Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/222

198 The left gives sinners up to pain,

And leads to Tartarus' guilty reign.'

'Dread seer,' Deiphobus replies,

'Forgive, nor let thine anger rise.

The shadowy circle I complete,

And seek again my gloomy seat.

Pass on, proud boast of Ilium's line,

And find a happier fate than mine.'

Thus he; and as the words he said

He turned, and in an instant fled.

Sudden Æneas turns his eyes,

When 'neath the left-hand cliff he spies

The bastions of a broad stronghold,

Engirt with walls of triple fold:

Fierce Phlegethon surrounds the same,

Foaming aloft with torrent flame,

And whirls his roaring rocks:

In front a portal stands displayed,

On adamantine columns stayed:

Nor mortal nor immortal foe

Those massy gates could overthrow

With battle's direst shocks.

An iron tower of equal might

In air uprises steep:

Tisiphone, in red robes dight,

Sits on the threshold day and night

With eyes that know not sleep.

Hark! from within there issue groans,

The cracking of the thong,

The clank of iron o'er the stones

Dragged heavily along.

Æneas halted, and drank in

With startled ear the fiendish din: