In his palace-halls Amidst them sits Latinus, first in years, And first in sceptred state, but filled with anxious fears.
XXXI.

Forthwith the envoys he invites, each man To tell his message, and the terms expound, Then, silence made, thus Venulus began: "Friends, we have seen great Diomede, and found The Argive camp, and, safe from peril, crowned Our journey's end, and pressed the mighty hand That razed old Troy.

On Iapygian ground By Garganus the conqueror hath planned Argyripa's new town, named from his native land.
XXXII.

"There, audience gained and liberty to speak, The gifts we tender, and our names declare And country, who our foemen, what we seek, And why to Arpi and his court we fare.
He hears, and gently thus bespeaks us fair: 'O happy nations, once by Saturn blest, Time-old Ausonians, what sad misfare, What evil fortune mars your ancient rest And tempts to wage strange wars, and dare the doubtful test?
XXXIII.

"'All we, whoever with the steel profaned Troy's fields (I leave the wasting siege alone, The dead, who lie in Simois), all have drained Evils past utterance, o'er the wide world blown, And, suffering, learned our trespass to atone, A hapless band! E'en Priam's self might weep For woes like ours, as Pallas well hath known, Whose baleful star once wrecked us on the deep, And grim Euboea's rocks, Caphareus' vengeful steep.
XXXIV.