Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/104

80 Aye, tremble, for in me ye view

The Furies' queen—I tell to you.

To Italy in haste ye drive,

With winds at your command:

Go then, in Italy arrive,

And draw your ships to land:

But ere your town with walls ye fence,

Fierce famine, retribution dread

For this your murderous violence,

Shall make you eat your boards for bread.'

She spoke, and vanished 'mid the wood:

Chill horror froze my comrades' blood:

No more of arms: the prayer, the vow

They fain would make their weapons now,

Whate'er the monsters, powers divine,

Or birds ill-omened and malign.

With outstretched hands my father prays

The Gods above, and offerings pays:

'Heaven, bar these threatenings! Heaven, avert

Such horror, and protect desert!'

Then bids the crews their ships unbind

And stretch the mainsheet to the wind.

The south wind freshens in the sail:

We hurry o'er the tide,

Where'er the helmsman and the gale

Conspire our course to guide:

Now rises o'er the foamy flood

Zacynthos with its crown of wood,

Dulichium, Same, Neritos,

Whose rocky sides the waves emboss:

The crags of Ithaca we flee,

Laertes' rugged sovereignty,

Nor in our flight forget to curse

The land that was Ulysses' nurse.

Soon Leucas rears its cloud-capped head,

And Phœbus, whom the seamen dread.