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Title: Bulfinch's Mythology

Author: Thomas Bulfinch

Release date: January 1, 2004 [eBook #4928]
                Most recently updated: December 28, 2020

Language: English

Credits: Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY ***




Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.



BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY

THE AGE OF FABLE

THE AGE OF CHIVALRY

LEGENDS OF CHARLEMAGNE

BY THOMAS BULFINCH

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME


[Editor's Note: The etext contains all three sections.]




PUBLISHERS' PREFACE


No new edition of Bulfinch's classic work can be considered
complete without some notice of the American scholar to whose wide
erudition and painstaking care it stands as a perpetual monument.
"The Age of Fable" has come to be ranked with older books like
"Pilgrim's Progress," "Gulliver's Travels," "The Arabian Nights,"
"Robinson Crusoe," and five or six other productions of world-wide
renown as a work with which every one must claim some acquaintance
before his education can be called really complete. Many readers
of the present edition will probably recall coming in contact with
the work as children, and, it may be added, will no doubt discover
from a fresh perusal the source of numerous bits of knowledge that
have remained stored in their minds since those early years. Yet
to the majority of this great circle of readers and students the
name Bulfinch in itself has no significance.

Thomas Bulfinch was a native of Boston, Mass., where he was born
in 1796. His boyhood was spent in that city, and he prepared for
college in the Boston schools. He finished his scholastic training
at Harvard College, and after taking his degree was for a period a
teacher in his home city. For a long time later in life he was
employed as an accountant in the Boston Merchants' Bank. His
leisure time he used for further pursuit of the classical studies
which he had begun at Harvard, and his chief pleasure in life lay
in writing out the results of his reading, in simple, condensed
form for young or busy readers. The plan he followed in this work,
to give it the greatest possible usefulness, is set forth in the
Author's Preface.

"Age of Fable," First Edition, 1855; "The Age of Chivalry," 1858;
"The Boy Inventor," 1860; "Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of
the Middle Ages," 1863; "Poetry of the Age of Fable," 1863;
"Oregon and Eldorado, or Romance of the Rivers,"1860.

In this complete edition of his mythological and legendary lore
"The Age of Fable," "The Age of Chivalry," and "Legends of
Charlemagne" are included. Scrupulous care has been taken to
follow the original text of Bulfinch, but attention should be
called to some additional sections which have been inserted to add
to the rounded completeness of the work, and which the publishers
believe would meet with the sanction of the author himself, as in
no way intruding upon his original plan but simply carrying it out
in more complete detail. The section on Northern Mythology has
been enlarged by a retelling of the epic of the "Nibelungen Lied,"
together with a summary of Wagner's version of the legend in his
series of music-dramas. Under the head of "Hero Myths of the
British Race" have been included outlines of the stories of
Beowulf, Cuchulain, Hereward the Wake, and Robin Hood. Of the
verse extracts which occur throughout the text, thirty or more
have been added from literature which has appeared since
Bulfinch's time, extracts that he would have been likely to quote
had he personally supervised the new edition.

Finally, the index has been thoroughly overhauled and, indeed,
remade. All the proper names in the work have been entered, with
references to the pages where they occur, and a concise
explanation or definition of each has been given. Thus what was a
mere list of names in the original has been enlarged into a small
classical and mythological dictionary, which it is hoped will
prove valuable for reference purposes not necessarily connected
with "The Age of Fable."

Acknowledgments are due the writings of Dr. Oliver Huckel for
information on the point of Wagner's rendering of the Nibelungen
legend, and M. I. Ebbutt's authoritative volume on "Hero Myths and
Legends of the British Race," from which much of the information
concerning the British heroes has been obtained





AUTHOR'S PREFACE


If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which
helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in
society, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation. But if
that which tends to make us happier and better can be called
useful, then we claim that epithet for our subject. For Mythology
is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best
allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of
our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. When Byron
calls Rome "the Niobe of nations," or says of Venice, "She looks a
Sea-Cybele fresh from ocean," he calls up to the mind of one
familiar with our subject, illustrations more vivid and striking
than the pencil could furnish, but which are lost to the reader
ignorant of mythology. Milton abounds in similar allusions. The
short poem "Comus" contains more than thirty such, and the ode "On
the Morning of the Nativity" half as many. Through "Paradise Lost"
they are scattered profusely. This is one reason why we often hear
persons by no means illiterate say that they cannot enjoy Milton.
But were these persons to add to their more solid acquirements the
easy learning of this little volume, much of the poetry of Milton
which has appeared to them "harsh and crabbed" would be found
"musical as is Apollo's lute." Our citations, taken from more than
twenty-five poets, from Spenser to Longfellow, will show how
general has been the practice of borrowing illustrations from
mythology.

The prose writers also avail themselves of the same source of
elegant and suggestive illustration. One can hardly take up a
number of the "Edinburgh" or "Quarterly Review" without meeting
with instances. In Macaulay's article on Milton there are twenty
such.

But how is mythology to be taught to one who does not learn it
through the medium of the languages of Greece and Rome? To devote
study to a species of learning which relates wholly to false
marvels and obsolete faiths is not to be expected of the general
reader in a practical age like this. The time even of the young is
claimed by so many sciences of facts and things that little can be
spared for set treatises on a science of mere fancy.

But may not the requisite knowledge of the subject be acquired by
reading the ancient poets in translations? We reply, the field is
too extensive for a preparatory course; and these very
translations require some previous knowledge of the subject to
make them intelligible. Let any one who doubts it read the first
page of the "Aeneid," and see what he can make of "the hatred of
Juno," the "decree of the Parcae," the "judgment of Paris," and
the "honors of Ganymede," without this knowledge.

Shall we be told that answers to such queries may be found in
notes, or by a reference to the Classical Dictionary? We reply,
the interruption of one's reading by either process is so annoying
that most readers prefer to let an allusion pass unapprehended
rather than submit to it. Moreover, such sources give us only the
dry facts without any of the charm of the original narrative; and
what is a poetical myth when stripped of its poetry? The story of
Ceyx and Halcyone, which fills a chapter in our book, occupies but
eight lines in the best (Smith's) Classical Dictionary; and so of
others.

Our work is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the
stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of
amusement. We have endeavored to tell them correctly, according to
the ancient authorities, so that when the reader finds them
referred to he may not be at a loss to recognize the reference.
Thus we hope to teach mythology not as a study, but as a
relaxation from study; to give our work the charm of a story-book,
yet by means of it to impart a knowledge of an important branch of
education. The index at the end will adapt it to the purposes of
reference, and make it a Classical Dictionary for the parlor.

Most of the classical legends in "Stories of Gods and Heroes" are
derived from Ovid and Virgil. They are not literally translated,
for, in the author's opinion, poetry translated into literal prose
is very unattractive reading. Neither are they in verse, as well
for other reasons as from a conviction that to translate
faithfully under all the embarrassments of rhyme and measure is
impossible. The attempt has been made to tell the stories in
prose, preserving so much of the poetry as resides in the thoughts
and is separable from the language itself, and omitting those
amplifications which are not suited to the altered form.

The Northern mythological stories are copied with some abridgment
from Mallet's "Northern Antiquities." These chapters, with those
on Oriental and Egyptian mythology, seemed necessary to complete
the subject, though it is believed these topics have not usually
been presented in the same volume with the classical fables.

The poetical citations so freely introduced are expected to answer
several valuable purposes. They will tend to fix in memory the
leading fact of each story, they will help to the attainment of a
correct pronunciation of the proper names, and they will enrich
the memory with many gems of poetry, some of them such as are most
frequently quoted or alluded to in reading and conversation.

Having chosen mythology as connected with literature for our
province, we have endeavored to omit nothing which the reader of
elegant literature is likely to find occasion for. Such stories
and parts of stories as are offensive to pure taste and good
morals are not given. But such stories are not often referred to,
and if they occasionally should be, the English reader need feel
no mortification in confessing his ignorance of them.

Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for
the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of
either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently
made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and
those which occur in polite conversation.

In the "Stories of Gods and Heroes" the compiler has endeavored to
impart the pleasures of classical learning to the English reader,
by presenting the stories of Pagan mythology in a form adapted to
modern taste. In "King Arthur and His Knights" and "The
Mabinogeon" the attempt has been made to treat in the same way the
stories of the second "age of fable," the age which witnessed the
dawn of the several states of Modern Europe.

It is believed that this presentation of a literature which held
unrivalled sway over the imaginations of our ancestors, for many
centuries, will not be without benefit to the reader, in addition
to the amusement it may afford. The tales, though not to be
trusted for their facts, are worthy of all credit as pictures of
manners; and it is beginning to be held that the manners and modes
of thinking of an age are a more important part of its history
than the conflicts of its peoples, generally leading to no result.
Besides this, the literature of romance is a treasure-house of
poetical material, to which modern poets frequently resort. The
Italian poets, Dante and Ariosto, the English, Spenser, Scott, and
Tennyson, and our own Longfellow and Lowell, are examples of this.

These legends are so connected with each other, so consistently
adapted to a group of characters strongly individualized in
Arthur, Launcelot, and their compeers, and so lighted up by the
fires of imagination and invention, that they seem as well adapted
to the poet's purpose as the legends of the Greek and Roman
mythology. And if every well-educated young person is expected to
know the story of the Golden Fleece, why is the quest of the
Sangreal less worthy of his acquaintance? Or if an allusion to the
shield of Achilles ought not to pass unapprehended, why should one
to Excalibar, the famous sword of Arthur?--

    "Of Arthur, who, to upper light restored,
     With that terrific sword,
     Which yet he brandishes for future war,
     Shall lift his country's fame above the polar star."

[Footnote: Wordsworth]

It is an additional recommendation of our subject, that it tends
to cherish in our minds the idea of the source from which we
sprung. We are entitled to our full share in the glories and
recollections of the land of our forefathers, down to the time of
colonization thence. The associations which spring from this
source must be fruitful of good influences; among which not the
least valuable is the increased enjoyment which such associations
afford to the American traveller when he visits England, and sets
his foot upon any of her renowned localities.

The legends of Charlemagne and his peers are necessary to complete
the subject.

In an age when intellectual darkness enveloped Western Europe, a
constellation of brilliant writers arose in Italy. Of these, Pulci
(born in 1432), Boiardo (1434), and Ariosto (1474) took for their
subjects the romantic fables which had for many ages been
transmitted in the lays of bards and the legends of monkish
chroniclers. These fables they arranged in order, adorned with the
embellishments of fancy, amplified from their own invention, and
stamped with immortality. It may safely be asserted that as long
as civilization shall endure these productions will retain their
place among the most cherished creations of human genius.

In "Stories of Gods and Heroes," "King Arthur and His Knights" and
"The Mabinogeon" the aim has been to supply to the modern reader
such knowledge of the fables of classical and mediaeval literature
as is needed to render intelligible the allusions which occur in
reading and conversation. The "Legends of Charlemagne" is intended
to carry out the same design. Like the earlier portions of the
work, it aspires to a higher character than that of a piece of
mere amusement. It claims to be useful, in acquainting its readers
with the subjects of the productions of the great poets of Italy.
Some knowledge of these is expected of every well-educated young
person.

In reading these romances, we cannot fail to observe how the
primitive inventions have been used, again and again, by
successive generations of fabulists. The Siren of Ulysses is the
prototype of the Siren of Orlando, and the character of Circe
reappears in Alcina. The fountains of Love and Hatred may be
traced to the story of Cupid and Psyche; and similar effects
produced by a magic draught appear in the tale of Tristram and
Isoude, and, substituting a flower for the draught, in
Shakspeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." There are many other
instances of the same kind which the reader will recognize without
our assistance.

The sources whence we derive these stories are, first, the Italian
poets named above; next, the "Romans de Chevalerie" of the Comte
de Tressan; lastly, certain German collections of popular tales.
Some chapters have been borrowed from Leigh Hunt's Translations
from the Italian Poets. It seemed unnecessary to do over again
what he had already done so well; yet, on the other hand, those
stories could not be omitted from the series without leaving it
incomplete.

THOMAS BULFINCH.





CONTENTS


STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

      I. Introduction
     II. Prometheus and Pandora
    III. Apollo and Daphne--Pyramus and Thisbe--Cephalus and Procris
     IV. Juno and her Rivals, Io and Callisto--Diana and Actaeon
         --Latona and the Rustics
      V. Phaeton
     VI. Midas--Baucis and Philemon
    VII. Proserpine--Glaucus and Scylla
   VIII. Pygmalion--Dryope--Venus and Adonis--Apollo and Hyacinthus
     IX. Ceyx and Halcyone
      X. Vertumnus and Pomona--Iphis and Anaxarete
     XI. Cupid and Psyche
    XII. Cadmus--The Myrmidons
   XIII. Nisus and Scylla--Echo and Narcissus--Clytie--Hero and Leander
    XIV. Minerva and Arachne--Niobe
     XV. The Graeae and Gorgons--Perseus and Medusa--Atlas--Andromeda
    XVI. Monsters: Giants--Sphinx--Pegasus and Chimaera--Centaurs
         --Griffin--Pygmies
   XVII. The Golden Fleece--Medea
  XVIII. Meleager and Atalanta
    XIX. Hercules--Hebe and Ganymede
     XX.  Theseus and Daedalus--Castor and Pollux--Festivals and Games
    XXI. Bacchus and Ariadne
   XXII. The Rural Deities--The Dryads and Erisichthon
         --Rhoecus--Water Deities--Camenae--Winds
  XXIII. Achelous and Hercules--Admetus and Alcestis--Antigone--Penelope
   XXIV. Orpheus and Eurydice--Aristaeus--Amphion--Linus
         --Thamyris--Marsyas--Melampus--Musaeus
    XXV. Arion--Ibycus--Simonides--Sappho
   XXVI. Endymion--Orion--Aurora and Tithonus--Acis and Galatea
  XXVII. The Trojan War
 XXVIII. The Fall of Troy--Return of the Greeks--Orestes and Electra
   XXIX. Adventures of Ulysses--The Lotus-eaters--The Cyclopes
         --Circe--Sirens--Scylla and Charybdis--Calypso
    XXX. The Phaeacians--Fate of the Suitors
   XXXI. Adventures of Aeneas--The Harpies--Dido--Palinurus
  XXXII. The Infernal Regions--The Sibyl
 XXXIII. Aeneas in Italy--Camilla--Evander--Nisus and Euryalus
         --Mezentius--Turnus
  XXXIV. Pythagoras--Egyptian Deities--Oracles
   XXXV. Origin of Mythology--Statues of Gods and Goddesses
         --Poets of Mythology
  XXXVI. Monsters (modern)--The Phoenix--Basilisk--Unicorn--Salamander
 XXXVII. Eastern Mythology--Zoroaster--Hindu Mythology--Castes--Buddha
         --The Grand Lama--Prester John
XXXVIII. Northern Mythology--Valhalla--The Valkyrior
  XXXIX. Thor's Visit to Jotunheim
     XL. The Death of Baldur--The Elves--Runic Letters--Skalds--Iceland
         --Teutonic Mythology--The Nibelungen Lied
         --Wagner's Nibelungen Ring
    XLI. The Druids--Iona

KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS


    I. Introduction
   II. The Mythical History of England
  III. Merlin
   IV. Arthur
    V. Arthur (Continued)
   VI. Sir Gawain
  VII. Caradoc Briefbras; or, Caradoc with the Shrunken Arm
 VIII. Launcelot of the Lake
   IX. The Adventure of the Cart
    X. The Lady of Shalott
   XI. Queen Guenever's Peril
  XII. Tristram and Isoude
 XIII. Tristram and Isoude (Continued)
  XIV. Sir Tristram's Battle with Sir Launcelot
   XV. The Round Table
  XVI. Sir Palamedes
 XVII. Sir Tristram
XVIII. Perceval
  XIX. The Sangreal, or Holy Graal
   XX. The Sangreal (Continued)
  XXI. The Sangreal (Continued)
 XXII. Sir Agrivain's Treason
XXIII. Morte d'Arthur


THE MABINOGEON


      Introductory Note
   I. The Britons
  II. The Lady of the Fountain
 III. The Lady of the Fountain (Continued)
  IV. The Lady of the Fountain (Continued)
   V. Geraint, the Son of Erbin
  VI. Geraint, the Son of Erbin (Continued)
 VII. Geraint, the Son of Erbin (Continued)
VIII. Pwyll, Prince of Dyved
  IX. Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr
   X. Manawyddan
  XI. Kilwich and Olwen
 XII. Kilwich and Olwen (Continued)
XIII. Taliesin


HERO MYTHS OF THE BRITISH RACE


Beowulf
Cuchulain, Champion of Ireland
Hereward the Wake
Robin Hood

LEGENDS OF CHARLEMAGNE


Introduction
The Peers, or Paladins
The Tournament
The Siege of Albracca
Adventures of Rinaldo and Orlando
The Invasion of France
The Invasion of France (Continued)

Bradamante and Rogero
Astolpho and the Enchantress
The Orc
Astolpho's Adventures continued, and Isabella's begun.
Medoro
Orlando Mad
Zerbino and Isabella
Astolpho in Abyssinia
The War in Africa
Rogero and Bradamante
The Battle of Roncesvalles
Rinaldo and Bayard
Death of Rinaldo
Huon of Bordeaux
Huon of Bordeaux (Continued)
Huon of Bordeaux (Continued)
Ogier, the Dane
Ogier, the Dane (Continued)
Ogier, the Dane (Continued)

GLOSSARY





STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION


The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. The so-
called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among
living men. They belong now not to the department of theology, but
to those of literature and taste. There they still hold their
place, and will continue to hold it, for they are too closely
connected with the finest productions of poetry and art, both
ancient and modern, to pass into oblivion.

We propose to tell the stories relating to them which have come
down to us from the ancients, and which are alluded to by modern
poets, essayists, and orators. Our readers may thus at the same
time be entertained by the most charming fictions which fancy has
ever created, and put in possession of information indispensable
to every one who would read with intelligence the elegant
literature of his own day.

In order to understand these stories, it will be necessary to
acquaint ourselves with the ideas of the structure of the universe
which prevailed among the Greeks--the people from whom the
Romans, and other nations through them, received their science and
religion.

The Greeks believed the earth to be flat and circular, their own
country occupying the middle of it, the central point being either
Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, or Delphi, so famous for its
oracle.

The circular disk of the earth was crossed from west to east and
divided into two equal parts by the Sea, as they called the
Mediterranean, and its continuation the Euxine, the only seas with
which they were acquainted.

Around the earth flowed the River Ocean, its course being from
south to north on the western side of the earth, and in a contrary
direction on the eastern side. It flowed in a steady, equable
current, unvexed by storm or tempest. The sea, and all the rivers
on earth, received their waters from it.

The northern portion of the earth was supposed to be inhabited by
a happy race named the Hyperboreans, dwelling in everlasting bliss
and spring beyond the lofty mountains whose caverns were supposed
to send forth the piercing blasts of the north wind, which chilled
the people of Hellas (Greece). Their country was inaccessible by
land or sea. They lived exempt from disease or old age, from toils
and warfare. Moore has given us the "Song of a Hyperborean,"
beginning

    "I come from a land in the sun-bright deep,
        Where golden gardens glow,
     Where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep,
        Their conch shells never blow."

On the south side of the earth, close to the stream of Ocean,
dwelt a people happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans. They were
named the Aethiopians. The gods favored them so highly that they
were wont to leave at times their Olympian abodes and go to share
their sacrifices and banquets.

On the western margin of the earth, by the stream of Ocean, lay a
happy place named the Elysian Plain, whither mortals favored by
the gods were transported without tasting of death, to enjoy an
immortality of bliss. This happy region was also called the
"Fortunate Fields," and the "Isles of the Blessed."

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any
real people except those to the east and south of their own
country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. Their imagination
meantime peopled the western portion of this sea with giants,
monsters, and enchantresses; while they placed around the disk of
the earth, which they probably regarded as of no great width,
nations enjoying the peculiar favor of the gods, and blessed with
happiness and longevity.

The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon were supposed to rise out of the
Ocean, on the eastern side, and to drive through the air, giving
light to gods and men. The stars, also, except those forming the
Wain or Bear, and others near them, rose out of and sank into the
stream of Ocean. There the sun-god embarked in a winged boat,
which conveyed him round by the northern part of the earth, back
to his place of rising in the east. Milton alludes to this in his
"Comus":

    "Now the gilded car of day
     His golden axle doth allay
     In the steep Atlantic stream,
     And the slope Sun his upward beam
     Shoots against the dusky pole,
     Pacing towards the other goal
     Of his chamber in the east"

The abode of the gods was on the summit of Mount Olympus, in
Thessaly. A gate of clouds, kept by the goddesses named the
Seasons, opened to permit the passage of the Celestials to earth,
and to receive them on their return. The gods had their separate
dwellings; but all, when summoned, repaired to the palace of
Jupiter, as did also those deities whose usual abode was the
earth, the waters, or the underworld. It was also in the great
hall of the palace of the Olympian king that the gods feasted each
day on ambrosia and nectar, their food and drink, the latter being
handed round by the lovely goddess Hebe. Here they conversed of
the affairs of heaven and earth; and as they quaffed their nectar,
Apollo, the god of music, delighted them with the tones of his
lyre, to which the Muses sang in responsive strains. When the sun
was set, the gods retired to sleep in their respective dwellings.

The following lines from the "Odyssey" will show how Homer
conceived of Olympus:

    "So saying, Minerva, goddess azure-eyed,
    Rose to Olympus, the reputed seat
    Eternal of the gods, which never storms
    Disturb, rains drench, or snow invades, but calm
    The expanse and cloudless shmes with purest day.
    There the inhabitants divine rejoice
    Forever"--Cowper.

The robes and other parts of the dress of the goddesses were woven
by Minerva and the Graces and everything of a more solid nature
was formed of the various metals. Vulcan was architect, smith,
armorer, chariot builder, and artist of all work in Olympus. He
built of brass the houses of the gods; he made for them the golden
shoes with which they trod the air or the water, and moved from
place to place with the speed of the wind, or even of thought. He
also shod with brass the celestial steeds, which whirled the
chariots of the gods through the air, or along the surface of the
sea. He was able to bestow on his workmanship self-motion, so
that the tripods (chairs and tables) could move of themselves in
and out of the celestial hall. He even endowed with intelligence
the golden handmaidens whom he made to wait on himself.

Jupiter, or Jove (Zeus [Footnote: The names included in
parentheses are the Greek, the others being the Roman or Latin
names] ), though called the father of gods and men, had himself a
beginning. Saturn (Cronos) was his father, and Rhea (Ops) his
mother. Saturn and Rhea were of the race of Titans, who were the
children of Earth and Heaven, which sprang from Chaos, of which we
shall give a further account in our next chapter.

There is another cosmogony, or account of the creation, according
to which Earth, Erebus, and Love were the first of beings. Love
(Eros) issued from the egg of Night, which floated on Chaos. By
his arrows and torch he pierced and vivified all things, producing
life and joy.

Saturn and Rhea were not the only Titans. There were others, whose
names were Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Ophion, males; and
Themis, Mnemosyne, Eurynome, females. They are spoken of as the
elder gods, whose dominion was afterwards transferred to others.
Saturn yielded to Jupiter, Oceanus to Neptune, Hyperion to Apollo.
Hyperion was the father of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn. He is
therefore the original sun-god, and is painted with the splendor
and beauty which were afterwards bestowed on Apollo.

    "Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself"

     --Shakspeare.

Ophion and Eurynome ruled over Olympus till they were dethroned by
Saturn and Rhea. Milton alludes to them in "Paradise Lost." He
says the heathens seem to have had some knowledge of the
temptation and fall of man.

    "And fabled how the serpent, whom they called
     Ophion, with Eurynome, (the wide-
     Encroaching Eve perhaps,) had first the rule
     Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven."

The representations given of Saturn are not very consistent; for
on the one hand his reign is said to have been the golden age of
innocence and purity, and on the other he is described as a
monster who devoured his children. [Footnote: This inconsistency
arises from considering the Saturn of the Romans the same with the
Grecian deity Cronos (Time), which, as it brings an end to all
things which have had a beginning, may be said to devour its own
offspring] Jupiter, however, escaped this fate, and when grown up
espoused Metis (Prudence), who administered a draught to Saturn
which caused him to disgorge his children. Jupiter, with his
brothers and sisters, now rebelled against their father Saturn and
his brothers the Titans; vanquished them, and imprisoned some of
them in Tartarus, inflicting other penalties on others. Atlas was
condemned to bear up the heavens on his shoulders.

On the dethronement of Saturn, Jupiter with his brothers Neptune
(Poseidon) and Pluto (Dis) divided his dominions. Jupiter's
portion was the heavens, Neptune's the ocean, and Pluto's the
realms of the dead. Earth and Olympus were common property.
Jupiter was king of gods and men. The thunder was his weapon, and
he bore a shield called Aegis, made for him by Vulcan. The eagle
was his favorite bird, and bore his thunderbolts.

Juno (Hera) was the wife of Jupiter, and queen of the gods. Iris,
the goddess of the rainbow, was her attendant and messenger. The
peacock was her favorite bird.

Vulcan (Hephaestos), the celestial artist, was the son of Jupiter
and Juno. He was born lame, and his mother was so displeased at
the sight of him that she flung him out of heaven. Other accounts
say that Jupiter kicked him out for taking part with his mother in
a quarrel which occurred between them. Vulcan's lameness,
according to this account, was the consequence of his fall. He was
a whole day falling, and at last alighted in the island of Lemnos,
which was thenceforth sacred to him. Milton alludes to this story
in "Paradise Lost," Book I.:

    "... From morn
    To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
    A summer's day; and with the setting sun
    Dropped from the zenith, like a falling star,
    On Lemnos, the Aegean isle."

Mars (Ares), the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno.

Phoebus Apollo, the god of archery, prophecy, and music, was the
son of Jupiter and Latona, and brother of Diana (Artemis). He was
god of the sun, as Diana, his sister, was the goddess of the moon.

Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty, was the
daughter of Jupiter and Dione. Others say that Venus sprang from
the foam of the sea. The zephyr wafted her along the waves to the
Isle of Cyprus, where she was received and attired by the Seasons,
and then led to the assembly of the gods. All were charmed with
her beauty, and each one demanded her for his wife. Jupiter gave
her to Vulcan, in gratitude for the service he had rendered in
forging thunderbolts. So the most beautiful of the goddesses
became the wife of the most ill-favored of gods. Venus possessed
an embroidered girdle called Cestus, which had the power of
inspiring love. Her favorite birds were swans and doves, and the
plants sacred to her were the rose and the myrtle.

Cupid (Eros), the god of love, was the son of Venus. He was her
constant companion; and, armed with bow and arrows, he shot the
darts of desire into the bosoms of both gods and men. There was a
deity named Anteros, who was sometimes represented as the avenger
of slighted love, and sometimes as the symbol of reciprocal
affection. The following legend is told of him:

Venus, complaining to Themis that her son Eros continued always a
child, was told by her that it was because he was solitary, and
that if he had a brother he would grow apace. Anteros was soon
afterwards born, and Eros immediately was seen to increase rapidly
in size and strength.

Minerva (Pallas, Athene), the goddess of wisdom, was the offspring
of Jupiter, without a mother. She sprang forth from his head
completely armed. Her favorite bird was the owl, and the plant
sacred to her the olive.

Byron, in "Childe Harold," alludes to the birth of Minerva thus:

    "Can tyrants but by tyrants conquered be,
     And Freedom find no champion and no child,
     Such as Columbia saw arise, when she
     Sprang forth a Pallas, armed and undefiled?
     Or must such minds be nourished in the wild,
     Deep in the unpruned forest,'midst the roar
     Of cataracts, where nursing Nature smiled
     On infant Washington? Has earth no more
     Such seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore?"

Mercury (Hermes) was the son of Jupiter and Maia. He presided over
commerce, wrestling, and other gymnastic exercises, even over
thieving, and everything, in short, which required skill and
dexterity. He was the messenger of Jupiter, and wore a winged cap
and winged shoes. He bore in his hand a rod entwined with two
serpents, called the caduceus.

Mercury is said to have invented the lyre. He found, one day, a
tortoise, of which he took the shell, made holes in the opposite
edges of it, and drew cords of linen through them, and the
instrument was complete. The cords were nine, in honor of the nine
Muses. Mercury gave the lyre to Apollo, and received from him in
exchange the caduceus.

[Footnote: From this origin of the instrument, the word "shell" is
often used as synonymous with "lyre," and figuratively for music
and poetry. Thus Gray, in his ode on the "Progress of Poesy,"
says:

    "O Sovereign of the willing Soul,
     Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
     Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares
     And frantic Passions hear thy soft control."]

Ceres (Demeter) was the daughter of Saturn and Rhea. She had a
daughter named Proserpine (Persephone), who became the wife of
Pluto, and queen of the realms of the dead. Ceres presided over
agriculture.

Bacchus (Dionysus), the god of wine, was the son of Jupiter and
Semele. He represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but
its social and beneficent influences likewise, so that he is
viewed as the promoter of civilization, and a lawgiver and lover
of peace.

The Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory).
They presided over song, and prompted the memory. They were nine
in number, to each of whom was assigned the presidence over some
particular department of literature, art, or science. Calliope was
the muse of epic poetry, Clio of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry,
Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of choral dance and song, Erato
of love poetry, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy,
Thalia of comedy.

The Graces were goddesses presiding over the banquet, the dance,
and all social enjoyments and elegant arts. They were three in
number. Their names were Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia.

Spenser describes the office of the Graces thus:

    "These three on men all gracious gifts bestow
    Which deck the body or adorn the mind,
    To make them lovely or well-favored show;
    As comely carriage, entertainment kind,
    Sweet semblance, friendly offices that bind,
    And all the complements of courtesy;
    They teach us how to each degree and kind
    We should ourselves demean, to low, to high,
    To friends, to foes; which skill men call Civility."

The Fates were also three--Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Their
office was to spin the thread of human destiny, and they were
armed with shears, with which they cut it off when they pleased.
They were the daughters of Themis (Law), who sits by Jove on his
throne to give him counsel.

The Erinnyes, or Furies, were three goddesses who punished by
their secret stings the crimes of those who escaped or defied
public justice. The heads of the Furies were wreathed with
serpents, and their whole appearance was terrific and appalling.
Their names were Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. They were also
called Eumenides.

Nemesis was also an avenging goddess. She represents the righteous
anger of the gods, particularly towards the proud and insolent.

Pan was the god of flocks and shepherds. His favorite residence
was in Arcadia.

The Satyrs were deities of the woods and fields. They were
conceived to be covered with bristly hair, their heads decorated
with short, sprouting horns, and their feet like goats' feet.

Momus was the god of laughter, and Plutus the god of wealth.

