Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/272

 Dardan hand, a piteous spectacle, at rest from the passions that were ever in thy heart; but thy brethren met the foe in close band, the progeny of Phorcus: seven their number, seven the darts they throw; some rebound idly from shield and helm, some as they grazed the frame were             5 turned aside by Venus' gentle power. Quick spoke Æneas to true Achates: "Give me store of weapons; not one shall my hand hurl in vain against the Rutulians, of all that have quivered in Grecian flesh on the plains of Troy." With that he seizes his mighty spear and launches             10 it: flying on it crashes through the brass of Mæon's shield and rends breastplate and breast at once. Swift comes his brother Alcanor and props with his hand the falling man: piercing the arm the spear flies onward and holds its bloody course, and the dying hand dangles by the                 15 sinews from the shoulder-blade. Then Numitor, snatching the javelin from his brother's body, assails Æneas; yet it might not lodge in the enemy's front, but just grazed the thigh of mighty Achates.

Now comes Clausus of Cures in the pride of his youthful              20 frame, and strikes Dryops from a distance under the chin with the strong impact of his stark spear, and piercing his throat, robs him even as he speaks of life and breath alike: the wounded man strikes the earth with his forehead and vomits from his lips clotted blood. 25 Three, too, from Thrace, of Boreas' noblest lineage, and three sent to battle by Idas their sire and Ismarus their country, he lays low by this chance or that. To his side runs Halesus and the Auruncan bands; comes to his aid, too, the seed of Neptune, steed-famed Messapus. Now                  30 these, now those, strain to win the ground: the struggle is on Ausonia's very threshold. As in the spacious heaven jarring winds meet in battle, alike in spirit and in strength, winds, storm-clouds, and ocean, neither yields to the other: long doubtful hangs the fight; all stand in death             35 grips, front to front: even such the meeting of the army of Troy and the army of Latium: foot is set close to foot, and man massed with man.