The Aeneid | Page 5

fleet.?The Trojans, worn with toils, and spent with woes,?Leap on the welcome land, and seek their wish'd repose.
First, good Achates, with repeated strokes?Of clashing flints, their hidden fire provokes:?Short flame succeeds; a bed of wither'd leaves?The dying sparkles in their fall receives:?Caught into life, in fiery fumes they rise,?And, fed with stronger food, invade the skies.?The Trojans, dropping wet, or stand around?The cheerful blaze, or lie along the ground:?Some dry their corn, infected with the brine,?Then grind with marbles, and prepare to dine.?Aeneas climbs the mountain's airy brow,?And takes a prospect of the seas below,?If Capys thence, or Antheus he could spy,?Or see the streamers of Caicus fly.?No vessels were in view; but, on the plain,?Three beamy stags command a lordly train?Of branching heads: the more ignoble throng?Attend their stately steps, and slowly graze along.?He stood; and, while secure they fed below,?He took the quiver and the trusty bow?Achates us'd to bear: the leaders first?He laid along, and then the vulgar pierc'd;?Nor ceas'd his arrows, till the shady plain?Sev'n mighty bodies with their blood distain.?For the sev'n ships he made an equal share,?And to the port return'd, triumphant from the war.?The jars of gen'rous wine (Acestes' gift,?When his Trinacrian shores the navy left)?He set abroach, and for the feast prepar'd,?In equal portions with the ven'son shar'd.?Thus while he dealt it round, the pious chief?With cheerful words allay'd the common grief:?"Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose?To future good our past and present woes.?With me, the rocks of Scylla you have tried;?Th' inhuman Cyclops and his den defied.?What greater ills hereafter can you bear??Resume your courage and dismiss your care,?An hour will come, with pleasure to relate?Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.?Thro' various hazards and events, we move?To Latium and the realms foredoom'd by Jove.?Call'd to the seat (the promise of the skies)?Where Trojan kingdoms once again may rise,?Endure the hardships of your present state;?Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate."
These words he spoke, but spoke not from his heart;?His outward smiles conceal'd his inward smart.?The jolly crew, unmindful of the past,?The quarry share, their plenteous dinner haste.?Some strip the skin; some portion out the spoil;?The limbs, yet trembling, in the caldrons boil;?Some on the fire the reeking entrails broil.?Stretch'd on the grassy turf, at ease they dine,?Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with wine.?Their hunger thus appeas'd, their care attends?The doubtful fortune of their absent friends:?Alternate hopes and fears their minds possess,?Whether to deem 'em dead, or in distress.?Above the rest, Aeneas mourns the fate?Of brave Orontes, and th' uncertain state?Of Gyas, Lycus, and of Amycus.?The day, but not their sorrows, ended thus.
When, from aloft, almighty Jove surveys?Earth, air, and shores, and navigable seas,?At length on Libyan realms he fix'd his eyesWhom,?pond'ring thus on human miseries,?When Venus saw, she with a lowly look,?Not free from tears, her heav'nly sire bespoke:
"O King of Gods and Men! whose awful hand?Disperses thunder on the seas and land,?Disposing all with absolute command;?How could my pious son thy pow'r incense??Or what, alas! is vanish'd Troy's offense??Our hope of Italy not only lost,?On various seas by various tempests toss'd,?But shut from ev'ry shore, and barr'd from ev'ry coast.?You promis'd once, a progeny divine?Of Romans, rising from the Trojan line,?In after times should hold the world in awe,?And to the land and ocean give the law.?How is your doom revers'd, which eas'd my care?When Troy was ruin'd in that cruel war??Then fates to fates I could oppose; but now,?When Fortune still pursues her former blow,?What can I hope? What worse can still succeed??What end of labors has your will decreed??Antenor, from the midst of Grecian hosts,?Could pass secure, and pierce th' Illyrian coasts,?Where, rolling down the steep, Timavus raves?And thro' nine channels disembogues his waves.?At length he founded Padua's happy seat,?And gave his Trojans a secure retreat;?There fix'd their arms, and there renew'd their name,?And there in quiet rules, and crown'd with fame.?But we, descended from your sacred line,?Entitled to your heav'n and rites divine,?Are banish'd earth; and, for the wrath of one,?Remov'd from Latium and the promis'd throne.?Are these our scepters? these our due rewards??And is it thus that Jove his plighted faith regards?"
To whom the Father of th' immortal race,?Smiling with that serene indulgent face,?With which he drives the clouds and clears the skies,?First gave a holy kiss; then thus replies:
"Daughter, dismiss thy fears; to thy desire?The fates of thine are fix'd, and stand entire.?Thou shalt behold thy wish'd Lavinian walls;?And, ripe for heav'n, when fate Aeneas calls,?Then shalt thou bear him up, sublime, to me:?No councils have revers'd my firm decree.?And, lest new fears disturb thy happy state,?Know, I have search'd the mystic rolls of Fate:?Thy son (nor is th' appointed season far)?In Italy shall wage successful war,?Shall tame fierce nations in the bloody field,?And sov'reign laws impose, and cities