Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/103

Rh Devour, contaminate, befoul,

With sickening stench and hideous howl.

A second time we take our seat,

Deep in a hollowed rock's retreat,

Protected by a leafy screen

Of forestry and quivering green,

There spread the tables, skin the flesh,

And light our altar-fires afresh.

A second time the assailants fly

From other regions of the sky,

With crooked claws the banquet waste,

And poison whatsoe'er they taste.

I charge my crews to draw the sword

And battle with the fiendish horde.

They act as bidden, and conceal

Along the grass the glittering steel.

So when the rush of wings once more

Is heard along the bending shore,

Misenus sounds his loud alarms

From the hill's top, and calls to arms:

And on we rush in novel war,

These foul sea-birds to maim and mar.

In vain: no weapon's stroke may cleave

The texture of their feathery mail:

They soar into the air, and leave

On food half-gnawn their loathsome trail:

All but Celæno: she, curst seer,

Speaks from a rock these words of fear:

'What, would ye fight, false perjured race?

Fight for the beeves your greed has slain,

And unoffending Harpies chase

From their hereditary reign?

Now listen, and attentive lay

Deep in your hearts the things I say.

The fate by Jove to Phœbus shown,

By Phœbus' self to me made known—