Roused from his slumbers AEneas sprang up in haste, put on his armor and rushed into the fray.  He was joined by a few comrades, and together they made their way through the enemy, killing all who blocked their path.  But when they reached the royal palace and found that the Greeks had already forced their way in and killed the aged man by his own hearth, AEneas remembered his father and his wife and his little son Ascanius.  Since he could not hope to save the city he might at least take thought for his own kin.  While he still hesitated whether to retire or continue the fight, his goddess mother appeared and bade him go and succor his household.  “Your efforts to save the city are vain,” she said.  “The gods themselves make war on Troy.  Juno stands by the gate urging on the Greeks, Jupiter supplies them with hope and courage, and Neptune is breaking down with his trident the walls he helped to raise.  Fly, my son, fly.  I will bring you safely to your own threshold.”

Guided by her protecting hand, AEneas came in safety to his palace, and bade his family prepare in all haste for flight.  But his father refused to stir a step.  “Let me die here at the enemy’s hands,” he implored.  “Better thus than to go into exile in my old age.  Do you go, my son, whither the gods summon you, and leave me to my fate.”  In vain AEneas reasoned and pleaded, in vain he refused to go without his father; neither prayers nor entreaties would move Anchises till the gods sent him a sign.  Suddenly the child’s hair burst into flames.  The father and mother were terrified, but Anchises recognised the good omen, and prayed the gods to show whether his interpretation was the true one.  In answer there came a clap of thunder and a star flashed across the sky and disappeared among the woods on Mount Ida.  Then Anchises was sure that the token was a true one.  “Delay no more!” he cried.  “I will accompany you, and go in hope wheresoever the gods of my country shall lead me.  This is a sign from heaven, and the gods, if it be their will, may yet preserve our city.”

“Come then, father!” cried AEneas joyfully.  “Let me take you on my back, for your feeble limbs would move too slowly for the present danger.  You shall hold the images of the gods, since it would be sacrilege for me to touch them with my blood-stained hands.  Little Ascanius shall take my hand, and Creusa will follow us closely.”

He now ordered the servants to collect all the most valuable possessions, and bring them to him at the temple of Ceres, just outside the city.  Then he set out with father, wife and son, and they groped their way through the city by the light of burning homesteads.  Thus they passed at last through the midst of the enemy, and reached the temple of Ceres.  There, to his dismay, AEneas missed Creusa.  He rushed back to the city and made his way to his own house.  He found it in flames, and the enemy were sacking the ruins.  Nowhere could he find a trace of his wife.  Wild with grief and anxiety