Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/60

 and the glowing flush of youth, and had breathed the breath of beauty and gladness into his eyes, loveliness such as the artist's touch imparts to ivory, or when silver or Parian marble is enchased[o] with yellow gold. Then he addresses the queen, and speaks suddenly to the astonishment    5 of all:—"Here am I whom you are seeking, before you,—Æneas, the Trojan, snatched from the jaws of the Libyan wave. O heart that alone of all has found pity for Troy's cruel agonies—that makes us, poor remnants of Danaan fury, utterly spent by all the chances of land and     10 sea, destitute of all, partners of its city, of its very palace! To pay such a debt of gratitude, Dido, is more than we can do—more than can be done by all the survivors of the Dardan nation, now scattered the wide world over. May the gods—if there are powers that regard the pious, if      15 justice and conscious rectitude count for aught anywhere on earth—may they give you the reward you merit! What age had the happiness to bring you forth? what godlike parents gave such nobleness to the world? While the rivers run into the sea, while the shadows sweep along      20 the mountain-sides, while the stars draw life from the sky, your glory and your name and your praise shall still endure, whatever the land whose call I must obey." So saying, he stretches out his right hand to his friend Ilioneus, his left to Serestus, and so on to others, gallant Gyas     25 and gallant Cloanthus.

Astounded was Dido, Sidon's daughter, first at the hero's presence, then at his enormous sufferings, and she bespoke him thus:—"What chance is it, goddess-born, that is hunting you through such a wilderness of perils? what     30 violence throws you on our savage coasts? Are you, indeed, the famed Æneas, whom to Anchises the Dardan, Venus, queen of light and love, bore by the stream of Simois? Aye, I remember Teucer coming to Sidon, driven from the borders of his fatherland, hoping to gain a new      35 kingdom by the aid of Belus. Belus, my sire, was then laying waste the rich fields of Cyprus, and ruling the isle with a conqueror's sway. Ever since that time I knew