into unsubstantial air. The Dardan chiefs knew the god and his divine artillery, and heard his quiver hurtle as he fled. So now at Phœbus' present instance they check Ascanius' ardour for battle; themselves take their place in the combat once more, and fling their lives into the 5 jaws of danger. All over the walls passes the shout from rampart to rampart; they bend their sharp-springing bows and hurl their lashed javelins—the ground is all strewn with darts; shields and hollow helms ring with blow on blow; a savage combat is aroused; fierce as the 10 rain coming from the west at the setting of the showery kid-stars[o] scourges the earth, plenteous as the hail which the stormclouds discharge into the sea, when Jove in the sullenness of southern blasts whirls the watery tempest and bursts the misty chambers of the sky. 15
Pandarus and Bitias, sons of Idæan Alcanor, brought up by Iæra the wood-nymph in the grove of Jupiter, youths tall as the pines and peaks of their birthplace, throw open the gate, which the general's order placed in their charge, relying on their good steel, and invite the foe to enter the 20 town. Themselves within right and left stand before the bulwarks, sheathed in iron, the crest waving on their lofty heads: even as high in air beside the flowing streams, on Padus'[o] banks it may be or by pleasant Athesis, up-*tower two oaks, raising to heaven their unshorn summits 25 and nodding their lofty crowns. In rush the Rutulians when they see the entry clear. In a moment Quercens and Aquicolus in his brilliant armour and headlong Tmarus and Hæmon, scion of Mars, with all their followers, are routed and turned to flight, or on the threshold of the gate 30 have resigned their lives. At this the wrath of the combatants flames yet higher, and the Trojans rally and muster in one spot and venture to engage hand to hand and to advance farther into the plain.
Turnus, the chief, while venting his rage elsewhere and 35 scattering ranks of warriors, hears tidings that the foe, fevered by the taste of blood, has thrown the gates open. He leaves the work he had begun, and stirred with giant
