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Rh Then may you give your hate its fill,

And rage and ravage as you will:

Now cease, and ratify with me

The covenant I will shall be.'

Thus briefly Jove: but not in brief

Gives Venus utterance to her grief:

'Dread lord of all above, below!

For other succour none we know

In this our trouble sore:

Seest thou how swells the Rutules' pride?

See Turnus in his triumph ride,

E'en on the crest of war's fierce tide,

And bid its billows roar!

No more their walls my Trojans shield:

The camp is changed to battle-field:

The trenches float with gore.

Our chief in ignorance bides away:

What? leav'st us not one peaceful day

From siege and leaguer free?

Once more there lowers o'er rising Troy

A spoiler, eager to destroy,

With myriads fierce as he:

And Tydeus' son once more is brought,

To fight, belike, as erst he fought.

Aye, sooth, I ween it is decreed

That Venus' wounds again shall bleed,

And I, thy child, too long delay

The spear that gores, but cannot slay.

If unsecured by leave from thee

Troy's sons have sailed to Italy,

Withdraw thine aid, and let them be,

To reap their folly's due:

But if thy mandates they obeyed

By many a warning voice conveyed

From heaven above and nether shade,