Each leaned upon the lance he well could wield,
And poised with easy arm his ancient shield,
When Nisus and his friend their leave request,
To offer something to their high behest.
With anxious tremors, yet unawed by fear,
The faithful pair before the throne appear:
Iulus greets them; at his kind command,
The elder first addressed the hoary band.

With patience' (thus Hyrtacides began) 'Attend, nor judge, from youth, our humble plan, Where yonder beacons, half expiring, beam, Our slumbering foes of future conquest dream, Nor heed that we a secret path have traced, Between the ocean and the portal placed; Beneath the covert of the blackening smoke,.Whose shade, securely, our design will cloak! If you, ye chiefs, and Fortune, will allow, We'll bend our course to yonder mountain's brow; Where Pallas' walls at distance meet the sight, "Seen o'er the glade, when not obscured by night; Then shall Æneas in his pride return,

While hostile matrons raise their offspring's urn;
And Latian spoils, and purpled heaps of dead,
Shall mark the havoc of our hero's tread :

Such is our purpose, not unknown the way,
Where yonder torrent's devious waters stray;
Oft have we seen, when hunting by the stream,
The distant spires above the valleys gleam.'

Mature in years, for sober wisdom famed,
Moved by the speech, Alethes here exclaimed,
'Ye parent gods! who rule the fate of Troy,
Still dwells the Dardan spirit in the boy!
When minds like these in striplings thus ye raise,
Yours is the godlike act, be yours the praise;
In gallant youth my fainting hopes revive,
And Ilion's wonted glories still survive:'
Then, in his warm embrace, the boys he pressed,
And quivering strained them to his aged breast;
With tears the burning cheek of each bedewed,
And, sobbing, thus his first discourse renewed:-

'What gift, my countrymen, what martial prize,
Can we bestow, which you may not despise ?
Our deities the first best boon have given
Internal virtues are the gift of Heaven.
What poor rewards can bless your deeds on earth,
Doubtless await such young exalted worth;
Eneas and Ascanius shall combine,

To yield applause far, far, surpassing mine,'
Iulus then: By all the powers above!
By those Penates,* who my country love!
By hoary Vesta's sacred fane, I swear,
My hopes are all in you, ye generous pair!
Restore my father to my grateful sight,
And all my sorrows yield to one delight.
Nisus! two silver goblets are thine own,
Saved from Arisba's stately domes o'erthrown
My sire secured them on that fatal day,
Nor left such bowls an Argive robber's prey.
Two massy tripods also shall be thine,
Two talents polished from the glittering mine;
An ancient cup, which Tyrian Dido gave,
While yet our vessels press'd the Punic wave;
But, when the hostile chiefs at length bow down,
When great Æneas wears Hesperia's crown,
The casque, the buckler, and the fiery steed,
Which Turnus guides with more than mortal speed,
Are thine; no envious lot shall then be cast,

I pledge my word, irrevocably past;

Nay more, twelve slaves, and twice six captive dames,
To sooth thy softer hours with amorous flames,
And all the realms which now the Latins sway,
The labours of to-night shall well repay.

But thou, my generous youth, whose tender years
Are near my own, whose worth my heart reveres,
Henceforth affection, sweetly thus begun,
Shall join our bosoms and.our souls in one;
Without thy aid, no glory shall be mine,
Without thy dear advice, no great design;

Household Gods.

Alike through life esteemed, thou godlike boy,
In war my bulwark, and in my peace my joy.'

To him Euryalus, No day shall shame
The rising glories which from this I claim:
Fortune may favour, or the skies may frown,
But valour, spite of fate, obtains renown.
Yet, ere from hence our eager steps depart,
One boon I beg, the nearest to my heart:
My mother, sprung from Priam's royal line,
Like thine ennobled, hardly less divine,
Nor Troy, nor King Acestes' realms, restrain
Her feeble age from dangers of the main;
Alone she came, all selfish fears above,
A bright example of maternal love.
Unknown, the secret enterprise I brave,
Lest grief should bend my parent to the grave;
From this alone no fond adieus I seek,

No fainting mother's lips have pressed my cheek;
By gloomy Night, and thy right hand, I vow,
Her parting tears would shake my purpose now:
Do thou, my prince, her failing age sustain,
In thee her much-loved child may live again;
Her dying hours with pious conduct bless,
Assist her wants, relieve her fond distress:
So dear a hope must all my soul inflame,
To rise in glory, or to fall in fame.'
Struck with a filial care so deeply felt,

In tears at once the Trojan warriors melt;
Faster than all, Iulus' eyes o'erflow,

Such love was his, and such had been his woe.

