280
Take here her relics and her gods, to run
With them thy fate, with them new walls expect,
Which, toss’d on seas, thou shalt at last erect;’—­
Then brings old Vesta from her sacred choir,
Her holy wreaths, and her eternal fire. 
Meanwhile the walls with doubtful cries resound
From far (for shady coverts did surround
My father’s house); approaching still more near,
The clash of arms, and voice of men we hear: 
Roused from my bed, I speedily ascend 290
The houses’ tops, and listening there attend. 
As flames roll’d by the winds’ conspiring force,
O’er full-ear’d corn, or torrent’s raging course
Bears down th’opposing oaks, the fields destroys,
And mocks the ploughman’s toil, th’unlook’d for noise
From neighb’ring hills th’amazed shepherd hears;
Such my surprise, and such their rage appears. 
First fell thy house, Ucalegon! then thine
Deiphobus!  Sigaean seas did shine
Bright with Troy’s flames; the trumpets’ dreadful sound
The louder groans of dying men confound. 301
Give me my arms, I cried, resolved to throw
Myself ’mong any that opposed the foe: 
Rage, anger, and despair at once suggest,
That of all deaths, to die in arms was best. 
The first I met was Pantheus, Phoebus’ priest,
Who, ’scaping with his gods and relics, fled,
And t’wards the shore his little grandchild led;
’Pantheus, what hope remains? what force, what place
Made good?  But, sighing, he replies, ’Alas! 310
Trojans we were, and mighty Ilium was;
But the last period and the fatal hour
Of Troy is come:  our glory and our power
Incensed Jove transfers to Grecian hands;
The foe within the burning town commands;
And (like a smother’d fire) an unseen force
Breaks from the bowels of the fatal horse: 
Insulting Sinon flings about the flame,
And thousands more than e’er from Argos came
Possess the gates, the passes, and the streets, 320
And these the sword o’ertakes, and those it meets. 
The guard nor fights nor flies; their fate so near
At once suspends their courage and their fear.’—­
Thus by the gods, and by Atrides’ words
Inspir’d, I make my way through fire, through swords,
Where noises, tumults, outcries, and alarms
I heard; first Iphitus, renown’d for arms,
We meet, who knew us (for the moon did shine)
Then Ripheus, Hypanis, and Dymas join
Their force, and young Choroebus, Mygdon’s son, 330
Who, by the love of fair Cassandra won,
Arrived but lately in her father’s aid;
Unhappy, whom the threats could not dissuade
Of his prophetic spouse;
Whom when I saw, yet daring to maintain
The fight, I said, ’Brave spirits! (but in vain)
Are you resolv’d to follow one who dares
Tempt all extremes?  The state of our affairs