Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/365

Then slew he Sthenelus, and base
Anchemolus, of Rhœtus' race,
Who dared in wantonness of crime
His step-dame's wedded couch to climb.
Ye too were tumbled on the plain,
Larides, Thymber, brethren twain,
Of Daucus' honourable strain;
So like, the sweet confusion e'en
Their parents' eyes betrayed;
But Pallas twin and twin between
Has cruel difference made:
For Thymber's head the steel has shorn;
Larides' severed hand forlorn
Feels blindly for its lord:
The quivering fingers, half alive,
Twitch with convulsive gripe, and strive
To close upon the sword.

Now with his warning in their ear,
His deeds before their eye,
Anger and shame o'erpowering fear,
His mates to combat fly.
Lo, hurrying past in full career,
Falls Rhœteus by the Evandrian spear.
That spear was meant for Ilus' death,
But Ilus gains a moment's breath
Doomed in the next to die:
While Rhœteus comes between and bleeds,
From warlike Teuthras as he speeds
And Tyres' brandished steel;
Rolled headlong from the rapid car
He tumbles, and the field of war
Spurns with his dying heel.
E'en as a swain 'mid forest trees,
When summer yields the wished-for breeze,
His scattered torches sends;