"Behold a conquest gained without a fight. Occasion offers, and I stand prepared; There lies our way: be thou upon the guard, And look around, while I securely go, And hew a passage through the sleeping foe." Softly he spoke; then, striding, took his way, With his drawn sword, where haughty Rhamnes lay; His head raised high on tapestry beneath, And heaving from his breast, he drew his breath-- A king and prophet, by king Turnus loved; But fate by prescience cannot be removed. Him and his sleeping slaves he slew; then spies Where Remus, with his rich retinue, lies. His armour-bearer first, and next he kills His charioteer, intrenched betwixt the wheels And his loved horses; last invades their lord; Full on his neck he drives the fatal sword: The gasping head flies off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk, that welters in the blood, Which, by the spurning heels dispersed around, The bed besprinkles, and bedews the ground. Lamus the bold, and Lamyrus the strong, He slew, and then Sarranus fair and young. From dice and wine the youth retired to rest, And puffed the fumy god from out his breast: Even then he dreamt of drink and lucky play-- More lucky, had it lasted till the day. The famished lion thus, with hunger bold, O'erleaps the fences of the nightly fold, And tears the peaceful flocks: with silent awe Trembling they lie, and pant beneath his paw. Nor with less rage Euryalus employs The wrathful sword, or fewer foes destroys: But on the ignoble crowd his fury flew; He Fadus, Hebesus, and Rhoetus slew. Oppressed with heavy sleep the former fall, But Rhoetus wakeful, and observing all: Behind a spacious jar he slinked for fear; The fatal iron found and reached him there; For, as he rose, it pierced his naked side, And, reeking, thence returned in crimson dyed. The wound pours out a stream of wine and blood; The purple soul comes floating in the flood. Now, where Messapus quartered, they arrive. The fires were fainting there, and just alive: The warrior-horses, tied in order, fed; Nisus observed the discipline, and said:-- "Our eager thirst of blood may both betray; And see the scattered streaks of dawning day, Foe to nocturnal thefts. No more, my friend; Here let our glutted execution end. A lane through slaughtered bodies we have made." The bold Euryalus, though loth, obeyed. Of arms, and arras, and of plate, they find A precious load; but these they leave behind. Yet, fond of gaudy spoils, the boy would stay } To make the rich caparison his prey, } Which on the steed of conquered Rhamnes lay. } Nor did his eyes less longingly behold The girdle-belt, with nails of burnished gold. This present Cædicus the rich bestowed On Remulus, when friendship first they vowed,