spurring their horses, charge as with battering-rams the 5
portals and their stubborn barriers. Nay, the very matrons
on the walls in the intensity of the struggle, prompted
by true patriot spirit at sight of Camilla, fling darts from
their quivering hands, and make hard oak-stakes and
seared truncheons do the work of steel, hot and headlong, 10
and fain would be the first to die for their city.
Meantime the cruel news floods Turnus’ ears in his forest-ambush,
as Acca tells the warrior her tale of mighty terror:
the Volscian ranks destroyed, Camilla slain, the enemy