Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/314

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

woods, in like manner Arruns all wildered has stolen away
from sight, and contented to escape has plunged into the
thick of the battle. With dying hand the maiden pulls
at the spear; but the steely point stands lodged among the
bones at the ribs in the deep wound it made. Drained of 5
blood, she sinks to earth; sink, too, her death-chilled eyes;
her once bright bloom has left her face. Then at her last
gasp she accosts Acca, one of her maiden train, who beyond
the rest was Camilla's friend and shared her thoughts,
and speaks on this wise; "Thus far, sister Acca, has 10
strength been given me: now the cruel wound overcomes
me; and all around me grows dim and dark. Haste and
carry Turnus my dying charge, to take my place in the
battle and keep off the Trojans from the town. And now
farewell." As she spoke she dropped the bridle, swimming 15
down to earth with no willing act. Then as the death-chill
grows she gradually discumbers herself of the entire weight
of the body, droops her unstrung neck and her head on
which fate has seized, quitting too her armour, and her
soul, resenting its lot, flies groaningly to the shades. Then 20
indeed, rising unmeasured, the uproar strikes the golden
stars: Camilla overthrown, the fight waxes fiercer: on
they rush thickening, at once the whole force of the Teucrians,
and the Tyrrhene leaders, and Evander's Arcad
cavalry. 25

But Trivia's sentinel Opis has long been seated high on
the mountain top, an undismayed spectator of the combat.
And when far off, deep among the din of raging
warriors, she spied Camilla shent by ruthless death, she
groaned, and fetched these words from the bottom of her 30
breast: "Poor maiden! too, too cruel the penalty you
have paid for provoking the Teucrians to battle. Nought
has it bestead you at your need to have served Dian in the
forest, and carried on your shoulder the shafts of our sisterhood.
Yet not unhonoured has your queen left you even 35
here in death's extremity; nor shall this your end be without
its glory in the world, nor yourself bear the ignominy
of the unrevenged; for he, whoever he be, whose wound