Aeneid

Virgil

Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.

  1. But lo! Aeneas—though the arrow's wound
  2. still slackens him and oft his knees refuse
  3. their wonted step—pursues infuriate
  4. his quailing foe, and dogs him stride for stride.
  5. As when a stag-hound drives the baffled roe
  6. to torrent's edge (or where the flaunting snare
  7. of crimson feathers fearfully confines)
  8. and with incessant barking swift pursues;
  9. while through the snared copse or embankment high
  10. the frightened creature by a thousand ways
  11. doubles and turns; but that keen Umbrian hound
  12. with wide jaws, undesisting, grasps his prey,
  13. or, thinking that he grasps it, snaps his teeth
  14. cracking together, and deludes his rage,
  15. devouring empty air: then peal on peal
  16. the cry of hunters bursts; the lake and shore
  17. reecho, and confusion fills the sky:—
  18. such was the flight of Turnus, who reviled
  19. the Rutules as he fled, and loudly sued
  20. of each by name to fetch his own lost sword.
  21. Aeneas vowed destruction and swift death
  22. to all who dared come near, and terrified
  23. their trembling souls with menace that his power
  24. would raze their city to the ground. Straightway,
  25. though wounded, he gave chase, and five times round
  26. in circles ran; then winding left and right
  27. coursed the swift circles o'er. For, lo! the prize
  28. is no light laurel or a youthful game:
  29. for Turnus' doom and death their race is run.