Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/359

Rh Such token give Strymonian cranes

Beneath a gloomy cloud,

What time they fly the autumnal rains

With clamour hoarse and loud.

With wonder strange the sudden change

The Rutule leaders note,

Till, backward as their eyes they bend,

They see the vessels shoreward tend,

And ocean all afloat.

There glows like furnace fiery red

The helmet on that noble head;

From the bossed shield, with gold ablaze,

A stream of living lightning plays;

So comets shoot athwart the night

A sullen sanguine glare;

So Sirius' star, that brings to man

Fierce calenture and sickness wan,

Lifts high in heaven his baleful light

And saddens all the air.

Yet Turnus still flames high with zeal

To front the invader with the steel

And drive him from the strand;

Still prompt to cheer or to upbraid

He clamours to his friends for aid:

'Lo, here the chance for which you prayed,

To crush them sword in hand!

A brave man's hand is Mars's seat;

The coward finds him in his feet.

Think, each and all, of home and wife,

Think of their deeds who gave you life,

Your gallant sires of old.

Haste to the water's brink; dispute

The land they challenge, foot to foot,

While still in helpless disarray

They slide and falter in the spray:

Fair fortune aids the bold.'