XXI. "'Twas night; on earth all creatures were asleep, When lo! the figures of our gods, the same Whom erst from falling Ilion o'er the deep I brought, scarce rescued from the midmost flame, Before me, sleepless for my country's shame, Stood plain, in plenteousness of light confessed, Where streaming through the sunken lattice came The moon's full splendour, and their speech addressed, And I in heart took comfort, hearing their behest. XXII. "'Lo! what Apollo from Ortygia's shrine Would sing, unasked he sends us to proclaim. We who have followed o'er the billowy brine Thee and thine arms, since Ilion sank in flame, Will raise thy children to the stars, and name Thy walls imperial. Thou build them meet For heroes. Shrink not from thy journey's aim, Though long the way. Not here thy destined seat, So saith the Delian god, not thine the shores of Crete. XXIII. "'Far off there lies, across the rolling wave, An ancient land, which Greeks Hesperia name; Her soil is fruitful and her people brave. Th' OEnotrians held it once, by later fame The name Italia from their chief they claim. Thence sprang great Dardanus; there lies thy seat; Thence sire Iasius and the Trojans came. Rise, and thy parent with these tidings greet, To seek Ausonian shores, for Jove denies thee Crete.' XXIV. "Awed by the vision and the voice divine ('Twas no mere dream; their very looks I knew, I saw the fillets round their temples twine, And clammy sweat did all my limbs bedew) Forthwith, upstarting, from the couch I flew, And hands and voice together raised in prayer, And wine unmixt upon the altars threw. This done, to old Anchises I repair, Pleased with the rites fulfilled, and all the tale declare. XXV. "The two-fold race Anchises understands, The double sires, and owns himself misled By modern error 'twixt two ancient lands. 'O son, long trained in Ilian fates,' he said, This chance Cassandra, she alone, displayed. Oft to Hesperia and Italia's reign She called us. Ah! who listened or obeyed? Who dreamed that Teucrians should Hesperia gain? Yield we to Phoebus now, nor wisdom's words disdain.' XXVI. "All hail the speech. We quit this other home, And leaving here a handful on the shore, Spread sail and scour with hollow keel the foam. The fleet was on mid ocean; land no more Was visible, naught else above, before But sky and sea, when overhead did loom A storm-cloud, black as heaven itself, that bore Dark night and wintry tempest in its womb, And all the waves grew rough and shuddered with the gloom.