Then Clausus came, who led a num'rous band

Of troops imbodied from the Sabine land,
And, in himself alone, an army brought.
'T was he the noble Claudian race begot,
The Claudian race, ordain'd, in times to
come,

To share the greatness of imperial Rome.
He led the Cures forth of old renown
Mutuscans from their olive-bearing town,
And all th' Eretrian pow'rs; besides a band
That follow'd from Velinum's dewy land,
And Amiternian troops, of mighty fame,
And mountaineers, that from Severus came,
And from the craggy cliffs of Tetrica,
And those where yellow Tyber takes his way,
And where Himella's wanton waters play.
Casperia sends her arms, with those that lie
By Fabaris, and fruitful Foruli:

The warlike aids of Horta next appear,
And the cold Nursians come to close the rear,
Mix'd with the natives borne of Latine blood
Whom Allia washes with her fatal flood.
Not thicker billows beat the Libyan main,
When pale Orion sets in wintry rain,
Nor thicker harvest on rich Hermus rise,
Or Lycian fields, when Phoebus burns the skies,
Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring
around;

Their trampling turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.

High in his chariot then Halesus came, A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name: From Agamemnon born-to Turnus' aid, A thousand men the youthful hero led, Who till the Massic soil, for wine renown'd, And fierce Auruncans from their hilly ground; And those who live by Sidicinian shores, And where with shoaly fords Vulturnus roars; Cales' and Osca's old inhabitants, And rough Saticulans, inur'd to wants. Light demi-lances from afar they throw, Fasten'a with leathern thongs, to gall the foe. Short crooked swords in closer fight they wear And on their warding arm light bucklers bear. Nor Ebalus, shalt thou be left unsung From nymph Sebad old Telon sprung.

Who then in Teloboan Capri reign'd;
But that short isle th' ambitious youth disdain'd,
And o'er Campania stretch'd his ample sway,
Where swelling Sarnus seeks the Tyrrhene

sea

O'er Batulum, and where Abella sees,
From her high tow'rs, the harvest of her trees.
And these (as was the Teuton use of old)
Wield brazen swords, and brazen bucklers hold:
Sling weighty stones when from afar they fight;
Their casques are cork, a cov'ring thick and
light.

Next these in rank, the warlike Ufens went,
And led the mountain troops that Nursia sent.
The rude Equiculæ his rule obey'd;
Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their
trade.

In arms they plough'd, to battle still prepar'd: Their soil was barren, and their hearts were hard.

Umbro the priest, the proud Marrubians led, By king Archippus sent to Turnus' aid; And peaceful olives crown'd his hoary head. His wand and holy words, the viper's rage, And venom'd wounds of serpents could assuage. He, when he pleas'd with powerful juice to steep

Their temples, shut their eyes in pleasing sleep.

But vain were Martian herbs, and magic art,
To cure the wound giv'n by the Dardan dart
Yet this untimely fate, th' Angitian woods
In sighs remurmur'd to the Fucine floods.
The son of fam'd Hippolytus was there,
Fam'd as his sire, and, as his mother fair;
Whom in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And nurs'd his youth along the marshy shore,
Where great Diana's peaceful altars flame,
In fruitful fields; and Virbius was his name
Hippolytus, as old records have said,
Was by his stepdame sought to share her bed:
But, when no female arts his mind could move,
She turn❜d to furious hate her impious love.
Torn by wild horses on the sandy shore,
Another's crime th' unhappy hunter bore;
Glutting his father's eyes with guiltless gore.
But Chaste Diana, who his death deplor'd,
With Esculapian herbs his life restor❜d:
When Jove, who saw from high, with just dis-
dain,

The dead inspir'd with vital breath again,
Struck to the centre, with his flaming dart.
Th' unhappy founder of the godlike art.
But Trivia kept in secret shades alone,
Her cure, Hippolytus, to fate unknown
And call'd him Verbius, in th' Egerian grove,
Where then he liv'd secure but safe from

Jove.

