Resolved on death, resolved to die in arms,
But first to gather friends, with them to oppose
(If fortune favored) and repel the foes.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.
At the door, as he was going forth to join the combat, he met the Trojan Pan'thus, a priest of Apollo, who had just escaped by flight from the swords of the Greeks. In reply to the questions of AEneas, the priest told him, in words of grief and despair, that Troy's last day had come.
"'Tis come, our fated day of death.
We have been Trojans; Troy has been;
She sat, but sits no more, a queen;
Stern Jove an Argive rule proclaims;
Greece holds a city wrapt in flames.
There in the bosom of the town
The tall horse rains invasion down,
And Sinon, with a conqueror's pride,
Deals fiery havoc far and wide.
Some keep the gates, as vast a host
As ever left Myce'nae's coast;
Some block the narrows of the street,
With weapons threatening all they meet;
The stark sword stretches o'er the way,
Quick-glancing, ready drawn to slay,
While scarce our sentinels resist,
And battle in the flickering mist."
CONINGTON, AEneid, BOOK II.
As Panthus ceased speaking, several Trojan chiefs came up, and eagerly joined AEneas in resolving to make a last desperate attempt to save their native city. Together they rushed into the thick of the fight. Some were slain, and some with Aeneas succeeded in forcing their way to the palace of King Priam, where a fierce struggle was then raging. Entering by a secret door, AEneas climbed to the roof, from which he and the other brave defenders of the palace hurled stones and beams of wood upon the enemy below. But all their heroic efforts were in vain. In front of the principal gate, battering upon it with his huge battle-axe, stood Neoptolemus (also called Pyr'rhus) the son of Achilles. Soon its posts, though plated with bronze, gave way before his mighty strokes, and a great breach was made, through which the Greeks poured into the stately halls of the Trojan king. Then there was a scene of wild confusion and terror.
The house is filled with loud laments and cries
And shrieks of women rend the vaulted skies.
DRYDEN, AEneid BOOK II.
The aged king when he saw that the enemy was beneath his roof, put on his armor "long disused," and was about to rush forth to meet the foe, but Hec'u-ba, his queen, persuaded him to take refuge with her in a court of the palace in which were placed the altars of their gods. Here he was shortly afterwards cruelly slain by Pyrrhus.
Thus Priam fell, and shared one common fate
With Troy in ashes, and his ruined state;
He, who the scepter of all Asia swayed,
Whom monarchs like domestic slaves obeyed.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.
There being now no hope to save the city, the thoughts of AEneas turned to his own home where he had left his father Anchises, his wife Cre-u'sa (daughter of King Priam) and his son Iulus (also named As-ca'ni-us). Making his way thither with the purpose of providing for their safety, he espied Helen, the "common scourge of Greece and Troy," sitting in the porch of the temple of the goddess Ves'ta. Enraged at the sight of the woman who had been the cause of so many woes to his country, AEneas was about to slay her on the spot, but at that moment his mother Venus appeared to him in the midst of a bright light.
Great in her charms, as when on gods above
She looks, and breathes herself into their love.
DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK II.
Taking the hero by the hand as he was in the act of raising his sword to strike Helen, the goddess thus rebuked him: "What is it that excites your anger now, my son? Where is your regard for me? Have you forgotten your father Anchises and your wife and little son? They would have been killed by the Greeks if I had not cared for them and saved them. It is not Helen or Paris that has laid low this great city of Troy, but the wrath of the gods. See now, for I will take away the mist that covers your mortal eyes; see how Neptune with his trident is overthrowing the walls and rooting up the city from its foundations; and how Juno stands with spear and shield in the Scae'an Gate, and calls fresh hosts from the ships; and how Pallas sits on the height with the storm-cloud about her; and how Father Jupiter himself stirs up the enemy against Troy. Fly, therefore, my son. I myself will guard you till you stand before your father's door."