Such words he spake, and from aloft he sent down Maia's youth To cause the lands and Carthage towers new-built to open gate And welcome in the Teucrian men; lest Dido, fooled of fate, 299 Should drive them from her country-side. The unmeasured air he beat With flap of wings, and speedily in Libya set his feet: And straightway there his bidding wrought, and from the Tyrians fall, God willing it, their hearts of war; and Dido first of all Took peace for Teucrians to her soul, and quiet heart and kind. Now good Æneas through the night had many things in mind, And set himself to fare abroad at first of holy day To search the new land what it was, and on what shore he lay Driven by the wind; if manfolk there abode, or nought but deer, (For waste it seemed), and tidings true back to his folk to bear. So in that hollow bight of groves beneath the cavern cleft, 310 All hidden by the leafy trees and quavering shades, he left His ships: and he himself afoot went with Achates lone, Shaking in hand two slender spears with broad-beat iron done. But as he reached the thicket's midst his mother stood before, Who virgin face, and virgin arms, and virgin habit bore, A Spartan maid; or like to her who tames the Thracian horse, Harpalyce, and flies before the hurrying Hebrus' course. For huntress-wise on shoulder she had hung the handy bow, And given all her hair abroad for any wind to blow, And, naked-kneed, her kirtle long had gathered in a lap: 320 She spake the first: "Ho youths," she said, "tell me by any hap If of my sisters any one ye saw a wandering wide With quiver girt, and done about with lynx's spotted hide, Or following of the foaming boar with shouts and eager feet?" So Venus; and so Venus' son began her words to meet: "I have not seen, nor have I heard thy sisters nigh this place, O maid:--and how to call thee then? for neither is thy face Of mortals, nor thy voice of men: O very Goddess thou! What! Phoebus' sister? or of nymphs whom shall I call thee now? But whosoe'er thou be, be kind and lighten us our toil, 330 And teach us where beneath the heavens, which spot of earthly soil We are cast forth; unlearned of men, unlearned of land we stray, By might of wind and billows huge here driven from out our way. Our right hands by thine altar-horns shall fell full many a host."