Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/279

Even as Ægæon, who, fable tells, had a hundred arms
and a hundred hands, and flashed fire through fifty mouths
from the depths of fifty bosoms, what time against Jove's
lightning he thundered on fifty strong shields, and drew
forth fifty sharp swords, so Æneas slakes his victorious 5
fury the whole field over, when once his blade had grown
warm with blood. See! he is advancing against Niphæus'
four harnessed steeds, and setting his breast
against theirs. At once they, soon as they saw his lofty
stride and his fierce gestures, turn round affrighted, and, 10
rushing backward, unseat their master and hurry the car
to the beach. Meanwhile Lucagus forces his way into
the midst, drawn by two white horses, with Liger his
brother; but the brother guides the steeds with the rein,
while Lucagus sweeps fiercely round his naked sword. 15
Æneas brooked not the fury of their fiery onset, but
rushed against them, and stood fronting them in his giant
bulk with threatening spear. To him cried Liger: "These
are not Diomede's steeds you see, nor this Achilles' chariot,
nor are these the Phrygian plains; your warfare and 20
your life shall end here on Italian ground." So fly abroad
the random words of frantic Liger. The chief of Troy
seeks not to meet him with words, but hurls his javelin
at the foe. Even as Lucagus, bending forward over the
stroke, pricked on his horses with the steel, and advancing 25
his left foot prepares himself for fight, the spear
pierces the last margin of the radiant shield and enters
the groin at the left: down he falls from the car and
wallows in death on the plain; while good Æneas bespeaks
him with words of gall: "So, Lucagus, it is no 30
craven flight of your steeds that has played your car false;
no empty shadow cast by the foe has turned them; no,
it is you that spring down from the wheels, and leave the
horses to their fate." With these words he laid hold of
the bridles, while the wretched brother, gliding down 35
from the car, was stretching his recreant hands: "Oh, by
yourself, by the parents that gave such greatness birth,
spare this poor life, brave hero of Troy, and let prayer