And now there came ambassadors from the city, having olive-branches about their heads, praying for a truce, that they might bury their dead. Then Æneas made answer, "Ye ask peace for the dead; fain would I give it to the living. I had not come to this land but for the bidding of the Fates. And if your king changeth from me and my friendship to Turnus, I am blameless. Yet methinks Turnus should rather have taken this danger upon himself. And even now, if he be willing to fight with me, man to man, so be it. But now bury ye your dead." Then they made a truce for twelve days. And the men of Troy and the Latins laboured together, hewing wood upon the hills, pine and cedar and mountain ash. And the men of Troy built great piles upon the shore and burned the dead bodies of their companions thereon, and their arms with them. And the Latins did likewise. Also they that had been chosen to do this thing carried the body of Pallas to his city. And King Evander and the Arcadians made a great mourning for him. But when they had made an end of burning the dead there arose a great tumult in the city, for many had lost husband, or brother, or son. Wherefore they cried out that it was an evil war, and they cursed the marriage of Turnus, and would have him fight with Æneas, man to man, that there might be an end of these troubles. And lo! in the midst of the tumult there came back the ambassadors that had been sent to Diomed, saying that their prayers and gifts had availed nothing. Then King Latinus called a council of the chiefs, and sat him down upon his throne, and bade the men say on. Then Venulus, who was the chiefest among them, spake, saying, "We went to Arpi, to the city of King Diomed. And the man received us, and asked us wherefore we had come, and when we had told him, he spake, saying, 'Men of Italy, why will ye thus tempt your fate? Know ye not that we, as many of us as lifted hand against the men of Troy, have suffered grievous things? For the Lesser Ajax perished on the rocks of Eubœa; and Menelaüs was driven even to the island of Proteus, which is hard by the land of Egypt; and Ulysses scarcely escaped from the Cyclops; and as for King Agamemnon, an adulterer slew him in his palace. And us the Gods suffered not to see wife or country again. But as for this which ye ask of me, I fight not against men of Troy any more. These gifts which ye bring to me, give rather to Æneas. We have fought together, and I know how mightily he rises to the stroke of his sword and casts his spear. I tell you this: if there had been in Troy two others such as he, the war had come to the gates of Argos, and Greece had suffered even what she wrought. 'Twas he and Hector who for ten years bore up against our arms: both valiant men and strong, and this man the dearer to the Gods. Make peace with him, if ye may; but beware that ye meet him not in war.'"