red unto him Venus, his mother, made manifest as he had never seen
her before, as fair and as tall as the dwellers in heaven behold her. Then
Venus spake thus: "What meaneth all this rage, my son? Hast thou no care
for me? Hast thou forgotten thy father Anchises, and thy wife, and thy
little son? Of a surety the fire and the sword had consumed them long
since but that I cared for them and saved them. It is not Helen, no, nor
Paris, that hath laid low this great city of Troy, but the wrath of the
Gods. See now, for I will take away the mist that covers thine eyes; see
how Neptune with his trident is overthrowing the walls and rooting up the
city from its foundations; and how Juno stands with spear and shield in
the Scaean Gate and calls fresh hosts from the ships; and how Pallas sits
on the height with the storm-cloud about her and her Gorgon shield; and
how Father Jupiter himself stirs up the enemy against Troy. Fly,
therefore, my son. I will not leave thee till thou shalt reach thy
father's house." And as she spake she vanished in the darkness.

Then did AEneas see dreadful forms and gods who were enemies of Troy, and
before his eyes the whole city seemed to sink down into the fire. Even as
a mountain oak upon the hills on which the woodmen ply their axes bows its
head while all its boughs shake about it, till at last, as blow comes
after blow, with a mighty groan it falls crashing down from the height,
even so the city seemed to fall. Then did AEneas pass on his way, the
goddess leading him, and the flames gave place to him, and the javelins
harmed him not.

But when he was come to his house he bethought him first of the old man
his father; but when he would have carried him to the hills, Anchises
would not, being loath to live in some strange country when Troy had
perished. "Nay," said he, "fly ye who are strong and in the flower of your
days. But as for me, if the Gods had willed that I should live, they had
saved this dwelling for me. Enough it is, yea, and more than enough, that
once I have seen this city taken, and lived. Bid me, then, farewell as
though I were dead. Death will I find for myself. And truly I have long
lingered here a useless stock and hated of the Gods, since Jupiter smote
me with the blast of his thunder."

Nor could the old man be moved from his purpose, though his son and his
son's wife, and even the child Ascanius, besought him with many tears that
he should not make yet heavier the doom tha