy, and lift their heart aloft unto the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long-haired Apollo then by hap high-set in airy place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looked down upon Ausonian host and leaguered city's case,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus the victor he bespeaks from lofty seat of cloud:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Speed on in new-born valour, child! this is the starward road,</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O son of Gods and sire of Gods! Well have the Fates ordained<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That 'neath Assaracus one day all war shall be refrained.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No Troy shall hold thee."<br /></span> +<span class="i26">With that word he stoops from heaven aloft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And puts away on either side the wind that meets him soft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seeks Ascanius: changed is he withal, and putteth on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shape of Butes old of days, shield-bearer time agone</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto Anchises, Dardan king, and door-ward true and tried;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with Ascanius now his sire had bidden him abide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like this old man in every wise, voice, hue, and hoary hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And arms that cried on cruel war, now did Apollo fare,</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And to Iulus hot of heart in such wise went his speech:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Enough, O child of Æneas, that thou with shaft didst reach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Numanus' life unharmed thyself, great Phœbus grants thee this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy first-born praise, nor grudgeth thee like weapons unto his.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now refrain thy youth from war."<br /></span> +<span class="i38">So spake Apollo then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the midmost of his speech fled sight of mortal men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And faded from their eyes away afar amid the air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan dukes, they knew the God and holy shooting-gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as he fled away from them they heard his quiver shrill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore Ascanius, fain of fight, by Phœbus' word and will</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They hold aback: but they themselves fare to the fight again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cast their souls amidst of all the perils bare and plain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then goes the shout adown the wall, along the battlement;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The javelin-thongs are whirled about, the sharp-springed bows are bent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the earth is strewn with shot: the shield, the helmet's cup,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ring out again with weapon-dint, and fierce the fight springs up.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As great as, when the watery kids are setting, beats the rain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the earth; as plentiful as when upon the main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hail-clouds fall, when Jupiter, fierce with the southern blasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks up the hollow clouds of heaven and watery whirl downcasts.</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Pandarus and Bitias stark, Idan Alcanor's seed.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">They whom Iæra of the woods in Jove's brake nursed with heed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Youths tall as firs or mountain-cliffs that in their country are,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gate their lord hath bid them keep, these freely now unbar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And freely bid the foeman in, trusting to stroke of hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they themselves to right and left before the gate-towers stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steel-clad, and with their lofty heads crested with glittering gleams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as amid the air of heaven, beside the flowing streams<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On rim of Padus, or anigh soft Athesis and sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twin oak-trees spring, and tops unshorn uprear the skies to meet,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And with their heads high over earth nod ever in the wind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So now the Rutuli fall on when clear the way they find,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Quercens, and Æquicolus the lovely war-clad one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tmarus of the headlong soul, and Hæmon, Mavors' son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must either turn their backs in flight, with all their men of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or lay adown their lovèd lives on threshold of the door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then bitterer waxeth battle-rage in hate-fulfillèd hearts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the Trojans draw to head and gather from all parts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eager to deal in handy strokes, full fierce afield to fare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as duke Turnus through the fight was raging otherwhere,</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Confounding folk, there came a man with tidings that the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hot with new death, the door-leaves wide to all incomers throw.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith he leaves the work in hand, and, stirred by anger's goad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the Dardan gate goes forth, against the brethren proud:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There first Antiphates he slew, who fought amid the first,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bastard of Sarpedon tall, by Theban mother nursed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With javelin-cast he laid him low: the Italian cornel flies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the thin air, pierceth his maw, and 'neath his breast-bone lies</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Deep down; the hollow wound-cave pours a flood of gore and foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And warm amid him lies the steel, amid his lung gone home.</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then Meropes', and Erymas', Aphidnus' lives he spilled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Bitias of the flaming eyes and heart with ire fulfilled;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not with the dart, for to no dart his life-breath had he given;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whirled and whizzing mightily came on the sling-spear, driven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like lightning-flash; against whose dint two bull-hides nought availed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet the golden faithful fence of war-coat double-scaled:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fainting limbs fell down afield, and earth gave out a groan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rang the thunder of his shield huge on his body thrown:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as upon Eubœan shore of Baiæ falleth whiles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A stony pillar, which built up of mighty bonded piles</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They set amid the sea: suchwise it draggeth mighty wrack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Headlong adown, and deep in sea it lieth dashed aback:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seas are blent, black whirl of sand goes up confusedly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the noise quakes Prochytas, and quakes Inarimè,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unsoft bed by Jove's command upon Typhœus laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Mars, the mighty in the war, brings force and strength to aid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Latin men, and in their hearts he stirs his bitter goads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while with fleeing and black fear the Teucrian heart he loads:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From everywhither run the folk, since here is battle rich,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in all hearts the war-god wakes.</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Pandarus, beholding now his brother laid to earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whitherward wends Fortune now, and what Time brings to birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back-swinging on the hinge again with might the door-leaf sends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By struggle of his shoulders huge; and many of his friends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shut outward of the walls he leaves, amid the fierce debate;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">While others, with himself shut in, poured backward through the gate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Madman! who saw not how the king Rutulian mid the band<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came rushing, but amidst the town now shut him with his hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a tiger pent amidst a helpless flock of sheep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then dreadfully his armour rings, light from his eyes doth leap,—</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A strange new light: the blood-red crest upon his helm-top quakes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the circle of his shield a glittering lightning breaks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sudden Æneas' frighted folk behold his hated face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mighty limbs: but Pandarus breaks forth amid the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge, and his heart afire with rage for his lost brother's death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nay, this is not Amata's home, the dowry house," he saith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Nor yet doth Ardea's midmost wall hold kindred Turnus in:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The foeman's camp thou seest, wherefrom thou hast no might to win."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But from his all untroubled breast laughed Turnus, as he said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Begin, if thou hast heart thereto, let hand to hand be laid!</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt tell Priam how thou found'st a new Achilles here."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake: the other put all strength to hurling of his spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shaft all rough with knots, and still in its own tree-bark bound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straightway the thin air caught it up, but that swift-speeding wound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saturnian Juno turned aside and set it in the door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—"But now thou 'scapest not this steel mine own hand maketh sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought such as thine the weapon-smith, the wound-smith——"<br /></span> +<span class="i60">With the word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He riseth up unto the high uprising of the sword,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span><span class="i0">Wherewith betwixt the temples twain he clave his midmost head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a fearful wound apart the cheeks unbearded shred.</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then came a sound, and shook the earth 'neath the huge weight of him:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With armour wet with blood and brain, with fainting, slackened limb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He strewed the ground in death; his head, sheared clean and evenly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From either shoulder hanging down, this side and that did lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then turn and flee the Trojan folk, by quaking terror caught;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if the conquering man as then one moment had had thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To burst the bolts and let his folk in through the opened door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That day had been the last of days for Trojans and their war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But utter wrath of heart and soul, and wildering lust of death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave him afire amidst the foe.</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then Phaleris he catcheth up, and ham-strung Gyges then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose spears, snatched up, he hurleth on against the backs of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Juno finds him might enough and heart wherewith to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Halys he sendeth down with these, Phegeus with targe smit through;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, as they roused the war on wall, nor wotted aught of this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alcander stark, and Halius stout, Noëmon, Prytanis.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Lynceus, as he ran to aid and cheered his folk withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He reacheth at with sweeping sword from right hand of the wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And smiteth; and his helm and head, struck off with that one blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie far away: Amycus then, the wood-deer's wasting foe,</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He slayeth: happier hand had none in smearing of the shaft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And arming of the iron head the poison-wound to waft.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Clytius, son of Æolus, and Cretheus Muse-beloved,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cretheus the Muses' fellow-friend, whose heart was ever moved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By song and harp, and measured sound along the strainèd string;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who still of steeds, and arms, and men, and battle-tide would sing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At last the Trojan dukes of men, Mnestheus, Serestus fierce,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Draw to a head when all this death is borne unto their ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And see their folk all scattering wide, the foe amidst them see.</span><span class='linenum'>779</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then Mnestheus cries: "And whither now, and whither will ye flee?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What other walls, what other town have ye a hope to find?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath one man, O my town-fellows, whom your own ramparts bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrought such a death and unavenged amid your very town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sent so many lords of war by Orcus' road adown?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O dastards, your unhappy land, your Gods of ancient days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your great Æneas—what! no shame, no pity do they raise?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fired by such words, they gather heart and stand in close array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till step by step 'gins Turnus now to yield him from the play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seek the river and the side the wet wave girds about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fiercer fall the Teucrians on, and raise a mighty shout,</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And lock their ranks: as when a crowd of men-folk and of spears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Falls on a lion hard of heart, and he, beset by fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But fierce and grim-eyed, yieldeth way, though anger and his worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forbid him turn his back about: no less to fare right forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through spears and men avails him not, though ne'er so fain he be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise unhasty feet drew Turnus doubtfully<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abackward, all his heart a-boil with anger's overflow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, twice, indeed, he falls again amidmost of the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twice more turns to huddled flight their folk along the walls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, gathered from the camp about, the whole host on him falls,</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor durst Saturnian Juno now his might against them stay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Jupiter from heaven hath sent Iris of airy way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No soft commands of his high doom bearing his sister down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If Turnus get him not away from Troy's high-builded town.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So now the warrior's shielded left the play endureth not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought skills his right hand; wrapped around in drift of weapon shot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About his temples' hollow rings his helm with ceaseless clink;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The starkly-fashioned brazen plates amid the stone-cast chink;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crest is battered from his head; nor may the shield-boss hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the strokes: the Trojans speed the spear-storm manifold,</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And lightening Mnestheus thickeneth it: then over all his limbs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweat bursts out, and all adown a pitchy river swims:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard grows his breath, and panting sharp shaketh his body spent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until at last, all clad in arms, he leapt adown, and sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His body to the river fair, who in his yellow flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught him, and bore him forth away on ripple soft and good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave him merry to his men, washed from the battle's blood.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_X" id="BOOK_X"></a>BOOK X.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>THE GODS TAKE COUNSEL: ÆNEAS COMETH TO HIS FOLK AGAIN, AND DOETH MANY +GREAT DEEDS IN BATTLE.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile is opened wide the door of dread Olympus' walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the Sire of Gods and Men unto the council calls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the starry place, wherefrom, high-throned, he looks adown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the folk of Latin land and that beleaguered town.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There in the open house they sit, and he himself begins:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Dwellers in the House of Heaven, why backward thuswise wins<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your purpose? Why, with hearts unruled, raise ye the strife so sore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I clean forbade that Italy should clash with Troy in war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now why the war that I forbade? who egged on these or those<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fear or fight, or drave them on with edge of sword to close?</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Be not o'ereager in your haste: the hour of fight shall come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When dreadful Carthage on a day against the walls of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betwixt the opened doors of Alps, a mighty wrack shall send;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then may ye battle, hate to hate, and reach and grasp and rend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now forbear, and joyfully knit fast the plighted peace."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Few words spake Jove; but not a few in answer unto these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave golden Venus back again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Father, O eternal might of men and deeds of earth—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what else may be left to me whereto to turn my prayers?—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou seest the Rutuli in pride, and Turnus, how he fares?</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amidst them, borne aloft by steeds, and, swelling, war-way sweeps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Mars to aid: the fencèd place no more the Teucrians keeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now within the very gates and mound-heaped battlement<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They blend in fight, and flood of gore adown the ditch is sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unware Æneas is away.—Must they be never free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From bond of leaguer? lo, again the threatening enemy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangs over Troy new-born! Behold new host arrayed again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Arpi, the Ætolian-built; against the Teucrian men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tydides riseth. So for me belike new wounds in store,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I, thy child, must feel the edge of arms of mortal war.</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now if without thy peace, without thy Godhead's will to speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojans sought for Italy, let ill-hap pay ill deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor stay them with thine help: but if they followed many a word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Given forth by Gods of Heaven and Hell, by whom canst thou be stirred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To turn thy doom, or who to forge new fate may e'er avail?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of ship-host burnt on Eryx shore why should I tell the tale?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or of the king of wind and storm, or wild and windy crowd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æolia bred, or Iris sent adown the space of cloud?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now withal the Gods of Hell, a world untried before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She stirreth, and Alecto sent up to the earthly shore</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In sudden hurry raves about towns of Italian men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No whit for lordship do I yearn: I hoped such glories then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Fortune was: let them be lords whom thou wilt doom for lords!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if no land thy hard-heart wife to Teucrian men awards,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet, Father, by the smoking wrack of overwhelmèd Troy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee from the weapon-dint safe let me send a boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, e'en Ascanius: let me keep my grandson safe for me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, let Æneas toss about on many an unknown sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let him follow wheresoe'er his fortune shall have led:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this one let me shield, and take safe from the battle's dread.</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Paphus, Cythera, Amathus, are mine, and I abide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within Idalia's house: let him lay weed of war aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wear his life inglorious there: then shalt thou bid the hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Carthage weigh Ausonia down, and nothing shall withstand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The towns of Tyre.—Ah, what availed to 'scape the bane of war?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, what availed that through the midst of Argive flames they bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wear down perils of wide lands, and perils of the main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Teucrian men sought Latin land and Troy new-born again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, better had it been for them by Troy's cold ash to stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To dwell on earth where Troy hath been. Father, give back, I pray,</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their Xanthus and their Simoïs unto that wretched folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let them toil and faint once more 'neath Ilium's woeful yoke!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spake Queen Juno, heavy wroth: "Why driv'st thou me to part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My deep-set silence, and lay bare with words my grief of heart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What one of all the Gods or men Æneas drave to go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On warring ways, or bear himself as King Latinus' foe?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate-bidden he sought Italy?—Yea, soothly, or maybe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spurned by Cassandra's wilderment—and how then counselled we<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To leave his camp and give his life to make the winds a toy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To trust his walls and utmost point of war unto a boy?</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To trust the Tuscan faith, and stir the peaceful folk to fight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What God hath driven him to lie, what hardness of my might?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Works Juno here, or Iris sent adown the cloudy way?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis wrong for Italy, forsooth, the ring of fire to lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round Troy new-born; for Turnus still to hold his fathers' earth!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though him, Pilumnus' own son's son, Venilia brought to birth—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But what if Trojans fall with flame upon the Latin folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drive the prey from off their fields oppressed by outland yoke?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or choose them sons-in-law, or brides from mothers' bosoms tear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, holding peace within their hands, lade ships with weapon-gear?</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thou erst hadst might from Greekish hands Æneas' self to draw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thrust a cloud and empty wind in stead of man of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unto sea-nymphs ship by ship the ship-host mayst thou change.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we to help the Rutuli, 'tis horrible and strange!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Unware Æneas is away?—let him abide unware!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Paphus thou hast, Idalium, and high Cythera fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then why with cities big with war and hearts of warriors deal?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! we it was who strove to wrack the fainting Trojan weal?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We!—or the one who thwart the Greeks the wretched Trojans dashed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and what brought it all about that thus in arms they clashed,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Europe and Asia? that men brake the plighted peace by theft?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did I the Dardan lecher lead, who Sparta's jewel reft?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did I set weapons in his hand, breed lust to breed debate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then had thy care for thine been meet, but now indeed o'erlate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wrongful plaint thou risest up, and bickerest emptily."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So pleaded Juno, and all they, the heavenly folk anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murmured their doom in diverse wise; as when the first of wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Caught in the woods is murmuring on, and rolleth moanings blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betraying to the mariners the onset of the gale.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then spake the Almighty Sire, in whom is all the world's avail,</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And as he spake the high-built house of God was quieted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earth from her foundations shook, and heaven was hushed o'erhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winds fell down, the face of sea was laid in quiet fair:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Take ye these matters to your hearts, and set my sayings there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since nowise the Ausonian folk the plighted troth may blend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Teucrians, and your contest seems a strife without an end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What fortune each may have today, what hope each one shears out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trojan or Rutulan, will I hold all in balanced doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether the camp be so beset by fate of Italy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hapless wanderings of Troy, and warnings dealt awry.</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor loose I Rutulans the more; let each one's way-faring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear its own hap and toil, for Jove to all alike is king;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Fates will find a way to wend."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">He nodded oath withal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By his own Stygian brother's stream, the pitchy waters' fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blazing banks, and with his nod shook all Olympus' land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fell the talk; from golden throne did Jupiter upstand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heaven-abiders girt him round and brought him to the door.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Rutuli amid all this are pressing on in war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round all the gates to slay the men, the walls with fire to ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all Æneas' host is pent with fenced beleaguering.</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor is there any hope of flight; upon the towers tall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They stand, the hapless men in vain, thin garland for the wall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Asius, the son of Imbrasus, Thymœtes, and the two<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assaraci, and Thymbris old, with Castor, deeds they do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the forefront; Sarpedon's sons, twin brethren, with them bide,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clarus and Themon, born erewhile in lofty Lycia's side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now Lyrnessian Acmon huge with strain of limbs strives hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And raises up a mighty stone, no little mountain shard;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As great as father Clytius he, or brother Mnestheus' might:</span><span class='linenum'>129</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So some with stones, with spear-cast some, they ward the walls in fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They deal with fire or notch the shaft upon the strainèd string.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo amidst, most meetly wrought for Venus cherishing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His goodly head the Dardan boy unhooded there doth hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As shineth out some stone of price, cleaving the yellow gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair for the bosom or the head; or as the ivory shines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with Orician terebinth the art of man entwines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or mid the boxwood; down along his milk-white neck they lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The streams of hair, which golden wire doth catch about and tie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty nations, Ismarus, there saw thee deft to speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bane of men, envenoming the deadly flying reed;</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thou lord-born of Mœonian house, whereby the tiller tills<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rich acres, where Pactolus' flood gold overflowing spills.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, too, was Mnestheus, whom his deed late done of thrusting forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">King Turnus from the battlements hath raised to heavenly worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Capys, he whose name is set upon Campania's town.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while the bitter play of war went bickering up and down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas clave the seas with keel amidst the dead of night:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For when Evander he had left and reached the Tuscan might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He met their king and told his name, and whence his race of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what he would and how he wrought: and of the host he told,</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Mezentius now had gotten him, and Turnus' wrothful heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He warned him in affairs of men to trust not Fortune's part;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal he mingleth prayers: Tarchon no while doth wait,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But joineth hosts and plighteth troth; and so, set free by Fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A-shipboard go the Lydian folk by God's command and grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet 'neath the hand of outland duke: Æneas' ship hath place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In forefront: Phrygian lions hang above its armèd tyne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'ertopped by Ida, unto those Troy's outcasts happy sign:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There great Æneas sits, and sends his mind a-wandering wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the shifting chance of war; and by his left-hand side</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Is Pallas asking of the stars and night-tide's journey dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whiles of haps by land or sea that fortuned unto him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye Goddesses, ope Helicon, and raise the song to say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What host from out the Tuscan land Æneas led away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how they dight their ships, and how across the sea they drave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In brazen Tiger Massicus first man the sea-plain clave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand youths beneath him are that Clusium's walls have left<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Cosæ's city: these in war with arrow-shot are deft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bear light quivers of the bark, and bear the deadly bow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then comes grim Abas, all his host with glorious arms aglow,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And on his stern Apollo gleams, well wrought in utter gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Populonia's mother-land had given him there to hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Six hundred of the battle-craft; three hundred Ilva sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rich isle, whose wealth of Chalyb ore wastes never nor is spent.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The third is he, who carrieth men the words God hath to say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Asylas, whom the hearts of beasts and stars of heaven obey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tongues of birds, and thunder-fire that coming tidings bears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand men he hurrieth on with bristling of the spears;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Pisa, the town Alpheüs built amid the Tuscan land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bids them obey.<br /></span> +<span class="i16">Came Astur next, goodliest of all the band;</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Astur, who trusteth in his horse and shifty-coloured weed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three hundred hath he, of one heart to wend as he shall lead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And these are they in Cæres' home and Minios' lea that bide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Pyrgi old, and they that feel Gravisca's heavy tide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor thee, best war-duke, Cinyras, of that Ligurian crew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave I unsung: nor thee the more, Cupavo lord of few,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up from the cresting of whose helm the feathery swan-wings rise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love was thy guilt; thy battle-sign was thine own father's guise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Cycnus, say they, while for love of Phaëthon he grieves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sings beneath his sisters' shade, beneath the poplar-leaves;</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While with the Muse some solace sweet for woeful love he won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A hoary eld of feathers soft about him doth he on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaving the earth and following the stars with tuneful wails;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now his son amid his peers with Tuscan ship-host sails,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driving with oars the Centaur huge, who o'er the waters' face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangs, threatening ocean with a rock, huge from his lofty place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever with his length of keel the deep sea furrows o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then he, e'en Ocnus, stirreth up folk from his father's shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who from the love of Tuscan flood and fate-wise Manto came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave, O Mantua, walls to thee, and gave his mother's name:</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Mantua, the rich in father-folk, though not one-stemmed her home.