ll haste for flight. But his father
refused to stir a step. "Let me die here at the enemy's hands," he
implored. "Better thus than to go into exile in my old age. Do you go,
my son, whither the gods summon you, and leave me to my fate." In
vain AEneas reasoned and pleaded, in vain he refused to go without his
father; neither prayers nor entreaties would move Anchises till the
gods sent him a sign. Suddenly the child's hair burst into flames.
The father and mother were terrified, but Anchises recognised the good
omen, and prayed the gods to show whether his interpretation was the
true one. In answer there came a clap of thunder and a star flashed
across the sky and disappeared among the woods on Mount Ida. Then
Anchises was sure that the token was a true one. "Delay no more!" he
cried. "I will accompany you, and go in hope wheresoever the gods of
my country shall lead me. This is a sign from heaven, and the gods, if
it be their will, may yet preserve our city."

"Come then, father!" cried AEneas joyfully. "Let me take you on my
back, for your feeble limbs would move too slowly for the present
danger. You shall hold the images of the gods, since it would be
sacrilege for me to touch them with my blood-stained hands. Little
Ascanius shall take my hand, and Creusa will follow us closely."

He now ordered the servants to collect all the most valuable
possessions, and bring them to him at the temple of Ceres, just
outside the city. Then he set out with father, wife and son, and they
groped their way through the city by the light of burning homesteads.
Thus they passed at last through the midst of the enemy, and reached
the temple of Ceres. There, to his dismay, AEneas missed Creusa. He
rushed back to the city and made his way to his own house. He found it
in flames, and the enemy were sacking the ruins. Nowhere could he find
a trace of his wife. Wild with grief and anxiety he wandered at random
through the city till suddenly he fancied he saw Creusa. But it was
her ghost, not her living self. She spoke to her distracted husband
and bade him grieve no more. "Think not," she said, "that this has
befallen without the will of the gods. The Fates have decided that
Creusa shall not follow you to your new home. There are long and weary
wanderings before you, and you must traverse many stormy seas before
you come to the western land where the river Tiber pours its gentle
stream through the fertile pastures of Italy. There shall you