FRAGMENT. 263 



" attend their mafler's footlleps. Tlie hero, well 

 *' recolleding the converfation of the night before, 

 " and the aid which he had promifed, was bend- 

 ** ing his courfe toward the apartment, and fecret 

 ** retreat, of his refpected gueft. Eneas, too, had 

 " been up with the dawn : they met ; the one 

 '* attended by his youthful heir, the other, by his 

 *' confidential friend Achates" 



Here is a very interefting moral contrail. 



The good King Evander, without any body- 

 guards except two dogs, which likewife ferved to 

 watch the houfe, walks forth, at day- break, to 

 converfe on bufinefs with his gueft. And do not 

 imagine, that under his ftraw-covered roof mere 

 trifles are negotiated. No lefs a fubjefl is difcufled 

 than the re-eftab!illiment of the Empire of Troy, 

 in the perfon of Eneas, or rather, the foundation 

 of the Roman Empire. The point in queftion is 

 the diffolution of a formidable confederacy of Na- 

 tions. To affift in affetling this, King Evander 

 offers to Eneas a re-inforcement of four hundred 

 cavaliers. They are, indeed, feleded, and to be 

 commanded by Pallas, his only fon. I muft here 

 obferve one of thofe delicate correfpondencies, by 

 which Virgil conveys important lefTons of virtue 

 £0 Kings, as well as to other men, in feigning ac- 



s 4 tions 