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three stems are there, from each whereof four peoples forth are come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While she herself, the head of all, from Tuscan blood hath might.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Five hundred thence Mezentius arms against himself in fight,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whom Mincius' flood, Benacus' son, veiled in the sedges grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was leading in the fir of fight across the watery way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then heavy-huge Aulestes goes; the oar-wood hundred-fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rises for beating of the flood, as foam the seas uprolled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge Triton ferries him, whose shell the deep blue sea doth fright:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up from the shaggy naked waist manlike is he to sight</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As there he swims, but underneath whale-bellied is he grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the half-beast breast of him the foaming waters moan.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So many chosen dukes of men in thrice ten keels they sail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cut with brass the meads of brine for Troy and its avail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now had day-tide failed the sky, and Phœbe, sweet and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid her nightly-straying wain did mid Olympus wear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, who might give his limbs no whit of peacefulness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was sitting with the helm in hand, heeding the sail-gear's stress,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo a company of friends his midmost course do meet:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Nymphs to wit, who Cybele, the goddess holy-sweet,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bade turn from ships to very nymphs, and ocean's godhead have.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So evenly they swam the sea, and sundered wave and wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many as the brazen beaks once by the sea-side lay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afar they know their king, and round in dancing-wise they play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one of them, Cymodocea, who speech-lore knew the best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drew nigh astern and laid thereon her right hand, with her breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above the flood, the while her left through quiet waves rowed on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus bespoke him all unware:<br /></span> +<span class="i34">"Wak'st thou, O Godhead's son!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, wake! and loose the sheets and let all canvas fill!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">We were the pine-trees on a time of Ida's holy hill,</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thy ship-host once, but sea-nymphs now: when that Rutulian lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell faithless, headlong, on our lives with firebrand and the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unwillingly we brake our bonds and sought thee o'er the main.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Mother in her pity thus hath wrought our shape again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And given us gift of godhead's life in house of ocean's ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo now, the boy Ascanius by dyke and wall is bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the spears, the battle-wood that Latins forth have sent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now the horse of Arcady, with stout Etruscans blent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Holdeth due tryst. Now is the mind of Turnus firmly set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thrust between them, lest thy camp they succour even yet.</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wherefore arise, and when the dawn first climbs the heavenly shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Call on thy folk, and take thy shield unconquered evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Fire-lord's gift, who wrought its lips with circling gold about:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tomorrow's light, unless thou deem'st my words are all to doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall see Rutulian death in heaps a-lying on the land."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therewith departing, forth she thrust the tall ship with her hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As one who had good skill therein, and then across the seas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swifter than dart she fled, or shaft that matcheth well the breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straight the others hastened on. All mazed was he of Troy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchises' seed, but yet the sign upraised his heart with joy,</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And, looking to the hollow heaven, in few words prayed he thus<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Kind Ida-Mother of the Gods, whose heart loves Dindymus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And towered towns, and lions yoked and tamed to bear the bit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be thou my battle-leader now, and do thou further it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This omen, and with favouring foot the Trojan folk draw nigh."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while he spake, Day, come again, had run adown the sky,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">With light all utter perfect wrought, and driven away the night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then folk he biddeth follow on the banners of the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And make them ready for the play and shape their hearts for war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, aloft upon the poop, now sees them where they are,</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His leaguered Teucrians, as his left uprears the blazing shield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, the sons of Dardanus up to the starry field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Send forth the cry, and hope is come to whet their battle-wrath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick flies their spear-storm: 'tis as when the Strymon cranes give forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their war-sign on the mirky rack, and down the heavens they run<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sonorous, fleeing southern breeze with clamour following on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But wondrous to Rutulian king and dukes of Italy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That seemed, until they look about, and lo, the keels they see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turned shoreward; yea, a sea of ships onsetting toward the shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and the helm is all ablaze, beams from the crest outpour,</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The golden shield-boss wide about a world of flame doth shed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so, amid the clear of night, the comets bloody-red<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blush woeful bright; nor otherwise is Sirius' burning wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When drought and plagues for weary men the birth of him hath wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that unhappy light of his hath saddened all the heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nought from Turnus' hardy heart was high hope ever driven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take the strand of them and thrust those comers from the shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eager he chid, hot-heart, with words men's courage he upbore:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lo, now your prayers have come about, that hand meet hand in strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mars is in the brave man's hand: let each one's home and wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be in his heart! Call ye to mind those mighty histories,</span><span class='linenum'>281</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The praises of our father-folk! Come, meet them in the seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid their tangle, while their feet yet totter on the earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Fortune helpeth them that dare."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saying, he turneth in his mind with whom on these to fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unto whom to leave meanwhile the leaguering of the wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas from his ships high-built his folk doth speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ashore by bridges: many men no less the back-draught heed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the spent seas, and, trusting shoals, they make the downward leap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And others slide adown the oars. Tarchon the shore doth sweep,</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Espying where the waves break not, nor back the sea doth roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But where the sea-flood harmlessly with full tide swims ashore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thither straight he lays his keels, and prays unto his folk:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O chosen, on the stark oars lay! now up unto the stroke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear on the ships, and with your beaks cleave ye this foeman's earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let the very keels themselves there furrow them their berth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On such a haven nought I heed, though ship and all we break,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If once we gain the land."<br /></span> +<span class="i28">Therewith, as such a word he spake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fellows rise together hard on every shaven tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mind to bear their ships befoamed up on the Latin lea,</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Until their tynes are high and dry, and fast is every keel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhurt: save, Tarchon, thine alone, that winneth no such weal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For on the shallows driven aground, on evil ridge unmeet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hangeth balanced a long while, and doth the waters beat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, breaking, droppeth down her men amidmost of the waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entangled in the wreck of oars, and floating thwarts and staves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the back-draught of the seas their feet are caught withal.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No dull delay holds Turnus back; but fiercely doth he fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all his host, on them of Troy, and meets them on the strand.</span><span class='linenum'>309</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The war-horns sing. Æneas first breaks through the field-folk's band,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">—Fair omen of the fight—and lays the Latin folk alow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thero he slays, most huge of men, whose own heart bade him go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against Æneas: through the links of brass the sword doth fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the kirtle's scaly gold, and wastes the side laid bare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Lichas smites he, ripped erewhile from out his mother dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hallowed, Phœbus, unto thee, because his baby head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had 'scaped the steel: nor far from thence he casteth down to die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard Cisseus, Gyas huge, who there beat down his company<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With might of clubs; nought then availed that Herculean gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor their stark hands, nor yet their sire Melampus, though he were</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alcides' friend so long as he on earth wrought heavy toil.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo Pharo! while a deedless word he flingeth mid the broil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whirring of the javelin stays within his shouting mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, Cydon, following lucklessly thy new delight, the youth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clytius, whose first of fallow down about his cheeks is spread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Art well-nigh felled by Dardan hand, and there hadst thou lain dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At peace from all the many loves wherein thy life would stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had not thy brethren's serried band now thrust across the way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Phorcus' seed: sevenfold of tale and sevenfold spears they wield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But some thereof fly harmless back from helm-side and from shield,</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The rest kind Venus turned aside, that grazing past they flew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But therewithal Æneas spake unto Achates true:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Reach me my shafts: not one in vain my right hand now shall speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against Rutulians, of all those that erst in Ilian mead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood in the bodies of the Greeks."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">Then caught he a great spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cast it, and it flew its ways the brazen shield to shear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Mæon, breaking through his mail, breaking his breast withal:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alcanor is at hand therewith, to catch his brother's fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With his right hand; but through his arm the spear without a stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flew hurrying on, and held no less its straight and bloody way,</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And by the shoulder-nerves the hand hung down all dead and vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Numitor, his brother's spear caught from his brother slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Falls on Æneas; yet to smite the mighty one in face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No hap he had, but did the thigh of great Achates graze.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clausus of Cures, trusting well in his young body's might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now cometh, and with stiff-wrought spear from far doth Dryops smite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the chin; home went its weight, and midst his shouting's birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From rent throat snatched both voice and life, and prone he smote the ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his mouth abundantly shed forth the flood of gore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three Thracians also, men whose stem from Boreas came of yore,</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Three whom their father Idas sent, and Ismara their land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In various wise he fells. And now Halesus comes to hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his Aruncans: Neptune's seed now cometh thrusting in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus, excellent of horse. Hard strife the field to win!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this side and on that they play about Ausonia's door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As whiles within the mighty heaven the winds are making war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And equal heart they have thereto, and equal might they wield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yields none to none, nor yields the rack, nor aught the waters yield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long hangs the battle; locked they stand, all things are striving then:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise the Trojan host and host of Latin men</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Meet foot to foot, and man to man, close pressing in the fray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But in another place, where erst the torrent in its way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had driven the rolling rocks along and torn trees of the banks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did Pallas see the Arcadian folk, unused to fight in ranks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of footmen, turn their backs before the Latins in the chase,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Since they forsooth had left their steeds for roughness of the place:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore he did the only deed that failing Fortune would,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Striving with prayers and bitter words to make their valour good:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Where flee ye, fellows? Ah, I pray, by deeds that once were bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By name of King Evander dear, by glorious wars of old,</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">By my own hope of praise that springs to mate my father's praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trust not your feet! with point and edge ye needs must cleave your ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the foe. Where yon array of men doth thickest wend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thither our holy fatherland doth you and Pallas send:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No Gods weigh on us; mortal foes meet mortal men today;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many hands we have to use, as many lives to pay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, how the ocean shuts us in with yonder watery wall!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Earth fails for flight—what! seaward then, or Troyward shall we fall?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus said, forthwith he breaketh in amid the foeman's press,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Lagus met the first of all, by Fate's unrighteousness</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Drawn thitherward: him, while a stone huge weighted he upheaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He pierceth with a whirling shaft just where the backbone cleaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ribs atwain, and back again he wrencheth forth the spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set mid the bones: nor him the more did Hisbo take unware,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though that he hoped; for Pallas next withstood him, rushing on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All heedless-wild at that ill death his fellow fair had won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And buried all his sword deep down amid his wind-swelled lung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Sthenelus he meets, and one from ancient Rhœtus sprung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anchemolus, who dared defile his own stepmother's bed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye also on Rutulian lea twin Daucus' sons lay dead,</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Larides, Thymber; so alike, O children, that by nought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your parents knew you each from each, and sweet the error thought.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now to each did Pallas give a cruel marking-sign;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, Thymber, the Evandrian sword smote off that head of thine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy lopped right, Larides, seeks for that which was its lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The half-dead fingers quiver still and grip unto the sword.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the Arcadians cheered by words, beholding his great deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mingled shame and sorrow arm and 'gainst the foeman lead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Pallas thrusteth Rhœteus through a-flitting by in wain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so much space, so much delay, thereby did Ilus gain,</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For 'twas at Ilus from afar that he his spear had cast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Rhœteus met it on the road fleeing from you full fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Best brethren, Teuthras, Tyres there: down from the car rolled he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the half-dead heel of him beat the Rutulian lea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As when amidst the summer-tide he gains the wished-for breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shepherd sets the sparkled flame amid the thicket trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wood's heart catches suddenly, the flames spread into one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fearful o'er the meadows wide doth Vulcan's army run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While o'er the flames the victor sits and on their joy looks down.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No less the valour of thy folk unto a head was grown</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To help thee, Pallas: but behold, Halesus, fierce in field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turns on the foe, and gathers him 'neath cover of his shield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ladon, Pheres, Demodocus, all these he slaughtered there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gleaming sword he lopped the hand Strymonius did uprear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against his throat: in Thoas' face withal a stone he sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drave apart the riven bones with blood and brains all blent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Halesus' sire, the wise of Fate, in woods had hidden him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when that elder's whitening eyes at last in death did swim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate took Halesus, hallowing him to King Evander's blade:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For Pallas aimeth at him now, when such wise he had prayed:</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Father Tiber, grant this spear, that herewithal I shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through hard Halesus' breast forthwith a happy way may take;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So shall thine oak-tree have the arms, the warrior's battle-spoil."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The God heard: while Halesus shields Imaon in the broil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To that Arcadian shaft he gives his luckless body bared.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nought would Lausus, lord of war, let all his host be scared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en at the death of such a man: first Abas doth he slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who faces him, the very knot and holdfast of the play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then fall Arcadia's sons to field; felled is Etruria's host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye, O Teucrian bodies, erst by Grecian death unlost.</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then meet the hosts with lords well-matched and equal battle-might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The outskirts of the battle close, nor 'mid the press of fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May hand or spear move: busy now is Pallas on this side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lausus on that; nor is the space between their ages wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those noble bodies: and both they were clean forbid of Fate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Return unto their lands: but he who rules Olympus great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would nowise suffer them to meet themselves to end the play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The doom of each from mightier foe abideth each today.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus' sister warneth him to succour Lausus' war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gracious Goddess: straight he cleaves the battle in his car,</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And when he sees his folk, cries out: "'Tis time to leave the fight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lone against Pallas do I fare, Pallas is mine of right;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would his sire himself were here to look upon the field."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and from the space forbid his fellow-folk did yield,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when the Rutuli were gone, at such a word of pride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amazed, the youth on Turnus stares, and lets his gaze go wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er the huge frame, and from afar with stern eyes meets it all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'gainst the words the tyrant spake such words from him there fall:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now shall I win me praise of men for spoiling of a King,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or for a glorious death: my sire may outface either thing:</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Forbear thy threats."<br /></span> +<span class="i22">He spake, and straight amid the war-field drew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But cold in that Arcadian folk therewith the heart-blood grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Turnus from his war-wain leapt to go afoot to fight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as a lion sees afar from off his watch burg's height<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bull at gaze amid the mead with battle in his thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flies thereto, so was the shape of coming Turnus wrought.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now, when Pallas deemed him come within the cast of spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He would be first, if Fate perchance should help him swift to dare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his less might, and thus he speaks unto the boundless sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Now by my father's guesting-tide and board thou drew'st anigh,</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A stranger, O Alcides, help this great deed I begin!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bloody gear from limbs half-dead let Turnus see me win;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the dying eyes of him be victor's image pressed."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alcides heard the youth, and 'neath the inmost of his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thrust aback a heavy groan, and empty tears he shed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But to his son in kindly wise such words the Father said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"His own day bideth every man; short space that none may mend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is each man's life: but yet by deeds wide-spreading fame to send,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Man's valour hath this work to do: 'neath Troy's high-builded wall</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">How many sons of God there died: yea there he died withal,</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sarpedon my own progeny. Yea too and Turnus' Fates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are calling him: he draweth nigh his life's departing-gates."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake and turned his eyes away from fields of Rutuli:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Pallas with great gathered strength the spear from him let fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drew therewith from hollow sheath his sword all eager-bright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spear flew gleaming where the arms rise o'er the shoulder's height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smote home, and won its way at last through the shield's outer rim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Turnus' mighty body reached and grazed the flesh of him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long Turnus shook the oak that bore the bitter iron head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then cast at Pallas, and withal a word he cast and said:</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Let see now if this shaft of mine may better win a pass!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He spake; for all its iron skin and all its plates of brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all the swathing of bull-hides that round about it went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quivering spear smote through the shield and through its midmost rent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the mailcoat's staying fence the mighty breast did gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then at the spear his heart-blood warmed did Pallas clutch in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By one way and the same his blood and life, away they fare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But down upon the wound he rolled, and o'er him clashed his gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dying there his bloody mouth sought out the foeman's sod:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Turnus overstrides and says:</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hearken Arcadians, bear ye back Evander words well learned:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pallas I send him back again, dealt with as he hath earned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If there be honour in a tomb, or solace in the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I grudge it not—Ænean guests shall cost him things of worth."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake he, and his left foot then he set upon the dead,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And tore the girdle thence away full heavy fashionèd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wrought with picture of a guilt; that youthful company<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slain foully on one wedding-night: bloody the bride-beds lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Clonus son of Eurytus had wrought in plenteous gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now Turnus wears it triumphing, merry such spoil to hold.—</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—O heart of man, unlearned in Fate and what the days may hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unlearned to be of measure still when swelled with happy tide!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The time shall come when Turnus wealth abundantly would pay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Pallas whole, when he shall loathe that spoil, that conquering day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Pallas' folk with plenteous groans and tears about him throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laid upon his battle-shield they bear the dead along.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O thou, returning to thy sire, great grief and glory great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom one same day gave unto war and swept away to fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge heaps of death Rutulian thou leav'st the meadow still.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now no rumour, but sure word of such a mighty ill</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Flies to Æneas, how his folk within the deathgrip lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how time pressed that he should aid the Teucrians turned to fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So all things near with sword he reaps, and wide he drives the road<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the foe with fiery steel, seeking thee, Turnus proud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through death new wrought; and Pallas now, Evander, all things there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live in his eyes: the boards whereto that day he first drew near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A stranger, and those plighted hands. Four youths of Sulmo wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the like tale that Ufens erst into the world's life brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He takes alive to slay them—gifts for that great ghost's avail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a shower of captive blood to slake the dead men's bale.</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then next at Magus from afar the shaft of bane he sent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deftly he cowered, and on above the quivering weapon went,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And clasping both Æneas' knees thus spake the suppliant one:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O by thy father's ghost, by hope Iulus hath begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee for my sire and son my life yet let me win:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a high house, silver wrought is dug adown therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A talent's weight, and store therewith of wrought and unwrought gold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This will not snatch the victory from out the Teucrian's hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor can the life of one alone such mighty matter make."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So he, but answering thereunto this word Æneas spake:</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Thy gold and silver talent's weight, whereof thou tell'st such store,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spare for thy sons! thy Turnus slew such chaffering of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Pallas' death he brought about a little while ago;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So deems my sire Anchises' ghost, Iulus deemeth so."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then with his left he caught the helm and hilt-deep thrust the blade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the back-bent throat of him e'en as the prayer he prayed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not far hence was Hæmonides, Phœbus' and Trivia's priest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy fillets on his brow, his glory well increased<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With glorious arms, and glittering gear shining on every limb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him the King chaseth o'er the field, and, standing over him,</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hides him in mighty dusk of death; whose gleanèd battle-gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gift to thee, O battle-god, back doth Serestus bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Cæculus of Vulcan's stem the hedge of battle fills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Umbro cometh unto fight down from the Marsian hills.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On them his rage the Dardan child let slip. But next his blade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anxur's left hand and orbèd shield upon the meadow laid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proud things had Anxur said, and deemed his word was matched by might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so perchance he raised his soul up to the heavenly height,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And hoary eld he looked to see, and many a peaceful year.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tarquitius, proud of heart and soul, in glittering battle-gear,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whom the nymph Dryope of yore to woodland Faunus gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came thrusting thwart his fiery way; his back-drawn spear he drave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pinning his mail-coat unto him, and mighty mass of shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His vainly-praying head, that strove with words, upon the field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He swept therewith, and rolling o'er his carcase warm with death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above him from the heart of hate such words as this he saith:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lie there, fear-giver! no more now thy mother most of worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall load thee with thy father's tomb, or lay thee in the earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt be left to birds of prey, or deep adown the flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waves shall bear thee, and thy wounds be hungry fishes' food."