ROMAN DIVINITIES

The preceding are Grecian divinities, though received also by the
Romans. Those which follow are peculiar to Roman mythology:

Saturn was an ancient Italian deity. It was attempted to identify
him with the Grecian god Cronos, and fabled that after his
dethronement by Jupiter he fled to Italy, where he reigned during
what was called the Golden Age. In memory of his beneficent
dominion, the feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the
winter season. Then all public business was suspended,
declarations of war and criminal executions were postponed,
friends made presents to one another and the slaves were indulged
with great liberties. A feast was given them at which they sat at
table, while their masters served them, to show the natural
equality of men, and that all things belonged equally to all, in
the reign of Saturn.

Faunus, [Footnote: There was also a goddess called Fauna, or Bona
Dea.] the grandson of Saturn, was worshipped as the god of fields
and shepherds, and also as a prophetic god. His name in the
plural, Fauns, expressed a class of gamesome deities, like the
Satyrs of the Greeks.

Quirinus was a war god, said to be no other than Romulus, the
founder of Rome, exalted after his death to a place among the
gods.

Bellona, a war goddess.

Terminus, the god of landmarks. His statue was a rude stone or
post, set in the ground to mark the boundaries of fields.

Pales, the goddess presiding over cattle and pastures.

Pomona presided over fruit trees.

Flora, the goddess of flowers.

Lucina, the goddess of childbirth.

Vesta (the Hestia of the Greeks) was a deity presiding over the
public and private hearth. A sacred fire, tended by six virgin
priestesses called Vestals, flamed in her temple. As the safety of
the city was held to be connected with its conservation, the
neglect of the virgins, if they let it go out, was severely
punished, and the fire was rekindled from the rays of the sun.

Liber is the Latin name of Bacchus; and Mulciber of Vulcan.

Janus was the porter of heaven. He opens the year, the first month
being named after him. He is the guardian deity of gates, on which
account he is commonly represented with two heads, because every
door looks two ways. His temples at Rome were numerous. In war
time the gates of the principal one were always open. In peace
they were closed; but they were shut only once between the reign
of Numa and that of Augustus.

The Penates were the gods who were supposed to attend to the
welfare and prosperity of the family. Their name is derived from
Penus, the pantry, which was sacred to them. Every master of a
family was the priest to the Penates of his own house.

The Lares, or Lars, were also household gods, but differed from
the Penates in being regarded as the deified spirits of mortals.
The family Lars were held to be the souls of the ancestors, who
watched over and protected their descendants. The words Lemur and
Larva more nearly correspond to our word Ghost.

The Romans believed that every man had his Genius, and every woman
her Juno: that is, a spirit who had given them being, and was
regarded as their protector through life. On their birthdays men
made offerings to their Genius, women to their Juno.

A modern poet thus alludes to some of the Roman gods:

    "Pomona loves the orchard,
       And Liber loves the vine,
     And Pales loves the straw-built shed
       Warm with the breath of kine;
     And Venus loves the whisper
       Of plighted youth and maid,
     In April's ivory moonlight,
       Beneath the chestnut shade."

    --Macaulay, "Prophecy of Capys."

N.B.--It is to be observed that in proper names the final e and es
are to be sounded. Thus Cybele and Penates are words of three
syllables. But Proserpine and Thebes are exceptions, and to be
pronounced as English words. In the Index at the close of the
volume we shall mark the accented syllable in all words which
appear to require it.





CHAPTER II

PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA


The creation of the world is a problem naturally fitted to excite
the liveliest interest of man, its inhabitant. The ancient pagans,
not having the information on the subject which we derive from the
pages of Scripture, had their own way of telling the story, which
is as follows:

Before earth and sea and heaven were created, all things wore one
aspect, to which we give the name of Chaos--a confused and
shapeless mass, nothing but dead weight, in which, however,
slumbered the seeds of things. Earth, sea, and air were all mixed
up together; so the earth was not solid, the sea was not fluid,
and the air was not transparent. God and Nature at last
interposed, and put an end to this discord, separating earth from
sea, and heaven from both. The fiery part, being the lightest,
sprang up, and formed the skies; the air was next in weight and
place. The earth, being heavier, sank below; and the water took
the lowest place, and buoyed up the earth.

Here some god--it is not known which--gave his good offices in
arranging and disposing the earth. He appointed rivers and bays
their places, raised mountains, scooped out valleys, distributed
woods, fountains, fertile fields, and stony plains. The air being
cleared, the stars began to appear, fishes took possession of the
sea, birds of the air, and four-footed beasts of the land.

But a nobler animal was wanted, and Man was made. It is not known
whether the creator made him of divine materials, or whether in
the earth, so lately separated from heaven, there lurked still
some heavenly seeds. Prometheus took some of this earth, and
kneading it up with water, made man in the image of the gods. He
gave him an upright stature, so that while all other animals turn
their faces downward, and look to the earth, he raises his to
heaven, and gazes on the stars.

Prometheus was one of the Titans, a gigantic race, who inhabited
the earth before the creation of man. To him and his brother
Epimetheus was committed the office of making man, and providing
him and all other animals with the faculties necessary for their
preservation. Epimetheus undertook to do this, and Prometheus was
to overlook his work, when it was done. Epimetheus accordingly
proceeded to bestow upon the different animals the various gifts
of courage, strength, swiftness, sagacity; wings to one, claws to
another, a shelly covering to a third, etc. But when man came to
be provided for, who was to be superior to all other animals,
Epimetheus had been so prodigal of his resources that he had
nothing left to bestow upon him. In his perplexity he resorted to
his brother Prometheus, who, with the aid of Minerva, went up to
heaven, and lighted his torch at the chariot of the sun, and
brought down fire to man. With this gift man was more than a match
for all other animals. It enabled him to make weapons wherewith to
subdue them; tools with which to cultivate the earth; to warm his
dwelling, so as to be comparatively independent of climate; and
finally to introduce the arts and to coin money, the means of
trade and commerce. Woman was not yet made. The story (absurd
enough!) is that Jupiter made her, and sent her to Prometheus and
his brother, to punish them for their presumption in stealing fire
from heaven; and man, for accepting the gift. The first woman was
named Pandora. She was made in heaven, every god contributing
something to perfect her. Venus gave her beauty, Mercury
persuasion, Apollo music, etc. Thus equipped, she was conveyed to
earth, and presented to Epimetheus, who gladly accepted her,
though cautioned by his brother to beware of Jupiter and his
gifts. Epimetheus had in his house a jar, in which were kept
certain noxious articles, for which, in fitting man for his new
abode, he had had no occasion. Pandora was seized with an eager
curiosity to know what this jar contained; and one day she slipped
off the cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude
of plagues for hapless man,--such as gout, rheumatism, and colic
for his body, and envy, spite, and revenge for his mind,--and
scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora hastened to replace the
lid! but, alas! the whole contents of the jar had escaped, one
thing only excepted, which lay at the bottom, and that was HOPE.
So we see at this day, whatever evils are abroad, hope never
entirely leaves us; and while we have THAT, no amount of other
ills can make us completely wretched.

Another story is that Pandora was sent in good faith, by Jupiter,
to bless man; that she was furnished with a box, containing her
marriage presents, into which every god had put some blessing. She
opened the box incautiously, and the blessings all escaped, HOPE
only excepted. This story seems more probable than the former; for
how could HOPE, so precious a jewel as it is, have been kept in a
jar full of all manner of evils, as in the former statement?

The world being thus furnished with inhabitants, the first age was
an age of innocence and happiness, called the Golden Age. Truth
and right prevailed, though not enforced by law, nor was there any
magistrate to threaten or punish. The forest had not yet been
robbed of its trees to furnish timbers for vessels, nor had men
built fortifications round their towns. There were no such things
as swords, spears, or helmets. The earth brought forth all things
necessary for man, without his labor in ploughing or sowing.
Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without seed, the
rivers flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from
the oaks.

Then succeeded the Silver Age, inferior to the golden, but better
than that of brass. Jupiter shortened the spring, and divided the
year into seasons. Then, first, men had to endure the extremes of
heat and cold, and houses became necessary. Caves were the first
dwellings, and leafy coverts of the woods, and huts woven of
twigs. Crops would no longer grow without planting. The farmer was
obliged to sow the seed and the toiling ox to draw the plough.

Next came the Brazen Age, more savage of temper, and readier to
the strife of arms, yet not altogether wicked. The hardest and
worst was the Iron Age. Crime burst in like a flood; modesty,
truth, and honor fled. In their places came fraud and cunning,
violence, and the wicked love of gain. Then seamen spread sails to
the wind, and the trees were torn from the mountains to serve for
keels to ships, and vex the face of ocean. The earth, which till
now had been cultivated in common, began to be divided off into
possessions. Men were not satisfied with what the surface
produced, but must dig into its bowels, and draw forth from thence
the ores of metals. Mischievous IRON, and more mischievous GOLD,
were produced. War sprang up, using both as weapons; the guest was
not safe in his friend's house; and sons-in-law and fathers-in-
law, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, could not trust one
another. Sons wished their fathers dead, that they might come to
the inheritance; family love lay prostrate. The earth was wet with
slaughter, and the gods abandoned it, one by one, till Astraea
alone was left, and finally she also took her departure.

[Footnote: The goddess of innocence and purity. After leaving
earth, she was placed among the stars, where she became the
constellation Virgo--the Virgin. Themis (Justice) was the mother
of Astraea. She is represented as holding aloft a pair of scales,
in which she weighs the claims of opposing parties.

It was a favorite idea of the old poets that these goddesses would
one day return, and bring back the Golden Age. Even in a Christian
hymn, the "Messiah" of Pope, this idea occurs:

    "All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail,
     Returning Justice lift aloft her scale,
     Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
     And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend."

See, also, Milton's "Hymn on the Nativity," stanzas xiv. and xv.]

Jupiter, seeing this state of things, burned with anger. He
summoned the gods to council. They obeyed the call, and took the
road to the palace of heaven. The road, which any one may see in a
clear night, stretches across the face of the sky, and is called
the Milky Way. Along the road stand the palaces of the illustrious
gods; the common people of the skies live apart, on either side.
Jupiter addressed the assembly. He set forth the frightful
condition of things on the earth, and closed by announcing his
intention to destroy the whole of its inhabitants, and provide a
new race, unlike the first, who would be more worthy of life, and
much better worshippers of the gods. So saying he took a
thunderbolt, and was about to launch it at the world, and destroy
it by burning; but recollecting the danger that such a
conflagration might set heaven itself on fire, he changed his
plan, and resolved to drown it. The north wind, which scatters the
clouds, was chained up; the south was sent out, and soon covered
all the face of heaven with a cloak of pitchy darkness. The
clouds, driven together, resound with a crash; torrents of rain
fall; the crops are laid low; the year's labor of the husbandman
perishes in an hour. Jupiter, not satisfied with his own waters,
calls on his brother Neptune to aid him with his. He lets loose
the rivers, and pours them over the land. At the same time, he
heaves the land with an earthquake, and brings in the reflux of
the ocean over the shores. Flocks, herds, men, and houses are
swept away, and temples, with their sacred enclosures, profaned.
If any edifice remained standing, it was overwhelmed, and its
turrets lay hid beneath the waves. Now all was sea, sea without
shore. Here and there an individual remained on a projecting
hilltop, and a few, in boats, pulled the oar where they had lately
driven the plough. The fishes swim among the tree-tops; the anchor
is let down into a garden. Where the graceful lambs played but
now, unwieldy sea calves gambol. The wolf swims among the sheep,
the yellow lions and tigers struggle in the water. The strength of
the wild boar serves him not, nor his swiftness the stag. The
birds fall with weary wing into the water, having found no land
for a resting-place. Those living beings whom the water spared
fell a prey to hunger.

Parnassus alone, of all the mountains, overtopped the waves; and
there Deucalion, and his wife Pyrrha, of the race of Prometheus,
found refuge--he a just man, and she a faithful worshipper of the
gods. Jupiter, when he saw none left alive but this pair, and
remembered their harmless lives and pious demeanor, ordered the
north winds to drive away the clouds, and disclose the skies to
earth, and earth to the skies. Neptune also directed Triton to
blow on his shell, and sound a retreat to the waters. The waters
obeyed, and the sea returned to its shores, and the rivers to
their channels. Then Deucalion thus addressed Pyrrha: "O wife,
only surviving woman, joined to me first by the ties of kindred
and marriage, and now by a common danger, would that we possessed
the power of our ancestor Prometheus, and could renew the race as
he at first made it! But as we cannot, let us seek yonder temple,
and inquire of the gods what remains for us to do." They entered
the temple, deformed as it was with slime, and approached the
altar, where no fire burned. There they fell prostrate on the
earth, and prayed the goddess to inform them how they might
retrieve their miserable affairs. The oracle answered, "Depart
from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast
behind you the bones of your mother." They heard the words with
astonishment. Pyrrha first broke silence: "We cannot obey; we dare
not profane the remains of our parents." They sought the thickest
shades of the wood, and revolved the oracle in their minds. At
length Deucalion spoke: "Either my sagacity deceives me, or the
command is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great
parent of all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind
us; and I think this is what the oracle means. At least, it will
do no harm to try." They veiled their faces, unbound their
garments, and picked up stones, and cast them behind them. The
stones (wonderful to relate) began to grow soft, and assume shape.
By degrees, they put on a rude resemblance to the human form, like
a block half-finished in the hands of the sculptor. The moisture
and slime that were about them became flesh; the stony part became
bones; the veins remained veins, retaining their name, only
changing their use. Those thrown by the hand of the man became
men, and those by the woman became women. It was a hard race, and
well adapted to labor, as we find ourselves to be at this day,
giving plain indications of our origin.

The comparison of Eve to Pandora is too obvious to have escaped
Milton, who introduces it in Book IV. of "Paradise Lost":

    "More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
     Endowed with all their gifts; and O, too like
     In sad event, when to the unwiser son
     Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she insnared
     Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
     On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire."

Prometheus and Epimetheus were sons of Iapetus, which Milton
changes to Japhet.

Prometheus has been a favorite subject with the poets. He is
represented as the friend of mankind, who interposed in their
behalf when Jove was incensed against them, and who taught them
civilization and the arts. But as, in so doing, he transgressed
the will of Jupiter, he drew down on himself the anger of the
ruler of gods and men. Jupiter had him chained to a rock on Mount
Caucasus, where a vulture preyed on his liver, which was renewed
as fast as devoured. This state of torment might have been brought
to an end at any time by Prometheus, if he had been willing to
submit to his oppressor; for he possessed a secret which involved
the stability of Jove's throne, and if he would have revealed it,
he might have been at once taken into favor. But that he disdained
to do. He has therefore become the symbol of magnanimous endurance
of unmerited suffering, and strength of will resisting oppression.

Byron and Shelley have both treated this theme. The following are
Byron's lines:

    "Titan! to whose immortal eyes
       The sufferings of mortality,
       Seen in their sad reality,
     Were not as things that gods despise;
     What was thy pity's recompense?
     A silent suffering, and intense;
     The rock, the vulture, and the chain;
     All that the proud can feel of pain;
     The agony they do not show;
     The suffocating sense of woe.

    "Thy godlike crime was to be kind;
       To render with thy precepts less
       The sum of human wretchedness,
     And strengthen man with his own mind.
       And, baffled as thou wert from high,
       Still, in thy patient energy
     In the endurance and repulse
       Of thine impenetrable spirit,
     Which earth and heaven could not convulse,
       A mighty lesson we inherit."

Byron also employs the same allusion, in his
"Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte":

    "Or, like the thief of fire from heaven,
       Wilt thou withstand the shock?
     And share with him--the unforgiven--
       His vulture and his rock?"





CHAPTER III

APOLLO AND DAPHNE--PYRAMUS AND THISBE CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS


The slime with which the earth was covered by the waters of the
flood produced an excessive fertility, which called forth every
variety of production, both bad and good. Among the rest, Python,
an enormous serpent, crept forth, the terror of the people, and
lurked in the caves of Mount Parnassus. Apollo slew him with his
arrows--weapons which he had not before used against any but
feeble animals, hares, wild goats, and such game. In commemoration
of this illustrious conquest he instituted the Pythian games, in
which the victor in feats of strength, swiftness of foot, or in
the chariot race was crowned with a wreath of beech leaves; for
the laurel was not yet adopted by Apollo as his own tree.

The famous statue of Apollo called the Belvedere represents the
god after this victory over the serpent Python. To this Byron
alludes in his "Childe Harold," iv., 161:

    "... The lord of the unerring bow,
     The god of life, and poetry, and light,
     The Sun, in human limbs arrayed, and brow
     All radiant from his triumph in the fight
     The shaft has just been shot; the arrow bright
     With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye
     And nostril, beautiful disdain, and might
     And majesty flash their full lightnings by,
     Developing in that one glance the Deity."

APOLLO AND DAPHNE

Daphne was Apollo's first love. It was not brought about by
accident, but by the malice of Cupid. Apollo saw the boy playing
with his bow and arrows; and being himself elated with his recent
victory over Python, he said to him, "What have you to do with
warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them.
Behold the conquest I have won by means of them over the vast
serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain!
Be content with your torch, child, and kindle up your flames, as
you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my
weapons." Venus's boy heard these words, and rejoined, "Your
arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike
you." So saying, he took his stand on a rock of Parnassus, and
drew from his quiver two arrows of different workmanship, one to
excite love, the other to repel it. The former was of gold and
sharp pointed, the latter blunt and tipped with lead. With the
leaden shaft he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river
god Peneus, and with the golden one Apollo, through the heart.
Forthwith the god was seized with love for the maiden, and she
abhorred the thought of loving. Her delight was in woodland sports
and in the spoils of the chase. Many lovers sought her, but she
spurned them all, ranging the woods, and taking no thought of
Cupid nor of Hymen. Her father often said to her, "Daughter, you
owe me a son-in-law; you owe me grandchildren." She, hating the
thought of marriage as a crime, with her beautiful face tinged all
over with blushes, threw arms around her father's neck, and said,
"Dearest father, grant me this favor, that I may always remain
unmarried, like Diana." He consented, but at the same time said,
"Your own face will forbid it."

Apollo loved her, and longed to obtain her; and he who gives
oracles to all the world was not wise enough to look into his own
fortunes. He saw her hair flung loose over her shoulders, and
said, "If so charming in disorder, what would it be if arranged?"
He saw her eyes bright as stars; he saw her lips, and was not
satisfied with only seeing them. He admired her hands and arms,
naked to the shoulder, and whatever was hidden from view he
imagined more beautiful still. He followed her; she fled, swifter
than the wind, and delayed not a moment at his entreaties. "Stay,"
said he, "daughter of Peneus; I am not a foe. Do not fly me as a
lamb flies the wolf, or a dove the hawk. It is for love I pursue
you. You make me miserable, for fear you should fall and hurt
yourself on these stones, and I should be the cause. Pray run
slower, and I will follow slower. I am no clown, no rude peasant.
Jupiter is my father, and I am lord of Delphos and Tenedos, and
know all things, present and future. I am the god of song and the
lyre. My arrows fly true to the mark; but, alas! an arrow more
fatal than mine has pierced my heart! I am the god of medicine,
and know the virtues of all healing plants. Alas! I suffer a
malady that no balm can cure!"

The nymph continued her flight, and left his plea half uttered.
And even as she fled she charmed him. The wind blew her garments,
and her unbound hair streamed loose behind her. The god grew
impatient to find his wooings thrown away, and, sped by Cupid,
gained upon her in the race. It was like a hound pursuing a hare,
with open jaws ready to seize, while the feebler animal darts
forward, slipping from the very grasp. So flew the god and the
virgin--he on the wings of love, and she on those of fear. The
pursuer is the more rapid, however, and gains upon her, and his
panting breath blows upon her hair. Her strength begins to fail,
and, ready to sink, she calls upon her father, the river god:
"Help me, Peneus! open the earth to enclose me, or change my form,
which has brought me into this danger!" Scarcely had she spoken,
when a stiffness seized all her limbs; her bosom began to be
enclosed in a tender bark; her hair became leaves; her arms became
branches; her foot stuck fast in the ground, as a root; her face,
became a tree-top, retaining nothing of its former self but its
beauty. Apollo stood amazed. He touched the stem, and felt the
flesh tremble under the new bark. He embraced the branches, and
lavished kisses on the wood. The branches shrank from his lips.
"Since you cannot be my wife," said he, "you shall assuredly be my
tree. I will wear you for my crown; I will decorate with you my
harp and my quiver; and when the great Roman conquerors lead up
the triumphal pomp to the Capitol, you shall be woven into wreaths
for their brows. And, as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be
always green, and your leaf know no decay." The nymph, now changed
into a Laurel tree, bowed its head in grateful acknowledgment.

That Apollo should be the god both of music and poetry will not
appear strange, but that medicine should also be assigned to his
province, may. The poet Armstrong, himself a physician, thus
accounts for it:

    "Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
     Expels diseases, softens every pain;
     And hence the wise of ancient days adored
     One power of physic, melody, and song."

The story of Apollo and Daphne is often alluded to by the poets.
Waller applies it to the case of one whose amatory verses, though
they did not soften the heart of his mistress, yet won for the
poet wide-spread fame:

    "Yet what he sung in his immortal strain,
     Though unsuccessful, was not sung in vain.
     All but the nymph that should redress his wrong,
     Attend his passion and approve his song.
     Like Phoebus thus, acquiring unsought praise,
     He caught at love and filled his arms with bays."

The following stanza from Shelley's "Adonais" alludes to Byron's
early quarrel with the reviewers:

    "The herded wolves, bold only to pursue;
    The obscene ravens, clamorous o'er the dead;
    The vultures, to the conqueror's banner true,
    Who feed where Desolation first has fed,
    And whose wings rain contagion: how they fled,
    When like Apollo, from his golden bow,
    The Pythian of the age one arrow sped
    And smiled! The spoilers tempt no second blow;
    They fawn on the proud feet that spurn them as they go."

PYRAMUS AND THISBE

Pyramus was the handsomest youth, and Thisbe the fairest maiden,
in all Babylonia, where Semiramis reigned. Their parents occupied
adjoining houses; and neighborhood brought the young people
together, and acquaintance ripened into love. They would gladly
have married, but their parents forbade. One thing, however, they
could not forbid--that love should glow with equal ardor in the
bosoms of both. They conversed by signs and glances, and the fire
burned more intensely for being covered up. In the wall that
parted the two houses there was a crack, caused by some fault in
the structure. No one had remarked it before, but the lovers
discovered it. What will not love discover! It afforded a passage
to the voice; and tender messages used to pass backward and
forward through the gap. As they stood, Pyramus on this side,
Thisbe on that, their breaths would mingle. "Cruel wall," they
said, "why do you keep two lovers apart? But we will not be
ungrateful. We owe you, we confess, the privilege of transmitting
loving words to willing ears." Such words they uttered on
different sides of the wall; and when night came and they must say
farewell, they pressed their lips upon the wall, she on her side,
he on his, as they could come no nearer.

Next morning, when Aurora had put out the stars, and the sun had
melted the frost from the grass, they met at the accustomed spot.
Then, after lamenting their hard fate, they agreed, that next
night, when all was still, they would slip away from watchful
eyes, leave their dwellings and walk out into the fields; and to
insure a meeting, repair to a well-known edifice standing without
the city's bounds, called the Tomb of Ninus, and that the one who
came first should await the other at the foot of a certain tree.
It was a white mulberry tree, and stood near a cool spring. All
was agreed on, and they waited impatiently for the sun to go down
beneath the waters and night to rise up from them. Then cautiously
Thisbe stole forth, unobserved by the family, her head covered
with a veil, made her way to the monument and sat down under the
tree. As she sat alone in the dim light of the evening she
descried a lioness, her jaws reeking with recent slaughter,
approaching the fountain to slake her thirst. Thisbe fled at the
sight, and sought refuge in the hollow of a rock. As she fled she
dropped her veil. The lioness after drinking at the spring turned
to retreat to the woods, and seeing the veil on the ground, tossed
and rent it with her bloody mouth.

Pyramus, having been delayed, now approached the place of meeting.
He saw in the sand the footsteps of the lion, and the color fled
from his cheeks at the sight. Presently he found the veil all rent
and bloody. "O hapless girl," said he, "I have been the cause of
thy death! Thou, more worthy of life than I, hast fallen the first
victim. I will follow. I am the guilty cause, in tempting thee
forth to a place of such peril, and not being myself on the spot
to guard thee. Come forth, ye lions, from the rocks, and tear this
guilty body with your teeth." He took up the veil, carried it with
him to the appointed tree, and covered it with kisses and with
tears. "MY blood also shall stain your texture," said he, and
drawing his sword plunged it into his heart. The blood spurted
from the wound, and tinged the white mulberries of the tree all
red; and sinking into the earth reached the roots, so that the red
color mounted through the trunk to the fruit.

By this time Thisbe, still trembling with fear, yet wishing not to
disappoint her lover, stepped cautiously forth, looking anxiously
for the youth, eager to tell him the danger she had escaped. When
she came to the spot and saw the changed color of the mulberries
she doubted whether it was the same place. While she hesitated she
saw the form of one struggling in the agonies of death. She
started back, a shudder ran through her frame as a ripple on the
face of the still water when a sudden breeze sweeps over it. But
as soon as she recognized her lover, she screamed and beat her
breast, embracing the lifeless body, pouring tears into its
wounds, and imprinting kisses on the cold lips. "O Pyramus," she
cried, "what has done this? Answer me, Pyramus; it is your own
Thisbe that speaks. Hear me, dearest, and lift that drooping
head!" At the name of Thisbe Pyramus opened his eyes, then closed
them again. She saw her veil stained with blood and the scabbard
empty of its sword. "Thy own hand has slain thee, and for my
sake," she said. "I too can be brave for once, and my love is as
strong as thine. I will follow thee in death, for I have been the
cause; and death which alone could part us shall not prevent my
joining thee. And ye, unhappy parents of us both, deny us not our
united request. As love and death have joined us, let one tomb
contain us. And thou, tree, retain the marks of slaughter. Let thy
berries still serve for memorials of our blood." So saying she
plunged the sword into her breast. Her parents ratified her wish,
the gods also ratified it. The two bodies were buried in one
sepulchre, and the tree ever after brought forth purple berries,
as it does to this day.

Moore, in the "Sylph's Ball," speaking of Davy's Safety Lamp, is
reminded of the wall that separated Thisbe and her lover:

    "O for that Lamp's metallic gauze,
       That curtain of protecting wire,
     Which Davy delicately draws
       Around illicit, dangerous fire!

     The wall he sets 'twixt Flame and Air,
       (Like that which barred young Thisbe's bliss,)
     Through whose small holes this dangerous pair
       May see each other, but not kiss."

In Mickle's translation of the "Lusiad" occurs the following
allusion to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, and the metamorphosis
of the mulberries. The poet is describing the Island of Love:

    "... here each gift Pomona's hand bestows
     In cultured garden, free uncultured flows,
     The flavor sweeter and the hue more fair
     Than e'er was fostered by the hand of care.
     The cherry here in shining crimson glows,
     And stained with lovers' blood, in pendent rows,
     The mulberries o'erload the bending boughs."

If any of our young readers can be so hard-hearted as to enjoy a
laugh at the expense of poor Pyramus and Thisbe, they may find an
opportunity by turning to Shakspeare's play of the "Midsummer
Night's Dream," where it is most amusingly burlesqued.

CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS

Cephalus was a beautiful youth and fond of manly sports. He would
rise before the dawn to pursue the chase. Aurora saw him when she
first looked forth, fell in love with him, and stole him away. But
Cephalus was just married to a charming wife whom he devotedly
loved. Her name was Procris. She was a favorite of Diana, the
goddess of hunting, who had given her a dog which could outrun
every rival, and a javelin which would never fail of its mark; and
Procris gave these presents to her husband. Cephalus was so happy
in his wife that he resisted all the entreaties of Aurora, and she
finally dismissed him in displeasure, saying, "Go, ungrateful
mortal, keep your wife, whom, if I am not much mistaken, you will
one day be very sorry you ever saw again."

Cephalus returned, and was as happy as ever in his wife and his
woodland sports. Now it happened some angry deity had sent a
ravenous fox to annoy the country; and the hunters turned out in
great strength to capture it. Their efforts were all in vain; no
dog could run it down; and at last they came to Cephalus to borrow
his famous dog, whose name was Lelaps. No sooner was the dog let
loose than he darted off, quicker than their eye could follow him.
If they had not seen his footprints in the sand they would have
thought he flew. Cephalus and others stood on a hill and saw the
race. The fox tried every art; he ran in a circle and turned on
his track, the dog close upon him, with open jaws, snapping at his
heels, but biting only the air. Cephalus was about to use his
javelin, when suddenly he saw both dog and game stop instantly.
The heavenly powers who had given both were not willing that
either should conquer. In the very attitude of life and action
they were turned into stone. So lifelike and natural did they
look, you would have thought, as you looked at them, that one was
going to bark, the other to leap forward.

Cephalus, though he had lost his dog, still continued to take
delight in the chase. He would go out at early morning, ranging
the woods and hills unaccompanied by any one, needing no help, for
his javelin was a sure weapon in all cases. Fatigued with hunting,
when the sun got high he would seek a shady nook where a cool
stream flowed, and, stretched on the grass, with his garments
thrown aside, would enjoy the breeze. Sometimes he would say
aloud, "Come, sweet breeze, come and fan my breast, come and allay
the heat that burns me." Some one passing by one day heard him
talking in this way to the air, and, foolishly believing that he
was talking to some maiden, went and told the secret to Procris,
Cephalus's wife. Love is credulous. Procris, at the sudden shock,
fainted away. Presently recovering, she said, "It cannot be true;
I will not believe it unless I myself am a witness to it." So she
waited, with anxious heart, till the next morning, when Cephalus
went to hunt as usual. Then she stole out after him, and concealed
herself in the place where the informer directed her. Cephalus
came as he was wont when tired with sport, and stretched himself
on the green bank, saying, "Come, sweet breeze, come and fan me;
you know how I love you! you make the groves and my solitary
rambles delightful." He was running on in this way when he heard,
or thought he heard, a sound as of a sob in the bushes. Supposing
it some wild animal, he threw his javelin at the spot. A cry from
his beloved Procris told him that the weapon had too surely met
its mark. He rushed to the place, and found her bleeding, and with
sinking strength endeavoring to draw forth from the wound the
javelin, her own gift. Cephalus raised her from the earth, strove
to stanch the blood, and called her to revive and not to leave him
miserable, to reproach himself with her death. She opened her
feeble eyes, and forced herself to utter these few words: "I
implore you, if you have ever loved me, if I have ever deserved
kindness at your hands, my husband, grant me this last request; do
not marry that odious Breeze!" This disclosed the whole mystery:
but alas! what advantage to disclose it now! She died; but her
face wore a calm expression, and she looked pityingly and
forgivingly on her husband when he made her understand the truth.

