United States or Lesotho ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The crowd of readers who expected politics and scandal, speculations on the projects of Victor Amadeus, and anecdotes about the jollities of convents and the amours of cardinals and nuns, were confounded by finding that the writer's mind was much more occupied by the war between the Trojans and Rutulians than by the war between France and Austria; and that he seemed to have heard no scandal of later date than the gallantries of the Empress Faustina.
Nor do the bold Rutulians care longer to continue the blind fight, but strive to clear the rampart with missiles. . . . Elsewhere in dreadful guise Mezentius brandishes his Etruscan pine and hurls smoking brands; but Messapus, tamer of horses, seed of Neptune, tears away the palisading and calls for ladders to the ramparts.
Thymbraeus smites massive Osiris with the sword, Mnestheus slays Arcetius, Achates Epulo, Gyas Ufens: Tolumnius the augur himself goes down, he who had hurled the first weapon against the foe. Their cry rises to heaven, and in turn the routed Rutulians give backward in flight over the dusty fields.
Only two of the occupants of the tower Hel'e-nor and Lycus escaped destruction in its fall, but on emerging from the ruins they found themselves in the midst of the Rutulians. Helenor seeing no chance of saving his life, faced his foes like a lion and died in the thick of the fight. Lycus, who was a swift runner, fled towards the walls, dashing through the lines of the enemy.
When he saw his comrades, 'It is time, he cried, 'to stay from battle. I alone must assail Pallas; to me and none other Pallas is due; I would his father himself were here to see. So speaks he, and his Rutulians draw back from a level space at his bidding.
Thou canst steal thine Aeneas from Grecian hands, and spread before them a human semblance of mist and empty air; thou canst turn his fleet into nymphs of like number: is it dreadful if we retaliate with any aid to the Rutulians? Aeneas is away and ignorant; away and ignorant let him be. Paphos is thine and Idalium, thine high Cythera; why meddlest thou with fierce spirits and a city big with war?
He found the hero attended by his faithful Achates, and, Pallas soon joining them, the old king spoke thus: "Illustrious Trojan, it is but little we can do in so great a cause. Our state is feeble, hemmed in on one side by the river, on the other by the Rutulians. But I propose to ally you with a people numerous and rich, to whom fate has brought you at the propitious moment.
Whatever bitterness there is in death I am ready to endure it." So saying, Turnus sprang from his chariot, and bounding over the plain, rushed into the midst of the combatants at the gates of the city. With outstretched arms he made a sign to his friends, and called upon them in a loud voice: "Rutulians and Latians, cease fighting. Whatever fortune of the war remains is mine.
Thus Trojan and Italian meet, With face to face, and feet to feet, And hand close pressed to hand. In another quarter of the field young Pallas, fighting at the head of his Arcadian horsemen, slew many chiefs of the Latians and Rutulians. Opposed to him was Lausus, son of the tyrant Mezentius.
Brutus, thinking that the Pythian response had another meaning, as if he had stumbled and fallen, touched the ground with his lips, she being, forsooth, the common mother of all mankind. After this they returned to Rome, where preparations were being made with the greatest vigour for a war against the Rutulians.
Word Of The Day