</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Next Lucas and Antæus stout, foremost of Turnus' men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He chaseth: Numa staunch of heart and yellow Camers then;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A man from high-souled Volscens sprung, field-wealthiest one of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ausonian men, and lord within the hushed Amyclæ's wall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">E'en as Ægæon, who they say had arms an hundred-fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hundred hands, from fifty mouths and maws the wildfire rolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time in arms against the bolts from Jove of Heaven that flew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clashed upon the fifty shields and fifty sword-points drew:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So conquering, over all the mead Æneas' fury burns</span><span class='linenum'>569</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When once his sword is warm with death: and now, behold, he turns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon Niphæus' four-yoked steeds, and breasts their very breath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they see him striding far, and threatening doom and death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In utter dread they turn about, and rushing back again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shed their master on the earth and shoreward drag the wain.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile with twi-yoked horses white fares Lucagus midst men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His brother Liger by his side, who holdeth rein as then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turneth steed, while Lucagus the drawn sword whirleth wide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Them and their war-rage in no wise Æneas might abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on he rushes, showing huge with upheaved threatening shaft.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Liger cast a word at him:</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"No steeds of Diomede thou seest, and no Achilles' car<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or Phrygian fields: this hour shall end thy life-days and the war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here on this earth."<br /></span> +<span class="i22">Such words as these from witless Liger stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But nought in bandying of words the man of Troy would play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather his mighty battle-shaft he hurled against the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Lucagus his horses drives with spear-butt, bending low<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the lash, and setteth forth his left foot for the fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the bright shield's nether rim the spear-shaft takes its flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Piercing his groin upon the left: then shaken from his wain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He tumbleth down and rolleth o'er in death upon the plain.</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To whom a fierce and bitter word godly Æneas said:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho, Lucagus! no dastard flight of steeds thy car betrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No empty shadow turned them back from facing of the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou thyself hast leapt from wheel and let the yoke-beasts go."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and caught the reins withal; slipped down that wretched one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His brother, and stretched forth the hands that little deed had done:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"By thee, by those that brought thee forth so glorious unto day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Trojan hero, spare my life, and pity me that pray!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas cut athwart his speech: "Not so erewhile ye spake.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Die! ill it were for brother thus a brother to forsake."</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And in his breast the sword he drave home to the house of breath.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus through the meads the Dardan Duke set forth the tale of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With rage as of the rushing flood, or whirl-storm of the wind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last they break forth into field and leave their camp behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ascanius and the lads of war in vain beleaguerèd.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile to Juno Jupiter set forth the speech and said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O thou who art my sister dear and sweetest wife in one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis Venus as thou deemedst, (nought thy counsel is undone),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who upholds Trojan might forsooth: they lack fight-eager hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They lack fierce heart and steady soul the peril to withstand!"</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To whom spake Juno, meek of mood: "And why, O fairest lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost thou so vex me sad at heart, fearing thy heavy word?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in my soul were love as strong as once it used to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And should be, thou though all of might wouldst ne'er deny it me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Turnus I should draw away from out the midst of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I might keep him safe to bless his father Daunus' sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now let him die, let hallowed blood the Teucrian hate atone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet indeed his name and race from blood of ours hath grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He from Pilumnus is put forth: yea, good gifts furthermore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His open hand full oft hath piled within thine holy door."</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To whom air-high Olympus' king short-worded answer made:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"If for the youth who soon must fall respite of death is prayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tarrying-time, nor aught thou deem'st but that my doom must stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then carry Turnus off by flight, snatch him from fate at hand.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So far thy longing may I please: but if a greater grace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lurk 'neath thy prayers, and thou hast hope to change the battle's face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turmoil everything once more, thou feedest hope in vain."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Juno weeping: "Ah, but if thy heart should give the gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy voice begrudgeth! if 'twere doomed that he in life abide—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ill-end dogs the sackless man, unless I wander wide</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Away from sooth—Ah, yet may I be mocked of fear-wrought lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And may thy rede as thou hast might be turned to better wise."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spake the word and cast herself adown from heaven the high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Girt round with rain-cloud, driving on a storm amid the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that Laurentian leaguer sought and Ilium's hedge of fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there she fashioned of the cloud a shadow lacking might:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With image of Æneas' shape the wondrous show is drest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She decks it with the Dardan spear and shield, and mocks the crest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that all-godlike head, and gives a speech that empty flows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sound without soul, and counterfeits the gait wherewith he goes,—</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As dead men's images they say about the air will sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or as the senses weary-drenched are mocked with dreams of sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in the forefront of the fight war-merry goes the thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cries the warrior on with words and weapons brandishing:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On whom falls Turnus, and afar hurleth his whizzing spear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then turns the phantom back about and fleeth as in fear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily when Turnus deemed he saw Æneas fled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all the emptiness of hope his headlong heart he fed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Where fleest thou, Æneas, then? why leave thy plighted bride?</span><span class='linenum'>649</span><br /> +<span class="i0">This hand shall give thee earth thou sought'st so far across the tide."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So cries he following, brandishing his naked sword on high,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor sees what wise adown the wind his battle-bliss goes by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By hap a ship was moored anear unto a ledgy stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With ladders out and landing-bridge all ready to let down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That late the King Orsinius bore from Clusium o'er the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thereinto the hurrying lie, Æneas' shape, did flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And down its lurking-places dived: but Turnus none the more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangs back, but beating down delay swift runs the high bridge o'er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce on the prow, ere Juno brake the mooring-rope atwain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rapt the sundered ship away o'er back-draught of the main.</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there afar from fight is he on whom Æneas cries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still sending down to death's abode an host of enemies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any more the image then will seek his shape to shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But flying upward blendeth him amid the mirky cloud.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, as midmost of the sea the flood bore Turnus on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blind to the deed that was in hand, thankless for safety won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He looketh round, and hands and voice starward he reacheth forth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Almighty Father, deemedst thou my guilt so much of worth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wouldst thou have me welter through such woeful tide of pain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence? whither? why this flight? what man shall I come back again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, shall I see Laurentum's walls, or see my camp once more?</span><span class='linenum'>671</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What shall betide the fellowship that followed me to war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom I have left? O misery to die the death alone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see them scattered even now, I hear the dying groan.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What do I? what abyss of earth is deep enough to hide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wretched man? But ye, O winds, be merciful this tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On rocks, on stones—I, Turnus, thus adore you with good will—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drive ye the ship, or cast it up on Syrtes' shoals of ill,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where Rutuli and tell-tale Fame shall never find me out!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hither and thither as he spake his spirit swam in doubt,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall he now fall upon the point, whom shame hath witless made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid most of his very ribs driving the bitter blade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or casting him amid the waves swim for the hollow strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give his body back again to sworded Teucrian band?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice either deed he fell to do, and thrice for very ruth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mightiest Juno stayed his hand and held aback his youth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So 'neath a fair and following wind he glideth o'er the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to his father's ancient walls is ferried presently.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, by Jupiter's command, Mezentius props the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all ablaze he falleth on the gladdened Teucrian might:</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Tuscan host rush up, and all upon one man alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Press on with hatred in their hearts and cloud of weapons thrown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet is he as a rock thrust out amid the mighty deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To meet the raging of the winds, bare to the water's sweep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All threats of sea and sky it bears, all might that they may wield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Itself unmoved. Dolichaon's son he felleth unto field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One Hebrus; Latagus with him, and Palmus as he fled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Latagus with stone he smites, a mighty mountain-shred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the face and front of him, and Palmus, slow to dare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sends rolling ham-strung: but their arms he biddeth Lausus bear</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon his back, and with their crests upon his helm to wend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Phrygian Evanthes then he slays, and Mimas, whiles the friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like-aged of Paris; unto day and Amycus his sire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Theano gave him on the night that she who went with fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Cisseus' daughter, Paris bore: now Paris lies asleep</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In ancient Troy; Laurentian land unknown doth Mimas keep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tis as a boar by bite of hounds from the high mountains driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who on pine-nursing Vesulus a many years hath thriven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or safe in that Laurentian marsh long years hath had his home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fed adown the reedy wood; now mid the toil-nets come</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He stands at bay, and foameth fierce, and bristleth up all o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And none hath heart to draw anigh and rouse the wrath of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with safe shouts and shafts aloof they press about the place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he, unhastening, unafeard, doth everywhither face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gnashing his teeth and shaking off the spears from out his back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So they, who 'gainst Mezentius there just wrath do nowise lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lack heart to meet him hand to hand with naked brandished blade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But clamour huge and weapon-shot from far upon him laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From that old land of Corythus erewhile had Acron come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Grecian man; half-wed he passed the threshold of his home:</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whom when Mezentius saw afar turmoiling the mid fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Purple with plumes and glorious web his love for him had dight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a lion hunger-pinched about the high-fenced fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When ravening famine driveth him, if he by chance behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some she-goat, or a hart that thrusts his antlers up in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Merry he waxeth, gaping fierce his mane doth he uprear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hugs the flesh he lies upon; a loathsome sea of blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Washes the horror of his mouth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So merry runs Mezentius forth amid the press of foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hapless Acron falls, and pounds the black earth mid his throes</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With beat of heel; staining the shaft that splintered in the wound.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Scorn had he then Orodes swift to fell unto the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst his flight, or give blind bane with unknown cast afar;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He ran to meet him man to man, prevailing in the war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By nought of guile or ambushing, but by the dint of blade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foot on the fallen then he set, and strength to spear-shaft laid:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Fellows, here tall Orodes lies, no thrall in battle throng."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then merrily his following folk shout forth their victory-song:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet saith the dying:<br /></span> +<span class="i20">"Whosoe'er thou art, thou winnest me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not unavenged: thy joy grows old: the like fate looks for thee,</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thou the self-same lea shalt hold within a little while!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To whom Mezentius spake, his wrath crossed by a gathering smile:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Die thou! the Father of the Gods, the earth-abider's lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will look to me."<br /></span> +<span class="i17">He drew the spear from out him at the word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And iron slumber fell on him, hard rest weighed down his eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shut were they for evermore by night that never dies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Cædicus slays Alcathous; Sacrator ends outright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hydaspes; then Parthenius stark and Orses fall in fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Rapo; and Messapus fells strong Clonius, and the son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Lycaon; one laid alow, by his own steeds cast down,</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">One foot to foot. Lo Agis now, the Lycian, standeth forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Valerus, that nothing lacked his grandsire's might and worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'erthroweth: Salius Thronius slays; Nealces, Salius;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For skilled he was in dart and shaft, far-flying, perilous.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now grief and death in Mavors' scales even for each they lie;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Victors and vanquished, here they slay, and here they fall and die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But neither these nor those forsooth had fleeing in their thought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in Jove's house the Gods had ruth of rage that nothing wrought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And such a world of troubles sore for men of dying days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this side Venus, and on that Saturnian Juno gaze;</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And wan Tisiphonè runs wild amid the thousands there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, Mezentius fierce and fell, shaking a mighty spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stalks o'er the plain.—Lo now, how great doth great Orion sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afoot across the Nereus' field, the mid sea's mightiest deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleaving his way, raised shoulder-high above the billowy wash;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or when from off the mountain-top he bears an ancient ash<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His feet are on the soil of earth, the cloud-rack hides his head:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—E'en so in mighty battle-gear afield Mezentius sped.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now Æneas, noting him adown the battle-row,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wendeth to meet him; undismayed he bideth for his foe,</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Facing the great-souled man, and stands unmoved, a mighty mass:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then measuring the space between if spear thereby may pass:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Right hand," he cries, "my very God, and fleeing spear I shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To aid! Thee, Lausus, clad in arms that I today shall take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From body of the sea-thief here I vow for gift of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over Æneas slain."<br /></span> +<span class="i18">He spake, and hurled the shaft afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud whistling: from the shield it glanced, and flying far and wide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smit glory-great Antores down through bowels and through side:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antores friend of Hercules, who, erst from Argos come,</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clung to Evander, and abode in that Italian home:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There laid to earth by straying wound he looketh on the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lovely Argos in his heart, though death be come anigh.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then good Æneas cast his spear, and through the hollow round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of triple brass, through linen skin, through craftsmanship inwound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With threefold bull-hides, pierced the shaft, and in the groin did lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor further could its might avail. Then swiftly from his thigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas caught his glaive, and glad the Tyrrhene blood to see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set on upon his wildered foe hot-heart and eagerly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Lausus, by his father's love sore moved, did all behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And groaned aloud, while o'er his cheeks a heavy tear-flood rolled</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">—Ah, I will tell of thine ill-fate and deeds that thou hast done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If any troth in stories told may reach from yore agone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My speech, O unforgotten youth, in nowise shalt thou lack—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The father with a halting foot hampered and spent drew back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still dragging on the foeman's spear that hung amid his shield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mingling him in battle-rush the son took up the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as Æneas' right hand rose well laden with the blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He ran beneath, bore off the sword, and stayed the eager foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a mighty shout behind his fellows follow on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While shielded by his son's defence the father gat him gone,</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shafts they cast and vex the foe with weapon shot afar.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mad wroth Æneas grows, but bides well covered from the war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as at whiles the clouds come down with furious pelt of hail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every driver of the plough the beaten lea doth fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every one that works afield, while safe the traveller lurks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In castle of the river-bank or rock-wrought cloister-works,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while the rain is on the earth, that they may wear the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When once again the sun comes back;—so on Æneas lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shaft-storm, so the hail of fight loud thundering he abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Lausus with the wrath of words, Lausus with threats did load.</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Ah, whither rushest thou to die, and darest things o'ergreat?</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thy love betrays thine heedless heart."<br /></span> +<span class="i39">No less, the fool of fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He rusheth on, till high and fierce the tide of wrath doth win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er heart of that Dardanian duke, and now the Parcæ spin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lausus' last thread: for his stark sword Æneas drives outright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the young body, hiding it hilt-deep therein from light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It pierced the shield and glittering gear wherewith he threatened war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kirtle that his mother erst with gold had broidered o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flooded all his breast with blood; and woeful down the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His spirit sought the under-world, and left his corpse behind.</span><span class='linenum'>820</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when Anchises' son beheld the face of that dead man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His face that in a wondrous wise grew faded out and wan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Groaning for ruth his hand therewith down toward him did he move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For o'er his soul the image came of his own father's love:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O boy, whom all shall weep, what then for such a glorious deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What gift can good Æneas give, thy bounteous valour's meed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep thou the arms thou joyedst in. I give thy body here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto thy father's buried ghosts, if thou thereof hast care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let this somewhat solace thee for thine unhappy death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By great Æneas' hand thou diest."<br /></span> +<span class="i33">Then chiding words he saith</span><span class='linenum'>830</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unto his fellows hanging back, and lifteth up the dead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From off the lea, where blood defiled the tresses of his head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the father by the wave that ripples Tiber's breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With water staunched his bleeding hurt and gave his body rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaning against a tree-trunk there: high up amid the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangeth his brazen helm; his arms lie heavy on the lea;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The chosen war-youths stand about: he, sick and panting now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nurseth his neck, and o'er his breast his combed-down beard lets flow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much about Lausus did he ask, and sore to men he spake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bid him back, or warning word from his sad sire to take.</span><span class='linenum'>840</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Lausus dead his weeping folk were bearing on his shield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty heart, to mighty hand the victory must he yield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The father's soul foretaught of ill, afar their wail he knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fouled his hoar hair with the dust, and both his hands upthrew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toward heaven aloft; then clinging fast unto that lifeless one:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What lust," saith he, "of longer life so held my heart, O son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thee, my son, I suffered thus to bare thee to the bane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Instead of me; that I, thy sire, health of thy hurts I gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life of thy death! Ah now at last my exile is become<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A woe unto my weary heart; yea, now the wound goes home.</span><span class='linenum'>850</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For I am he who stained thy name, O son, with guilt of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrust forth by Fate from fatherland and sceptre of my line:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I should have paid the penalty unto my country's hate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And given up my guilty soul to death, my very fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I live: I leave not sons of men, nor let the light go by—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Yet will I leave them."<br /></span> +<span class="i25">So he spake, and on his halting thigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose up, and, howsoe'er his hurt might drag his body down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unvanquished yet, he called his horse, his very pleasures crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glory; who had borne him forth victorious from all war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus he spake unto the beast that seemed to sorrow sore:</span><span class='linenum'>860</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Rhœbus, o'erlong—if aught be long to men that pass away—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have we twain lived: those bloody spoils shalt thou bring home today,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And carrying Æneas' head avenge my Lausus' woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or if our might no more may make a road whereby to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou too shalt fall: I deem indeed thou, stout-heart, hast no will<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To suffer other men's commands, or Trojan joy fulfil."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And therewithal he backeth him, and as he used of old<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Settleth his limbs: good store of shafts his either hand doth hold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His head is glittering o'er with brass, and horse-hair shags his crest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So midmost of the fight he bears, and ever in his breast</span><span class='linenum'>870</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Swelleth the mighty sea of shame and mingled miseries.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now across the fight his voice thrice on Æneas cries.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas knew it well forsooth, and joyfully he prayed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"So grant the Father of the Gods! So may Apollo aid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou may'st fall on me in fight!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So much he spake, and went his way to meet the foeman's shaft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But spake the other: "Bitter wretch, who took'st away my son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why fright me now? by that one way my heart might be undone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No death I dread, no God that is, in battle would I spare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough—I come to thee to die; but first these gifts I bear."</span><span class='linenum'>880</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake the word, and 'gainst the foe a dart withal he cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shaft on shaft he lays on him about him flitting fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide circling; but the golden boss through all the storm bore out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thrice while Æneas faceth him he rides the ring about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Casting the weapons from his hand; and thrice the Trojan lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bears round a mighty thicket set in brazen battle-board.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when such tarrying wearieth him, such plucking forth of spears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And standing in such ill-matched fight the heart within him wears,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Turning the thing o'er manywise, he breaketh forth to speed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shaft amid the hollow brow of that war-famous steed:</span><span class='linenum'>890</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then beating of the air with hoof uprears the four-foot thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with his fallen master falls, and 'neath his cumbering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weighs down his shoulders brought to earth, and heavy on him lies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Trojan men and Latin men with shouting burn the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swift Æneas runneth up and pulleth forth his sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crieth o'er him:<br /></span> +<span class="i22">"Where is now Mezentius, eager lord?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where is the fierce heart?"<br /></span> +<span class="i28">Unto whom the Tuscan spake, when he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Got sense again, and breathed the air, and o'er him heaven did see:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O bitter foe, why chidest thou? why slayest thou with words?</span><span class='linenum'>899</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Slay me and do no wrong! death-safe I came not mid the swords;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no such covenant of war for us my Lausus bought:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One thing I pray, if vanquished men of grace may gain them aught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the earth hide me! well I know how bitter and how nigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My people's wrath draws in on me: put thou their fury by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the tomb beside my son I pray thee let me lie."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He saith, and open-eyed receives the sword-point in his throat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er his arms in waves of blood his life and soul doth float.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_XI" id="BOOK_XI"></a>BOOK XI.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>TRUCE IS MADE FOR THE BURYING OF THE DEAD: THE LATINS TAKE COUNSEL OF +PEACE OR WAR. CAMILLA'S DEEDS AND DEATH.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Aurora risen up from bed of ocean wends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And King Æneas, though his grief bids him in burying friends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wear the day, and though his heart the death of men dismays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet to the Gods of Dawning-tide the worship duly pays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From a great oak on every side the branches doth he shear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And setteth on a mound bedight in gleaming battle-gear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spoils of King Mezentius: a gift to thee it stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Might of War! Thereon he set the crest with blood bedewed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The broken shafts, the mail-coat pierced amid the foughten field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With twice six dints: on the left arm he tied the brazen shield,</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And round about the neck he hung the ivory-hilted sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then to his friends, a mighty hedge of duke and battle-lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He turned, and to their joyous hearts these words withal he said:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The most is done, and for the rest let all your fears lie dead:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo here the first-fruits! battle-spoil won from a haughty king:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo this is all Mezentius now, mine own hands' fashioning.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now toward the King and Latin walls all open lies the way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up hearts, for war! and let your hope foregrip the battle-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That nought of sloth may hinder you, or take you unaware,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Gods shall bid the banners up, and forth with men ye fare</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From out of camp,—that craven dread clog not your spirits then:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile give we unto the earth these our unburied men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The only honour they may have in nether Acheron.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, fellows, to those noble souls who with their blood have won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A country for us, give those gifts, the last that they may spend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first unto Evander's town of sorrow shall I send<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Pallas, whom, in nowise poor of valour or renown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black day reft away from us in bitter death to drown."