ever forward on the wing, as far as the eyes of the travellers
can keep them in view. Then when they come to Avernus’
noisome jaws, swiftly they soar aloft, and gliding through
the clear sky, settle twain on the same tree, their chosen
seat, whence there flashed through the branches the contrasted 15
gleam of gold. Even as in the woods, in the cold of
midwinter, the mistletoe is wont to put forth new leaves, a
vegetable growth, but of no parent tree, and with its
yellow produce to surround the tapering boles, so looked
the leafy gold among the holm-oak’s dark shade—so in the 20