For this, from Trivia's temple and her wood, Are coursers driv'n, who shed their master's blood,

Affrighted by the monsters of the flood.
His son, the second Virbius, yet retain'd
His father's art, and warrior steeds he rein'd.

Amid the troops, and like the leading god, High o'er the rest in arms, the graceful Turnus rode :

A triple pile of plumes his crest adorn'd,
On which, with belching fames, Chimæra
burn'd:

The more the kindled combat rises higher,
The more with fury burns the blazing fire.
Fair Iō grac'd his shield; but Iō now
With horns exalted stands, and seems
low-

to

A noble charge! Her keeper by her side,
To watch her walks, her hundred eyes ap-
plied;

And on the brims, her sire, the wat❜ry god,
Roll'd from his silver urn his crystal flood.
A cloud of foot succeeds, and fills the fields
With swords, and pointed spears, and clat-
t'ring shields;

Of Argive, and of old Sicanian bands,
And those who plough the rich Rutulian lands;
Auruncan youth, and those Sacrana yields,
And the proud Lubicans, with painted shields,
And those who near Numician streams re-
side,

And those whom Tibur's holy forests hide,
Or Circe's hills from the main land divide,
Where Ufens glides along the lowly lands,
Or the black water of Pomptina stands.

Last from the Volscians fair Camilla came,
And led her warlike troops, a warrior dame:
Unbred to spinning, in the loom unskill'd,
She chose the nobler Pallas of the field.
Mix'd with the first, the fierce virago fought,
Sustain'd the toils of arms, the dangers sought;
Outstripp'd the winds in speed upon the plain,
Flew o'er the field, nor hurt the bearded
grain:

She swept the seas, and, as she skimm'd along,

Her flying feet, unbath'd, on billows hung.
Men, boys, and women, stupid with surprise,
Where'er she passes fix their wond'ring eyes:
Longing they look, and gaping at the sight,
Devour her o'er and o'er with vast delight;
Her purple habit sits with such a grace
On her smooth shoulders, and so suits her
face:

Her head with ringlets of her hair is crown'd;
And in a golden caul the curls are bound.
She shakes her myrtle jav'lin; and, behind
Her Lycian quiver dances in the wind.

BOOK VIIL

ARGUMENT.

The war being now begun, both the generals make all possible preparations. Turnus sends to Diomedes. Eneas goes in person to beg succours from Evander and the Tuscans. Evander receives him kindly, furnishes him with men, and sends his son Pallas with him. Vulcan, at the request of Venus, makes arms for her son Eneas, and draws on his shield the most memorable actions of his posterity.

WHEN Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs,
His standard planted on Laurentum's tow'rs,
When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar
Had giv'n the signal of approaching war,
Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the
fields,

While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields,
Trembling with rage, the Latian youth prepare
To join th' allies, and headlong rush to war.
Fierce Ufens, and Messapus led the crowd,
With bold Mezentius, who blasphem'd aloud.
These through the country took their wasteful

course,

The fields to forage, and to gather force.
Then Venelus to Diomede they send,
To beg his aid, Ausonia to defend,
Declare the common danger, and inform
The Grecian leader of the growing storm:
"Eneas, landed on the Latian coast,
With banish'd gods, and with a baffled host,
Yet now aspir'd to conquest of the state,
And claim'd a title from the gods and fate;
What num'rous nations in his quarrel came,
And how they spread his formidable name,
What he design'd, what mischiefs might arise,
If fortune favour'd his first enterprise,

Was left for him to weigh, whose equal fears
And common int'rest was involv'd in theirs."
While Turnus and th' allies thus urge the

war,

The Trojan, floating in a flood of care,
Beholds the tempest which his foes prepare.
This way and that he turns his anxious mind;
Thinks and rejects the counsels he design'd;
Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part,
And gives no rest to his distracted heart.
So when the sun by day, or moon by night,
Stike on the polish'd brass their trembling
light,

The glitt'ring species here and there divide,
And cast their dubious beams from side to side.
Now on the walls, now on the pavement play,
And to the ceiling flash the glaring day.
'T was night: and weary nature lull'd asleep
The birds of air, and fishes of the deep,
And beasts, and mortal men. The Trojan
chief

grief,

And found in silent slumber late relief.
Then, through the shadows of the poplar wood,
Arose the father of the Roman flood,
An azure robe was o'er his body spread,
A wreath of shady reeds adorn'd his head :
Thus, manifest to sight, the god appear'd,
And with these pleasing words his sorrow
cheer'd:

"Undoubted offspring of ethereal race,

O long expected in this promis'd place! [gods,
Who, through the foes, hast borne thy banish'd
Restor❜d them to their hearths, and old abodes-
This is thy happy home, the clime where fate
Ordains thee to restore the Trojan state.
Fear not! the war shall end in lasting peace,
And all the rage of haughty Juno cease.
And that this nightly vision may not seem
Th' effect of fancy, or an idle dream,
A sow beneath an oak shall lie along,
All white herself, and white her thirty young.
When thirty rolling years have run their race,
Thy son Ascanius, on this empty space,
Shall build a royal town, of lasting fame,
Which from this omen shall receive the name.
Time shall approve the truth.-For what re-
mains,

And how with sure success to crown your pains, With patience next attend. A banish'd band,

Driv'n with Evander from th' Arcadian land, Have planted here, and plac'd on high their walls;

Their town the founder Pallenteum calls,
Deriv'd from Pallas, his great grandsire's name,
But the fierce Latians old possession claim,
With war infesting the new colony:
These make thy friends, and on their aid rely.
To thy free passage I submit my streams.
Wake, son of Venus, from thy pleasing dreams;
And, when the setting stars are lost in day,
To Juno's pow'r thy just devotion pay ;'
With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease:
Her pride at length shall fall, her fury cease.
When thou return'st victorious from the war,
Perform thy vows to me with grateful care.
The god am I, whose yellow water flows
Around these fields, and fattens as it goes:
Tyber my name-among the rolling floods,
Renown'd on earth, esteem'd among the gods.
This is my certain seat. In times to come,
My waves shall wash the walls of mighty
Rome."
[spoke,
He said; and plung'd below. While yet he
His dream Eneas and his sleep forsook.
He rose, and, looking up, beheld the skies
With purple blushing, and the day arise.

From Tyber's flood, and thus the pow'rs be-
spoke :
"Laurentian nymphs, by whom the streams
are fed,

And father Tyber, in thy sacred bed,
Receive Eneas, and from danger keep.
Whatever fount, whatever holy deep,
Conceals thy wat'ry stores where'er they
rise,

And, bubbling from below, salute the skies-
Thou, king of horned floods, whose plenteous

urn

Suffices fatness to the fruitful corn,
For this thy kind compassion of our woes,
Shalt share my morning song, and ev'ning

Vows.

But oh! be present to thy people's aid,
And firm the gracious promise thou hast made."
Thus having said, two galleys, from his stores,
With care he chooses, mans, and fits with oars.
Now on the shore the fatal swine is found-
Wond'rous to tell!-She lay along the ground.
Her well-fed offspring at her udders hung;
She white herself, and white her thirty young.
Eneas takes the mother and her brood;
And all on Juno's altar are bestow'd.
The following night, and the succeeding day,
Propitious Tyber smooth'd his wat'ry way:
He roll'd his river back, and pois'd he stood,
A gentle swelling, and a peaceful flood.
The Trojans mount their ships; they put from
shore,

Borne on the waves, and scarcely dip an oar.
Shouts from the land give omen to their course;
And the pitch'd vessels glide with easy force.
The woods and waters wonder at the gleam
Of shields, and painted ships that stem the

stream.

One summer's night and one whole day they pass

Betwixt the green-wood shades, and cut the

liquid glass.

