Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/382

Now, shaking his tremendous lance,
Mezentius makes renewed advance:
Huge as Orion's frame appears,
What time on foot he strides
Through Nereus' watery realm, and rears
His shoulder o'er the tides,
Or when, with ashen trunk in hand
Uptorn from mountain high,
He plants his footstep on the land,
His forehead in the sky:
So towering high in steel array
Mezentius marches to the fray.
Æneas marks him far away
And hastes his mighty foe to meet:
Firm stands the foe without dismay,
Like mountain rooted to its seat:
Then nicely measures with his eye
The distance due for lance to fly.
'Now hear my prayer, my spear steel-tipped,
And thou, my good right hand:
A votive trophy, all equipped
With spoils from yon false pirate stripped,
To-day shall Lausus stand:'
He spoke, and forth his javelin threw:
From the broad shield apart it flew,
And piercing deep 'twixt side and flank
In brave Antores' frame it sank,
Antores, follower in the train
Of Hercules o'er land and main,
Who, sped from Argos, sat him down
Co-partner in Evander's town:
Now, prostrate by an unmeant wound,
In death he welters on the ground,
And gazing on Italian skies
Of his loved Argos dreams, and dies.