As when amidst the summer-tide he gains the wished-for breeze,
The shepherd sets the sparkled flame amid the thicket trees,
The wood's heart catches suddenly, the flames spread into one,
And fearful o'er the meadows wide doth Vulcan's army run,
While o'er the flames the victor sits and on their joy looks down.
No less the valour of thy folk unto a head was grown410
To help thee, Pallas: but behold, Halesus, fierce in field,
Turns on the foe, and gathers him 'neath cover of his shield.
Ladon, Pheres, Demodocus, all these he slaughtered there;
With gleaming sword he lopped the hand Strymonius did uprear
Against his throat: in Thoas' face withal a stone he sent,
And drave apart the riven bones with blood and brains all blent
Halesus' sire, the wise of Fate, in woods had hidden him;
But when that elder's whitening eyes at last in death did swim,
Fate took Halesus, hallowing him to King Evander's blade:
For Pallas aimeth at him now, when such wise he had prayed:420
"O Father Tiber, grant this spear, that herewithal I shake,
Through hard Halesus' breast forthwith a happy way may take;
So shall thine oak-tree have the arms, the warrior's battle-spoil."
The God heard: while Halesus shields Imaon in the broil,
To that Arcadian shaft he gives his luckless body bared.
But nought would Lausus, lord of war, let all his host be scared,
E'en at the death of such a man: first Abas doth he slay,
Who faces him, the very knot and holdfast of the play.
Then fall Arcadia's sons to field; felled is Etruria's host,
And ye, O Teucrian bodies, erst by Grecian death unlost.430
Then meet the hosts with lords well-matched and equal battle-might;
The outskirts of the battle close, nor 'mid the press of fight
May hand or spear move: busy now is Pallas on this side,
Lausus on that; nor is the space between their ages wide,
Those noble bodies: and both they were clean forbid of Fate
Return unto their lands: but he who rules Olympus great
Would nowise suffer them to meet themselves to end the play,
The doom of each from mightier foe abideth each today.
But Turnus' sister warneth him to succour Lausus' war,
The gracious Goddess: straight he cleaves the battle in his car,440
And when he sees his folk, cries out: "'Tis time to leave the fight!
Lone against Pallas do I fare, Pallas is mine of right;
I would his sire himself were here to look upon the field."
He spake, and from the space forbid his fellow-folk did yield,
But when the Rutuli were gone, at such a word of pride
Amazed, the youth on Turnus stares, and lets his gaze go wide
O'er the huge frame, and from afar with stern eyes meets it all,
And 'gainst the words the tyrant spake such words from him there fall:
"Now shall I win me praise of men for spoiling of a King,
Or for a glorious death: my sire may outface either thing:450
Forbear thy threats."
He spake, and straight amid the war-field drew;
But cold in that Arcadian folk therewith the heart-blood grew;
While Turnus from his war-wain leapt to go afoot to fight:
And as a lion sees afar from off his watch burg's height
A bull at gaze amid the mead with battle in his thought,
And flies thereto, so was the shape of coming Turnus wrought.
But now, when Pallas deemed him come within the cast of spear,
He would be first, if Fate perchance should help him swift to dare,
And his less might, and thus he speaks unto the boundless sky:
"Now by my father's guesting-tide and board thou drew'st anigh,460
A stranger, O Alcides, help this great deed I begin!
His bloody gear from limbs half-dead let Turnus see me win;
And on the dying eyes of him be victor's image pressed."
Alcides heard the youth, and 'neath the inmost of his breast
He thrust aback a heavy groan, and empty tears he shed:
But to his son in kindly wise such words the Father said:
"His own day bideth every man; short space that none may mend
Is each man's life: but yet by deeds wide-spreading fame to send,
Man's valour hath this work to do: 'neath Troy's high-builded wall
How many sons of God there died: yea there he died withal,470
Sarpedon my own progeny. Yea too and Turnus' Fates
Are calling him: he draweth nigh his life's departing-gates."
He spake and turned his eyes away from fields of Rutuli:
But Pallas with great gathered strength the spear from him let fly,
And drew therewith from hollow sheath his sword all eager-bright.
The spear flew gleaming where the arms rise o'er the shoulder's height,
Smote home, and won its way at last through the shield's outer rim,
And Turnus' mighty body reached and grazed the flesh of him.
Long Turnus shook the oak that bore the bitter iron head,
Then cast at Pallas, and withal a word he cast and said:480
"Let see now if this shaft of mine may better win a pass!"
He spake; for all its iron skin and all its plates of brass,
For all the swathing of bull-hides that round about it went,
The quivering spear smote through the shield and through its midmost rent
And through the mailcoat's staying fence the mighty breast did gain.
Then at the spear his heart-blood warmed did Pallas clutch in vain;
By one way and the same his blood and life, away they fare;
But down upon the wound he rolled, and o'er him clashed his gear,
And dying there his bloody mouth sought out the foeman's sod:
Whom Turnus overstrides and says:490
"Hearken Arcadians, bear ye back Evander words well learned:
Pallas I send him back again, dealt with as he hath earned,
If there be honour in a tomb, or solace in the earth,
I grudge it not—Ænean guests shall cost him things of worth."