The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10): Stories from the Classics
General
The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10): Stories from the Classics
Children's stories; Classical literature -- Adaptations
And now the brave son of Evander with his utmost force hurled his spear,
and then hastened to draw his sword from its scabbard. The weapon struck
Turnus where the shoulder was protected by the corselet, and piercing
through the solid brass, slightly grazed the hero's body. Then Turnus,
poising a steel-tipped javelin, darted it at Pallas, exclaiming, "See
whether mine be not the more penetrating shaft." Cast with irresistible
might, it tore its way through the youth's shield, composed though it was
of thick plates of brass and iron, and through his cuirass, and inflicted
a ghastly wound in his breast. In vain he wrenched out the deadly missile
from his body; even as he withdrew it life deserted his quivering form,
and he fell to the ground. Bestriding the corpse, Turnus cried, "Ye
Arcadians, faithfully report to Evander this message,--I send him back his
Pallas in such a plight as he deserved. Whatever honor is in a tomb,
whatever solace in the performance of funeral rites, I freely grant him.
His league with the Trojan intruder shall cost him dear." So saying, he
pressed his foot on the body, and tore away a massive belt, adorned with
figures richly carved in gold. This spoil Turnus exultingly clasped around
his own body, little dreaming that the time would come when he would wish
that he had never taken it, and that he and Pallas had never met. But now
the lifeless corpse of the youth, stripped of its arms and still bleeding
from the fatal wound inflicted by the Rutulian chief, was laid on a shield
and borne away by his weeping followers. Thus the first day on which he
took a part in war saw also the young hero's death, though not, indeed,
before he had strewn the plain with Rutulian corpses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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