The Aeneid Virgil (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) đ
- Author: Virgil
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Let them the number and the form assign;
The care and cost of all the stores be mine.
To treat the peace, a hundred senators
Shall be commissionâd hence with ample powârs,
With olive the presents they shall bear,
A purple robe, a royal ivâry chair,
And all the marks of sway that Latian monarchs wear,
And sums of gold. Among yourselves debate
This great affair, and save the sinking state.â
Then DrancĂ«s took the word, who grudgâd, long since,
The rising glories of the Daunian prince.
Factious and rich, bold at the council board,
But cautious in the field, he shunnâd the sword;
A close caballer, and tongue-valiant lord.
Noble his mother was, and near the throne;
But, what his fatherâs parentage, unknown.
He rose, and took thâ advantage of the times,
To load young Turnus with invidious crimes.
âSuch truths, O king,â said he, âyour words contain,
As strike the sense, and all replies are vain;
Nor are your loyal subjects now to seek
What common needs require, but fear to speak.
Let him give leave of speech, that haughty man,
Whose pride this unauspicious war began;
For whose ambition (let me dare to say,
Fear set apart, thoâ death is in my way)
The plains of Latium run with blood around.
So many valiant heroes bite the ground;
Dejected grief in evâry face appears;
A town in mourning, and a land in tears;
While he, thâ undoubted author of our harms,
The man who menaces the gods with arms,
Yet, after all his boasts, forsook the fight,
And sought his safety in ignoble flight.
Now, best of kings, since you propose to send
Such bounteous presents to your Trojan friend;
Add yet a greater at our joint request,
One which he values more than all the rest:
Give him the fair Lavinia for his bride;
With that alliance let the league be tied,
And for the bleeding land a lasting peace provide.
Let insolence no longer awe the throne;
But, with a fatherâs right, bestow your own.
For this maligner of the general good,
If still we fear his force, he must be wooâd;
His haughty godhead we with prayârs implore,
Your scepter to release, and our just rights restore.
O cursed cause of all our ills, must we
Wage wars unjust, and fall in fight, for thee!
What right hast thou to rule the Latian state,
And send us out to meet our certain fate?
âTis a destructive war: from Turnusâ hand
Our peace and public safety we demand.
Let the fair bride to the brave chief remain;
If not, the peace, without the pledge, is vain.
Turnus, I know you think me not your friend,
Nor will I much with your belief contend:
I beg your greatness not to give the law
In othersâ realms, but, beaten, to withdraw.
Pity your own, or pity our estate;
Nor twist our fortunes with your sinking fate.
Your interest is, the war should never cease;
But we have felt enough to wish the peace:
A land exhausted to the last remains,
Depopulated towns, and driven plains.
Yet, if desire of fame, and thirst of powâr,
A beauteous princess, with a crown in dowâr,
So fire your mind, in arms assert your right,
And meet your foe, who dares you to the fight.
Mankind, it seems, is made for you alone;
We, but the slaves who mount you to the throne:
A base ignoble crowd, without a name,
Unwept, unworthy, of the funâral flame,
By duty bound to forfeit each his life,
That Turnus may possess a royal wife.
Permit not, mighty man, so mean a crew
Should share such triumphs, and detain from you
The post of honour, your undoubted due.
Rather alone your matchless force employ,
To merit what alone you must enjoy.â
These words, so full of malice mixâd with art,
Inflamâd with rage the youthful heroâs heart.
Then, groaning from the bottom of his breast,
He heavâd for wind, and thus his wrath expressâd:
âYou, DrancĂ«s, never want a stream of words,
Then, when the public need requires our swords.
First in the council hall to steer the state,
And ever foremost in a tongue-debate,
While our strong walls secure us from the foe,
Ere yet with blood our ditches overflow:
But let the potent orator declaim,
And with the brand of coward blot my name;
Free leave is givân him, when his fatal hand
Has coverâd with more corps the sanguine strand,
And high as mine his towâring trophies stand.
If any doubt remains, who dares the most,
Let us decide it at the Trojanâs cost,
And issue both abreast, where honour callsâ â
Foes are not far to seek without the wallsâ â
Unless his noisy tongue can only fight,
And feet were givân him but to speed his flight.
I beaten from the field? I forcâd away?
Who, but so known a dastard, dares to say?
Had he but evân beheld the fight, his eyes
Had witnessâd for me what his tongue denies:
What heaps of Trojans by this hand were slain,
And how the bloody Tiber swellâd the main.
All saw, but he, thâ Arcadian troops retire
In scatterâd squadrons, and their prince expire.
The giant brothers, in their camp, have found,
I was not forcâd with ease to quit my ground.
Not such the Trojans tried me, when, inclosâd,
I singly their united arms opposâd:
First forcâd an entrance throâ their thick array;
Then, glutted with their slaughter, freed my way.
âTis a destructive war? So let it be,
But to the Phrygian pirate, and to thee!
Meantime proceed to fill the peopleâs ears
With false reports, their minds with panic fears:
Extol the strength of a twice-conquerâd race;
Our foes encourage, and our friends debase.
Believe thy fables, and the Trojan town
Triumphant stands; the Grecians are oâerthrown;
Suppliant at Hectorâs feet Achilles lies,
And Diomede from fierce Aeneas flies.
Say rapid Aufidus with awful dread
Runs backward from the sea, and hides his head,
When the great Trojan on his bank appears;
For thatâs as true as thy dissembled fears
Of my revenge. Dismiss that vanity:
Thou, Drancës, art below a death from me.
Let that vile soul in that vile body rest;
The lodging is well worthy of the guest.
âNow, royal father, to the present state
Of our affairs, and of this high debate:
If in your arms thus early you diffide,
And think your fortune is already tried;
If one defeat has brought us down so low,
As never more in fields to meet the foe;
Then I conclude for peace: âtis time to treat,
And lie like vassals at the victorâs feet.
But, O! if any ancient blood remains,
One drop of all our fathersâ, in our veins,
That man would I prefer before the
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