The fire thus kindled by the words of his aged friend, now indeed the thoughts of his mind distract him utterly. And now black Night, car-borne, was mounting the sky, when the semblance of his sire Anchises, gliding from heaven, seemed to break on his musings in words like 10 these: “My son, dearer to me of old than life, while life was yet mine—my son, trained in the school of Troy’s destiny, I come hither at the command of Jove—of him who chased the fire from your ships, and looked down on your need in pity from on high. Obey the counsel which 15 Nautes the aged now so wisely gives you. The flower of your youth, the stoutest hearts you have, let these and these only follow you to Italy—hard and of iron grain is the race you have to war down in Latium. Still, ere you go there, come to the infernal halls of Dis,[195] and travel 20 through Avernus’ deep shades till you meet your father. No, my son, godless Tartarus[196] and its spectres of sorrow have no hold on me—the company of the good is my loved resort and Elysium[197] my dwelling. The virgin Sibyl shall point you the way, and the streaming blood of black 25 cattle unlock the gate. There you shall hear of your whole posterity, and the city that Fate has in store. And now farewell, dark Night has reached the midst of her swift career, and the relentless Daystar has touched me with the breath of his panting steeds.” He said, and vanished, like 30 smoke, into unsubstantial air. “Whither away now?” cries Æneas; “whither in such haste? from whom are you flying? what power withholds you from my embrace?” With these words he wakes to life the embers and their slumbering flame, and in suppliance worships the 35 god of Pergamus and hoary Vesta’s shrine with duteous meal and a full-charged censer. At once he calls his friends to his side, and Acestes, first of all, shows to them the command of Jove, and his loved father’s precept, and what is now the settled judgment of his mind. Brief is the parley, nor does Acestes gainsay his bidding. They remove the matrons to the new city’s roll, and disembark a willing crew of hearts that need not 5 the stir of great renown. For themselves they repair the benches and restore the vessels’ half-burnt timber, shape the oars and fit the ropes, a little band, but a living wellspring of martial worth. Æneas, meanwhile, is marking out the city with the plough, and assigning the dwellings 10 by lot, creating an Ilium here, and there a Troy. Acestes, true Trojan, wields with joy his new sceptre, and proclaims a court, and gives laws to his assembled senate.[E]