Their various arms afford a pleasing fight:
A peaceful train they feem, in peace prepar'd for fight.
Betwixt the ranks the proud commanders ride,
Glittering with gold, and vests in purple dy'd.
Here Mneftheus, author of the Memmian line,
And there Meflapus born of feed divine.
The fign is given, and round the lifted space
Each man in order fills his proper place.
Reclining on their ample fhields, they ftand;
And fix their pointed lances in the fand.
Now, ftudious of the fight, a numerous throng
Of either sex promifcuous, old and young,
Swarm from the town: by those who rest behind,
The gates and walls, and houses tops are lin'd.
Mean time the queen of heaven beheld the fight,
With eyes unpleas'd, from Mount Albano's height: 205
(Since call'd Albano, by fucceeding fame,
But then an empty hill, without a name.)
She thence furvey'd the field, the Trojan powers,
The Latian fquadrons, and Laurentine towers.
Then thus the goddess of the skies bespake,
With fighs and tears, the goddess of the lake;
King Turnus' fifter, once a lovely maid,
Ere to the luft of lawless Jove betray'd,
Comprefs'd by force, but by the grateful god,
Now made the Naïs of the neighbouring flood.
O nymph, the pride of living lakes, faid she,
O most renown'd, and most belov'd by me,
Long haft thou known, nor need I to record
The wanton fallies of my wandering lord:
Of every Latian fair, whom Jove misled,
To mount by stealth my violated bed,
To thee alone I grudg'd not his embrace;
But
gave a part of heaven, and an unenvy'd place.
Now learn from me, thy near approaching grief,
Nor think my wishes want to thy relief.
While fortune favour'd, nor heaven's king deny'd,
To lend my fuccour to the Latian fide,
I fav'd thy brother, and the sinking state;
But now he struggles with unequal fate;
And goes with gods averfe, o'ermatch'd in might,
To meet inevitable death in fight:
Nor muft I break the truce, nor can fuftain the fight.
Thou, if thou dar'ft, thy prefent aid supply;
It well becomes a fifter's care to try.
At this the lovely nymph, with grief opprefs'd, 235 Thrice tore her hair, and beat her comely breast. To whom Saturnia thus; Thy tears are late:
Hafte, fnatch him, if he can be fnatch'd, from fate.
New tumults kindle, violate the truce;
Who knows what changeful fortune may produce? 240
'Tis not a crime t'atttempt what I decree,
Or if it were, discharge the crime on me.
She faid, and, failing on the winged wind,
Left the fad nymph fufpended in her mind.
And now in pomp the peaceful kings appear: 245 Four steeds the chariot of Latinus bear: Twelve golden beams around his temples play, To mark his lineage from the god of day.
Two fnowy courfers Turnus' chariot yoke,
And in his hand two maffy spears he shook :
Then iffued from the camp, in arms divine,
Ancas, author of the Roman line:
And by his fide Afcanius took his place,
The fecond hope of Rome's immortal race.
Adorn'd in white, a reverend priest appears;
And offerings to the flaming altars bears
A porket, and a lamb, that never fuffer'd fhears,
Then to the rifing fun he turns his eyes,
And fhews the beafts defign'd for facrifice,
With falt and meal with like officious care
He marks their foreheads, and he clips their hair.
Betwixt their horns the purple wine he sheds,
With the fame generous juice the flame he feeds.
Æneas then unfheath'd his fhining sword,
And thus with pious prayers the gods ador'd :
All-feeing fun, and thou Aufonian foil,
For which I have fuftain'd fo long a toil,
Thou king of heaven, and thou the queen of air,
(Propitious now, and reconcil'd by prayer,)
Thou god of war, whose unrefifted sway
The labours and events of arms obey;
Ye living fountains, and ye running floods,
All powers of ocean, all ethereal gods,
Hear, and bear record: if I fall in field,
Or recreant in the fight, to Turnus yield,
My Trojans fhall increase Evander's town ;
Afcanius fhall renounce th' Aufonian crown:
All claims, all queftions of debate shall cease;
Nor he, nor they, with force infringe the peace.
But if my jufter arms prevail in fight
As fure they fhall, if I divine aright,
My Trojans fhall not o'er th' Italians reign ;
Both equal, both unconquer'd, fhall remain :
Join'd in their laws, their lands, and their abodes;...
I ask but altars for my weary gods.
The care of those religious rites be mine:
The crown to king Latinus I refign;
His be the fovereign fway. Nor will I share
His power in peace, or his command in war.
For me, my friends another town shall frame,
And blefs the rifing towers, with fair Lavinia's name. Thus he. Then, with erected eyes and hands,
The Latian king before his altar ftands.
By the fame heaven, faid he, and earth, and main,
And all the powers, that all the three contain;
By hell below, and by that upper god,
Whofe thunder figns the peace, who feals it with his
So let Latona's double offspring hear,
And double-fronted Janus what I fwear:
I touch the facred altars, touch the flames,
And all thofe powers atteft, and all their names :
Whatever chance befal on either fide,
No term of time this union fhall divide:
No force, no fortune, fhall my vows unbind,
Or fhake the ftedfaft tenour of iny mind:
Not though the circling feas should break their bound,
O'erflow the shores, or fap the folid ground;
Not though the lamps of heaven their spheres forfake,
Hurl'd down, and hissing in the nether lake:-
Ev'n as this royal fceptre (for he bore
A fceptre in his hand) fhall never more
Shoot out in branches, or renew the birth;
(An orphan now, cut from the mother earth
By the keen axe, dishonour'd of its hair,
And cas'd in brass, for Latian kings to bear).
When thus-in public view the peace was ty'd
With folemn vows, and sworn on either fide,
All dues perform'd which holy rites require;
The victim beafts are flain before the fire:
The trembling entrails from their bodies torn,
And to the fatten'd flames in chargers borne.
Already the Rutulians deem their man O'ermatch'd in arms, before the fight began. First rising fears are whisper'd through the crowd; Then, gathering found, they murmur more aloud. 325 Now fide to fide, they measure with their eyes The champions bulk, their finews, and their fize: The nearer they approach, the more is known Th' apparent disadvantage of their own. Turnus himself appears in public sight Conscious of fate, defponding of the fight. Slowly he moves; and at his altar ftands With eyes dejected, and with trembling hands : And, while he mutters undistinguish'd prayers, A livid deadness in his cheeks appears.
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