Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/360

336 This said, he broods what wisest way

To portion out his powers,

Who best may follow him to fray,

Who watch the leaguered towers.

Meantime by bridges linked to land

Æneas disembarks his band:

Some watch the ebbing of the deep,

And safely mid the shallows leap:

Some down the oars descending slide,

And win the ascent in spite of tide.

Stout Tarchon rolls his ranging eyes,

Till on the shore a place he spies,

Where no chafed billows seethe and boil,

No broken waves in wrath recoil,

But ocean without let or breach

Runs gently up the shelving beach;

Thither at once his fleet he steers,

And then salutes his comrades' ears:

'Now, gallants, now each sinew strain,

Your bounding bark upheave;

Pierce with your beaks the hostile plain;

Let the long keel with might and main

Its own broad furrow cleave;

Give me but once the land to seize,

The ship may break, if Fortune please.'

Nerved by the word, each plies his oar

And onward drives 'mid surge and foam,

Till every bark attains the shore

And every keel finds scatheless home.

Less happy their adventurous chief;

His vessel, fastening on a reef,

Long hangs in doubtful poise, and braves

The onset of the baffled waves;

Till the strained sides at last give way

And land the seamen 'mid the spray.