第74章

Taught, by their ten years' siege, defensive fight, They roll down ribs of rocks, an unresisted weight, To break the penthouse with the pond'rous blow, Which yet the patient Volscians undergo:

But could not bear th' unequal combat long;For, where the Trojans find the thickest throng, The ruin falls: their shatter'd shields give way, And their crush'd heads become an easy prey.

They shrink for fear, abated of their rage, Nor longer dare in a blind fight engage;Contented now to gall them from below With darts and slings, and with the distant bow.

Elsewhere Mezentius, terrible to view, A blazing pine within the trenches threw.

But brave Messapus, Neptune's warlike son, Broke down the palisades, the trenches won, And loud for ladders calls, to scale the town.

Calliope, begin! Ye sacred Nine, Inspire your poet in his high design, To sing what slaughter manly Turnus made, What souls he sent below the Stygian shade, What fame the soldiers with their captain share, And the vast circuit of the fatal war;For you in singing martial facts excel;

You best remember, and alone can tell.

There stood a tow'r, amazing to the sight, Built up of beams, and of stupendous height:

Art, and the nature of the place, conspir'd To furnish all the strength that war requir'd.

To level this, the bold Italians join;

The wary Trojans obviate their design;

With weighty stones o'erwhelm their troops below, Shoot thro' the loopholes, and sharp jav'lins throw.

Turnus, the chief, toss'd from his thund'ring hand Against the wooden walls, a flaming brand:

It stuck, the fiery plague; the winds were high;The planks were season'd, and the timber dry.

Contagion caught the posts; it spread along, Scorch'd, and to distance drove the scatter'd throng.

The Trojans fled; the fire pursued amain, Still gath'ring fast upon the trembling train;Till, crowding to the corners of the wall, Down the defense and the defenders fall.

The mighty flaw makes heav'n itself resound:

The dead and dying Trojans strew the ground.

The tow'r, that follow'd on the fallen crew, Whelm'd o'er their heads, and buried whom it slew:

Some stuck upon the darts themselves had sent;All the same equal ruin underwent.

Young Lycus and Helenor only scape;

Sav'd- how, they know not- from the steepy leap.

Helenor, elder of the two: by birth, On one side royal, one a son of earth, Whom to the Lydian king Licymnia bare, And sent her boasted bastard to the war (A privilege which none but freemen share).

Slight were his arms, a sword and silver shield:

No marks of honor charg'd its empty field.

Light as he fell, so light the youth arose, And rising, found himself amidst his foes;Nor flight was left, nor hopes to force his way.

Embolden'd by despair, he stood at bay;

And- like a stag, whom all the troop surrounds Of eager huntsmen and invading hounds-Resolv'd on death, he dissipates his fears, And bounds aloft against the pointed spears:

So dares the youth, secure of death; and throws His dying body on his thickest foes.

But Lycus, swifter of his feet by far, Runs, doubles, winds and turns, amidst the war;Springs to the walls, and leaves his foes behind, And snatches at the beam he first can find;Looks up, and leaps aloft at all the stretch, In hopes the helping hand of some kind friend to reach.

But Turnus follow'd hard his hunted prey (His spear had almost reach'd him in the way, Short of his reins, and scarce a span behind)"Fool!" said the chief, "tho' fleeter than the wind, Couldst thou presume to scape, when I pursue?"He said, and downward by the feet he drew The trembling dastard; at the tug he falls;Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.

Thus on some silver swan, or tim'rous hare, Jove's bird comes sousing down from upper air;Her crooked talons truss the fearful prey:

Then out of sight she soars, and wings her way.

So seizes the grim wolf the tender lamb, In vain lamented by the bleating dam.

Then rushing onward with a barb'rous cry, The troops of Turnus to the combat fly.

The ditch with fagots fill'd, the daring foe Toss'd firebrands to the steepy turrets throw.

Ilioneus, as bold Lucetius came To force the gate, and feed the kindling flame, Roll'd down the fragment of a rock so right, It crush'd him double underneath the weight.

Two more young Liger and Asylas slew:

To bend the bow young Liger better knew;

Asylas best the pointed jav'lin threw.

Brave Caeneus laid Ortygius on the plain;The victor Caeneus was by Turnus slain.

By the same hand, Clonius and Itys fall, Sagar, and Ida, standing on the wall.

From Capys' arms his fate Privernus found:

Hurt by Themilla first-but slight the wound-His shield thrown by, to mitigate the smart, He clapp'd his hand upon the wounded part:

The second shaft came swift and unespied, And pierc'd his hand, and nail'd it to his side, Transfix'd his breathing lungs and beating heart:

The soul came issuing out, and hiss'd against the dart.

The son of Arcens shone amid the rest, In glitt'ring armor and a purple vest, (Fair was his face, his eyes inspiring love,)Bred by his father in the Martian grove, Where the fat altars of Palicus flame, And send in arms to purchase early fame.

Him when he spied from far, the Tuscan king Laid by the lance, and took him to the sling, Thrice whirl'd the thong around his head, and threw:

The heated lead half melted as it flew;

It pierc'd his hollow temples and his brain;The youth came tumbling down, and spurn'd the plain.

Then young Ascanius, who, before this day, Was wont in woods to shoot the savage prey, First bent in martial strife the twanging bow, And exercis'd against a human foe-With this bereft Numanus of his life, Who Turnus' younger sister took to wife.

Proud of his realm, and of his royal bride, Vaunting before his troops, and lengthen'd with a stride, In these insulting terms the Trojans he defied:

"Twice-conquer'd cowards, now your shame is shown-Coop'd up a second time within your town!

Who dare not issue forth in open field, But hold your walls before you for a shield.

Thus threat you war? thus our alliance force?