Spake

The Prince did not know what to believe, and presently a very aged countryman spake to him thus:— "May it please your royal Highness, more than fifty years since I heard from my father that there was then in this castle the most beautiful princess that was ever seen; that she must sleep there a hundred years, and that she should be waked by a king's son, for whom she was reserved."

So spake the God and with her hest complied, / and turned the massive sceptre in his hand / and pushed the hollow mountain on its side. / Out rushed the winds, like soldiers in a band, / in wedged array, and, whirling, scour the land.

He spake, and heart-sick with a load of care, / suppressed his grief, and feigned a cheerful air.

Thus Venus spake, and thus fair Venus' son replies: / "Nought of thy sisters have I heard or seen. / What name, O maiden, shall I give to thee, / for mortal never had thy voice or mien? / O Goddess surely, whether Nymph I see, / or Phoebus' sister."

Then, audience granted, as the fane they filled, / thus calmly spake the eldest of the train, / Ilioneus: "O queen, whom Jove hath willed / to found this new-born city, here to reign, / and stubborn tribes with justice to refrain, / we, Troy's poor fugitives, implore thy grace, / storm-tost and wandering over every main: / forbid the flames our vessels to deface, / mark our afflicted plight, and spare a pious race."

He spake; the Dardans answered with a cheer.

So spake the Queen, and on the festal board / the prime libation to the gods outpoured, / then lightly to her lips the goblet pressed, / and gave to Bitias. Challenged by the word, / he dived into the brimming gold with zest, / and quaffed the foaming bowl, and after him, the rest.

"Then, forced by false Ulysses' clamorous cry, / spake the concerted word, and sentenced me to die."

He spake, and quickly snatched from Vesta's shrine / the deathless fire and wreaths and effigy divine.

So spake the son of Othrys, and forthright, / my spirit stirred with impulse from on high, / I rush to arms amid the flames and fight, / where yells the war-fiend and the warrior's cry, / mixt with the din of strife, mounts upward to the sky.