teel, the victim's brow to sign,
And strewed the cakes of salted meal, and poured
On blazing altars bowls of sacred wine;
And good AEneas drew his glittering sword,
And thus, with pious prayer, the immortal gods adored:

XXIII. "Witness, O Sun, thou Earth attest my prayer,
For whom I toil. Thou, Jove, supreme in sway,
And thou, great Juno, pleased at length to spare.
O mighty Mars, whose nod directs the fray;
Springs, Streams, and Powers whom Air and Sea obey.
If Turnus win--O let the vow remain--
Humbly to King Evander, as they may,
Troy's sons shall fly, Iulus quit the reign,
Nor seed of mine e'er vex the Latin field again.

XXIV. "But else, if victory smile upon my sword
(As rather deem I, and may Heaven decree),
I wish not Troy to be Italia's lord,
Nor claim the crown; let each, unquelled and free,
In deathless league on equal terms agree.
Arms, empire let Latinus keep; I claim
To bring our rites and deities. For me
My Teucrian friends another town shall frame,
And bless the rising towers with fair Lavinia's name."

XXV. Thus first AEneas; then with uplift eyes,
His right hand stretching to the stars in prayer,
"Hear me, AEneas," old Latinus cries,
"By the same Earth, and Sea and Stars I swear,
By the twin offering of Latona fair,
And two-faced Janus, and Hell's powers malign,
And Dis unpitying; let Jove give ear,
The Sire whose bolt the solemn league doth sign,
Witness these fires and gods,--my hand is on the shrine,--

XXVI. "No time with Latins shall this league unbind,
Whate'er the issue, or the peace confound,
No force shall shake the purpose of my mind.
Nay--though the circling Ocean burst its bound,
And all the Earth were in a deluge drowned,
And Heaven with Hell should mingle. Sure as now
This sceptre" (haply in his hand was found
The Royal sceptre) "nevermore, I trow,
Shall bourgeon with fresh leaves, or spread a shadowing bough,

XXVII. "Since once in forests, from its parent tree
Lopped clean away, the woodman stripped it bare
Of boughs and leaves, now fashioned, as ye see,
And cased in brass by cunning craftsman's care,
For fathers of the Latin realm to bear."
So they, amid their chiefest, Sire with Sire,
Confirm the league. These o'er the flames prepare
To slay the victims, and, as rites require,
The living entrails tear, and feed the sa