Moore, in his "Legendary Ballads," has one on Cephalus and
Procris, beginning thus:

    "A hunter once in a grove reclined,
       To shun the noon's bright eye,
     And oft he wooed the wandering wind
       To cool his brow with its sigh
     While mute lay even the wild bee's hum,
       Nor breath could stir the aspen's hair,
     His song was still, 'Sweet Air, O come!'
       While Echo answered, 'Come, sweet Air!'"





CHAPTER IV

JUNO AND HER RIVALS, IO AND CALLISTO--DIANA AND ACTAEON--LATONA
AND THE RUSTICS


Juno one day perceived it suddenly grow dark, and immediately
suspected that her husband had raised a cloud to hide some of his
doings that would not bear the light. She brushed away the cloud,
and saw her husband on the banks of a glassy river, with a
beautiful heifer standing near him. Juno suspected the heifer's
form concealed some fair nymph of mortal mould--as was, indeed the
case; for it was Io, the daughter of the river god Inachus, whom
Jupiter had been flirting with, and, when he became aware of the
approach of his wife, had changed into that form.

Juno joined her husband, and noticing the heifer praised its
beauty, and asked whose it was, and of what herd. Jupiter, to stop
questions, replied that it was a fresh creation from the earth.
Juno asked to have it as a gift. What could Jupiter do? He was
loath to give his mistress to his wife; yet how refuse so trifling
a present as a simple heifer? He could not, without exciting
suspicion; so he consented. The goddess was not yet relieved of
her suspicions; so she delivered the heifer to Argus, to be
strictly watched.

Now Argus had a hundred eyes in his head, and never went to sleep
with more than two at a time, so that he kept watch of Io
constantly. He suffered her to feed through the day, and at night
tied her up with a vile rope round her neck. She would have
stretched out her arms to implore freedom of Argus, but she had no
arms to stretch out, and her voice was a bellow that frightened
even herself. She saw her father and her sisters, went near them,
and suffered them to pat her back, and heard them admire her
beauty. Her father reached her a tuft of grass, and she licked the
outstretched hand. She longed to make herself known to him, and
would have uttered her wish; but, alas! words were wanting. At
length she bethought herself of writing, and inscribed her name--
it was a short one--with her hoof on the sand. Inachus recognized
it, and discovering that his daughter, whom he had long sought in
vain, was hidden under this disguise, mourned over her, and,
embracing her white neck, exclaimed, "Alas! my daughter, it would
have been a less grief to have lost you altogether!" While he thus
lamented, Argus, observing, came and drove her away, and took his
seat on a high bank, from whence he could see all around in every
direction.

Jupiter was troubled at beholding the sufferings of his mistress,
and calling Mercury told him to go and despatch Argus. Mercury
made haste, put his winged slippers on his feet, and cap on his
head, took his sleep-producing wand, and leaped down from the
heavenly towers to the earth. There he laid aside his wings, and
kept only his wand, with which he presented himself as a shepherd
driving his flock. As he strolled on he blew upon his pipes. These
were what are called the Syrinx or Pandean pipes. Argus listened
with delight, for he had never seen the instrument before. "Young
man," said he, "come and take a seat by me on this stone. There is
no better place for your flocks to graze in than hereabouts, and
here is a pleasant shade such as shepherds love." Mercury sat
down, talked, and told stories till it grew late, and played upon
his pipes his most soothing strains, hoping to lull the watchful
eyes to sleep, but all in vain; for Argus still contrived to keep
some of his eyes open though he shut the rest.

Among other stories, Mercury told him how the instrument on which
he played was invented. "There was a certain nymph, whose name was
Syrinx, who was much beloved by the satyrs and spirits of the
wood; but she would have none of them, but was a faithful
worshipper of Diana, and followed the chase. You would have
thought it was Diana herself, had you seen her in her hunting
dress, only that her bow was of horn and Diana's of silver. One
day, as she was returning from the chase, Pan met her, told her
just this, and added more of the same sort. She ran away, without
stopping to hear his compliments, and he pursued till she came to
the bank of the river, where he overtook her, and she had only
time to call for help on her friends the water nymphs. They heard
and consented. Pan threw his arms around what he supposed to be
the form of the nymph, and found he embraced only a tuft of reeds!
As he breathed a sigh, the air sounded through the reeds, and
produced a plaintive melody. The god, charmed with the novelty and
with the sweetness of the music, said, 'Thus, then, at least, you
shall be mine.' And he took some of the reeds, and placing them
together, of unequal lengths, side by side, made an instrument
which he called Syrinx, in honor of the nymph." Before Mercury had
finished his story he saw Argus's eyes all asleep. As his head
nodded forward on his breast, Mercury with one stroke cut his neck
through, and tumbled his head down the rocks. O hapless Argus! the
light of your hundred eyes is quenched at once! Juno took them and
put them as ornaments on the tail of her peacock, where they
remain to this day.

But the vengeance of Juno was not yet satiated. She sent a gadfly
to torment Io, who fled over the whole world from its pursuit. She
swam through the Ionian sea, which derived its name from her, then
roamed over the plains of Illyria, ascended Mount Haemus, and
crossed the Thracian strait, thence named the Bosphorus (cow-
ford), rambled on through Scythia, and the country of the
Cimmerians, and arrived at last on the banks of the Nile. At
length Jupiter interceded for her, and upon his promising not to
pay her any more attentions Juno consented to restore her to her
form. It was curious to see her gradually recover her former self.
The coarse hairs fell from her body, her horns shrank up, her eyes
grew narrower, her mouth shorter; hands and fingers came instead
of hoofs to her forefeet; in fine there was nothing left of the
heifer, except her beauty. At first she was afraid to speak, for
fear she should low, but gradually she recovered her confidence
and was restored to her father and sisters.

In a poem dedicated to Leigh Hunt, by Keats, the following
allusion to the story of Pan and Syrinx occurs:

    "So did he feel who pulled the bough aside,
     That we might look into a forest wide,

     Telling us how fair trembling Syrinx fled
     Arcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread.
     Poor nymph--poor Pan--how he did weep to find
     Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind
     Along the reedy stream; a half-heard strain.
     Full of sweet desolation, balmy pain."

CALLISTO

Callisto was another maiden who excited the jealousy of Juno, and
the goddess changed her into a bear. "I will take away," said she,
"that beauty with which you have captivated my husband." Down fell
Callisto on her hands and knees; she tried to stretch out her arms
in supplication--they were already beginning to be covered with
black hair. Her hands grew rounded, became armed with crooked
claws, and served for feet; her mouth, which Jove used to praise
for its beauty, became a horrid pair of jaws; her voice, which if
unchanged would have moved the heart to pity, became a growl, more
fit to inspire terror. Yet her former disposition remained, and
with continual groaning, she bemoaned her fate, and stood upright
as well as she could, lifting up her paws to beg for mercy, and
felt that Jove was unkind, though she could not tell him so. Ah,
how often, afraid to stay in the woods all night alone, she
wandered about the neighborhood of her former haunts; how often,
frightened by the dogs, did she, so lately a huntress, fly in
terror from the hunters! Often she fled from the wild beasts,
forgetting that she was now a wild beast herself; and, bear as she
was, was afraid of the bears.

One day a youth espied her as he was hunting. She saw him and
recognized him as her own son, now grown a young man. She stopped
and felt inclined to embrace him. As she was about to approach,
he, alarmed, raised his hunting spear, and was on the point of
transfixing her, when Jupiter, beholding, arrested the crime, and
snatching away both of them, placed them in the heavens as the
Great and Little Bear.

Juno was in a rage to see her rival so set in honor, and hastened
to ancient Tethys and Oceanus, the powers of ocean, and in answer
to their inquiries thus told the cause of her coming: "Do you ask
why I, the queen of the gods, have left the heavenly plains and
sought your depths? Learn that I am supplanted in heaven--my place
is given to another. You will hardly believe me; but look when
night darkens the world, and you shall see the two of whom I have
so much reason to complain exalted to the heavens, in that part
where the circle is the smallest, in the neighborhood of the pole.
Why should any one hereafter tremble at the thought of offending
Juno, when such rewards are the consequence of my displeasure? See
what I have been able to effect! I forbade her to wear the human
form--she is placed among the stars! So do my punishments result--
such is the extent of my power! Better that she should have
resumed her former shape, as I permitted Io to do. Perhaps he
means to marry her, and put me away! But you, my foster-parents,
if you feel for me, and see with displeasure this unworthy
treatment of me, show it, I beseech you, by forbidding this guilty
couple from coming into your waters." The powers of the ocean
assented, and consequently the two constellations of the Great and
Little Bear move round and round in heaven, but never sink, as the
other stars do, beneath the ocean.

Milton alludes to the fact that the constellation of the Bear
never sets, when he says:

    "Let my lamp at midnight hour
     Be seen in some high lonely tower,
     Where I may oft outwatch the Bear," etc.

And Prometheus, in J. R. Lowell's poem, says:

    "One after one the stars have risen and set,
     Sparkling upon the hoar frost of my chain;
     The Bear that prowled all night about the fold
     Of the North-star, hath shrunk into his den,
     Scared by the blithesome footsteps of the Dawn."

The last star in the tail of the Little Bear is the Pole-star,
called also the Cynosure. Milton says:

    "Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
     While the landscape round it measures.

     Towers and battlements it sees
     Bosomed high in tufted trees,
     Where perhaps some beauty lies
     The Cynosure of neighboring eyes"

The reference here is both to the Pole-star as the guide of
mariners, and to the magnetic attraction of the North He calls it
also the "Star of Arcady," because Callisto's boy was named Arcas,
and they lived in Arcadia. In "Comus," the brother, benighted in
the woods, says:

    "... Some gentle taper!
     Though a rush candle, from the wicker hole
     Of some clay habitation, visit us
     With thy long levelled rule of streaming light,
     And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
     Or Tyrian Cynosure."

DIANA AND ACTAEON

Thus in two instances we have seen Juno's severity to her rivals;
now let us learn how a virgin goddess punished an invader of her
privacy.

It was midday, and the sun stood equally distant from either goal,
when young Actaeon, son of King Cadmus, thus addressed the youths
who with him were hunting the stag in the mountains:

"Friends, our nets and our weapons are wet with the blood of our
victims; we have had sport enough for one day, and to-morrow we
can renew our labors. Now, while Phoebus parches the earth, let us
put by our implements and indulge ourselves with rest."

There was a valley thick enclosed with cypresses and pines, sacred
to the huntress queen, Diana. In the extremity of the valley was a
cave, not adorned with art, but nature had counterfeited art in
its construction, for she had turned the arch of its roof with
stones as delicately fitted as if by the hand of man. A fountain
burst out from one side, whose open basin was bounded by a grassy
rim. Here the goddess of the woods used to come when weary with
hunting and lave her virgin limbs in the sparkling water.

One day, having repaired thither with her nymphs, she handed her
javelin, her quiver, and her bow to one, her robe to another,
while a third unbound the sandals from her feet. Then Crocale, the
most skilful of them, arranged her hair, and Nephele, Hyale, and
the rest drew water in capacious urns. While the goddess was thus
employed in the labors of the toilet, behold Actaeon, having
quitted his companions, and rambling without any especial object,
came to the place, led thither by his destiny. As he presented
himself at the entrance of the cave, the nymphs, seeing a man,
screamed and rushed towards the goddess to hide her with their
bodies. But she was taller than the rest and overtopped them all
by a head. Such a color as tinges the clouds at sunset or at dawn
came over the countenance of Diana thus taken by surprise.
Surrounded as she was by her nymphs, she yet turned half away, and
sought with a sudden impulse for her arrows. As they were not at
hand, she dashed the water into the face of the intruder, adding
these words: "Now go and tell, if you can, that you have seen
Diana unapparelled." Immediately a pair of branching stag's horns
grew out of his head, his neck gained in length, his ears grew
sharp-pointed, his hands became feet, his arms long legs, his body
was covered with a hairy spotted hide. Fear took the place of his
former boldness, and the hero fled. He could not but admire his
own speed; but when he saw his horns in the water, "Ah, wretched
me!" he would have said, but no sound followed the effort. He
groaned, and tears flowed down the face which had taken the place
of his own. Yet his consciousness remained. What shall he do?--go
home to seek the palace, or lie hid in the woods? The latter he
was afraid, the former he was ashamed, to do. While he hesitated
the dogs saw him. First Melampus, a Spartan dog, gave the signal
with his bark, then Pamphagus, Dorceus, Lelaps, Theron, Nape,
Tigris, and all the rest, rushed after him swifter than the wind.
Over rocks and cliffs, through mountain gorges that seemed
impracticable, he fled and they followed. Where he had often
chased the stag and cheered on his pack, his pack now chased him,
cheered on by his huntsmen. He longed to cry out, "I am Actaeon;
recognize your master!" but the words came not at his will. The
air resounded with the bark of the dogs. Presently one fastened on
his back, another seized his shoulder. While they held their
master, the rest of the pack came up and buried their teeth in his
flesh. He groaned,--not in a human voice, yet certainly not in a
stag's,--and falling on his knees, raised his eyes, and would have
raised his arms in supplication, if he had had them. His friends
and fellow-huntsmen cheered on the dogs, and looked everywhere for
Actaeon, calling on him to join the sport. At the sound of his
name he turned his head, and heard them regret that he should be
away. He earnestly wished he was. He would have been well pleased
to see the exploits of his dogs, but to feel them was too much.
They were all around him, rending and tearing; and it was not till
they had torn his life out that the anger of Diana was satisfied.

In Shelley's poem "Adonais" is the following allusion to the story
of Actaeon:

    "'Midst others of less note came one frail form,
    A phantom among men: companionless
    As the last cloud of an expiring storm,
    Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess,
    Had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness,
    Actaeon-like, and now he fled astray
    With feeble steps o'er the world's wilderness;
    And his own Thoughts, along that rugged way,
    Pursued like raging hounds their father and their prey."

    Stanza 31.

The allusion is probably to Shelley himself.

LATONA AND THE RUSTICS

Some thought the goddess in this instance more severe than was
just, while others praised her conduct as strictly consistent with
her virgin dignity. As, usual, the recent event brought older ones
to mind, and one of the bystanders told this story: "Some
countrymen of Lycia once insulted the goddess Latona, but not with
impunity. When I was young, my father, who had grown too old for
active labors, sent me to Lycia to drive thence some choice oxen,
and there I saw the very pond and marsh where the wonder happened.
Near by stood an ancient altar, black with the smoke of sacrifice
and almost buried among the reeds. I inquired whose altar it might
be, whether of Faunus or the Naiads, or some god of the
neighboring mountain, and one of the country people replied, 'No
mountain or river god possesses this altar, but she whom royal
Juno in her jealousy drove from land to land, denying her any spot
of earth whereon to rear her twins. Bearing in her arms the infant
deities, Latona reached this land, weary with her burden and
parched with thirst. By chance she espied on the bottom of the
valley this pond of clear water, where the country people were at
work gathering willows and osiers. The goddess approached, and
kneeling on the bank would have slaked her thirst in the cool
stream, but the rustics forbade her. 'Why do you refuse me water?'
said she; 'water is free to all. Nature allows no one to claim as
property the sunshine, the air, or the water. I come to take my
share of the common blessing. Yet I ask it of you as a favor. I
have no intention of washing my limbs in it, weary though they be,
but only to quench my thirst. My mouth is so dry that I can hardly
speak. A draught Of water would be nectar to me; it would revive
me, and I would own myself indebted to you for life itself. Let
these infants move your pity, who stretch out their little arms as
if to plead for me;' and the children, as it happened, were
stretching out their arms.

"Who would not have been moved with these gentle words of the
goddess? But these clowns persisted in their rudeness; they even
added jeers and threats of violence if she did not leave the
place. Nor was this all. They waded into the pond and stirred up
the mud with their feet, so as to make the water unfit to drink.
Latona was so angry that she ceased to mind her thirst. She no
longer supplicated the clowns, but lifting her hands to heaven
exclaimed, 'May they never quit that pool, but pass their lives
there!' And it came to pass accordingly. They now live in the
water, sometimes totally submerged, then raising their heads above
the surface or swimming upon it. Sometimes they come out upon the
bank, but soon leap back again into the water. They still use
their base voices in railing, and though they have the water all
to themselves, are not ashamed to croak in the midst of it. Their
voices are harsh, their throats bloated, their mouths have become
stretched by constant railing, their necks have shrunk up and
disappeared, and their heads are joined to their bodies. Their
backs are green, their disproportioned bellies white, and in short
they are now frogs, and dwell in the slimy pool."

This story explains the allusion in one of Milton's sonnets, "On
the detraction which followed upon his writing certain treatises."

    "I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
       By the known laws of ancient liberty,
       When straight a barbarous noise environs me
     Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs.
     As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs
       Railed at Latona's twin-born progeny,
       Which after held the sun and moon in fee."

The persecution which Latona experienced from Juno is alluded to
in the story. The tradition was that the future mother of Apollo
and Diana, flying from the wrath of Juno, besought all the islands
of the Aegean to afford her a place of rest, but all feared too
much the potent queen of heaven to assist her rival. Delos alone
consented to become the birthplace of the future deities. Delos
was then a floating island; but when Latona arrived there, Jupiter
fastened it with adamantine chains to the bottom of the sea, that
it might be a secure resting-place for his beloved. Byron alludes
to Delos in his "Don Juan":

    "The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!
       Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
     Where grew the arts of war and peace,
       Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!"





CHAPTER V

PHAETON


Phaeton was the son of Apollo and the nymph Clymene. One day a
schoolfellow laughed at the idea of his being the son of the god,
and Phaeton went in rage and shame and reported it to his mother.
"If," said he, "I am indeed of heavenly birth, give me, mother,
some proof of it, and establish my claim to the honor." Clymene
stretched forth her hands towards the skies, and said, "I call to
witness the Sun which looks down upon us, that I have told you the
truth. If I speak falsely, let this be the last time I behold his
light. But it needs not much labor to go and inquire for yourself;
the land whence the Sun rises lies next to ours. Go and demand of
him whether he will own you as a son." Phaeton heard with delight.
He travelled to India, which lies directly in the regions of
sunrise; and, full of hope and pride, approached the goal whence
his parent begins his course.

The palace of the Sun stood reared aloft on columns, glittering
with gold and precious stones, while polished ivory formed the
ceilings, and silver the doors. The workmanship surpassed the
material; [Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.] for upon the
walls Vulcan had represented earth, sea, and skies, with their
inhabitants. In the sea were the nymphs, some sporting in the
waves, some riding on the backs of fishes, while others sat upon
the rocks and dried their sea-green hair. Their faces were not all
alike, nor yet unlike,--but such as sisters' ought to be.
[Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.] The earth had its towns
and forests and rivers and rustic divinities. Over all was carved
the likeness of the glorious heaven; and on the silver doors the
twelve signs of the zodiac, six on each side.

Clymene's son advanced up the steep ascent, and entered the halls
of his disputed father. He approached the paternal presence, but
stopped at a distance, for the light was more than he could bear.
Phoebus, arrayed in a purple vesture, sat on a throne, which
glittered as with diamonds. On his right hand and his left stood
the Day, the Month, and the Year, and, at regular intervals, the
Hours. Spring stood with her head crowned with flowers, and
Summer, with garment cast aside, and a garland formed of spears of
ripened grain, and Autumn, with his feet stained with grape-juice,
and icy Winter, with his hair stiffened with hoar frost.
Surrounded by these attendants, the Sun, with the eye that sees
everything, beheld the youth dazzled with the novelty and splendor
of the scene, and inquired the purpose of his errand. The youth
replied, "O light of the boundless world, Phoebus, my father,--if
you permit me to use that name,--give me some proof, I beseech
you, by which I may be known as yours." He ceased; and his father,
laying aside the beams that shone all around his head, bade him
approach, and embracing him, said, "My son, you deserve not to be
disowned, and I confirm what your mother has told you. To put an
end to your doubts, ask what you will, the gift shall be yours. I
call to witness that dreadful lake, which I never saw, but which
we gods swear by in our most solemn engagements." Phaeton
immediately asked to be permitted for one day to drive the chariot
of the sun. The father repented of his promise; thrice and four
times he shook his radiant head in warning. "I have spoken
rashly," said he; "this only request I would fain deny. I beg you
to withdraw it. It is not a safe boon, nor one, my Phaeton, suited
to your youth and strength. Your lot is mortal, and you ask what
is beyond a mortal's power. In your ignorance you aspire to do
that which not even the gods themselves may do. None but myself
may drive the flaming car of day. Not even Jupiter, whose terrible
right arm hurls the thunderbolts. The first part of the way is
steep, and such as the horses when fresh in the morning can hardly
climb; the middle is high up in the heavens, whence I myself can
scarcely, without alarm, look down and behold the earth and sea
stretched beneath me. The last part of the road descends rapidly,
and requires most careful driving. Tethys, who is waiting to
receive me, often trembles for me lest I should fall headlong. Add
to all this, the heaven is all the time turning round and carrying
the stars with it. I have to be perpetually on my guard lest that
movement, which sweeps everything else along, should hurry me also
away. Suppose I should lend you the chariot, what would you do?
Could you keep your course while the sphere was revolving under
you? Perhaps you think that there are forests and cities, the
abodes of gods, and palaces and temples on the way. On the
contrary, the road is through the midst of frightful monsters. You
pass by the horns of the Bull, in front of the Archer, and near
the Lion's jaws, and where the Scorpion stretches its arms in one
direction and the Crab in another. Nor will you find it easy to
guide those horses, with their breasts full of fire that they
breathe forth from their mouths and nostrils. I can scarcely
govern them myself, when they are unruly and resist the reins.
Beware, my son, lest I be the donor of a fatal gift; recall your
request while yet you may. Do you ask me for a proof that you are
sprung from my blood? I give you a proof in my fears for you. Look
at my face--I would that you could look into my breast, you would
there see all a father's anxiety. Finally," he continued, "look
round the world and choose whatever you will of what earth or sea
contains most precious--ask it and fear no refusal. This only I
pray you not to urge. It is not honor, but destruction you seek.
Why do you hang round my neck and still entreat me? You shall have
it if you persist,--the oath is sworn and must be kept,--but I beg
you to choose more wisely."

He ended; but the youth rejected all admonition and held to his
demand. So, having resisted as long as he could, Phoebus at last
led the way to where stood the lofty chariot.

It was of gold, the gift of Vulcan; the axle was of gold, the pole
and wheels of gold, the spokes of silver. Along the seat were rows
of chrysolites and diamonds which reflected all around the
brightness of the sun. While the daring youth, gazed in
admiration, the early Dawn threw open the purple doors of the
east, and showed the pathway strewn with roses. The stars
withdrew, marshalled by the Day-star, which last of all retired
also. The father, when he saw the earth beginning to glow, and the
Moon preparing to retire, ordered the Hours to harness up the
horses. They obeyed, and led forth from the lofty stalls the
steeds full fed with ambrosia, and attached the reins. Then the
father bathed the face of his son with a powerful unguent, and
made him capable of enduring the brightness of the flame. He set
the rays on his head, and, with a foreboding sigh, said, "If, my
son, you will in this at least heed my advice, spare the whip and
hold tight the reins. They go fast enough of their own accord; the
labor is to hold them in. You are not to take the straight road
directly between the five circles, but turn off to the left. Keep
within the limit of the middle zone, and avoid the northern and
the southern alike. You will see the marks of the wheels, and they
will serve to guide you. And, that the skies and the earth may
each receive their due share of heat, go not too high, or you will
burn the heavenly dwellings, nor too low, or you will set the
earth on fire; the middle course is safest and best. [Footnote:
See Proverbial Expressions] And now I leave you to your chance,
which I hope will plan better for you than you have done for
yourself. Night is passing out of the western gates and we can
delay no longer. Take the reins; but if at last your heart fails
you, and you will benefit by my advice, stay where you are in
safety, and suffer me to light and warm the earth." The agile
youth sprang into the chariot, stood erect, and grasped the reins
with delight, pouring out thanks to his reluctant parent.

Meanwhile the horses fill the air with their snortings and fiery
breath, and stamp the ground impatient. Now the bars are let down,
and the boundless plain of the universe lies open before them.
They dart forward and cleave the opposing clouds, and outrun the
morning breezes which started from the same eastern goal. The
steeds soon perceived that the load they drew was lighter than
usual; and as a ship without ballast is tossed hither and thither
on the sea, so the chariot, without its accustomed weight, was
dashed about as if empty. They rush headlong and leave the
travelled road. He is alarmed, and knows not how to guide them;
nor, if he knew, has he the power. Then, for the first time, the
Great and Little Bear were scorched with heat, and would fain, if
it were possible, have plunged into the water; and the Serpent
which lies coiled up round the north pole, torpid and harmless,
grew warm, and with warmth felt its rage revive. Bootes, they say,
fled away, though encumbered with his plough, and all unused to
rapid motion.

When hapless Phaeton looked down upon the earth, now spreading in
vast extent beneath him, he grew pale and his knees shook with
terror. In spite of the glare all around him, the sight of his
eyes grew dim. He wished he had never touched his father's horses,
never learned his parentage, never prevailed in his request. He is
borne along like a vessel that flies before a tempest, when the
pilot can do no more and betakes himself to his prayers. What
shall he do? Much of the heavenly road is left behind, but more
remains before. He turns his eyes from one direction to the other;
now to the goal whence he began his course, now to the realms of
sunset which he is not destined to reach. He loses his self-
command, and knows not what to do,--whether to draw tight the
reins or throw them loose; he forgets the names of the horses. He
sees with terror the monstrous forms scattered over the surface of
heaven. Here the Scorpion extended his two great arms, with his
tail and crooked claws stretching over two signs of the zodiac.
When the boy beheld him, reeking with poison and menacing with his
fangs, his courage failed, and the reins fell from his hands. The
horses, when they felt them loose on their backs, dashed headlong,
and unrestrained went off into unknown regions of the sky, in
among the stars, hurling the chariot over pathless places, now up
in high heaven, now down almost to the earth. The moon saw with
astonishment her brother's chariot running beneath her own. The
clouds begin to smoke, and the mountain tops take fire; the fields
are parched with heat, the plants wither, the trees with their
leafy branches burn, the harvest is ablaze! But these are small
things. Great cities perished, with their walls and towers; whole
nations with their people were consumed to ashes! The forest-clad
mountains burned, Athos and Taurus and Tmolus and OEte; Ida, once
celebrated for fountains, but now all dry; the Muses' mountain
Helicon, and Haemus; Aetna, with fires within and without, and
Parnassus, with his two peaks, and Rhodope, forced at last to part
with his snowy crown. Her cold climate was no protection to
Scythia, Caucasus burned, and Ossa and Pindus, and, greater than
both, Olympus; the Alps high in air, and the Apennines crowned
with clouds.

Then Phaeton beheld the world on fire, and felt the heat
intolerable. The air he breathed was like the air of a furnace and
full of burning ashes, and the smoke was of a pitchy darkness. He
dashed forward he knew not whither. Then, it is believed, the
people of Aethiopia became black by the blood being forced so
suddenly to the surface, and the Libyan desert was dried up to the
condition in which it remains to this day. The Nymphs of the
fountains, with dishevelled hair, mourned their waters, nor were
the rivers safe beneath their banks: Tanais smoked, and Caicus,
Xanthus, and Meander; Babylonian Euphrates and Ganges, Tagus with
golden sands, and Cayster where the swans resort. Nile fled away
and hid his head in the desert, and there it still remains
concealed. Where he used to discharge his waters through seven
mouths into the sea, there seven dry channels alone remained. The
earth cracked open, and through the chinks light broke into
Tartarus, and frightened the king of shadows and his queen. The
sea shrank up. Where before was water, it became a dry plain; and
the mountains that lie beneath the waves lifted up their heads and
became islands. The fishes sought the lowest depths, and the
dolphins no longer ventured as usual to sport on the surface. Even
Nereus, and his wife Doris, with the Nereids, their daughters,
sought the deepest caves for refuge. Thrice Neptune essayed to
raise his head above the surface, and thrice was driven back by
the heat. Earth, surrounded as she was by waters, yet with head
and shoulders bare, screening her face with her hand, looked up to
heaven, and with a husky voice called on Jupiter:

"O ruler of the gods, if I have deserved this treatment, and it is
your will that I perish with fire, why withhold your thunderbolts?
Let me at least fall by your hand. Is this the reward of my
fertility, of my obedient service? Is it for this that I have
supplied herbage for cattle, and fruits for men, and frankincense
for your altars? But if I am unworthy of regard, what has my
brother Ocean done to deserve such a fate? If neither of us can
excite your pity, think, I pray you, of your own heaven, and
behold how both the poles are smoking which sustain your palace,
which must fall if they be destroyed. Atlas faints, and scarce
holds up his burden. If sea, earth, and heaven perish, we fall
into ancient Chaos. Save what yet remains to us from the devouring
flame. O, take thought for our deliverance in this awful moment!"

Thus spoke Earth, and overcome with heat and thirst, could say no
more. Then Jupiter omnipotent, calling to witness all the gods,
including him who had lent the chariot, and showing them that all
was lost unless speedy remedy were applied, mounted the lofty
tower from whence he diffuses clouds over the earth, and hurls the
forked lightnings. But at that time not a cloud was to be found to
interpose for a screen to earth, nor was a shower remaining
unexhausted. He thundered, and brandishing a lightning bolt in his
right hand launched it against the charioteer, and struck him at
the same moment from his seat and from existence! Phaeton, with
his hair on fire, fell headlong, like a shooting star which marks
the heavens with its brightness as it falls, and Eridanus, the
great river, received him and cooled his burning frame. The
Italian Naiads reared a tomb for him, and inscribed these words
upon the stone:

    "Driver of Phoebus' chariot Phaeton,
     Struck by Jove's thunder, rests beneath this stone.
     He could not rule his father's car of fire,
     Yet was it much so nobly to aspire"

[Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions]

His sisters, the Heliades, as they lamented his fate, were turned
into poplar trees, on the banks of the river, and their tears,
which continued to flow, became amber as they dropped into the
stream.

Milman, in his poem of "Samor," makes the following allusion to
Phaeton's story:

    "As when the palsied universe aghast
     Lay mute and still,
     When drove, so poets sing, the Sun-born youth
     Devious through Heaven's affrighted signs his sire's
     Ill-granted chariot. Him the Thunderer hurled
     From th' empyrean headlong to the gulf
     Of the half-parched Eridanus, where weep
     Even now the sister trees their amber tears
     O'er Phaeton untimely dead"

In the beautiful lines of Walter Savage Landor, descriptive of the
Sea-shell, there is an allusion to the Sun's palace and chariot.
The water-nymph says:

    "I have sinuous shells of pearly hue
     Within, and things that lustre have imbibed
     In the sun's palace porch, where when unyoked
     His chariot wheel stands midway on the wave.
     Shake one and it awakens; then apply
     Its polished lip to your attentive ear,
     And it remembers its august abodes,
     And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there."

