And in their souls the love of Mars and maddening fire shall fling 550
Till all strike in, and all the lea crops of my sowing bear."

But Juno answered: "Full enough there is of fraud and fear;
Fast stands the stumbling-block of war, and hand to hand they fight:
The sword that Fate first gave to them hath man's death stained aright
Forsooth let King Latinus now and Venus' noble son
Join hand to hand, and hold high feast for such a wedding won.
But thee, the Father of the Gods, lord of Olympus high,
Will nowise have a-wandering free beneath the worldly sky:
Give place; and whatso more of toil Fortune herein may make
Myself shall rule." 560
Such words as these Saturnian Juno spake,
And on the wing the Evil rose, with snaky sweeping whirr,
Seeking Cocytus' house, and left the light world's steep of air.
Midst Italy a place there is 'neath mountains high set down,
Whose noble tale in many a land hath fame and great renown,
The valley of Amsanctus called, hemmed in by woody steep
On either side, and through whose midst a rattling stream doth leap,
With clattering stones and eddying whirl: a strange den gapeth there,
The very breathing-hole of Dis; an awful place of fear,
A mighty gulf of baneful breath that Acheron hath made
When he brake forth: therein as now the baneful Fury laid 570
Her hated godhead, lightening so the load of earth and heaven.

No less meanwhile did Saturn's Queen still turn her hand to leaven
That war begun. The shepherd folk rush from the battle-wrack
Into the city of the king, bearing their dead aback,
Almo the lad, Galaesus slain with changed befouled face.
They bid Latinus witness bear, and cry the Gods for grace.
Turnus is there, and loads the tale of bale-fire and the sword,
And swells the fear: "The land shall have a Teucrian host for lord:
With Phrygians shall ye foul your race and drive me from your door."
Then they, whose mothers midst the wood God Bacchus overbore,
To lead the dance--Amata's name being held in nowise light-- 581
Together draw from every side, and weary for the fight.
Yea, all with froward heart and voice cry out for war and death,
That signs of heaven forbid so sore, that high God gainsayeth,
And King Latinus' house therewith beset they eagerl