What should he say, or how should he begin?
What course alas! remains, to steer between
The offended lover and the powerful queen.
DRYDEN, _AEneid_, BOOK IV.

There being, however, no middle course, Aeneas directed his chiefs to
get ready the ships, call together the crews, and prepare their arms,
and to do all as quietly and secretly as possible. Meanwhile he
himself would watch for a favorable opportunity of obtaining the
queen's consent to their departure.

Himself, meantime, the softest hours would choose,
Before the love-sick lady heard the news,
And move her tender mind, by slow degrees
To suffer what the sovereign power decrees.
DRYDEN, _AEneid_, BOOK IV.

But Dido soon discovered what the Trojans were about, and she sent for
AEneas and reproached him in angry words for his deception and
ingratitude. Then her anger gave way to grief and tears, and she
implored him to alter his resolution, declaring that if he would thus
suddenly leave her she must surely die. AEneas was in deep distress at
the spectacle of the sorrowing queen, yet he dared not yield to her
entreaties, since it was the decree of the fates and the command of
Jupiter that he should remain no longer in Carthage.

The Trojans therefore hastened their preparations and were soon ready
to set sail; but there came another warning conveyed to them by the
god Mercury, who, while AEneas was asleep in his ship, appeared to
him in a dream, bidding him to speed away that very night, for if he