_Book IX._ Meantime, obedient to Turnus' orders, the Rutules have
surrounded the Trojan camp and set fire to Aeneas' ships. But, as Fate
has decreed these vessels shall be immortal, they sink beneath the
waves as soon as the flames touch them, only to reappear a moment
later as ocean-nymphs and swim down the Tiber to warn Aeneas of the
danger of his friends. This miracle awes the foe, until Turnus boldly
interprets it in his favor, whereupon the Rutules attack the
foreigners' camp so furiously that the Trojans gladly accept the
proposal made by Nisus and Euryalus to slip out and summon Aeneas to
return.

Stealing out of the Trojan camp by night, these two heroes bravely
thread their way through their sleeping foes, killing sundry famous
warriors as they go, and appropriating choice bits of their spoil.
Leaving death in their wake, the two Trojans pass through the enemy's
ranks and finally enter a forest, where they are pursued by a troop of
the Volscians, who surround and slay Euryalus. But, although Nisus
first manages to escape from their hands, he returns to defend his
comrade and is slain too. The Volscians therefore bear two bloody
heads to the Rutules camp to serve as their war standards on the next
day. It is thus that Euryalus' mother becomes aware of the death of
her son, whom she mourns in touching terms.

"Was it this, ah me,
I followed over land and sea?
O slay me, Rutules! if ye know
A mother's love, on me bestow
The tempest of your spears!
Or thou, great Thunderer, pity take,
And whelm me 'neath the Stygian lake,