第79章

Think on whose faith th' adult'rous youth relied;Who promis'd, who procur'd, the Spartan bride?

When all th' united states of Greece combin'd, To purge the world of the perfidious kind, Then was your time to fear the Trojan fate:

Your quarrels and complaints are now too late."Thus Juno.Murmurs rise, with mix'd applause, Just as they favor or dislike the cause.

So winds, when yet unfledg'd in woods they lie, In whispers first their tender voices try, Then issue on the main with bellowing rage, And storms to trembling mariners presage.

Then thus to both replied th' imperial god, Who shakes heav'n's axles with his awful nod.

(When he begins, the silent senate stand With rev'rence, list'ning to the dread command:

The clouds dispel; the winds their breath restrain;And the hush'd waves lie flatted on the main.)"Celestials, your attentive ears incline!

Since," said the god, "the Trojans must not join In wish'd alliance with the Latian line;Since endless jarrings and immortal hate Tend but to discompose our happy state;The war henceforward be resign'd to fate:

Each to his proper fortune stand or fall;Equal and unconcern'd I look on all.

Rutulians, Trojans, are the same to me;

And both shall draw the lots their fates decree.

Let these assault, if Fortune be their friend;And, if she favors those, let those defend:

The Fates will find their way." The Thund'rer said, And shook the sacred honors of his head, Attesting Styx, th' inviolable flood, And the black regions of his brother god.

Trembled the poles of heav'n, and earth confess'd the nod.

This end the sessions had: the senate rise, And to his palace wait their sov'reign thro' the skies.

Meantime, intent upon their siege, the foes Within their walls the Trojan host inclose:

They wound, they kill, they watch at ev'ry gate;Renew the fires, and urge their happy fate.

Th' Aeneans wish in vain their wanted chief, Hopeless of flight, more hopeless of relief.

Thin on the tow'rs they stand; and ev'n those few A feeble, fainting, and dejected crew.

Yet in the face of danger some there stood:

The two bold brothers of Sarpedon's blood, Asius and Acmon; both th' Assaraci;Young Haemon, and tho' young, resolv'd to die.

With these were Clarus and Thymoetes join'd;Tibris and Castor, both of Lycian kind.

From Acmon's hands a rolling stone there came, So large, it half deserv'd a mountain's name:

Strong-sinew'd was the youth, and big of bone;His brother Mnestheus could not more have done, Or the great father of th' intrepid son.

Some firebrands throw, some flights of arrows send;And some with darts, and some with stones defend.

Amid the press appears the beauteous boy, The care of Venus, and the hope of Troy.

His lovely face unarm'd, his head was bare;In ringlets o'er his shoulders hung his hair.

His forehead circled with a diadem;

Distinguish'd from the crowd, he shines a gem, Enchas'd in gold, or polish'd iv'ry set, Amidst the meaner foil of sable jet.

Nor Ismarus was wanting to the war, Directing pointed arrows from afar, And death with poison arm'd- in Lydia born, Where plenteous harvests the fat fields adorn;Where proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands, And leaves a rich manure of golden sands.

There Capys, author of the Capuan name, And there was Mnestheus too, increas'd in fame, Since Turnus from the camp he cast with shame.

Thus mortal war was wag'd on either side.

Meantime the hero cuts the nightly tide:

For, anxious, from Evander when he went, He sought the Tyrrhene camp, and Tarchon's tent;Expos'd the cause of coming to the chief;His name and country told, and ask'd relief;Propos'd the terms; his own small strength declar'd;What vengeance proud Mezentius had prepar'd:

What Turnus, bold and violent, design'd;

Then shew'd the slipp'ry state of humankind, And fickle fortune; warn'd him to beware, And to his wholesome counsel added pray'r.

Tarchon, without delay, the treaty signs, And to the Trojan troops the Tuscan joins.

They soon set sail; nor now the fates withstand;Their forces trusted with a foreign hand.

Aeneas leads; upon his stern appear Two lions carv'd, which rising Ida bear-Ida, to wand'ring Trojans ever dear.

Under their grateful shade Aeneas sate, Revolving war's events, and various fate.

His left young Pallas kept, fix'd to his side, And oft of winds enquir'd, and of the tide;Oft of the stars, and of their wat'ry way;And what he suffer'd both by land and sea.

Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring!

The Tuscan leaders, and their army sing, Which follow'd great Aeneas to the war:

Their arms, their numbers, and their names declare.

A thousand youths brave Massicus obey, Borne in the Tiger thro' the foaming sea;From Asium brought, and Cosa, by his care:

For arms, light quivers, bows and shafts, they bear.

Fierce Abas next: his men bright armor wore;His stern Apollo's golden statue bore.

Six hundred Populonia sent along, All skill'd in martial exercise, and strong.

Three hundred more for battle Ilva joins, An isle renown'd for steel, and unexhausted mines.

Asylas on his prow the third appears, Who heav'n interprets, and the wand'ring stars;From offer'd entrails prodigies expounds, And peals of thunder, with presaging sounds.

A thousand spears in warlike order stand, Sent by the Pisans under his command.

Fair Astur follows in the wat'ry field, Proud of his manag'd horse and painted shield.

Gravisca, noisome from the neighb'ring fen, And his own Caere, sent three hundred men;With those which Minio's fields and Pyrgi gave, All bred in arms, unanimous, and brave.

Thou, Muse, the name of Cinyras renew, And brave Cupavo follow'd but by few;Whose helm confess'd the lineage of the man, And bore, with wings display'd, a silver swan.

Love was the fault of his fam'd ancestry, Whose forms and fortunes in his ensigns fly.

For Cycnus lov'd unhappy Phaeton, And sung his loss in poplar groves, alone, Beneath the sister shades, to soothe his grief.