cordingly took the first opportunity to
retire from Lavinium. She went away into the forests in the interior
of the country, with a very few attendants and friends, and concealed
herself there in a safe retreat. The family that received and
sheltered her was that of Tyrrheus, the chief of her father's
shepherds, whose children's stag Ascanius had formerly killed. Here,
in a short time, she had a son. She determined to name him from his
father; and in order to commemorate his having been born in the midst
of the wild forest scenes which surrounded her at the time of his
birth, she called him in full, AEneas of the woods, or, as it was
expressed in the language which was then used in Latium, AEneas
Silvius. The boy, when he grew up, was always known by this name in
subsequent history.

And not only did he himself retain the name, but he transmitted it to
his posterity, for all the kings that afterward descended from him,
extending in a long line through a period of four hundred years, had
the word Silvius affixed to their names, in perpetual commemoration of
the romantic birth of their ancestor. Rhea, the mother of Romulus, of
whom we have already spoken, and of whom we shall presently have
occasion to speak still more, was Rhea _Silvia_, by reason of her
having been by birth a princess of this royal line.

Ascanius, in the mean time, on the death of his father, was for a time
so engrossed in the prosecution of the war, that he paid but little
attention to the departure of Lavinia. The name of the king of the
Rutulians who fought against him was Mezentius. Mezentius had a son
named Lausus, and both father and son were personally serving in the
army by which Ascanius was besieged in Lavinium. Mezentius had command
in the camp, at the head-quarters of the army, which was at some
distance from the city. Lausus headed an advanced guard, which had
established itself strongly at a post which they had taken near the
gates. In this state of things, Ascanius, one dark and stormy night,
planned a sortie. He organized a desperate body of followers, and
after watching the flashes of lightning for a time, to find omens from
them indicating success, he gave the signal. The gates were opened and
the column of armed men sallied forth, creeping noiselessly forward
in the darkness and gloom, until they came to the encampment of
Lausus. They fell upon this camp with an irresistible rush, and with
terrific shouts and outcries. The whole de