Thro' air she flies a suppliant to thy shrine;
And the first
weapons that she knows, are thine.'
He said; and with full force the spear he threw:
Above the sounding waves Camilla flew.
Then, press'd by foes, he stemm'd the stormy tide,
And gain'd, by
stress of arms, the farther side.
His fasten'd spear he pull'd from out the ground,
And,
victor of his vows, his
infant nymph unbound;
Nor, after that, in towns which walls inclose,
Would trust his hunted life
amidst his foes;
But, rough, in open air he chose to lie;
Earth was his couch, his cov'ring was the sky.
On hills unshorn, or in a desart den,
He shunn'd the dire society of men.
A shepherd's
solitary life he led;
His daughter with the milk of mares he fed.
The dugs of bears, and ev'ry salvage beast,
He drew, and thro' her lips the
liquor press'd.
The little Amazon could
scarcely go:
He loads her with a
quiver and a bow;
And, that she might her stagg'ring steps command,
He with a
slender jav'lin fills her hand.
Her flowing hair no golden fillet bound;
Nor swept her trailing robe the dusty ground.
Instead of these, a tiger's hide o'erspread
Her back and shoulders, fasten'd to her head.
The flying dart she first attempts to fling,
And round her tender temples toss'd the sling;
Then, as her strength with years increas'd, began
To
pierce aloft in air the soaring swan,
And from the clouds to fetch the heron and the crane.
The Tuscan matrons with each other vied,
To bless their rival sons with such a bride;
But she disdains their love, to share with me
The sylvan shades and vow'd
virginity.
And, O! I wish,
contented with my cares
Of salvage spoils, she had not sought the wars!
Then had she been of my
celestial train,
And shunn'd the fate that dooms her to be slain.
But since, opposing Heav'n's
decree, she goes
To find her death among
forbidden foes,
Haste with these arms, and take thy steepy
flight.
Where, with the gods,
averse, the Latins fight.
This bow to thee, this
quiver I bequeath,
This chosen arrow, to
revenge her death:
By whate'er hand Camilla shall be slain,
Or of the Trojan or Italian train,
Let him not pass unpunish'd from the plain.
Then, in a hollow cloud, myself will aid
To bear the
breathless body of my maid:
Unspoil'd shall be her arms, and unprofan'd
Her holy limbs with any human hand,
And in a
marble tomb laid in her native land."
She said. The
faithful nymph descends from high
With rapid
flight, and cuts the sounding sky:
Black clouds and stormy winds around her body fly.
By this, the Trojan and the Tuscan horse,
Drawn up in squadrons, with united force,
Approach the walls: the
sprightly coursers bound,
Press forward on their bits, and shift their ground.
Shields, arms, and spears flash
horribly from far;
And the fields
glitter with a waving war.
Oppos'd to these, come on with
furious force
Messapus, Coras, and the Latian horse;
These in the body plac'd, on either hand
Sustain'd and clos'd by fair Camilla's band.
Advancing in a line, they couch their spears;
And less and less the middle space appears.
Thick smoke obscures the field; and
scarce are seen
The neighing coursers, and the shouting men.
In distance of their darts they stop their course;
Then man to man they rush, and horse to horse.
The face of heav'n their flying jav'lins hide,
And deaths
unseen are dealt on either side.
Tyrrhenus, and Aconteus, void of fear,
By mettled coursers borne in full career,
Meet first oppos'd; and, with a
mighty shock,
Their horses' heads against each other knock.
Far from his steed is
fierce Aconteus cast,
As with an engine's force, or lightning's blast:
He rolls along in blood, and breathes his last.
The Latin squadrons take a sudden fright,
And sling their
shields behind, to save their backs in
flightSpurring at speed to their own walls they drew;
Close in the rear the Tuscan troops pursue,
And urge their
flight: Asylas leads the chase;
Till, seiz'd, with shame, they wheel about and face,
Receive their foes, and raise a threat'ning cry.
The Tuscans take their turn to fear and fly.
So swelling surges, with a thund'ring roar,
Driv'n on each other's backs,
insult the shore,
Bound o'er the rocks, incroach upon the land,
And far upon the beach eject the sand;
Then
backward, with a swing, they take their way,
Repuls'd from upper ground, and seek their mother sea;
With equal hurry quit th' invaded shore,
And
swallow back the sand and stones they spew'd before.
Twice were the Tuscans masters of the field,
Twice by the Latins, in their turn, repell'd.
Asham'd at length, to the third
charge they ran;
Both hosts resolv'd, and mingled man to man.
