The war being now begun, both the generals make all possible preparations. Turnus sends to Diomedes. Eneas goes in person to beg succors from Evander and the Tuscans. Evander receives him kindly, furnishes him with men, and sends his son Pallas with him. Vulcan, at the request of Venus, makes arms for her son Æneas, and draws on his shield the most memorable actions of his posterity.

WHEN Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs, His standard planted on Laurentum's tow'rs; When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar, Had giv'n the signal of approaching war, Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the fields,

While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields;

Trembling with rage, the Latian youth prepare

To join th' allies, and headlong rush to war. Fierce Ufens, and Messapus, led the crowd, With bold Mezentius, who blasphem'd aloud.

These thro' the country took their wasteful course,

The fields to forage, and to gather force.
Then Venulus to Diomede they send,
To beg his aid Ausonia to defend,
Declare the common danger, and inform
The Grecian leader of the growing storm:
Eneas, landed on the Latian coast,
With banish'd gods, and with a baffled host,
Yet now aspir'd to conquest of the state, 19
And claim'd a title from the gods and fate;
What num'rous nations in his quarrel came,
And how they spread his formidable name.
What he design'd, what mischief might
arise,

If fortune favor'd his first enterprise,

Was left for him to weigh, whose equal fears, And common interest, was involv'd in theirs.

While Turnus and th' allies thus urge the war,

The Trojan, floating in a flood of care, Beholds the tempest which his foes prepare. This way and that he turns his anxious mind;

30

Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd;
Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part,
And gives no rest to his distracted heart.
So, when the sun by day, or moon by night,
Strike on the polish'd brass their trembling
light,

The glitt ring species here and there divide, And cast their dubious beams from side to side;

Now on the walls, now on the pavement play,

And to the ceiling flash the glaring day.

'T was night; and weary nature lull'd asleep

The birds of air, and fishes of the deep, And beasts, and mortal men. The Trojan

chief

Was laid on Tiber's banks, oppress'd with

grief,

40

But the fierce Latians old possession claim,
With war infesting the new colony.
These make thy friends, and on their aid
rely.

To thy free passage I submit my streams. Wake, son of Venus, from thy pleasing dreams;

And, when the setting stars are lost in day, To Juno's pow'r thy just devotion pay; 80 With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease: Her pride at length shall fall, her fury cease. When thou return'st victorious from the war,

Perform thy vows to me with grateful care. The god am I, whose yellow water flows Around these fields, and fattens as it goes: Tiber my name; among the rolling floods Renown'd on earth, esteem'd among the gods. This is my certain seat. In times to come, My waves shall wash the walls of mighty Rome."

90

Her well-fed offspring at her udders hung; She white herself, and white her thirty young.

Eneas takes the mother and her brood,
And all on Juno's altar are bestow'd.

The foll'wing night, and the succeeding day,

Propitious Tiber smooth'd his wat'ry way: He roll'd his river back, and pois'd he stood, A gentle swelling, and a peaceful flood. 120 The Trojans mount their ships; they put from shore,

Borne on the waves, and scarcely dip an oar. Shouts from the land give omen to their

'T was on a solemn day: th' Arcadian states, The king and prince, without the city gates, Then paid their off'rings in a sacred grove To Hercules, the warrior son of Jove. Thick clouds of rolling smoke involve the

skies,

And fat of entrails on his altar fries.

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The youth replies: "Whatever you require, Your fame exacts. Upon our shores descend,

A welcome guest, and, what you wish, a friend."

He said, and, downward hasting to the strand,

Embrac'd the stranger prince, and join'd his hand.

Conducted to the grove, Æneas broke The silence first, and thus the king bespoke: "Best of the Greeks, to whom, by fate's command,

I bear these peaceful branches in my hand, Undaunted I approach you, tho' I know 170 Your birth is Grecian, and your land my

foe;

From Atreus tho' your ancient lineage came, And both the brother kings your kindred claim;

Yet, my self-conscious worth, your high re

nown,

Your virtue, thro' the neighb'ring nations

blown,

Our fathers' mingled blood, Apollo's voice, Have led me hither, less by need than choice. Our founder Dardanus, as fame has sung, And Greeks acknowledge, from Electra sprung:

The victor troops from universal sway? Then will they stretch their pow'r athwart the land,

And either sea from side to side command.
Receive our offer'd faith, and give us thine;
Ours is a gen'rous and experienc'd line:
We want not hearts nor bodies for the war;
In council cautious, and in fields we dare."
He said; and while he spoke, with pierc-

201

ing eyes Evander view'd the man with vast surprise, Pleas'd with his action, ravish'd with his face:

Then answer'd briefly, with a royal grace:
"O valiant leader of the Trojan line,
In whom the features of thy father shine,
How I recall Anchises! how I see
His motions, mien, and all my friend, in
thee !

Long tho' it be, 't is fresh within my mind,
When Priam to his sister's court design'd
A welcome visit, with a friendly stay,
And thro' th' Arcadian kingdom took his

way.

211

And, with a loving force, to Pheneus brought.

He gave me, when at length constrain'd to go,

A Lycian quiver and a Gnossian bow,
A vest embroider'd, glorious to behold,
And two rich bridles, with their bits of
gold,

Which my son's coursers in obedience hold.

The league you ask, I offer, as your right; And, when to-morrow's sun reveals the light,

With swift supplies you shall be sent

230

away. Now celebrate with us this solemn day, Whose holy rites admit no long delay. Honor our annual feast; and take your seat,

With friendly welcome, at a homely treat." Thus having said, the bowls (remov'd for fear)

The youths replac'd, and soon restor❜d the cheer.

On sods of turf he set the soldiers round: A maple throne, rais'd higher from the ground,

Receiv'd the Trojan chief; and, o'er the bed,

A lion's shaggy hide for ornament they spread.

The loaves were serv'd in canisters; the

wine

In bowls; the priest renew'd the rites di

vine:

Broil'd entrails are their food, and beef's continued chine.

240

With bellowings, and the rocks restor❜d the sound.

One heifer, who had heard her love complain,

Roar'd from the cave, and made the project vain.

Alcides found the fraud; with rage he shook, And toss'd about his head his knotted oak. Swift as the winds, or Scythian arrows' flight,

He clomb, with eager haste, th' aërial height. Then first we saw the monster mend his pace;

Fear in his eyes, and paleness in his face, 290 Confess'd the god's approach. Trembling

he springs,

As terror had increas'd his feet with wings; Nor stay'd for stairs; but down the depth he threw

His body, on his back the door he drew