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mind,
Or seconded too well what I designā€™d.
These dear-bought pleasures had I never known,
Had I continued free, and still my own;
Avoiding love, I had not found despair,
But sharā€™d with salvage beasts the common air.
Like them, a lonely life I might have led,
Not mournā€™d the living, nor disturbā€™d the dead.ā€
These thoughts she brooded in her anxious breast.
On board, the Trojan found more easy rest.
Resolvā€™d to sail, in sleep he passā€™d the night;
And orderā€™d all things for his early flight.

To whom once more the winged god appears;
His former youthful mien and shape he wears,
And with this new alarm invades his ears:
ā€œSleepā€™st thou, O goddess-born! and canst thou drown
Thy needful cares, so near a hostile town,
Beset with foes; nor hearā€™st the western gales
Invite thy passage, and inspire thy sails?
She harbours in her heart a furious hate,
And thou shalt find the dire effects too late;
Fixā€™d on revenge, and obstinate to die.
Haste swiftly hence, while thou hast powā€™r to fly.
The sea with ships will soon be coverā€™d oā€™er,
And blazing firebrands kindle all the shore.
Prevent her rage, while night obscures the skies,
And sail before the purple morn arise.
Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring?
Womanā€™s a various and a changeful thing.ā€
Thus Hermes in the dream; then took his flight
Aloft in air unseen, and mixā€™d with night.

Twice warnā€™d by the celestial messenger,
The pious prince arose with hasty fear;
Then rousā€™d his drowsy train without delay:
ā€œHaste to your banks; your crooked anchors weigh,
And spread your flying sails, and stand to sea.
A god commands: he stood before my sight,
And urgā€™d us once again to speedy flight.
O sacred powā€™r, what powā€™r soeā€™er thou art,
To thy blest orders I resign my heart.
Lead thou the way; protect thy Trojan bands,
And prosper the design thy will commands.ā€
He said: and, drawing forth his flaming sword,
His thundā€™ring arm divides the many-twisted cord.
An emulating zeal inspires his train:
They run; they snatch; they rush into the main.
With headlong haste they leave the desert shores,
And brush the liquid seas with labā€™ring oars.

Aurora now had left her saffron bed,
And beams of early light the heavā€™ns oā€™erspread,
When, from a towā€™r, the queen, with wakeful eyes,
Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.
She lookā€™d to seaward; but the sea was void,
And scarce in ken the sailing ships descried.
Stung with despite, and furious with despair,
She struck her trembling breast, and tore her hair.
ā€œAnd shall thā€™ ungrateful traitor go,ā€ she said,
ā€œMy land forsaken, and my love betrayā€™d?
Shall we not arm? not rush from evā€™ry street,
To follow, sink, and burn his perjurā€™d fleet?
Haste, haul my galleys out! pursue the foe!
Bring flaming brands! set sail, and swiftly row!
What have I said? where am I? Fury turns
My brain; and my distemperā€™d bosom burns.
Then, when I gave my person and my throne,
This hate, this rage, had been more timely shown.
See now the promisā€™d faith, the vaunted name,
The pious man, who, rushing throā€™ the flame,
Preservā€™d his gods, and to the Phrygian shore
The burthen of his feeble father bore!
I should have torn him piecemeal; strowā€™d in floods
His scatterā€™d limbs, or left exposā€™d in woods;
Destroyā€™d his friends and son; and, from the fire,
Have set the reeking boy before the sire.
Events are doubtful, which on battles wait:
Yet whereā€™s the doubt, to souls secure of fate?
My Tyrians, at their injurā€™d queenā€™s command,
Had tossā€™d their fires amid the Trojan band;
At once extinguishā€™d all the faithless name;
And I myself, in vengeance of my shame,
Had fallā€™n upon the pile, to mend the funā€™ral flame.
Thou Sun, who viewā€™st at once the world below;
Thou Juno, guardian of the nuptial vow;
Thou Hecate hearken from thy dark abodes!
Ye Furies, fiends, and violated gods,
All powā€™rs invokā€™d with Didoā€™s dying breath,
Attend her curses and avenge her death!
If so the Fates ordain, Jove commands,
Thā€™ ungrateful wretch should find the Latian lands,
Yet let a race untamā€™d, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose:
Oppressā€™d with numbers in thā€™ unequal field,
His men discouragā€™d, and himself expellā€™d,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his sonā€™s embrace.
First, let him see his friends in battle slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain;
And when, at length, the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace:
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command;
But fall, untimely, by some hostile hand,
And lie unburied on the barren sand!
These are my prayā€™rs, and this my dying will;
And you, my Tyrians, evā€™ry curse fulfil.
Perpetual hate and mortal wars proclaim,
Against the prince, the people, and the name.
These grateful offā€™rings on my grave bestow;
Nor league, nor love, the hostile nations know!
Now, and from hence, in evā€™ry future age,
When rage excites your arms, and strength supplies the rage
Rise some avenger of our Libyan blood,
With fire and sword pursue the perjurā€™d brood;
Our arms, our seas, our shores, opposā€™d to theirs;
And the same hate descend on all our heirs!ā€

This said, within her anxious mind she weighs
The means of cutting short her odious days.
Then to Sichaeusā€™ nurse she briefly said
(For, when she left her country, hers was dead):
ā€œGo, Barce, call my sister. Let her care
The solemn rites of sacrifice prepare;
The sheep, and all thā€™ atoning offā€™rings bring,
Sprinkling her body from the crystal spring
With living drops; then let her come, and thou
With sacred fillets bind thy hoary brow.
Thus will I pay my vows to Stygian Jove,
And end the cares of my disastrous love;
Then cast the Trojan image on the fire,
And, as that burns, my passions shall expire.ā€

The nurse moves onward, with officious care,
And all the speed her aged limbs can bear.
But furious Dido, with dark thoughts involvā€™d,
Shook at the mighty mischief she resolvā€™d.
With livid spots distinguishā€™d was her face;
Red were her rolling eyes, and discomposā€™d her pace;
Ghastly she gazā€™d, with pain she drew her breath,
And nature shiverā€™d at approaching death.

Then swiftly to the fatal place she passā€™d,
And mounts the funā€™ral pile with furious haste;
Unsheathes the sword the Trojan left behind
(Not for so dire an enterprise designā€™d).
But when she viewā€™d the garments loosely spread,
Which once he wore, and saw the conscious bed,
She pausā€™d, and with a sigh the robes embracā€™d;
Then on the couch her trembling body cast,
Repressā€™d the ready tears, and spoke her last:
ā€œDear pledges of my love, while Heavā€™n so pleasā€™d,
Receive a soul, of

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