Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/301

Nay, if the reign of terror is so absolute over our minds
and hearts, let us go straight to him with our adjurations
and ask for grace at his own hands—ask him to yield, and
allow king and country to exercise their rights. Why
fling your wretched countrymen again and again into 5
danger's throat, you, the head and wellspring of the ills
which Latium has to bear? There is no hope from war;
peace we ask of you, one and all—yes, Turnus, peace,
and the one surety that can make peace sacred. See,
first of all I, whom you give out to be your enemy—and 10
I care not though I be—come and throw myself at your
feet. Pity those of your own kin, bring down your
pride, and retire as beaten man should. Routed we are;
we have looked on corpses enough, and have left leagues
enough of land unpeopled. Or if glory stirs you, if you 15
can call up into your breast the courage needed, if the
dowry of a palace lies so near your heart, be bold for once,
and advance with bosom manned to meet the foe. What!
that Turnus may have the blessing of a queenly bride, are
we, poor paltry lives, a herd unburied and unwept, to lie 20
weltering on the plain? It is your turn: if you have any
strength, any touch of the War-god of your sires, look him
in the face who sends you his challenge."

At these words Turnus' violence blazed out: heaving a
groan, he vents from the bottom of his heart such utterance 25
as this: "Copious, Drances, ever is your stream of
speech in the hour when war is calling for hands; when the
senate is summoned, you are first in the field. Yet we
want not men to fill our court with talk, that big talk
which you hurl from a safe vantage-ground, while the rampart 30
keeps off the foe and the moat is not foaming with
carnage. Go on pealing your eloquence, as your wont is:
let Drances brand Turnus with cowardice, for it is Drances'
hand that has piled those very heaps of Teucrian slaughter,
and is planting the fields all over with its trophies. What 35
is the power of glowing valour, experience may show
you: enemies in sooth are not far to seek: they are standing
all about the walls. Well, are we marching to the