第56章

All, clad in skins of beasts, the jav'lin bear, Give to the wanton winds their flowing hair, And shrieks and shoutings rend the suff'ring air.

The queen herself, inspir'd with rage divine, Shook high above her head a flaming pine;Then roll'd her haggard eyes around the throng, And sung, in Turnus' name, the nuptial song:

"Io, ye Latian dames! if any here Hold your unhappy queen, Amata, dear;If there be here," she said, who dare maintain My right, nor think the name of mother vain;Unbind your fillets, loose your flowing hair, And orgies and nocturnal rites prepare."Amata's breast the Fury thus invades, And fires with rage, amid the sylvan shades;Then, when she found her venom spread so far, The royal house embroil'd in civil war, Rais'd on her dusky wings, she cleaves the skies, And seeks the palace where young Turnus lies.

His town, as fame reports, was built of old By Danae, pregnant with almighty gold, Who fled her father's rage, and, with a train Of following Argives, thro' the stormy main, Driv'n by the southern blasts, was fated here to reign.

'T was Ardua once; now Ardea's name it bears;Once a fair city, now consum'd with years.

Here, in his lofty palace, Turnus lay, Betwixt the confines of the night and day, Secure in sleep.The Fury laid aside Her looks and limbs, and with new methods tried The foulness of th' infernal form to hide.

Propp'd on a staff, she takes a trembling mien:

Her face is furrow'd, and her front obscene;Deep-dinted wrinkles on her cheek she draws;Sunk are her eyes, and toothless are her jaws;Her hoary hair with holy fillets bound, Her temples with an olive wreath are crown'd.

Old Chalybe, who kept the sacred fane Of Juno, now she seem'd, and thus began, Appearing in a dream, to rouse the careless man:

"Shall Turnus then such endless toil sustain In fighting fields, and conquer towns in vain?

Win, for a Trojan head to wear the prize, Usurp thy crown, enjoy thy victories?

The bride and scepter which thy blood has bought, The king transfers; and foreign heirs are sought.

Go now, deluded man, and seek again New toils, new dangers, on the dusty plain.

Repel the Tuscan foes; their city seize;

Protect the Latians in luxurious ease.

This dream all-pow'rful Juno sends; I bear Her mighty mandates, and her words you hear.

Haste; arm your Ardeans; issue to the plain;With fate to friend, assault the Trojan train:

Their thoughtless chiefs, their painted ships, that lie In Tiber's mouth, with fire and sword destroy.

The Latian king, unless he shall submit, Own his old promise, and his new forget-Let him, in arms, the pow'r of Turnus prove, And learn to fear whom he disdains to love.

For such is Heav'n's command." The youthful prince With scorn replied, and made this bold defense:

"You tell me, mother, what I knew before:

The Phrygian fleet is landed on the shore.

I neither fear nor will provoke the war;

My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.

But time has made you dote, and vainly tell Of arms imagin'd in your lonely cell.

Go; be the temple and the gods your care;Permit to men the thought of peace and war."These haughty words Alecto's rage provoke, And frighted Turnus trembled as she spoke.

Her eyes grow stiffen'd, and with sulphur burn;Her hideous looks and hellish form return;Her curling snakes with hissings fill the place, And open all the furies of her face:

Then, darting fire from her malignant eyes, She cast him backward as he strove to rise, And, ling'ring, sought to frame some new replies.

High on her head she rears two twisted snakes, Her chains she rattles, and her whip she shakes;And, churning bloody foam, thus loudly speaks:

"Behold whom time has made to dote, and tell Of arms imagin'd in her lonely cell!

Behold the Fates' infernal minister!

War, death, destruction, in my hand I bear."Thus having said, her smold'ring torch, impress'd With her full force, she plung'd into his breast.

Aghast he wak'd; and, starting from his bed, Cold sweat, in clammy drops, his limbs o'erspread.

"Arms! arms!" he cries: "my sword and shield prepare!"He breathes defiance, blood, and mortal war.

So, when with crackling flames a caldron fries, The bubbling waters from the bottom rise:

Above the brims they force their fiery way;Black vapors climb aloft, and cloud the day.

The peace polluted thus, a chosen band He first commissions to the Latian land, In threat'ning embassy; then rais'd the rest, To meet in arms th' intruding Trojan guest, To force the foes from the Lavinian shore, And Italy's indanger'd peace restore.

Himself alone an equal match he boasts, To fight the Phrygian and Ausonian hosts.

The gods invok'd, the Rutuli prepare Their arms, and warn each other to the war.

His beauty these, and those his blooming age, The rest his house and his own fame ingage.

While Turnus urges thus his enterprise, The Stygian Fury to the Trojans flies;New frauds invents, and takes a steepy stand, Which overlooks the vale with wide command;Where fair Ascanius and his youthful train, With horns and hounds, a hunting match ordain, And pitch their toils around the shady plain.

The Fury fires the pack; they snuff, they vent, And feed their hungry nostrils with the scent.

'Twas of a well-grown stag, whose antlers rise High o'er his front; his beams invade the skies.

From this light cause th' infernal maid prepares The country churls to mischief, hate, and wars.

The stately beast the two Tyrrhidae bred, Snatch'd from his dams, and the tame youngling fed.

Their father Tyrrheus did his fodder bring, Tyrrheus, chief ranger to the Latian king:

Their sister Silvia cherish'd with her care The little wanton, and did wreaths prepare To hang his budding horns, with ribbons tied His tender neck, and comb'd his silken hide, And bathed his body.Patient of command In time he grew, and, growing us'd to hand, He waited at his master's board for food;Then sought his salvage kindred in the wood, Where grazing all the day, at night he came To his known lodgings, and his country dame.