“The morn meantime from ocean rose: Forth from the gates with daybreak goes The silvan regiment: Thin nets are there, and spears of steel, And there Massylian riders wheel, And dogs of keenest scent. Before the chamber of her state Long time the Punic nobles wait The appearing of the queen: With gold and purple housings fit Stands her proud steed, and champs the bit His foaming jaws between. At length with long attendant train She comes: her scarf of Tyrian grain,[26] With broidered border decked: Of gold her quiver: knots of gold Confine her hair: her vesture’s fold By golden clasp is checked. The Trojans and Iulus gay In glad procession take their way. Æneas, comeliest of the throng, Joins their proud ranks, and steps along, As when from Lycia’s wintry airs To Delos’ isle Apollo fares; The Agathyrsian, Dryop, Crete, In dances round his altar meet: He on the heights of Cynthus moves, And binds his hair’s loose flow With cincture of the leaf he loves: Behind him sounds his bow;-- So firm Æneas’ graceful tread, So bright the glories round his head. * * * * * But young Ascanius on his steed With boyish ardour glows, And now in ecstacy of speed He passes these, now those: For him too peaceful and too tame The pleasure of the hunted game: He longs to see the foaming boar, Or hear the tawny lion’s roar. Meantime, loud thunder-peals resound, And hail and rain the sky confound: And Tyrian chiefs and sons of Troy, And Venus’ care, the princely boy, Seek each his shelter, winged with dread, While torrents from the hills run red. Driven haply to the same retreat, The Dardan chief and Dido meet. Then Earth, the venerable dame, And Juno, give the sign: Heaven lightens with attesting flame, And bids its torches shine, And from the summit of the peak The nymphs shrill out the nuptial shriek. That day she first began to die; That day first taught her to defy The public tongue, the public eye. No secret love is Dido’s aim: She calls it marriage now; such name She chooses to conceal her shame.”