To preserve Turnus from the deadly blows of the real Aeneas, Juno causes him to pursue a phantom foe on board a ship, whose moorings she loosens, thus setting him adrift upon the Tiber.  Perceiving only then how he has been tricked, Turnus threatens to slay himself, but is restrained by Juno, who after awhile allows him to land and return to the battle.  Thus deprived of his principal foe, Aeneas ranges over the battle-field, where he wounds Mezentius and kills Lausus.  Seeing his beloved son is gone, Mezentius is so anxious to die that he now offers an unresisting throat to Aeneas, who slays him on the spot.

  “One boon (if vanquished foe may crave
   The victor’s grace) I ask—­a grave. 
   My wrathful subjects round me wait: 
   Protect me from their savage hate,
   And let me in the tomb enjoy
   The presence of my slaughtered boy.”

Book XI. Having made a trophy of the enemies’ spoil, Aeneas, even before proceeding to bury his own comrades, adorns the body of Pallas and sends it back to Etruria.  Then he bargains with Turnus’ ambassadors for a twelve-days truce, during which both parties celebrate pompous funerals, the finest of all being that of Pallas.

Hoping to check further bloodshed, Latinus now proposes a peace, whose terms Aeneas is willing to accept, but which Turnus angrily rejects since they deprive him of his promised bride.  The conflict is therefore resumed, and the next interesting episode refers to Camilla, the warrior maid, whose father when she was only a babe tied her to the shaft of his spear and flung her across a torrent he was unable to stem with her in his arms.  Having thus saved her from the enemy’s clutches, this father taught Camilla to fight so bravely, that she causes dire havoc among the Trojans before she dies, using her last breath to implore Turnus to hasten to the rescue.

  “Go:  my last charge to Turnus tell,
   To haste with succor, and repel
   The Trojans from the town—­farewell.” 
   She spoke, and speaking, dropped her rein,
   Perforce descending to the plain. 
   Then by degrees she slips away
   From all that heavy load of clay: 
   Her languid neck, her drowsy head
   She droops to earth, of vigor sped: 
   She lets her martial weapons go: 
   The indignant soul flies down below.

Book XII. Unappeased by Latinus’ reiterated assertions that he is bestowing Lavinia upon a stranger merely to obey the gods, or by the entreaties in which Amata now joins, Turnus still refuses peace.  More fighting therefore ensues, during which Aeneas is wounded in the thigh.  While his leech is vainly trying to stanch his blood, Venus drops a magic herb into the water used for bathing his wounds and thus miraculously cures him.  Plunging back into the fray, which becomes so horrible that Amata brings Lavinia home and commits suicide, Turnus and Aeneas finally meet in duel, but, although Juno would fain interfere once more in behalf of her protege, Jupiter refuses to allow it.  But he grants instead his wife’s petition that the Trojan name and language shall forever be merged into that of the Latin race.