Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/323

Iulus, manlier than his years,
Oft whispering, for his father's ears
Full many a message sends:
But be it message, be it prayer,
Alike 'tis lost, dispersed in air.

The trenches past, through night's deep gloom
The hostile camp they near:
Yet many a foe shall meet his doom
Or ere that hour appear.
There see they bodies stretched supine,
O'ercome with slumber and with wine;
The cars, unhorsed, are drawn up high;
'Twixt wheels and harness warriors lie,
With arms and goblets on the grass
In undistinguishable mass.
'Now' Nisus cries 'for hearts and hands:
This, this the hour our force demands.
Here pass we: yours the rear to mind,
Lest hostile arm be raised behind;
Myself will go before and slay,
While carnage opes a broad highway.'
So whispers he with bated breath,
And straight begins the work of death
On Rhamnes, haughty lord:
On rugs he lay, in gorgeous heap,
From all his bosom breathing sleep,
A royal seer, by Turnus loved:
But all too weak his seer-craft proved
To stay the rushing sword.
Three servants next the weapon found
Stretched 'mid their armour on the ground:
Then Remus' charioteer he spies
Beneath the coursers as he lies,
And lops his downdropt head:
The ill-starred master next he leaves,
A headless trunk, that gasps and heaves: