w my soul is restless to begin
some great deed of arms, and quiet peace delights it not. Thou seest how
confident in fortune the Rutulians stand. Their lights glimmer far
apart; buried in drunken sleep they have sunk to rest; silence stretches
all about. Learn then what doubt, what purpose, now rises in my spirit.
People and senate, they all cry that Aeneas [193-226]be summoned, and
men be sent to carry him tidings. If they promise what I ask in thy
name--for to me the glory of the deed is enough--methinks I can find
beneath yonder hillock a path to the walls of Pallanteum town.'

Euryalus stood fixed, struck through with high ambition, and therewith
speaks thus to his fervid friend: 'Dost thou shun me then, Nisus, to
share thy company in highest deeds? shall I send thee alone into so
great perils? Not thus did my warrior father Opheltes rear and nurture
me amid the Argive terror and the agony of Troy, nor thus have I borne
myself by thy side while following noble Aeneas to his utmost fate. Here
is a spirit, yes here, that scorns the light of day, that deems lightly
bought at a life's price that honour to which thou dost aspire.'

To this Nisus: 'Assuredly I had no such fear of thee; no, nor could I;
so may great Jupiter, or whoso looks on earth with equal eyes, restore
me to thee triumphant. But if haply--as thou seest often and often in so
forlorn a hope--if haply chance or deity sweep me to adverse doom, I
would have thee survive; thine age is worthier to live. Be there one to
commit me duly to earth, rescued or ransomed from the battlefield: or,
if fortune deny that, to pay me far away the rites of funeral and the
grace of a tomb. Neither would I bring such pain on thy poor mother, she
who singly of many matrons hath dared to follow her boy to the end, and
slights great Acestes' city.'

And he: 'In vain dost thou string idle reasons; nor does my purpose
yield or change its place so soon. Let us make haste.' He speaks, and
rouses the watch; they come up, and relieve the guard; quitting their
post, he and Nisus stride on to seek the prince.

The rest of living things over all lands were soothing their cares in
sleep, and their hearts forgot their pain; the foremost Trojan captains,
a chosen band, held council [227-261]of state upon the kingdom; what
should they do, or who would now be their messenger to Aeneas? They
stand, leaning on their long spears and grasping their shields, in mid
level of the camp. Then Nisus