All thus encouraged, his own troops he joins, And hastes to prosecute his deep designs. Inclosed with hills, a winding valley lies, By nature formed for fraud, and fitted for surprise. A narrow track, by human steps untrode, Leads, through perplexing thorns, to this obscure abode. High o'er the vale a steepy mountain stands, Whence the surveying sight the nether ground commands. The top is level--an offensive seat Of war; and from the war a safe retreat: For, on the right and left, is room to press The foes at hand, or from afar distress; To drive them headlong downward; and to pour, On their descending backs, a stony shower. Thither young Turnus took the well-known way, Possessed the pass, and in blind ambush lay. Meantime, Latonian Phœœbe, from the skies, Beheld the approaching war with hateful eyes, And called the light-foot Opis to her aid, Her most beloved and ever-trusty maid; Then with a sigh began:--"Camilla goes To meet her death amidst her fatal foes-- The nymph I loved of all my mortal train, Invested with Diana's arms, in vain. Nor is my kindness for the virgin new: 'Twas born with her; and with her years it grew. Her father Metabus, when forced away From old Privernum for tyrannic sway, Snatched up, and saved from his prevailing foes, This tender babe, companion of his woes. Casmilla was her mother; but he drowned One hissing letter in a softer sound, And called Camilla. Through the woods he flies; Wrapped in his robe the royal infant lies. His foes in sight, he mends his weary pace; With shouts and clamours they pursue the chase. The banks of Amasene at length he gains: } The raging flood his farther flight restrains, } Raised o'er the borders with unusual rains. } Prepared to plunge into the stream, he fears, Not for himself, but for the charge he bears. Anxious, he stops a while, and thinks in haste, Then, desperate in distress, resolves at last. A knotty lance of well-boiled oak he bore; The middle part with cork he covered o'er: He closed the child within the hollow space; With twigs of bending osier bound the case, Then poised the spear, heavy with human weight, And thus invoked my favour for the freight:-- 'Accept, great goddess of the woods, (he said,) Sent by her sire, this dedicated maid! Through air she flies a suppliant to thy shrine; And the first weapons that she knows, are thine.' He said; and with full force the spear he threw: Above the sounding waves Camilla flew. Then, pressed by foes, he stemmed the stormy tide, And gained, by stress of arms, the farther side. His fastened spear he pulled from out the ground, And, victor of his vows, his infant nymph unbound; Nor, after that, in towns which walls inclose, Would trust his hunted life amidst his foes;