Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/198

 Fate's will for Latium—who by mixing their blood with ours are to exalt our name to the spheres. That he is this chosen one of destiny is my belief, and, if my mind reads the future true, my award." With these words the old king makes choice of horses from the multitude he possessed.  5 Three hundred there were, sleek-coated, standing in their lofty stalls. At once he bids his servants bring for each of the Teucrians a fleet-foot with housings of embroidered purple; golden poitrels hang down to the chest of each; there is gold on their coverings; yellow   10 gold under their champing teeth. For the absent Æneas he orders a car and two coursers of ethereal seed, snorting fire from their nostrils, sprung of that brood which artful Circe raised up fraudfully to her father the Sun, a spurious race, from the womb of a mortal dam. Thus graced with   15 gifts and kind speeches, the children of Æneas journey homeward on their tall steeds, and carry tidings of peace.

Meanwhile, there was Jove's relentless spouse travelling back from her own Argos, city of Inachus, and already launched on mid air; looking from the sky over Sicilian  20 Pachynus, she beheld in distant prospect Æneas in his hour of joy and the Dardan fleet. Already she sees him building his home; already he has made the soil his friend, and has parted from his ships. Pierced with bitter grief, she stayed her course, and then, shaking her head, pours  25 from her heart words like these: "Ah, that hated stock! those destinies of Phrygia that hold my destinies in check! Did the dead really fall on the plains of Sigeum? were the captives captured in truth? did the flames of Troy burn the men of Troy? Through the heart of the battle,  30 through the heart of the fire they have found a way. Ay, belike, my power at last lies gasping and spent; my hatred is slaked and I am at peace. I, who followed them with a foe's zeal over the water even when tossed from their country's arms, and met the exiles front to front on   35 every sea! Spent on these Teucrians is all that sky and surge can do. Have Syrtes, has Scylla, has Charybdis' yawning gulf stood me aught in stead? They have