In vain the youth tugs at the broken wood;The soul comes issuing with the vital blood:
He falls; his arms upon his body sound;
And with his bloody teeth he bites the ground.
Turnus bestrode the corpse: "Arcadians, hear,"Said he; "my message to your master bear:
Such as the sire deserv'd, the son I send;It costs him dear to be the Phrygians' friend.
The lifeless body, tell him, I bestow, Unask'd, to rest his wand'ring ghost below."He said, and trampled down with all the force Of his left foot, and spurn'd the wretched corse;Then snatch'd the shining belt, with gold inlaid;The belt Eurytion's artful hands had made, Where fifty fatal brides, express'd to sight, All in the compass of one mournful night, Depriv'd their bridegrooms of returning light.
In an ill hour insulting Turnus tore Those golden spoils, and in a worse he wore.
O mortals, blind in fate, who never know To bear high fortune, or endure the low!
The time shall come, when Turnus, but in vain, Shall wish untouch'd the trophies of the slain;Shall wish the fatal belt were far away, And curse the dire remembrance of the day.
The sad Arcadians, from th' unhappy field, Bear back the breathless body on a shield.
O grace and grief of war! at once restor'd, With praises, to thy sire, at once deplor'd!
One day first sent thee to the fighting field, Beheld whole heaps of foes in battle kill'd;One day beheld thee dead, and borne upon thy shield.
This dismal news, not from uncertain fame, But sad spectators, to the hero came:
His friends upon the brink of ruin stand, Unless reliev'd by his victorious hand.
He whirls his sword around, without delay, And hews thro' adverse foes an ample way, To find fierce Turnus, of his conquest proud:
Evander, Pallas, all that friendship ow'd To large deserts, are present to his eyes;His plighted hand, and hospitable ties.
Four sons of Sulmo, four whom Ufens bred, He took in fight, and living victims led, To please the ghost of Pallas, and expire, In sacrifice, before his fun'ral fire.
At Magus next he threw: he stoop'd below The flying spear, and shunn'd the promis'd blow;Then, creeping, clasp'd the hero's knees, and pray'd:
"By young Iulus, by thy father's shade, O spare my life, and send me back to see My longing sire, and tender progeny!
A lofty house I have, and wealth untold, In silver ingots, and in bars of gold:
All these, and sums besides, which see no day, The ransom of this one poor life shall pay.
If I survive, will Troy the less prevail?
A single soul's too light to turn the scale."He said.The hero sternly thus replied:
"Thy bars and ingots, and the sums beside, Leave for thy children's lot.Thy Turnus broke All rules of war by one relentless stroke, When Pallas fell: so deems, nor deems alone My father's shadow, but my living son."Thus having said, of kind remorse bereft, He seiz'd his helm, and dragg'd him with his left;Then with his right hand, while his neck he wreath'd, Up to the hilts his shining fauchion sheath'd.
Apollo's priest, Emonides, was near;
His holy fillets on his front appear;
Glitt'ring in arms, he shone amidst the crowd;Much of his god, more of his purple, proud.
Him the fierce Trojan follow'd thro' the field:
The holy coward fell; and, forc'd to yield, The prince stood o'er the priest, and, at one blow, Sent him an off'ring to the shades below.
His arms Seresthus on his shoulders bears, Design'd a trophy to the God of Wars.
Vulcanian Caeculus renews the fight, And Umbro, born upon the mountains' height.
The champion cheers his troops t' encounter those, And seeks revenge himself on other foes.
At Anxur's shield he drove; and, at the blow, Both shield and arm to ground together go.
Anxur had boasted much of magic charms, And thought he wore impenetrable arms, So made by mutter'd spells; and, from the spheres, Had life secur'd, in vain, for length of years.
Then Tarquitus the field triumph trod;
A nymph his mother, his sire a god.
Exulting in bright arms, he braves the prince:
With his protended lance he makes defense;Bears back his feeble foe; then, pressing on, Arrests his better hand, and drags him down;Stands o'er the prostrate wretch, and, as he lay, Vain tales inventing, and prepar'd to pray, Mows off his head: the trunk a moment stood, Then sunk, and roll'd along the sand in blood.
The vengeful victor thus upbraids the slain:
"Lie there, proud man, unpitied, on the plain;Lie there, inglorious, and without a tomb, Far from thy mother and thy native home, Exposed to savage beasts, and birds of prey, Or thrown for food to monsters of the sea."On Lycas and Antaeus next he ran, Two chiefs of Turnus, and who led his van.
They fled for fear; with these, he chas'd along Camers the yellow-lock'd, and Numa strong;Both great in arms, and both were fair and young.
Camers was son to Volscens lately slain, In wealth surpassing all the Latian train, And in Amycla fix'd his silent easy reign.
And, as Aegaeon, when with heav'n he strove, Stood opposite in arms to mighty Jove;Mov'd all his hundred hands, provok'd the war, Defied the forky lightning from afar;At fifty mouths his flaming breath expires, And flash for flash returns, and fires for fires;In his right hand as many swords he wields, And takes the thunder on as many shields:
With strength like his, the Trojan hero stood;And soon the fields with falling corps were strow'd, When once his fauchion found the taste of blood.
With fury scarce to be conceiv'd, he flew Against Niphaeus, whom four coursers drew.
They, when they see the fiery chief advance, And pushing at their chests his pointed lance, Wheel'd with so swift a motion, mad with fear, They threw their master headlong from the chair.
They stare, they start, nor stop their course, before They bear the bounding chariot to the shore.
Now Lucagus and Liger scour the plains, With two white steeds; but Liger holds the reins, And Lucagus the lofty seat maintains:
Bold brethren both.The former wav'd in air His flaming sword: Aeneas couch'd his spear, Unus'd to threats, and more unus'd to fear.
