_With sacrifice before the rising morn._ Offerings were made to the infernal deities in the interval between midnight and sunrise. See Virgil's _Æneid_, vi. 242-258. Sil. Ital., xiii. 405. mactare repostis Mos umbris, inquit, consueta piacula nigras Sub lucem pecudes. It is men's wont to offer to the buried shades the proper expiations of black sheep on the verge of dawn. _Her bosom heaves and spreads, her stature grows._ Non voltus, non color unus, Non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum, Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri, Nec mortale sonans. _Æneid_ vi. 47. Neither face nor hue remained unchanged, nor braided the locks of her hair: but the bosom heaves and the heart swells wild with frenzy, and she is more majestic to behold, and her voice has no mortal sound. . . . . _wingèd Mercury._ Ἑρμῆς ψυχαγωγός or ψυχοπομπός, the conductor of souls. . . . . _with his wand._ Tum virgam capit: hac animas ille evocat Orco, Pallentes, alias sub Tartara tristia mittit, Dat somnos adimitque. _Æneid_ iv. 242. Then he takes the wand: with this he summons pale ghosts from Orcus, others he sends to gloomy Tartarus below: with this he gives and takes away sleep. _But unsubstantial Form eludes her grasp._ Ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum, Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago, Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno. _Æneid_ vi. 700. Thrice thereon he tried to cast his arms around his neck: thrice was the phantom grasped in vain and escaped the embrace, unsubstantial as the fleeting winds and shadowy like as winged sleep. _But in reward of thy fidelity. And something also did my worth obtain._ 'Vicit iter durum pietas,' is realised by these lines. 'Fidelity has prevailed to traverse the awful path.' _Thou knowest, the Delphic oracle foretold._ Sors quoque nescio quem fato designat iniquo, Qui primus Danaum Troada tangat humum. Ovid, _Heroides_, xiii. 93. An oracle, moreover, destines some one or other for a cruel doom, who first of the Greeks sets foot on Trojan soil. _A nobler counsellor than my poor heart._ See Laodamia's words, Ovid, _Heroides_, xiii. 95. Infelix quae prima virum lugebit ademptum; Di faciant ne tu strenuus esse velis. Hoc quoque praemoneo: de nave novissimus exi, Non est quo properes terra paterna tibi. Unhappy wife who shall be the first to lament a husband slain: God grant _you_ may not choose the forward part: this warning too I give, be last to disembark: 'tis no fatherland to hasten to, no fatherland for you. _Give, on this well known couch, one nuptial kiss._ This is probably an adaptation of Ovid, _Heroides_, xiii. 117.