LX
To all the host doth Love explain
His purpose to assault and gain
The castle, and Fair-Welcome free
From out his bonds and slavery.
Love harangues his host
So let it be, quoth Love; and then
He thus addressed his faithful men:
That we may Jealousy defeat,
At whose fell hands our gallants meet
Such cruel fate, I’ve summoned ye.
’Tis her intention strenuously10980
To hold the fort she dared to build,
Which with distress my heart hath filled.
A potent garrison therein
Is set, and, ere we entry win,
They’ll fight with desperation rude,
And great is my inquietude;
For there Fair-Welcome is immured,
Whose loving kindness oft hath cured
Our woes, and if he’s rescued not
From thence—oh, hard and evil lot!10990
Dead is Tibullus, who so well
Knew me, that, when ’neath death he fell,
My bow and arrows did I shiver
In shards, and tare my goatskin quiver,
While on his tomb my broken wings
Fell heaped, as worn and worthless things,
Shattered and spent, and through his death
My gentle mother’s fragrant breath
