Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/64

40 'Oft had we planned to leave your shore,

Nor tempt the weary conflict more.

O, had we done it! sea and sky

Scared us as oft, in act to fly:

But chiefly when completed stood

This horse, compact of maple wood,

Fierce thunders, pealing in our ears,

Proclaimed the turmoil of the spheres.

Perplexed, Eurypylus we send

To question what the fates portend,

And he from Phœbus' awful shrine

Brings back the words of doom divine:

'With blood ye pacified the gales,

E'en with a virgin slain,

When first ye Danaans spread your sails,

The shores of Troy to gain:

With blood ye your return must buy:

A Greek must at the altar die.'

That sentence reached the public ear,

And bred the dull amaze of fear:

Through every heart a shudder ran,

'Apollo's victim—who the man?'

Ulysses, turbulent and loud,

Drags Calchas forth before the crowd,

And questions what the immortals mean,

Which way these dubious beckonings lean:

E'en then were some discerned my foe,

And silent watched the coming blow.

Ten days the seer, with bated breath,

Restrained the utterance big with death:

O'erborne at last, the word agreed

He speaks, and destines me to bleed.

All gave a sigh, as men set free,

And hailed the doom, content to see

The bolt that threatened each alike

One solitary victim strike.