Sublimely seated, he surveys from far
The fields, the camp, the fortune of the war;
And all th' inferior world: from first to last
The sovereign senate in degrees are plac'd.

Then thus th' almighty sire began: "Ye gods, Natives, or denizens, of blest abodes;

From whence these murmurs, and this change of mind,

This backward fate from what was first design'd? Why this protracted war? When my commands Pronounc'd a peace, and gave the Latian lands. What fear or hopes on either part divides

Our Heavens, and arms our powers on different sides?

A lawful time of war at length will come
(Nor need your haste anticipate the doom)
When Carthage shall contend the world with Rome:
Shall force the rigid rocks and Alpine chains;
And like a flood come pouring on the plains:
Then is your time for faction and debate,
For partial favour, and permitted hate.
Let now your immature dissension cease:
Sit quiet, and compose your souls to peace."
Thus Jupiter in few unfolds the charge:
But lovely Venus thus replies at large :
"O power immense, eternal energy !
(For to what else protection can we fly?)
Seest thou the proud Rutulians, how they dare
In fields, unpunish'd, and insult my care?
How lofty Turnus vaunts amidst his train,
In shining arms triumphant on the plain ?
Ev'n in their lines and trenches they contend;
And scarce their walls the Trojan troops defend :
The town is fill'd with slaughter, and o'erfloats,
With a red deluge, their increasing moats.
Eneas, ignorant, and far from thence,
Has left a camp expos'd, without defence.
This endless outrage shall they still sustain ?
Shall Troy renew'd be forc'd, and fired again?
A second siege my banish'd issue fears,
And a new Diomede in arms appears.
One more audacious mortal will be found;
And I thy daughter wait another wound.
Yet if, with fates averse, without thy leave,
The Latian lands my progeny receive,
Bear they the pains of violated law,
And thy protection from their aid withdraw.
But if the gods their sure success foretel,
If those of Heaven consent with those of Hell,
To promise Italy; who dare debate
The power of Jove, or fix another fate?
What should I tell of tempests on the main,
Of olus usurping Neptune's reign?
Of Iris sent, with Bacchanalian heat,
T' inspire the matrons, and destroy the fleet.
Now Juno to the Stygian sky descends,
Solicits Hell for aid, and arms the fiends.
That new example wanted yet above:
An act that well became the wife of Jove.
Alecto, rais'd by her, with rage inflames
The peaceful bosoms of the Latian dames.
Imperial sway no more exalts my mind
(Such hopes I had indeed, while Heaven was kind);
Now let my happier foes possess my place,
Whom Jove prefers before the Trojan race;
And Iconquer they, whom you with conquest grace.
Since you can spare, froin all your wide command,
No spot of earth, no hospitable land,
Which may my wandering fugitives receive
(Sinse haughty Juno will not give you leave);

Then, father, (if I still may use that name)
By ruin'd Troy, yet smoking from the flame,
I beg you, let Ascanius, by my care,
Be freed from danger, and dismiss'd the war:
Inglorious let him live, without a crown ;
The father may be cast on coasts unknown,
Struggling with fate; but let me save the son
Mine is Cythera, mine the Cyprian towers;
In those recesses, and those sacred bowers,
Obscurely let him rest; his right resign
To promis'd empire, and his Julian line.
Then Carthage may th' Ausonian towns destroy,
Nor fear the race of a rejected boy.
What profits it my son, t' escape the fire,
Arm'd with his gods, and loaded with his sire;

Το
pass the perils of the seas and wind;
Evade the Greeks, and leave the war behind;
To reach th' Italian shores: if, after all,
Our second Pergamus is doom'd to fall?
Much better had he curb'd his high desires,
And hover'd o'er his ill-extinguish'd fires.
To Simois' banks the fugitives restore,
[fore."
And give them back to war, and all the woes be→
Deep indignation swell'd Saturnia's heart:
"And must I own," she said, "my secret smart 2
What with more decence were in silence kept,
And but for this unjust reproach had slept.
Did god, or man, your favourite son advise,
With war unhop'd the Latians to surprise?
By fate you boast, and by the gods' decree,
He left his native land for Italy:

Confess the truth; by mad Cassandra, more
Than Heaven, inspir'd, he sought a foreign share!
Did I persuade to trust his second Troy
To the raw conduct of a beardless boy?
With walls unfinish'd, which himself forsakes,
And through the waves a wandering voyage takes?
When have I urg'd him meanly to demand
The Tuscan aid, and arm a quiet land?
Did I or Iris give this mad advice?

Or made the fool himself the fatal choice?
You think it hard the Latians should destroy
With swords your Trojans, and with fires your Troy:
Hard and unjust indeed, for men to draw
Their native air, nor take a foreign law:
That Turnus is permitted still to live,
To whom his birth a god and goddess give:
But yet 'tis just and lawful for your line,
To drive their fields, and force with fraud to join.
Realms not your own, among your clans divide,
And from the bridegroom tear the promis'd bride :
Petition, while you public arins prepare;
Pretend a peace, and yet provoke a war.
'Twas given to you, your darling son to shrowd,
To draw the dastard from the fighting crowd;
And for a man obtend an empty cloud.
From flaming fleets you turn'd the fiery way,
And chang'd the ships to daughters of the sea.
But 'tis ny crime, the queen of Heaven offends,
If she presume to save her suffering friends.
Your son, not knowing what his focs decree,
You say is absent: absent let him be.

| Yours is Cythera, yours the Cyprian towers,
The soft recesses, and the sacred bowers.
Why do you then these needless arms prepare
And thus provoke a people prone to war?
Did I with fire the Trojan town deface,
Or hinder from return your exil'd race?
Was I the cause of mischief, or the man,
Whose lawless lust the fatal war began?

And chang'd to snowy plumes his hoary hair,
And wing'd his flight, to chant aloft in air.
His son Cupavo brash'd the briny flood:"
Upon his stern a brawny Centaur stood,
Who hav'd a rock, and threatening still to throw,
With lifted hands, alarm'd the seas below:
They seem to fear the formidable sight,
And roll'd their billows on, to speed his flight.
Ocnus was next, who led his native train
Of hardy warriors through the watery plain,
The son of Manto, by the Tuscan stream,
From whence the Mantuan town derives the name,
An ancient city, but of mixt descent,
Three several tribes compose the government:
Four towns are under each; but all obey
The Mantuan laws, and own the Tuscan sway.

Hate to Mezentius arm'd five hundred more, Whoin Mincius from his sire Benacus bore; (Mincius with wreaths of reeds his forehead cover'd o'er.)

These grave Auletes leads. A hundred sweep,
With stretching oars, at once the glassy deep:
Him, and his martial train, the Tritou bears,
High on his poop the sea-green god appears:
Frowning he seems his crooked shell to sound,
And at the blast the billows dance around.
A hairy man above the waste he shows,
A porpoise tail beneath his belly grows;
And ends a fish: his breast the waves divides,
And froth and foam augment the murmuring tides.
Full thirty ships transport the chosen train,
For Troy's relief, and scour the briny main.
Now was the world forsaken by the Sun,
And Phoebe half her nightly race bad run.
The careful chief, who never clos'd his eyes,
Himself the rudder holds, the sails supplies.
A choir of Nereids meet him on the flood,
Once his own gallies, hewn from Ida's wood:
Bet now as many nymphs the sea they sweep,
As rode before tall vessels on the deep.
They know him from afar; and in a ring
Enclose the ship that bore the Trojan king.
Cymodoce, whose voice excell'd the rest,
Above the waves advanc'd her snowy breast.
Her right hand stops the stern, her left divides
The curling ocean, and corrects the tides:
She spoke for all the choir; and thus began
With pleasing words to warn th' unknowing man :
"Sleeps our lov'd lord? O goddess-born! awake,
Spread every sail, pursue your watery track;
And haste your course. Your navy once were we,
From Ida's height descending to the sea:
Till Turnus as at anchor fix'd we stood,
Presum'd to violate our holy wood.
Then loos'd from shore we fled his fires profane
(Unwillingly we broke our master's chain);

And since have sought you through the Tuscan

main.

