For me My Teucrian friends another town shall frame, And bless the rising towers with fair Lavinia's name." XXV.

Thus first AEneas; then with uplift eyes, His right hand stretching to the stars in prayer, "Hear me, AEneas," old Latinus cries, "By the same Earth, and Sea and Stars I swear, By the twin offering of Latona fair, And two-faced Janus, and Hell's powers malign, And Dis unpitying; let Jove give ear, The Sire whose bolt the solemn league doth sign, Witness these fires and gods,--my hand is on the shrine,-- XXVI.

"No time with Latins shall this league unbind, Whate'er the issue, or the peace confound, No force shall shake the purpose of my mind.
Nay--though the circling Ocean burst its bound, And all the Earth were in a deluge drowned, And Heaven with Hell should mingle.

Sure as now This sceptre" (haply in his hand was found The Royal sceptre) "nevermore, I trow, Shall bourgeon with fresh leaves, or spread a shadowing bough, XXVII.

"Since once in forests, from its parent tree Lopped clean away, the woodman stripped it bare Of boughs and leaves, now fashioned, as ye see, And cased in brass by cunning craftsman's care, For fathers of the Latin realm to bear." So they, amid their chiefest, Sire with Sire, Confirm the league.