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BOOK VII.
231

Venus shall see her offspring dear
Another Paris reappear,
A torch rekindled to destroy
E'en now the second birth of Troy.'

This said, with vengeance in her eyes
From heaven to earth the goddess flies,
And from the Furies' Stygian halls
Alecto's baleful presence calls,
To whom grim war and jealous strife
And treacheries are the breath of life.
E'en Pluto hates his offspring, e'en
Her sister fiends the monster dread,
So multiform her hideous mien,
So thick the serpents round her head.
Whom Juno then for aid entreats
With words that kindle fiercer heats:
'Vouchsafe me, virgin child of Night,
This boon for my peculiar right,
A service all thine own,
Lest Juno's praise and worship fall
From their exalted pedestal,
Should Troy Italia's bounds beset
And weave her hymenæal net
About Latinus' throne.
Thou canst in hostile arms array
Two brothers of one will,
With rancorous hate and burning fray
A peaceful homestead fill:
Scourges are thine and funeral flames:
Thou gloriest in a thousand names,
A thousand means of ill.
Stir up thy breast, with malice rife,
Break the formed league, sow seeds of strife:
Let youth and age with one accord
Desire, demand, and seize the sword.'