Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/50

So spoke Ilioneus: and the rest
With shouts their loud assent expressed.

Then, looking downward, Dido said:
'Discharge you, Trojans, of your dread:
An infant realm and fortune hard
Compel me thus my shores to guard.
Who knows not of Æneas' name,
Of Troy, her fortune and her fame,
And that devouring war?
Our Punic hearts have more of fire,
Nor all so retrograde from Tyre
Doth Phœbus yoke his car.
Whate'er your choice, the Hesperian plain,
Or Eryx and Acestes' reign,
My arms shall guard you in your way,
My treasuries your needs purvey.
Or would a home on Libya's shores
Allure you more? this town is yours:
Lay up your vessels: Tyre and Troy
Alike shall Dido's thoughts employ.
And would we had your monarch too,
Driven hither by the blast, like you,
The great Æneas! I will send
And search the coast from end to end,
If haply, wandering up and down,
He bide in woodland or in town.'

In breathless eagerness of joy
Achates and the chief of Troy
Were yearning long the cloud to burst;
And thus Achates spoke the first:
'What now, my chief, the thoughts that rise
Within you? see, before your eyes
Your fleet, your friends restored;