Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/312

288 What way may access best be found

To dash the Trojans from their mound

And fling them on the plain?

The fleet that lay upon their flank,

Deep shored within the river-bank,

He first assails, and calls aloud

For torches to the exulting crowd,

And with a flaming pine-tree brand,

Himself on flame, supplies his hand.

Then, then, by Turnus' presence spurred,

They ply the work, and at the word

Each waves a torch on fire:

The hearths are stripped, and pitchy glare

And soot and vapour through the air

In flaky wreaths aspire.

What God, ye Muses, stayed the fire,

And saved the barks from fate so dire?

Declare: the tale long since was told,

But fame is green, though faith be old.

When first Æneas on the height

Of Ida built his ships for flight,

The Berecyntine queen, 'tis said,

Her suit before the Thunderer pled:

'Vouchsafe, my son, thy mother's prayer,

Throned by her aid Olympus' heir.

On Ida's summit once was mine,

Loved through long years, a grove of pine,

Where worshippers their homage paid,

With pitch-trees dark and maple shade:

These to the Dardan chief I gave

When ships he sought to cross the wave;

I gave, and in the gift was glad:

But now their future makes me sad.

Release me from my fears: concede

The object of a parent's need: