and Euryalus together pray with quick
urgency to be given audience; their matter is weighty and will be worth
the delay. Iuelus at once heard their hurried plea, and bade Nisus speak.
Thereon the son of Hyrtacus: 'Hear, O people of Aeneas, with favourable
mind, nor regard our years in what we offer. Sunk in sleep and wine, the
Rutulians are silent; we have stealthily spied the open ground that lies
in the path through the gate next the sea. The line of fires is broken,
and their smoke rises darkly upwards. If you allow us to use the chance
towards seeking Aeneas in Pallanteum town, you will soon descry us here
at hand with the spoils of the great slaughter we have dealt. Nor shall
we miss the way we go; up the dim valleys we have seen the skirts of the
town, and learned all the river in continual hunting.'

Thereon aged Aletes, sage in counsel: 'Gods of our fathers, under whose
deity Troy ever stands, not wholly yet do you purpose to blot out the
Trojan race, when you have brought us young honour and hearts so sure as
this.' So speaking, he caught both by shoulder and hand, with tears
showering down over face and feature. 'What guerdon shall I deem may be
given you, O men, what recompense for these noble deeds? First and
fairest shall be your reward from the gods and your own conduct; and
Aeneas the good shall speedily repay the rest, and Ascanius' fresh youth
never forget so great a service.'--'Nay,' breaks in Ascanius, 'I whose
sole safety is in my father's return, I adjure thee and him, O Nisus, by
our great household gods, by the tutelar spirit of Assaracus and hoar
Vesta's sanctuary--on your knees I lay all my fortune and trust--recall
my father; [262-296]give him back to sight; all sorrow disappears in
his recovery. I will give a pair of cups my father took in vanquished
Arisba, wrought in silver and rough with tracery, twin tripods, and two
large talents of gold, and an ancient bowl of Sidonian Dido's giving. If
it be indeed our lot to possess Italy and grasp a conquering sceptre,
and to assign the spoil; thou sawest the horse and armour of Turnus as
he went all in gold; that same horse, the shield and the ruddy plume,
will I reserve from partition, thy reward, O Nisus, even from now. My
father will give besides twelve mothers of the choicest beauty, and men
captives, all in their due array; above these, the space of meadow-land
that is now King Latinus' own domain. Thee, O noble boy, whom mine age
follows at a n