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With weeping eyes he drew aback, e'en as the word he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the threshold of the place where Pallas, cold and dead,</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The old Acœtes watched, who erst of that Parrhasian King,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Evander, was the shield-bearer, but now was following<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His well-belovèd foster-child in no such happy wise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But round him were the homemen's band and Trojan companies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Ilian wives with loosened locks in guise of sorrow sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when Æneas entereth now beneath the lofty door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From beaten breast great moan they cast up to the starry heaven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wailing of their woeful cheer through all the house is driven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The King himself when he beheld the pillowed head at rest,</span><span class='linenum'>39</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The snow-white face, the open wound wrought on the smooth young breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By that Ausonian spear, so spake amid his gathered tears:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O boy bewept, despite the gifts my happy Fortune bears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth she still grudge it thee to see my kingdom glorious,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or come a victor back again unto thy father's house?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not such the promise that I gave on that departing day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto thy father, whose embrace then sped me on my way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mighty lordship, while his fear gave forth the warning word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with fierce folk I had to do, hard people of the sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now he, deceived by empty hope, belike pours forth the prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pileth up the gifts for nought upon the altars fair,</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">While we—in woe with honours vain—about his son we stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead now, and no more owing aught to any heavenly hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy, thou shalt look upon thy dead unhappy son!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is this the coming back again? is this the triumph won?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is this my solemn troth?—Yet thee, Evander, bides no sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of craven beat with shameful wounds, nor for the saved from fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shalt thou but long for dreadful death.—Woe's me, Ausonian land!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me, Iulus, what a shield is perished from thine hand!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such wise he wept him, and bade raise the hapless body dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal a thousand men, his war-hosts' flower, he sped</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To wait upon him on the way with that last help of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And be between his father's tears: forsooth a solace small<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mighty grief; a debt no less to that sad father due.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But others speed a pliant bier weaving a wattle through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of limber twigs of berry-bush and boughs of oaken-tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shadow o'er the piled-up bed with leafy canopy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there upon the wild-wood couch adown the youth is laid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a blossom dropped to earth from fingers of a maid—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gilliflower's bloom maybe, or jacinth's hanging head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose lovely colour is not gone, nor shapely fashion fled,</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Although its mother feedeth not, nor earth its life doth hold.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thereon two woven webs, all stiff with purple dye and gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas bringeth forth, which erst with her own fingers fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sidonian Dido wrought for him, and, glad the toil to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had shot across the web thereof with thin and golden thread:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one of these the youth he wrapped, last honour of the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, woeful, covered up the locks that fire should burn away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And furthermore a many things, Laurentum's battle-prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He pileth up, and bids the spoil in long array be borne:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horses and battle-gear he adds, late from the foemen torn:</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And men's hands had he bound aback whom shortly should he send<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the ghosts; whose blood should slake the fire that ate his friend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trunks of trees with battle-gear from foemen's bodies won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He bids the leaders carry forth, with foemen's names thereon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hapless Acœtes, spent with eld, is brought forth; whiles he wears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bosom with the beat of fists, and whiles his face he tears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then forth he falls, and grovelling there upon the ground doth lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bring the war-wain now, o'errained with blood of Rutuli:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æthon his war-horse comes behind, stripped of his gear of state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mourning he goes, and wets his face with plenteous tear-drops great.</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Some bring the dead man's spear and helm: victorious Turnus' hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath all the rest: then follow on the woeful Teucrian band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All Tuscans, and Arcadian folk with weapons turned about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now, when all the following folk were got a long way out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas stood and groaned aloud, and spake these words withal:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Us otherwhere to other tears the same dread war-fates call;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Undying greetings go with thee! farewell for evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O mightiest Pallas!"<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Ending so, to those high walls of war</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">He turned about, and went his ways unto his war-folks' home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But from the Latin city now were fair speech-masters come,</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Half-hidden by the olive-boughs, and praying for a grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he would give them back their men who lay about the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'erthrown by steel, and let them lie in earth-mound duly dight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since war was not for men o'ercome, or those that lack the light—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he would spare his whileome hosts, the kinsmen of his bride.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But good Æneas, since their prayer might not be put aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let all his pardon fall on them, and sayeth furthermore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Latin folk, what hapless fate hath tangled you in war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So great and ill? From us, your friends, why must ye flee away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For perished men, dead thralls of Mars, a little peace ye pray,</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But to your living folk indeed fain would I grant the grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I had not come here, save that Fate here gave me home and place:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No battle with your folk I wage; nay, rather 'twas your lord<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who left my friendship, trusting him to Turnus' shield and sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Turnus to have faced the death were deed of better worth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If he deems hands should end the war and thrust the Teucrians forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twere lovely deed to meet my hand amid the rain of strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let him live to whom the Gods have given the gift of life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go ye, and 'neath your hapless ones lay ye the bale-fire's blaze."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He made an end; but still they stood and hushed them in amaze,</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And each on each they turned their eyes, and every tongue refrained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till elder Drances, whom for foe child Turnus well had gained<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By hate-filled charges, took the word, and in such wise began:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O great in fame, in dint of war yet greater, Trojan man!</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">What praise of words is left to me to raise thee to the sky?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For justice shall I praise thee most, or battle's mastery?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now happy, to our fathers' town this answer back we bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if good-hap a way thereto may open anywhere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee to Latinus will we knit—let Turnus seek his own!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, we shall deem it joy forsooth about your fateful town:</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To raise the walls, and Trojan stones upon our backs to lay."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such words he spake, and with one mouth did all men murmur yea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For twice six days they covenant; and in war-sundering peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Teucrians and the Latins blent about the woods increase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the hill-sides wander safe; the smitten ash doth know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ring of steel; the pines that thrust heaven-high they overthrow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor cease with wedge to cleave the oak and cedar shedding scent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or on the wains to lead away the rowan's last lament.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the very Wingèd Fame, with that great grief she bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Filleth Evander's town and house, filleth Evander's ears;</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, Fame, who erst of Pallas' deeds in conquered Latium told:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rush the Arcadians to the gates, and as they used of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatch up the torches of the dead, and with the long array<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of flames the acre-cleaving road gleams litten far away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then meeteth them the Phrygian crowd, and swells the wailing band;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the mothers saw them come amid the house-built land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woeful town they set afire with clamour of their ill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But naught there is hath any might to hold Evander still;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He comes amidst, and on the bier where Pallas lies alow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He grovels, and with weeping sore and groaning clings thereto;</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And scarce from sorrow at the last his speech might win a way:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Pallas, this holdeth not the word thou gavest me that day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou wouldst ward thee warily in game of bitter Mars:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though sooth I knew how strong it is, that first fame of the wars;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How strong is that o'er-sweet delight of earliest battle won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O wretched schooling of my child! O seeds of war begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How bitter hard! O prayers of mine, O vows that none would hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all the Gods! O holiest wife, thy death at least was dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou art happy to be gone, not kept for such a tide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I—my life hath conquered Fate, that here I might abide</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A lonely father. Ah, had I gone with the Trojan host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fall amid Rutulian spears! were mine the life-days lost;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If me, not Pallas, this sad pomp were bringing home today!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, Teucrians, on your troth and you no blaming would I lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor on our hands in friendship joined: 'twas a foreordered load<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For mine old age: and if my son untimely death abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis sweet to think he fell amidst the thousand Volscians slain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leading on the men of Troy the Latin lands to gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pallas, no better funeral rites mine heart to thee awards<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than good Æneas giveth thee, and these great Phrygian lords,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Tyrrhene dukes, the Tyrrhene host, a mighty company;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While they whom thine own hand hath slain great trophies bear for thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, Turnus, thou wert standing there, a huge trunk weapon-clad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If equal age, if equal strength from lapse of years ye had.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—But out!—why should a hapless man thus stay the Teucrian swords?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, and be mindful to your king to carry these my words:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If here by loathèd life I bide, with Pallas dead and gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy right hand is the cause thereof, which unto sire and son<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span><span class="i0">Owes Turnus, as thou wottest well: no other place there is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy worth and fate may fill. God wot I seek no life-days' bliss,</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But might I bear my son this tale amid the ghosts of earth!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the loveliness of light Aurora brought to birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For heartsick men, and brought aback the toil of heart and hand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father Æneas therewithal down on the hollow strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tarchon with him, rear the bales; and each man thither bears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His dead friend in the ancient guise: beneath the black flame flares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heaven aloft for reek thereof with night is overlaid:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three times about the litten bales in glittering arms arrayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They run the course; three times on steed they beat the earth about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those woeful candles of the dead and sing their wailing out;</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The earth is strewn with tears of men, and arms of men forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heavenward goes the shout of men and blaring of the horn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But some upon the bale-fires cast gear stripped from Latins slain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">War-helms, and well-adornèd swords, and harness of the rein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glowing wheels: but overwell some knew the gifts they brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very shields of their dead friends and weapons sped for nought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then oxen manifold to Death all round about they slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bristled boars, and sheep they snatch from meadows wide away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hew them down upon the flame; then all the shore about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They gaze upon their burning friends, and watch the bale-fires out.</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor may they tear themselves away until the dewy night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath turned the heavens about again with gleaming stars bedight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less the unhappy Latins build upon another stead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bale-fires numberless of tale: but of their warriors dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A many bodies there they dig into the earth adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bear them into neighbouring lands, or back into the town:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rest, a mighty heap of death piled up confusedly,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Untold, unhonoured, there they burn: then that wide-lying lea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glareth with fires that thick and fast keep rising high and high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the third dawn drew away cold shadows from the sky,</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Weeping, great heaps of ashes there and blended bones they made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over them the weight of earth yet warm with fire they laid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But in the houses, in the town of that rich Latin king<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More heavy was the wail, more sore the long-drawn sorrowing:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here mothers, wretched fosterers here, here sisters loved and lorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sorrowing sore, and lads whose lives from fathers' care were torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were cursing of the cruel war, and Turnus and his bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"He, he, in arms, he with the sword should play it out," they cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Who claims the realm of Italy and foremost lordship there."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bitter Drances weights the scale, and witnessing doth bear</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That Turnus only is called forth, the battle-bidden man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But divers words of many folk on Turnus' side yet ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he was cloaked about withal by great Amata's name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plenteous signs of battle won upheld his fair-won fame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now midst these stirs and flaming broils the messengers are here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Diomedes' mighty walls; and little is the cheer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith they bring the tidings back that every whit hath failed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their toil and pains: that not a whit hath gold or gifts availed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or mighty prayers, that Latin folk some other stay in war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must seek, or from the Trojan king a craven peace implore.</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then e'en Latinus' counsel failed amid such miseries:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wrath of God, the tombs new-wrought that lay before their eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made manifest Æneas come by will of God and Fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore a mighty parliament, the firstlings of estate,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">By his commandment summoned there, unto his house he brings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore they gather, streaming forth unto that house of kings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the thronged ways: there in the midst Latinus sitteth now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First-born of years, first lord of rule, with little joyful brow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hereon the men come back again from that Ætolian wall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He biddeth tell their errand's speed, what answers did befall,</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Each in their order: thereupon for speech was silence made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Venulus, obeying him, suchwise began and said:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Friends, we have looked on Diomede and on the Argive home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the road and every hap thereby have overcome:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, soothly, we have touched the hand that wracked the Ilian earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Argyripa he buildeth there, named from his land of birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Iapygian Garganus, where he hath conquered place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, entered in, and leave being given to speak before his face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We gave our gifts, and told our names, and whence of lands we were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who waged us war, and for what cause to Arpi we must fare.</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He hearkened and from quiet mouth gave answer thus again:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'O happy folk of Saturn's land, time-old Ausonian men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What evil hap hath turmoiled you amid your peaceful life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beguiling you to stir abroad the doubtfulness of strife?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All we who on the Ilian fields with sword-edge compassed guilt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Let be the war-ills we abode before the wall high built;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let be the men whom Simoïs hides—we o'er the wide world driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have wrought out pain and punishment for ill deed unforgiven,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span><span class="i0">Till Priam's self might pity us. Witness the star of bane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Minerva sent; Euboea's cliffs, Caphereus' vengeful gain!</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'Scaped from that war, and driven away to countries sundered wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Proteus' Pillars exiled now, must Menelaüs bide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those Ætnæan Cyclop-folk Ulysses look upon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Pyrrhus's land why tell, or of Idomeneus, that won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To ruined house; of Locrian men cast on the Libyan shore?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mycenæ's lord, the duke and king of all the Argive war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, on the threshold of his house, his wicked wife doth slay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—Asia o'ercome—and in its stead Adultery thwart the way!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, the Gods' hate, that so begrudged my yearning eyes to meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father's hearth, my longed-for wife, and Calydon the sweet!</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, and e'en now there followeth me dread sight of woeful things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My lost companions wend the air with feathery beat of wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wander, fowl on river-floods: O woe's me for their woe!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voices of their weeping wail about the sea-cliffs go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all these things might I have seen full surely for me stored<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since then, when on the flesh of God I fell with maddened sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the very Venus' hand a wicked wound I won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, nay, to no such battles more I pray you drive me on!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No war for me with Teucrian men since Pergamus lies low;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor do I think or joy at all in ills of long ago.</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The gifts, that from your fatherland unto my throne ye bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn toward Æneas. We have stood, time was, spear meeting spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hand against hand: trust me, who tried, how starkly to the shield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He riseth up, how blows the wind when he his spear doth wield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If two such other men had sprung from that Idæan home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Dardanus with none to drive to Inachus had come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seen our walls, and Greece had mourned reversal of her day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the walls of stubborn Troy, whatso we found of stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Hector's and Æneas' hands the Greekish victory</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Was tarried, and its feet held back through ten years wearing by.</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Both these in heart and weapon-skill were full of fame's increase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this one godlier: let your hands meet in the plighted peace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as ye may: but look to it if sword to sword ye bring.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thus have ye heard, most gracious one, the answer of the King,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal what thought he had about this heavy war."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had he said, when diverse voice of murmuring ran all o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those troubled mouths of Italy: as when the rocks refrain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rapid streams, and sounds arise within the eddies' chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the chatter of the waves the neighbouring banks are filled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when their minds were soothed and all the wildering voices stilled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The King spake first unto the Gods, then thus began to say:</span><span class='linenum'>301</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Latins, that ye had counselled you hereon before today<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was both my will, and had been good: no time is this to fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To counsel now, when as we speak the foe besets the wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With folk of God ill war we wage, lords of the Latin town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all-unconquerable folk; no battles wear them down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, beaten never have they heart to cast the sword away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay down the hope ye had to gain Ætolian war-array;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let each man be his proper hope. Lo ye, the straits are sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How all things lie about us now by ruin all toppled o'er,</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Witness of this the eyes of you, the hands of you have won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No man I blame, what valour could hath verily been done:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all the manhood of our land the battle hath been fought:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now what better way herein my doubtful mind hath thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will I set forth, and shortly tell the rede that is in me:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hearken! beside the Tuscan stream I own an ancient lea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, toward the sunset stretching far, yea o'er Sicanian bounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aruncans and Rutulians sow, working the rough hill grounds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With draught of plough, but feeding down the roughest with their sheep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let all this land, and piny place upon the mountain-steep,</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Be yielded for the Teucrian peace: the laws let us declare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For plighted troth, and bid the men as friends our realm to share.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There let them settle and build walls, if thitherward they yearn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if unto another land their minds are set to turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And other folk, and all they ask is from our shore to flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let us build them twice ten ships from oak of Italy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or more if they have men thereto: good store of ship-stuff lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard by the waves; and they shall show their number and their guise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But toil of men, and brass and gear we for their needs will find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now to carry these our words, and fast the troth-plight bind,</span><span class='linenum'>330</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Send we an hundred speech-masters, the best of Latin land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seek them thither, stretching forth the peace-bough in the hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bearing gifts; a talent's weight of gold and ivory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The throne therewith and welted gown, signs of my lordship high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take open counsel; stay the State so faint and weary grown."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Drances, ever full of hate, whom Turnus' great renown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bitter stings of envy thwart goaded for evermore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lavish of wealth and fair of speech, but cold-hand in the war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held for no unwise man of redes, a make-bate keen enow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lordship of whose life, forsooth, from well-born dam did flow,</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His father being of no account—upriseth now this man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And piles a grievous weight of words with all the wrath he can.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"A matter dark to none, and which no voice of mine doth need,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou counsellest on, sweet King: for all confess in very deed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wot whereto our fortune drives; but fear their speech doth hide:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him give liberty of speech, and sink his windy pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because of whose unhappy fate, and evil life and will—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, I will speak, despite his threats to smite me and to kill—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So many days of dukes are done, and all the city lies</span><span class='linenum'>349</span><br /> +<span class="i0">O'erwhelmed with grief, the while his luck round camps of Troy he tries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trusting to flight, and scaring heaven with clashing of his sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One gift meseems thou shouldest add, most gracious king and lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the many gifts thou bid'st bear to the Dardan folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor bow thyself to violence, nor lie beneath its yoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father, thy daughter nobly wed unto a glorious son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knit the bonds of peace thereby in troth-plight never done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or if such terror and so great upon our hearts doth lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us adjure the man himself, and pray him earnestly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To yield up this his proper right to country and to king:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—O why into the jaws of death wilt thou so often fling</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thine hapless folk, O head and fount of all the Latin ill?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No safety is in war; all we, for peace we pray thee still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Turnus,—for the only pledge of peace that may abide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I first, whom thou call'st foe (and nought that name I thrust aside),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, suppliant to thy feet I come! Pity thy people then!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sink thine high heart, and, beaten, yield; surely we broken men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have seen enough of deaths, laid waste enough of field and fold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if fame stir thee, if thine heart such dauntless valour hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If such a longing of thy soul a kingly dowry be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dare then, and trust thee in thy might, and breast the enemy.</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Forsooth all we, that Turnus here a queenly wife might gain</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>—<br /> +<span class="i0">We common souls—a heap unwept, unburied, strew the plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now for thy part, if in thee some valour hath a place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or memory of the ancient wars, go look him in the face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who calleth thee to come afield."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus' fury at the word outbrake in sudden flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He groaned, and from his inmost soul this speech of his outpoured:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Drances, when the battle-day calleth for hand and sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great words good store thou givest still, and first thou comest still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When so the Sires are called: but why with words the council fill?</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Big words aflying from thee safe, while yet the walls hold good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the foe, nor yet the ditch is swimming with our blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, thunder out thy wonted words! lay craven fear on me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Drances, thou, whose hand has heaped the Teucrian enemy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead all about, and everywhere has glorified the meads<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With war-spoil! Thou thyself may'st try how lively valour speeds!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis well the time: forsooth the road lieth no long way out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To find the foe! on every side they hedge the wall about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go we against them!—tarriest thou? and is thy Mars indeed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A dweller in the windy tongue and feet well learned in speed,</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The same today as yesterday?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—I beaten! who of right, O beast! shall brand me beaten man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That seeth the stream of Ilian blood swelling the Tiber's flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who seeth all Evander's house uprooted, laid alow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who seeth those Arcadian men stripped of their battle-gear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Big Pandarus, stout Bitias, found me no craven there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or all the thousand whom that day to Tartarus I sent,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span><span class="i0">When I was hedged by foeman's wall and mound's beleaguerment<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No health in war? Fool, sing such song to that Dardanian head,</span><span class='linenum'>399</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thine own day! cease not to fright all things with mighty dread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cease not to puff up with thy pride the poor twice-conquered folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lay upon the Latin arms the weight of wordy yoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, sure the chiefs of Myrmidons quake at the Phrygian sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tydides and Achilles great, the Larissæan lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Aufidus the flood flees back unto the Hadriac sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now whereas this guile-smith fains to dread mine enmity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whetteth with a fashioned fear the bitter point of strife—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, quake no more! for this mine hand shall spill no such a life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But it shall dwell within thy breast and have thee for a mate.