Astounded was Dido, Sidon’s daughter, first at the hero’s presence, then at his enormous sufferings, and she bespoke him thus:—“What chance is it, goddess-born, that is hunting you through such a wilderness of perils? what 30 violence throws you on our savage coasts? Are you, indeed, the famed Æneas, whom to Anchises the Dardan, Venus, queen of light and love, bore by the stream of Simois? Aye, I remember Teucer coming to Sidon, driven from the borders of his fatherland, hoping to gain a new 35 kingdom by the aid of Belus. Belus, my sire, was then laying waste the rich fields of Cyprus, and ruling the isle with a conqueror’s sway. Ever since that time I knew the fate of the Trojan city, and your name, and the Pelasgian princes. Foe as he was, he would always extol the Teucrians with signal praise, and profess that he himself came of the ancient Teucrian stock. Come then, brave men, and make our dwellings your home. 5 I, too, have had a fortune like yours, which, after the buffeting of countless sufferings, has been pleased that I should find rest in this land at last. Myself no stranger to sorrow, I am learning[109] to succour the unhappy.” With these words, at the same moment she ushers 10 Æneas into her queenly palace, and orders a solemn sacrifice at the temples of the gods. Meantime, as if this were nought, she sends to his comrades at the shore twenty bulls, a hundred huge swine with backs all bristling, a hundred fat lambs with their mothers, and the 15 wine-god’s jovial bounty. But the palace within is laid out with all the splendour of regal luxury, and in the centre of the mansion they are making ready for the banquet; the coverlets are embroidered and of princely purple—on the tables is massy 20 silver, and chased on gold the gallant exploits of Tyrian ancestors, a long, long chain of story, derived through hero after hero ever since the old nation was young. Æneas, for his fatherly love would not leave his heart at rest, sends on Achates with speed to the ships to tell Ascanius 25 the news and conduct him to the city. On Ascanius all a fond parent’s anxieties are centred. Presents, moreover, rescued from the ruins of Ilion, he bids him bring—a pall stiff with figures of gold, and a veil with a border of yellow acanthus,[110] adornments of Argive 30 Helen,[111] which she carried away from Mycenæ, when she went to Troy and to her unblessed bridal, her mother Leda’s marvellous gift; the sceptre, too, which Ilione had once borne, the eldest of Priam’s daughters, and the string of pearls for the neck, and the double coronal of 35 jewels and gold. With this to despatch, Achates was bending his way to the ships.