Secure in sleep.-The Fury laid aside

580

Her looks and limbs, and with new methods try'd
The foulness of th' infernal form to hide.

Propp'd on a staff, she takes a trembling mien :
Her face is furrow'd, and her front obscene;
Deep-dinted wrinkles on her cheek she draws; 585
Sunk are her eyes, and toothless are her jaws;
Her hoary hair with holy fillets bound,

Her temples with an olive wreath are crown'd.
Old Chalybe, who kept the sacred fane

590

Of Juno, now she seemed, and thus began,
Appearing in a dream, to rouse the careless man.

"Shall Turnus then such endless toil sustain
In fighting fields, and conquer towns in vain?
Win, for a Trojan head to wear the prize,
Usurp thy crown, enjoy thy victories?

595

The bride and sceptre, which thy blood has bought, The king transfers; and foreign heirs are sought! Go now, deluded man, and seek again

New toils, new dangers, on the dusty plain!

Repel the Tuscan foes; their city seize ;

Protect the Latians in luxurious ease!

600

This dream all-pow'rful Juno sends: I bear
Her mighty mandates; and her words you hear.
Haste! arm your Ardeans; issue to the plain;
With faith to friend, assault the Trojan train: 605

Their thoughtless chiefs, their painted ships that lie.
In Tyber's mouth, with fire and sword destroy.
The Latian king, unless he shall submit,

Own his old promise, and his new forget

615

Let him, in arms, the pow'r of Turnus prove, 610
And learn to fear whom he disdains to love.
Forsuch is heav'n's command."-The youthful prince
With scorn reply'd, and made this bold defence.
"You tell me, mother, what I knew before,
The Phrygian fleet is landed on the shore.
I neither fear nor will provoke the war :
My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.
But time has made you dote, and vainly tell
Of arms imagin'd in your lonely cell.
Go! be the temple and the gods your care:
Permit to men the thought of peace and war."
These haughty words Alecto's rage provoke:
And frighted Turnus trembled as she spoke.

Her eyes grow stiffen'd, and with sulphur burn;

Her hideous looks and hellish form return :
Her curling snakes with hissings fill the place,
And open all the furies of her face:
Then, darting fire from her malignant eyes,
She cast him backward as he strove to rise,

620

625

629

And, ling'ring, sought to frame some new replies.

High on her head she rears two twisted snakes:

Her chains she rattles, and her whip she shakes; And, churning bloody foam, thus loudly speaks : "Behold whom time has made to dote, and tell Of arms, imagin'd in her lonely cell!

Behold the Fates' infernal minister !

War, death, destruction, in my hand I bear.'

635

Thus having said, her smould'ring torch, impress'd With her full force, she plung'd into his breast. Aghast he wak'd; and starting from his bed, 640 Cold sweat, in clammy drops, his limbs o'erspread. "Arms arms!" he cries: " my sword and shield prepare !"

He breathes defiance, blood, and mortal war.
So, when with crackling flames a cauldron fries,
The bubbling waters from the bottom rise:
Above the brims they force their fiery way;
Black vapours climb aloft, and cloud the day.
The peace polluted thus, a chosen band
He first commissions to the Latian land,
In threat'ning embassy; then rais'd the rest,
To meet in arms th' intruding Trojan guest,
To force the foes from the Lavinian shore,
And Italy's endanger'd peace restore.
Himself alone an equal match he boasts,

645

650

To fight the Phrygian and Ausonian hosts.

655

The gods invok'd, the Rutuli prepare

Their arms, and warm each other to the war.
His beauty these, and those his blooming age,
The rest his house, and his own fame engage.

660

664

While Turnus urges thus his enterprise, The Stygian Fury to the Trojans flies; New frauds invents, and takes a steepy stand, Which overlooks the vale with wide command; Where fair Ascanius and his youthful train, With horns and hounds a hunting match ordain, And pitch their toils around the shady plain. The Fury fires the pack; they snuff, they vent, And feed their hungry nostrils with the scent. 'Twas of a well-grown stag, whose antlers rise High o'er his front, his beams invade the skies. 670 From this light cause, th' infernal maid prepares The country churls to mischief, hate, and wars. The stately beast the two Tyrrhidæ bred, Snatch'd from his dam, and the tame youngling fed, Their father Tyrrheus did his fodder bring, Tyrrheus chief ranger to the Latian king: Their sister Silvia cherish'd with her care The little wanton, and did wreaths prepare To hang his budding horns, with ribbons ty'd

675

His tender neck, and comb'd his silken hide, 680

And bath'd his body.

In time he grew, and,

Patient of command
growing us'd to hand,

He waited at his master's board for food;

690

Then sought his savage kindred in the wood,
Where grazing all the day, at night he came 685
To his known lodgings, and his country dame.
This household beast, that us'd the woodland grounds,
Was view'd at first by the young hero's hounds,
As down the stream he swam, to seek retreat
In the cool waters, and to quench his heat.
Ascanius, young, and eager of his game,
Soon bent his bow, uncertain in his aim:
But the dire fiend the fatal arrow guides,
Which pierc'd his bowels through his panting sides.
The bleeding creature issues from the floods, 695
Possess'd with fear, and seeks his known abodes,
His old familiar hearth, and household gods.
He falls; he fills the house with heavy groans,
Implores their pity, and his pain bemoans.
Young Silvia beats her breast, and cries aloud 700
For succour from the clownish neighbourhood:
The churls assemble; for the fiend, who lay
In the close woody covert, urg'd their way.
One with a brand yet burning from the flame,
Arm'd with a knotty club another came :
Whate'er they catch or find, without their care,

705

Their fury makes an instrument of war.

Tyrrheus, the foster-father of the beast,