Free The Aeneid by Virgil

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                there rises a backcloth of shimmering trees, a dark wood with
                quivering shadows, looming over the water, and there, at the
                foot of this scene, is a cave of hanging rocks, a home for the
                nymphs, with fresh spring water inside it and seats in the virgin
                rock. Here there is no need of chains to moor the weary ships,
170         or of anchors with hooked teeth to hold them fast. This is where
                Aeneas put in with seven ships gathered from all the Trojan fleet,
                and great was their longing for the land as they disembarked and
                stepped at last on to the shore and threw their sea-wasted bodies
                down on the sand. First of all Achates struck a spark from the
                flint, caught it in some leaves, fed the flame by putting dry twigs
                round it and set the fire going with brushwood. Then weary as
                they were after all their labours, they laid out their corn, the gift
                of the goddess Ceres, all tainted with salt, and the goddess’s
                own implements and set themselves to scorch with flame this
                grain they had saved from the sea and to grind it on stone.
    180         Meanwhile Aeneas climbed a rock to get a view over the
                whole breadth of the ocean and see if there was any trace of the
                storm-tossed Antheus or of the double-banked Trojan galleys,
                Capys perhaps, or Caicus’ armour high on the poop. There was
                not a ship to be seen, but he did see three stags wandering about
                the shore with all their herd behind them grazing the low ground
                in a long line. He stopped in his tracks and snatched his bow
190         and swift arrows from the trusty Achates. First he took down
                the three leaders with their high heads of branching antlers. The
                whole of the rest of the herd scattered into the leafy cover of the
                wood, but not before he succeeded in stretching seven huge
                carcasses on the ground, one for each of the ships. He then made
                for the harbour and gave them out to all his men. Last of all he
                shared out the wine the good Acestes with a hero’s generosity
                had poured into casks for them as they left the shores of Sicily.
                Then, as they mourned, he comforted them, saying: ‘My friends,
                this is not the first trouble we have known. We have suffered
200         worse before, and this too will pass. God will see to it. You have
                been to Scylla’s cave and heard the mad dogs howling in the
                depths of it. You have even survived rocks thrown by the
                Cyclops. So summon up your courage once again. This is no
                time for gloom or fear. The day will come, perhaps, when it will
                give you pleasure to remember even this. Whatever chance may
                bring, however many hardships we suffer, we are making for
                Latium, where the Fates show us our place of rest. There it is
                the will of God that the kingdom of Troy shall rise again.