Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/211

Rh While other some he scatters wide,

And chases from the river side.

Æneas, startled at the scene,

Cries, 'Tell me, priestess, what may mean

This concourse to the shore?

What cause can shade from shade divide

That these should leave the river side,

Those sweep the dull waves o'er?'

The ancient seer made brief reply:

'Anchises' seed, of those on high

The undisputed heir,

Cocytus' pool and Styx you see,

The stream by whose dread majesty

No God will falsely swear.

A helpless and unburied crew

Is this that swarms before your view:

The boatman, Charon: whom the wave

Is carrying, these have found their grave.

For never man may travel o'er

That dark and dreadful flood, before

His bones are in the urn.

E'en till a hundred years are told

They wander shivering in the cold:

At length admitted they behold

The stream for which they yearn.'

In deep thought paused Anchises' seed

And pondered o'er their cruel need.

Tombless and sad, there meet his view

Leucaspis and Orontes true

Who Lycia's navy led:

With him they left their Eastern home;

The southwind whelmed them 'neath the foam,

And men and bark were sped.

Lo! pilot Palinurus' ghost

Was wandering restlessly,