That when, amidst the fervor of the feast, The Tyrian hugs and fonds thee on her breast,

And with sweet kisses in her arms constrains,

Thou may'st infuse thy venom in her veins."

The God of Love obeys, and sets aside
His bow and quiver, and his plumy pride;
He walks Iülus in his mother's sight,
And in the sweet resemblance takes delight.
The goddess then to young Ascanius
flies,

And in a pleasing slumber seals his eyes: 970
Lull'd in her lap, amidst a train of Loves,
She gently bears him to her blissful

Your men have been distress'd, your navy toss'd,

Sev'n times the sun has either tropic view'd, The winter banish'd, and the spring renew'd."

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ÆENEIS

THE ARGUMENT

Eneas relates how the city of Troy was taken, after a ten years' siege, by the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse. He declares the fix'd resolution he had taken not to survive the ruins of his country, and the various adventures he met with in the defense of it. At last, having been before advis'd by Hector's ghost, and now by the appearance of his mother Venus, he is prevail'd upon to leave the town, and settle his household gods in another country. In order to this, he carries off his father on his shoulders, and leads his little son by the hand, his wife following him behind. When he comes to the place appointed for the general rendezvouze, he finds a great confluence of people, but misses his wife, whose ghost afterwards appears to him, and tells him the land which was design'd for him.

ALL were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began: "Great queen, what you command me to

relate

Part on the pile their wond'ring eyes employ:

40

The pile by Pallas rais'd to ruin Troy. Thymates first ('tis doubtful whether hir'd,

Or so the Trojan destiny requir'd)
Mov'd that the ramparts might be broken
down,

To lodge the monster fabric in the town.
But Capys, and the rest of sounder mind,
The fatal present to the flames design'd,
Or to the wat'ry deep; at least to bore
The hollow sides, and hidden frauds ex-
plore.

The giddy vulgar, as their fancies guide, 50
With noise say nothing, and in parts divide.
Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,
Ran from the fort, and cried, from far,

aloud:

'O wretched countrymen! what fury reigns? What more than madness has possess'd your brains?

Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?

And freely tell us what he was, and whence: What news he could impart, we long to know,

And what to credit from a captive foe.

"His fear at length dismiss'd, he said: 'Whate'er

My fate ordains, my words shall be sincere:
I neither can nor dare my birth disclaim;
Greece is my country, Sinon is my name. 100
Tho' plung'd by Fortune's pow'r in misery,
"T is not in Fortune's pow'r to make me lie.
If any chance has hither brought the name
Of Palamedes, not unknown to fame,
Who suffer'd from the malice of the times,
Accus'd and sentenc'd for pretended crimes,
Because these fatal wars he would prevent;
Whose death the wretched Greeks too late
lament

Me, then a boy, my father, poor and bare
Of other means, committed to his care, 110
His kinsman and companion in the war.
While Fortune favor'd, while his arms sup-
port

The cause, and rul'd the counsels, of the court,

I made some figure there; nor was my

And saw what sacrifice Ulysses meant. For twice five days the good old seer withstood

Th' intended treason, and was dumb to blood,

Till, tir'd with endless clamors and pursuit
Of Ithacus, he stood no longer mute;
But, as it was agreed, pronounc'd that I
Was destin'd by the wrathful gods to die.
All prais'd the sentence, pleas'd the storm
should fall

On one alone, whose fury threaten'd all. 180 The dismal day was come; the priests prepare

Their leaven'd cakes, and fillets for my

hair.

I follow'd nature's laws, and must avow
I broke my bonds and fled the fatal blow.
Hid in a weedy lake all night I lay,
Secure of safety when they sail'd away.
But now what further hopes for me re-
main,

To see my friends, or native soil, again;
My tender infants, or my careful sire, 189
Whom they returning will to death require;
Will perpetrate on them their first design,
And take the forfeit of their heads for
mine?

Which, O! if pity mortal minds can move,
If there be faith below, or gods above,
If innocence and truth can claim desert,
Ye Trojans, from an injur'd wretch avert.'

"False tears true pity move; the king