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, Father, unto thee I turn, and all thy words of weight;</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +<span class="i0">If every hope of mending war thou verily lay'st down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If we are utterly laid waste, and, being once overthrown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have fallen dead; if Fate no more may turn her feet about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then pray we peace, and deedless hands, e'en as we may, stretch out.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet if of all our ancient worth some little yet abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I deem him excellent of men, craftsmaster of his tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A noble heart, who, lest his eyes should see such things befall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath laid him down in death, and bit the earth's face once for all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if we still have store of force, and crop of youth unlaid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a town, and many a folk of Italy to aid;</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And if across a sea of blood the Trojan glory came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they too died, and over all with one blast and the same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tempest swept; why shameless thus do our first footsteps fail?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why quake our limbs, yea e'en before they feel the trumpet's gale?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A many things the shifting time, the long laborious days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have mended oft: a many men hath Fortune's wavering ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made sport of, and brought back again to set on moveless rock.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Ætolian and his Arpi host help not our battle-shock.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yet is Messapus ours, and ours Tolumnius fortunate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a duke and many a folk; nor yet shall tarry late</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The glory of our Latin lords and this Laurentian lea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here too Camilla, nobly born of Volscian stock, shall be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leading her companies of horse that blossom brass all o'er.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if the Teucrians me alone are calling to the war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus 'tis doomed, and I so much the common good withstand—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well, victory hath not heretofore so fled my hated hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I should falter from the play with such a prize in sight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fain shall I face him, yea, though he outgo Achilles' might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And carry battle-gear as good of Vulcan's fashioning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For you, and for Latinus here, my father and my king,</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I, Turnus, second unto none in valour of old years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Devote my life. Æneas calls me only of the peers?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—O that he may!—not Drances here—the debt of death to pay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If God be wroth, or if Fame win, to bear the prize away."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while amid their doubtful fate the ball of speech they tossed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Contending sore, Æneas moved his camp and battle-host;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, amid the kingly house there runs a messenger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mid tumult huge, who all the town to mighty dread doth stir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tidings how the Teucrian host and Tuscan men of war<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were marching from the Tiber flood, the meadows covering o'er.</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Amazèd are the minds of men; their hearts with tremor shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And anger stirred by bitter stings is presently awake:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In haste and heat they crave for arms; the youth cries on the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Fathers mutter sad and weep: with many a wrangling word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty tumult goeth up, and toward the sky doth sweep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise than when the fowl amid the thicket deep</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sit down in hosts; or when the swans send forth their shrilling song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About Padusa's fishy flood, the noisy pools among.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come, fellow-folk," cries Turnus then, for he the time doth seize,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Call ye to council even now, and sit and praise the peace,</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And let the armed foe wrack the realm!"<br /></span> +<span class="i43">Nor more he said withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But turned about and went his ways from that high-builded hall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Said he: "Volusus, lead away the Volscian ranks to fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Rutuli! Messapus, thou, afield with horse and knight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, Coras, with thy brother duke sweep down the level mead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let some make breaches good, and some man the high towers with heed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let the rest bear arms with me whereso my bidding sends."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then straightway, running in all haste, to wall the city wends.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore shaken in his very heart, by that ill tide undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His council Sire Latinus leaves and those great redes begun:</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Blaming himself that he took not Æneas of free will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor gave the town that Dardan lord the place of son to fill.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now some dig dykes before the gate, or carry stones and stakes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bloody token of the war the shattering trump awakes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mothers and lads, a motley guard, they crown the threatened wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this last tide of grief and care hath voice to cry for all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moreover to the temple-stead, to Pallas' house on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Queen goes forth hedged all about by matron company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bearing gifts: next unto whom, the cause of all this woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With lovely eyes cast down to earth, doth maid Lavinia go.</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They enter and with frankincense becloud the temple o'er,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And cast their woeful voices forth from out the high-built door:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Weapon-great Tritonian Maid, O front of war-array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Break thou the Phrygian robber's sword, and prone his body lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this our earth; cast him adown beneath our gates high-reared!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now eager Turnus for the war his body did begird:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ruddy-gleaming coat of mail upon his breast he did,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And roughened him with brazen scales; with gold his legs he hid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With brow yet bare, unto his side he girt the sword of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all a glittering golden man ran down the castle's height.</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">High leaps his heart, his hope runs forth the foeman's host to face:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As steed, when broken are the bonds, fleeth the stabling place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set free at last, and, having won the unfenced open mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now runneth to the grassy grounds wherein the mare-kind feed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, wont to water, speedeth him in well-known stream to wash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, wantoning, with uptossed head about the world doth dash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While wave his mane-locks o'er his neck, and o'er his shoulders play.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, leading on the Volscian host, there comes across his way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Camilla now, who by the gate leapt from her steed adown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in likewise her company, who left their horses lone,</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And earthward streamed: therewith the Queen such words as this gave forth:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Turnus, if any heart may trust in manly might and worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I dare to promise I will meet Æneas' war array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And face the Tyrrhene knights alone, and deal them battle-play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let my hand be the first to try the perils of the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while the foot-men townward bide, and hold the walls aright."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Turnus answered, with his eyes fixed on the awful maid:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"O glory of Italian land, how shall the thanks be paid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy thy part? but since all this thy great soul overflies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To portion out our work today with me indeed it lies.</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas, as our spies sent out and rumour saith for sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The guileful one, his light-armed horse hath now sent on before<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sweep the lea-land, while himself, high on the hilly ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Across the desert mountain-necks on for our walls is bound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I a snare now dight for him in woodland hollow way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Besetting so the straitened pass with weaponed war-array.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But bear thy banners forth afield to meet the Tyrrhene horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fierce Messapus joined to thee, the Latin battle-force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, and Tiburtus: thou thyself the leader's care shalt take."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So saith he, and with such-like words unto the war doth wake</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Messapus and his brother-lords; then 'gainst the foeman fares.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a dale of winding ways, most meet for warlike snares<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lurking swords: with press of leaves the mountain bent is black<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shutteth it on either side: thence leads a scanty track;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By strait-jawed pass men come thereto, a very evil road:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thereabove, upon the height, lieth a plain abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mountain-heath scarce known of men, a most safe lurking-place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether to right hand or to left the battle ye will face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hold the heights, and roll a storm of mighty rocks adown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thither the war-lord wends his way by country road well known,</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And takes the place, and bideth there within the wood accursed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile within the heavenly house Diana speaketh first<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Opis of the holy band, the maiden fellowship,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And words of grief most sorrowful Latonia's mouth let slip:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Unto the bitter-cruel war the maid Camilla wends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O maid: and all for nought indeed that dearest of my friends<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is girding her with arms of mine."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nought new-born was the love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diana owned, nor sudden-sweet the soul in her did move:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Metabus, by hatred driven, and his o'erweening pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fled from Privernum's ancient town, his fathers' country-side,</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Companion of his exile there, amid the weapon-game,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A babe he had with him, whom he called from her mother's name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Casmilla, but a little changed, and now Camilla grown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He, bearing her upon his breast, the woody ridges lone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Went seeking, while on every side the sword-edge was about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all around were scouring wide the weaponed Volscian rout.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But big lay Amasenus now athwart his very road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foaming bank-high, such mighty rain from out of heaven had flowed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, as he dight him to swim o'er, love of his babe, and fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For burden borne so well-beloved, his footsteps back did bear.</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">At last, as all things o'er he turned, this sudden rede he took:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The huge spear that in mighty hand by hap the warrior shook,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A close-knit shaft of seasoned oak with many a knot therein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereto did he his daughter bind, wrapped in the cork-tree's skin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the middle of the beam he tied her craftily;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, shaking it in mighty hand, thus spoke unto the sky:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O kind, O dweller in the woods, Latonian Virgin fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A father giveth thee a maid, who holds thine arms in air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from the foe she flees to thee: O Goddess, take thine own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That now upon the doubtful winds by this mine arm is thrown!"</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He spake, and from his drawn-back arm cast forth the brandished wood;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Sounded the waves; Camilla flew across the hurrying flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A lorn thing bound to whistling shaft, and o'er the river won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Metabus, with all the band of chasers pressing on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the river gives himself, and reaches maid and spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, conquering, from the grassy bank Diana's gift doth tear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To roof and wall there took him thence no city of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, he himself, a wild-wood thing, to none had given the hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the shepherd's lonely hills his life thenceforth he led;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His daughter mid the forest-brake, and wild deers' thicket-stead,</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He nourished on the milk that flowed from herd-mare's untamed breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the maiden's tender lips the wild thing's udder pressed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then from the first of days when she might go upon her feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heft of heavy sharpened dart her hand must learn to meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the little maiden's back he hung the shaft and bow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While for the golden hair-clasp fine and long-drawn mantle's flow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down from her head, along her back, a tiger's fell there hung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en then too from her tender hand a childish shot she flung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sling with slender smoothened thong she drave about her head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bring the crane of Strymon down, or lay the white swan dead.</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then many a mother all about the Tyrrhene towns in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would wed her to their sons; but she, a maid without a stain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone in Dian's happiness the spear for ever loved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ever loved the maiden life.<br /></span> +<span class="i36">—"O had she ne'er been moved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By such a war, nor dared to cross the Teucrian folk in fight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then had she been a maid of mine, my fellow and delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But since the bitterness of fate lies round her life and me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glide down, O maiden, from the pole, and find the Latin lea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where now, with evil tokens toward, sad battle they awake;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Take these, and that avenging shaft from out the quiver take,</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wherewith whoso shall wrong with wound my holy-bodied may,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be he of Troy or Italy, see thou his blood doth pay:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then will I her limbs bewept, unspoiled of any gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrap in a hollow cloud, and lay in kindred sepulchre."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She spoke; the other slipped adown the lightsome air of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With wrapping cloak of mirky cloud about her body driven.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But in meanwhile the Trojan folk the city draw anigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tuscan dukes and all their horse in many a company<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well ordered: over all the plain neighing the steed doth fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prancing, and champing on the bit that turns him here and there,</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And far and wide the lea is rough with iron harvest now.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the weapons tossed aloft the level meadows glow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus and the Latins swift, lo, on the other hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Coras with his brother-lord, and maid Camilla's band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against them in the field; and lo, far back their arms they fling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In couching of the level spears, and shot spears' brandishing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All is afire with neigh of steeds and onfall of the men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now, within a spear-shot come, short up they rein, and then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They break out with a mighty cry, and spur the maddened steeds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all at once from every side the storm of spear-shot speeds,</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As thick as very snowing is, and darkens down the sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And thereon with their levelled spears each against each they run,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tyrrhenus and Aconteus fierce: in forefront of the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They meet and crash with thundering sound; wracked are the steeds outright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breast beating in each breast of them: far is Aconteus flung</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In manner of the lightning bolt, or stone from engine slung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far off he falls, and on the air pours all his life-breath out.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then wildered is the war array; the Latins wheel about<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sling their targets all aback, and townward turn their steeds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojans follow; first of whom the ranks Asylas leads.</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when they draw anigh the gates once more the Latin men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raise up the cry, and turn about the limber necks again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then flee their foes, and far afield with loosened reins they ride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when the sea-flood setting on with flowing, ebbing tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now earthward rolling, overlays the rocks with foaming sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with its bosom overwhelms the sand's extremity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now swiftly fleeing back again, sucks back into its deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rolling stones, and leaves the shore with softly-gliding sweep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice did the Tuscans townward drive the host of Rutuli;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice, looking o'er their shielded backs, afield they needs must fly;</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But when they joined the battle thrice knit up was all array<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one great knot, and man sought man wherewith to play the play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily the dying groans up to the heavens went;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bodies and arms lie deep in blood, and with the men-folk blent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dying horses wallow there, and fearful fight arose.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Orsilochus with Remulus had scant the heart to close,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But hurled his shaft against the horse, and smote him 'neath the ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smitten beast bears not the wound, but, maddened, high doth rear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The legs of him and breast aloft: his master flung away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rolls on the earth: Catillus there doth swift Iolas slay;</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, and Herminius, big of soul, and big of limbs and gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who went with head by nothing helmed save locks of yellow hair,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Who went with shoulders all unarmed, as one without a dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So open unto fight was he; but through his shoulders sped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quivering spear, and knit him up twi-folded in his pain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So black blood floweth everywhere; men deal out iron bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, struggling, seek out lovely death amid the wounds and woe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But through the middle of the wrack doth glad Camilla go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quivered war-maid, all one side stripped naked for the play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now a cloud of limber shafts she scattereth wide away,</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And now with all unwearied hand catcheth the twi-bill strong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The golden bow is at her back, and Dian's arrow-song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, e'en and if she yielded whiles, and showed her back in flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From back-turned bow the hurrying shaft she yet would aim aright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About her were her chosen maids, daughters of Italy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Larina, Tulla, and Tarpeia, with brazen axe on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom that divine Camilla chose for joy and fame's increase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full sweet and goodly hand-maidens in battle and in peace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the Thracian Amazons thresh through Thermodon's flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they in painted war-gear wend to battle and to blood:</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or those about Hippolyta, or round the wain of Mars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein Panthesilea wends, when hubbub of the wars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maiden-folk exulting raise, and moony shields uprear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whom first, whom last, O bitter Maid, didst thou overthrow with spear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How many bodies of the slain laidst thou upon the field?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eunæus, Clytius' son, was first, whose breast for lack of shield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fir-tree long smit through and through, as there he stood in face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He poureth forth a sea of blood, and, falling in his place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bites the red earth, and dying writhes about the bitter bane.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Liris and Pagasus she slays; one, catching at the rein</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of his embowelled steed rolls o'er, the other as he ran<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To aid, and stretched his swordless hand unto the fallen man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell headlong too, and there they lie: with these Amastus wends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Hippotas; her spear in chase of men she sends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harpalycus, Demophoön, Tereus, and Chromis stout<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many as her maiden hand the whirling darts send out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So many Phrygian falls there are. Far off, in uncouth gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hunter Ornytus upon Apulian steed doth fare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose warring shoulders bigly wrought with stripped-off bullock's hide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are covered; but his head is helmed with wood-wolf's gaping wide,</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A monstrous mouth, wherein are left the teeth all gleaming white:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wood-spear arms the hand of him, he wheels amid the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the head he overtops all other men about.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him she o'ertakes, no troublous deed amid the fleeing rout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, slaying him, from bitter heart this word withal she spake:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tuscan, thou deem'dst thee hunting still the deer amid the brake;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day has come when women's arms have cast thy boasting back:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet going to thy fathers' ghosts a word thou shalt not lack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To praise thy life; for thou mayst say, Camilla was my bane."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Orsilochus and Butes next, two huge-wrought Trojans, gain</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Death at her hands: Butes aback she smit through with the spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betwixt the mail-coat and the helm, wherethrough the neck doth peer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As there he sits, and on his left hangs down the target round;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But from Orsilochus she flees, wide circling o'er the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, slipping inward of the ring, chaseth the chaser there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, rising high, her mighty axe driveth through bones and gear.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">With blow on blow, mid all his prayers and crying out for grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until his hot and bloody brain is flooding all his face.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A man haps on her now, and stands afeard such sight to see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Aunus of the Apennines the warring son was he,</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Great of Ligurians, while the Fates his guile would yet allow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, since fleeing out of fight, would nought avail him now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor knew he how in any wise to turn the Queen away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With rede of guile and cunning words began to play the play:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What deed of fame, for woman's heart to trust a horse's might?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou not set thy speed aside, and 'gainst me dare the fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On equal ground, and gird thyself for foot-fight face to face?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See then to whom the windy fame shall bring the victory's grace!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake; but she, in bitter rage, and stung to her heart's root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto her fellow gave her steed and faced him there afoot,</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Most unafeard, with naked glaive and target bare and white.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat the youth deemed guile had won, and turned at once to flight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought tarrying but to turn the reins, he fleeth on his road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever with his iron heel the four-foot thing doth goad.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Empty Ligurian, all in vain thine high heart dost thou raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all in vain thou triest today thy father's crafty ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall thy lying bring thee safe to lying Aunus' head."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So spake the maid, and all afire on flying feet she sped,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span><span class="i0">Outwent the horse and crossed his road, and catching at the rein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There made her foeman pay for all with bloody steel-wrought bane,</span><span class='linenum'>720</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As easily the holy hawk from craggy place on high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In winged chase follows on the dove aloft along the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And taketh her in hookèd hold with bitter feet to tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While blood and riven feathers fall from out the upper air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nathless the Sower of manfolk and all the Godly Kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon Olympus set aloft, to this was nothing blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Tarchon of the Tyrrhene folk he stirreth up to war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stingeth all the heart of him with anger bitter-sore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, borne on horse 'twixt death of men and faltering war-array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goads on his bands unto the fight, and many a word doth say,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And calleth each man by his name, and bids the beaten stand:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What fear, O hearts that nought may shame, O folk of deedless hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What dastardy, O Tyrrhene folk, hath now so caught your souls?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A woman drives us scattering wide, and back our war-wall rolls.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why bear our hands these useless spears, this steel not made for fight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye are not slack in Venus' play or battle of the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or when the crookèd fife gives sign that Bacchus' dance is toward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well wait ye onset of the feast and cups of plenteous board:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your love, your hearts, are there, whereas the lucky priest doth bid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The holy words, and victims fat call to the thickets hid."</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and, fain of death himself, against the foemen spurs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And full in face of Venulus his eager body bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And catcheth him by arm about, and tears him from his horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bears him off on saddle-bow in grip of mighty force:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then goes the clamour up to heaven, and all the Latin eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn thitherward: but fiery-swift across the field he flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing the weapons and the man; then from his foeman's spear</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Breaks off the head, and searches close for opening here and there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby to give the deadly wound: the foe doth ever fight,</span><span class='linenum'>749</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Thrusting the hand from threatened throat, and puts back might with might.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when a yellow erne aloft skyward a dragon draws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knits him up within her feet and gripping of her claws:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But still the wounded serpent turns in many a winding fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bristles all his spiky scales, and hissing mouth doth hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aloft against her; she no less through all his struggles vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drives hookèd beak, and still with wings beats through the airy plain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so from those Tiburtine ranks glad Tarchon bears the prey:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, following on their captain's deed, fall on amid the fray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mæonia's sons.<br /></span> +<span class="i16">But Arruns now, the foredoomed man of fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Encompassing Camilla's ways with spear and guile, doth wait</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On all her goings; spying out what hap is easiest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, wheresoe'er the hot-heart maid amid the battle pressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There Arruns winds, and silently holds watch on all her ways:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when from forth the foe she comes, bearing the victory's praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still speedily in privy wise the rein he turns about:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This way he tries, that way he tries, still wandering in and out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On all sides; shaking spear of doom with evil heart of guile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Chloreus, bond of Cybele and priest upon a while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afar as happed in Phrygian gear gleamed out upon his steed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foaming and goodly: clad was he in skin-wrought battle-weed,</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With brazen scales done feather-wise, and riveted with gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grand was he in outland red and many a purple fold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gortynian arrows from afar with Lycian horn he sped;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gold rang the bow upon his back; gold-mitred was his head</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In priestly wise; his saffron scarf, the crackling folds of it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of linen fine, in knot about a red-gold buckle knit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His kirtle was embroidered fair, his hosen outland-wrought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maiden, whether Trojan gear for temple-gate she sought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whether she herself would wend, glorious in war-got gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst of all the press of arms this man in chase must hold</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Blind as a hunter; all unware amidst the war-array<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She burned with all a woman's lust for spoil of men and prey:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When now, the time at last being seized, from out its lurking-place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arruns drew forth his spear, and prayed the Gods above for grace:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Highest of Gods, Apollo, ward of dear Soracte's stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom we first honour, unto whom the piny blaze is fed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom worshipping, we, waxen strong in might of godliness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very midmost of the fire with eager foot-soles press—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almighty Father, give me grace to do away our shame!