Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/288

as he was wont, and charged his two hands with pointed
javelins, his head shining with brass and shaggy with
horse-hair crest. So he bounded into the midst—his
heart glowing at once with mighty shame, madness and
agony commingled. Then with a loud voice he thrice 5
called on Æneas: aye, and Æneas knew it, and prays in
ecstasy: "May the great father of the gods, may royal
Apollo grant that you come to the encounter!" So
much said, he marches to meet him with brandished spear.
The other replies: "Why terrify me, fellest of foes, now 10
you have robbed me of my son? this was the only way by
which you could work my ruin. I fear not death, nor give
quarter to any deity. Enough: I am coming to die, and
send you this my present first." He said, and flung a
javelin at his enemy: then he sends another and another 15
to its mark, wheeling round in a vast ring: but the golden
shield bides the blow. Three times, wheeling from right
to left, he rode round the foe that faced him, flinging
darts from his hand: three times the hero of Troy moves
round, carrying with him a vast grove planted on his 20
brazen plate. Then, when he begins to tire of the long
delay and the incessant plucking out of darts, and feels the
unequal combat press him hard, meditating many things,
at last he springs from his covert, and hurls his spear full
between the hollow temples of the warrior-steed. The 25
gallant beast rears itself upright, lashes the air with its
heels, and, flinging the rider, falls on and encumbers him,
and itself bowed to earth presses with its shoulder the prostrate
chief. Up flies Æneas, plucks forth his sword from
its scabbard, and bespeaks the fallen: "Where now is 30
fierce Mezentius and that his savage vehemence of spirit?"
To whom the Tuscan, soon as opening his eyes on the light
he drank in the heaven and regained his sense: "Insulting
foe, why reproach me and menace me with death? You
may kill me without crime: I came not to battle to be 35
spared, nor was that the league which my Lausus ratified
with you for his father. One boon I ask, in the name of
that grace, if any there be, which is due to a vanquished