All thou hast asked, receive,' the prince replied

Nor this alone, but many a gift beside;

To cheer thy mother's years shall be my aim,
Creusa's style but wanting to the dame;
Fortune an adverse wayward course may run,
But blessed thy mother in so dear a son.
Now, by my life, my sire's most sacred oath,
To thee I pledge my full, my firmest troth,

• The mother of Iulus, lost on the night when Troy was taken.

All the rewards which once to thee were vow'd,
If thou shouldst fall, on her shall be bestow'd.'
Thus spoke the weeping prince, then forth to view
A gleaming falchion from the sheath he drew;
Lycaon's utmost skill had graced the steel,
For friends to envy and for foes to feel;
A tawny hide, the Moorish lion's spoil,
Slain 'midst the forest, in the hunter's toil,
Muestheus to guard the elder youth bestows,
And old Alethes' casque defends his brows:
Arm'd, thence they go, while all th' assembled train,
To aid their cause, implore the gods in vain :
More than a boy, in wisdom and in grace,

Iulus holds amidst the chiefs his place;

His prayers he sends, but what can prayers avail,
Lost in the murmurs of the sighing gale ?

The trench is past, and, favour'd by the night,
Through sleeping foes they wheel their wary flight!
When shall the sleep of many a foe be o'er ?
Alas! some slumber who shall wake no more!
Chariots and bridles mix'd with arms are seen,
And flowing flasks and scatter'd troops between;
Bacchus and Mars to rule the camp combine,
A mingled chaos this, of war and wine.

་

'Now,' cries the first, for deeds of blood prepare!
With me the conquest and the labour share;
Here lies our path-lest any hand arise,
Watch thou, while many a dreaming chieftain dies;
I'll carve our passage through the heedless foe,
And clear thy road with many a deadly blow.'
His whispering accents then the youth repress'd,
And pierced proud Rhamnes through his panting breast:
Stretch'd at his ease, the incautious king reposed;
Debauch, and not fatigue, his eyes had closed;
To Turnus dear, a prophet, and a prince,
His omens more than augur's skill evince :
But he, who thus foretold the fate of all,
Could not avert his own untimely fall.
Next Remus' armour-bearer hapless fell,
And three unhappy slaves the carnage swell;

The charioteer, along his courser's sides
Expires, the steel his sever'd neck divides;
And, last, his lord is numbered with the dead
Bounding convulsive flies the gasping head;
From the swollen veins the blackening torrents pour,
Stain'd are the couch and earth with clotting gore.
Young Lamyrus and Lamus next expire,
And gay Serranus, fill'd with youthful fire;
Half the long night in childish games was pass'd-
Lull'd by the potent grape, he slept at last;
Ah! happier far, had he the morn survey'd,
And till Aurora's dawn his skill display'd.

In slaughter'd folds, the keepers lost in sleep,
His hungry fangs a lion thus may steep;
'Mid the sad flock, at dead of night, he prowls,
With murder glutted, and in carnage rolls;
Insatiate still, through teeming herds he roams,
In seas of gore the lordly tyrant foams.

Nor less the other's deadly vengeance came,
But falls on feeble crowds without a name :
His wound unconscious Fadus scarce can feel,
Yet wakeful Rhesus sees the threatening steel;
His coward breast behind a jar he hides,
And vainly in the weak defence confides;
Full in his heart the falchion search'd his veins,
The reeking weapon bears alternate strains;
Through wine and blood, commingling as they flow
The feeble spirit seeks the shades below.

Now, where Messapus dwelt, they bend their way,"
Whose fires emit a faint and trembling ray;
There, unconfined, behold each grazing steed,
Unwatch'd, unheeded, on the herbage feed:
Brave Nisus here arrests his comrade's arm,
Too flush'd with carnage, and with conquest warm':
Hence let us haste, the dangerous path is pass'd,
Full foes enough to-night have breathed their last;
Soon will the day those eastern clouds adorn-
Now let us speed, nor tempt the rising morn.'
What silver arms, with various arts emboss'd,

What bowls and mantles in confusion toss'd,