Again I thought on my forsaken wife,
And trembled for my son's abandon'd life.
I look'd about, but found myself alone,
Deserted at my need!-My friends were gone.
Some spent with toil, some with despair oppress'd, Leap'd headlong from the heights; the flames con
Thus wand'ring in my way without a guide,
The graceless Helen in the porch I spied
Of Vesta's temple; there she lurk'd alone;
Muffled she sat, and, what she could, unknown:
But, by the flames that cast their blaze around,
That common bane of Greece and Troy I found.
For Ilium burnt, she dreads the Trojan sword, 780
More dreads the vengeance of her injured lord;
Ev'n by those gods, who refuged her, abhorr'd.
Trembling with rage, the strumpet 1 regard,
Resolved to give her guilt the due reward.
'Shall she triumphant sail before the wind,
And leave in flames unhappy Troy behind?
Shall she her kingdom and her friends review
In state attended with a captive crew,
While unrevenged the good old Priam falls,
And Grecian fires consume the Trojan walls?
For this the Phrygian fields and Xanthian flood
Were sweil'd with bodies, and were drunk with
"Tis true, a soldier can small honour gain,
And boast no conquest from a woman slain:
Yet shall the fact not pass without applause,
Of vengeance taken in so just a cause.
The punish'd crime shall set my soul at ease,
And murm'ring manes of my friends appease.
Thus while I rave, a gleam of pleasing light
• Spread o'er the place; and, shining heav'nly bright, My mother stood reveal'd before my sight(Never so radiant did her eyes appear; Not her own star confess'd a light so clear)—
Great in her charms, as when on gods above
She looks, and breathes herself into their love. 805
She held my hand, the destined blow to break;
Then from her rosy lips began to speak:
My son from whence this madness, this neglect Of my commands, and those whom I protect? Why this unmanly rage? Recall to mind Whom you forsake, what pledges leave behind. Look if your helpless father yet survive, Or if Ascanius or Creüsa live.
Around your house the greedy Grecians err;
And these had perish'd in the nightly war,
But for my presence and protecting care.
Not Helen's face, nor Paris, was in fault:
But by the gods was this destruction brought.
Now cast your eyes around, while I dissolve
The mists and films that mortal eyes involve,
Purge from your sight the dross, and make you
The shape of each avenging deity.
Enlighten'd thus, my just commands fulfil,
Nor fear obedience to your mother's will.
Where yon disorder'd heap of ruin lies,
Stones rent from stones,-where clouds of dust arise,―
Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place,
Below the wall's foundation drives his mace,
And heaves the building from the solid base.
Look where, in arms, imperial Juno stands
Full in the Scaan gate, with loud commands
Urging on shore the tardy Grecian bands.
See! Pallas, of her snaky buckler proud,
Bestrides the tow'r, refulgent through the cloud:
See! Jove new courage to the foe supplies,
And arms against the town the partial deities.
Haste hence, my son! this fruitless labour end:
Haste, where your trembling spouse and sire attend:
Haste! and a mother's care your passage shall
befriend.'
She said, and swiftly vanish'd from my sight,
Obscure in clouds, and gloomy shades of night
I look'd, I listen'd: dreadful sounds I hear;
And the dire forms of hostile gods appear.
Troy sunk in flames I saw (nor could prevent),
And Ilium from its old foundations rent-
Rent like a mountain-ash, which dared the winds,
And stood the sturdy strokes of lab'ring hinds.
About the roots the cruel axe resounds;
The stumps are pierced with oft-repeated wounds:
The war is felt on high: the nodding crown 850
Now threats a fall, and throws the leafy honours
down.
To their united force it yields, though late,
And mourns with mortal groans th' approaching fate:
The roots no more their upper load sustain:
But down she falls, and spreads a ruin through the plain.
Descending thence, I 'scape through foes and fire:
Before the goddess foes and flames retire.