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No battle-gear, no trophies won from vanquished maid I claim,</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No spoils I seek; my other deeds shall bring me praise of folk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let but this dreadful pest of men but fall beneath my stroke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And me wend back without renown unto my father's place!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Apollo heard, and half the prayer he turned his heart to grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other half he flung away adown the wind to go.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he by sudden stroke of death should lay Camilla low,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He granted this: that his high house should see his safe return,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He granted not: the hurrying gusts that word to breezes turn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span><span class="i0">So when the shaft hurled from his hand gave sound upon the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All Volscians turn their hardy hearts, and all men's eyen bear</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon the Queen: but she no whit had any breeze in mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whistle of the spear that sped from out the house of wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the hurrying shaft beneath her naked bosom stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clung there, deeply driven home, drinking her virgin blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her frighted damsels run to her and catch the falling maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Arruns fleeth fast, forsooth more than all they afraid—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Afraid and glad—nor durst he more to trust him to the spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or 'neath the hail of maiden darts his body forth to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as the murder-wolf, ere yet the avenging spear-points bite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straight hideth him in pathless place amid the mountain-height,</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When he hath slain some shepherd-lad or bullock of the fold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down goes his tail, when once he knows his deed so overbold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along his belly close it clings as he the woodland seeks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not otherwise from sight of men the wildered Arruns sneaks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mingles in the middle fight, glad to be clear away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Death-smitten, at the spear she plucks; amidst her bones it lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the ribs, that iron point in baneful wound and deep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She droopeth bloodless, droop her eyes acold in deadly sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out her cheeks the colour flees that once therewith were clear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, passing, Acca she bespeaks, her very maiden peer,</span><span class='linenum'>820</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Her who alone of all the rest might share Camilla's rede,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A trusted friend: such words to her the dying mouth doth speed:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sister, thus far my might hath gone; but now this bitter wound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maketh an end, and misty dark are grown all things around:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fly forth, and unto Turnus bear my very latest words;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him to fight, and from the town thrust off the Trojan swords—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Farewell, farewell!"</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>—<br /> +<span class="i22">And with the word the bridle failed her hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unto earth unwilling now she flowed, and waxen cold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slowly she slipped her body's bonds; her languid neck she bent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid down the head that death had seized, and left her armament;</span><span class='linenum'>830</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And with a groan her life flew forth disdainful into night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then rose the cry and smote aloft the starry golden height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the Queen so felled to field the fight grew young again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thronged and serried falleth on the Teucrian might and main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tuscan Dukes, Evander's host, the wings of Arcady.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Opis, Dian's watch of war, set on the mountain high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A long while now all unafeard had eyed the battle o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when far off, amid the cries of maddened men of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She saw Camilla win the death by bitter ill award,</span><span class='linenum'>839</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She groaned, and from her inmost heart such words as these she poured:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Alas, O maid, thou payest it o'ermuch and bitterly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou unto the Teucrian folk the challenge needs must cry.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, nothing it availed thee, maid, through deserts of the deer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To worship Dian, or our shafts upon thy back to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet the Queen hath left thee not alone amidst of shame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In grip of death; nor shalt thou die a death without a name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In people's ears; nor yet as one all unavenged be told:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For whosoever wronged thy flesh with wounding overbold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall pay the penalty well earned."<br /></span> +<span class="i38">Now 'neath the mountains high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All clad with shady holm-oaks o'er, a mighty mound doth lie,</span><span class='linenum'>850</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The tomb of King Dercennus called, Laurentum's lord of yore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thitherward her speedy feet that loveliest Goddess bore,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there abiding, Arruns spied from off the high-heaped mound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the wretch in gleaming arms puffed up with pride she found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Why," quoth she, "dost thou turn away? Here, hither wend thy feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come here and perish; take reward for slain Camilla meet!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ah, for death of such an one is Dian's arrow due?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then from the Thracian quiver gilt a wingèd shaft she drew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bent the horn-wrought bow withal with heart on slaying set:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far drew she, till the curving horns each with the other met:</span><span class='linenum'>860</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alike she strained her hands to shoot; the left hand felt the steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The right that drew the string aback her very breast did feel.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then straightway Arruns heard in one the bow-string how it rung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whistle of the wind; and there the shaft within him clung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fellows leave him dying there and groaning out his last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgotten in an unknown field, amid the sand downcast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While to Olympus on the wing straightway is Opis borne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now first flees Camilla's band, their Queen and mistress lorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flee the beaten Rutuli, and fierce Atinas flees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dukes of men in disarray, the broken companies</span><span class='linenum'>870</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now turn their faces to the town, and seek a sheltering place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet may any turn with spear upon the Teucrian chase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That beareth death of men in hand, or bar the homeward road:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast back on fainting shoulders now the loose bow hangs a load;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horny hoofs of four-foot things shake down the dusty mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mirky cloud of rolling dust doth ever townward speed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mothers beating of their breasts stand on the watch-towers high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cast abroad their woman's wail up to the starry sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they who in their fleeing first break through the open doors,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">In mingled tumult on their backs a crowd of foemen pours;</span><span class='linenum'>880</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor do they 'scape a wretched death: there, on the threshold-stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within their fathers' walls, amidst the peace of home, they shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lives from out their bodies pierced: then some men shut the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor durst they open to their friends, or take in them that wait<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praying without; and there indeed is woeful slaughter towards<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of them that fence the wall with swords, and rushers on the swords.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those shut out 'neath the very eyes of weeping kith and kin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some headlong down the ditches roll, by fleeing rout thrust in;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some blindly and with loosened rein spur on their steeds to meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As battering-rams the very gates, the ruthless door-leaves beat</span><span class='linenum'>890</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And now, in agony of fight, the mothers on the walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as they saw Camilla do, (so love of country calls),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hurrying hands the javelins cast, and in the iron's stead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make shift of hardened pale of oak and stake with half-burned head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hot-heart they are, afire to die the first their town to save.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile to Turnus in the woods sweeps in that cruel wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of tidings: trouble measureless doth Acca to him bring,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wasting of the Volscian host, Camilla's murdering,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The onset of the baneful foe with favouring Mars to aid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ruin of all things; present fear e'en on the city laid,</span><span class='linenum'>900</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He, madly wroth, (for even so Jove's dreadful might deemed good),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaveth the hills' beleaguerment and mirky rugged wood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce was he out of sight thereof, and nigh his camp to win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When mid the opened pass and bare Æneas entereth in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Climbeth the ridge, and slippeth through the thicket's shadowy night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So either toward the city fares with all their battle-might,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And no long space of way indeed there was betwixt the twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For e'en so soon as far away Æneas saw the plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through dusty reek, and saw withal Laurentum's host afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turnus the fierce Æneas knew in all array of war,</span><span class='linenum'>910</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And heard the marching footmen tramp, and coming horses neigh.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then had they fallen to fight forthwith and tried the battle-play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But rosy Phœbus sank adown amidst Iberian flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His weary steeds, and brought back Night upon the failing day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there they pitch before the town and make their ramparts good.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BOOK_XII" id="BOOK_XII"></a>BOOK XII.</h2> + +<h3>ARGUMENT.</h3> + +<h4>HEREIN ARE ÆNEAS AND TURNUS PLEDGED TO FIGHT THE MATTER OUT IN SINGLE +COMBAT; BUT THE LATINS BREAK THE PEACE AND ÆNEAS IS WOUNDED: IN THE END +ÆNEAS MEETETH TURNUS INDEED, AND SLAYETH HIM.</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Turnus sees the Latin men all failing from the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Broken by Mars, and that all folk bethink them of his word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fall to mark him with their eyes, then fell he burns indeed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And raises up his heart aloft; e'en as in Punic mead<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smitten lion, hurt in breast by steel from hunters' ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Setteth the battle in array, and joyfully doth fling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mane from off his brawny neck, and fearless of his mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks off the clinging robber-spear, and roars from mouth of blood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so o'er Turnus' fiery heart the tide of fury wins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus he speaketh to the King, and hasty speech begins:</span><span class='linenum'>10</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"No hanging back in Turnus is, and no Ænean thrall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath aught to do to break his word or plighted troth recall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will go meet him: Father, bring the Gods, the peace-troth plight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then either I this Dardan thing will send adown to night,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This rag of Asia,—Latin men a-looking on the play,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all alone the people's guilt my sword shall wipe away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or let him take us beaten folk, and wed Lavinia then!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But unto him from quiet soul Latinus spake again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Great-hearted youth, by e'en so much as thou in valorous might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dost more excel, by so much I must counsel me aright,</span><span class='linenum'>20</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And hang all haps that may betide in those sad scales of mine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine are thy father Daunus' realms, a many towns are thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Won by thine hand: Latinus too his gold and goodwill yields;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But other high-born maids unwed dwell in Laurentine fields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or Latin land,—nay, suffer me to set all guile apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And say a hard thing—do thou take this also to thine heart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To none of all her wooers of old my daughter may I wed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This warning word of prophecy all men and Gods have sped.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But by thy kindred blood o'ercome, and by the love of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by my sad wife's tears, I broke all bonds and set me free.</span><span class='linenum'>30</span><br /> +<span class="i0">From son-in-law I rapt his bride, I drew a godless sword.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What mishaps and what wrack of peace have been my due reward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou seest, Turnus, and what grief I was the first to bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twice beaten in a woeful fight, scarce is our city here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held by the hope of Italy: still Tiber-flood rolls by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Warm with our blood, and 'neath our bones wide meadows whitening lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whither waver I so oft? what folly shifts my mind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I am ready, Turnus dead, peace with these men to bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I not rather while thou liv'st cast all the war away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What shall my kindred Rutuli, what shall Italia say,</span><span class='linenum'>40</span><br /> +<span class="i0">If I deliver thee to death, (Fate thrust the words aside!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee, who hast wooed me for thy sire, my daughter for thy bride?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look on the wavering hap of war, pity thy father's eld,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now far from thee in sorrow sore by ancient Ardea held."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But not a whit might all these words the wrath of Turnus bend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, worser waxed he, sickening more by medicine meant to mend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en so soon as he might speak, such words were in his mouth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Thy trouble for my sake, best lord, e'en for my sake forsooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay down, I prithee; let me buy a little praise with death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I too, O father, sow the spear, nor weak hand scattereth</span><span class='linenum'>50</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The iron seed, with me afield: the blood-springs know my stroke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor here shall be his Goddess-dame with woman's cloud to cloak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A craven king, and hide herself in empty mirky shade."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now the Queen, by this new chance of battle sore afraid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fell weeping, as her fiery son she held with dying eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O Turnus, by these tears, by what of worship for me lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anigh thy heart; O, only hope of this my latter tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sole rest from sorrow! thou, in whom all worship doth abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All glory of the Latin name, our falling house-wall stay!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set not thine hand to Teucrian war; this thing alone I pray.</span><span class='linenum'>60</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whatever lot abideth thee, O Turnus, mid the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abideth me, and I with thee will leave the loathed light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor will I, made Æneas' thrall, behold him made my son."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lavinia heard her mother's words with burning cheeks, whereon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lay rain of tears, for thereunto exceeding ruddy flush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had brought the fire that now along her litten face did rush:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when the Indian ivory they wrong with blood-red dye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or when mid many lilies white the ruddy roses lie,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span><span class="i0">E'en such a mingled colour showed upon the maiden's face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sore stirred by love upon the maid he fixed his constant gaze,</span><span class='linenum'>70</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And, all the more afire for fight, thus to Amata said:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I prithee, mother, with these tears, such sign of coming dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dog not my feet as forth I wend to Mavors' bitter play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Turnus is not free to thrust the hour of death away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go, Idmon, bear the Phrygian lord these very words of mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought for his pleasure: When the dawn tomorrow first shall shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her purple wheels aloft shall redden all the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead not thy Teucrians to the fight: Teucrians and Rutuli<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall let their swords be; and we twain, our blood shall quench the strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we upon that field shall woo Lavinia for a wife."</span><span class='linenum'>80</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and to the roofed place now swiftly wending home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Called for his steeds, and merrily stood there before their foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en those that Orithyia gave Pilumnus, gift most fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose whiteness overpassed the snow, whose speed the wingèd air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The busy horse-boys stand about, and lay upon their breasts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clapping of their hollow hands, and comb their manèd crests.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he the mail-coat doth on him well-wrought with golden scale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And latten white; he fits the sword unto his hand's avail:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His shield therewith, and hornèd helm with ruddy crest o'erlaid:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sword, the very Might of Fire for father Daunus made,</span><span class='linenum'>90</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And quenched the white-hot edge thereof amidst the Stygian flood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the strong spear he took in hand that 'gainst the pillar stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidmost of the house: that spear his hand won mightily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Actor of Auruncum erst; he shakes the quivering tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud crying: "Now, O spear of mine, who never heretofore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast failed my call, the day draws on: thee the huge Actor bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now Turnus' right hand wieldeth thee: to aid, that I prevail</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To lay the Phrygian gelding low, and strip his rended mail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By might of hand; to foul with dust the ringlets of his hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Becrisped with curling-irons hot and drenched with plenteous myrrh!"</span><span class='linenum'>100</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By such a fury is he driven; from all his countenance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fiery flashes leap, the flames in his fierce eyeballs dance:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when a bull in first of fight raiseth a fearful roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And teacheth wrath unto his horns and whets them for the war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'gainst the tree-trunks pusheth them, and thrusts the breezes home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with the scattering of the sand preludeth fight to come.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less Æneas, terrible, in Venus' armour dight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now whetteth war; and in his heart stirreth the wrath of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That plighted peace shall lay the war fain is his heart and glad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His fellows' minds and bitter fear that makes Iulus sad</span><span class='linenum'>110</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He solaceth with fate-wise words; then bids his folk to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His answer to the Latin king and peace-laws to declare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But scarce the morrow's dawn of day had lit the mountain steeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scarce the horses of the Sun drew upward from the deeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from their nostrils raised aloft blew forth the morning clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Trojans and Rutulian men the field of fight prepare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And measure out a space beneath the mighty city's wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midmost the hearths they hallow there to common Gods of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grassy altars: other some bear fire, and fountain's flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All linen clad, and vervain leaves are crowning every brow.</span><span class='linenum'>120</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Forth comes the host of Italy, the men that wield the spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pour outward from the crowded gate; the Trojan host is there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the Tyrrhene company in battle-gear diverse,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor otherwise in iron clad, than if the War-god fierce<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cried on to arms: and in the midst of war-ranks thousandfold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dukes are flitting, well beseen in purple dye and gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en Mnestheus of Assaracus, Asylas huge of force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus, Neptune's very son, the tamer of the horse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the sign was given abroad each to his own place won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set his spear-shaft in the earth and leaned his shield thereon.</span><span class='linenum'>130</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Then streamed forth mothers fain to see and elders feeble grown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unarmed crowd beset the towers and houses of the town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And others of the people throng the high-built gates around.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Juno from the steep that men now call the Alban mound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Though neither worship, name, nor fame it bore upon that day),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was looking down upon the lists and either war-array<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Trojan and Laurentine men, and King Latinus' wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then upon Turnus' sister's ear her words of God did fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A goddess she, the queen of mere and sounding river-wave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which worship Jupiter the King, the Heaven-Abider gave</span><span class='linenum'>140</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A hallowed gift to pay her back for ravished maidenhood:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Nymph, the glory of the streams, heart well-beloved and good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee only, as thou know'st, I love of all who e'er have come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the unkind bed of Jove from out a Latin home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With goodwill have I granted thee the heavenly house to share;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, Juturna, know thy grief lest I the blame should bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Fortune would, and while the Fates allowed the Latin folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A happy day, so long did I thy town and Turnus cloak;<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span><span class="i0">But now I see him hastening on to meet the fated ill:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His doomsday comes, the foeman's hand shall soon his hour fulfil.</span><span class='linenum'>150</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I may not look upon the fight, or see the wagered field;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, if any present help thou durst thy brother yield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haste, it behoves thee!—happier days on wretches yet may rise."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce spake she ere Juturna poured the tear-flood from her eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thrice and four times smote with hand her bosom well beseen.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Nay, this is now no weeping-time," saith that Saturnian Queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Haste; snatch thy brother from the death if all be not undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wake up war and rend apart the treaty scarce begun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I am she that bids thee dare."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">She urged her, and she left<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her wavering mind and turmoiled heart with sorrow's torment cleft.</span><span class='linenum'>160</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meantime the Kings—Latinus there, a world of state around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is borne upon the fourfold car, his gleaming temples bound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With twice six golden rays, the sign of his own grandsire's light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavenly Sun; and Turnus wends with twi-yoked horses white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tossing in hand two shafts of war with broad-beat points of steel.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hither Father Æneas, spring of the Roman weal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flaming with starry shield and arms wrought in the heavenly home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And next to him Ascanius young, the second hope of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fare from the camp: the priest thereon, in unstained raiment due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Offereth a son of bristly sow and unshorn yearling ewe,</span><span class='linenum'>170</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And bringeth up the four-foot hosts unto the flaming place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they, with all eyes turned about the rising sun to face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give forth the salt meal from the hand, and with the iron sign<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The victims' brows, and mid the flame pour out the bowls of wine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then good Æneas draws his sword, and thuswise prays the prayer:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Bear witness, Sun, and thou, O Land, who dost my crying hear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Land, for whose sake I waxed in might, sustaining toils enow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Thou, Almighty Father, hear! Saturnian Juno thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grown kinder, Goddess, I beseech; and thou, most glorious Mars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Father, whose hand of utter might is master of all wars;</span><span class='linenum'>180</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ye Springs, and River-floods I call, and whatsoever God<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is in the air, or whatso rules the blue sea with its rod—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If to Ausonian Turnus here Fortune shall give the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The conquered to Evander's town shall straightly wend their way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iulus shall depart the land, nor shall Æneas' folk<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stir war hereafter, or with sword the Latin wrath provoke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if the grace of victory here bow down upon our fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—(As I believe, as may the Gods make certain with their might!)—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will not bid the Italian men to serve the Teucrian's will;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor for myself seek I the realm; but all unconquered still</span><span class='linenum'>190</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let either folk with equal laws plight peace for evermore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gods and worship I will give, Latinus see to war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My father lawful rule shall have; for me my Teucrians here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall build a city, and that home Lavinia's name shall bear."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So first Æneas: after whom Latinus swears and says,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking aloft, and stretching hands up towards the starry ways:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"E'en so, Æneas, do I swear by Stars, and Sea, and Earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By twi-faced Janus, and the twins Latona brought to birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the nether Might of God and shrine of unmoved Dis;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And may the Sire who halloweth in all troth-plight hearken this:</span><span class='linenum'>200</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I hold the altars, and these Gods and fires to witness take,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, as for Italy, no day the peace and troth shall break,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What thing soever shall befall; no might shall conquer me.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Not such as with the wrack of flood shall mingle earth and sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor such as into nether Hell shall melt the heavenly land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as this sceptre"—(for by chance he bore a staff in hand)—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Shall never more to leafage light and twig and shadow shoot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since when amid the thicket-place, cut off from lowest root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It lost its mother, and the knife hath lopped it, leaf and bough,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tree once, but the craftsman's hand hath wrapped it seemly now</span><span class='linenum'>210</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With brass about, and made it meet for hands of Latin lords."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So in the sight of all the chiefs with such abundant words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bound the troth-plight fast and sure: then folk in due wise slay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The victims on the altar-flame, and draw the hearts away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet living, and with platters full the holy altars pile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But unto those Rutulian men unequal this long while<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fight had seemed, and in their hearts the mingled trouble rose;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the more, as nigher now they note the ill-matched foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This helpeth Turnus' silent step, and suppliant worshipping<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the altars, and his eyes that unto earth do cling,</span><span class='linenum'>220</span><br /> +<span class="i0">His faded cheeks, his youthful frame that wonted colour lacks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore Jaturna, when she hears the talk of people wax,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how the wavering hearts of men in diverse manner sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like unto Camers wendeth now amidst of that array;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">—A mighty man, from mighty blood, his father well renowned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For valorous worth, and he himself keen in the battle found.