Now some dig dykes before the gate, or carry stones and stakes,
And bloody token of the war the shattering trump awakes.
Mothers and lads, a motley guard, they crown the threatened wall,
For this last tide of grief and care hath voice to cry for all.
Moreover to the temple-stead, to Pallas' house on high,
The Queen goes forth hedged all about by matron company,
And bearing gifts: next unto whom, the cause of all this woe,
With lovely eyes cast down to earth, doth maid Lavinia go.480
They enter and with frankincense becloud the temple o'er,
And cast their woeful voices forth from out the high-built door:
"O Weapon-great Tritonian Maid, O front of war-array,
Break thou the Phrygian robber's sword, and prone his body lay
On this our earth; cast him adown beneath our gates high-reared!"
Now eager Turnus for the war his body did begird:
The ruddy-gleaming coat of mail upon his breast he did,
And roughened him with brazen scales; with gold his legs he hid;
With brow yet bare, unto his side he girt the sword of fight,
And all a glittering golden man ran down the castle's height.490
High leaps his heart, his hope runs forth the foeman's host to face:
As steed, when broken are the bonds, fleeth the stabling place,
Set free at last, and, having won the unfenced open mead,
Now runneth to the grassy grounds wherein the mare-kind feed;
Or, wont to water, speedeth him in well-known stream to wash,
And, wantoning, with uptossed head about the world doth dash,
While wave his mane-locks o'er his neck, and o'er his shoulders play.
But, leading on the Volscian host, there comes across his way
Camilla now, who by the gate leapt from her steed adown,
And in likewise her company, who left their horses lone,500
And earthward streamed: therewith the Queen such words as this gave forth:
"Turnus, if any heart may trust in manly might and worth,
I dare to promise I will meet Æneas' war array,
And face the Tyrrhene knights alone, and deal them battle-play.
Let my hand be the first to try the perils of the fight,
The while the foot-men townward bide, and hold the walls aright."
Then Turnus answered, with his eyes fixed on the awful maid:
"O glory of Italian land, how shall the thanks be paid
Worthy thy part? but since all this thy great soul overflies,
To portion out our work today with me indeed it lies.510
Æneas, as our spies sent out and rumour saith for sure,
The guileful one, his light-armed horse hath now sent on before
To sweep the lea-land, while himself, high on the hilly ground,
Across the desert mountain-necks on for our walls is bound.
But I a snare now dight for him in woodland hollow way
Besetting so the straitened pass with weaponed war-array.
But bear thy banners forth afield to meet the Tyrrhene horse,
With fierce Messapus joined to thee, the Latin battle-force,
Yea, and Tiburtus: thou thyself the leader's care shalt take."
So saith he, and with such-like words unto the war doth wake520
Messapus and his brother-lords; then 'gainst the foeman fares.
There was a dale of winding ways, most meet for warlike snares
And lurking swords: with press of leaves the mountain bent is black
That shutteth it on either side: thence leads a scanty track;
By strait-jawed pass men come thereto, a very evil road:
But thereabove, upon the height, lieth a plain abode,
A mountain-heath scarce known of men, a most safe lurking-place,
Whether to right hand or to left the battle ye will face,
Or hold the heights, and roll a storm of mighty rocks adown.
Thither the war-lord wends his way by country road well known,530
And takes the place, and bideth there within the wood accursed.
Meanwhile within the heavenly house Diana speaketh first
To Opis of the holy band, the maiden fellowship,
And words of grief most sorrowful Latonia's mouth let slip:
"Unto the bitter-cruel war the maid Camilla wends,
O maid: and all for nought indeed that dearest of my friends
Is girding her with arms of mine."
Nought new-born was the love
Diana owned, nor sudden-sweet the soul in her did move:
When Metabus, by hatred driven, and his o'erweening pride,
Fled from Privernum's ancient town, his fathers' country-side,540
Companion of his exile there, amid the weapon-game,
A babe he had with him, whom he called from her mother's name
Casmilla, but a little changed, and now Camilla grown.
He, bearing her upon his breast, the woody ridges lone
Went seeking, while on every side the sword-edge was about,
And all around were scouring wide the weaponed Volscian rout.
But big lay Amasenus now athwart his very road,
Foaming bank-high, such mighty rain from out of heaven had flowed.
There, as he dight him to swim o'er, love of his babe, and fear
For burden borne so well-beloved, his footsteps back did bear.550
At last, as all things o'er he turned, this sudden rede he took:
The huge spear that in mighty hand by hap the warrior shook,
A close-knit shaft of seasoned oak with many a knot therein,
Thereto did he his daughter bind, wrapped in the cork-tree's skin,
And to the middle of the beam he tied her craftily;
Then, shaking it in mighty hand, thus spoke unto the sky:
"O kind, O dweller in the woods, Latonian Virgin fair,
A father giveth thee a maid, who holds thine arms in air
As from the foe she flees to thee: O Goddess, take thine own,
That now upon the doubtful winds by this mine arm is thrown!"560
He spake, and from his drawn-back arm cast forth the brandished wood;
Sounded the waves; Camilla flew across the hurrying flood,
A lorn thing bound to whistling shaft, and o'er the river won.
But Metabus, with all the band of chasers pressing on,
Unto the river gives himself, and reaches maid and spear,
And, conquering, from the grassy bank Diana's gift doth tear.
To roof and wall there took him thence no city of the land,
Nay, he himself, a wild-wood thing, to none had given the hand;
Upon the shepherd's lonely hills his life thenceforth he led;
His daughter mid the forest-brake, and wild deers' thicket-stead,570
He nourished on the milk that flowed from herd-mare's untamed breast,
And to the maiden's tender lips the wild thing's udder pressed;
Then from the first of days when she might go upon her feet,
The heft of heavy sharpened dart her hand must learn to meet,
And from the little maiden's back he hung the shaft and bow;
While for the golden hair-clasp fine and long-drawn mantle's flow
Down from her head, along her back, a tiger's fell there hung.
E'en then too from her tender hand a childish shot she flung,
The sling with slender smoothened thong she drave about her head
To bring the crane of Strymon down, or lay the white swan dead.580
Then many a mother all about the Tyrrhene towns in vain
Would wed her to their sons; but she, a maid without a stain,
Alone in Dian's happiness the spear for ever loved,
For ever loved the maiden life.
—"O had she ne'er been moved
By such a war, nor dared to cross the Teucrian folk in fight!
Then had she been a maid of mine, my fellow and delight.
But since the bitterness of fate lies round her life and me,
Glide down, O maiden, from the pole, and find the Latin lea,
Where now, with evil tokens toward, sad battle they awake;
Take these, and that avenging shaft from out the quiver take,590
Wherewith whoso shall wrong with wound my holy-bodied may,
Be he of Troy or Italy, see thou his blood doth pay:
And then will I her limbs bewept, unspoiled of any gear,
Wrap in a hollow cloud, and lay in kindred sepulchre."
She spoke; the other slipped adown the lightsome air of heaven,
With wrapping cloak of mirky cloud about her body driven.