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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IX Chapter 12: Nisus and Euryalus caught | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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But horsemen from the Latin city sent to join the serried legions of the plain had come at Turnus' call, three hundred strong all bearing shields, and under the command of Volscens. Nigh the camp and walls they drew; and soon they spied upon the leftward path th' heroic pair, where in dim shades of night the helmet of Euryalus betrayed the heedless boy, and with a glancing beam flashed on the foe. Nor was it seen in vain. Loud from the line the voice of Volscens called: Stand, gentlemen! What business brings you here? Whose your allegiance? Whither speed so fast? No answer gave they save to fly in haste to cover of the forest and deep gloom of the defensive night. The horsemen then blocked every cross-way known, and, scattering wide, kept sentry at the entrance. The great wood was all of tangled brush and blinding shade of flex-boughs. Impenetrable thorns had thickly overgrown, and seldom showed a pathway through the maze. Euryalus, by the black branches and his ponderous spoil impeded, groped along in fearful doubt, deceived and quite astray. Nisus his friend had quit him, and incautiously had forced a sally through the close-encircling foe, into that region which should after bear the name of Alba -- a rude shelter then for King Latinus' herds. He stayed him there and looked, but vainly, for the comrade gone. Euryalus, ill-fated boy! he cried, Where have I lost thee in the pathless wild? How find thee? How retrace the blinding maze of yonder treacherous wood? Yet ere he said, on his own path he turns him back, and scans his own light footprints through the tangled thorn, so dark and still. But suddenly he hears the tread of horses, with confusing din and tumult of pursuit. Nor was it long he tarried ere upon his anguished ear smote a great cry: and, lo! Euryalus, trapped by the dark night, the deceptive ground, faced the whole onset, and fell back o'erwhelmed by a loud mob of foes, while his sole sword tried many a thrust in vain. O, what defence may Nisus bring? With what audacious arms his chosen comrade save? Shall he make bare his dying breast to all their swords, and run to honorable death that bloody way? he swung his spear with lifted arm, then looked to the still moon, in heaven, and thus implored: O goddess, aid me in my evil case. O glory of the stars, Latona's child! O guardian of groves, if in my name my father Hyrtacus made offerings on burning altars, if my own right hand, successful in the chase, ere hung its gift beneath thy dome or on thy sacred wall, grant me yon troop to scatter. Guide my spear along its path in air. He spoke, and hurled with all his gathered strength the shaft of steel. the swift spear clove the shades of night, and struck full in the back of Sulmo, where it split, but tore through to his very heart. The breast poured forth life's glowing stream, and he, o'erthrown lay cold in death, while his huge, heaving sides gave lingering throes. The men about him stared this way and that. But Nisus, fiercer still, poised level with his ear a second shaft, and, while the foeman paused, the whizzing spear straight through the brows of Tagus drove, and clung deep in the cloven brain. Event: Sortie of Nisus and Euryalis |
367-419 Interea praemissi equites ex urbe Latina, cetera dum legio campis instructa moratur, ibant et Turno regi responsa ferebant, ter centum, scutati omnes, Volcente magistro. iamque propinquabant castris murosque subibant cum procul hos laeuo flectentis limite cernunt, et galea Euryalum sublustri noctis in umbra prodidit immemorem radiisque aduersa refulsit. haud temere est uisum. conclamat ab agmine Volcens: 'state, uiri. quae causa uiae? quiue estis in armis? quoue tenetis iter?' nihil illi tendere contra, sed celerare fugam in siluas et fidere nocti. obiciunt equites sese ad diuortia nota hinc atque hinc, omnemque aditum custode coronant. silua fuit late dumis atque ilice nigra horrida, quam densi complerant undique sentes; rara per occultos lucebat semita callis. Euryalum tenebrae ramorum onerosaque praeda impediunt, fallitque timor regione uiarum. Nisus abit; iamque imprudens euaserat hostis atque locos qui post Albae de nomine dicti Albani (tum rex stabula alta Latinus habebat), ut stetit et frustra absentem respexit amicum: 'Euryale infelix, qua te regione reliqui? quaue sequar?' rursus perplexum iter omne reuoluens fallacis siluae simul et uestigia retro obseruata legit dumisque silentibus errat. audit equos, audit strepitus et signa sequentum; nec longum in medio tempus, cum clamor ad auris peruenit ac uidet Euryalum, quem iam manus omnis fraude loci et noctis, subito turbante tumultu, oppressum rapit et conantem plurima frustra. quid faciat? qua ui iuuenem, quibus audeat armis eripere? an sese medios moriturus in enses inferat et pulchram properet per uulnera mortem? ocius adducto torquet hastile lacerto suspiciens altam Lunam et sic uoce precatur: 'tu, dea, tu praesens nostro succurre labori, astrorum decus et nemorum Latonia custos. si qua tuis umquam pro me pater Hyrtacus aris dona tulit, si qua ipse meis uenatibus auxi suspendiue tholo aut sacra ad fastigia fixi, hunc sine me turbare globum et rege tela per auras.' dixerat et toto conixus corpore ferrum conicit. hasta uolans noctis diuerberat umbras et uenit auersi in tergum Sulmonis ibique frangitur, ac fisso transit praecordia ligno. uoluitur ille uomens calidum de pectore flumen frigidus et longis singultibus ilia pulsat. diuersi circumspiciunt. hoc acrior idem ecce aliud summa telum librabat ab aure. dum trepidant, it hasta Tago per tempus utrumque stridens traiectoque haesit tepefacta cerebro. |