Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/357

Rh When lo! a friendly company

Confronts him midway on the sea:

The nymphs to whom Cybebe gave

As goddesses to rule the wave

They rode as ships before

In seemly order swam the flood,

As many as erewhile had stood

With prows attached to shore.

From far they recognize their king

And round him weave a choral ring.

Cymodoce, of all the train

Chief mistress of the vocal strain,

Her right hand on the vessel lays,

Oars with her left the watery ways,

And borne breast-high above the seas,

Stirs his awed soul with words like these:

'Still wakes Æneas, heaven's true seed?

Still wake, and mend your navy's speed.

Lo here the pines from Ida's seat,

Now ocean-nymphs, your sometime fleet!

What time the faithless Rutule lord

Bore headlong down with fire and sword,

Unwillingly we broke your chain

And went to seek you o'er the main.

The mighty Mother of her grace

In pity changed us, form and face,

And called us to a life divine

With other nymphs beneath the brine.

Your royal heir the while is pent

In palisade and battlement;

A hedge of spears is round him set,

And Latian foes the camp benet.

The Arcade horse with Tyrrhenes joined

Have mustered at the place assigned,

And Turnus bids his warlike train

Waylay them, ere the camp they gain.