The mighty mother chang'd our forms to these,
And gave us life immortal in the seas.
But young Ascanius, in his camp distrest,
By your insulting foes is hardly prest;
Th' Arcadian horsemen, and Etrurian host,
Advance in order on the Latian coast:
To cut their way the Daunian chief designs,
Before their troops can reach the Trojan lines.
Thou, when the rosy morn restores the light,
First arm thy soldiers for th' ensuing fight;
Thyself the fated sword of Vulcan wield,
And bear aloft th' impenetrable shield.

VOL. XIX.

To-morrow's Sun, unless my skill be vain, Shall see huge heaps of foes in battle slain." Parting, she spoke; and, with immortal force, Push'd on the vessel in her watery course, (For well she knew the way). Impell'd behind, The ship flew forward, and outstript the wind. The rest make up; unknowing of the cause, The chief admires their speed, and happy omens draws." [eyes:

Then thus, he pray'd, and fix'd on Heaven his "Hear thou, great mother of the deities, With turrets crown'd, (on Ida's holy hill, Fierce tigers, rein'd and curb'd, obey thy will). Firm thy own omens, lead us on to fight, And let thy Phrygians conquer in thy right." He said no more. And now renewing day Had chas'd the shadows of the night away. He charg'd the soldiers with preventing care, Their flags to follow, and their arms prepare; Warn'd of th' ensuing fight, and bade them hope

the war.

Now, from his lofty poop, he view'd below, His camp encompass'd, and th' enclosing foe. His blazing shield embrac'd, he held on high; The camp receive the sign, and with loud shouts reply. [throw

Hope arms their courage: from their towers they
Their darts with double force, and drive the foe.
Thus, at the signal given, the cranes arise
Before the stormy south, and blacken all the
skies.

King Turnus wonder'd at the fight renew'd;
Till, looking back, the Trojan fleet he view'd;
The seas with swelling canvass cover'd o'er;
And the swift ships descending on the shore.
The Latians saw from far, with dazzled eyes,
The radiant crest that seem'd in flames to rise,
And dart diffusive fires around the field;
And the keen glittering of the golden shield.
Thus threatening comets, when by night they rise,
Shoot sanguine streams, and sadden all the skies
So Sirius, flashing forth sinister lights,
Pale human-kind with plagues and with dry famine.
frights.

Yet Turnus, with undaunted mind, is bent
To man the shores, and hinder their descent:
And thus awakes the courage of his friends:
"What you so long have wish'd, kind fortunes ends!
In ardent arms to meet th' invading foe:
You find, and find him at advantage now.
Yours is the day, you need but only dare:
Your swords will make you masters of the war.
Your sires, your sons, your houses, and your lands,
And dearest wives, are all within your hands,
Be mindful of the race from whence you come;
And emulate in arms your fathers fame.
Now take the time, while staggering yet they stand
With feet unfirm; and prepossess the strand:
Fortune befriends the bold." No more he said,
But balanc'd whom to leave, and wh m to lead:
Then these elects, the landing to prevent;
And those he leaves, to keep the city pent.

Meantime the Trojan sends his troops on shore :
Some are by boats expos'd, by bridges more.
With labouring oars they bear along the strand,
Where the tide languishes, and leap a-land.
Tarchon observes the coast with careful eyes,
And where no ford he finds, no water fries,
Nor billows with unequal murmur roar,
But smoothly slide along and swell the shore:

That course he steer'd, and thus he gave command,
"Here ply your oars, and at all hazard land:
Force on the vessel, that her keel may wound
This hated soil, and furrow hostile ground.
Let me securely land, I ask no more,
Then sink my ships, or shatter on the shore."
This fiery speech inflames his fearful friends,
They tug at every oar; and every stretcher bends:
They run their ships aground, the vessels knock,
(Thus fore'd ashore) and tremble with the shock.
Tarchon's alone was lost, and stranded stood,
Stuck on a bank, and beaten by the flood.
She breaks her back, the loosen'd sides give way,
And plunge the Tuscan soldiers in the sea.
Their broken oars and floating planks withstand
Their passage, while they labour to the land;
And ebbing tides bear back upon th' uncertain
sand.

Now Turnus leads his troops, without delay,
Advancing to the margin of the sea.
The trumpets sound: Eneas first assail'd
The clowns new-rais'd and raw; and soon pre-
Great Theron fell, an omen of the fight: [vail'd.
Great Theron large of limbs, of giant height.
He first in open fields defy'd the prince,
But armour scal'd with gold was no defence
Against the fated sword, which open'd wide
His plated shield, and pierc'd his naked side.

