The stately beast the two Tyrrhidæ bred, Snatched from his dam, and the tame youngling fed. Their father Tyrrheus did his fodder bring, Tyrrheus, chief ranger to the Latian king: Their sister Silvia cherished with her care The little wanton, and did wreaths prepare To hang his budding horns, with ribbons tied His tender neck, and combed his silken hide, And bathed his body. Patient of command In time he grew, and, growing used to hand, He waited at his master's board for food; Then sought his savage kindred in the wood, Where grazing all the day, at night he came To his known lodgings, and his country dame. This household beast, that used the woodland grounds, Was viewed at first by the young hero's hounds, As down the stream he swam, to seek retreat In the cool waters, and to quench his heat. Ascanius, young, and eager of his game, Soon bent his bow, uncertain in his aim: But the dire fiend the fatal arrow guides, Which pierced his bowels through his panting sides. The bleeding creature issues from the floods, } Possessed with fear, and seeks his known abodes, } His old familiar hearth, and household gods. } He falls; he fills the house with heavy groans, Implores their pity, and his pain bemoans. Young Silvia beats her breast, and cries aloud For succour from the clownish neighbourhood: The churls assemble; for the fiend, who lay In the close woody covert, urged their way. One with a brand yet burning from the flame, Armed with a knotty club another came: Whate'er they catch or find, without their care, Their fury makes an instrument of war. Tyrrheus, the foster-father of the beast, Then clenched a hatchet in his horny fist, But held his hand from the descending stroke, } And left his wedge within the cloven oak, } To whet their courage, and their rage provoke. } And now the goddess, exercised in ill, Who watched an hour to work her impious will, Ascends the roof, and to her crooked horn, Such as was then by Latian shepherds borne, Adds all her breath. The rocks and woods around, And mountains, tremble at the infernal sound. The sacred lake of Trivia from afar, } The Veline fountains, and sulphureous Nar, } Shake at the baleful blast, the signal of the war. } Young mothers wildly stare, with fear possessed, And strain their helpless infants to their breast. The clowns, a boisterous, rude, ungoverned crew, With furious haste to the loud summons flew. The powers of Troy, then issuing on the plain, With fresh recruits their youthful chief sustain: Not theirs a raw and unexperienced train, But a firm body of embattled men. At first, while fortune favoured neither side, The fight with clubs and burning brands was tried: But now, both parties reinforced, the fields