Arrived at home, he, for whose only sake,
Or most for his, such toils I undertake-
The good Anchises-whom, by timely flight,
I purposed to secure on Ida's height-
Refused the journey, resolute to die,
And add his fun'rals to the fate of Troy,
Rather than exile and old age sustain.
‘Go you, whose blood runs warm in ev'ry vein. 865
Had heav'n decreed that I should life enjoy,
Heav'n had decreed to save unhappy Troy.
'Tis sure enough, if not too much, for one,
Twice to have seen our Ilium overthrown.
Make haste to save the poor remaining crew; 870
And give this useless corpse a long adieu.
These weak old hands suffice to stop my breath:
At least the pitying foes will aid my death,
To take my spoils, and leave my body bare :
As for my sepulchre, let heav'n take care.
'Tis long since I, for my celestial wife,
Loathed by the gods, have dragg'd a ling'ring life;
Since ev'ry hour and moment I expire,
Blasted from heav'n by Jove's avenging fire.'
This oft repeated, he stood fix'd to die:
Myself, my wife, my son, my family,
Entreat, pray, beg, and raise a doleful cry-
'What! will he still persist, on death resolve,
And in his ruin all his house involve?'
He still persists his reasons to maintain;
Our pray❜rs, our tears, our loud laments are vain. Urged by despair, again I go to try
The fate of arms, resolved in fight to die.
What hope remains, but what my death must give? 'Can I without so dear a father live?
You term it prudence what I baseness call:
Could such a word from such a parent fall?
If Fortune please, and so the gods ordain,
That nothing should of ruin'd Troy remain,
And you conspire with Fortune to be slain:
The way to death is wide, th' approaches near:
For soon relentless Pyrrhus will appear,
Reeking with Priam's blood-the wretch who slew
The son (inhuman) in the father's view,
And then the sire himself to the dire altar drew. 900
O goddess-mother! give me back to fate;
Your gift was undesired, and came too late.
Did you, for this, unhappy me convey
Through foes and fires, to see my house a prey?
Shall I my father, wife, and son behold,
Welt'ring in blood, each other's arms infold?
Haste! gird my sword, though spent, and over.
'Tis the last summons to receive our doom.
I hear thee, Fate! and I obey thy call!
Not unrevenged the foe shall see my fall.
Restore me to the yet unfinish'd fight:
My death is wanting to conclude the night.'
Arm'd once again, my glitt'ring sword I wield,
While th' other hand sustains my weighty shield;
And forth I rush to seek th' abandon'd field.
I went; but sad Creüsa stopp'd my way,
And 'cross the threshold in my passage lay,
Embraced my knees, and, when I would have gone,
Show'd me my feeble sire and tender son.
'If death be your design-at least,' said she, 920 Take us along, to share your destiny.
If any further hopes in arms remain,
This place, these pledges of your love maintain.
To whom do you expose your father's life,
Your son's, and mine, your now forgotten wife?' 925
While thus she fills the house with clam'rous cries,
Our hearing is diverted by our eyes:
For, while I held my son, in the short space
Between our kisses and our last embrace,
(Strange to relate !) from young Iulus' head
À lambent flame arose, which gently spread
Around his brows, and on his temples fed.
Amazed, with running water we prepare
To quench the sacred fire, and slake his hair;
But old Anchises, versed in omens, rear'd
His hands to heav'n, and this request preferr❜d:
'If any vows, almighty Jove, can bend
Thy will-if piety can pray'rs commend-
Confirm the glad presage which thou art pleased to send.'
Scarce had he said, when, on our left, we hear 940
A peal of rattling thunder roll in air:
There shot a streaming lamp along the sky,
Which on the winged lightning seem'd to fly :
From o'er the roof the blaze began to move,
And, trailing, vanish'd in th' Idæan grove.
It swept a path in heav'n, and shone a guide,
Then in a steaming stench of sulphur died.
The good old man with suppliant hands implored The gods' protection, and their star adored.
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