47Turnus, since he had flown on ahead of the slow column, accompanied by twenty chosen horsemen, appears unexpectedly before the city; 49a Thracian horse dappled with white carries him, and a golden helmet with a red crest covers his head. 51'Is there anyone, young men, who will be first with me against the enemy? 52Look!' he says, and, whirling a javelin, he hurls it into the air, the beginning of the fight, and rides out tall over the plain. 54His comrades take up the shout and follow with a dreadful roar: they marvel at the sluggish hearts of the Teucrians, that the men do not commit themselves to a level field, do not bring their arms to meet them, but cling to their camp.
57Wildly, this way and that, he rides round the walls, and looks for an entrance where there is no way. 59And as a wolf, lying in wait by a full sheepfold, howls at the pens, having endured winds and rains, past midnight; 61the lambs, safe beneath their mothers, keep up their bleating; he, fierce and shameless in his anger, rages against those out of reach, tormented by the long-gathered madness of hunger and his jaws dry of blood: just so the anger of the Rutulian kindles as he looks at the walls and camp, and indignation burns in his hard bones. 67By what means is he to try an approach, and what way can shake the shut-in Teucrians from their rampart and pour them out onto the plain?
69He attacks the fleet, which lay hidden alongside the camp, fenced round with earthworks and the river's waters, calls on his exultant comrades for fire, and, burning, fills his hand with a blazing pine. 73Then indeed they set to work, the presence of Turnus spurs them on, and all the youth arm themselves with black torches. 75They have stripped the hearths; 75the smoking pine-brand carries a pitchy light, and Vulcan sends sparks mingled with it to the stars.