But when they came unto the house, "Beneath these doors of mine
Conquering Alcides went," he said; "this king's house took him in.
Have heart to scorn world's wealth, O guest, and strive thou too to win
A godhead's worth: take thou no scorn of our unrich estate."
He spake, and 'neath the narrow roof Æneas' body great
He led withal, and set him down; and such a bed was there
As 'twas of leaves, and overlaid with skin of Libyan bear.
Night falleth, and its dusky wings spreads o'er the face of earth,
When Venus, fearful in her soul (nor less than fear 'twas worth),370
Sore troubled by Laurentine threats and all the tumult dread,
Bespeaketh Vulcan, as she lay upon his golden bed,
And holiness of very love amidst her words she bore:
"When Argive kings were wasting Troy predestined with their war,
Were wracking towers foredoomed to fall mid flames of hating men,
No help of thine for hapless ones, no arms I asked for then,
Wrought by thy craft and mastery: nor would I have thee spend
Thy labour, O beloved spouse, to win no happy end;
Though many things to Priam's house meseemeth did I owe,
And oftentimes I needs must weep Æneas' pain and woe.380
But now that he by Jove's command Rutulian shores hath won,
I am thy suppliant, asking arms, a mother for her son,
Praying thy godhead's holiness: time was when Nereus' seed,
Tithonus' wife, with many tears could bend thee to thy need.
Look round, what peoples gather now; what cities shut within
Their barrèd gates are whetting sword to slay me and my kin."
She spake: with snowy arms of God she fondled him about,
And wound him in her soft embrace, while yet he hung in doubt:
Sudden the wonted fire struck home; unto his inmost drew
The old familiar heat, and all his melting bones ran through:390
No otherwise than whiles it is when rolls the thunder loud,
And gleaming of the fiery rent breaks up the world of cloud.
In glory of her loveliness she felt her guile had gained.
Then spake the Father, overcome by Love that ne'er hath waned:
"Why fish thy reasons from the deep? where is thy trust in me,
I prithee, O my God and Love? Had such wish weighed on thee,
Then, also, had it been my part to arm the Teucrian hand,
Nor had the Almighty Sire nor Fate forbidden Troy to stand,
And Priam might have held it out another ten years yet.
And now if thou wouldst wage the war, if thus thy soul is set,400
Thy longing shall have whatsoe'er this craft of mine may lend;
Whatever in iron may be done, or silver-golden blend;
Whatever wind and fire may do: I prithee pray no more,
But trust the glory of thy might."
So when his words wore o'er
He gave the enfolding that she would, and shed upon her breast
He lay, and over all his limbs he drew the sleepy rest.
But when the midmost night was worn, and slumber, past its prime,
Had faded out, in sooth it was that woman's rising-time,
Who needs must prop her life with rock and slender mastery409
That Pallas gives: she wakes the ash and flames that smouldering lie,
And, adding night unto her toil, driveth her maids to win
Long task before its kindled light, that she may keep from sin
Her bride-bed; that her little ones well waxen-up may be.
Not otherwise that Might of Fire, no sluggard more than she,
To win his art and handicraft from that soft bed arose.
Upon the flank of Sicily there hangs an island close
To Lipari of Æolus, with shear-hewn smoky steep;
Beneath it thunder caves and dens Ætnæan, eaten deep
With forges of the Cyclops: thence men hear the anvils cry
'Neath mighty strokes, and through the cave the hissing sparkles fly420
From iron of the Chalybes, and pants the forge with flame.
The house is Vulcan's, and the land Vulcania hath to name.
Thither the Master of the Fire went down from upper air,
Where Cyclop folk in mighty den were forging iron gear;
Pyracmon of the naked limbs, Brontes and Steropes.
A thunderbolt half-fashioned yet was in the hands of these,
Part-wrought, suchwise as many an one the Father casts on earth
From all the heaven, but otherwhere unfinished from the birth,
Three rays they wrought of writhen storm, three of the watery wrack;
Nor do the three of ruddy flame nor windy winging lack:430
And now the work of fearful flash, and roar, and dread they won,
And blent amid their craftsmanship the flame that followeth on.
But otherwhere they dight the wain and wingèd wheels of Mars,
Wherewith the men and walls of men he waketh up to wars.
There angry Pallas's arms they wrought and Ægis full of fear,
And set the gold and serpent scales, and did with mighty care
The knitted adders, and for breast of very God did deck
The Gorgon rolling eyen still above her severed neck.
"Do all away," he said, "lay by the labour so far done;
Cyclops of Ætna, turn your minds to this one thing alone:440
Arms for a great man must be wrought; betake ye to your might;
Betake ye to your nimble hands and all your mastery's sleight,
And hurry tarrying into haste."