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So through the mid array she speeds, well knowing what is toward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soweth rumour on the wind and speaketh such a word:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O shame ye not, Rutulian men, to offer up one soul</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">For all your warriors? lack we aught in might or muster-roll</span><span class='linenum'>230</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To match them? Here is all they have—Trojans, Arcadian peers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that Etruscan Turnus' bane, the fateful band of spears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why, if we meet, each second man shall scantly find a foe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now their king, upborne by fame, unto the Gods shall go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon whose shrines he vows himself; his name shall live in tale.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we shall lose our fatherland and 'neath proud lords shall fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en those that sit there heavy-slow upon our fields today."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So with such words she lit the hearts of all that young array;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet more and more a murmur creeps about the ranks of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Changed even are Laurentine folk; changed are the Latins then;</span><span class='linenum'>240</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They who had hoped that rest from fight and peaceful days were won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are now but fain of battle-gear, and wish the troth undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ruth that such a cruel fate on Turnus' head should fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But unto these a greater thing Jaturna adds withal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sign from heaven; and nought so much stirred Italy that day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As this whose prodigy beguiled men's hearts to go astray:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now the yellow bird of Jove amid the ruddy light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was chasing of the river-fowl, and drave in hurried flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The noisy throng; when suddenly down to the waves he ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And caught in greedy hookèd claws a goodly-bodied swan:</span><span class='linenum'>250</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Uprose the hearts of Italy, for all the fowl cry out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, wonderful for eyes to see, from fleeing turn about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darken the air with cloud of wings, and fall upon the foe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till he, oppressed by might of them and by his prey held low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gives way, and casts the quarry down from out his hookéd claws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the river, and aback to inner cloud-land draws.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then to the sign the Rutuli shout greeting with one breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread their hands abroad; but first the seer Tolumnius saith:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"This, this is that, which still my prayers sought oft and o'er again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I take the sign, I know the God! to arms with me, O men!</span><span class='linenum'>260</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Poor people, whom the stranger-thief hath terrified with war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en like these feeble fowl; who wastes the acres of your shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet shall he fly, and give his sails unto the outer sea:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ye, your ranks with heart and mind now serry manfully,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ward your ravished King and Duke with all your battle-world!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and, running forth, a shaft against the foe he hurled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth whizzed the cornel through the air, cleaving its way aright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therewithal great noise outbreaks, and every wedge of fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is turmoiled, and the hearts of men are kindled for the fray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On sped the shaft to where there stood across its baneful way</span><span class='linenum'>270</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nine fair-shaped brethren, whom whilom one faithful Tuscan wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid Gylippus' Arcad house brought forth to light and life:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now one of these, e'en where the belt of knitted stitches wrought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chafed on the belly, and the clasp the joining edges caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A youth most excellent of frame and clad in glittering gear—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It pierced his ribs; on yellow sand it stretched him dying there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat his brethren, a fierce folk, with grief and rage alight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some draw their swords and some catch up the steel of speedy flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rush on blind: Laurentum's ranks, against them swift they go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thick the Trojans from their side the meadows overflow,</span><span class='linenum'>280</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Agyllans and Arcadian men with painted war array;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one lust winneth over all with point and edge to play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They strip the altars; drifting storm of weapon-shot doth gain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er all the heavens, and ever grows the iron battle-rain.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bowls and hearths they bear away: Latinus gets him gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing aback the beaten Gods and troth-plight all undone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But other men rein in the car and leap upon the steed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there with naked swords they sit, all ready for the need.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Messapus, fain to rend the troth, on hostile horse down-bears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon Aulestes, Tuscan king, who kingly raiment wears:</span><span class='linenum'>290</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He fled, but as abackward there away from him he went,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came on the altars at his back in hapless tanglement<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of head and shoulders: thitherward doth hot Messapus fly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With spear in hand, and from his steed he smites him heavily<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the great beam amid his prayers, and word withal doth say:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"He hath it, and the Gods have got a better host today!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therewith to strip his body warm up runs the Italian band;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Corynæus from the hearth catches a half-burnt brand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en as Ebusus comes up, and stroke in hand doth bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He filleth all his face with flame; out doth his great beard flare,</span><span class='linenum'>300</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sendeth stink of burning forth: the Trojan followed on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wildered man, and with his left grip of his tresses won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, straining hard with weight of knee, to earth he pinned his foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drave the stark sword through his side.<br /></span> +<span class="i44">See Podalirius go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chasing the shepherd Alsus through the front of weapon-wrack;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er him he hangs with naked sword; but he, with bill swung back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleaveth the foeman facing him through midmost brow and chin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all about his battle-gear the bloody rain doth win:<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span><span class="i0">Then iron slumber fell on him, hard rest weighed down his eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shut were they for evermore in night that never dies.</span><span class='linenum'>310</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then good Æneas stretched forth hands all empty of the sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And called bare-headed on his folk, with eager shouted word:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Where rush ye on, and whither now doth creeping discord rise?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Refrain your wrath; the troth is struck; its laws in equal wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are doomed; and 'tis for me alone the battle to endure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, let me be! cast fear away; my hand shall make it sure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This troth-plight, all these holy things, owe Turnus to my sword."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while his voice was sounding, lo, amidmost of his word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A whistling speedy-wingèd shaft unto the hero won;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unknown what hand hath sped it forth, what whirlwind bore it on;</span><span class='linenum'>320</span><br /> +<span class="i0">What God, what hap, such glory gave to hands of Rutuli;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the weight of things unknown dead doth the honour lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor boasted any of the hurt Æneas had that day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus, when he saw the King give back from that array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the turmoil of the Dukes, with hope his heart grew fain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cried for horse and arms, and leapt aloft to battle-wain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And high of heart set on apace, the bridle in his hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a brave man there he gave unto the deadly land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rolled o'er wounded men in heaps, and high in car wore down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ranks of men; and fleers' spears from out his hand were thrown:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as when litten up to war by Hebrus' chilly flood</span><span class='linenum'>331</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Red Mavors beateth on his shield, and rouseth fightful mood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the fury of his steeds, who o'er the level lea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In uttermost hoof-smitten Thrace the south and west outflee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, the fellows of the God, the black Fear's bitter face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Rage of men, the Guile of War anigh him wend apace:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so amid the battle-field his horses Turnus sped,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Reeking with sweat: there tramples he the woeful heaps of dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hurrying hoofs go scattering wide a drift of bloody rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gore, all blent with sandy dust, is pounded o'er the plain.</span><span class='linenum'>340</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To death he casteth Sthenelus, Pholus, and Thamyris;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those twain anigh, but him afar; from far the bane he is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Glaucus and of Lades, sons of Imbrasus, whom he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Lycia bred a while agone, and armed them equally<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fight anigh, or on their steeds the winds to overrun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But otherwhere amidst the fight Eumedes fareth on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Dolon of old time, most well-renowned in fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bringing back his father's name in courage and in might:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that was he who while agone the Danaan camp espied,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chose Achilles' car for spoil in his abundant pride:</span><span class='linenum'>350</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But otherwise Tydides paid for such a deed o'erbold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no more had he any hope Achilles' steeds to hold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Turnus, when adown the lea this warrior he had seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First a light spear he sent in chase across the void between,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then stayed his steeds, and leaping down unto the fallen ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set his foot upon the neck of that scarce-breathing man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his right hand wrenched the sword and bathed its glittering blade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in his throat, and therewithal such spoken chiding said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Down, Trojan! measure out the mead, and that Hesperean land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou sought'st in war: such are the gifts that fall unto the hand</span><span class='linenum'>360</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of those that dare the sword with me; such city-walls they raise!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Asbutes wends 'neath spear-cast then, a fellow of his ways;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chloreus, Dares, Thersilochus, and Sybaris, withal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thymœtes, who from rearing horse had hap to catch a fall;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And e'en as when the breathing forth of Thracian Boreas roars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er deep Ægean, driving on the wave-press to the shores,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then wheresoe'er the wind stoops down the clouds flee heaven apace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wheresoe'er cleaves Turnus way all battle giveth place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All war-array is turned to wrack: his onrush beareth him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the breeze that meets his car his tossing crest doth swim.</span><span class='linenum'>370</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This onset of the maddened heart nought Phegeus might abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But cast himself before the steeds, and caught and wrenched aside<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bit-befoaming mouths of them, the heart-stung hurrying steeds.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But while he hangeth dragged along, the spear broad-headed speeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto his shieldless side, and rends the twilinked coat of mail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the razing of his flesh a little doth avail:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he turned round about his shield and at the foemen made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his naked sword drawn forth sought most well-needed aid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When now the axle-tree and wheel, unto fresh speeding won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cast him down headlong unto earth, and Turnus following on,</span><span class='linenum'>380</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Betwixt the lowest of the helm and haubert's upper lip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sheared off his head, and left the trunk upon the sand to slip.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But while victorious Turnus gives these deaths unto the plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mnestheus and that Achates leal, Ascanius with the twain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring great Æneas to the camp all covered with his blood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, propping up his halting steps with spear-shaft long, he stood:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mad wroth he is, and strives to pluck the broken reed away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bids them help by any road, the swiftest that they may,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cut away the wound with sword, cut to the hiding-place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lies the steel, and send him back to meet the battle's face.</span><span class='linenum'>390</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Iapis, son of Iasus, by Phœbus best beloved,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Draws nigh now: Phœbus on a time, by mighty longing moved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was fain to give him gifts of God, his very heavenly craft—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foresight, or skill of harp-playing, or mastery of the shaft:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, that from his bed-rid sire the death he yet might stave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would liefer know the might of herbs, and how men heal and save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, speeding of a silent craft, inglorious life would wear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Æneas, fretting bitterly, stood leaning on his spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midst a great concourse of the lords, with sad Iulus by,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmoved amid their many tears: the elder, girded high</span><span class='linenum'>400</span><br /> +<span class="i0">In folded gown, in e'en such wise as Pæon erst was dight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hurrying hand speeds many a salve of Phœbus' herbs of might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all in vain: his right hand woos the arrow-head in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For nought the teeth of pincers grip the iron of the bane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No happy road will Fortune show, no help Apollo yields:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grimly terror more and more prevaileth o'er the fields,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nigher draws the evil hour: they see the dusty pall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spread o'er the heaven; draw horsemen nigh, and shafts begin to fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick in the midmost of the camp: grim clamour smites the stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shouts of men, the cries of men that fall in game of Mars.</span><span class='linenum'>410</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Mother Venus, sore at heart for her sore-wounded son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plucketh a stalk of dittany from Cretan Ida won,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with a downy leaf of grey and purple head doth grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well enough the mountain-goats the herbage of it know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time the winged shaft of man within them clingeth sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Venus brought, with cloudy cloak her body covered o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This in the waves of glittering rims she steepeth privily,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drugging the cup, and wholesome juice withal there blendeth she,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wrought of ambrosia; heal-all too most sweet of heavenly smell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So with that stream Iapis old the shaft-wound cherished well</span><span class='linenum'>420</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unwitting: sudden from the flesh all grievance doth depart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the blood is staunched at once up from the wound's deep heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And comes the shaft unto the hand with nought to force it forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And freshly to the king returns his ancient might and worth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then cries Iapis:<br /></span> +<span class="i18">"Loiter ye? arms for the hero then!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he is first against the foe to whet the hearts of men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Lo, not from any help of man, nor from art's mastery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These things have happed, nor hath mine hand, Æneas, holpen thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A great God wrought to send thee back great deeds of fame to win."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, fain of fight, on either side the king his legs shuts in</span><span class='linenum'>430</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With ruddy gold: he loathes delay, and high his war-shaft shakes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then his left side meets the shield, his back the hauberk takes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round Iulus casteth he a steel-clad man's embrace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saith, but lightly kissing him from midst the helmet's space:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Child, the bare valour learn of me and very earthly toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good-hap of others; my right hand shall ward thee in the broil<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These days that are, and gain for thee exceeding great rewards;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, when ripe thine age shall grow, remember well the swords;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then as thine heart seeks through the past for kin to show the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well shall thy sire Æneas stir, thine uncle Hector goad."</span><span class='linenum'>440</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when these words are cast abroad, huge through the gate he goes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaking in hand a mighty spear; then in arrayment close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antheus and Mnestheus rush to war: the camp is left behind,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all the host flows forth; the fields are blent with dust-cloud blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, stirred by trample of the feet, the earth's face trembleth sore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Turnus from a facing mound beheld that coming war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Ausonians looked, and through their hearts swift ran the chilly fear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now before all other men first doth Jaturna hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And know the sound, and, quaking sore, she fleeth back again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On comes he, hurrying on the host black o'er the open plain:</span><span class='linenum'>450</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As when a storm cast on the world from heaven asunder rent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wendeth across the middle sea: out! how the dread is sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep to the field-folks' boding hearts:—here comes the orchards' bane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here comes the acres' utter wrack, the ruin of all the plain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gale that goes before its face brings tidings to the shore:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So 'gainst the foe the Trojan Duke led on his hosts of war;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gathering in the wedge-array all knit them close around.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now hath Thymbræus' battle-blade the huge Osiris found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mnestheus slays Archetius, Achates Epulo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Gyas Ufens: yea, the seer Tolumnius lieth low,</span><span class='linenum'>460</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He who was first against the foe to hurl the war-shaft out.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cry goes up unto the heaven; the war-tide turns about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dust-cloud of flight the Rutuli raise up across the field:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, the King, thinks scorn of it to smite the backs that yield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, those that meet him foot to foot, the wielders of the spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He followeth not: Turnus alone his eyes track everywhere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the dust-cloud, him alone he crieth unto fight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hereby Jaturna's manly mind is shaken with affright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Metiscus, Turnus' charioteer, she plucketh from the rein,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leaveth him fallen down afar from yoking pole and wain:</span><span class='linenum'>470</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But she mounts up, and with her hand the waving bridle guides,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The while Metiscus' voice, and limbs, and war-gear with her bides:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when amid a lordling's house there flits a swallow black,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On skimming wings she seeks to still her noisy nestlings' lack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wandering through the lofty halls but little feast doth get,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then soundeth through the empty porch, and round the fish-pools wet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So is Jaturna borne on wheels amidmost of the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flying on in hurrying chase by everything doth go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now here, now there, her brother shows all flushed with victory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But still refrains him from the press; far o'er the waste they fly.</span><span class='linenum'>480</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No less Æneas picks his way amid the winding road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tracking the man, and through the rout cries ever high and loud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But e'en as oftentimes as he his foeman caught with eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'gainst the flight of wingèd steeds his running feet would try,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So oft the speedy wain of war Jaturna turned aside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, what to do? In vain he went, borne on a shifting tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While diverse cares to clashing ways the soul within him drave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo, Messapus, speedy-light, who chanced in hand to have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two light and limber shafts of tree, each with its iron head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now whirling one, a shot well aimed unto the hero sped:</span><span class='linenum'>490</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ænesis stayed, and gathered him behind his shielding-gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sank upon his knee; no less the eager-driven spear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smote on his helm, and shore away the topmost of his crest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily his wrath arose; by all that guile oppressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he beheld the steeds and car far from his battle borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He bade Jove witness, and the hearths of troth-plight wronged and torn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He breaks at last amidst of them with Mars to help him on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fearful speedeth work of death wherein he spareth none,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And casteth every rein aside that held his anger in.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What God shall tell me all the woe, what God the song shall win</span><span class='linenum'>500</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of shifting death and Dukes undone, and all those many dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Turnus and by him of Troy about the fight-field spread?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Jupiter, was this thy will, that nations doomed to live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In peace hereafter, on that day in such a broil should strive?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Rutulian Sucro was the first that Trojan onset stayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas met him, and forsooth no long delay he made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But smote his side, and through his ribs and fencing of the breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drave on his bitter naked sword where way was easiest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Turnus afoot met Amycus, cast down from off his horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His brother, swift Diores, too: the first amidst his course</span><span class='linenum'>510</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The long spear smote, the sword the last; the heads of both the twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hangeth up and beareth on shedding a bloody rain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Talon and Tanais therewith, Cethegus stout to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All three at once the Trojan sped, and sad Onytes slew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom to the name of Echion Peridia's womb did yield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Turnus slew the brethren sent from Phœbus' Lycian field:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Menates, too, of Arcady, who loathed the war in vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By fruitful fishy Lerna's flood was once his life and gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unrich house, and nought he knew of mighty men's abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hired for a price of men the earth his father sowed.</span><span class='linenum'>520</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As when two fires, that on a while are sped from diverse ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Run through the dry and tinder wood, and crackling twigs of bays;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when from off the mountain-tops two hurrying rivers speed,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And foaming, roaring, as they rush, drive down to ocean's mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And each one wastes his proper road; no slothfuller than these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, Turnus, fare afield; swell up the anger-seas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In both their hearts; torn are their breasts that know not how to yield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In speeding of the wounding-craft their utter might they wield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Murranus, as his sires of sires and ancient name he sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And boasts his blood come far adown the line of Latin kings,</span><span class='linenum'>530</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas, with a mighty rock and whirlwind of a stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'erthrows, and stretches on the earth; the wain-wheels roll him on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the bridle and the yoke, whom there upon the sward<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hurrying hoofs of horses pound, remembering not their lord.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Hyllus' onset, and his heart with fury all aglow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth Turnus meet; who hurls a shaft against his golden brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the helm the war-spear flies, and in the brain is stayed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee, Cretheus, bravest of the Greeks, thine hands did nothing aid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To snatch from Turnus.<br /></span> +<span class="i23">Nought his Gods did their Cupencus cloak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against Æneas' rush of war; breast-on he met the stroke,</span><span class='linenum'>540</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And nought availed that hapless one the tarrying golden shield.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thee also, warring Æolus, did that Laurentine field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See fallen, and cumbering the earth with body laid alow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou diest, whom the Argive hosts might never overthrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor that Achilles' hand that wrought the Priam's realm its wrack.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here was thy meted mortal doom; high house 'neath Ida's back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High house within Lyrnessus' garth, grave in Laurentine lea.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Now all the hosts to fight are turned, and blent in battle's sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All Latin folk, all Dardan sons, Mnestheus, Serestus keen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Messapus tamer of the horse, Asylas fame-beseen,</span><span class='linenum'>550</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The Tuscan host, Evander's men, the Arcadian wings of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each for himself the warriors play, and strive with utter might;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No tarrying, no rest, they strain in contest measureless.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But now a thought his mother sent Æneas' mind to bless.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he should wend unto the walls, and townward turn his host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blend amid destruction swift the Latin people lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he, now marking Turnus' ways through many a company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hither and thither turns his eyes, and sees the city lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At peace amid the mighty stir, unharmed amid the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And image of a greater war set all his soul alight.</span><span class='linenum'>560</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Mnestheus, Sergestus then he calls, Serestus battle-strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dukes of war; he mounts a knoll; thither the Teucrians throng<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In serried ranks, yet lay not by the battle-spear and shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So there from off the mound he speaks amidmost of the field:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let none hang back from these my words, for Jove is standing by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let none be dull herein because it cometh suddenly:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Today the town, the cause of war, the king Latinus' home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless they cry them craven men, and 'neath the yoke they come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will I o'erthrow; the smoking towers upon the ground will lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! must I wait till Turnus grows fain of the battle-play?</span><span class='linenum'>570</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And shall he, conquered, take his ease to fight me o'er and o'er?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O fellows, this is head and well of all the wicked war.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haste with the torches, set we forth the troth with fire to find!"</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake; but all they set to work, and striving with one mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knit close their ranks, and on the town a world of battle bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unlooked-for ladders are at hand, and sudden fires appear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While some they run unto the gates, and there the out-guards slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hurl the spears, and with their cloud dim down the light of day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, in the front of men, lifts hand unto the walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in a great and mighty voice guilt on Latinus calls,</span><span class='linenum'>580</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And bids the Gods to witness him twice to the battle driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Italians twice become his foes, and twice the treaty riven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mid the turmoiled city-folk arose the bickering then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some bade unbar and open gates unto the Dardan men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, some unto the walls would drag their very king and lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But some bear arms and go their ways the walls of war to ward:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as the shepherd finds the bees shut in, a fencèd folk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In chinky pumice rock, and fills their house with bitter smoke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they, all busy-fearful grown within their waxen wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Run here and there and whet their wrath with mighty humming call:</span><span class='linenum'>590</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The black stink rolleth through their house, and with a murmuring blind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stony hollows moan: the reek the empty air doth find.