Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/308

 all iron, bristles far and wide with spears, and the plains are ablaze with arms reared on high. Likewise Messapus on the other side and the swift-paced Latians, and Coras and his brother, and maid Camilla's force appear in the plain against them, couching the lance in their backdrawn       5 hands and brandishing the javelin: and the onset of warriors and the neighing of steeds begin to wax hot. And now each army had halted within a spear-throw of the other: with a sudden shout they dash forward, and put spurs to their fiery steeds: missiles are showered from all     10 sides in a moment, thick as snow-flakes, and heaven is curtained with the shade. Instantly Tyrrhenus and fierce Aconteus charge each other spear in hand, and foremost of all crash together with sound as of thunder, so that the chest of either steed is burst against his fellow's; Aconteus,     15 flung off like the levinbolt or a stone hurled from an engine, tumbles headlong in the distance, and scatters his life in air. At once the line of battle is broken, and the Latians, turned to flight, sling their shields behind them and set their horses' heads cityward. The Trojans give them             20 chase: Asilas in the van leads their bands. And now they were nearing the gates, when the Latians in turn set up a shout, and turn their chargers' limber necks; the others fly, and retreat far away at full speed. As when the sea, advancing with its tide that ebbs and flows, one       25 while sweeps towards the land, deluges the rocks with a shower of spray, and sprinkles the sandy margin with the contents of its bosom, one while flees in hasty retreat, dragging back into the gulf the recaptured stones, and with ebbing waters leaves the shore. Twice the Tuscans          30 drove the Rutulians in rout to their walls; twice, repulsed, they look behind as they sling their shields backward. But when in the shock of a third encounter the entire armies grapple each other, and man has singled out man, then in truth upsoar the groans of the dying, and arms and      35 bodies and death-stricken horses blended with human carnage welter in pools of gore: and a savage combat is aroused. Orsilochus hurls a spear at Remulus' horse—*