f the husband and father. AEneas in this
case asked his father to take these images, as it would have been an
impiety for him, having come fresh from scenes of battle and
bloodshed, to have put his hand upon them, without previously
performing some ceremony of purification. Ascanius took hold of his
father's hand. Creusa followed behind. Thus arranged they sallied
forth from the house into the streets--all dark and gloomy, except so
far as they received a partial and inconstant light from the flames
of the distant conflagrations, which glared in the sky, and flashed
sometimes upon battlements and towers, and upon the tops of lofty
dwellings.

AEneas pressed steadily on, though in a state continually of the
highest excitement and apprehension. He kept stealthily along wherever
he could find the deepest shadows, under walls, and through the most
obscure and the narrowest streets. He was in constant fear lest some
stray dart or arrow should strike Anchises or Creusa, or lest some
band of Greeks should come suddenly upon them, in which case he knew
well that they would all be cut down without mercy, for, loaded down
as he was with his burden, he would be entirely unable to do any thing
to defend either himself or them. The party, however, for a time
seemed to escape all these dangers, but at length, just as they were
approaching the gate of the city, and began to think that they were
safe, they were suddenly alarmed by a loud uproar, and by a rush of
men which came in toward them from some streets in that quarter of the
city, and threatened to overwhelm them. Anchises was greatly alarmed.
He saw the gleaming weapons of the Greeks who were rushing toward
them, and he called out to AEneas to fly faster, or to turn off some
other way, in order to escape the impending danger. AEneas was
terrified by the shouts and uproar which he heard, and his mind was
for a moment confused by the bewildering influences of the scene. He
however hurried forward, running this way and that, wherever there
seemed the best prospect of escape, and often embarrassed and retarded
in his flight by the crowds of people who were moving confusedly in
all directions. At length, however, he succeeded in finding egress
from the city. He pressed on, without stopping to look behind him till
he reached the appointed place of rendezvous on the hill, and then
gently laying down his burden, he looked around for Creusa. She was
nowhere to be seen.

AEneas was in