Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/82

58 Till just before his parents' eyes,

All bathed in blood, he falls and dies.

With death in view, the unchilded sire

Checked not the utterance of his ire:

'May Heaven, if Heaven be just to heed

Such horrors, render worthy meed'

He cries 'for this atrocious deed,

Which makes me see my darling die,

And stains with blood a father's eye.

But he to whom you feign you owe

Your birth, Achilles—'twas not so

He dealt with Priam, though his foe:

He feared the laws of right and truth;

He heard the suppliant's prayer with ruth;

Gave Hector's body to the tomb,

And sent me back in safety home.'

So spoke the sire, and speaking threw

A feeble dart, no blood that drew:

The ringing metal turned it back,

And left it dangling, weak and slack.

Then Pyrrhus: 'Take the news below,

And to my sire Achilles go:

Tell him of his degenerate seed,

And that and this my bloody deed.

Now die:' and to the altar-stone

Along the marble floor

He dragged the father, sliddering on

E'en in his child's own gore:

His left hand in his hair he wreathed,

While with the right he plied

His flashing sword, and hilt-deep sheathed

Within the old man's side.

So Priam's fortunes closed at last:

So passed he, seeing as he passed

His Troy in flames, his royal tower

Laid low in dust by hostile power,