Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/312

 ready for the death he brings to others, and charges in fury on Venulus, snatches the foe from his horse, folds his arms round him, and carries him on his saddle before him with wild and violent speed. Upsoars a shout to heaven, and every Latian eye is turned to the scene. Over the       5 plain like lightning flies Tarchon, bearing the warrior and his arms. Then from the top of the chiefs own spear he breaks off the point, and feels for an unguarded part where to plant the deadly blow: the foe, struggling, keeps off Tarchon's hand from his throat, and repels force with      10 force. As when the golden eagle soaring on high carries a serpent he has caught, trussing it in his claws, and adhering with his taloned gripe; the wounded reptile writhes its spiral coils, stiffens with erected scales, and hisses from its mouth, surging and swelling; the eagle, undismayed,      15 plies it despite its struggles with his hooked beak, while his pinions beat the air: even thus Tarchon carries his prize in triumph from the bands of Tibur's folk. Following their chief's auspicious lead, the sons of Mæonia charge the foe. Then Arruns, the man of fate, compasses swift      20 Camilla about, dart in hand, with many a forestalling wile, and tries what chance may be readiest. Wherever the fiery maid dashes into the midst of the battle, Arruns threads his way after her, and scans her steps in silence: wherever she returns in triumph, escaping safely from the     25 foe, that way the youth turns his swift and stealthy rein; now makes proof of this approach, now of that, and traverses the whole circle, and shakes with relentless malice his inevitable lance. It chanced that one Chloreus, sacred to Cybele and once her priest, was shining conspicuous       30 from afar in Phrygian armour, urging on a foaming charger, whose covering was a skin adorned with golden clasp and brazen scales set plume-wise. He, in the blaze of foreign purple, was launching Gortynian shafts from a Lycian bow; golden was the bow that rang from his shoulder, golden the      35 helm on his sacred head; his saffron scarf with its rustling gauzy folds was gathered up by a golden brooch, and his tunic and his hose decked with barbaric broidery. He it