LI. Such Dares towers, and strides into the ring, With head erect, and shoulders broad and bare, And right and left his sinewy arms doth swing, And burning for a rival, beats the air. Where is his match? Not one of all will dare To don the gloves. So, deeming none can stand Against him, flushed with triumph, then and there Before AEneas, grasping in his hand The heifer's horns, he cries in accents of command: LII. "Son of a goddess, if none risks the fray, How long shall Dares guerdonless remain? What end of standing? Must I wait all day? Bring the prize hither." Straight the Dardan train Shout for their champion, and his claim sustain. Then to Entellus, seated at his side, Couched on the green grass, in reproachful strain Thus sternly spake Acestes, fired with pride, And fain, for manhood sake, his younger friend to chide: LIII. "Entellus, once our bravest, but in vain, Can'st _thou_ sit tamely, with the field unfought, And see this braggart glory in his gain? Where is thy god, that Eryx? Hath he taught Thine arm its vaunted cleverness for naught? To us what booteth thy Trinacrian name, Thy spoil-hung house, thy roof with prizes fraught?" Entellus said: "My spirit is the same. Fear hath not quenched my fire, nor checked the love of fame. LIV. "But numbing age hath made the blood run cold, And turned my strength to dulness and decay. Had I the youth that stirred these bones of old, The youth _he_ boasts, no need of guerdon, nay, Nor comely steer to tempt me to the fray. Glory I care for, not a gift," he cried, And, rising, hurled into the ring midway Two ponderous gauntlets, stiff with hardened hide; These Eryx wore, these thongs around his wrists he tied. LV. All stood amazed, so huge the weight, so vast, Sevenfold with lead and iron overlaid, The bull's tough hide. E'en Dares shrank aghast. Forth stepped AEneas, and the gauntlets weighed, And to and fro the ponderous folds he swayed. Then gruffly spake the veteran once more: "Ah! had ye seen great Hercules arrayed In arms like these, such gauntlets as he wore, And watched the deadly fight waged here upon the shore! LVI. "These Eryx wore, thy brother, when that day He faced Alcides in the strife;--see now His blood and brains,--with these I dared the fray When better blood gave vigour, nor the snow Of envious eld was sprinkled on my brow. Still, if this Trojan doth these arms decline, And good AEneas and our host allow, Match we the fight. These gauntlets I resign, Put fear away, and doff those Trojan gloves of thine."