Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/365

Rh Then slew he Sthenelus, and base

Anchemolus, of Rhœtus' race,

Who dared in wantonness of crime

His step-dame's wedded couch to climb.

Ye too were tumbled on the plain,

Larides, Thymber, brethren twain,

Of Daucus' honourable strain;

So like, the sweet confusion e'en

Their parents' eyes betrayed;

But Pallas twin and twin between

Has cruel difference made:

For Thymber's head the steel has shorn;

Larides' severed hand forlorn

Feels blindly for its lord:

The quivering fingers, half alive,

Twitch with convulsive gripe, and strive

To close upon the sword.

Now with his warning in their ear,

His deeds before their eye,

Anger and shame o'erpowering fear,

His mates to combat fly.

Lo, hurrying past in full career,

Falls Rhœteus by the Evandrian spear.

That spear was meant for Ilus' death,

But Ilus gains a moment's breath

Doomed in the next to die:

While Rhœteus comes between and bleeds,

From warlike Teuthras as he speeds

And Tyres' brandished steel;

Rolled headlong from the rapid car

He tumbles, and the field of war

Spurns with his dying heel.

E'en as a swain 'mid forest trees,

When summer yields the wished-for breeze,

His scattered torches sends;