    --Gebir, Book I.





CHAPTER VI

MIDAS--BAUCIS AND PHILEMON


Bacchus, on a certain occasion, found his old schoolmaster and
foster-father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking,
and in that state wandered away, and was found by some peasants,
who carried him to their king, Midas. Midas recognized him, and
treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights
with an unceasing round of jollity. On the eleventh day he brought
Silenus back, and restored him in safety to his pupil. Whereupon
Bacchus offered Midas his choice of a reward, whatever he might
wish. He asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into
GOLD. Bacchus consented, though sorry that he had not made a
better choice. Midas went his way, rejoicing in his new-acquired
power, which he hastened to put to the test. He could scarce
believe his eyes when he found a twig of an oak, which he plucked
from the branch, become gold in his hand. He took up a stone; it
changed to gold. He touched a sod; it did the same. He took an
apple from the tree; you would have thought he had robbed the
garden of the Hesperides. His joy knew no bounds, and as soon as
he got home, he ordered the servants to set a splendid repast on
the table. Then he found to his dismay that whether he touched
bread, it hardened in his hand; or put a morsel to his lips, it
defied his teeth. He took a glass of wine, but it flowed down his
throat like melted gold.

In consternation at the unprecedented affliction, he strove to
divest himself of his power; he hated the gift he had lately
coveted. But all in vain; starvation seemed to await him. He
raised his arms, all shining with gold, in prayer to Bacchus,
begging to be delivered from his glittering destruction. Bacchus,
merciful deity, heard and consented. "Go," said he, "to the River
Pactolus, trace the stream to its fountain-head, there plunge your
head and body in, and wash away your fault and its punishment." He
did so, and scarce had he touched the waters before the gold-
creating power passed into them, and the river-sands became
changed into GOLD, as they remain to this day.

Thenceforth Midas, hating wealth and splendor, dwelt in the
country, and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields. On
a certain occasion Pan had the temerity to compare his music with
that of Apollo, and to challenge the god of the lyre to a trial of
skill. The challenge was accepted, and Tmolus, the mountain god,
was chosen umpire. The senior took his seat, and cleared away the
trees from his ears to listen. At a given signal Pan blew on his
pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to
himself and his faithful follower Midas, who happened to be
present. Then Tmolus turned his head toward the Sun-god, and all
his trees turned with him. Apollo rose, his brow wreathed with
Parnassian laurel, while his robe of Tyrian purple swept the
ground. In his left hand he held the lyre, and with his right hand
struck the strings. Ravished with the harmony, Tmolus at once
awarded the victory to the god of the lyre, and all but Midas
acquiesced in the judgment. He dissented, and questioned the
justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair
of ears any longer to wear the human form, but caused them to
increase in length, grow hairy, within and without, and movable on
their roots; in short, to be on the perfect pattern of those of an
ass.

Mortified enough was King Midas at this mishap; but he consoled
himself with the thought that it was possible to hide his
misfortune, which he attempted to do by means of an ample turban
or head-dress. But his hair-dresser of course knew the secret. He
was charged not to mention it, and threatened with dire punishment
if he presumed to disobey. But he found it too much for his
discretion to keep such a secret; so he went out into the meadow,
dug a hole in the ground, and stooping down, whispered the story,
and covered it up. Before long a thick bed of reeds sprang up in
the meadow, and as soon as it had gained its growth, began
whispering the story, and has continued to do so, from that day to
this, every time a breeze passes over the place.

The story of King Midas has been told by others with some
variations. Dryden, in the "Wife of Bath's Tale," makes Midas's
queen the betrayer of the secret:

    "This Midas knew, and durst communicate
     To none but to his wife his ears of state."

Midas was king of Phrygia. He was the son of Gordius, a poor
countryman, who was taken by the people and made king, in
obedience to the command of the oracle, which had said that their
future king should come in a wagon. While the people were
deliberating, Gordius with his wife and son came driving his wagon
into the public square.

Gordius, being made king, dedicated his wagon to the deity of the
oracle, and tied it up in its place with a fast knot. This was the
celebrated Gordian knot, which, in after times it was said,
whoever should untie should become lord of all Asia. Many tried to
untie it, but none succeeded, till Alexander the Great, in his
career of conquest, came to Phrygia. He tried his skill with as
ill success as others, till growing impatient he drew his sword
and cut the knot. When he afterwards succeeded in subjecting all
Asia to his sway, people began to think that he had complied with
the terms of the oracle according to its true meaning.

BAUCIS AND PHILEMON

On a certain hill in Phrygia stands a linden tree and an oak,
enclosed by a low wall. Not far from the spot is a marsh, formerly
good habitable land, but now indented with pools, the resort of
fen-birds and cormorants. Once on a time Jupiter, in, human shape,
visited this country, and with him his son Mercury (he of the
caduceus), without his wings. They presented themselves, as weary
travellers, at many a door, seeking rest and shelter, but found
all closed, for it was late, and the inhospitable inhabitants
would not rouse themselves to open for their reception. At last a
humble mansion received them, a small thatched cottage, where
Baucis, a pious old dame, and her husband Philemon, united when
young, had grown old together. Not ashamed of their poverty, they
made it endurable by moderate desires and kind dispositions. One
need not look there for master or for servant; they two were the
whole household, master and servant alike. When the two heavenly
guests crossed the humble threshold, and bowed their heads to pass
under the low door, the old man placed a seat, on which Baucis,
bustling and attentive, spread a cloth, and begged them to sit
down. Then she raked out the coals from the ashes, and kindled up
a fire, fed it with leaves and dry bark, and with her scanty
breath blew it into a flame. She brought out of a corner split
sticks and dry branches, broke them up, and placed them under the
small kettle. Her husband collected some pot-herbs in the garden,
and she shred them from the stalks, and prepared them for the pot.
He reached down with a forked stick a flitch of bacon hanging in
the chimney, cut a small piece, and put it in the pot to boil with
the herbs, setting away the rest for another time. A beechen bowl
was filled with warm water, that their guests might wash. While
all was doing, they beguiled the time with conversation.

On the bench designed for the guests was laid a cushion stuffed
with sea-weed; and a cloth, only produced on great occasions, but
ancient and coarse enough, was spread over that. The old lady,
with her apron on, with trembling hand set the table. One leg was
shorter than the rest, but a piece of slate put under restored the
level. When fixed, she rubbed the table down with some sweet-
smelling herbs. Upon it she set some of chaste Minerva's olives,
some cornel berries preserved in vinegar, and added radishes and
cheese, with eggs lightly cooked in the ashes. All were served in
earthen dishes, and an earthenware pitcher, with wooden cups,
stood beside them. When all was ready, the stew, smoking hot, was
set on the table. Some wine, not of the oldest, was added; and for
dessert, apples and wild honey; and over and above all, friendly
faces, and simple but hearty welcome.

Now while the repast proceeded, the old folks were astonished to
see that the wine, as fast as it was poured out, renewed itself in
the pitcher, of its own accord. Struck with terror, Baucis and
Philemon recognized their heavenly guests, fell on their knees,
and with clasped hands implored forgiveness for their poor
entertainment. There was an old goose, which they kept as the
guardian of their humble cottage; and they bethought them to make
this a sacrifice in honor of their guests. But the goose, too
nimble, with the aid of feet and wings, for the old folks, eluded
their pursuit, and at last took shelter between the gods
themselves. They forbade it to be slain; and spoke in these words:
"We are gods. This inhospitable village shall pay the penalty of
its impiety; you alone shall go free from the chastisement. Quit
your house, and come with us to the top of yonder hill." They
hastened to obey, and, staff in hand, labored up the steep ascent.
They had reached to within an arrow's flight of the top, when
turning their eyes below, they beheld all the country sunk in a
lake, only their own house left standing. While they gazed with
wonder at the sight, and lamented the fate of their neighbors,
that old house of theirs was changed into a temple. Columns took
the place of the corner posts, the thatch grew yellow and appeared
a gilded roof, the floors became marble, the doors were enriched
with carving and ornaments of gold. Then spoke Jupiter in
benignant accents: "Excellent old man, and woman worthy of such a
husband, speak, tell us your wishes; what favor have you to ask of
us?" Philemon took counsel with Baucis a few moments; then
declared to the gods their united wish. "We ask to be priests and
guardians of this your temple; and since here we have passed our
lives in love and concord, we wish that one and the same hour may
take us both from life, that I may not live to see her grave, nor
be laid in my own by her." Their prayer was granted. They were the
keepers of the temple as long as they lived. When grown very old,
as they stood one day before the steps of the sacred edifice, and
were telling the story of the place, Baucis saw Philemon begin to
put forth leaves, and old Philemon saw Baucis changing in like
manner. And now a leafy crown had grown over their heads, while
exchanging parting words, as long as they could speak. "Farewell,
dear spouse," they said, together, and at the same moment the bark
closed over their mouths. The Tyanean shepherd still shows the two
trees, standing side by side, made out of the two good old people.

The story of Baucis and Philemon has been imitated by Swift, in a
burlesque style, the actors in the change being two wandering
saints, and the house being changed into a church, of which
Philemon is made the parson. The following may serve as a
specimen:

    "They scarce had spoke, when, fair and soft,
     The roof began to mount aloft;
     Aloft rose every beam and rafter;
     The heavy wall climbed slowly after.
     The chimney widened and grew higher,
     Became a steeple with a spire.
     The kettle to the top was hoist.
     And there stood fastened to a joist,
     But with the upside down, to show
     Its inclination for below;
     In vain, for a superior force,
     Applied at bottom, stops its course;
     Doomed ever in suspense to dwell,
     'Tis now no kettle, but a bell.
     A wooden jack, which had almost
     Lost by disuse the art to roast,
     A sudden alteration feels
     Increased by new intestine wheels;
     And, what exalts the wonder more.
     The number made the motion slower;
     The flier, though't had leaden feet,
     Turned round so quick you scarce could see't;
     But slackened by some secret power,
     Now hardly moves an inch an hour.
     The jack and chimney, near allied,
     Had never left each other's side:
     The chimney to a steeple grown,
     The jack would not be left alone;
     But up against the steeple reared,
     Became a clock, and still adhered;
     And still its love to household cares
     By a shrill voice at noon declares,
     Warning the cook-maid not to burn
     That roast meat which it cannot turn;
     The groaning chair began to crawl,
     Like a huge snail, along the wall;
     There stuck aloft in public view,
     And with small change, a pulpit grew.
     A bedstead of the antique mode,
     Compact of timber many a load,
     Such as our ancestors did use,
     Was metamorphosed into pews,
     Which still their ancient nature keep
     By lodging folks disposed to sleep."





CHAPTER VII

PROSERPINE--GLAUCUS AND SCYLLA


When Jupiter and his brothers had defeated the Titans and banished
them to Tartarus, a new enemy rose up against the gods. They were
the giants Typhon, Briareus, Enceladus, and others. Some of them
had a hundred arms, others breathed out fire. They were finally
subdued and buried alive under Mount Aetna, where they still
sometimes struggle to get loose, and shake the whole island with
earthquakes. Their breath comes up through the mountain, and is
what men call the eruption of the volcano.

The fall of these monsters shook the earth, so that Pluto was
alarmed, and feared that his kingdom would be laid open to the
light of day. Under this apprehension, he mounted his chariot,
drawn by black horses, and took a circuit of inspection to satisfy
himself of the extent of the damage. While he was thus engaged,
Venus, who was sitting on Mount Eryx playing with her boy Cupid,
espied him, and said, "My son, take your darts with which you
conquer all, even Jove himself, and send one into the breast of
yonder dark monarch, who rules the realm of Tartarus. Why should
he alone escape? Seize the opportunity to extend your empire and
mine. Do you not see that even in heaven some despise our power?
Minerva the wise, and Diana the huntress, defy us; and there is
that daughter of Ceres, who threatens to follow their example. Now
do you, if you have any regard for your own interest or mine, join
these two in one." The boy unbound his quiver, and selected his
sharpest and truest arrow; then straining the bow against his
knee, he attached the string, and, having made ready, shot the
arrow with its barbed point right into the heart of Pluto.

In the vale of Enna there is a lake embowered in woods, which
screen it from the fervid rays of the sun, while the moist ground
is covered with flowers, and Spring reigns perpetual. Here
Proserpine was playing with her companions, gathering lilies and
violets, and filling her basket and her apron with them, when
Pluto saw her, loved her, and carried her off. She screamed for
help to her mother and companions; and when in her fright she
dropped the corners of her apron and let the flowers fall,
childlike she felt the loss of them as an addition to her grief.
The ravisher urged on his steeds, calling them each by name, and
throwing loose over their heads and necks his iron-colored reins.
When he reached the River Cyane, and it opposed his passage, he
struck the river-bank with his trident, and the earth opened and
gave him a passage to Tartarus.

Ceres sought her daughter all the world over. Bright-haired
Aurora, when she came forth in the morning, and Hesperus when he
led out the stars in the evening, found her still busy in the
search. But it was all unavailing. At length, weary and sad, she
sat down upon a stone, and continued sitting nine days and nights,
in the open air, under the sunlight and moonlight and falling
showers. It was where now stands the city of Eleusis, then the
home of an old man named Celeus. He was out in the field,
gathering acorns and blackberries, and sticks for his fire. His
little girl was driving home their two goats, and as she passed
the goddess, who appeared in the guise of an old woman, she said
to her, "Mother,"--and the name was sweet to the ears of Ceres,--
"why do you sit here alone upon the rocks?" The old man also
stopped, though his load was heavy, and begged her to come into
his cottage, such as it was. She declined, and he urged her. "Go
in peace," she replied, "and be happy in your daughter; I have
lost mine." As she spoke, tears--or something like tears, for the
gods never weep--fell down her cheeks upon her bosom. The
compassionate old man and his child wept with her. Then said he,
"Come with us, and despise not our humble roof; so may your
daughter be restored to you in safety." "Lead on," said she, "I
cannot resist that appeal!" So she rose from the stone and went
with them. As they walked he told her that his only son, a little
boy, lay very sick, feverish, and sleepless. She stooped and
gathered some poppies. As they entered the cottage, they found all
in great distress, for the boy seemed past hope of recovery.
Metanira, his mother, received her kindly, and the goddess stooped
and kissed the lips of the sick child. Instantly the paleness left
his face, and healthy vigor returned to his body. The whole family
were delighted--that is, the father, mother, and little girl, for
they were all; they had no servants. They spread the table, and
put upon it curds and cream, apples, and honey in the comb. While
they ate, Ceres mingled poppy juice in the milk of the boy. When
night came and all was still, she arose, and taking the sleeping
boy, moulded his limbs with her hands, and uttered over him three
times a solemn charm, then went and laid him in the ashes. His
mother, who had been watching what her guest was doing, sprang
forward with a cry and snatched the child from the fire. Then
Ceres assumed her own form, and a divine splendor shone all
around. While they were overcome with astonishment, she said,
"Mother, you have been cruel in your fondness to your son. I would
have made him immortal, but you have frustrated my attempt.
Nevertheless, he shall be great and useful. He shall teach men the
use of the plough, and the rewards which labor can win from the
cultivated soil." So saying, she wrapped a cloud about her, and
mounting her chariot rode away.

Ceres continued her search for her daughter, passing from land to
land, and across seas and rivers, till at length she returned to
Sicily, whence she at first set out, and stood by the banks of the
River Cyane, where Pluto made himself a passage with his prize to
his own dominions. The river nymph would have told the goddess all
she had witnessed, but dared not, for fear of Pluto; so she only
ventured to take up the girdle which Proserpine had dropped in her
flight, and waft it to the feet of the mother. Ceres, seeing this,
was no longer in doubt of her loss, but she did not yet know the
cause, and laid the blame on the innocent land. "Ungrateful soil,"
said she, "which I have endowed with fertility and clothed with
herbage and nourishing grain, no more shall you enjoy my favors."
Then the cattle died, the plough broke in the furrow, the seed
failed to come up; there was too much sun, there was too much
rain; the birds stole the seeds--thistles and brambles were the
only growth. Seeing this, the fountain Arethusa interceded for the
land. "Goddess," said she, "blame not the land; it opened
unwillingly to yield a passage to your daughter. I can tell you of
her fate, for I have seen her. This is not my native country; I
came hither from Elis. I was a woodland nymph, and delighted in
the chase. They praised my beauty, but I cared nothing for it, and
rather boasted of my hunting exploits. One day I was returning
from the wood, heated with exercise, when I came to a stream
silently flowing, so clear that you might count the pebbles on the
bottom. The willows shaded it, and the grassy bank sloped down to
the water's edge. I approached, I touched the water with my foot.
I stepped in knee-deep, and not content with that, I laid my
garments on the willows and went in. While I sported in the water,
I heard an indistinct murmur coming up as out of the depths of the
stream: and made haste to escape to the nearest bank. The voice
said, 'Why do you fly, Arethusa? I am Alpheus, the god of this
stream.' I ran, he pursued; he was not more swift than I, but he
was stronger, and gained upon me, as my strength failed. At last,
exhausted, I cried for help to Diana. 'Help me, goddess! help your
votary!' The goddess heard, and wrapped me suddenly in a thick
cloud. The river god looked now this way and now that, and twice
came close to me, but could not find me. 'Arethusa! Arethusa!' he
cried. Oh, how I trembled,--like a lamb that hears the wolf
growling outside the fold. A cold sweat came over me, my hair
flowed down in streams; where my foot stood there was a pool. In
short, in less time than it takes to tell it I became a fountain.
But in this form Alpheus knew me and attempted to mingle his
stream with mine. Diana cleft the ground, and I, endeavoring to
escape him, plunged into the cavern, and through the bowels of the
earth came out here in Sicily. While I passed through the lower
parts of the earth, I saw your Proserpine. She was sad, but no
longer showing alarm in her countenance. Her look was such as
became a queen--the queen of Erebus; the powerful bride of the
monarch of the realms of the dead."

When Ceres heard this, she stood for a while like one stupefied;
then turned her chariot towards heaven, and hastened to present
herself before the throne of Jove. She told the story of her
bereavement, and implored Jupiter to interfere to procure the
restitution of her daughter. Jupiter consented on one condition,
namely, that Proserpine should not during her stay in the lower
world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates forbade her
release. Accordingly, Mercury was sent, accompanied by Spring, to
demand Proserpine of Pluto. The wily monarch consented; but, alas!
the maiden had taken a pomegranate which Pluto offered her, and
had sucked the sweet pulp from a few of the seeds. This was enough
to prevent her complete release; but a compromise was made, by
which she was to pass half the time with her mother, and the rest
with her husband Pluto.

Ceres allowed herself to be pacified with this arrangement, and
restored the earth to her favor. Now she remembered Celeus and his
family, and her promise to his infant son Triptolemus. When the
boy grew up, she taught him the use of the plough, and how to sow
the seed. She took him in her chariot, drawn by winged dragons,
through all the countries of the earth, imparting to mankind
valuable grains, and the knowledge of agriculture. After his
return, Triptolemus built a magnificent temple to Ceres in
Eleusis, and established the worship of the goddess, under the
name of the Eleusinian mysteries, which, in the splendor and
solemnity of their observance, surpassed all other religious
celebrations among the Greeks.

There can be little doubt of this story of Ceres and Proserpine
being an allegory. Proserpine signifies the seed-corn which when
cast into the ground lies there concealed--that is, she is carried
off by the god of the underworld. It reappears--that is,
Proserpine is restored to her mother. Spring leads her back to the
light of day.

Milton alludes to the story of Proserpine in "Paradise Lost," Book
IV.:

    ". . . Not that fair field
     Of Enna where Proserpine gathering flowers,
     Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
     Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
     To seek her through the world,--
     ... might with this Paradise
     Of Eden strive."

Hood, in his "Ode to Melancholy," uses the same allusion very
beautifully:

    "Forgive, if somewhile I forget,
       In woe to come the present bliss;
     As frighted Proserpine let fall
       Her flowers at the sight of Dis."

The River Alpheus does in fact disappear underground, in part of
its course, finding its way through subterranean channels till it
again appears on the surface. It was said that the Sicilian
fountain Arethusa was the same stream, which, after passing under
the sea, came up again in Sicily. Hence the story ran that a cup
thrown into the Alpheus appeared again in Arethusa. It is this
fable of the underground course of Alpheus that Coleridge alludes
to in his poem of "Kubla Khan":

    "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
       A stately pleasure-dome decree,
     Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
     Through caverns measureless to man,
       Down to a sunless sea."

In one of Moore's juvenile poems he thus alludes to the same
story, and to the practice of throwing garlands or other light
objects on his stream to be carried downward by it, and afterwards
reproduced at its emerging:

    "O my beloved, how divinely sweet
     Is the pure joy when kindred spirits meet!
     Like him the river god, whose waters flow,
     With love their only light, through caves below,
     Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids
     And festal rings, with which Olympic maids
     Have decked his current, as an offering meet
     To lay at Arethusa's shining feet.
     Think, when he meets at last his fountain bride,
     What perfect love must thrill the blended tide!
     Each lost in each, till mingling into one,
     Their lot the same for shadow or for sun,
     A type of true love, to the deep they run."

The following extract from Moore's "Rhymes on the Road" gives an
account of a celebrated picture by Albano, at Milan, called a
Dance of Loves:

    "'Tis for the theft ef Enna's flower from earth
     These urchins celebrate their dance of mirth,
       Round the green tree, like fays upon a heath;--
         Those that are nearest linked in order bright,
       Cheek after cheek, like rosebuds in a wreath;
       And those more distant showing from beneath
         The others' wings their little eyes of light.
       While see! among the clouds, their eldest brother,
         But just flown up, tells with a smile of bliss,
       This prank of Pluto to his charmed mother,
         Who turns to greet the tidings with a kiss."

GLAUCUS AND SCYLLA

Glaucus was a fisherman. One day he had drawn his nets to land,
and had taken a great many fishes of various kinds. So he emptied
his net, and proceeded to sort the fishes on the grass. The place
where he stood was a beautiful island in the river, a solitary
spot, uninhabited, and not used for pasturage of cattle, nor ever
visited by any but himself. On a sudden, the fishes, which had
been laid on the grass, began to revive and move their fins as if
they were in the water; and while he looked on astonished, they
one and all moved off to the water, plunged in, and swam away. He
did not know what to make of this, whether some god had done it or
some secret power in the herbage. "What herb has such a power?" he
exclaimed; and gathering some of it, he tasted it. Scarce had the
juices of the plant reached his palate when he found himself
agitated with a longing desire for the water. He could no longer
restrain himself, but bidding farewell to earth, he plunged into
the stream. The gods of the water received him graciously, and
admitted him to the honor of their society. They obtained the
consent of Oceanus and Tethys, the sovereigns of the sea, that all
that was mortal in him should be washed away. A hundred rivers
poured their waters over him. Then he lost all sense of his former
nature and all consciousness. When he recovered, he found himself
changed in form and mind. His hair was sea-green, and trailed
behind him on the water; his shoulders grew broad, and what had
been thighs and legs assumed the form of a fish's tail. The sea-
gods complimented him on the change of his appearance, and he
fancied himself rather a good-looking personage.

One day Glaucus saw the beautiful maiden Scylla, the favorite of
the water-nymphs, rambling on the shore, and when she had found a
sheltered nook, laving her limbs in the clear water. He fell in
love with her, and showing himself on the surface, spoke to her,
saying such things as he thought most likely to win her to stay;
for she turned to run immediately on the sight of him, and ran
till she had gained a cliff overlooking the sea. Here she stopped
and turned round to see whether it was a god or a sea animal, and
observed with wonder his shape and color. Glaucus partly emerging
from the water, and supporting himself against a rock, said,
"Maiden, I am no monster, nor a sea animal, but a god; and neither
Proteus nor Triton ranks higher than I. Once I was a mortal, and
followed the sea for a living; but now I belong wholly to it."
Then he told the story of his metamorphosis, and how he had been
promoted to his present dignity, and added, "But what avails all
this if it fails to move your heart?" He was going on in this
strain, but Scylla turned and hastened away.

Glaucus was in despair, but it occurred to him to consult the
enchantress Circe. Accordingly he repaired to her island--the same
where afterwards Ulysses landed, as we shall see in one of our
later stories. After mutual salutations, he said, "Goddess, I
entreat your pity; you alone can relieve the pain I suffer. The
power of herbs I know as well as any one, for it is to them I owe
my change of form. I love Scylla. I am ashamed to tell you how I
have sued and promised to her, and how scornfully she has treated
me. I beseech you to use your incantations, or potent herbs, if
they are more prevailing, not to cure me of my love,--for that I
do not wish,--but to make her share it and yield me a like
return." To which Circe replied, for she was not insensible to the
attractions of the sea-green deity, "You had better pursue a
willing object; you are worthy to be sought, instead of having to
seek in vain. Be not diffident, know your own worth. I protest to
you that even I, goddess though I be, and learned in the virtues
of plants and spells, should not know how to refuse you. If she
scorns you scorn her; meet one who is ready to meet you half way,
and thus make a due return to both at once." To these words
Glaucus replied, "Sooner shall trees grow at the bottom of the
ocean, and sea-weed on the top of the mountains, than I will cease
to love Scylla, and her alone."

The goddess was indignant, but she could not punish him, neither
did she wish to do so, for she liked him too well; so she turned
all her wrath against her rival, poor Scylla. She took plants of
poisonous powers and mixed them together, with incantations and
charms. Then she passed through the crowd of gambolling beasts,
the victims of her art, and proceeded to the coast of Sicily,
where Scylla lived. There was a little bay on the shore to which
Scylla used to resort, in the heat of the day, to breathe the air
of the sea, and to bathe in its waters. Here the goddess poured
her poisonous mixture, and muttered over it incantations of mighty
power. Scylla came as usual and plunged into the water up to her
waist. What was her horror to perceive a brood of serpents and
barking monsters surrounding her! At first she could not imagine
they were a part of herself, and tried to run from them, and to
drive them away; but as she ran she carried them with her, and
when she tried to touch her limbs, she found her hands touch only
the yawning jaws of monsters. Scylla remained rooted to the spot.
Her temper grew as ugly as her form, and she took pleasure in
devouring hapless mariners who came within her grasp. Thus she
destroyed six of the companions of Ulysses, and tried to wreck the
ships of Aeneas, till at last she was turned into a rock, and as
such still continues to be a terror to mariners.

Keats, in his "Endymion," has given a new version of the ending of
"Glaucus and Scylla." Glaucus consents to Circe's blandishments,
till he by chance is witness to her transactions with her beasts.
Disgusted with her treachery and cruelty, he tries to escape from
her, but is taken and brought back, when with reproaches she
banishes him, sentencing him to pass a thousand years in
decrepitude and pain. He returns to the sea, and there finds the
body of Scylla, whom the goddess has not transformed but drowned.
Glaucus learns that his destiny is that, if he passes his thousand
years in collecting all the bodies of drowned lovers, a youth
beloved of the gods will appear and help him. Endymion fulfils
this prophecy, and aids in restoring Glaucus to youth, and Scylla
and all the drowned lovers to life.

The following is Glaucus's account of his feelings after his "sea-
change":

    "I plunged for life or death. To interknit
     One's senses with so dense a breathing stuff
     Might seem a work of pain; so not enough
     Can I admire how crystal-smooth it felt,
     And buoyant round my limbs. At first I dwelt
     Whole days and days in sheer astonishment;
     Forgetful utterly of self-intent,
     Moving but with the mighty ebb and flow.
     Then like a new-fledged bird that first doth show
     His spreaded feathers to the morrow chill,
     I tried in fear the pinions of my will.
     'Twas freedom! and at once I visited
     The ceaseless wonders of this ocean-bed," etc.

    --Keats.





CHAPTER VIII

PYGMALION--DRYOPE-VENUS AND ADONIS--APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS


Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to
abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor,
and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful
that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the
perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and only
prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so perfect that it
concealed itself and its product looked like the workmanship of
nature. Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love
with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it
as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could
not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and
gave it presents such as young girls love,--bright shells and
polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues, beads
and amber. He put raiment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers,
and a necklace about its neck. To the ears he hung earrings and
strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her, and she
looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a
couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife,
and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if she
could enjoy their softness.

The festival of Venus was at hand--a festival celebrated with
great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars smoked, and
the odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had performed
his part in the solemnities, he stood before the altar and timidly
said, "Ye gods, who can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my
wife"--he dared not say "my ivory virgin," but said instead--"one
like my ivory virgin." Venus, who was present at the festival,
heard him and knew the thought he would have uttered; and as an
omen of her favor, caused the flame on the altar to shoot up
thrice in a fiery point into the air. When he returned home, he
went to see his statue, and leaning over the couch, gave a kiss to
the mouth. It seemed to be warm. He pressed its lips again, he
laid his hand upon the limbs; the ivory felt soft to his touch and
yielded to his fingers like the wax of Hymettus. While he stands
astonished and glad, though doubting, and fears he may be
mistaken, again and again with a lover's ardor he touches the
object of his hopes. It was indeed alive! The veins when pressed
yielded to the finger and again resumed their roundness. Then at
last the votary of Venus found words to thank the goddess, and
pressed his lips upon lips as real as his own. The virgin felt the
kisses and blushed, and opening her timid eyes to the light, fixed
them at the same moment on her lover. Venus blessed the nuptials
she had formed, and from this union Paphos was born, from whom the
city, sacred to Venus, received its name.

Schiller, in his poem the "Ideals," applies this tale of Pygmalion
to the love of nature in a youthful heart. The following
translation is furnished by a friend:

    "As once with prayers in passion flowing,
       Pygmalion embraced the stone,
     Till from the frozen marble glowing,
       The light of feeling o'er him shone,
     So did I clasp with young devotion
       Bright nature to a poet's heart;
     Till breath and warmth and vital motion
       Seemed through the statue form to dart.

    "And then, in all my ardor sharing,
       The silent form expression found;
     Returned my kiss of youthful daring,
       And understood my heart's quick sound.
     Then lived for me the bright creation,
       The silver rill with song was rife;
     The trees, the roses shared sensation,
       An echo of my boundless life."

    --S. G. B.

DRYOPE

Dryope and Iole were sisters. The former was the wife of
Andraemon, beloved by her husband, and happy in the birth of her
first child. One day the sisters strolled to the bank of a stream
that sloped gradually down to the water's edge, while the upland
was overgrown with myrtles. They were intending to gather flowers
for forming garlands for the altars of the nymphs, and Dryope
carried her child at her bosom, precious burden, and nursed him as
she walked. Near the water grew a lotus plant, full of purple
flowers. Dryope gathered some and offered them to the baby, and
Iole was about to do the same, when she perceived blood dropping
from the places where her sister had broken them off the stem. The
plant was no other than the nymph Lotis, who, running from a base
pursuer, had been changed into this form. This they learned from
the country people when it was too late.

