Answered her son, that swayeth still the stars that rule the earth:
"O mother, whither call'st thou Fate? what wouldst thou have them be?
Shall keels of mortal fashioning gain immortality?
And shall Æneas well assured stray every peril through?
Shall this be right? hath any God the power such things to do?
No less when they have done their work, and safe in Italy
Lie in the haven, which soe'er have overpassed the sea,
And borne the Duke of Dardan men to that Laurentine home,
From such will I take mortal shape, and bid them to become100
Queens of the sea-plain, such as are Doto the Nereus child,
And Galatea, whose bosoms cleave the foaming waters wild."
He spake and swore it by the flood his Stygian Brother rules,
And by its banks that reek with pitch o'er its black whirling pools,
And with the bowing of his head did all Olympus shake.
And now the promised day was come, nor will the Parcæ break
The time fulfilled; when Turnus' threat now bade the Mother heed
That she from those her holy ships should turn the fire at need.
Strange light before the eyes of men shone forth; a mighty cloud
Ran from the dawning down the sky, and there was clashing loud110
Of Ida's hosts, and from the heavens there fell a voice of fear,
That through Rutulia's host and Troy's fulfillèd every ear:
"Make no great haste, O Teucrian men, these ships of mine to save!
Nor arm thereto! for Turnus here shall burn the salt sea wave
Sooner than these, my holy pines. But ye—depart, go free!
The Mother biddeth it: depart, Queens, Goddesses, of sea!"
Straightway the ships brake each the chain that tied them to the bank,
And, as the dolphins dive adown, with plunging beaks they sank
Down to the deeps, from whence, O strange! they come aback once more;
As many brazen beaks as erst stood fast beside the shore,120
So many shapes of maidens now seaward they wend their ways.
Appalled were those Rutulian hearts; yea, feared with all amaze,
Messapus sat mid frighted steeds: the rough-voiced stream grew black;
Yea, Tiberinus from the deep his footsteps drew aback.
But Turnus of the hardy heart, his courage nothing died;
Unmoved he stirs their souls with speech, unmoved he falls to chide:
"These portents seek the Teucrians home; the very Jupiter
Snatches their wonted aid from them, that might not bide to bear
Rutulian fire and sword: henceforth the sea-plain lacketh road
For Teucrian men: their flight is dead, and half the world's abode130
Is reft from them: and earth, forsooth, upon our hands it waits,
With thousands of Italian swords. For me, I fear no Fates:
For if the Phrygians boast them still of answering words of God,
Enough for Venus and the Fates that Teucrian men have trod
The fair Ausonia's fruitful field: and answering fates have I:
A wicked folk with edge of sword to root up utterly,
For stolen wife: this grief hath grieved others than Atreus' sons,
And other folk may run to arms than those Mycenian ones.
—Enough one downfall is, say ye?—Enough had been one sin.
Yea, I had deemed all womankind your hatred well might win.140
—Lo, these are they to whom a wall betwixt the sword and sword,
The little tarrying of a ditch,—such toys the death to ward!—
Give hearts of men! What, saw they not the war-walls of Troy-town,
The fashioning of Neptune's hand, amid the flame sink down?
But ye, my chosen, who is dight with me to break the wall,
That we upon their quaking camp with point and edge may fall?
No need I have of Vulcan's arms or thousand ships at sea
Against these Teucrians; yea, though they should win them presently,
The Tuscan friendship: deeds of dusk and deedless stolen gain
Of that Palladium, and the guards of topmost castle slain,150
Let them not fear: we shall not lurk in horse's dusky womb:
In open day to gird your walls with wildfire is the doom.
Let them not deem they have to put the Danaans to the proof,
Pelasgian lads that Hector's hand for ten years held aloof.
—But come, since all the best of day is well-nigh worn to end,
Joy in our good beginning, friends, and well your bodies tend,
And bide in hope and readiness the coming of the fight."
Therewith Messapus hath the charge with outguards of the night
To keep the gates, and all the town with watch-fires round to ring:
Twice seven are chosen out to hold the town inleaguering160
Of Rutuli: an hundred youths, they follow each of these;
A purple-crested folk that gleam with golden braveries:
They pace the round, they shift the turn, or scattered o'er the grass
Please heart and soul with wine, and turn the empty bowl of brass:
The watch-fires shine around in ring; through sport and sleeplessness
Their warding weareth night away.
The Trojans from their walls of war look down on all these things;
They hold the heights in arms, and search the great gate's fastenings
With hurrying fear; or, spear in hand, gangway to battlement169
They yoke. There Mnestheus urged the work; there hot Serestus went;
They whom Æneas, if perchance the time should call thereto,
Had made first captains of the host, lords of all things to do.
So all the host along the walls the peril shareth out,
Falling to watch, and plays its part in turn and turn about.
Nisus was warder of the gate, the eager under shield,
The son of Hyrtacus, whom erst did huntress Ida yield
Unto Æneas' fellowship, keen with the shaft and spear.
Euryalus, his friend, stood by, than whom none goodlier
Went with Æneas or did on the battle-gear of Troy:
Youth's bloom unshorn was on his cheek, scarce was he but a boy.180
Like love the twain had each for each; in battle side by side
They went; and now as gatewards twain together did abide.
Now Nisus saith: "Doth very God so set the heart on fire,
Euryalus, or doth each man make God of his desire?
My soul is driving me to dare the battle presently,
Or some great deed; nor pleased with peace at quiet will it be.
Thou seest how those Rutulian men trust in their warding keep;
How wide apart the watch-fires shine; how slack with wine and sleep
Men lie along; how far and wide the hush o'er all things lies.
Note now what stirreth in my mind, what thoughts in me arise:190
They bid call back Æneas now, fathers, and folk, and all,
And send out men to bear to him sure word of what doth fall.
Now if the thing I ask for thee they promise,—for to me
The deed's fame is enough,—meseems beneath yon mound I see
A way whereby to Pallanteum in little space to come."