'Tis not a crime to attempt what I decree; Or, if it were, discharge the crime on me." She said, and, sailing on the winged wind, Left the sad nymph suspended in her mind. And now in pomp the peaceful kings appear: Four steeds the chariot of Latinus bear: Twelve golden beams around his temples play, To mark his lineage from the god of day. Two snowy coursers Turnus' chariot yoke, And in his hand two massy spears he shook: Then issued from the camp, in arms divine, Æneas, author of the Roman line; And by his side Ascanius took his place, The second hope of Rome's immortal race. Adorned in white, a reverend priest appears, } And offerings to the flaming altars bears-- } A porket, and a lamb that never suffered shears. } Then to the rising sun he turns his eyes, And strews the beasts, designed for sacrifice, With salt and meal: with like officious care He marks their foreheads, and he clips their hair. Betwixt their horns the purple wine he sheds; With the same generous juice the flame he feeds. Æneas then unsheathed his shining sword, And thus with pious prayers the gods adored:-- "All-seeing sun! and thou, Ausonian soil, For which I have sustained so long a toil, Thou, king of heaven! and thou, the queen of air, Propitious now, and reconciled by prayer; Thou, god of war, whose unresisted sway The labours and events of arms obey! Ye living fountains, and ye running floods! All powers of ocean, all etherial gods! Hear, and bear record: if I fall in field, Or, recreant in the fight, to Turnus yield, My Trojans shall increase Evander's town; Ascanius shall renounce the Ausonian crown: All claims, all questions of debate, shall cease; Nor he, nor they, with force infringe the peace. But, if my juster arms prevail in fight, (As sure they shall, if I divine aright,) My Trojans shall not o'er the Italians reign; Both equal, both unconquered, shall remain, Joined in their laws, their lands, and their abodes; I ask but altars for my weary gods. The care of those religious rites be mine: The crown to king Latinus I resign: His be the sovereign sway. Nor will I share His power in peace, or his command in war. For me, my friends another town shall frame, And bless the rising towers with fair Lavinia's name." Thus he. Then, with erected eyes and hands, The Latian king before his altar stands. "By the same heaven, (said he,) and earth, and main, And all the powers that all the three contain; By hell below, and by that upper god, Whose thunder signs the peace, who seals it with his nod; So let Latona's double offspring hear, And double-fronted Janus, what I swear: I touch the sacred altars, touch the flames, And all those powers attest, and all their names: Whatever chance befal on either side,