180 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



having taken root in his corpse, and sprung 

 into their native myrtles and cornels:— 



" When Heaven had overturn'd the Trojan state, 

 And Priam's throne, by too severe a fate; 

 When ruin'd Troy became the Grecian's prey, 

 And Ilium's lofty towers in ashes lay;" 



iEneas and his followers land in Thrace*, where 

 they are about to offer a bull on Jove's impe- 

 rial altar — 



" Not far, a rising hillock stood in view: 



Sharp myrtles on the sides, and cornels grew. 

 There, while I went to crop the silvan scenes, 

 And shade our altar with their leafy greens, 

 I pull'd a plant — with horror I relate 

 A prodigy so strange and full of fate — 

 The rooted fibres rose, and from the wound, 

 Black bloody drops distill'd upon the ground ! 

 Mute and amaz'd, my hair with terror stood; 



Fear shrunk my sinews, and congeal'd my blood." 



* * * * - * * 



" A groan, as of a troubled ghost, renew'd 

 My fright, and then these dreadful words ensued: 

 1 Why dost thou thus my bury'd body rend? 

 O ! spare the corpse of thy unhappy friend ! 

 Spare to pollute thy pious hands with blood; 

 The tears distil not from the wounded wood; 

 But every drop this living tree contains 

 Is kindred blood, and ran in Trojan veins. 

 O ! fly from this unhospitable shore, 

 Warn'd by my fate — for I am Polydore!' " 



Pausanias, a celebrated historian of the 

 second century, tells us there was a festival 