Next, Lycas fell; who, not like others horn, Was from his wretched mother ripp'd and torn: Sacred, O Phoebus! from his birth to thee, For his beginning life from biting steel was free. Non far from him was Gyas laid along, Of monstrous bulk; with Cisseus fierce and strong; Vain bulk and strength; for when the chief assail'd, Nor valour, nor Herculean arms, avail'd; Nor their fam'd father, wont in war to go With great Alcides, while he toil'd below. The noisy Pharos next receiv'd his death,

:

Æneas writh'd his dart, and stopp'd his bawling breath.

Then wretched Cydon had receiv'd his doom,
Who courted Clytius in his beardless bloom,
And sought with lust obscene polluted joys:
The Trojan sword had cur'd his love of boys,
Had not his seven bold brethren stopp'd the course
Of the fierce champion, with united force.
Seven darts are thrown at once, and some rebound
From his bright shield, some on his helmet sound:
The rest had reach'd him, but his mother's care
Prevented those, and turn'd aside in air.

The prince then call'd Achates, to supply
The spears that knew the way to victory.
Those fatal weapons, which, inur'd to blood,
In Grecian bodies under Hium stood:
"Not one of those my hand shall toss in vain
Against our foes, on this contended plain,"

Preventing fate directs the lance awry,
Which, glancing, only mark'd Achates' thigh

In pride of youth the Sabine Clansus came,
And from afar at Dryops took his aim.
The spear flew hissing through the middle space,
And pierc'd his throat, directed at his face:
It stopp'd at once the passage of his wind,
And the free soul to flitting air resign'd:
His forehead was the first that struck the ground;
Life-blood and life rush'd mingled through the
wound.

He slew three brothers of the Borean race,
And three, whom Ismarus, their native place
Had sent to war, but all the sons of Thrace.
Halesus next, the bold Aurunci leads;
The son of Neptune to his aid succeeds,
Conspicuous on his horse: on either hand
These fight to keep, and those to win the land,
With mutual blood th' Ausonian soil is dy'd,
While on its borders each their claim decide.

As wintery winds, contending in the sky,
With equal force of lungs their titles try:
They rage, they roar; the doubtful rack of Heaven
Stands without motion, and the tide undriven:
Each bent to conquer, neither side to yield;
They long suspend the fortune of the field.
Both armies thus perform what courage cant
Foot set to foot, and mingled man to nian.

But in another part, th' Arcadian horse,
With ill-success engage the Latin force,
For where th' impetuous torrent, rushing down,
Huge craggy stones, and rooted trees had thrown,
They left their coursers, and, unus'd to fight
On foot, were scatter'd in a shameful flight.
Pallas, who with disdain and grief had view'd
His foes pursuing, and his friends pursu'd, [source;
Us'd threatnings mix'd with prayers, his last re-
With these to move their minds, with those to fire
their force.

"Which way, companions! whither would you run?
By you yourselves, and mighty battles won,
By my great sire, by his establish'd name,
And early promise of my future fame;
By my youth, emulous of equal right
To share his honours, shun ignoble flight.
Trust not your feet; your hands inust he

your way

Through yon black body, and that thick array: 'Tis through that forward path that we must

come:

There lies our way, and that our passage home.
Nor powers above, nor destinies below,
Oppress our arms; with equal strength we go;
With mortal hands to meet a mortal foe.
See on what foot we stand: a scanty shore;
The sea behind, our enemies before :
No passage left, unless we swim the main;
Or, forcing these, the Trojan trenches gain."
This said, he strode with eager haste along,
And bore amidst the thickest of the throng.
Lagus, the first he met, with fate to foe,
Had heav'd a stone of mighty weight to throw;
Stooping, the spear descended on his chine,
Just where the bone distinguish'd either foin:
It stuck so fast, so deeply bury'd lay,
That scarce the victor forc'd the steel away.

Hisbon came on, but while he mov'd too slow To wish'd revenge, the prince prevents his blow; For, warding his at once, at once hé press'd; And plung'd the fatal weapon in his breast,