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24 Astounded stand twixt fear and joy

Achates and the chief of Troy:

They burn to hail them and salute,

But wildering wonder keeps them mute.

So, peering through their cloudy screen,

They strive the broken tale to glean,

Where rest the vessels and the crew,

And wherefore thus they come to sue:

For every ship her chief had sent,

And clamouring towards the fane they went.

Then, audience granted by the queen,

Ilioneus spoke with placid mien:

'Lady, whom gracious Jove has willed

A city in the waste to build,

And minds of savage temper school

By justice' humanizing rule,

We, tempest-tost on every wave,

Poor Trojans, your compassion crave

From hideous flame our barks to save:

Commiserate our wretched case,

And war not on a pious race.

We come not, we, to spoil and slay

Your Libyan households, sweep the prey

Off to the shore, then haste away:

Meek grows the heart by misery cowed,

And vanquished souls are not so proud.

A land there is, by Greece of old

Known as Hesperia, rich its mould,

Its children brave and free:

Œnotrians were its planters: Fame

Now gives the race their leader's name,

And calls it Italy.

There lay our course, when, grief to tell,

Orion, rising with a swell,