THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

How wolves came with fierce gallop,
And crows on eager wings,
To tear the flesh of captains,

And peck the eyes of kings;
How thick the dead lay scatter'd
Under the Porcian height;
How through the gates of Tusculum
Raved the wild stream of flight;
And how the Lake Regillus

Bubbled with crimson foam,

What time the thirty cities

Came forth to war with Rome.

IV.

But, Roman, when thou standest
Upon that holy ground,

Look thou with heed on the dark rock
That girds the dark lake round.
So shalt thou see a hoof-mark

Stamp'd deep into the flint;
It was no hoof of mortal steed
That made so strange a dint;
There to the Great Twin Brethren
Vow thou thy vows, and pray
That they, in tempest and in flight,
Will keep thy head alway.

V.

Since last the Great Twin Brethren

Of mortal eyes were seen,

285

Have years gone by an hundred
And fourscore and thirteen,

That summer a Virginius

Was consul first in place; The second was stout Aulus,

Of the Posthumian race.

The herald of the Latines

From Gabii came in state;

The herald of the Latines

Pass'd through Rome's eastern gate;

The herald of the Latines

Did in our Forum stand;

And there he did his office,
A sceptre in his hand.

VI.

"Hear, senators and people

Of the good town of Rome;
The Thirty cities charge you
To bring the Tarquins home;
And if ye still be stubborn

To work the Tarquins wrong,
The Thirty cities warn you,
Look that your walls be strong.

VII.

Then spake the Consul Aulus,
He spake a bitter jest:
"Once the jays sent a message
Unto the eagle's nest :-

THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

'Now yield thou up thine eyrie
Unto the carrion-kite,

Or come forth valiantly, and face
The jays in deadly fight.'
Forth look'd in wrath the eagle;
And carrion-kite and jay,

Soon as they saw his beak and claw,
Fled screaming far away."

VIII.

The herald of the Latines

Hath hied him back in state;

The Fathers of the City

Are met in high debate.
Then spake the elder Consul,
An ancient man and wise,
"Now hearken, Conscript Fathers,
To that which I advise :

In seasons of great peril

'Tis good that one bear sway; Then choose we a Dictator, Whom all men shall obey. Camerium knows how deeply The sword of Aulus bites; And all our city calls him

The man of seventy fights:

Then let him be Dictator

For six months and no more, And have a Master of the knights, And axes twenty-four."

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IX.

So Aulus was Dictator,

The man of seventy fights;

He made Æbutius Elva

His master of the knights.
On the third morn thereafter,
At dawning of the day,
Did Aulus and Æbutius

Set forth with their array.
Sempronius Atratinus

Was left in charge at home
With boys, and with grey-headed men,
To keep the walls of Rome.
Hard by the Lake Regillus

Our camp was pitch'd at night;
Eastward a mile the Latines lay,
Under the Porcian height;
Far over hill and valley

Their mighty host was spread; And with their thousand watch-fires The midnight sky was red.

X.

Up rose the glorious morning
Over the Porcian height,
The proud Ides of Quintilis

Mark'd evermore with white.

Not without secret trouble

Our bravest saw the foes;

THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

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For girt by threescore thousand spears,

The thirty standards rose.

From every warlike city,

That boasts the Latian name,
Foredoom'd to dogs and vultures,
That gallant army came;
From Setia's purple vineyards,
From Norba's ancient wall,
From the white streets of Tusculum,
The proudest town of all;
From where the Witch's Fortress
O'erhangs the dark blue seas;
From the still glassy lake that sleeps

Beneath Aricia's trees.

Those trees in whose dim shadow

The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain ;—
From the drear banks of Ufens,
Where flights of marsh-fowl play,
And buffaloes lie wallowing
Through the hot summer's day;
From the gigantic watch-towers,
No work of earthly men,
Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook

The never-ending fen ;
From the Laurentian jungle,

The wild hog's reedy home;

From the green steeps whence Anio leaps