Then Turnus stripped from the body of Pallas a beautiful belt, embossed with figures carved in gold, and putting it on his own armor, triumphed in the spoil. It proved to be a fatal possession for Turnus.
O mortals! blind in fate who never know
To bear high fortune, or endure the low!
The time shall come when Turnus, but in vain,
Shall wish untouched the trophies of the slain—
Shall wish the fatal belt were far away,
And curse the dire remembrance of the day.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK X.
The body of the brave young prince was laid upon his shield, and borne away from the field of battle, accompanied by a numerous retinue of his sorrowing friends.
O sad, proud thought, that thus a son
Should reach a father's door!
This day beheld your wars begun;
This day beholds them o'er,
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK X.
The news of the fate of Pallas soon reached AEneas, who was deeply distressed at the thought of the sorrow the youth's death would bring upon his aged father Evander. Eager for vengeance, he hastened through the battle field in search of Turnus, slaying many chiefs of the enemy whom he encountered on his way. But he was not yet to meet the Rutulian king face to face, for Juno, by Jupiter's permission, led Turnus off the field, and saved him for a time from the wrath of the Trojan hero. Out of a hollow cloud she fashioned a phantom with the shape, likeness and voice of AEneas, and caused it to appear before Turnus, as if challenging him to combat.
A phantom in AEneas' mould
She fashions, wondrous to behold,
Of hollow shadowy cloud,
Bids it the Dardan arms assume,
The shield, the helmet, and the plume,
Gives soulless words of swelling tone,
And motions like the hero's own,
As stately and as proud.
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK X.
The Rutulian king bravely advanced to attack the supposed Trojan chief, upon which the spectre, wheeling about, hastily retreated towards the river. Turnus followed, loudly upbraiding AEneas as a coward. It happened that at the shore there was a ship, connected with the land by a plank bridge or gangway. Into this ship the phantom fled, closely pursued by Turnus; and no sooner had the latter reached the deck of the vessel than Juno, bursting the cables which held it to the bank, sent it floating down the stream. Then the figure of cloud, soaring aloft, vanished into the air, and Turnus knew that he had been deceived.
He was much distressed at being thus separated from his brave followers, and mortified at the thought that they might think he had deserted them in the hour of danger. In his grief he attempted to destroy his own life with his sword, but Juno restrained him, and the ship, wafted along by favoring wind and tide, bore him to Ardea, the capital city of his own country, where his father, King Daunus, resided.
Meanwhile, on the battle field, the Etrurian king, Mezentius, who had taken the place of Turnus, attacked the Trojans with great fury. He had slain many valiant warriors when AEneas espying him from a distance, hurried forward to encounter him. Mezentius stood firm, and relying on his strong arm and his weapons, rather than on divine aid (being a despiser of the gods) he cast a spear at the Trojan leader. The missile struck the hero's shield, but it was the shield which Vulcan had made, and could not be pierced by earthly weapon. Then AEneas hurled his javelin. Through the triple plates of brass, and the triple bull-hide covering of the Etrurian king's shield it passed, and, lodging in his groin, inflicted a severe, though not fatal, wound. Instantly the Trojan chief rushed, with sword in hand, upon his foe, as, disabled, he was about to withdraw from the conflict. But at this moment young Lausus, the son of Mezentius, sprang forward and received on his sword the blow that had been intended for his father.
The pious youth, resolved on death, below
The lifted sword, springs forth to face the foe;
Protects his parent, and prevents the blow.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK X.