Dryope, horror-struck when she perceived what she had done, would
gladly have hastened from the spot, but found her feet rooted to
the ground. She tried to pull them away, but moved nothing but her
upper limbs. The woodiness crept upward, and by degrees invested
her body. In anguish she attempted to tear her hair, but found her
hands filled with leaves. The infant felt his mother's bosom begin
to harden, and the milk cease to flow. Iole looked on at the sad
fate of her sister, and could render no assistance. She embraced
the growing trunk, as if she would hold back the advancing wood,
and would gladly have been enveloped in the same bark. At this
moment Andraemon, the husband of Dryope, with her father,
approached; and when they asked for Dryope, Iole pointed them to
the new-formed lotus. They embraced the trunk of the yet warm
tree, and showered their kisses on its leaves.

Now there was nothing left of Dryope but her face. Her tears still
flowed and fell on her leaves, and while she could she spoke. "I
am not guilty. I deserve not this fate. I have injured no one. If
I speak falsely, may my foliage perish with drought and my trunk
be cut down and burned. Take this infant and give it to a nurse.
Let it often be brought and nursed under my branches, and play in
my shade; and when he is old enough to talk, let him be taught to
call me mother, and to say with sadness, 'My mother lies hid under
this bark.' But bid him be careful of river banks, and beware how
he plucks flowers, remembering that every bush he sees may be a
goddess in disguise. Farewell, dear husband, and sister, and
father. If you retain any love for me, let not the axe wound me,
nor the flocks bite and tear my branches. Since I cannot stoop to
you, climb up hither and kiss me; and while my lips continue to
feel, lift up my child that I may kiss him. I can speak no more,
for already the bark advances up my neck, and will soon shoot over
me. You need not close my eyes, the bark will close them without
your aid." Then the lips ceased to move, and life was extinct; but
the branches retained for some time longer the vital heat.

Keats, in "Endymion," alludes to Dryope thus:

    "She took a lute from which there pulsing came
     A lively prelude, fashioning the way
     In which her voice should wander. 'T was a lay
     More subtle-cadenced, more forest-wild
     Than Dryope's lone lulling of her child;" etc.

VENUS AND ADONIS

Venus, playing one day with her boy Cupid, wounded her bosom with
one of his arrows. She pushed him away, but the wound was deeper
than she thought. Before it healed she beheld Adonis, and was
captivated with him. She no longer took any interest in her
favorite resorts--Paphos, and Cnidos, and Amathos, rich in metals.
She absented herself even from heaven, for Adonis was dearer to
her than heaven. Him she followed and bore him company. She who
used to love to recline in the shade, with no care but to
cultivate her charms, now rambles through the woods and over the
hills, dressed like the huntress Diana; and calls her dogs, and
chases hares and stags, or other game that it is safe to hunt, but
keeps clear of the wolves and bears, reeking with the slaughter of
the herd. She charged Adonis, too, to beware of such dangerous
animals. "Be brave towards the timid," said she; "courage against
the courageous is not safe. Beware how you expose yourself to
danger and put my happiness to risk. Attack not the beasts that
Nature has armed with weapons. I do not value your glory so high
as to consent to purchase it by such exposure. Your youth, and the
beauty that charms Venus, will not touch the hearts of lions and
bristly boars. Think of their terrible claws and prodigious
strength! I hate the whole race of them. Do you ask me why?" Then
she told him the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes, who were
changed into lions for their ingratitude to her.

Having given him this warning, she mounted her chariot drawn by
swans, and drove away through the air. But Adonis was too noble to
heed such counsels. The dogs had roused a wild boar from his lair,
and the youth threw his spear and wounded the animal with a
sidelong stroke. The beast drew out the weapon with his jaws, and
rushed after Adonis, who turned and ran; but the boar overtook
him, and buried his tusks in his side, and stretched him dying
upon the plain.

Venus, in her swan-drawn chariot, had not yet reached Cyprus, when
she heard coming up through mid-air the groans of her beloved,
and turned her white-winged coursers back to earth. As she drew
near and saw from on high his lifeless body bathed in blood, she
alighted and, bending over it, beat her breast and tore her hair.
Reproaching the Fates, she said, "Yet theirs shall be but a
partial triumph; memorials of my grief shall endure, and the
spectacle of your death, my Adonis, and of my lamentations shall
be annually renewed. Your blood shall be changed into a flower;
that consolation none can envy me." Thus speaking, she sprinkled
nectar on the blood; and as they mingled, bubbles rose as in a
pool on which raindrops fall, and in an hour's time there sprang
up a flower of bloody hue like that of the pomegranate. But it is
short-lived. It is said the wind blows the blossoms open, and
afterwards blows the petals away; so it is called Anemone, or Wind
Flower, from the cause which assists equally in its production and
its decay.

Milton alludes to the story of Venus and Adonis in his "Comus":

    "Beds of hyacinth and roses
     Where young Adonis oft reposes,
     Waxing well of his deep wound
     In slumber soft, and on the ground
     Sadly sits th' Assyrian queen;" etc.

APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS

Apollo was passionately fond of a youth named Hyacinthus. He
accompanied him in his sports, carried the nets when he went
fishing, led the dogs when he went to hunt, followed him in his
excursions in the mountains, and neglected for him his lyre and
his arrows. One day they played a game of quoits together, and
Apollo, heaving aloft the discus, with strength mingled with
skill, sent it high and far. Hyacinthus watched it as it flew, and
excited with the sport ran forward to seize it, eager to make his
throw, when the quoit bounded from the earth and struck him in the
forehead. He fainted and fell. The god, as pale as himself, raised
him and tried all his art to stanch the wound and retain the
flitting life, but all in vain; the hurt was past the power of
medicine. As when one has broken the stem of a lily in the garden
it hangs its head and turns its flowers to the earth, so the head
of the dying boy, as if too heavy for his neck, fell over on his
shoulder. "Thou diest, Hyacinth," so spoke Phoebus, "robbed of thy
youth by me. Thine is the suffering, mine the crime. Would that I
could die for thee! But since that may not be, thou shalt live
with me in memory and in song. My lyre shall celebrate thee, my
song shall tell thy fate, and thou shalt become a flower inscribed
with my regrets." While Apollo spoke, behold the blood which had
flowed on the ground and stained the herbage ceased to be blood;
but a flower of hue more beautiful than the Tyrian sprang up,
resembling the lily, if it were not that this is purple and that
silvery white. [Footnote: It is evidently not our modern hyacinth
that is here described. It is perhaps some species of iris, or
perhaps of larkspur or of pansy.] And this was not enough for
Phoebus; but to confer still greater honor, he marked the petals
with his sorrow, and inscribed "Ah! ah!" upon them, as we see to
this day. The flower bears the name of Hyacinthus, and with every
returning spring revives the memory of his fate.

It was said that Zephyrus (the West wind), who was also fond of
Hyacinthus and jealous of his preference of Apollo, blew the quoit
out of its course to make it strike Hyacinthus. Keats alludes to
this in his "Endymion," where he describes the lookers-on at the
game of quoits:

    "Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
       On either side, pitying the sad death
       Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath
     Of Zephyr slew him; Zephyr penitent,
     Who now ere Phoebus mounts the firmament,
       Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain."

An allusion to Hyacinthus will also be recognized in Milton's
"Lycidas":

    "Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe."





CHAPTER IX

CEYX AND HALCYONE: OR, THE HALCYON BIRDS


Ceyx was king of Thessaly, where he reigned in peace, without
violence or wrong. He was son of Hesperus, the Day-star, and the
glow of his beauty reminded one of his father. Halcyone, the
daughter of Aeolus, was his wife, and devotedly attached to him.
Now Ceyx was in deep affliction for the loss of his brother, and
direful prodigies following his brother's death made him feel as
if the gods were hostile to him. He thought best, therefore, to
make a voyage to Carlos in Ionia, to consult the oracle of Apollo.
But as soon as he disclosed his intention to his wife Halcyone, a
shudder ran through her frame, and her face grew deadly pale.
"What fault of mine, dearest husband, has turned your affection
from me? Where is that love of me that used to be uppermost in
your thoughts? Have you learned to feel easy in the absence of
Halcyone? Would you rather have me away?" She also endeavored to
discourage him, by describing the violence of the winds, which she
had known familiarly when she lived at home in her father's
house,--Aeolus being the god of the winds, and having as much as
he could do to restrain them. "They rush together," said she,
"with such fury that fire flashes from the conflict. But if you
must go," she added, "dear husband, let me go with you, otherwise
I shall suffer not only the real evils which you must encounter,
but those also which my fears suggest."

These words weighed heavily on the mind of King Ceyx, and it was
no less his own wish than hers to take her with him, but he could
not bear to expose her to the dangers of the sea. He answered,
therefore, consoling her as well as he could, and finished with
these words: "I promise, by the rays of my father the Day-star,
that if fate permits I will return before the moon shall have
twice rounded her orb." When he had thus spoken, he ordered the
vessel to be drawn out of the shiphouse, and the oars and sails to
be put aboard. When Halcyone saw these preparations she shuddered,
as if with a presentiment of evil. With tears and sobs she said
farewell, and then fell senseless to the ground.

Ceyx would still have lingered, but now the young men grasped
their oars and pulled vigorously through the waves, with long and
measured strokes. Halcyone raised her streaming eyes, and saw her
husband standing on the deck, waving his hand to her. She answered
his signal till the vessel had receded so far that she could no
longer distinguish his form from the rest. When the vessel itself
could no more be seen, she strained her eyes to catch the last
glimmer of the sail, till that too disappeared. Then, retiring to
her chamber, she threw herself on her solitary couch.

Meanwhile they glide out of the harbor, and the breeze plays among
the ropes. The seamen draw in their oars, and hoist their sails.
When half or less of their course was passed, as night drew on,
the sea began to whiten with swelling waves, and the east wind to
blow a gale. The master gave the word to take in sail, but the
storm forbade obedience, for such is the roar of the winds and
waves his orders are unheard. The men, of their own accord, busy
themselves to secure the oars, to strengthen the ship, to reef the
sail. While they thus do what to each one seems best, the storm
increases. The shouting of the men, the rattling of the shrouds,
and the dashing of the waves, mingle with the roar of the thunder.
The swelling sea seems lifted up to the heavens, to scatter its
foam among the clouds; then sinking away to the bottom assumes the
color of the shoal--a Stygian blackness.

The vessel shares all these changes. It seems like a wild beast
that rushes on the spears of the hunters. Rain falls in torrents,
as if the skies were coming down to unite with the sea. When the
lightning ceases for a moment, the night seems to add its own
darkness to that of the storm; then comes the flash, rending the
darkness asunder, and lighting up all with a glare. Skill fails,
courage sinks, and death seems to come on every wave. The men are
stupefied with terror. The thought of parents, and kindred, and
pledges left at home, comes over their minds. Ceyx thinks of
Halcyone. No name but hers is on his lips, and while he yearns for
her, he yet rejoices in her absence. Presently the mast is
shattered by a stroke of lightning, the rudder broken, and the
triumphant surge curling over looks down upon, the wreck, then
falls, and crushes it to fragments. Some of the seamen, stunned by
the stroke, sink, and rise no more; others cling to fragments of
the wreck. Ceyx, with the hand that used to grasp the sceptre,
holds fast to a plank, calling for help,--alas, in vain,--upon his
father and his father-in-law. But oftenest on his lips was the
name of Halcyone. To her his thoughts cling. He prays that the
waves may bear his body to her sight, and that it may receive
burial at her hands. At length the waters overwhelm him, and he
sinks. The Day-star looked dim that night. Since it could not
leave the heavens, it shrouded its face with clouds.

In the meanwhile Halcyone, ignorant of all these horrors, counted
the days till her husband's promised return. Now she gets ready
the garments which he shall put on, and now what she shall wear
when he arrives. To all the gods she offers frequent incense, but
more than all to Juno. For her husband, who was no more, she
prayed incessantly: that he might be safe; that he might come
home; that he might not, in his absence, see any one that he would
love better than her. But of all these prayers, the last was the
only one destined to be granted. The goddess, at length, could not
bear any longer to be pleaded with for one already dead, and to
have hands raised to her altars that ought rather to be offering
funeral rites. So, calling Iris, she said, "Iris, my faithful
messenger, go to the drowsy dwelling of Somnus, and tell him to
send a vision to Halcyone in the form of Ceyx, to make known to
her the event."

Iris puts on her robe of many colors, and tingeing the sky with
her bow, seeks the palace of the King of Sleep. Near the Cimmerian
country, a mountain cave is the abode of the dull god Somnus. Here
Phoebus dares not come, either rising, at midday, or setting.
Clouds and shadows are exhaled from the ground, and the light
glimmers faintly. The bird of dawning, with crested head, never
there calls aloud to Aurora, nor watchful dog, nor more sagacious
goose disturbs the silence. No wild beast, nor cattle, nor branch
moved with the wind, nor sound of human conversation, breaks the
stillness. Silence reigns there; but from the bottom of the rock
the River Lethe flows, and by its murmur invites to sleep. Poppies
grow abundantly before the door of the cave, and other herbs, from
whose juices Night collects slumbers, which she scatters over the
darkened earth. There is no gate to the mansion, to creak on its
hinges, nor any watchman; but in the midst a couch of black ebony,
adorned with black plumes and black curtains. There the god
reclines, his limbs relaxed with sleep. Around him lie dreams,
resembling all various forms, as many as the harvest bears stalks,
or the forest leaves, or the seashore sand grains.

As soon as the goddess entered and brushed away the dreams that
hovered around her, her brightness lit up all the cave. The god,
scarce opening his eyes, and ever and anon dropping his beard upon
his breast, at last shook himself free from himself, and leaning
on his arm, inquired her errand,--for he knew who she was. She
answered, "Somnus, gentlest of the gods, tranquillizer of minds
and soother of care-worn hearts, Juno sends you her commands that
you despatch a dream to Halcyone, in the city of Trachine,
representing her lost husband and all the events of the wreck."

Having delivered her message, Iris hasted away, for she could not
longer endure the stagnant air, and as she felt drowsiness
creeping over her, she made her escape, and returned by her bow
the way she came. Then Somnus called one of his numerous sons,--
Morpheus,--the most expert in counterfeiting forms, and in
imitating the walk, the countenance, and mode of speaking, even
the clothes and attitudes most characteristic of each. But he only
imitates men, leaving it to another to personate birds, beasts,
and serpents. Him they call Icelos; and Phantasos is a third, who
turns himself into rocks, waters, woods, and other things without
life. These wait upon kings and great personages in their sleeping
hours, while others move among the common people. Somnus chose,
from all the brothers, Morpheus, to perform the command of Iris;
then laid his head on his pillow and yielded himself to grateful
repose.

Morpheus flew, making no noise with his wings, and soon came to
the Haemonian city, where, laying aside his wings, he assumed the
form of Ceyx. Under that form, but pale like a dead man, naked, he
stood before the couch of the wretched wife. His beard seemed
soaked with water, and water trickled from his drowned locks.
Leaning over the bed, tears streaming from his eyes, he said, "Do
you recognize your Ceyx, unhappy wife, or has death too much
changed my visage? Behold me, know me, your husband's shade,
instead of himself. Your prayers, Halcyone, availed me nothing. I
am dead. No more deceive yourself with vain hopes of my return.
The stormy winds sunk my ship in the Aegean Sea, waves filled my
mouth while it called aloud on you. No uncertain messenger tells
you this, no vague rumor brings it to your ears. I come in person,
a shipwrecked man, to tell you my fate. Arise! give me tears, give
me lamentations, let me not go down to Tartarus unwept." To these
words Morpheus added the voice, which seemed to be that of her
husband; he seemed to pour forth genuine tears; his hands had the
gestures of Ceyx.

Halcyone, weeping, groaned, and stretched out her arms in her
sleep, striving to embrace his body, but grasping only the air.
"Stay!" she cried; "whither do you fly? let us go together." Her
own voice awakened her. Starting up, she gazed eagerly around, to
see if he was still present, for the servants, alarmed by her
cries, had brought a light. When she found him not, she smote her
breast and rent her garments. She cares not to unbind her hair,
but tears it wildly. Her nurse asks what is the cause of her
grief. "Halcyone is no more," she answers, "she perished with her
Ceyx. Utter not words of comfort, he is shipwrecked and dead. I
have seen him, I have recognized him. I stretched out my hands to
seize him and detain him. His shade vanished, but it was the true
shade of my husband. Not with the accustomed features, not with
the beauty that was his, but pale, naked, and with his hair wet
with sea-water, he appeared to wretched me. Here, in this very
spot, the sad vision stood,"--and she looked to find the mark of
his footsteps. "This it was, this that my presaging mind
foreboded, when I implored him not to leave me, to trust himself
to the waves. Oh, how I wish, since thou wouldst go, thou hadst
taken me with thee! It would have been far better. Then I should
have had no remnant of life to spend without thee, nor a separate
death to die. If I could bear to live and struggle to endure, I
should be more cruel to myself than the sea has been to me. But I
will not struggle, I will not be separated from thee, unhappy
husband. This time, at least, I will keep thee company. In death,
if one tomb may not include us, one epitaph shall; if I may not
lay my ashes with thine, my name, at least, shall not be
separated." Her grief forbade more words, and these were broken
with tears and sobs.

It was now morning. She went to the seashore, and sought the spot
where she last saw him, on his departure. "While he lingered here,
and cast off his tacklings, he gave me his last kiss." While she
reviews every object, and strives to recall every incident,
looking out over the sea, she descries an indistinct object
floating in the water. At first she was in doubt what it was, but
by degrees the waves bore it nearer, and it was plainly the body
of a man. Though unknowing of whom, yet, as it was of some
shipwrecked one, she was deeply moved, and gave it her tears,
saying, "Alas! unhappy one, and unhappy, if such there be, thy
wife!" Borne by the waves, it came nearer. As she more and more
nearly views it, she trembles more and more. Now, now it
approaches the shore. Now marks that she recognizes appear. It is
her husband! Stretching out her trembling hands towards it, she
exclaims, "O dearest husband, is it thus you return to me?"

There was built out from the shore a mole, constructed to break
the assaults of the sea, and stem its violent ingress. She leaped
upon this barrier and (it was wonderful she could do so) she flew,
and striking the air with wings produced on the instant, skimmed
along the surface of the water, an unhappy bird. As she flew, her
throat poured forth sounds full of grief, and like the voice of
one lamenting. When she touched the mute and bloodless body, she
enfolded its beloved limbs with her new-formed wings, and tried to
give kisses with her horny beak. Whether Ceyx felt it, or whether
it was only the action of the waves, those who looked on doubted,
but the body seemed to raise its head. But indeed he did feel it,
and by the pitying gods both of them were changed into birds. They
mate and have their young ones. For seven placid days, in winter
time, Halcyone broods over her nest, which floats upon the sea.
Then the way is safe to seamen. Aeolus guards the winds and keeps
them from disturbing the deep. The sea is given up, for the time,
to his grandchildren.

The following lines from Byron's "Bride of Abydos" might seem
borrowed from the concluding part of this description, if it were
not stated that the author derived the suggestion from observing
the motion of a floating corpse:

    "As shaken on his restless pillow,
     His head heaves with the heaving billow,
     That hand, whose motion is not life,
     Yet feebly seems to menace strife,
     Flung by the tossing tide on high,
     Then levelled with the wave ..."

Milton in his "Hymn on the Nativity," thus alludes to the fable of
the Halcyon:

    "But peaceful was the night
     Wherein the Prince of light
       His reign of peace upon the earth began;
     The winds with wonder whist
     Smoothly the waters kist
       Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,
     Who now hath quite forgot to rave
     While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave."

Keats, also, in "Endymion," says:

    "O magic sleep! O comfortable bird
     That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind
     Till it is hushed and smooth."





CHAPTER X

VERTUMNUS AND POMONA


The Hamadryads were Wood-nymphs. Pomona was of this class, and no
one excelled her in love of the garden and the culture of fruit.
She cared not for orests and rivers, but loved the cultivated
country, and trees that bear delicious apples. Her right hand bore
for its weapon not a javelin, but a pruning-knife. Armed with
this, she busied herself at one time to repress the too luxuriant
growths, and curtail the branches that straggled out of place; at
another, to split the twig and insert therein a graft, making the
branch adopt a nursling not its own. She took care, too, that her
favorites should not suffer from drought, and led streams of water
by them, that the thirsty roots might drink. This occupation was
her pursuit, her passion; and she was free from that which Venus
inspires. She was not without fear of the country people, and kept
her orchard locked, and allowed not men to enter. The Fauns and
Satyrs would have given all they possessed to win her, and so
would old Sylvanus, who looks young for his years, and Pan, who
wears a garland of pine leaves around his head. But Vertumnus
loved her best of all; yet he sped no better than the rest. O how
often, in the disguise of a reaper, did he bring her corn in a
basket, and looked the very image of a reaper! With a hay band
tied round him, one would think he had just come from turning over
the grass. Sometimes he would have an ox-goad in his hand, and you
would have said he had just unyoked his weary oxen. Now he bore a
pruning-hook, and personated a vine-dresser; and again, with a
ladder on his shoulder, he seemed as if he was going to gather
apples. Sometimes he trudged along as a discharged soldier, and
again he bore a fishing-rod, as if going to fish. In this way he
gained admission to her again and again, and fed his passion with
the sight of her.

One day he came in the guise of an old woman, her gray hair
surmounted with a cap, and a staff in her hand. She entered the
garden and admired the fruit. "It does you credit, my dear," she
said, and kissed her, not exactly with an old woman's kiss. She
sat down on a bank, and looked up at the branches laden with fruit
which hung over her. Opposite was an elm entwined with a vine
loaded with swelling grapes. She praised the tree and its
associated vine, equally. "But," said she, "if the tree stood
alone, and had no vine clinging to it, it would have nothing to
attract or offer us but its useless leaves. And equally the vine,
if it were not twined round the elm, would lie prostrate on the
ground. Why will you not take a lesson from the tree and the vine,
and consent to unite yourself with some one? I wish you would.
Helen herself had not more numerous suitors, nor Penelope, the
wife of shrewd Ulysses. Even while you spurn them, they court
you,--rural deities and others of every kind that frequent these
mountains. But if you are prudent and want to make a good
alliance, and will let an old woman advise you,--who loves you
better than you have any idea of,--dismiss all the rest and
accept Vertumnus, on my recommendation. I know him as well as he
knows himself. He is not a wandering deity, but belongs to these
mountains. Nor is he like too many of the lovers nowadays, who
love any one they happen to see; he loves you, and you only. Add
to this, he is young and handsome, and has the art of assuming any
shape he pleases, and can make himself just what you command him.
Moreover, he loves the same things that you do, delights in
gardening, and handles your apples with admiration. But NOW he
cares nothing for fruits nor flowers, nor anything else, but only
yourself. Take pity on him, and fancy him speaking now with my
mouth. Remember that the gods punish cruelty, and that Venus hates
a hard heart, and will visit such offences sooner or later. To
prove this, let me tell you a story, which is well known in Cyprus
to be a fact; and I hope it will have the effect to make you more
merciful.

"Iphis was a young man of humble parentage, who saw and loved
Anaxarete, a noble lady of the ancient family of Teucer. He
struggled long with his passion, but when he found he could not
subdue it, he came a suppliant to her mansion. First he told his
passion to her nurse, and begged her as she loved her foster-child
to favor his suit. And then he tried to win her domestics to his
side. Sometimes he committed his vows to written tablets, and
often hung at her door garlands which he had moistened with his
tears. He stretched himself on her threshold, and uttered his
complaints to the cruel bolts and bars. She was deafer than the
surges which rise in the November gale; harder than steel from the
German forges, or a rock that still clings to its native cliff.
She mocked and laughed at him, adding cruel words to her ungentle
treatment, and gave not the slightest gleam of hope.

"Iphis could not any longer endure the torments of hopeless love,
and, standing before her doors, he spake these last words:
'Anaxarete, you have conquered, and shall no longer have to bear
my importunities. Enjoy your triumph! Sing songs of joy, and bind
your forehead with laurel,--you have conquered! I die; stony
heart, rejoice! This at least I can do to gratify you and force
you to praise me; and thus shall I prove that the love of you left
me but with life. Nor will I leave it to rumor to tell you of my
death. I will come myself, and you shall see me die, and feast
your eyes on the spectacle. Yet, O ye gods, who look down on
mortal woes, observe my fate! I ask but this: let me be remembered
in coming ages, and add those years to my fame which you have reft
from my life. Thus he said, and, turning his pale face and weeping
eyes towards her mansion, he fastened a rope to the gatepost, on
which he had often hung garlands, and putting his head into the
noose, he murmured, 'This garland at least will please you, cruel
girl!' and falling hung suspended with his neck broken. As he fell
he struck against the gate, and the sound was as the sound of a
groan. The servants opened the door and found him dead, and with
exclamations of pity raised him and carried him home to his
mother, for his father was not living. She received the dead body
of her son, and folded the cold form to her bosom, while she
poured forth the sad words which bereaved mothers utter. The
mournful funeral passed through the town, and the pale corpse was
borne on a bier to the place of the funeral pile. By chance the
home of Anaxarete was on the street where the procession passed,
and the lamentations of the mourners met the ears of her whom the
avenging deity had already marked for punishment.

"'Let us see this sad procession,' said she, and mounted to a
turret, whence through an open window she looked upon the funeral.
Scarce had her eyes rested upon the form of Iphis stretched on the
bier, when they began to stiffen, and the warm blood in her body
to become cold. Endeavoring to step back, she found she could not
move her feet; trying to turn away her face, she tried in vain;
and by degrees all her limbs became stony like her heart. That you
may not doubt the fact, the statue still remains, and stands in
the temple of Venus at Salamis, in the exact form of the lady. Now
think of these things, my dear, and lay aside your scorn and your
delays, and accept a lover. So may neither the vernal frosts
blight your young fruits, nor furious winds scatter your
blossoms!"

When Vertumnus had spoken thus, he dropped the disguise of an old
woman, and stood before her in his proper person, as a comely
youth. It appeared to her like the sun bursting through a cloud.
He would have renewed his entreaties, but there was no need; his
arguments and the sight of his true form prevailed, and the Nymph
no longer resisted, but owned a mutual flame.

Pomona was the especial patroness of the Apple-orchard, and as
such she was invoked by Phillips, the author of a poem on Cider,
in blank verse. Thomson in the "Seasons" alludes to him:

    "Phillips, Pomona's bard, the second thou
     Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfettered verse,
     With British freedom, sing the British song."

But Pomona was also regarded as presiding over other fruits, and
as such is invoked by Thomson:

    "Bear me, Pomona, to thy citron groves,
     To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
     With the deep orange, glowing through the green,
     Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined
     Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes,
     Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit."





CHAPTER XI

CUPID AND PSYCHE


A certain king and queen had three daughters. The charms of the
two elder were more than common, but the beauty of the youngest
was so wonderful that the poverty of language is unable to express
its due praise. The fame of her beauty was so great that strangers
from neighboring countries came in crowds to enjoy the sight, and
looked on her with amazement, paying her that homage which is due
only to Venus herself. In fact Venus found her altars deserted,
while men turned their devotion to this young virgin. As she
passed along, the people sang her praises, and strewed her way
with chaplets and flowers.

This perversion of homage due only to the immortal powers to the
exaltation of a mortal gave great offence to the real Venus.
Shaking her ambrosial locks with indignation, she exclaimed, "Am I
then to be eclipsed in my honors by a mortal girl? In vain then
did that royal shepherd, whose judgment was approved by Jove
himself, give me the palm of beauty over my illustrious rivals,
Pallas and Juno. But she shall not so quietly usurp my honors. I
will give her cause to repent of so unlawful a beauty."

Thereupon she calls her winged son Cupid, mischievous enough in
his own nature, and rouses and provokes him yet more by her
complaints. She points out Psyche to him and says, "My dear son,
punish that contumacious beauty; give thy mother a revenge as
sweet as her injuries are great; infuse into the bosom of that
haughty girl a passion for some low, mean, unworthy being, so that
she may reap a mortification as great as her present exultation
and triumph."

Cupid prepared to obey the commands of his mother. There are two
fountains in Venus's garden, one of sweet waters, the other of
bitter. Cupid filled two amber vases, one from each fountain, and
suspending them from the top of his quiver, hastened to the
chamber of Psyche, whom he found asleep. He shed a few drops from
the bitter fountain over her lips, though the sight of her almost
moved him to pity; then touched her side with the point of his
arrow. At the touch she awoke, and opened eyes upon Cupid (himself
invisible), which so startled him that in his confusion he wounded
himself with his own arrow. Heedless of his wound, his whole
thought now was to repair the mischief he had done, and he poured
the balmy drops of joy over all her silken ringlets.

Psyche, henceforth frowned upon by Venus, derived no benefit from
all her charms. True, all eyes were cast eagerly upon her, and
every mouth spoke her praises; but neither king, royal youth, nor
plebeian presented himself to demand her in marriage. Her two
elder sisters of moderate charms had now long been married to two
royal princes; but Psyche, in her lonely apartment, deplored her
solitude, sick of that beauty which, while it procured abundance
of flattery, had failed to awaken love.

Her parents, afraid that they had unwittingly incurred the anger
of the gods, consulted the oracle of Apollo, and received this
answer: "The virgin is destined for the bride of no mortal lover.
Her future husband awaits her on the top of the mountain. He is a
monster whom neither gods nor men can resist."

This dreadful decree of the oracle filled all the people with
dismay, and her parents abandoned themselves to grief. But Psyche
said, "Why, my dear parents, do you now lament me? You should
rather have grieved when the people showered upon me undeserved
honors, and with one voice called me a Venus. I now perceive that
I am a victim to that name. I submit. Lead me to that rock to
which my unhappy fate has destined me." Accordingly, all things
being prepared, the royal maid took her place in the procession,
which more resembled a funeral than a nuptial pomp, and with her
parents, amid the lamentations of the people, ascended the
mountain, on the summit of which they left her alone, and with
sorrowful hearts returned home.

