Aeneid

Virgil

Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.

  1. Turnus, at full speed, had outridden far
  2. his laggard host, and, leading in his train
  3. a score of chosen knights, dashed into view
  4. hard by the walls. A barb of Thracian breed
  5. dappled with white he rode; a crimson plume
  6. flamed over his golden helmet. “Who,” he cries,
  7. “Is foremost at the foe? Who follows me?
  8. Behold!” And, with the word, he hurled in air
  9. a javelin, provoking instant war:
  10. and, towering from his horse, charged o'er the field.
  11. With answering shout his men-at-arms pursue,
  12. and war-cries terrible. They laugh to scorn
  13. “the craven hearts of Troy, that cannot give
  14. fair, equal vantage, matching man to man,
  15. but cuddle into camp.” This way and that
  16. Turnus careers, and stormily surveys
  17. the frowning rampart, and where way is none
  18. some entering breach would find: so prowls a wolf
  19. nigh the full sheepfold, and through wind and rain
  20. stands howling at the postern all night long;
  21. beneath the ewes their bleating lambs lie safe;
  22. but he, with undesisting fury, more
  23. rages from far, made frantic for his prey
  24. by hunger of long hours, his foaming jaws
  25. athirst for blood: not less the envy burned
  26. of the Rutulian, as he scanned in vain
  27. the stronghold of his foe. Indignant scorn
  28. thrilled all his iron frame. But how contrive
  29. to storm the fortress or by force expel
  30. the Trojans from the rampart, and disperse
  31. along the plain? Straightway he spied the ships,
  32. in hiding near the camp, defended well
  33. by mounded river-bank and fleeting wave.
  34. On these he fell; while his exultant crew
  35. brought firebrands, and he with heart aflame
  36. grasped with a vengeful hand the blazing pine.
  37. To the wild work his followers sped; for who
  38. could prove him craven under Turnus' eye?
  39. The whole troop for the weapon of their rage
  40. seized smoking coals, of many a hearth the spoil;
  41. red glare of fuming torches burned abroad,
  42. and Vulcan starward flung a sparkling cloud.