The Tufcan matrons with each other vy'd,
To blefs their rival fons with such a bride:
But the difdains their love; to share with me
The fylvan fhades, and vow'd virginity.
And oh! I wish, contented with my cares
Of favage fpoils, he had not fought the wars:
Then had the been of my celestial train;
And fhunn'd the fate that dooms her to be flain.
But fince, oppofing heaven's decree, she goes
To find her death among forbidden foes;
Hafte with these arms, and take thy steepy flight,
Where, with the gods adverfe, the Latins fight:
This bow to thee, this quiver, I bequeath,
This chofen arrow to revenge her death:
By whate'er hand Camilla shall be slain,
Or of the Trojan, or Italian train,
Let him not pass unpunish'd from the plain.
Then, în a hollow cloud, myself will aid,
To bear the breathless body of my maid:
Unspoil'd shall be her arms, and unprophan'd 890
Her holy limbs with any human hand :
And in a marble tomb laid in her native land.
She faid: the faithful Nymph defcends from high
With rapid flight, and cuts the founding sky :
Black clouds and ftormy winds around her body fly.
By this, the Trojan and the Tuscan horfe,
Drawn up in fquadrons, with united force,
Approach the walls; the fprightly courfers bound;
Prefs forward on their bitts, and shift their ground:
Shields, arms, and fpears, flash horribly from far;
And the fields glitter with a waving war.
Oppos'd to thefe, come on with furious force
Meffapus, Coras, and the Latian horfe;
Thefe in the body plac'd; on either hand
Sustain'd, and clos'd by fair Camilla's band.
Advancing in a line, they couch their fpears;
And lefs and lefs the middle space appears.
Thick fmoke obfcures the field: and fcarce are feen
The neighing courfers, and the shouting men.
In distance of their darts they stop their course;
Then man to man they rufh, and horfe to, horse.
The face of heaven their flying javelins hide :
And deaths unfeen are dealt on either fide.
Tyrrhenus, and Aconteus, void of fear,
By mettled courfers borne in full career,
Meet first oppos'd: and, with a mighty fhock,
Their horfes heads against each other knock.
Far from his fteed is fierce Aconteus caft;
As with an engine's force, or lightning's blast:
He rolls along in blood, and breathes his laft. 920
The Latin fquadrons take a fudden fright;
And fling their fhields behind, to fave their backs in flight.
Spurring at speed to their own walls they drew ;
Clofe in the rear the Tufcan troops pursue,
And urge their flight; Afylas leads the chace;
Till feiz'd with fhame they wheel about, and face:
Receive their foes, and raise a threatening cry.
The Tufcans take their turn to fear and fly.j
So fwelling furges, with a thundering roar,
Driven on each other's backs, infult the shore;
Bound o'er the rocks, incroach upon the land;
And far upon the beach eject the fand.
Then backward, with a fwing, they take their way; Repuls'd from upper ground, and feek their mother-fea : With equal hurry quit th' invaded fhore;
And swallow back the fand and ftones they fpew'd before.
Twice were the Tufcans mafters of the field,
Twice by the Latins, in their turn, repell’d.
Afham'd at length, to the third charge they ran,
Both hofts refolv'd, and mingled man to man:
Now dying groans are heard, the fields are ftrow'd
With falling bodies, and are drunk with blood:
Arms, horses, men, on heaps together lie:
'Confus'd the fight, and more confus'd the cry.
*Orfilochus, who durft not prefs too near
Strong Remulus, at diftance drove his spear;
And ftruck the steel beneath his horfe's ear.
The fiery fteed, impatient of the wound,
Gurvets, and, fpringing upward with a bound,
His hopeless lord caft backward on the ground. 950
Catillus pierc'd Iolas firft; then drew
His reeking lance, and at Herminius threw :
The mighty champion of the Tufcan crew.
His neck and throat unarm'd, his head was bare,
But shaded with a length of yellow hair;
Secure, he fought, expos'd on every part,
A fpacious mark for fwords, and for the flying dart: Across the shoulders caine the feather'd wound'; Transfix'd, he fell, and doubled to the ground.
The fands with ftreaming blood are fanguine dy'd; And death with honour fought on either fide.
Refiftless, through the war, Camilla rode;
In danger unappall'd, and pleas'd with blood.
One fide was bare for her exerted breast;
One shoulder with her painted quiver press'd.
Now from afar her fatal javelins play ;
Now with her axe's edge the hews her way;
Diana's arms upon her shoulder sound ;
And when, too closely press'd, the quits the ground,
From her bent bow fhe fends a backward wound.
Her maids, in martial pomp, on either fide,
Larina, Tulla, fierce Tarpeia ride;
Italians all in peace, their queen's delight:
In war, the bold companions of the fight.
So march'd the Thracian Amazons of old,
When Thermodon with bloody billows roll'd;
Such troops as these in shining arms were feen,
When Thefeus met in fight their maiden queen.
Such to the field Penthefilea led,
From the fierce virgin when the Grecians fled :
With fuch, return'd triumphant from the war;
Her maids with cries attend the lofty car:
They clash with manly force their moony fhields :
With female-fhouts refound the Phrygian fields.
Who foremost, and who laft, heroic maid,
On the cold earth were by thy courage laid?
Thy spear, of mountain-afh, Eumenius firft,
With fury driven, from fide to fide transpierc'd;
A purple stream came spouting from the wound; Bath'd in his blood he lies, and bites the ground. 99. Lyris and Pegasus at once she slew;
The former, as the flacken'd reins he drew,
Of his faint fteed: the latter, as he stretch'd
His arm to prop his friend, the javelin reach'd,
By the fame weapon, fent from the fame hand,
Both fall together, and both spurn the sand.
Amaftrus next is added to the flain:
The reft in rout the follows o'er the plain :
Tereus, Harpalicus, Demophoon,
And Chromys, at full speed her fury fhun.
Of all her deadly darts, not one the loft;
Each was attended with a Trojan ghost.
Young Ornithus beftrode a hunter fteed,
Swift for the chace, and of Apulian breed:
Him, from afar, she spy'd in arms unknown ;
O'er his broad back an ox's hide was thrown:
His helm a wolf, whofe gaping jaws were fpread
A covering for his cheeks, and grinn'd around his head. He clench'd within his hand an iron-prong;
And tower'd above the reft, confpicuous in the throng. Him foon the fingled from the flying train,
And flew with eafe: then thus infults the flain.
Vain hunter, didst thou think through woods to chace
The favage herd, a vile and trembling race?
Here ceafe thy vaunts, and own my vi&tory;
A woman-warrior was too strong for thee.
Yet if the ghofts demand the conqueror's name,
Confeffing great Camilla, fave thy fhame.
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