Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/78

54 O, there a giant battle raged!

Who saw it sure had thought

No war in Troy ,

No deaths beside were wrought:

So fierce the fray our eyes that met,

The Danaans streaming to the roof,

And every gate by foes beset,

Screened by a penthouse javelin-proof.

Close to the walls the ladders cling:

From step to step the assailants spring,

E'en by the doors: a shield enfolds

Their left: their right a corbel holds.

The Dardans, reckless in despair,

The turrets and the roofs uptear

(E'en to such weapons Fortune drives

Brave patriots, struggling for their lives),

And hurl the gilded beams below,

The pride of ages long ago;

While others on the threshold stand,

And guard the entry, sword in hand.

My heart leaps up, the halls to save,

And help the vanquished to be brave.

A secret postern-gate was there,

Which oped behind a thoroughfare

Through Priam's courts: in happier day

Andromache would pass that way

Alone, to greet the royal pair,

And lead with her her youthful heir.

By this the palace roof I gain,

Whence our poor Trojans, all in vain,

Were showering down their missile rain.

With sheer descent, a turret high

Rose from the roof into the sky,

Whence curious gazers might look down

And see the camp, the fleet, the town: