Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature; Mythology, Roman -- Juvenile literature
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 labored 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.
CHAPTER VI.
After these things there was again battle between the Trojans and the
Latins; and many were slain on either side, but at the last the men of
Troy prevailed. Then Prince Turnus, seeing that the Latins had fled
in the battle, and that men looked to him that he should perform that
which he had promised, even to meet Æneas face to face, was filled with
rage. Even as a lion which a hunter hath wounded breaketh the arrow
wherewith he hath been stricken, and rouseth himself to battle, shaking
his mane and roaring, so Turnus arose. And first he spake to King
Latinus, saying, “Not for me, my father, shall these cowards of Troy go
back from that which they have covenanted. I will meet this man face
to face, and slay him while ye look on; or, if the gods will that he
vanquish me so, he shall rule over you, and have Lavinia to wife.”
But King Latinus made answer: “Yet think awhile, my son. Thou hast the
kingdom of thy father Daunus; and there are other noble virgins in
Latium whom thou mayest have to wife. Wilt thou not then be content?
For to give my daughter to any husband of this nation I was forbidden,
as thou knowest. Yet did I disobey, being moved by love of thee, my
wife also beseeching me with many tears. Thou seest what troubles I and
my people, and thou more than all, have suffered from that time. Twice
have we fled in the battle, and now the city only is left to us. If I
must yield me to these men, let me yield whilst thou art yet alive. For
what doth it profit me that thou shouldst die? Nay, but all men would
cry shame on me if I gave thee to death!”
Now for a space Turnus spake not for wrath. Then he said, “Be not
troubled for me, my father. For I, too, can smite with the spear; and
as for this Æneas, his mother will not be at hand to snatch him in a
cloud from my sight.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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