Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/208

184 When lo, as morning's orient red

Just brightens o'er the sky,

The firm ground bellows 'neath their tread,

The wooded summits rock and sway,

And through the shade the hell-hounds' bay

Proclaims the goddess nigh.

'Back, ye unhallowed' shrieks the seer

'And leave the whole wide forest clear:

Come, great Æneas, tread the way,

And keep your falchion bared:

Now for a heart that scorns dismay:

Now for a soul prepared.'

This said, with madness in her face

She plunged into the cave:

He with her lengthening stride keeps pace,

As fearless and as brave.

Eternal Powers, whose sway controls

The empire of departed souls,

Ye too, throughout whose wide domain

Blank Night and grisly Silence reign,

Hoar Chaos, awful Phlegethon,

What ear has heard let tongue make known:

Vouchsafe your sanction, nor forbid

To utter things in darkness hid.

Along the illimitable shade

Darkling and lone their way they made,

Through the vast kingdom of the dead,

An empty void, though tenanted:

So travellers in a forest move

With but the uncertain moon above,

Beneath her niggard light,

When Jupiter has hid from view

The heaven, and Nature's every hue

Is lost in blinding night.