on, resolving to go out again into the streets of the
city and die, since he must die, in the act of destroying his
destroyers.

He was, however, prevented from carrying this determination into
effect, by Creusa's intervention, who fell down before him at the
threshold of the door, almost frantic with excitement and terror, and
holding her little son Ascanius with one arm, and clasping her
husband's knees with the other, she begged him not to leave them.
"Stay and save us," said she; "do not go and throw your life away. Or,
if you will go, take us with you that we may all die together."

The conflict of impulses and passions in this unhappy family
continued for some time longer, but it ended at last, in the yielding
of Anchises to the wishes of the rest, and they all resolved to fly.
In the mean time, the noise and uproar in the streets of the city,
were drawing nearer and nearer, and the light of the burning buildings
breaking out continually at new points in the progress of the
conflagration, indicated that no time was to be lost. AEneas hastily
formed his plan. His father was too old and infirm to go himself
through the city. AEneas determined therefore to carry him upon his
shoulders. Little Ascanius was to walk along by his side. Creusa was
to follow, keeping as close as possible to her husband lest she should
lose him in the darkness of the night, or in the scenes of uproar and
confusion through which they would have to pass on the way. The
domestics of the family were to escape from the city by different
routes, each choosing his own, in order to avoid attracting the
attention of their enemies; and when once without the gates they were
all to rendezvous again at a certain rising ground, not far from the
city, which AEneas designated to them by means of an old deserted
temple which marked the spot, and a venerable cypress which grew
there.

This plan being formed the party immediately proceeded to put it in
execution. AEneas spread a lion's skin over his shoulders to make the
resting-place more easy for his father, or perhaps to lighten the
pressure of the heavy burden upon his own limbs. Anchises took what
were called the household gods, in his hands. These were sacred images
which it was customary to keep, in those days, in every dwelling, as
the symbol and embodiment of divine protection. To save these images,
when every thing else was given up for lost, was always the object of
the last desperate effort o