While Psyche stood on the ridge of the mountain, panting with fear
and with eyes full of tears, the gentle Zephyr raised her from the
earth and bore her with an easy motion into a flowery dale. By
degrees her mind became composed, and she laid herself down on the
grassy bank to sleep. When she awoke refreshed with sleep, she
looked round and beheld near by a pleasant grove of tall and
stately trees. She entered it, and in the midst discovered a
fountain, sending forth clear and crystal waters, and fast by, a
magnificent palace whose august front impressed the spectator that
it was not the work of mortal hands, but the happy retreat of some
god. Drawn by admiration and wonder, she approached the building
and ventured to enter. Every object she met filled her with
pleasure and amazement. Golden pillars supported the vaulted roof,
and the walls were enriched with carvings and paintings
representing beasts of the chase and rural scenes, adapted to
delight the eye of the beholder. Proceeding onward, she perceived
that besides the apartments of state there were others filled with
all manner of treasures, and beautiful and precious productions of
nature and art.

While her eyes were thus occupied, a voice addressed her, though
she saw no one, uttering these words: "Sovereign lady, all that
you see is yours. We whose voices you hear are your servants and
shall obey all your commands with our utmost care and diligence.
Retire, therefore, to your chamber and repose on your bed of down,
and when you see fit repair to the bath. Supper awaits you in the
adjoining alcove when it pleases you to take your seat there."

Psyche gave ear to the admonitions of her vocal attendants, and
after repose and the refreshment of the bath, seated herself in
the alcove, where a table immediately presented itself, without
any visible aid from waiters or servants, and covered with the
greatest delicacies of food and the most nectareous wines. Her
ears too were feasted with music from invisible performers; of
whom one sang, another played on the lute, and all closed in the
wonderful harmony of a full chorus.

She had not yet seen her destined husband. He came only in the
hours of darkness and fled before the dawn of morning, but his
accents were full of love, and inspired a like passion in her. She
often begged him to stay and let her behold him, but he would not
consent. On the contrary he charged her to make no attempt to see
him, for it was his pleasure, for the best of reasons, to keep
concealed. "Why should you wish to behold me?" he said; "have you
any doubt of my love? have you any wish ungratified? If you saw
me, perhaps you would fear me, perhaps adore me, but all I ask of
you is to love me. I would rather you would love me as an equal
than adore me as a god."

This reasoning somewhat quieted Psyche for a time, and while the
novelty lasted she felt quite happy. But at length the thought of
her parents, left in ignorance of her fate, and of her sisters,
precluded from sharing with her the delights of her situation,
preyed on her mind and made her begin to feel her palace as but a
splendid prison. When her husband came one night, she told him her
distress, and at last drew from him an unwilling consent that her
sisters should be brought to see her.

So, calling Zephyr, she acquainted him with her husband's
commands, and he, promptly obedient, soon brought them across the
mountain down to their sister's valley. They embraced her and she
returned their caresses. "Come," said Psyche, "enter with me my
house and refresh yourselves with whatever your sister has to
offer." Then taking their hands she led them into her golden
palace, and committed them to the care of her numerous train of
attendant voices, to refresh them in her baths and at her table,
and to show them all her treasures. The view of these celestial
delights caused envy to enter their bosoms, at seeing their young
sister possessed of such state and splendor, so much exceeding
their own.

They asked her numberless questions, among others what sort of a
person her husband was. Psyche replied that he was a beautiful
youth, who generally spent the daytime in hunting upon the
mountains. The sisters, not satisfied with this reply, soon made
her confess that she had never seen him. Then they proceeded to
fill her bosom with dark suspicions. "Call to mind," they said,
"the Pythian oracle that declared you destined to marry a direful
and tremendous monster. The inhabitants of this valley say that
your husband is a terrible and monstrous serpent, who nourishes
you for a while with dainties that he may by and by devour you.
Take our advice. Provide yourself with a lamp and a sharp knife;
put them in concealment that your husband may not discover them,
and when he is sound asleep, slip out of bed, bring forth your
lamp, and see for yourself whether what they say is true or not.
If it is, hesitate not to cut off the monster's head, and thereby
recover your liberty."

Psyche resisted these persuasions as well as she could, but they
did not fail to have their effect on her mind, and when her
sisters were gone, their words and her own curiosity were too
strong for her to resist. So she prepared her lamp and a sharp
knife, and hid them out of sight of her husband. When he had
fallen into his first sleep, she silently rose and uncovering her
lamp beheld not a hideous monster, but the most beautiful and
charming of the gods, with his golden ringlets wandering over his
snowy neck and crimson cheek, with two dewy wings on his
shoulders, whiter than snow, and with shining feathers like the
tender blossoms of spring. As she leaned the lamp over to have a
nearer view of his face a drop of burning oil fell on the shoulder
of the god, startled with which he opened his eyes and fixed them
full upon her; then, without saying one word, he spread his white
wings and flew out of the window. Psyche, in vain endeavoring to
follow him, fell from the window to the ground. Cupid, beholding
her as she lay in the dust, stopped his flight for an instant and
said, "O foolish Psyche, is it thus you repay my love? After
having disobeyed my mother's commands and made you my wife, will
you think me a monster and cut off my head? But go; return to your
sisters, whose advice you seem to think preferable to mine. I
inflict no other punishment on you than to leave you forever. Love
cannot dwell with suspicion." So saying, he fled away, leaving
poor Psyche prostrate on the ground, filling the place with
mournful lamentations.

When she had recovered some degree of composure she looked around
her, but the palace and gardens had vanished, and she found
herself in the open field not far from the city where her sisters
dwelt. She repaired thither and told them the whole story of her
misfortunes, at which, pretending to grieve, those spiteful
creatures inwardly rejoiced. "For now," said they, "he will
perhaps choose one of us." With this idea, without saying a word
of her intentions, each of them rose early the next morning and
ascended the mountains, and having reached the top, called upon
Zephyr to receive her and bear her to his lord; then leaping up,
and not being sustained by Zephyr, fell down the precipice and was
dashed to pieces.

Psyche meanwhile wandered day and night, without food or repose,
in search of her husband. Casting her eyes on a lofty mountain
having on its brow a magnificent temple, she sighed and said to
herself, "Perhaps my love, my lord, inhabits there," and directed
her steps thither.

She had no sooner entered than she saw heaps of corn, some in
loose ears and some in sheaves, with mingled ears of barley.
Scattered about, lay sickles and rakes, and all the instruments of
harvest, without order, as if thrown carelessly out of the weary
reapers' hands in the sultry hours of the day.

This unseemly confusion the pious Psyche put an end to, by
separating and sorting everything to its proper place and kind,
believing that she ought to neglect none of the gods, but endeavor
by her piety to engage them all in her behalf. The holy Ceres,
whose temple it was, finding her so religiously employed, thus
spoke to her: "O Psyche, truly worthy of our pity, though I cannot
shield you from the frowns of Venus, yet I can teach you how best
to allay her displeasure. Go, then, and voluntarily surrender
yourself to your lady and sovereign, and try by modesty and
submission to win her forgiveness, and perhaps her favor will
restore you the husband you have lost."

Psyche obeyed the commands of Ceres and took her way to the temple
of Venus, endeavoring to fortify her mind and ruminating on what
she should say and how best propitiate the angry goddess, feeling
that the issue was doubtful and perhaps fatal.

Venus received her with angry countenance. "Most undutiful and
faithless of servants," said she, "do you at last remember that
you really have a mistress? Or have you rather come to see your
sick husband, yet laid up of the wound given him by his loving
wife? You are so ill-favored and disagreeable that the only way
you can merit your lover must be by dint of industry and
diligence. I will make trial of your housewifery." Then she
ordered Psyche to be led to the storehouse of her temple, where
was laid up a great quantity of wheat, barley, millet, vetches,
beans, and lentils prepared for food for her pigeons, and said,
"Take and separate all these grains, putting all of the same kind
in a parcel by themselves, and see that you get it done before
evening." Then Venus departed and left her to her task.

But Psyche, in a perfect consternation at the enormous work, sat
stupid and silent, without moving a finger to the inextricable
heap.

While she sat despairing, Cupid stirred up the little ant, a
native of the fields, to take compassion on her. The leader of the
ant hill, followed by whole hosts of his six-legged subjects,
approached the heap, and with the utmost diligence, taking grain
by grain, they separated the pile, sorting each kind to its
parcel; and when it was all done, they vanished out of sight in a
moment.

Venus at the approach of twilight returned from the banquet of the
gods, breathing odors and crowned with roses. Seeing the task
done, she exclaimed, "This is no work of yours, wicked one, but
his, whom to your own and his misfortune you have enticed." So
saying, she threw her a piece of black bread for her supper and
went away.

Next morning Venus ordered Psyche to be called and said to her,
"Behold yonder grove which stretches along the margin of the
water. There you will find sheep feeding without a shepherd, with
golden-shining fleeces on their backs. Go, fetch me a sample of
that precious wool gathered from every one of their fleeces."

Psyche obediently went to the riverside, prepared to do her best
to execute the command. But the river god inspired the reeds with
harmonious murmurs, which seemed to say, "O maiden, severely
tried, tempt not the dangerous flood, nor venture among the
formidable rams on the other side, for as long as they are under
the influence of the rising sun, they burn with a cruel rage to
destroy mortals with their sharp horns or rude teeth. But when the
noontide sun has driven the cattle to the shade, and the serene
spirit of the flood has lulled them to rest, you may then cross in
safety, and you will find the woolly gold sticking to the bushes
and the trunks of the trees."

Thus the compassionate river god gave Psyche instructions how to
accomplish her task, and by observing his directions she soon
returned to Venus with her arms full of the golden fleece; but she
received not the approbation of her implacable mistress, who said,
"I know very well it is by none of your own doings that you have
succeeded in this task, and I am not satisfied yet that you have
any capacity to make yourself useful. But I have another task for
you. Here, take this box and go your way to the infernal shades,
and give this box to Proserpine and say, 'My mistress Venus
desires you to send her a little of your beauty, for in tending
her sick son she has lost some of her own.' Be not too long on
your errand, for I must paint myself with it to appear at the
circle of the gods and goddesses this evening."

Psyche was now satisfied that her destruction was at hand, being
obliged to go with her own feet directly down to Erebus.
Wherefore, to make no delay of what was not to be avoided, she
goes to the top of a high tower to precipitate herself headlong,
thus to descend the shortest way to the shades below. But a voice
from the tower said to her, "Why, poor unlucky girl, dost thou
design to put an end to thy days in so dreadful a manner? And what
cowardice makes thee sink under this last danger who hast been so
miraculously supported in all thy former?" Then the voice told her
how by a certain cave she might reach the realms of Pluto, and how
to avoid all the dangers of the road, to pass by Cerberus, the
three-headed dog, and prevail on Charon, the ferryman, to take her
across the black river and bring her back again. But the voice
added, "When Proserpine has given you the box filled with her
beauty, of all things this is chiefly to be observed by you, that
you never once open or look into the box nor allow your curiosity
to pry into the treasure of the beauty of the goddesses."

Psyche, encouraged by this advice, obeyed it in all things, and
taking heed to her ways travelled safely to the kingdom of Pluto.
She was admitted to the palace of Proserpine, and without
accepting the delicate seat or delicious banquet that was offered
her, but contented with coarse bread for her food, she delivered
her message from Venus. Presently the box was returned to her,
shut and filled with the precious commodity. Then she returned the
way she came, and glad was she to come out once more into the
light of day.

But having got so far successfully through her dangerous task, a
longing desire seized her to examine the contents of the box.
"What," said she, "shall I, the carrier of this divine beauty, not
take the least bit to put on my cheeks to appear to more advantage
in the eyes of my beloved husband!" So she carefully opened the
box, but found nothing there of any beauty at all, but an infernal
and truly Stygian sleep, which being thus set free from its
prison, took possession of her, and she fell down in the midst of
the road, a sleepy corpse without sense or motion.

But Cupid, being now recovered from his wound, and not able longer
to bear the absence of his beloved Psyche, slipping through the
smallest crack of the window of his chamber which happened to be
left open, flew to the spot where Psyche lay, and gathering up the
sleep from her body closed it again in the box, and waked Psyche
with a light touch of one of his arrows. "Again," said he, "hast
thou almost perished by the same curiosity. But now perform
exactly the task imposed on you by my mother, and I will take care
of the rest."

Then Cupid, as swift as lightning penetrating the heights of
heaven, presented himself before Jupiter with his supplication.
Jupiter lent a favoring ear, and pleaded the cause of the lovers
so earnestly with Venus that he won her consent. On this he sent
Mercury to bring Psyche up to the heavenly assembly, and when she
arrived, handing her a cup of ambrosia, he said, "Drink this,
Psyche, and be immortal; nor shall Cupid ever break away from the
knot in which he is tied, but these nuptials shall be perpetual."

Thus Psyche became at last united to Cupid, and in due time they
had a daughter born to them whose name was Pleasure.

The fable of Cupid and Psyche is usually considered allegorical.
The Greek name for a butterfly is Psyche, and the same word means
the soul. There is no illustration of the immortality of the soul
so striking and beautiful as the butterfly, bursting on brilliant
wings from the tomb in which it has lain, after a dull,
grovelling, caterpillar existence, to flutter in the blaze of day
and feed on the most fragrant and delicate productions of the
spring. Psyche, then, is the human soul, which is purified by
sufferings and misfortunes, and is thus prepared for the enjoyment
of true and pure happiness.

In works of art Psyche is represented as a maiden with the wings
of a butterfly, along with Cupid, in the different situations
described in the allegory.

Milton alludes to the story of Cupid and Psyche in the conclusion
of his "Comus":

    "Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,
     Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,
     After her wandering labors long,
     Till free consent the gods among
     Make her his eternal bride;
     And from her fair unspotted side
     Two blissful twins are to be born,
     Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn."

The allegory of the story of Cupid and Psyche is well presented in
the beautiful lines of T. K. Harvey:

    "They wove bright fables in the days of old,
       When reason borrowed fancy's painted wings;
     When truth's clear river flowed o'er sands of gold,
       And told in song its high and mystic things!
     And such the sweet and solemn tale of her
       The pilgrim heart, to whom a dream was given,
     That led her through the world,--Love's worshipper,--
       To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven!

    "In the full city,--by the haunted fount,--
       Through the dim grotto's tracery of spars,--
     'Mid the pine temples, on the moonlit mount,
       Where silence sits to listen to the stars;
     In the deep glade where dwells the brooding dove,
       The painted valley, and the scented air,
     She heard far echoes of the voice of Love,
       And found his footsteps' traces everywhere.

    "But nevermore they met since doubts and fears,
       Those phantom shapes that haunt and blight the earth,
     Had come 'twixt her, a child of sin and tears,
       And that bright spirit of immortal birth;
     Until her pining soul and weeping eyes
     Had learned to seek him only in the skies;
     Till wings unto the weary heart were given,
     And she became Love's angel bride in heaven!"

The story of Cupid and Psyche first appears in the works of
Apuleius, a writer of the second century of our era. It is
therefore of much more recent date than most of the legends of the
Age of Fable. It is this that Keats alludes to in his "Ode to
Psyche":

    "O latest born and loveliest vision far
       Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
     Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-regioned star
       Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
     Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
       Nor altar heaped with flowers;
     Nor virgin choir to make delicious moan
       Upon the midnight hours;
     No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet,
       From chain-swung censor teeming;
     No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
       Of pale-mouthed prophet dreaming."

In Moore's "Summer Fete" a fancy ball is described, in which one
of the characters personated is Psyche--


    "... not in dark disguise to-night
     Hath our young heroine veiled her light;--
     For see, she walks the earth, Love's own.
       His wedded bride, by holiest vow
     Pledged in Olympus, and made known
       To mortals by the type which now
       Hangs glittering on her snowy brow.
     That butterfly, mysterious trinket,
     Which means the soul, (though few would think it,)
     And sparkling thus on brow so white
     Tells us we've Psyche here to-night."





CHAPTER XII

CADMUS--THE MYRMIDONS


Jupiter, under the disguise of a bull, had carried away Europa,
the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. Agenor commanded his
son Cadmus to go in search of his sister, and not to return
without her. Cadmus went and sought long and far for his sister,
but could not find her, and not daring to return unsuccessful,
consulted the oracle of Apollo to know what country he should
settle in. The oracle informed him that he should find a cow in
the field, and should follow her wherever she might wander, and
where she stopped, should build a city and call it Thebes. Cadmus
had hardly left the Castalian cave, from which the oracle was
delivered, when he saw a young cow slowly walking before him. He
followed her close, offering at the same time his prayers to
Phoebus. The cow went on till she passed the shallow channel of
Cephisus and came out into the plain of Panope. There she stood
still, and raising her broad forehead to the sky, filled the air
with her lowings. Cadmus gave thanks, and stooping down kissed the
foreign soil, then lifting his eyes, greeted the surrounding
mountains. Wishing to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter, he sent his
servants to seek pure water for a libation. Near by there stood an
ancient grove which had never been profaned by the axe, in the
midst of which was a cave, thick covered with the growth of
bushes, its roof forming a low arch, from beneath which burst
forth a fountain of purest water. In the cave lurked a horrid
serpent with a crested head and scales glittering like gold. His
eyes shone like fire, his body was swollen with venom, he vibrated
a triple tongue, and showed a triple row of teeth. No sooner had
the Tyrians dipped their pitchers in the fountain, and the in-
gushing waters made a sound, than the glittering serpent raised
his head out of the cave and uttered a fearful hiss. The vessels
fell from their hands, the blood left their cheeks, they trembled
in every limb. The serpent, twisting his scaly body in a huge
coil, raised his head so as to overtop the tallest trees, and
while the Tyrians from terror could neither fight nor fly, slew
some with his fangs, others in his folds, and others with his
poisonous breath.

Cadmus, having waited for the return of his men till midday, went
in search of them. His covering was a lion's hide, and besides his
javelin he carried in his hand a lance, and in his breast a bold
heart, a surer reliance than either. When he entered the wood, and
saw the lifeless bodies of his men, and the monster with his
bloody jaws, he exclaimed, "O faithful friends, I will avenge you,
or share your death." So saying he lifted a huge stone and threw
it with all his force at the serpent. Such a block would have
shaken the wall of a fortress, but it made no impression on the
monster. Cadmus next threw his javelin, which met with better
success, for it penetrated the serpent's scales, and pierced
through to his entrails. Fierce with pain, the monster turned back
his head to view the wound, and attempted to draw out the weapon
with his mouth, but broke it off, leaving the iron point rankling
in his flesh. His neck swelled with rage, bloody foam covered his
jaws, and the breath of his nostrils poisoned the air around. Now
he twisted himself into a circle, then stretched himself out on
the ground like the trunk of a fallen tree. As he moved onward,
Cadmus retreated before him, holding his spear opposite to the
monster's opened jaws. The serpent snapped at the weapon and
attempted to bite its iron point. At last Cadmus, watching his
chance, thrust the spear at a moment when the animal's head thrown
back came against the trunk of a tree, and so succeeded in pinning
him to its side. His weight bent the tree as he struggled in the
agonies of death.

While Cadmus stood over his conquered foe, contemplating its vast
size, a voice was heard (from whence he knew not, but he heard it
distinctly) commanding him to take the dragon's teeth and sow them
in the earth. He obeyed. He made a furrow in the ground, and
planted the teeth, destined to produce a crop of men. Scarce had
he done so when the clods began to move, and the points of spears
to appear above the surface. Next helmets with their nodding
plumes came up, and next the shoulders and breasts and limbs of
men with weapons, and in time a harvest of armed warriors. Cadmus,
alarmed, prepared to encounter a new enemy, but one of them said
to him, "Meddle not with our civil war." With that he who had
spoken smote one of his earth-born brothers with a sword, and he
himself fell pierced with an arrow from another. The latter fell
victim to a fourth, and in like manner the whole crowd dealt with
each other till all fell, slain with mutual wounds, except five
survivors. One of these cast away his weapons and said, "Brothers,
let us live in peace!" These five joined with Cadmus in building
his city, to which they gave the name of Thebes.

Cadmus obtained in marriage Harmonia, the daughter of Venus. The
gods left Olympus to honor the occasion with their presence, and
Vulcan presented the bride with a necklace of surpassing
brilliancy, his own workmanship. But a fatality hung over the
family of Cadmus in consequence of his killing the serpent sacred
to Mars. Semele and Ino, his daughters, and Actaeon and Pentheus,
his grandchildren, all perished unhappily, and Cadmus and Harmonia
quitted Thebes, now grown odious to them, and emigrated to the
country of the Enchelians, who received them with honor and made
Cadmus their king. But the misfortunes of their children still
weighed upon their minds; and one day Cadmus exclaimed, "If a
serpent's life is so dear to the gods, I would I were myself a
serpent." No sooner had he uttered the words than he began to
change his form. Harmonia beheld it and prayed to the gods to let
her share his fate. Both became serpents. They live in the woods,
but mindful of their origin, they neither avoid the presence of
man nor do they ever injure any one.

There is a tradition that Cadmus introduced into Greece the
letters of the alphabet which were invented by the Phoenicians.
This is alluded to by Byron, where, addressing the modern Greeks,
he says:

    "You have the letters Cadmus gave,
     Think you he meant them for a slave?"

Milton, describing the serpent which tempted Eve, is reminded of
the serpents of the classical stories and says:

    ... "--pleasing was his shape,
     And lovely never since of serpent kind
     Lovelier; not those that in Illyria changed
     Hermione and Cadmus, nor the god
     In Epidaurus"

For an explanation of the last allusion, see Oracle of
Aesculapius, p. 298.

THE MYRMIDONS

The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, in the Trojan war.
From them all zealous and unscrupulous followers of a political
chief are called by that name, down to this day. But the origin of
the Myrmidons would not give one the idea of a fierce and bloody
race, but rather of a laborious and peaceful one.

Cephalus, king of Athens, arrived in the island of Aegina to seek
assistance of his old friend and ally Aeacus, the king, in his war
with Minos, king of Crete. Cephalus was most kindly received, and
the desired assistance readily promised. "I have people enough,"
said Aeacus, "to protect myself and spare you such a force as you
need." "I rejoice to see it," replied Cephalus, "and my wonder has
been raised, I confess, to find such a host of youths as I see
around me, all apparently of about the same age. Yet there are
many individuals whom I previously knew, that I look for now in
vain. What has become of them?" Aeacus groaned, and replied with a
voice of sadness, "I have been intending to tell you, and will now
do so, without more delay, that you may see how from the saddest
beginning a happy result sometimes flows. Those whom you formerly
knew are now dust and ashes! A plague sent by angry Juno
devastated the land. She hated it because it bore the name of one
of her husband's female favorites. While the disease appeared to
spring from natural causes we resisted it, as we best might, by
natural remedies; but it soon appeared that the pestilence was too
powerful for our efforts, and we yielded. At the beginning the sky
seemed to settle down upon the earth, and thick clouds shut in the
heated air. For four months together a deadly south wind
prevailed. The disorder affected the wells and springs; thousands
of snakes crept over the land and shed their poison in the
fountains. The force of the disease was first spent on the lower
animals--dogs, cattle, sheep, and birds The luckless ploughman
wondered to see his oxen fall in the midst of their work, and lie
helpless in the unfinished furrow. The wool fell from the bleating
sheep, and their bodies pined away. The horse, once foremost in
the race, contested the palm no more, but groaned at his stall and
died an inglorious death. The wild boar forgot his rage, the stag
his swiftness, the bears no longer attacked the herds. Everything
languished; dead bodies lay in the roads, the fields, and the
woods; the air was poisoned by them, I tell you what is hardly
credible, but neither dogs nor birds would touch them, nor
starving wolves. Their decay spread the infection. Next the
disease attacked the country people, and then the dwellers in the
city. At first the cheek was flushed, and the breath drawn with
difficulty. The tongue grew rough and swelled, and the dry mouth
stood open with its veins enlarged and gasped for the air. Men
could not bear the heat of their clothes or their beds, but
preferred to lie on the bare ground; and the ground did not cool
them, but, on the contrary, they heated the spot where they lay.
Nor could the physicians help, for the disease attacked them also,
and the contact of the sick gave them infection, so that the most
faithful were the first victims. At last all hope of relief
vanished, and men learned to look upon death as the only deliverer
from disease. Then they gave way to every inclination, and cared
not to ask what was expedient, for nothing was expedient. All
restraint laid aside, they crowded around the wells and fountains
and drank till they died, without quenching thirst. Many had not
strength to get away from the water, but died in the midst of the
stream, and others would drink of it notwithstanding. Such was
their weariness of their sick beds that some would creep forth,
and if not strong enough to stand, would die on the ground. They
seemed to hate their friends, and got away from their homes, as
if, not knowing the cause of their sickness, they charged it on
the place of their abode. Some were seen tottering along the road,
as long as they could stand, while others sank on the earth, and
turned their dying eyes around to take a last look, then closed
them in death.

"What heart had I left me, during all this, or what ought I to
have had, except to hate life and wish to be with my dead
subjects? On all sides lay my people strewn like over-ripened
apples beneath the tree, or acorns under the storm-shaken oak. You
see yonder a temple on the height. It is sacred to Jupiter. O how
many offered prayers there, husbands for wives, fathers for sons,
and died in the very act of supplication! How often, while the
priest made ready for sacrifice, the victim fell, struck down by
disease without waiting for the blow! At length all reverence for
sacred things was lost. Bodies were thrown out unburied, wood was
wanting for funeral piles, men fought with one another for the
possession of them. Finally there were none left to mourn; sons
and husbands, old men and youths, perished alike unlamented.

"Standing before the altar I raised my eyes to heaven. 'O
Jupiter,' I said, 'if thou art indeed my father, and art not
ashamed of thy offspring, give me back my people, or take me also
away!' At these words a clap of thunder was heard. 'I accept the
omen,' I cried; 'O may it be a sign of a favorable disposition
towards me!' By chance there grew by the place where I stood an
oak with wide-spreading branches, sacred to Jupiter. I observed a
troop of ants busy with their labor, carrying minute grains in
their mouths and following one another in a line up the trunk of
the tree. Observing their numbers with admiration, I said, 'Give
me, O father, citizens as numerous as these, and replenish my
empty city.' The tree shook and gave a rustling sound with its
branches, though no wind agitated them. I trembled in every limb,
yet I kissed the earth and the tree. I would not confess to myself
that I hoped, yet I did hope. Night came on and sleep took
possession of my frame oppressed with cares. The tree stood before
me in my dreams, with its numerous branches all covered with
living, moving creatures. It seemed to shake its limbs and throw
down over the ground a multitude of those industrious grain-
gathering animals, which appeared to gain in size, and grow larger
and larger, and by and by to stand erect, lay aside their
superfluous legs and their black color, and finally to assume the
human form. Then I awoke, and my first impulse was to chide the
gods who had robbed me of a sweet vision and given me no reality
in its place. Being still in the temple, my attention was caught
by the sound of many voices without; a sound of late unusual to my
ears. While I began to think I was yet dreaming, Telamon, my son,
throwing open the temple gates, exclaimed: 'Father, approach, and
behold things surpassing even your hopes!' I went forth; I saw a
multitude of men, such as I had seen in my dream, and they were
passing in procession in the same manner. While I gazed with
wonder and delight they approached and kneeling hailed me as their
king. I paid my vows to Jove, and proceeded to allot the vacant
city to the new-born race, and to parcel out the fields among them
I called them Myrmidons, from the ant (myrmex) from which they
sprang. You have seen these persons; their dispositions resemble
those which they had in their former shape. They are a diligent
and industrious race, eager to gain, and tenacious of their gains.
Among them you may recruit your forces. They will follow you to
the war, young in years and bold in heart." This description of
the plague is copied by Ovid from the account which Thucydides,
the Greek historian, gives of the plague of Athens. The historian
drew from life, and all the poets and writers of fiction since his
day, when they have had occasion to describe a similar scene, have
borrowed their details from him.





CHAPTER XIII

NISUS AND SCYLLA--ECHO AND NARCISSUS--CLYTIE--HERO AND LEANDER

NISUS AND SCYLLA


Minos, king of Crete, made war upon Megara. Nisus was king of
Megara, and Scylla was his daughter. The siege had now lasted six
months and the city still held out, for it was decreed by fate
that it should not be taken so long as a certain purple lock,
which glittered among the hair of King Nisus, remained on his
head. There was a tower on the city walls, which overlooked the
plain where Minos and his army were encamped. To this tower Scylla
used to repair, and look abroad over the tents of the hostile
army. The siege had lasted so long that she had learned to
distinguish the persons of the leaders. Minos, in particular,
excited her admiration. Arrayed in his helmet, and bearing his
shield, she admired his graceful deportment; if he threw his
javelin skill seemed combined with force in the discharge; if he
drew his bow Apollo himself could not have done it more
gracefully. But when he laid aside his helmet, and in his purple
robes bestrode his white horse with its gay caparisons, and reined
in its foaming mouth, the daughter of Nisus was hardly mistress of
herself; she was almost frantic with admiration. She envied the
weapon that he grasped, the reins that he held. She felt as if she
could, if it were possible, go to him through the hostile ranks;
she felt an impulse to cast herself down from the tower into the
midst of his camp, or to open the gates to him, or to do anything
else, so only it might gratify Minos. As she sat in the tower, she
talked thus with herself: "I know not whether to rejoice or grieve
at this sad war. I grieve that Minos is our enemy; but I rejoice
at any cause that brings him to my sight. Perhaps he would be
willing to grant us peace, and receive me as a hostage. I would
fly down, if I could, and alight in his camp, and tell him that we
yield ourselves to his mercy. But then, to betray my father! No!
rather would I never see Minos again. And yet no doubt it is
sometimes the best thing for a city to be conquered, when the
conqueror is clement and generous. Minos certainly has right on
his side. I think we shall be conquered; and if that must be the
end of it, why should not love unbar the gates to him, instead of
leaving it to be done by war? Better spare delay and slaughter if
we can. And O if any one should wound or kill Minos! No one surely
would have the heart to do it; yet ignorantly, not knowing him,
one might. I will, I will surrender myself to him, with my country
as a dowry, and so put an end to the war. But how? The gates are
guarded, and my father keeps the keys; he only stands in my way. O
that it might please the gods to take him away! But why ask the
gods to do it? Another woman, loving as I do, would remove with
her own hands whatever stood in the way of her love. And can any
other woman dare more than I? I would encounter fire and sword to
gain my object; but here there is no need of fire and sword. I
only need my father's purple lock. More precious than gold to me,
that will give me all I wish."

While she thus reasoned night came on, and soon the whole palace
was buried in sleep. She entered her father's bedchamber and cut
off the fatal lock; then passed out of the city and entered the
enemy's camp. She demanded to be led to the king, and thus
addressed him: "I am Scylla, the daughter of Nisus. I surrender to
you my country and my father's house. I ask no reward but
yourself; for love of you I have done it. See here the purple
lock! With this I give you my father and his kingdom." She held
out her hand with the fatal spoil. Minos shrunk back and refused
to touch it. "The gods destroy thee, infamous woman," he
exclaimed; "disgrace of our time! May neither earth nor sea yield
thee a resting-place! Surely, my Crete, where Jove himself was
cradled, shall not be polluted with such a monster!" Thus he said,
and gave orders that equitable terms should be allowed to the
conquered city, and that the fleet should immediately sail from
the island.

