Latinus now; just as it was budding into youth, the branch

was cut off. The sole maintainer of the race, the sole

guardian of that princely house, was a daughter, already 25

ripe for wedlock, already arrived at full-blown womanhood.

Many were her wooers from mighty Latium, nay, from all

Ausonia. One wooer there was in beauty passing others,

Turnus,[241] strong in the glory of sires and grandsires: his alliance

the queen with intense yearning was seeking to compass; 30

but heavenly portents bar the way with manifold

alarm. There was a laurel in the middle of the palace, in the