Now dying groans are heard; the fields are strow'd
With falling bodies, and are drunk with blood.
Arms, horses, men, on heaps together lie:
Confus'd the fight, and more confus'd the cry.
Orsilochus, who durst not press too near
Strong Remulus, at distance drove his spear,
And stuck the steel beneath his horse's ear.
The fiery steed,
impatient of the wound,
Curvets, and, springing
upward with a bound,
His
helpless lord cast
backward on the ground.
Catillus pierc'd Iolas first; then drew
His reeking lance, and at Herminius threw,
The
mightychampion of the Tuscan crew.
His neck and
throat unarm'd, his head was bare,
But shaded with a length of yellow hair:
Secure, he fought, expos'd on ev'ry part,
A
spacious mark for swords, and for the flying dart.
Across the shoulders came the feather'd wound;
Transfix'd he fell, and doubled to the ground.
The sands with
streaming blood are
sanguine dyed,
And death with honor sought on either side.
Resistless thro' the war Camilla rode,
In danger unappall'd, and pleas'd with blood.
One side was bare for her exerted breast;
One shoulder with her painted
quiver press'd.
Now from afar her fatal jav'lins play;
Now with her ax's edge she hews her way:
Diana's arms upon her shoulder sound;
And when, too closely press'd, she quits the ground,
From her bent bow she sends a
backward wound.
Her maids, in
martial pomp, on either side,
Larina, Tulla,
fierce Tarpeia, ride:
Italians all; in peace, their queen's delight;
In war, the bold companions of the fight.
So march'd the Tracian Amazons of old,
When Thermodon with
bloody billows roll'd:
Such troops as these in shining arms were seen,
When Theseus met in fight their
maiden queen:
Such to the field Penthisilea led,
From the
fiercevirgin when the Grecians fled;
With such, return'd
triumphant from the war,
Her maids with cries attend the lofty car;
They clash with manly force their moony
shields;
With
female shouts
resound the Phrygian fields.
Who
foremost, and who last,
heroic maid,
On the cold earth were by thy courage laid?
Thy spear, of mountain ash, Eumenius first,
With fury driv'n, from side to side transpierc'd:
A
purplestream came spouting from the wound;
Bath'd in his blood he lies, and bites the ground.
Liris and Pegasus at once she slew:
The former, as the slacken'd reins he drew
Of his faint steed; the latter, as he stretch'd
His arm to prop his friend, the jav'lin reach'd.
By the same
weapon, sent from the same hand,
Both fall together, and both spurn the sand.
Amastrus next is added to the slain:
The rest in rout she follows o'er the plain:
Tereus, Harpalycus, Demophoon,
And Chromis, at full speed her fury shun.
Of all her
deadly darts, not one she lost;
Each was attended with a Trojan ghost.
Young Ornithus bestrode a
hunter steed,
Swift for the chase, and of Apulian breed.
Him from afar she spied, in arms unknown:
O'er his broad back an ox's hide was thrown;
His helm a wolf, whose gaping jaws were spread
A cov'ring for his cheeks, and grinn'd around his head,
He clench'd within his hand an iron prong,
And tower'd above the rest,
conspicuous in the throng.
Him soon she singled from the flying train,
And slew with ease; then thus
insults the slain:
"Vain
hunter, didst thou think thro' woods to chase
The
savage herd, a vile and trembling race?
Here cease thy vaunts, and own my
victory:
A woman
warrior was too strong for thee.
Yet, if the ghosts demand the conqu'ror's name,
Confessing great Camilla, save thy shame."
Then Butes and Orsilochus she slew,
The bulkiest bodies of the Trojan crew;
But Butes breast to breast: the spear descends
Above the gorget, where his
helmet ends,
And o'er the
shield which his left side defends.
Orsilochus and she their courses ply:
He seems to follow, and she seems to fly;
But in a narrower ring she makes the race;
And then he flies, and she pursues the chase.
Gath'ring at length on her deluded foe,
She swings her ax, and rises to the blow
Full on the helm behind, with such a sway
The
weapon falls, the riven steel gives way:
He groans, he roars, he sues in vain for grace;
Brains, mingled with his blood, besmear his face.
Astonish'd Aunus just arrives by chance,
To see his fall; nor farther dares advance;
But, fixing on the
horrid maid his eye,
He stares, and shakes, and finds it vain to fly;
Yet, like a true Ligurian, born to cheat,
(At least while fortune favor'd his deceit,)
Cries out aloud: "What courage have you shown,