“Then, maddening over crime, the queen With bloodshot eyes, and sanguine streaks Fresh painted on her quivering cheeks, And wanning o’er with death foreseen, Through inner portals wildly fares, Scales the high pile with swift ascent, Takes up the Dardan sword and bares-- Sad gift, for different uses meant. She eyed the robes with wistful look, And pausing, thought awhile and wept: Then pressed her to the couch and spoke Her last good-night or ere she slept. ‘Sweet relics of a time of love, When fate and heaven were kind, Receive my life-blood, and remove These torments of the mind. My life is lived, and I have played The part that Fortune gave, And now I pass, a queenly shade, Majestic to the grave. A glorious city I have built, Have seen my walls ascend; Chastised for blood of husband spilt, A brother, yet no friend: Blest lot! yet lacked one blessing more, That Troy had never touched my shore!’” So she mounts the funeral pile, and stabs herself with the Trojan’s sword, her sister Anna coming upon the scene only in time to receive the parting breath. CHAPTER V. THE FUNERAL GAMES. Far off at sea, Æneas and his crew see the flames go up from Dido’s palace. “What cause has lit so fierce a flame They know not; but the pangs of shame From great love wronged, and what despair Will make a baffled woman dare,-- All this they know; and knowing tread The paths of presage vague and dread.” Not yet is their course clear for Italy. A storm comes on, and they make for refuge towards the friendly coast of Sicily, and run their vessels into a sheltered bay under Mount Eryx. Their return is gladly welcomed by their late host, Acestes, who receives the wanderers, as before, with princely hospitality, still mindful of his own Trojan blood. It chances that the morrow is the anniversary of the burial of Anchises; and Æneas, summoning an open-air council of his crews, announces to them his intention of commemorating his father by a solemn public sacrifice. It is a day which--wherever his lot may be hereafter cast--he will ever keep holy; and not without some providential guidance, as he deems, has this opportunity been afforded him, by his being driven back to Sicily, of celebrating it on friendly soil under the auspices of his kinsman. There shall be nine days of sacrifice and prayer; then shall follow funeral games, with prizes at his own cost.