"But numbing age hath made the blood run cold, And turned my strength to dulness and decay.
Had I the youth that stirred these bones of old, The youth _he_ boasts, no need of guerdon, nay, Nor comely steer to tempt me to the fray.
Glory I care for, not a gift," he cried, And, rising, hurled into the ring midway Two ponderous gauntlets, stiff with hardened hide; These Eryx wore, these thongs around his wrists he tied.
LV.

All stood amazed, so huge the weight, so vast, Sevenfold with lead and iron overlaid, The bull's tough hide.

E'en Dares shrank aghast.
Forth stepped AEneas, and the gauntlets weighed, And to and fro the ponderous folds he swayed.
Then gruffly spake the veteran once more: "Ah! had ye seen great Hercules arrayed In arms like these, such gauntlets as he wore, And watched the deadly fight waged here upon the shore! LVI.

"These Eryx wore, thy brother, when that day He faced Alcides in the strife;--see now His blood and brains,--with these I dared the fray When better blood gave vigour, nor the snow Of envious eld was sprinkled on my brow.
Still, if this Trojan doth these arms decline, And good AEneas and our host allow, Match we the fight.

These gauntlets I resign, Put fear away, and doff those Trojan gloves of thine." LVII.