Scylla was frantic. "Ungrateful man," she exclaimed, "is it thus
you leave me?--me who have given you victory,--who have sacrificed
for you parent and country! I am guilty, I confess, and deserve to
die, but not by your hand." As the ships left the shore, she
leaped into the water, and seizing the rudder of the one which
carried Minos, she was borne along an unwelcome companion of their
course. A sea-eagle ing aloft,--it was her father who had been
changed into that form,--seeing her, pounced down upon her, and
struck her with his beak and claws. In terror she let go the ship
and would have fallen into the water, but some pitying deity
changed her into a bird. The sea-eagle still cherishes the old
animosity; and whenever he espies her in his lofty flight you may
see him dart down upon her, with beak and claws, to take vengeance
for the ancient crime.

ECHO AND NARCISSUS

Echo was a beautiful nymph, fond of the woods and hills, where she
devoted herself to woodland sports. She was a favorite of Diana,
and attended her in the chase. But Echo had one failing; she was
fond of talking, and whether in chat or argument, would have the
last word. One day Juno was seeking her husband, who, she had
reason to fear, was amusing himself among the nymphs. Echo by her
talk contrived to detain the goddess till the nymphs made their
escape. When Juno discovered it, she passed sentence upon Echo in
these words: "You shall forfeit the use of that tongue with which
you have cheated me, except for that one purpose you are so fond
of--reply. You shall still have the last word, but no power to
speak first."

This nymph saw Narcissus, a beautiful youth, as he pursued the
chase upon the mountains. She loved him, and followed his
footsteps. O how she longed to address him in the softest accents,
and win him to converse! but it was not in her power. She waited
with impatience for him to speak first, and had her answer ready.
One day the youth, being separated from his companions, shouted
aloud, "Who's here?" Echo replied, "Here." Narcissus looked
around, but seeing no one called out, "Come." Echo answered,
"Come." As no one came, Narcissus called again, "Why do you shun
me?" Echo asked the same question. "Let us join one another," said
the youth. The maid answered with all her heart in the same words,
and hastened to the spot, ready to throw her arms about his neck.
He started back, exclaiming, "Hands off! I would rather die than
you should have me!" "Have me," said she; but it was all in vain.
He left her, and she went to hide her blushes in the recesses of
the woods. From that time forth she lived in caves and among
mountain cliffs. Her form faded with grief, till at last all her
flesh shrank away. Her bones were changed into rocks and there was
nothing left of her but her voice. With that she is still ready to
reply to any one who calls her, and keeps up her old habit of
having the last word.

Narcissus's cruelty in this case was not the only instance. He
shunned all the rest of the nymphs, as he had done poor Echo. One
day a maiden who had in vain endeavored to attract him uttered a
prayer that he might some time or other feel what it was to love
and meet no return of affection. The avenging goddess heard and
granted the prayer.

There was a clear fountain, with water like silver, to which the
shepherds never drove their flocks, nor the mountain goats
resorted, nor any of the beasts of the forest; neither was it
defaced with fallen leaves or branches; but the grass grew fresh
around it, and the rocks sheltered it from the sun. Hither came
one day the youth, fatigued with hunting, heated and thirsty. He
stooped down to drink, and saw his own image in the water; he
thought it was some beautiful water-spirit living in the
fountain. He stood gazing with admiration at those bright eyes,
those locks curled like the locks of Bacchus or Apollo, the
rounded cheeks, the ivory neck, the parted lips, and the glow of
health and exercise over all. He fell in love with himself. He
brought his lips near to take a kiss; he plunged his arms in to
embrace the beloved object. It fled at the touch, but returned
again after a moment and renewed the fascination. He could not
tear himself away; he lost all thought of food or rest, while he
hovered over the brink of the fountain gazing upon his own image.
He talked with the supposed spirit: "Why, beautiful being, do you
shun me? Surely my face is not one to repel you. The nymphs love
me, and you yourself look not indifferent upon me. When I stretch
forth my arms you do the same; and you smile upon me and answer my
beckonings with the like." His tears fell into the water and
disturbed the image. As he saw it depart, he exclaimed, "Stay, I
entreat you! Let me at least gaze upon you, if I may not touch
you." With this, and much more of the same kind, he cherished the
flame that consumed him, so that by degrees he lost his color, his
vigor, and the beauty which formerly had so charmed the nymph
Echo. She kept near him, however, and when he exclaimed, "Alas!
alas!" she answered him with the same words. He pined away and
died; and when his shade passed the Stygian river, it leaned over
the boat to catch a look of itself in the waters. The nymphs
mourned for him, especially the water-nymphs; and when they smote
their breasts Echo smote hers also. They prepared a funeral pile
and would have burned the body, but it was nowhere to be found;
but in its place a flower, purple within, and surrounded with
white leaves, which bears the name and preserves the memory of
Narcissus.

Milton alludes to the story of Echo and Narcissus in the Lady's
song in "Comus." She is seeking her brothers in the forest, and
sings to attract their attention:

    "Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
         Within thy aery shell
       By slow Meander's margent green,
     And in the violet-embroidered vale,
       Where the love-lorn nightingale
     Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well;
     Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
       That likest thy Narcissus are?
         O, if thou have
       Hid them in some flowery cave,
         Tell me but where,
     Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere,
     So may'st thou be translated to the skies,
   And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies."

Milton has imitated the story of Narcissus in the account which he
makes Eve give of the first sight of herself reflected in the
fountain:

    "That day I oft remember when from sleep
     I first awaked, and found myself reposed
     Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where
     And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.
     Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
     Of waters issued from a cave, and spread
     Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved
     Pure as the expanse of heaven; I thither went
     With unexperienced thought, and laid me down
     On the green bank, to look into the clear
     Smooth lake that to me seemed another sky.
     As I bent down to look, just opposite
     A shape within the watery gleam appeared,
     Bending to look on me. I started back;
     It started back; but pleased I soon returned,
     Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks
     Of sympathy and love. There had I fixed
     Mine eyes till now, and pined wi vain desire,
     Had not a voice thus warned me: 'What thou seest,
     What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself;'" etc.

    --Paradise Lost, Book IV.

No one of the fables of antiquity has been oftener alluded to by
the poets than that of Narcissus. Here are two epigrams which
treat it in different ways. The first is by Goldsmith:

"ON A BEAUTIFUL YOUTH, STRUCK BLIND BY LIGHTNING

    "Sure 'twas by Providence designed,
       Rather in pity than in hate,
     That he should be like Cupid blind,
       To save him from Narcissus' fate."

The other is by Cowper:

"ON AN UGLY FELLOW

    "Beware, my friend, of crystal brook
     Or fountain, lest that hideous hook,
       Thy nose, thou chance to see;
     Narcissus' fate would then be thine,
     And self-detested thou would'st pine,
       As self-enamoured he."

CLYTIE

Clytie was a water-nymph and in love with Apollo, who made her no
return. So she pined away, sitting all day long upon the cold
ground, with her unbound tresses streaming over her shoulders.
Nine days she sat and tasted neither food nor drink, her own tears
and the chilly dew her only food. She gazed on the sun when he
rose, and as he passed through his daily course to his setting;
she saw no other object, her face turned constantly on him. At
last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face became a
flower [Footnote: The sunflower.] which turns on its stem so as
always to face the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains
to that extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.

Hood, in his "Flowers," thus alludes to Clytie:

    "I will not have the mad Clytie,
       Whose head is turned by the sun;
     The tulip is a courtly quean,
       Whom therefore I will shun;
     The cowslip is a country wench,
       The violet is a nun;--
     But I will woo the dainty rose,
       The queen of every one."

The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy. Thus Moore uses
it:

    "The heart that has truly loved never forgets,
       But as truly loves on to the close;
     As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
       The same look that she turned when he rose."

HERO AND LEANDER

Leander was a youth of Abydos, a town of the Asian side of the
strait which separates Asia and Europe. On the opposite shore, in
the town of Sestos, lived the maiden Hero, a priestess of Venus.
Leander loved her, and used to swim the strait nightly to enjoy
the company of his mistress, guided by a torch which she reared
upon the tower for the purpose. But one night a tempest arose and
the sea was rough; his strength failed, and he was drowned. The
waves bore his body to the European shore, where Hero became aware
of his death, and in her despair cast herself down from the tower
into the sea and perished.

The following sonnet is by Keats:

"ON A PICTURE OF LEANDER

    "Come hither all sweet maidens soberly,
       Down looking aye, and with a chasten'd light
       Hid in the fringes of your eyelids white,
     And meekly let your fair hands joined be
     As if so gentle that ye could not see,
       Untouch'd, a victim of your beauty bright,
       Sinking away to his young spirit's night,
     Sinking bewilder'd'mid the dreary sea.
     'Tis young Leander toiling to his death
       Nigh swooning he doth purse his weary lips
     For Hero's cheek, and smiles against her smile
       O horrid dream! see how his body dips
     Dead-heavy; arms and shoulders gleam awhile;
     He's gone; up bubbles all his amorous breath!"

The story of Leander's swimming the Hellespont was looked upon as
fabulous, and the feat considered impossible, till Lord Byron
proved its possibility by performing it himself. In the "Bride of
Abydos" he says,

    "These limbs that buoyant wave hath borne."

The distance in the narrowest part is almost a mile, and there is
a constant current setting out from the Sea of Marmora into the
Archipelago. Since Byron's time the feat has been achieved by
others; but it yet remains a test of strength and skill in the art
of swimming sufficient to give a wide and lasting celebrity to any
one of our readers who may dare to make the attempt and succeed in
accomplishing it.

In the beginning of the second canto of the same poem, Byron thus
alludes to this story:

    "The winds are high on Helle's wave,
     As on that night of stormiest water,
    When Love, who sent, forgot to save
    The young, the beautiful, the brave,
    The lonely hope of Sestos' daughter.

    O, when alone along the sky
    The turret-torch was blazing high,
    Though rising gale and breaking foam,
    And shrieking sea-birds warned him home;
    And clouds aloft and tides below,
    With signs and sounds forbade to go,
    He could not see, he would not hear
    Or sound or sight foreboding fear.
    His eye but saw that light of love,
    The only star it hailed above;
    His ear but rang with Hero's song,
    'Ye waves, divide not lovers long.'
    That tale is old, but love anew
    May nerve young hearts to prove as true."





CHAPTER XIV

MINERVA--NIOBE

MINERVA


Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, was the daughter of Jupiter. She
was said to have leaped forth from his brain, mature, and in
complete armor. She presided over the useful and ornamental arts,
both those of men--such as agriculture and navigation--and those
of women,--spinning, weaving, and needlework. She was also a
warlike divinity; but it was defensive war only that she
patronized, and she had no sympathy with Mars's savage love of
violence and bloodshed. Athens was her chosen seat, her own city,
awarded to her as the prize of a contest with Neptune, who also
aspired to it. The tale ran that in the reign of Cecrops, the
first king of Athens, the two deities contended for the possession
of the city. The gods decreed that it should be awarded to that
one who produced the gift most useful to mortals. Neptune gave the
horse; Minerva produced the olive. The gods gave judgment that the
olive was the more useful of the two, and awarded the city to the
goddess; and it was named after her, Athens, her name in Greek
being Athene.

There was another contest, in which a mortal dared to come in
competition with Minerva. That mortal was Arachne, a maiden who
had attained such skill in the arts of weaving and embroidery that
the nymphs themselves would leave their groves and fountains to
come and gaze upon her work. It was not only beautiful when it was
done, but beautiful also in the doing. To watch her, as she took
the wool in its rude state and formed it into rolls, or separated
it with her fingers and carded it till it looked as light and soft
as a cloud, or twirled the spindle with skilful touch, or wove the
web, or, after it was woven, adorned it with her needle, one would
have said that Minerva herself had taught her. But this she
denied, and could not bear to be thought a pupil even of a
goddess. "Let Minerva try her skill with mine," said she; "if
beaten I will pay the penalty." Minerva heard this and was
displeased. She assumed the form of an old woman and went and gave
Arachne some friendly advice "I have had much experience," said
she, "and I hope you will not despise my counsel. Challenge your
fellow-mortals as you will, but do not compete with a goddess. On
the contrary, I advise you to ask her forgiveness for what you
have said, and as she is merciful perhaps she will pardon you."
Arachne stopped her spinning and looked at the old dame with anger
in her countenance. "Keep your counsel," said she, "for your
daughters or handmaids; for my part I know what I say, and I stand
to it. I am not afraid of the goddess; let her try her skill, if
she dare venture." "She comes," said Minerva; and dropping her
disguise stood confessed. The nymphs bent low in homage, and all
the bystanders paid reverence. Arachne alone was unterrified. She
blushed, indeed; a sudden color dyed her cheek, and then she grew
pale. But she stood to her resolve, and with a foolish conceit of
her own skill rushed on her fate. Minerva forbore no longer nor
interposed any further advice. They proceed to the contest. Each
takes her station and attaches the web to the beam. Then the
slender shuttle is passed in and out among the threads. The reed
with its fine teeth strikes up the woof into its place and
compacts the web. Both work with speed; their skilful hands move
rapidly, and the excitement of the contest makes the labor light.
Wool of Tyrian dye is contrasted with that of other colors, shaded
off into one another so adroitly that the joining deceives the
eye. Like the bow, whose long arch tinges the heavens, formed by
sunbeams reflected from the shower, [Footnote: This correct
description of the rainbow is literally translated from Ovid.] in
which, where the colors meet they seem as one, but at a little
distance from the point of contact are wholly different.

Minerva wrought on her web the scene of her contest with Neptune.
Twelve of the heavenly powers are represented, Jupiter, with
august gravity, sitting in the midst. Neptune, the ruler of the
sea, holds his trident, and appears to have just smitten the
earth, from which a horse has leaped forth. Minerva depicted
herself with helmed head, her Aegis covering her breast. Such was
the central circle; and in the four corners were represented
incidents illustrating the displeasure of the gods at such
presumptuous mortals as had dared to contend with them. These were
meant as warnings to her rival to give up the contest before it
was too late.

Arachne filled her web with subjects designedly chosen to exhibit
the failings and errors of the gods. One scene represented Leda
caressing the swan, under which form Jupiter had disguised
himself; and another, Danae, in the brazen tower in which her
father had imprisoned her, but where the god effected his entrance
in the form of a golden shower. Still another depicted Europa
deceived by Jupiter under the disguise of a bull. Encouraged by
the tameness of the animal Europa ventured to mount his back,
whereupon Jupiter advanced into the sea and swam with her to
Crete. You would have thought it was a real bull, so naturally was
it wrought, and so natural the water in which it swam. She seemed
to look with longing eyes back upon the shore she was leaving, and
to call to her companions for help. She appeared to shudder with
terror at the sight of the heaving waves, and to draw back her
feet from the water.

Arachne filled her canvas with similar subjects, wonderfully well
done, but strongly marking her presumption and impiety. Minerva
could not forbear to admire, yet felt indignant at the insult. She
struck the web with her shuttle and rent it in pieces, she then
touched the forehead of Arachne and made her feel her guilt and
shame. She could not endure it and went and hanged herself.
Minerva pitied her as she saw her suspended by a rope. "Live," she
said, "guilty woman! and that you may preserve the memory of this
lesson, continue to hang, both you and your descendants, to all
future times." She sprinkled her with the juices of aconite, and
immediately her hair came off, and her nose and ears likewise. Her
form shrank up, and her head grew smaller yet; her fingers cleaved
to her side and served for legs. All the rest of her is body, out
of which she spins her thread, often hanging suspended by it, in
the same attitude as when Minerva touched her and transformed her
into a spider.

Spenser tells the story of Arachne in his "Muiopotmos," adhering
very closely to his master Ovid, but improving upon him in the
conclusion of the story. The two stanzas which follow tell what
was done after the goddess had depicted her creation of the olive
tree:

    "Amongst these leaves she made a Butterfly,
     With excellent device and wondrous slight,
     Fluttering among the olives wantonly,
     That seemed to live, so like it was in sight;
     The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie,
     The silken down with which his back is dight,
     His broad outstretched horns, his hairy thighs,
     His glorious colors, and his glistening eyes."

    "Which when Arachne saw, as overlaid
     And mastered with workmanship so rare,
     She stood astonied long, ne aught gainsaid;
     And with fast-fixed eyes on her did stare,
     And by her silence, sign of one dismayed,
     The victory did yield her as her share;
     Yet did she inly fret and felly burn,
     And all her blood to poisonous rancor turn."

[Footnote: Sir James Mackintosh says of this, "Do you think that
even a Chinese could paint the gay colors of a butterfly with more
mmute exactness than the following lines: 'The velvet nap,'
etc.?"--Life, Vol. II, 246.]

And so the metamorphosis is caused by Arachne's own mortification
and vexation, and not by any direct act of the goddess.

The following specimen of old-fashioned gallantry is by Garrick:

         "UPON A LADY'S EMBROIDERY

    "Arachne once, as poets tell,
       A goddess at her art defied,
     And soon the daring mortal fell
       The hapless victim of her pride.

    "O, then beware Arachne's fate;
       Be prudent, Chloe, and submit,
     For you'll most surely meet her hate,
       Who rival both her art and wit."

Tennyson, in his "Palace of Art," describing the works of art with
which the palace was adorned, thus alludes to Europa:

    "... sweet Europa's mantle blew unclasped
       From off her shoulder, backward borne,
     From one hand drooped a crocus, one hand grasped
       The mild bull's golden horn."

In his "Princess" there is this allusion to Danae:

    "Now lies the earth all Danae to the stars,
     And all thy heart lies open unto me."

NIOBE

The fate of Arachne was noised abroad through all the country, and
served as a warning to all presumptuous mortals not to compare
themselves with the divinities. But one, and she a matron too,
failed to learn the lesson of humility. It was Niobe, the queen of
Thebes. She had indeed much to be proud of; but it was not her
husband's fame, nor her own beauty, nor their great descent, nor
the power of their kingdom that elated her. It was her children;
and truly the happiest of mothers would Niobe have been if only
she had not claimed to be so. It was on occasion of the annual
celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and
Diana,--when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows
crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying
their vows,--that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Her attire was
splendid with gold and gems, and her aspect beautiful as the face
of an angry woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with
haughty looks. "What folly," said she, "is this!--to prefer beings
whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Why should
Latona be honored with worship, and none be paid to me? My father
was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the
gods; my mother was a goddess. My husband built and rules this
city, Thebes, and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I
turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and
presence unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add I have
seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and
daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not
cause for pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's
daughter, with her two children? I have seven times as many.
Fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one
deny this? My abundance is my security. I feel myself too strong
for Fortune to subdue. She may take from me much; I shall still
have much left. Were I to lose some of my children, I should
hardly be left as poor as Latona with her two only. Away with you
from these solemnities,--put off the laurel from your brows,--have
done with this worship!" The people obeyed, and left the sacred
services uncompleted.

The goddess was indignant. On the Cynthian mountain top where she
dwelt she thus addressed her son and daughter: "My children, I who
have been so proud of you both, and have been used to hold myself
second to none of the goddesses except Juno alone, begin now to
doubt whether I am indeed a goddess. I shall be deprived of my
worship altogether unless you protect me." She was proceeding in
this strain, but Apollo interrupted her. "Say no more," said he;
"speech only delays punishment." So said Diana also. Darting
through the air, veiled in clouds, they alighted on the towers of
the city. Spread out before the gates was a broad plain, where the
youth of the city pursued their warlike sports. The sons of Niobe
were there with the rest,--some mounted on spirited horses richly
caparisoned, some driving gay chariots. Ismenos, the first-born,
as he guided his foaming steeds, struck with an arrow from above,
cried out, "Ah me!" dropped the reins, and fell lifeless. Another,
hearing the sound of the bow,--like a boatman who sees the storm
gathering and makes all sail for the port,--gave the reins to his
horses and attempted to escape. The inevitable arrow overtook him
as he fled. Two others, younger boys, just from their tasks, had
gone to the playground to have a game of wrestling. As they stood
breast to breast, one arrow pierced them both. They uttered a cry
together, together cast a parting look around them, and together
breathed their last. Alphenor, an elder brother, seeing them fall,
hastened to the spot to render assistance, and fell stricken in
the act of brotherly duty. One only was left, Ilioneus. He raised
his arms to heaven to try whether prayer might not avail. "Spare
me, ye gods!" he cried, addressing all, in his ignorance that all
needed not his intercessions; and Apollo would have spared him,
but the arrow had already left the string, and it was too late.

The terror of the people and grief of the attendants soon made
Niobe acquainted with what had taken place. She could hardly think
it possible; she was indignant that the gods had dared and amazed
that they had been able to do it. Her husband, Amphion,
overwhelmed with the blow, destroyed himself. Alas! how different
was this Niobe from her who had so lately driven away the people
from the sacred rites, and held her stately course through the
city, the envy of her friends, now the pity even of her foes! She
knelt over the lifeless bodies, and kissed now one, now another of
her dead sons. Raising her pallid arms to heaven, "Cruel Latona,"
said she, "feed full your rage with my anguish! Satiate your hard
heart, while I follow to the grave my seven sons. Yet where is
your triumph? Bereaved as I am, I am still richer than you, my
conqueror." Scarce had she spoken, when the bow sounded and struck
terror into all hearts except Niobe's alone. She was brave from
excess of grief. The sisters stood in garments of mourning over
the biers of their dead brothers. One fell, struck by an arrow,
and died on the corpse she was bewailing. Another, attempting to
console her mother, suddenly ceased to speak, and sank lifeless to
the earth. A third tried to escape by flight, a fourth by
concealment, another stood trembling, uncertain what course to
take. Six were now dead, and only one remained, whom the mother
held clasped in her arms, and covered as it were with her whole
body. "Spare me one, and that the youngest! O spare me one of so
many!" she cried; and while she spoke, that one fell dead.
Desolate she sat, among sons, daughters, husband, all dead, and
seemed torpid with grief. The breeze moved not her hair, no color
was on her cheek, her eyes glared fixed and immovable, there was
no sign of life about her. Her very tongue cleaved to the roof of
her mouth, and her veins ceased to convey the tide of life. Her
neck bent not, her arms made no gesture, her foot no step. She was
changed to stone, within and without. Yet tears continued to flow;
and borne on a whirlwind to her native mountain, she still
remains, a mass of rock, from which a trickling stream flows, the
tribute of her never-ending grief.

The story of Niobe has furnished Byron with a fine illustration of
the fallen condition of modern Rome:

    "The Niobe of nations! there she stands,
     Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe;
     An empty urn within her withered hands,
     Whose holy dust was scattered long ago;
     The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now:
     The very sepulchres lie tenantless
     Of their heroic dwellers; dost thou flow,
     Old Tiber! through a marble wilderness?
     Rise with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress."

Childe Harold, IV. 79.

This affecting story has been made the subject of a celebrated
statue in the imperial gallery of Florence. It is the principal
figure of a group supposed to have been originally arranged in the
pediment of a temple. The figure of the mother clasped by the arm
of her terrified child is one of the most admired of the ancient
statues. It ranks with the Laocoon and the Apollo among the
masterpieces of art. The following is a translation of a Greek
epigram supposed to relate to this statue:

    "To stone the gods have changed her, but in vain;
     The sculptor's art has made her breathe again."

Tragic as is the story of Niobe, we cannot forbear to smile at the
use Moore has made of it in "Rhymes on the Road":

    "'Twas in his carriage the sublime
     Sir Richard Blackmore used to rhyme,
       And, if the wits don't do him wrong,
     'Twixt death and epics passed his time,
       Scribbling and killing all day long;
         Like Phoebus in his car at ease,
       Now warbling forth a lofty song,
         Now murdering the young Niobes."

Sir Richard Blackmore was a physician, and at the same time a very
prolific and very tasteless poet, whose works are now forgotten,
unless when recalled to mind by some wit like Moore for the sake
of a joke.





CHAPTER XV

THE GRAEAE OR GRAY-MAIDS--PERSEUS--MEDUSA--ATLAS--ANDROMEDA

THE GRAEAE AND THE GORGONS


The Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from their
birth, whence their name. The Gorgons were monstrous females with
huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, and snaky hair. None
of these beings make much figure in mythology except Medusa, the
Gorgon, whose story we shall next advert to. We mention them
chiefly to introduce an ingenious theory of some modern writers,
namely, that the Gorgons and Graeae were only personifications of
the terrors of the sea, the former denoting the STRONG billows of
the wide open main, and the latter the WHITE-crested waves that
dash against the rocks of the coast. Their names in Greek signify
the above epithets.

PERSEUS AND MEDUSA

Perseus was the son of Jupiter and Danae. His grandfather
Acrisius, alarmed by an oracle which had told him that his
daughter's child would be the instrument of his death, caused the
mother and child to be shut up in a chest and set adrift on the
sea. The chest floated towards Seriphus, where it was found by a
fisherman who conveyed the mother and infant to Polydectes, the
king of the country, by whom they were treated with kindness. When
Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the conquest
of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the country. She
was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory, but as
she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva, the goddess deprived her
of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing
serpents. She became a cruel monster of so frightful an aspect
that no living thing could behold her without being turned into
stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen the
stony figures of men and animals which had chanced to catch a
glimpse of her and had been petrified with the sight. Perseus,
favored by Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her
shield and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while
she slept, and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided
by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he cut
off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the middle of
her Aegis.

Milton, in his "Comus," thus alludes to the Aegis:

    "What was that snaky-headed Gorgon-shield
     That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
     Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
     But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
     And noble grace that dashed brute violence
     With sudden adoration and blank awe!"

Armstrong, the poet of the "Art of Preserving Health," thus
describes the effect of frost upon the waters:

    "Now blows the surly North and chills throughout
    The stiffening regions, while by stronger charms
    Than Circe e'er or fell Medea brewed,
    Each brook that wont to prattle to its banks
    Lies all bestilled and wedged betwixt its banks,
    Nor moves the withered reeds ...
    The surges baited by the fierce North-east,
    Tossing with fretful spleen their angry heads,
    E'en in the foam of all their madness struck
    To monumental ice.

    Such execution,
    So stern, so sudden, wrought the grisly aspect
    Of terrible Medusa,
    When wandering through the woods she turned to Stone
    Their savage tenants; just as the foaming Lion
    Sprang furious on his prey, her speedier power
    Outran his haste,
    And fixed in that fierce attitude he stands
    Like Rage in marble!"

    --Imitations of Shakspeare.

PERSEUS AND ATLAS

After the slaughter of Medusa, Perseus, bearing with him the head
of the Gorgon, flew far and wide, over land and sea. As night came
on, he reached the western limit of the earth, where the sun goes
down. Here he would gladly have rested till morning. It was the
realm of King Atlas, whose bulk surpassed that of all other men.
He was rich in flocks and herds and had no neighbor or rival to
dispute his state. But his chief pride was in his gardens, whose
fruit was of gold, hanging from golden branches, half hid with
golden leaves. Perseus said to him, "I come as a guest. If you
honor illustrious descent, I claim Jupiter for my father; if
mighty deeds, I plead the conquest of the Gorgon. I seek rest and
food." But Atlas remembered that an ancient prophecy had warned
him that a son of Jove should one day rob him of his golden
apples. So he answered, "Begone! or neither your false claims of
glory nor parentage shall protect you;" and he attempted to thrust
him out. Perseus, finding the giant too strong for him, said,
"Since you value my friendship so little, deign to accept a
present;" and turning his face away, he held up the Gorgon's head.
Atlas, with all his bulk, was changed into stone. His beard and
hair became forests, his arms and shoulders cliffs, his head a
summit, and his bones rocks. Each part increased in bulk till he
became a mountain, and (such was the pleasure of the gods) heaven
with all its stars rests upon his shoulders.

THE SEA-MONSTER

Perseus, continuing his flight, arrived at the country of the
Aethiopians, of which Cepheus was king. Cassiopeia his queen,
proud of her beauty, had dared to compare herself to the Sea-
Nymphs, which roused their indignation to such a degree that they
sent a prodigious sea-monster to ravage the coast. To appease the
deities, Cepheus was directed by the oracle to expose his daughter
Andromeda to be devoured by the monster. As Perseus looked down
from his aerial height he beheld the virgin chained to a rock, and
waiting the approach of the serpent. She was so pale and
motionless that if it had not been for her flowing tears and her
hair that moved in the breeze, he would have taken her for a
marble statue. He was so startled at the sight that he almost
forgot to wave his wings. As he hovered over her he said, "O
virgin, undeserving of those chains, but rather of such as bind
fond lovers together, tell me, I beseech you, your name, and the
name of your country, and why you are thus bound." At first she
was silent from modesty, and, if she could, would have hid her
face with her hands; but when he repeated his questions, for fear
she might be thought guilty of some fault which she dared not
tell, she disclosed her name and that of her country, and her
mother's pride of beauty. Before she had done speaking, a sound
was heard off upon the water, and the sea-monster appeared, with
his head raised above the surface, cleaving the waves with his
broad breast. The virgin shrieked, the father and mother who had
now arrived at the scene, wretched both, but the mother more
justly so, stood by, not able to afford protection, but only to
pour forth lamentations and to embrace the victim. Then spoke
Perseus: "There will be time enough for tears; this hour is all we
have for rescue. My rank as the son of Jove and my renown as the
slayer of the Gorgon might make me acceptable as a suitor; but I
will try to win her by services rendered, if the gods will only be
propitious. If she be rescued by my valor, I demand that she be my
reward." The parents consent (how could they hesitate?) and
promise a royal dowry with her.

And now the monster was within the range of a stone thrown by a
skilful slinger, when with a sudden bound the youth soared into
the air. As an eagle, when from his lofty flight he sees a serpent
basking in the sun, pounces upon him and seizes him by the neck to
prevent him from turning his head round and using his fangs, so
the youth darted down upon the back of the monster and plunged his
sword into its shoulder. Irritated by the wound, the monster
raised himself in the air, then plunged into the depth; then, like
a wild boar surrounded, by a pack of barking dogs, turned swiftly
from side to side, while the youth eluded its attacks by means of
his wings. Wherever he can find a passage for his sword between
the scales he makes a wound, piercing now the side, now the flank,
as it slopes towards the tail. The brute spouts from his nostrils
water mixed with blood. The wings of the hero are wet with it, and
he dares no longer trust to them. Alighting on a rock which rose
above the waves, and holding on by a projecting fragment, as the
monster floated near he gave him a death stroke. The people who
had gathered on the shore shouted so that the hills reechoed the
sound. The parents, transported with joy, embraced their future
son-in-law, calling him their deliverer and the savior of their
house, and the virgin both cause and reward of the contest,
descended from the rock.

