Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/301

 Nay, if the reign of terror is so absolute over our minds and hearts, let us go straight to him with our adjurations and ask for grace at his own hands—ask him to yield, and allow king and country to exercise their rights. Why fling your wretched countrymen again and again into     5 danger's throat, you, the head and wellspring of the ills which Latium has to bear? There is no hope from war; peace we ask of you, one and all—yes, Turnus, peace, and the one surety that can make peace sacred. See, first of all I, whom you give out to be your enemy—and     10 I care not though I be—come and throw myself at your feet. Pity those of your own kin, bring down your pride, and retire as beaten man should. Routed we are; we have looked on corpses enough, and have left leagues enough of land unpeopled. Or if glory stirs you, if you     15 can call up into your breast the courage needed, if the dowry of a palace lies so near your heart, be bold for once, and advance with bosom manned to meet the foe. What! that Turnus may have the blessing of a queenly bride, are we, poor paltry lives, a herd unburied and unwept, to lie     20 weltering on the plain? It is your turn: if you have any strength, any touch of the War-god of your sires, look him in the face who sends you his challenge."

At these words Turnus' violence blazed out: heaving a groan, he vents from the bottom of his heart such utterance     25 as this: "Copious, Drances, ever is your stream of speech in the hour when war is calling for hands; when the senate is summoned, you are first in the field. Yet we want not men to fill our court with talk, that big talk which you hurl from a safe vantage-ground, while the rampart     30 keeps off the foe and the moat is not foaming with carnage. Go on pealing your eloquence, as your wont is: let Drances brand Turnus with cowardice, for it is Drances' hand that has piled those very heaps of Teucrian slaughter, and is planting the fields all over with its trophies. What      35 is the power of glowing valour, experience may show you: enemies in sooth are not far to seek: they are standing all about the walls. Well, are we marching to the