Part 14 (2/2)

The astonished Dido finds fitting words of welcoain assures the Trojans that her city is their own, and proclaiuished strangers

This feast is a scene of royal and barbaric splendor The Tyrian lords and Trojan princes throng the banquet-hall with its rich tapestries and flashi+ng lights, vessels of ht-hued robes of Dido and her train add gladness and color to the scene A by an old minstrel, which he acco was upon the ever fascinating theme of natural phenomena, the powers of the air, the earth, the sea--all the di about these things Let us phrase theskies; Where the stor Triones arise; Of the sun's struggling ball Which the shadows appall Till thedarkness flies;

Of the all-potent forces that dwell in the air, With its ossa stor that blinds When its swift-darting bolt flashes through;

Of the marvels deep hid in the bowels of earth, In the dark caves of Ocean confined, Where the rivers in snow-trickling rills have their birth, And the dense tangled mazes unwind; In the deep underland, In the dim wonderland, Where broods the vast cos, Itswave, on the fluttering wing, In beast and all-do soul Of the God of the whole, Since the dawn of creation began

Meanwhile the queen, deeply moved with pity first, and noith ads breathless on his words, asks eagerly of the fas hiht of Troy We listen too while he, whose tears start as he speaks, relates that tragic story He tells how, at the end of the long struggle, when both warring nations ell-nigh exhausted of their strength, the Greeks at last gained entrance to their Trojan city by the trick of the wooden horse This huge ie, found without their walls, filled all unknown to theates, and place upon their very citadel, a children and the joyous shouts of all the citizens; for they have been assured by the lying Sinon that the Greeks have gone ho to Minerva for their safe return

In the deep night watches, when all are drowned in careless sluhts of wine, aeneas dreaory dust and weeping bitterly

”Ah! fly, Goddess-born!” cries he, ”and escape from these fla fro are satisfied--if Pergamus could be defended by force of hand, it would have been defended by mine, in my day Your country's worshi+p and her Gods are what she intrusts to you now--take thehty city, which you shall one day build when you have wandered the ocean over”

Conington

As aeneas springs up froreeted by the confused sound of distant clamor, hoarse cries, and the accusto out, he finds that the Greek forces from wooden horse and fleet have filled the city, while the Trojans, taken unawares, area band of ain; but at last overpowered, his men flee in scattered twos and threes

aeneas finds himself near Priam's palace This is beset by swarms of Greeks, who scale the walls and batter at the doors, while desperate defenders on the roof hurl dohatever coains the roof by a private way, and looking down upon the inner court, he is witness to the darkest tragedy of that night Old Pria upon the steps of the central shrine A hty crash and outcry froained an entrance at the door Now out into the peristyle, along the beautiful colonnades of the spacious court, comes Priam's youthful son Polites, hard-pressed by the spear of Pyrrhus, leader of the Greeks In breathless fascination they watch the race for life until the boy falls slain just at his parent's feet The aged king, roused by this outrage, stands forth; clad in his tie, he chides the Greek:

”Aye,” cries he, ”for a crie like this, ht in heaven to take cognizance of such deeds, give you the full thanks you merit, and pay you your due reward; you, who have made me look with my own eyes on ht of blood But he whoue calls your sire, Achilles, dealt not thus with Priam his foe--he had a cheek that could crihts, a suppliant's honor Hector's lifeless body he gave back to the tomb, and sent me home to my realms in peace” So said the poor old , which the ringing brass at once shook off, and left hanging helplessly from the end of the shi+eld's boss Pyrrhus retorts: ”You shall take your complaint, then, and carry your news todeeds, about his degenerate Neoptoleed hi in a pool of his son's blood, wreathed his left hand in his hair, and with his right flashed forth and sheathed in his side the sword to the hilt Such was the end of Priam's fortunes, such the fatal lot that fell upon hiahty ruler of those n lord of Asia! There he lies on the shore, a gigantic trunk, a head severed froton

The tide of carnage sucks out of the palace and ebbs away As aeneas descends fro shrine His heart is hot at sight of her who has been the firebrand of the war, and he resolves to kill her But Venus flashes before his vision and warns him to hasten to the defense of his own ho even as Priam Conscience-smitten, he hurries thither, divinely shi+elded from fire and sword His plan is fixed to take his household and seek a place of safety without the city

The unexpected resistance of his aged father, who is resolved not to survive his beloved Troy, is at last overcome; and soon, with his sire upon his shoulders, his little son held by the hand, and his household following, aeneas steals out the city gate on the side toward Mount Ida, andHere, to his consternation, he discovers that his wife Creusa is , and wildly rushes back to the city in search of her Regardless of danger to hih the desolate streets when her shade appears to hi frantic grief,husband? It is not without heaven's will that these things are happening That you should carry your Creusa with you on your journey is forbidden by fate, forbidden by theyears of exile, a vast expanse of ocean to traverse--and then you will arrive at the land of Hesperia, where Tiber, Lydia's river, rolls his gentle volu future, a kingdo Dry your tears for Creusa, your heart's choice though she be I ahty homes, or to enter the service of soe of Venus the ihty mother And now farewell, and continue to love your son andspoken, spite of ed to say, she left me and vanished into unsubstantial air Thrice, as I stood, I essayed to fling my arms round her neck--thrice the phantoht at it in vain--is of sleep

So passed ht, and such was my return to my comrades Arrived there, I find onder their band swelled by a vast multitude of new companions, matrons and warriors both, an army mustered for exile, a crowd of the wretched From every side they were met, prepared in heart as in fortune to follow ht take the over Ida's loftiest ridge with the day in its train--Danaan sentinels were blocking up the entry of the gates, and no hope of succor appeared I retired at last, took up ton

Thus si story of the Trojan War, told by one as hihty deeds It passes fro of a child which has cried itself to sleep

The banquet-hall of Dido has rehout this recital in breathless silence, and now a long sigh of relief fro the couches

After an i which no word is spoken, aeneas resu over the sea in search of the land that fate has promised him With his little fleet of vessels, built at the foot of Ida, he touches first at a point in Thrace, intending to found a city there; but he is warned away by a horrible portent He touches next at Delos, and iuidance to his destined home To this prayer the oracle makes answer by a voice wafted from the inner shrine, while the whole place rocks and tre to endure, the land which first gave you birth from your ancestral tree, the same land shall welcome you back, restored to its fruitful bosom; seek for your old mother till you find her There it is that the house of aeneas shall set up a throne over all nations, they, and their children's children, and those that shall yet coton

So it is ”Ho, for thethe Trojans? Here old Anchises, father of aeneas, rich in the lore of old tradition, says:

Listen, lords of Troy, and learn where your hopes are Crete lies in the hty Jove There is Mount Ida, and there the cradle of our race It has a hundred peopled cities, a realm of richest plenty Thence it was that our first father, Teucer, if I rightly recall what I have heard, ca to the Rhoetean coast, and fixed on the site of eamus had not yet been reared; the people dwelt low in the valley Hence cahty mother, the dweller on Mount Cybele, and the symbols of the Corybants, and the forest of Ida: hence the inviolate mystery of her worshi+p, and the lions harnessed to the car of their queen Come, then, and let us follohere the ordinance of heaven points the way; let us propitiate the winds, andone--let but Jupiter go with us, and the third day will land our fleet on the Cretan shore

Conington

They quickly reach the Cretan shore, joyfully lay out their new city, and begin again the sweet, simple life in hoht the curse on Troy But alas for their bright hopes! A blighting pestilence falls on round is accursed It is the harsh warning of fate that they must not settle here But where? To aeneas, as he tosses in sleepless anxiety through the night, there appear in the white ive him the needed counsel: