While these things were doing in one part of the field, in another
Turnus encountered the youthful Pallas. The contest between champions so
unequally matched could not be doubtful. Pallas bore himself bravely,
but fell by the lance of Turnus. The victor almost relented when he saw
the brave youth lying dead at his feet, and spared to use the privilege
of a conqueror in despoiling him of his arms. The belt only, adorned
with studs and carvings of gold, he took and clasped round his own body.
The rest he remitted to the friends of the slain.
After the battle there was a cessation of arms for some days to allow
both armies to bury their dead. In this interval Æneas challenged Turnus
to decide the contest by single combat, but Turnus evaded the challenge.
Another battle ensued, in which Camilla, the virgin warrior, was chiefly
conspicuous. Her deeds of valor surpassed those of the bravest warriors,
and many Trojans and Etruscans fell pierced with her darts or struck
down by her battle-axe. At last an Etruscan named Aruns, who had watched
her long, seeking for some advantage, observed her pursuing a flying
enemy whose splendid armor offered a tempting prize. Intent on the chase
she observed not her danger, and the javelin of Aruns struck her and
inflicted a fatal wound. She fell and breathed her last in the arms of
her attendant maidens. But Diana, who beheld her fate, suffered not her
slaughter to be unavenged. Aruns, as he stole away, glad, but
frightened, was struck by a secret arrow, launched by one of the nymphs
of Diana’s train, and died ignobly and unknown.
At length the final conflict took place between Æneas and Turnus. Turnus
had avoided the contest as long as he could, but at last, impelled by
the ill success of his arms and by the murmurs of his followers, he
braced himself to the conflict. It could not be doubtful. On the side of
Æneas were the expressed decree of destiny, the aid of his
goddess-mother at every emergency, and impenetrable armor fabricated by
Vulcan, at her request, for her son. Turnus, on the other hand, was
deserted by his celestial allies, Juno having been expressly forbidden
by Jupiter to assist him any longer. Turnus threw his lance, but it
recoiled harmless from the shield of Æneas. The Trojan hero then threw
his, which penetrated the shield of Turnus, and pierced his thigh. Then
Turnus’s fortitude forsook him and he begged for mercy; and Æneas would
have given him his life, but at the instant his eye fell on the belt of
Pallas, which Turnus had taken from the slaughtered youth. Instantly his
rage revived, and exclaiming, “Pallas immolates thee with this blow,” he
thrust him through with his sword.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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