No more he spake: all they
Fall swift to work and portion out the labour of the day:
The brazen rivers run about with metal of the gold,
And soft the Chalyb bane-master flows in the forges' hold.
A mighty shield they set on foot to match all weapons held
By Latin men, and sevenfold ring on ring about it weld.
Meanwhile, in windy bellows' womb some in the breezes take
And give them forth, some dip the brass all hissing in the lake,450
And all the cavern is agroan with strokes on anvil laid.
There turn and turn about betwixt, with plenteous might to aid,
They rear their arms; with grip of tongs they turn the iron o'er.
But while the Lemnian Father thus speeds on the Æolean shore
The lovely light Evander stirs amid his lowly house,
And morning song of eave-dwellers from sleep the king doth rouse.
Riseth that ancient man of days and on his kirtle does,
And both his feet he binds about with bonds of Tyrrhene shoes;
Then Tegeæan sword he girds to shoulder and to side,
And on the left he flings aback the cloak of panther-hide.460
Moreover, from the threshold step goes either watchful ward,
Two dogs to wit, that follow close the footsteps of their lord.
So to the chamber of his guest the hero goes his way,
Well mindful of his spoken word and that well-promised stay.
Nor less Æneas was afoot betimes that morning-tide,
And Pallas and Achates went each one their lord beside.
So met, they join their right hands there and in the house sit down,
And win the joy of spoken words, that lawful now hath grown;
And thuswise speaks Evander first:
"O mightiest duke of Trojan men,—for surely, thou being safe,470
My heart may never more believe in Troy-town's vanquishing,—
The battle-help that I may give is but a little thing
For such a name: by Tuscan stream on this side are we bound;
On that side come Rutulian arms to gird our walls with sound.
But 'tis my rede to join to you a mighty folk of fight,
A wealthy lordship: chance unhoped this hope for us hath dight;
So draw thou thither whereunto the Fates are calling on.
Not far hence is a place of men, on rock of yore agone
Built up; Agylla's city 'tis, where glorious folk of war,
The Lydian folk, on Tuscan hills pitched their abode of yore.480
A many years of blooming once they had, until the king
Mezentius held them 'neath his pride and cruel warfaring.
Why tell those deaths unspeakable, and many a tyrant's deed?
May the Gods store them for the heads of him and all his seed!
Yea, yea, dead corpses would he join to bodies living yet,
And hand to hand, O misery! and mouth to mouth would set;
There, drenched with gore and drenched with dew of death, must they abide,
A foul embrace unspeakable, and long and long they died.
Worn out at last, his folk in arms beset his house about,
And him therein all mad with rage, cut off his following rout,490
And cast the wildfire therewithal over his roof on high:
But he, amidst the slaughter slipped, to fields of Rutuli
Made shift to flee, and there is held a guest by Turnus' sword.
So by just anger raised today Etruria is abroad,
Crying with Mars to aid, 'Give back the king to pay the cost!'
Æneas, I will make thee now the captain of their host:
For down the whole coast goes the roar from out their ship-host's pack;
They cry to bear the banners forth; but them still holdeth back
The ancient seer, thus singing Fate: Mæonia's chosen peers,
The heart and flower of men of old, whom grief's just measure bears500
Against the foe; souls that your king hath stirred to righteous wrath,
No man of Italy is meet to lead this army forth;
Seek outland captains. Then, indeed, the Tuscan war array,
Feared by such warnings of the Gods, amidst these meadows lay.
Tarchon himself hath hither sent sweet speakers, bearing me
Their lordships' kingly staff and crown, and signs of royalty;
And bidding take the Tuscan land and join their camp of war.
But eld adull with winter frost and spent with days of yore,
My body over-old for deeds begrudged such government.
I would have stirred my son, but he, with Sabine mother blent,510
Shared blood of this Italian land: but thee the Fates endow
With years and race full meet hereto; the Gods call on thee now.
Go forth, O captain valorous of Italy and Troy.
Yea, I will give thee Pallas here, my hope and darling joy,
And bid him 'neath thy mastery learn in battle to be bold,
And win the heavy work of Mars, and all thy deeds behold;
And, wondering at thy valiancy, win through his earliest years.
Two hundred knights of Arcady, the bloom of all it bears,
I give thee; in his own name, too, like host shall Pallas bring."
Scarce had he said, and still their gaze unto the earth did cling,520
Æneas of Anchises born and his Achates true,
For many thoughts of matters hard their minds were running through,
When Cytherea gave a sign amid the open sky;
For from the left a flash of light went quivering suddenly,
And sound went with it, and all things in utter turmoil fared,
And clangour of the Tyrrhene trump along the heavens blared.
They look up; ever and anon a mighty clash they hear,
And gleams they see betwixt the clouds, amid the sky-land clear,
The glitter of the arms of God, the thunder of their clang.