The Aeneid Part 30

"'T is not for naught," cried Volscens from the crowd, "These men go there;" then rais'd his voice aloud: "Stand! stand! why thus in arms? And whither bent?

From whence, to whom, and on what errand sent?"

Silent they scud away, and haste their flight To neighb'ring woods, and trust themselves to night.

The speedy horse all pa.s.sages belay, And spur their smoking steeds to cross their way, And watch each entrance of the winding wood.

Black was the forest: thick with beech it stood, Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn; Few paths of human feet, or tracks of beasts, were worn.

The darkness of the shades, his heavy prey, And fear, misled the younger from his way.

But Nisus. .h.i.t the turns with happier haste, And, thoughtless of his friend, the forest pa.s.s'd, And Alban plains, from Alba's name so call'd, Where King Latinus then his oxen stall'd; Till, turning at the length, he stood his ground, And miss'd his friend, and cast his eyes around: "Ah wretch!" he cried, "where have I left behind Th' unhappy youth? where shall I hope to find?

Or what way take?" Again he ventures back, And treads the mazes of his former track.

He winds the wood, and, list'ning, hears the noise Of tramping coursers, and the riders' voice.

The sound approach'd; and suddenly he view'd The foes inclosing, and his friend pursued, Forelaid and taken, while he strove in vain The shelter of the friendly shades to gain.

What should he next attempt? what arms employ, What fruitless force, to free the captive boy?

Or desperate should he rush and lose his life, With odds oppress'd, in such unequal strife?

Resolv'd at length, his pointed spear he shook; And, casting on the moon a mournful look: "Guardian of groves, and G.o.ddess of the night, Fair queen," he said, "direct my dart aright.

If e'er my pious father, for my sake, Did grateful off'rings on thy altars make, Or I increas'd them with my sylvan toils, And hung thy holy roofs with savage spoils, Give me to scatter these." Then from his ear He pois'd, and aim'd, and launch'd the trembling spear.

The deadly weapon, hissing from the grove, Impetuous on the back of Sulmo drove; Pierc'd his thin armor, drank his vital blood, And in his body left the broken wood.

He staggers round; his eyeb.a.l.l.s roll in death, And with short sobs he gasps away his breath.

All stand amaz'd- a second jav'lin flies With equal strength, and quivers thro' the skies.

This thro' thy temples, Tagus, forc'd the way, And in the brainpan warmly buried lay.

Fierce Volscens foams with rage, and, gazing round, Descried not him who gave the fatal wound, Nor knew to fix revenge: "But thou," he cries, "Shalt pay for both," and at the pris'ner flies With his drawn sword. Then, struck with deep despair, That cruel sight the lover could not bear; But from his covert rush'd in open view, And sent his voice before him as he flew: "Me! me!" he cried- "turn all your swords alone On me- the fact confess'd, the fault my own.

He neither could nor durst, the guiltless youth: Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth!

His only crime (if friendship can offend) Is too much love to his unhappy friend."

Too late he speaks: the sword, which fury guides, Driv'n with full force, had pierc'd his tender sides.

Down fell the beauteous youth: the yawning wound Gush'd out a purple stream, and stain'd the ground.

His snowy neck reclines upon his breast, Like a fair flow'r by the keen share oppress'd; Like a white poppy sinking on the plain, Whose heavy head is overcharg'd with rain.

Despair, and rage, and vengeance justly vow'd, Drove Nisus headlong on the hostile crowd.

Volscens he seeks; on him alone he bends: Borne back and bor'd by his surrounding friends, Onward he press'd, and kept him still in sight; Then whirl'd aloft his sword with all his might: Th' unerring steel descended while he spoke, Piered his wide mouth, and thro' his weazon broke.

Dying, he slew; and, stagg'ring on the plain, With swimming eyes he sought his lover slain; Then quiet on his bleeding bosom fell, Content, in death, to be reveng'd so well.

O happy friends! for, if my verse can give Immortal life, your fame shall ever live, Fix'd as the Capitol's foundation lies, And spread, where'er the Roman eagle flies!

The conqu'ring party first divide the prey, Then their slain leader to the camp convey.

With wonder, as they went, the troops were fill'd, To see such numbers whom so few had kill'd.

Serra.n.u.s, Rhamnes, and the rest, they found: Vast crowds the dying and the dead surround; And the yet reeking blood o'erflows the ground.

All knew the helmet which Messapus lost, But mourn'd a purchase that so dear had cost.

Now rose the ruddy morn from t.i.thon's bed, And with the dawn of day the skies o'erspread; Nor long the sun his daily course withheld, But added colors to the world reveal'd: When early Turnus, wak'ning with the light, All clad in armor, calls his troops to fight.

His martial men with fierce harangue he fir'd, And his own ardor in their souls inspir'd.

This done- to give new terror to his foes, The heads of Nisus and his friend he shows, Rais'd high on pointed spears- a ghastly sight: Loud peals of shouts ensue, and barbarous delight.

Meantime the Trojans run, where danger calls; They line their trenches, and they man their walls.

In front extended to the left they stood; Safe was the right, surrounded by the flood.

But, casting from their tow'rs a frightful view, They saw the faces, which too well they knew, Tho' then disguis'd in death, and smear'd all o'er With filth obscene, and dropping putrid gore.

Soon hasty fame thro' the sad city bears The mournful message to the mother's ears.

An icy cold benumbs her limbs; she shakes; Her cheeks the blood, her hand the web forsakes.

She runs the rampires round amidst the war, Nor fears the flying darts; she rends her hair, And fills with loud laments the liquid air.

"Thus, then, my lov'd Euryalus appears!

Thus looks the prop my declining years!

Was't on this face my famish'd eyes I fed?

Ah! how unlike the living is the dead!

And could'st thou leave me, cruel, thus alone?

Not one kind kiss from a departing son!

No look, no last adieu before he went, In an ill-boding hour to slaughter sent!

Cold on the ground, and pressing foreign clay, To Latian dogs and fowls he lies a prey!

Nor was I near to close his dying eyes, To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies, To call about his corpse his crying friends, Or spread the mantle (made for other ends) On his dear body, which I wove with care, Nor did my daily pains or nightly labor spare.

Where shall I find his corpse? what earth sustains His trunk dismember'd, and his cold remains?

For this, alas! I left my needful ease, Expos'd my life to winds and winter seas!

If any pity touch Rutulian hearts, Here empty all your quivers, all your darts; Or, if they fail, thou, Jove, conclude my woe, And send me thunderstruck to shades below!"

Her shrieks and clamors pierce the Trojans' ears, Unman their courage, and augment their fears; Nor young Ascanius could the sight sustain, Nor old Ilioneus his tears restrain, But Actor and Idaeus jointly sent, To bear the madding mother to her tent.

And now the trumpets terribly, from far, With rattling clangor, rouse the sleepy war.

The soldiers' shouts succeed the brazen sounds; And heav'n, from pole to pole, the noise rebounds.

The Volscians bear their shields upon their head, And, rushing forward, form a moving shed.

These fill the ditch; those pull the bulwarks down: Some raise the ladders; others scale the town.

But, where void s.p.a.ces on the walls appear, Or thin defense, they pour their forces there.

With poles and missive weapons, from afar, The Trojans keep aloof the rising war.

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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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 s.n.a.t.c.hes 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 f.a.gots 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.