The fiery sun had finish'd half his race,
Look'd back, and doubted in the middle space,
When they from far beheld the rising tow'rs,
The tops of sheds, and shepherds' lowly bow'rs,
Thin as they stood, which, then of homely clay,
Now rise in marble, from the Roman sway.
These cots (Evander's kingdom, mean and
poor)

The Trojan saw, and turn'd his ships to shore.
'T was on solemn day: th' Arcadian states,
The king and prince, without the city gates,
Then paid their off'rings in a sacred grove
To Hercules, the warrior son of Jove.
Thick clouds of rolling stoke involve the skies;
And fat of entrails on his altar fries.

you see,

Expell'd from Troy, provok'd in Italy
By Latian foes, with war unjustly made-
At first affianc'd, and at last betray'd,

This message bear: The Trojans and their chief

Bring holy peace, and beg the king's relief." Struck with so great a name, and all on fire, The youth replies: "Whatever you require, Your fame exacts. Upon our shores descend, A welcome guest, and, what you wish, a friend. He said, and downward hasting to the strand, Embrac'd the stranger prince, and join'd his hand.

Conducted to the grove, Æneas broke The silence first, and thus the king bespoke: "Best of the Greeks! to whom by fate's command,

I bear these peaceful branches in my hand→→→
Undaunted I approach you, though I know
Your birth is Grecian, and your land my foe:
From Atreus though your ancient lineage came,
And both the brother kings your kindred claim:
Yet my self-conscious worth, your high renown,
Your virtue, through the neighb'ring nations
blown,

Our fathers' mingled blood, Apollo's voice,
Have led me hither, less by need than choice.
Our father Dardanus, as fame has sung,
And Greeks acknowledge, from Electra sprung:
Electra from the loins of Atlas came-
Atlas whose head sustains the starry frame.
Your sire is Mercury, whom long before
On cold Cyllene's top fair Maia bore.
Maia the fair, on fame if we rely,
Was Atlas' daughter, who sustains the sky.
Thus from one common source our streams
divide:

Ours is the Trojan, yours th' Arcadian side.
Rais'd by these hopes, I sent no news before,
Nor ask'd your leave, nor did your faith implore;
But come, without a pledge, my own ambas-

sador.

The same Rutulians, who with arms pursue
The Trojan race, are equal foes to you.
Our host expell'd, what further force can stay
The victor troops from universal sway?
Then will they stretch their pow'r athwart the
land,

And either sea from side to side command.
Receive our offer'd faith, and give us thine
Ours is a generous and experienc'd line:
We want not hearts nor bodies for the war;
In council cautious, and in fields we dare."
He said: and, while he spoke, with piercing
eyes

Evander view'd the man with vast surprise-
Pleas'd with his action, ravish'd with his face;
Then answer'd briefly, with a royal grace:
"O valiant leader of the Trojan line,
In whom the features of thy father shine?
How I recall Anchises! how I see
His motion, mien, and all my friend, in thee!
Long though it be, 't is fresh within my mind,
When Priam to his sister's court design'd
A welcome visit, with a friendly stay,
And through th' Arcadian kingdom took his way.
Then past a boy, the callow down began
To shade my chin, and call me first a man.
I saw the shining train with vast delight
And Priam's goodly person pleas'd my sight:
But great Anchises, far above the rest
With awful wonder fir'd my youthful breast.
I long'd to join, in friendship's holy bands,
Our mutual hearts, and plight our mutual hands.
I first accosted him: I sued, I sought,
And, with a loving force, to Pheneus brought.
He gave me, when at length constrain'd to go,
A Lycian quiver and a Gnossian bow,
A vest embroider'd, glorious to behold,
And two rich bridles, with their bits of gold,
Which my son's coursers in obedience hold.
The league you ask, I offer, as your right;
And when to-morrow's sun reveals the light,
With swift supplies you shall be sent away.
Now celebrate with us this solemn day,
Whose holy rites admit no long delay.
Honour our annual feast; and take your seat,
With friendly welcome, at a friendly treat."
Thus having said, the bowls remov'd (for fear)
The youth replac'd, and soon restor'd the cheer.
On sods of turf he set the soldiers round:
A maple throne, rais'd higher from the ground,
Receiv'd the Trojan chief; and o'er the bed
A lion's shaggy hide, for ornament they spread.
The loaves were serv'd in canisters: the wine
In bowls; the priest renew'd the rites divine :
Broil'd entrails are the food, and beefs continued
chine.

