Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/192

 to tell, sailing thither with loud humming noise across the liquid air, and twining their legs together, the cluster in a moment was seen to hang from the leafy bough. At once spoke a prophet: "There is a stranger approaching: I see him now; along this self-same path a troop is moving           5 hitherward, and commanding the height of the citadel." Moreover, while Lavinia is applying the hallowed torch to the altars, as she stands in maiden purity at her father's side, she was seen, oh, monstrous sight! to catch the fire with her long tresses, all her headgear consuming in the           10 crackling flame, her queenly hair, her jewelled coronal all ablaze, till at last she was wrapt in smoke and yellow glare, and scattered the fire-god's sparks the whole palace through. There indeed was a tale of horror, a marvel and a portent; for, said the wise men, she will herself be illustrious     15 in fame and fortune, but to the nation she bodes tremendous war. Troubled by these prodigies, the king repairs to the oracle of Faunus, his prophetic sire, to question at the groves beneath Albunea's shade—that queen of forests, ever vocal with the sacred waters, ever     20 breathing from its dark heart deadly vaporous steam. It is here that the tribes of Italy and all Œnotrian land seek answers in their perplexity; hither the priestess brings the inquirer's offering, lies in the still of night on a couch of slaughtered sheep's skins, and turns to sleep, when     25 she sees many phantoms flitting in marvellous fashion, and hears divers voices, and enjoys communion with the gods, and holds converse with Acheron down in Avernus' deep. Here also king Latinus, in quest of an answer, was sacrificing duly a hundred sheep of the second year, and           30 was lying on their skins, a fleecy bed, when sudden from the depth of the grove an utterance was heard: "Look not to ally your daughter in wedlock of Latium, O my son; put not faith in marriage chambers dressed and ready; there are sons-in-law from a far country now on their way,       35 men destined by mixing their blood with ours to exalt our name to the spheres—men whose lineal posterity shall one day look down and see under their feet the whole