Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/258

234 So wildly, furiously she flies

Through peopled towns 'neath wolfish eyes.

Nay more, with fiercer frenzy spurred,

She feigns herself by Bacchus stirred,

Betakes her to the woods, and hides

The maid in leafy mountain-sides,

To balk the Trojans and delay

The dreaded hymenæal day:

And 'Evoe Bacchus! thou alone'

(So shrills her wild ecstatic tone)

'Art worthy of the fair:

For thee she wields the ivied wand,

For thee leads forth the dancers' band,

For thee she tends her hair.'

Swift flies the heraldry of fame,

And many another frenzied dame

Comes forth, her spirit all on flame

A new abode to seek:

Their ancient homes they leave behind,

Spread hair and shoulders to the wind,

Or clad in skins from fawns new doffed

Their vine-branch javelins raise aloft,

With shrill ear-piercing shriek.

She in the midst with frantic hand

Uplifts a blazing pine-wood brand,

And hymns aloud in solemn lay

Her child and Turnus' marriage day;

Then rolling red her bloodshot eyes

'Ho, Latian mothers!' fierce she cries,

'Give ear, where'er ye be:

If, still to poor Amata kind,

A mother's wrongs ye bear in mind,

The fillet from your brows unbind,

And rove the woods with me.'

Thus, armed with Bacchus' handspears keen,

Alecto goads the ill-starred queen,