But, when the rage of hunger was represø❜d,
Thus spoke Evander to his royal guest

king,

From no vain fears or superstition spring,
Or blind devotion, or from blinder chance,
Or heady zeal, or brutal ignorance:
But sav'd from danger, with a grateful sense,
The labours of a god we recompense.
See, from afar, yon rock that mates the sky;
About whose feet such heaps of rubbish lie;
Such undigested ruin; bleak and bare,
How desert now it stands, expos'd in air!
'T was once a robber's den, enclos'd around
With living stone, and deep beneath the ground.
The monster Cacus, more than half a beast,
This hold, impervious to the sun, possess'd.
The pavement ever foul with human gore ;
Heads, and their mangled members, hung the
door.

Vulcan this plague begot: and, like his sire,
Black clouds he belch'd and flakes of livid fire.
Time, long expected, eas'd us of our load,
And brought the needful presence of a god.
Th' avenging force of Hercules, from Spain,
Arriv'd in triumph, from Geryon slain :-
Thrice liv'd the giant, and thrice liv'd in vain.
His prize, the lowing herds, Alcides drove
Near Tyber's banks, to graze the shady grove,
Allur'd with hope of plunder, and intent
By force to rob, by fraud to circumvent,
The brutal Cacus, as by chance they stray'd,
Four oxen thence, and four fair kine, convey'd.
And, lest the printed footsteps might be seen,
He dragg'd them backwards to his rocky den.
The tracks averse a lying notice gave,
And led the searcher backward from the cave.
Meantime the herdsman hero shifts his place
To find fresh pasture and untrodden grass.
The beasts, who miss'd their mates, fill'd all
around

With bellowings: and the rocks restor'd the sound.

One heifer, who had heard her love complain, Roar'd from the cave, and made the project vain. Alcides found the fraud: with rage he shook, And toss'd about his head his knotted oak. Swift as the winds, or Scythian arrow's flight, He climb'd, with eager haste, the aerial height.

Then first we saw the monster mend his pace: Fear in his eyes, and paleness in his face, Confess'd the god's approach. Trembling he

springs,

As terror had increas'd his feet with wings; Nor stay'd for stairs: but down the depth he threw

His body: on his back the door he drew(The door a rib of living rock: with pains

And bars and levers to his foe oppos'd.

The wretch had hardly made his dungeon fast,
The fierce avenger came with bounding haste;
Survey'd the mouth of the forbidden hold;
And here and there his raging eyes he roll'd.
He gnash'd his teeth; and thrice he compass'd
round

With winged speed the circuit of the ground.
Thrice at the cavern's mouth he puli'd in vain;
And, panting, thrice desisted from his pain:
A pointed, flinty rock, all bare and black,
Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back,
Owls, ravens, all ill omens of the night,
Here built their nests, and hither wing'd their
flight.

The leaning head hung threat'ning o er the flood,

And nodded to the left. The hero stood
Averse, with planted feet, and from the right,
Tugg'd at the solid stone with all his might.
Thus heav'd, the fix'd foundations of the rock
Gave way: heaven echo'd at the rattling shock.
Tumbling, it chok'd the flood: on either side
The banks leap backward, and the streams di-
vide:

The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread;
And trembling Tyber div'd beneath his bed.
The court of Cacus stands reveal'd to sight:
The cavern glares with new-admitted light.
So the pent vapours, with a rumbling sound,
Heave from below, and rend the hollow ground;
A sounding flaw succeeds; and, from on high;
The gods with hate behold the nether sky:
The ghosts repine at violated night,
And curse th' invading sun, and sicken at the
sight.

The graceless monster, caught in open day,
Enclos'd, and in despair to fly away,
Howls horrible from underneath, and fills
His hollow palace with unmanly yells.
The hero stands above, and from afar
Plies him with darts, and stones, and distant

war.