beneath the tide.

CXV. But fierce AEneas on his foeman pressed.
His tree-like spear he poises for the fray,
And pours the pent-up fury of his breast.
"Why stay'st thou, Turnus? Wherefore this delay?
Fierce arms, not swiftness, must decide the day.
Shift as thou wilt, and every shape assume;
Exhaust thy courage and thy craft, and pray
For wings to soar with, or in earth's dark womb
Sink low thy recreant head, and hide thee from thy doom."

CXVI. Thus he; but Turnus shook his head, and said,
"Ruffian! thy threats are but as empty sound;
They daunt not Turnus; 'tis the gods I dread,
And Jove my enemy." Then, glancing round,
He marked a chance-met boulder on the ground,
Huge, grey with age, set there in ancient days
To clear disputes,--a barrier and a bound.
Scarce twelve picked men the ponderous mass could raise,
Such men as Earth brings forth in these degenerate days.

CXVII. That stone the Daunian lifted, straining hard
With hurrying hand, and all his height updrew,
And at AEneas hurled the monstrous shard;
So heaving, and so running, scarce he knew
His running, or how huge a weight he threw.
Cold froze his blood; beneath his trembling frame
The weak knees tottered. Through the void air flew
The stone, nor all the middle space o'ercame,
Short of its mark it fell, nor answered to its aim.

CXVIII. As oft in dreams, when drowsy night doth load
The slumbering eyes, still eager, but in vain,
We strive to race along a lengthening road,
And faint and fall, amidmost of the strain;
The feeble limbs their wonted aid disdain,
Mute is the tongue, nor doth the voice obey,
Nor words find utterance; so with fruitless pain
Poor Turnus strives; but, struggle as he may,
The baffling fiend is there, and mocks the vain essay.

CXIX. Then, tost with diverse passions, dazed with fear,
Towards friends and town he throws an anxious glance.
No car he sees, no sister-charioteer.
Desperate of flight, nor daring to advance,
Aghast, and shuddering at the lifted lance,
He falters. Then AEneas poised at last
His spear, and hurled it, as he marked his chance.
Less loud the stone from battering engine cast,
Less loud through ether bursts the levin-bolt's dread blast.

CXX. Like a black whirlwind flew the deadly spear,
Right thro' the rim the sevenfold shield it rent
And breastplate's edge,