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here on the weary Latins fell another stroke of fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That moved the city deep adown with sorrow sore and great;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For when the Queen from house aloft beheld the foe draw nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The walls beset, the flaming brands unto the house-roofs fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nowhere the Rutulian ranks or Turnus' warring host,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hapless woman deems the youth in stress of battle lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, all bewildered in her mind by these so sudden woes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curses herself for head and spring whence all the evil flows;</span><span class='linenum'>600</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And crying many a bitter word, and mad with sorrow grown,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">She riveth with her dying hand the queenly purple gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knits the knot of loathly death from lofty beam on high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the wretched Latin wives know all this misery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her daughter first, Lavinia, wastes the blossom of her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wounds her rosy cheeks; then they that stood about her there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Run wild about, and all the house resoundeth with their wail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence through the city flies the sound of that unhappy tale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all hearts sink: Latinus goes with raiment rent and torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stunned by his wife's unhappy lot, and city lost and lorn,</span><span class='linenum'>610</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And scattering o'er his hoariness defilement of the dust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often he upbraids himself that he took not to trust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Dardan lord, nor willingly had hallowed him his son.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile across the outer plain war-Turnus followeth on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last few stragglers, duller grown, and less and less his heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rejoices in his hurrying steed and their victorious part.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The air bore to him noise of men with doubtful terror blent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round about his hearkening ears confusèd murmur sent;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The noise of that turmoilèd town, a sound of nought but woe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ah, me!" he cried, "what mighty grief stirs up the city so?</span><span class='linenum'>620</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Why from the walls now goeth up this cry and noise afar?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and, wildered, drew the rein and stayed the battle-car:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His sister met his questioning, as she in seeming clad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that Metiscus, all the rule of battle-chariot had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And steeds and bridle:<br /></span> +<span class="i23">"Hereaway, O Turnus, drive we on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sons of Troy; where victory shows a road that may be won:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For other hands there are, belike, the houses to defend.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Æneas falls on Italy, and there doth battle blend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So let our hands give cruel death to Teucrian men this day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No less in tale: so shalt thou hold thine honour in the fray."</span><span class='linenum'>630</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus sayeth thereunto:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sister, I knew thee long ago, when first by art and craft<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou brok'st the troth-plight, and therewith amidst the battle went;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now thou hidest God in vain. But whose will thee hath sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From high Olympus' house to bear such troubles, and so great?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was it to see thy brother's end and most unhappy fate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what do I? What heal is left in aught that may befall?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine eyes beheld Murranus die, on me I heard him call:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No dearer man in all the world is left me for a friend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe's me I that mighty man of men a mighty death must end.</span><span class='linenum'>640</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ufens is dead, unhappy too lest he our shame behold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as I speak the Teucrians ward his arms and body cold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now—the one shame wanting yet—shall I stand deedless by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their houses' wrack, nor let my sword cast back that Drances' lie?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I give back, and shall this land see craven Turnus fled?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is death, then, such a misery? O rulers of the dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be kind! since now the high God's heart is turned away from me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A hallowed soul I go adown, guiltless of infamy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not all unworthy of the great, my sires of long ago."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarce had he said when, here behold, from midmost of the foe,</span><span class='linenum'>650</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Comes Saces on his foaming steed, an arrow in his face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, crying prayers on Turnus' name, onrusheth to the place:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Turnus, in thee our last hope lies! pity thy wretched folk!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas thundereth battle there, and threateneth with his stroke</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">The overthrow of tower and town, and wrack of Italy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flames are flying toward the roofs; all mouths of Latins cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On thee; all eyes are turned to thee: yea, the king wavereth there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom shall he call his son-in-law, to whom for friendship fare.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Queen to wit, thy faithfullest, is dead by her own hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, fearful of the things to come, hath left the daylight land.</span><span class='linenum'>660</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Messapus and Atinas keen alone upbear our might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the gates: round each of them are gathered hosts of fight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick-thronging, and a harvest-tide that bristles with the sword;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While here thou wendest car about the man-deserted sward."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bewildered then with images of diverse things he stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In silent stare; and in his heart upswelled a mighty flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mingled shame and maddening grief: the Furies goaded sore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bitter love and valour tried and known from time of yore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when the cloud was shaken off and light relit his soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His burning eyeballs toward the town, fierce-hearted, did he roll,</span><span class='linenum'>670</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And from the wheels of war looked back unto the mighty town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, behold, a wave of flame into a tongue-shape grown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Licked round a tower, and 'twixt its floors rolled upward unto heaven:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tower that he himself had reared with timbers closely driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set beneath it rolling-gear, and dight the bridges high.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now, sister, now the Fates prevail! no more for tarrying try.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, let us follow where the God, where hard Fate calleth me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doomed am I to Æneas' hand; doomed, howso sore it be,<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span><span class="i0">To die the death; ah, sister, now thou seest me shamed no more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now let me wear the fury through ere yet my time is o'er."</span><span class='linenum'>680</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and from the chariot leapt adown upon the mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left his sister lone in grief amidst the foe to speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the spears, and breaketh through the midmost press of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as a headlong stone sweeps down from off the mountain-height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Torn by the wind; or drifting rain hath washed it from its hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or loosed, maybe, it slippeth down because the years grow old:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wild o'er the cliffs with mighty leap goes down that world of stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bounds o'er earth, and woods and herds and men-folk rolleth on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst its wrack: so Turnus through the broken battle broke<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the very city-walls, where earth was all a-soak</span><span class='linenum'>690</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With plenteous blood, and air beset with whistling of the shafts;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There with his hand he maketh sign, and mighty speech he wafts:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Forbear, Rutulians! Latin men, withhold the points of fight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever haps, the hap is mine; I, I alone, of right<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should cleanse you of the broken troth, and doom of sword-edge face."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So from the midst all men depart, and leave an empty space;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now the Father Æneas hath hearkened Turnus' name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And backward from the walls of war and those high towers he came.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He casts away all tarrying, sets every deed aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thundering in his battle-gear rejoicing doth he stride:</span><span class='linenum'>700</span><br /> +<span class="i0">As Athos great, as Eryx great, great as when roaring goes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the quaking oaken woods and glory lights the snows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Father Apennine uprears his head amidst the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then Trojan and Rutulian men turn thither all their eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the folk of Italy, and they that hold the wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they that drive against its feet the battering engines' fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All men do off their armour then. Amazed Latinus stands</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">To see two mighty heroes, born in such wide-sundered lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meet thus to try what deed of doom in meeting swords may be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But they, when empty space is cleared amid the open lea,</span><span class='linenum'>710</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Set each on each in speedy wise, and with their war-spears hurled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the clash of shield and brass break into Mavors' world;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then groaneth earth; then comes the hail of sword-strokes thick and fast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in one blended tangle now are luck and valour cast:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when on mighty Sila's side, or on Taburnus height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two bulls with pushing horny brows are mingled in the fight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frighted herdsmen draw aback, and all the beasts are dumb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For utter fear; the heifers too misdoubt them what shall come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall be master of the grove and leader of the flock;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But each on each they mingle wounds with fearful might of shock, 720<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gore and push home fencing horns, and with abundant blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bathe neck and shoulder, till the noise goes bellowing through the wood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en so Æneas out of Troy, and he, the Daunian man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smite shield on shield; and mighty clash through all the heavens there ran.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis Jupiter who holds the scales 'twixt even-poisèd tongue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There in the balance needfully their sundered fates he hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which one the battle-pain shall doom, in which the death shall lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now Turnus deems him safe, and forth with sword upreared on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He springs, and all his body strains, and rises to the stroke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And smites: the Trojans cry aloud, and eager Latin folk,</span><span class='linenum'>730</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And both hosts hang 'twixt hope and fear: but lo, the treacherous sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks in the middle of the blow and leaves its fiery lord:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if the flight shall fail him now!—Swift as the East he flees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When in his right hand weaponless an unknown hilt he sees.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They say, that when all eager-hot he clomb his yokèd car<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In first of fight, that then he left his father's blade of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And caught in hand his charioteer Metiscus' battle-glaive;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that was well while Trojan fleers backs to the smiting gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when they meet Vulcanian arms, the very God's device,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then shivereth all the mortal blade e'en as the foolish ice;</span><span class='linenum'>740</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And there upon the yellow sand the glittering splinters lie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So diversely about the field doth wildered Turnus fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here and there in winding ways he doubleth up and down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thick all round about the lists was drawn the Teucrian crown:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By wide marsh here, by high walls there, his fleeing was begirt.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor less Æneas, howsoe'er, hampered by arrow-hurt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His knees might hinder him at whiles and fail him as he ran,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet foot for foot all eagerly followed the hurrying man;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when a hound hath caught a hart hemmed by the river's ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or hedged about by empty fear of crimson-feathered string,</span><span class='linenum'>750</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And swift of foot and baying loud goes following up the flight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, all fearful of the snare and of the flood-bank's height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doubles and turns a thousand ways, while open-mouthed and staunch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Umbrian keen sticks hard at heel, and now, now hath his haunch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snapping his jaws as though he gripped, and, mocked, but biteth air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then verily the cry arose; the bank, the spreading mere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rang back about, and tumult huge ran shattering through the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Turnus as he fled cried out on all his Rutuli,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, calling each man by his name, craved his familiar blade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile Æneas threateneth death if any come to aid,</span><span class='linenum'>760</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And swift destruction: and their souls with fearful threats doth fill</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of city ruined root and branch; and, halting, followeth still.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Five rings of flight their running fills, and back the like they wend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nought light nor gamesome is the prize for which their feet contend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For there they strive in running-game for Turnus' life and blood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By hap hard by an olive wild of bitter leaves there stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hallowed to Faunus, while agone a most well-worshipped tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereon to that Laurentian God the sailors saved from sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would set their gifts, and hang therefrom their garments vowed at need.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now the Teucrian men of late had lopped with little heed</span><span class='linenum'>770</span><br /> +<span class="i0">That holy stem, that they might make the lists of battle clear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there Æneas' war-spear stood; his might had driven it there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And held it now, set hard and fast in stubborn root and stout:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dardan son bent o'er it now to pluck the weapon out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he might follow him with shot whom running might not take.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Turnus, wildered with his fear, cried out aloud and spake:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Faunus, pity me, I pray! and thou, O kindest Earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hold thou the steel for me, who still have worshipped well thy worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which ever those Ænean folk with battle would profane!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He spake, and called the God to aid with vows not made in vain;</span><span class='linenum'>780</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For o'er the tough tree tarrying long, struggling with utter might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No whit Æneas could undo the gripping woody bite.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But while he struggleth hot and hard, and hangeth o'er the spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again the Daunian Goddess, clad in shape of charioteer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Metiscus, Turnus' trusty sword unto his hand doth speed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Venus, wrathful that the Nymph might dare so bold a deed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came nigh, and from the deep-set root the shaft of battle drew.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">So they, high-hearted, stored with hope and battle-gear anew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One trusting in his sword, and one fierce with his spear on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand face to face, the glorious game of panting Mars to try.</span><span class='linenum'>790</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the King of Heaven the great thus unto Juno saith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from a ruddy cloud she looked upon the game of death:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What then shall end it, O my wife? what deed is left thine hand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Heaven shall gain Æneas yet, a Godhead of the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Fate shall bear him to the stars thou know'st and hast allowed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What dost thou then, or hoping what hang'st thou in chilly cloud?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What! was it right that mortal wound a God's own flesh should wrong?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right to give Turnus—but for thee how was Juturna strong?—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sword he lost? or vanquished men, to give their might increase?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I prithee yield unto my prayers, and from thy troubling cease.</span><span class='linenum'>800</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let not thine hushed grief eat thine heart, or bitter words of care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So often from thy sweetest mouth the soul within me wear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The goal is reached: thou hast availed o'er earth and sea to drive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Trojan men; to strike the spark of wicked war alive;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To foul their house, and woe and grief mid wedding-feast to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I bid thee hold thine hand."<br /></span> +<span class="i36">Thuswise said Jupiter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a downcast countenance spake that Satumian Queen:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Well have I known, great Jupiter, all that thy will hath been,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Turnus and the worldly land loth have I left alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Else nowise should'st thou see me bear, sole on this airy throne,</span><span class='linenum'>810</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Things meet and unmeet: flame-begirt the war-ranks would I gain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drag the host of Trojans on to battle and their bane.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Juturna!—yes, I pitied her, and bade her help to bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto her brother; good, methought, for life great things to dare;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">But nought I bade her to the shaft or bending of the bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This swear I by the ruthless well, the Stygian overflow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The only holy thing there is that weighs on Godhead's oath.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now indeed I yield the place, and leave the fight I loathe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But one thing yet I ask of thee, held in no fateful yoke;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Latium's sake I pray therefore, and glory of thy folk:</span><span class='linenum'>820</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When they at last—so be it now!—pledge peace mid bridal kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they at last join law to law, and loving treaty bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let them not change their ancient name, those earth-born Latin men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor turn them into Trojan folk, or call them Teucrians then:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let not that manfolk shift their tongue, or cast their garb aside;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let Latium and the Alban kings through many an age abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cherish thou the Roman stem with worth of Italy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Troy-town is dead: Troy and its name for ever let them die!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Fashioner of men and things spake, smiling in her face:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Yea, Jove's own sister; second branch forsooth, of Saturn's race!</span><span class='linenum'>830</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Such are the mighty floods of wrath thou rollest in thy breast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this thine anger born for nought, I prithee let it rest:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I give thine asking; conquered now I yield me, and am glad:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Ausonian men shall keep the tongue and ways their fathers had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as their name is shall it be: only in body blent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst them shall the Teucrians sink; from me shall rites be sent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holy things, and they shall be all Latins of one tongue.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence shalt thou see a blended race from blood Ausonian sprung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose godliness shall outgo men, outgo the Gods above;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any folk of all the world so well thy worth shall love." 840<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So gladdened Juno's heart was turned, and yea-saying she bowed,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">And so departed from the sky and left her watching-cloud.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Another thing the Father now within him turneth o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wise Juturna he shall part from her lost brother's war:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two horrors are there that are called the Dreadful Ones by name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom with Megæra of the Pit at one birth and the same<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Untimely Night brought forth of yore, and round about them twined<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like coils of serpents, giving them great wings to hold the wind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About Jove's throne, and close anigh the Stern King's threshold-stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do these attend, in sick-heart men to whet the mortal dread,</span><span class='linenum'>850</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whenso the King-God fashions forth fell death and dire disease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or smites the guilty cities doomed with battle miseries.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now one of these sent Jupiter swift from the heavenly place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade her for a sign of doom to cross Juturna's face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So borne upon a whirl of wind to earth the swift one flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as an arrow from the string is driven amid the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which headed with the venom fell a Parthian man hath shot,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Parthian, Cydonian, it may be,—the hurt that healeth not;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its hidden whirring sweepeth through the drifting misty flow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fared the Daughter of the Night, and sought the earth below.</span><span class='linenum'>860</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when she saw the Ilian hosts and Turnus' battle-rank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sudden into puny shape her body huge she shrank,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fowl that sits on sepulchres, and desert roofs alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the dead night, and through the mirk singeth her ceaseless moan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In such a shape this bane of men met Turnus' face in field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, screeching, hovered to and fro, and flapped upon his shield:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange heaviness his body seized, consuming him with dread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His hair stood up, and in his jaws his voice lay hushed and dead.</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when afar Juturna knew the Dread One's whirring wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hapless sister tears her hair and loose its tresses flings,</span><span class='linenum'>870</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fouling her face with tearing nails, her breast with beat of hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"How may my help, O Turnus, now beside my brother stand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How may I harden me 'gainst this? by what craft shall I stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy light of life? how cast myself in such a monster's way?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, now I leave the battle-field; fright not the filled with fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O birds of ill! full well I know your flapping wings in air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And baneful sound. Thy mastering will I know it holdeth good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Jove the great!—was this the gift thou gav'st for maidenhood?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why give me everlasting life, and death-doom take away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, but for that my sorrows sore now surely might I slay,</span><span class='linenum'>880</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And wend beside my brother now amid the nether Night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am I undying? ah, can aught of all my good delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without thee, O my brother lost! O Earth, gape wide and well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let a Goddess sink adown into the deeps of hell!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So much she said, and wrapped her round with mantle dusky-grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, groaning sore, she hid herself within the watery way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But forth Æneas goes, and high his spear he brandisheth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mighty tree, and from his heart grown fell a word he saith:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And wherewith wilt thou tarry me? hangs Turnus back again?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No foot-strife but the armèd hand must doom betwixt us twain.</span><span class='linenum'>890</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, turn thyself to every shape, and, gathering everything<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith thine heart, thy craft is strong, go soaring on the wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chase the stars; or deep adown in hollow earth lie stored."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Turnus shakes his head and saith: "'Tis not thy bitter word<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That frights me, fierce one; but the Gods, but Jove my foeman grown."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No more he said, but, looking round, espied a weighty stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An ancient mighty rock indeed, that lay upon the lea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Set for a landmark, judge and end of acre-strife to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which scarce twice six of chosen men upon their backs might raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bodies such as earth brings forth amid the latter days:</span><span class='linenum'>900</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But this in hurrying hand he caught, and rising to the cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hurled it forth against the foe, and followed on it fast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet while he raised the mighty stone, and flung it to its fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knew nought that he was running there, or that he moved at all:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Totter his knees, his chilly blood freezes with deadly frost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And e'en the hero-gathered stone, through desert distance tossed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'ercame not all the space betwixt, nor home its blow might bring:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en as in dreaming-tide of night, when sleep, the heavy thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weighs on the eyes, and all for nought we seem so helpless-fain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of eager speed, and faint and fail amidmost of the strain;</span><span class='linenum'>910</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The tongue avails not; all our limbs of their familiar skill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are cheated; neither voice nor words may follow from our will:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Turnus, by whatever might he strives to win a way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Dread One bans his hope; strange thoughts about his heart-strings play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He stareth on his Rutuli, and on the Latin town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lingering for dread, trembling to meet the spear this instant thrown:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No road he hath to flee, no might against the foe to bear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nowhither may he see his car, or sister charioteer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span><span class="i0">Æneas, as he lingereth there, shaketh the fateful shaft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, following up its fate with eyes, afar the steel doth waft</span><span class='linenum'>920</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With all the might his body hath: no stone the wall-sling bears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'er roars so loud: no thunderclap with such a crashing tears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the heaven: on flew the spear, huge as the whirlwind black,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And speeding on the dreadful death: it brings to utter wrack<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hauberk's skirt and outer rim of that seven-folded shield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And goeth grating through the thigh: then falleth unto field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Huge Turnus, with his hampered knee twi-folded with the wound:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then with a groan the Rutuli rise up, and all around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roar back the hill-sides, and afar the groves cast back the cry:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he, downcast and suppliant saith, with praying hand and eye:</span><span class='linenum'>930</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Due doom it is; I pray no ruth; use what hath chanced to fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, if a wretched father's woe may touch thine heart at all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pray thee—since Anchises once was even such to thee,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pity my father Daunus' eld, and send me, or, maybe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My body stripped of light and life, back to my kin and land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, thou hast conquered: Italy has seen my craven hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretched forth to pray a grace of thee; Lavinia is thy wife:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strain not thine hatred further now!"<br /></span> +<span class="i38">Fierce in the gear of strife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas stood with rolling eyes, and held back hand and sword,</span><span class='linenum'>939</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And more and more his wavering heart was softening 'neath the word—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo, upon the shoulder showed that hapless thong of war!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, glittering with familiar boss the belt child Pallas bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Turnus with a wound overcame and laid on earth alow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on his body bore thenceforth those ensigns of his foe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But he, when he awhile had glared upon that spoil of fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That monument of bitter grief, with utter wrath alight,</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Cried terrible:<br /></span> +<span class="i16">"And shalt thou, clad in my beloved one's prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be snatched from me?—Tis Pallas yet, 'tis Pallas thus doth slay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And taketh of thy guilty blood atonement for his death!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Deep in that breast he driveth sword e'en as the word he saith:</span><span class='linenum'>950</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But Turnus,—waxen cold and spent, the body of him lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a groan through dusk and dark the scornful spirit flies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>THE END.</h4> + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne</span>, <span class="smcap">Hanson</span> & Co.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Edinburgh & London<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Æneids of Virgil, by Virgil + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ÆNEIDS OF VIRGIL *** + +***** This file should be named 29358-h.htm or 29358-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/5/29358/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> |