Cassiopeia was an Aethiopian, and consequently, in spite of her
boasted beauty, black; at least so Milton seems to have thought,
who alludes to this story in his "Penseroso," where he addresses
Melancholy as the

    ".... goddess, sage and holy,
     Whose saintly visage is too bright
     To hit the sense of human sight,
     And, therefore, to our weaker view
     O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.
     Black, but such as in esteem
     Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
     Or that starred Aethiop queen that strove
     To set her beauty's praise above
     The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended."

Cassiopeia is called "the starred Aethiop queen" because after her
death she was placed among the stars, forming the constellation of
that name. Though she attained this honor, yet the Sea-Nymphs, her
old enemies, prevailed so far as to cause her to be placed in that
part of the heaven near the pole, where every night she is half
the time held with her head downward, to give her a lesson of
humility.

Memnon was an Aethiopian prince, of whom we shall tell in a future
chapter.

THE WEDDING FEAST

The joyful parents, with Perseus and Andromeda, repaired to the
palace, where a banquet was spread for them, and all was joy and
festivity. But suddenly a noise was heard of warlike clamor, and
Phineus, the betrothed of the virgin, with a party of his
adherents, burst in, demanding the maiden as his own. It was in
vain that Cepheus remonstrated--"You should have claimed her when
she lay bound to the rock, the monster's victim. The sentence of
the gods dooming her to such a fate dissolved all engagements, as
death itself would have done." Phineus made no reply, but hurled
his javelin at Perseus, but it missed its mark and fell harmless.
Perseus would have thrown his in turn, but the cowardly assailant
ran and took shelter behind the altar. But his act was a signal
for an onset by his band upon the guests of Cepheus. They defended
themselves and a general conflict ensued, the old king retreating
from the scene after fruitless expostulations, calling the gods to
witness that he was guiltless of this outrage on the rights of
hospitality.

Perseus and his friends maintained for some time the unequal
contest; but the numbers of the assailants were too great for
them, and destruction seemed inevitable, when a sudden thought
struck Perseus,--"I will make my enemy defend me." Then with a
loud voice he exclaimed, "If I have any friend here let him turn
away his eyes!" and held aloft the Gorgon's head. "Seek not to
frighten us with your jugglery," said Thescelus, and raised his
javelin in act to throw, and became stone in the very attitude.
Ampyx was about to plunge his sword into the body of a prostrate
foe, but his arm stiffened and he could neither thrust forward nor
withdraw it. Another, in the midst of a vociferous challenge,
stopped, his mouth open, but no sound issuing. One of Perseus's
friends, Aconteus, caught sight of the Gorgon and stiffened like
the rest. Astyages struck him with his sword, but instead of
wounding, it recoiled with a ringing noise.

Phineus beheld this dreadful result of his unjust aggression, and
felt confounded. He called aloud to his friends, but got no
answer; he touched them and found them stone. Falling on his knees
and stretching out his hands to Perseus, but turning his head away
he begged for mercy. "Take all," said he, "give me but my life."
"Base coward," said Perseus, "thus much I will grant you; no
weapon shall touch you; moreover, you shall be preserved in my
house as a memorial of these events." So saying, he held the
Gorgon's head to the side where Phineus was looking, and in the
very form in which he knelt, with his hands outstretched and face
averted, he became fixed immovably, a mass of stone!

The following allusion to Perseus is from Milman's "Samor":

    "As'mid the fabled Libyan bridal stood
     Perseus in stern tranquillity of wrath,
     Half stood, half floated on his ankle-plumes
     Out-swelling, while the bright face on his shield
     Looked into stone the raging fray; so rose,
     But with no magic arms, wearing alone
     Th' appalling and control of his firm look,
     The Briton Samor; at his rising awe
     Went abroad, and the riotous hall was mute."





CHAPTER XVI

MONSTERS

GIANTS, SPHINX, PEGASUS AND CHIMAERA, CENTAURS, GRIFFIN, AND
PYGMIES


Monsters, in the language of mythology, were beings of unnatural
proportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessing
immense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injury
and annoyance of men. Some of them were supposed to combine the
members of different animals; such were the Sphinx and Chimaera;
and to these all the terrible qualities of wild beasts were
attributed, together with human sagacity and faculties. Others, as
the giants, differed from men chiefly in their size; and in this
particular we must recognize a wide distinction among them. The
human giants, if so they may be called, such as the Cyclopes,
Antaeus, Orion, and others, must be supposed not to be altogether
disproportioned to human beings, for they mingled in love and
strife with them. But the superhuman giants, who warred with the
gods, were of vastly larger dimensions. Tityus, we are told, when
stretched on the plain, covered nine acres, and Enceladus required
the whole of Mount Aetna to be laid upon him to keep him down.

We have already spoken of the war which the giants waged against
the gods, and of its result. While this war lasted the giants
proved a formidable enemy. Some of them, like Briareus, had a
hundred arms; others, like Typhon, breathed out fire. At one time
they put the gods to such fear that they fled into Egypt and hid
themselves under various forms. Jupiter took the form of a ram,
whence he was afterwards worshipped in Egypt as the god Ammon,
with curved horns. Apollo became a crow, Bacchus a goat, Diana a
cat, Juno a cow, Venus a fish, Mercury a bird. At another time the
giants attempted to climb up into heaven, and for that purpose
took up the mountain Ossa and piled it on Pelion. [Footnote: See
Proverbial Expressions.] They were at last subdued by
thunderbolts, which Minerva invented, and taught Vulcan and his
Cyclopes to make for Jupiter.

THE SPHINX

Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that there was
danger to his throne and life if his new-born son should be
suffered to grow up. He therefore committed the child to the care
of a herdsman with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman, moved
with pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up the child
by the feet and left him hanging to the branch of a tree. In this
condition the infant was found by a peasant, who carried him to
his master and mistress, by whom he was adopted and called
OEdipus, or Swollen-foot.

Many years afterwards Laius being on his way to Delphi,
accompanied only by one attendant, met in a narrow road a young
man also driving in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at
their command the attendant killed one of his horses, and the
stranger, filled with rage, slew both Laius and his attendant. The
young man was OEdipus, who thus unknowingly became the slayer of
his own father.

Shortly after this event the city of Thebes was afflicted with a
monster which infested the highroad. It was called the Sphinx. It
had the body of a lion and the upper part of a woman. It lay
crouched on the top of a rock, and arrested all travellers who
came that way proposing to them a riddle, with the condition that
those who could solve it should pass safe, but those who failed
should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solving it, and all
had been slain. OEdipus was not daunted by these alarming
accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinx asked him,
"What animal is that which in the morning gees on four feet, at
noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" OEdipus replied,
"Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks
erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx was so
mortified at the solving of her riddle that she cast herself down
from the rock and perished.

The gratitude of the people for their deliverance was so great
that they made OEdipus their king, giving him in marriage their
queen Jocasta. OEdipus, ignorant of his parentage, had already
become the slayer of his father; in marrying the queen he became
the husband of his mother. These horrors remained undiscovered,
till at length Thebes was afflicted with famine and pestilence,
and the oracle being consulted, the double crime of OEdipus came
to light. Jocasta put an end to her own life, and OEdipus, seized
with madness, tore out his eyes and wandered away from Thebes,
dreaded and abandoned by all except his daughters, who faithfully
adhered to him, till after a tedious period of miserable wandering
he found the termination of his wretched life.

PEGASUS AND THE CHIMAERA

When Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the blood sinking into the
earth produced the winged horse Pegasus. Minerva caught him and
tamed him and presented him to the Muses. The fountain Hippocrene,
on the Muses' mountain Helicon, was opened by a kick from his
hoof.

The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The fore part
of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and the hind
part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that the king,
Iobates, sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time there
arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name was
Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law of
Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an
unconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to his
father-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetus was
jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked with too
much admiration on the young warrior. From this instance of
Bellerophon being unconsciously the bearer of his own death
warrant, the expression "Bellerophontic letters" arose, to
describe any species of communication which a person is made the
bearer of, containing matter prejudicial to himself.

Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, not
willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to
oblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him, to send
Bellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted the
proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted the
soothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible the
horse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed him
to pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as he
slept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When he
awoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed him
Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of the bridle
the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself to be taken.
Bellerophon mounted him, rose with him into the air, soon found
the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over the monster.

After the conquest of the Chimaera Bellerophon was exposed to
further trials and labors by his unfriendly host, but by the aid
of Pegasus he triumphed in them all, till at length Iobates,
seeing that the hero was a special favorite of the gods, gave him
his daughter in marriage and made him his successor on the throne.
At last Bellerophon by his pride and presumption drew upon himself
the anger of the gods; it is said he even attempted to fly up into
heaven on his winged steed, but Jupiter sent a gadfly which stung
Pegasus and made him throw his rider, who became lame and blind in
consequence. After this Bellerophon wandered lonely through the
Aleian field, avoiding the paths of men, and died miserably.

Milton alludes to Bellerophon in the beginning of the seventh book
of "Paradise Lost":

    "Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
     If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
     Following above the Olympian hill I soar,
     Above the flight of Pegasean wing
                           Upled by thee,
     Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
     An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air
     (Thy tempering); with like safety guided down
     Return me to my native element;
     Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once
     Bellerophon, though from a lower sphere),
     Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall,
     Erroneous there to wander and forlorn."

Young, in his "Night Thoughts," speaking of the sceptic, says:

    "He whose blind thought futurity denies,
     Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like thee
     His own indictment, he condemns himself.
     Who reads his bosom reads immortal life,
     Or nature there, imposing on her sons,
     Has written fables; man was made a lie."

Vol II, p 12

Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at the
service of the poets. Schiller tells a pretty story of his having
been sold by a needy poet and put to the cart and the plough. He
was not fit for such service, and his clownish master could make
nothing of him But a youth stepped forth and asked leave to try
him As soon as he was seated on his back the horse, which had
appeared at first vicious, and afterwards spirit-broken, rose
kingly, a spirit, a god, unfolded the splendor of his wings, and
soared towards heaven. Our own poet Longfellow also records an
adventure of this famous steed in his "Pegasus in Pound."

Shakspeare alludes to Pegasus in "Henry IV.," where Vernon
describes Prince Henry:

    "I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
     His cuishes on his thighs, gallantly armed,
     Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
     And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
     As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,
     To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
     And witch the world with noble horsemanship"

THE CENTAURS

These monsters were represented as men from the head to the loins,
while the remainder of the body was that of a horse. The ancients
were too fond of a horse to consider the union of his nature with
man's as forming a very degraded compound, and accordingly the
Centaur is the only one of the fancied monsters of antiquity to
which any good traits are assigned. The Centaurs were admitted to
the companionship of man, and at the marriage of Pirithous with
Hippodamia they were among the guests. At the feast Eurytion, one
of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated with the wine, attempted to
offer violence to the bride; the other Centaurs followed his
example, and a dreadful conflict arose in which several of them
were slain. This is the celebrated battle of the Lapithae and
Centaurs, a favorite subject with the sculptors and poets of
antiquity.

But not all the Centaurs were like the rude guests of Pirithous.
Chiron was instructed by Apollo and Diana, and was renowned for
his skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy.
The most distinguished heroes of Grecian story were his pupils.
Among the rest the infant--Aesculapius was intrusted to his charge
by Apollo, his father. When the sage returned to his home bearing
the infant, his daughter Ocyroe came forth to meet him, and at
sight of the child burst forth into a prophetic strain (for she
was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that he was to achieve
Aesculapius when grown up became a renowned physician, and even in
one instance succeeded in restoring the dead to life. Pluto
resented this, and Jupiter, at his request, struck the bold
physician with lightning, and killed him, but after his death
received him into the number of the gods.

Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the Centaurs, and at his
death Jupiter placed him among the stars as the constellation
Sagittarius.

THE PYGMIES

The Pygmies were a nation of dwarfs, so called from a Greek word
which means the cubit or measure of about thirteen inches, which
was said to be the height of these people. They lived near the
sources of the Nile, or according to others, in India. Homer tells
us that the cranes used to migrate every winter to the Pygmies'
country, and their appearance was the signal of bloody warfare to
the puny inhabitants, who had to take up arms to defend their
cornfields against the rapacious strangers. The Pygmies and their
enemies the Cranes form the subject of several works of art.

Later writers tell of an army of Pygmies which finding Hercules
asleep made preparations to attack him, as if they were about to
attack a city. But the hero, awaking, laughed at the little
warriors, wrapped some of them up in his lion's skin, and carried
them to Eurystheus.

Milton uses the Pygmies for a simile, "Paradise Lost," Book I.:

     "... like that Pygmaean race
    Beyond the Indian mount, or fairy elves
    Whose midnight revels by a forest side,
    Or fountain, some belated peasant sees
    (Or dreams he sees), while overhead the moon
    Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth
    Wheels her pale course; they on their mirth and dance
    Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
    At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."

THE GRIFFIN, OR GRYPHON

The Griffin is a monster with the body of a lion, the head and
wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds it
builds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. It
has long claws and talons of such a size that the people of that
country make them into drinking-cups. India was assigned as the
native country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountains
and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were
very tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keep
vigilant guard over them. Their instinct led them to know where
buried treasures lay, and they did their best to keep plunderers
at a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffins
flourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia.

Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, "Paradise Lost," Book
II,:

    "As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,
     With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,
     Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth
     Hath from his wakeful custody purloined
     His guarded gold," etc.





CHAPTER XVII

THE GOLDEN FLEECE--MEDEA

THE GOLDEN FLEECE


In very ancient times there lived in Thessaly a king and queen
named Athamas and Nephele. They had two children, a boy and a
girl. After a time Athamas grew indifferent to his wife, put her
away, and took another. Nephele suspected danger to her children
from the influence of the step-mother, and took measures to send
them out of her reach. Mercury assisted her, and gave her a ram
with a GOLDEN FLEECE, on which she set the two children, trusting
that the ram would convey them to a place of safety. The ram
vaulted into the air with the children on his back, taking his
course to the East, till when crossing the strait that divides
Europe and Asia, the girl, whose name was Helle, fell from his
back into the sea, which from her was called the Hellespont,--now
the Dardanelles. The ram continued his career till he reached the
kingdom of Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, where
he safely landed the boy Phryxus, who was hospitably received by
Aeetes, king of the country. Phryxus sacrificed the ram to
Jupiter, and gave the Golden Fleece to Aeetes, who placed it in a
consecrated grove, under the care of a sleepless dragon.

There was another kingdom in Thessaly near to that of Athamas, and
ruled over by a relative of his. The king Aeson, being tired of
the cares of government, surrendered his crown to his brother
Pelias on condition that he should hold it only during the
minority of Jason, the son of Aeson. When Jason was grown up and
came to demand the crown from his uncle, Pelias pretended to be
willing to yield it, but at the same time suggested to the young
man the glorious adventure of going in quest of the Golden Fleece,
which it was well known was in the kingdom of Colchis, and was, as
Pelias pretended, the rightful property of their family. Jason was
pleased with the thought, and forthwith made preparations for the
expedition. At that time the only species of navigation known to
the Greeks consisted of small boats or canoes hollowed out from
trunks of trees, so that when Jason employed Argus to build him a
vessel capable of containing fifty men, it was considered a
gigantic undertaking. It was accomplished, however, and the vessel
named "Argo," from the name of the builder. Jason sent his
invitation to all the adventurous young men of Greece, and soon
found himself at the head of a band of bold youths, many of whom
afterwards were renowned among the heroes and demigods of Greece.
Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus, and Nestor were among them. They are
called the Argonauts, from the name of their vessel.

The "Argo" with her crew of heroes left the shores of Thessaly and
having touched at the Island of Lemnos, thence crossed to Mysia
and thence to Thrace. Here they found the sage Phineus, and from
him received instruction as to their future course. It seems the
entrance of the Euxine Sea was impeded by two small rocky islands,
which floated on the surface, and in their tossings and heavings
occasionally came together, crushing and grinding to atoms any
object that might be caught between them. They were called the
Symplegades, or Clashing Islands. Phineus instructed the Argonauts
how to pass this dangerous strait. When they reached the islands
they let go a dove, which took her way between the rocks, and
passed in safety, only losing some feathers of her tail. Jason and
his men seized the favorable moment of the rebound, plied their
oars with vigor, and passed safe through, though the islands
closed behind them, and actually grazed their stern. They now
rowed along the shore till they arrived at the eastern end of the
sea, and landed at the kingdom of Colchis.

Jason made known his message to the Colchian king, Aeetes, who
consented to give up the golden fleece if Jason would yoke to the
plough two fire-breathing bulls with brazen feet, and sow the
teeth of the dragon which Cadmus had slain, and from which it was
well known that a crop of armed men would spring up, who would
turn their weapons against their producer. Jason accepted the
conditions, and a time was set for making the experiment.
Previously, however, he found means to plead his cause to Medea,
daughter of the king. He promised her marriage, and as they stood
before the altar of Hecate, called the goddess to witness his
oath. Medea yielded, and by her aid, for she was a potent
sorceress, he was furnished with a charm, by which he could
encounter safely the breath of the fire-breathing bulls and the
weapons of the armed men.

At the time appointed, the people assembled at the grove of Mars,
and the king assumed his royal seat, while the multitude covered
the hill-sides. The brazen-footed bulls rushed in, breathing fire
from their nostrils that burned up the herbage as they passed. The
sound was like the roar of a furnace, and the smoke like that of
water upon quick-lime. Jason advanced boldly to meet them. His
friends, the chosen heroes of Greece, trembled to behold him.
Regardless of the burning breath, he soothed their rage with his
voice, patted their necks with fearless hand, and adroitly slipped
over them the yoke, and compelled them to drag the plough. The
Colchians were amazed; the Greeks shouted for joy. Jason next
proceeded to sow the dragon's teeth and plough them in. And soon
the crop of armed men sprang up, and, wonderful to relate! no
sooner had they reached the surface than they began to brandish
their weapons and rush upon Jason. The Greeks trembled for their
hero, and even she who had provided him a way of safety and taught
him how to use it, Medea herself, grew pale with fear. Jason for a
time kept his assailants at bay with his sword and shield, till,
finding their numbers overwhelming, he resorted to the charm which
Medea had taught him, seized a stone and threw it in the midst of
his foes. They immediately turned their arms against one another,
and soon there was not one of the dragon's brood left alive. The
Greeks embraced their hero, and Medea, if she dared, would have
embraced him too.

It remained to lull to sleep the dragon that guarded the fleece,
and this was done by scattering over him a few drops of a
preparation which Medea had supplied. At the smell he relaxed his
rage, stood for a moment motionless, then shut those great round
eyes, that had never been known to shut before, and turned over on
his side, fast asleep. Jason seized the fleece and with his
friends and Medea accompanying, hastened to their vessel before
Aeetes the king could arrest their departure, and made the best of
their way back to Thessaly, where they arrived safe, and Jason
delivered the fleece to Pelias, and dedicated the "Argo" to
Neptune. What became of the fleece afterwards we do not know, but
perhaps it was found after all, like many other golden prizes, not
worth the trouble it had cost to procure it.

This is one of those mythological tales, says a late writer, in
which there is reason to believe that a substratum of truth
exists, though overlaid by a mass of fiction. It probably was the
first important maritime expedition, and like the first attempts
of the kind of all nations, as we know from history, was probably
of a half-piratical character. If rich spoils were the result it
was enough to give rise to the idea of the golden fleece.

Another suggestion of a learned mythologist, Bryant, is that it is
a corrupt tradition of the story of Noah and the ark. The name
"Argo" seems to countenance this, and the incident of the dove is
another confirmation.

Pope, in his "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," thus celebrates the
launching of the ship "Argo," and the power of the music of
Orpheus, whom he calls the Thracian:

    "So when the first bold vessel dared the seas,
       High on the stern the Thracian raised his strain,
    While Argo saw her kindred trees
       Descend from Pelion to the main.
    Transported demigods stood round,
       And men grew heroes at the sound."

In Dyer's poem of "The Fleece" there is an account of the ship
"Argo" and her crew, which gives a good picture of this primitive
maritime adventure:

    "From every region of Aegea's shore
     The brave assembled; those illustrious twins
     Castor and Pollux; Orpheus, tuneful bard;
     Zetes and Calais, as the wind in speed;
     Strong Hercules and many a chief renowned.
     On deep Iolcos' sandy shore they thronged,
     Gleaming in armor, ardent of exploits;
     And soon, the laurel cord and the huge stone
     Uplifting to the deck, unmoored the bark;
     Whose keel of wondrous length the skilful hand
     Of Argus fashioned for the proud attempt;
     And in the extended keel a lofty mast
     Upraised, and sails full swelling; to the chiefs
     Unwonted objects. Now first, now they learned
     Their bolder steerage over ocean wave,
     Led by the golden stars, as Chiron's art
     Had marked the sphere celestial," etc.

Hercules left the expedition at Mysia, for Hylas, a youth beloved
by him, having gone for water, was laid hold of and kept by the
nymphs of the spring, who were fascinated by his beauty. Hercules
went in quest of the lad, and while he was absent the "Argo" put
to sea and left him. Moore, in one of his songs, makes a beautiful
allusion to this incident:

    "When Hylas was sent with his urn to the fount,
       Through fields full of light and with heart full of play,
     Light rambled the boy over meadow and mount,
       And neglected his task for the flowers in the way.

    "Thus many like me, who in youth should have tasted
       The fountain that runs by Philosophy's shrme,
     Their time with the flowers on the margin have wasted,
       And left their light urns all as empty as mine."

MEDEA AND AESON

Amid the rejoicings for the recovery of the Golden Fleece, Jason
felt that one thing was wanting, the presence of Aeson, his
father, who was prevented by his age and infirmities from taking
part in them. Jason said to Medea, "My spouse, would that your
arts, whose power I have seen so mighty for my aid, could do me
one further service, take some years from my life and add them to
my father's." Medea replied, "Not at such a cost shall it be done,
but if my art avails me, his life shall be lengthened without
abridging yours." The next full moon she issued forth alone, while
all creatures slept; not a breath stirred the foliage, and all was
still. To the stars she addressed her incantations, and to the
moon; to Hecate, [Footnote: Hecate was a mysterious divinity
sometimes identified with Diana and sometimes with Proserpine. As
Diana represents the moonlight splendor of night, so Hecate
represents its darkness and terrors. She was the goddess of
sorcery and witchcraft, and was believed to wander by night along
the earth, seen only by the dogs, whose barking told her
approach.] the goddess of the underworld, and to Tellus the
goddess of the earth, by whose power plants potent for enchantment
are produced. She invoked the gods of the woods and caverns, of
mountains and valleys, of lakes and rivers, of winds and vapors.
While she spoke the stars shone brighter, and presently a chariot
descended through the air, drawn by flying serpents. She ascended
it, and borne aloft made her way to distant regions, where potent
plants grew which she knew how to select for her purpose. Nine
nights she employed in her search, and during that time came not
within the doors of her palace nor under any roof, and shunned all
intercourse with mortals.

She next erected two altars, the one to Hecate, the other to Hebe,
the goddess of youth, and sacrificed a black sheep, pouring
libations of milk and wine. She implored Pluto and his stolen
bride that they would not hasten to take the old man's life. Then
she directed that Aeson should be led forth, and having thrown him
into a deep sleep by a charm, had him laid on a bed of herbs, like
one dead. Jason and all others were kept away from the place, that
no profane eyes might look upon her mysteries. Then, with
streaming hair, she thrice moved round the altars, dipped flaming
twigs in the blood, and laid them thereon to burn. Meanwhile the
caldron with its contents was got ready. In it she put magic
herbs, with seeds and flowers of acrid juice, stones from the
distant east, and sand from the shore of all-surrounding ocean;
hoar frost, gathered by moonlight, a screech owl's head and wings,
and the entrails of a wolf. She added fragments of the shells of
tortoises, and the liver of stags,--animals tenacious of life,--
and the head and beak of a crow, that outlives nine generations of
men. These with many other things "without a name" she boiled
together for her purposed work, stirring them up with a dry olive
branch; and behold! the branch when taken out instantly became
green, and before long was covered with leaves and a plentiful
growth of young olives; and as the liquor boiled and bubbled, and
sometimes ran over, the grass wherever the sprinklings fell shot
forth with a verdure like that of spring.

Seeing that all was ready, Medea cut the throat of the old man and
let out all his blood, and poured into his mouth and into his
wound the juices of her caldron. As soon as he had completely
imbibed them, his hair and beard laid by their whiteness and
assumed the blackness of youth; his paleness and emaciation were
gone; his veins were full of blood, his limbs of vigor and
robustness. Aeson is amazed at himself, and remembers that such as
he now is, he was in his youthful days, forty years before.

Medea used her arts here for a good purpose, but not so in another
instance, where she made them the instruments of revenge. Pelias,
our readers will recollect, was the usurping uncle of Jason, and
had kept him out of his kingdom. Yet he must have had some good
qualities, for his daughters loved him, and when they saw what
Medea had done for Aeson, they wished her to do the same for their
father. Medea pretended to consent, and prepared her caldron as
before. At her request an old sheep was brought and plunged into
the caldron. Very soon a bleating was heard in the kettle, and
when the cover was removed, a lamb jumped forth and ran frisking
away into the meadow. The daughters of Pelias saw the experiment
with delight, and appointed a time for their father to undergo the
same operation. But Medea prepared her caldron for him in a very
different way. She put in only water and a few simple herbs. In
the night she with the sisters entered the bed chamber of the old
king, while he and his guards slept soundly under the influence of
a spell cast upon them by Medea. The daughters stood by the
bedside with their weapons drawn, but hesitated to strike, till
Medea chid their irresolution. Then turning away their faces, and
giving random blows, they smote him with their weapons. He,
starting from his sleep, cried out, "My daughters, what are you
doing? Will you kill your father?" Their hearts failed them and
their weapons fell from their hands, but Medea struck him a fatal
blow, and prevented his saying more.

Then they placed him in the caldron, and Medea hastened to depart
in her serpent-drawn chariot before they discovered her treachery,
or their vengeance would have been terrible. She escaped, however,
but had little enjoyment of the fruits of her crime. Jason, for
whom she had done so much, wishing to marry Creusa, princess of
Corinth, put away Medea. She, enraged at his ingratitude, called
on the gods for vengeance, sent a poisoned robe as a gift to the
bride, and then killing her own children, and setting fire to the
palace, mounted her serpent-drawn chariot and fled to Athens,
where she married King Aegeus, the father of Theseus, and we shall
meet her again when we come to the adventures of that hero.

The incantations of Medea will remind the reader of those of the
witches in "Macbeth." The following lines are those which seem
most strikingly to recall the ancient model:

    "Round about the caldron go;
     In the poisoned entrails throw.

     Fillet of a fenny snake
     In the caldron boil and bake;
     Eye of newt and toe of frog,
     Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
     Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
     Lizard's leg and howlet's wing:

     Maw of ravening salt-sea shark,
     Root of hemlock digged in the dark," etc

    --Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1

And again:

    Macbeth.--What is't you do?
    Witches,--A deed without a name.

There is another story of Medea almost too revolting for record
even of a sorceress, a class of persons to whom both ancient and
modern poets have been accustomed to attribute every degree of
atrocity. In her flight from Colchis she had taken her young
brother Absyrtus with her. Finding the pursuing vessels of Aeetes
gaining upon the Argonauts, she caused the lad to be killed and
his limbs to be strewn over the sea. Aeetes on reaching the place
found these sorrowful traces of his murdered son; but while he
tarried to collect the scattered fragments and bestow upon them an
honorable interment, the Argonauts escaped.

In the poems of Campbell will be found a translation of one of the
choruses of the tragedy of "Medea," where the poet Euripides has
taken advantage of the occasion to pay a glowing tribute to
Athens, his native city. It begins thus:

    "O haggard queen! to Athens dost thou guide
       Thy glowing chariot, steeped in kindred gore;
     Or seek to hide thy damned parricide
       Where peace and justice dwell for evermore?"





CHAPTER XVIII

MELEAGER AND ATALANTA


One of the heroes of the Argonautic expedition was Meleager, son
of OEneus and Althea, king and queen of Calydon. Althea, when her
son was born, beheld the three destinies, who, as they spun their
fatal thread, foretold that the life of the child should last no
longer than a brand then burning upon the hearth. Althea seized
and quenched the brand, and carefully preserved it for years,
while Meleager grew to boyhood, youth, and manhood. It chanced,
then, that OEneus, as he offered sacrifices to the gods, omitted
to pay due honors to Diana; and she, indignant at the neglect,
sent a wild boar of enormous size to lay waste the fields of
Calydon. Its eyes shone with blood and fire, its bristles stood
like threatening spears, its tusks were like those of Indian
elephants. The growing corn was trampled, the vines and olive
trees laid waste, the flocks and herds were driven in wild
confusion by the slaughtering foe. All common aid seemed vain; but
Meleager called on the heroes of Greece to join in a bold hunt for
the ravenous monster. Theseus and his friend Pirithous, Jason,
Peleus, afterwards the father of Achilles, Telamon the father of
Ajax, Nestor, then a youth, but who in his age bore arms with
Achilles and Ajax in the Trojan war,--these and many more joined
in the enterprise. With them came Atalanta, the daughter of
Iasius, king of Arcadia. A buckle of polished gold confined her
vest, an ivory quiver hung on her left shoulder, and her left hand
bore the bow. Her face blent feminine beauty with the best graces
of martial youth. Meleager saw and loved.

But now already they were near the monster's lair. They stretched
strong nets from tree to tree; they uncoupled their dogs, they
tried to find the footprints of their quarry in the grass. From
the wood was a descent to marshy ground. Here the boar, as he lay
among the reeds, heard the shouts of his pursuers, and rushed
forth against them. One and another is thrown down and slain.
Jason throws his spear, with a prayer to Diana for success; and
the favoring goddess allows the weapon to touch, but not to wound,
removing the steel point of the spear in its flight. Nestor,
assailed, seeks and finds safety in the branches of a tree.
Telamon rushes on, but stumbling at a projecting root, falls
prone. But an arrow from Atalanta at length for the first time
tastes the monster's blood. It is a slight wound, but Meleager
sees and joyfully proclaims it. Anceus, excited to envy by the
praise given to a female, loudly proclaims his own valor, and
defies alike the boar and the goddess who had sent it; but as he
rushes on, the infuriated beast lays him low with a mortal wound.
Theseus throws his lance, but it is turned aside by a projecting
bough. The dart of Jason misses its object, and kills instead one
of their own dogs. But Meleager, after one unsuccessful stroke,
drives his spear into the monster's side, then rushes on and
despatches him with repeated blows.

Then rose a shout from those around; they congratulated the
conqueror, crowding to touch his hand. He, placing his foot upon
the head of the slain boar, turned to Atalanta and bestowed on her
the head and the rough hide which were the trophies of his
success. But at this, envy excited the rest to strife. Plexippus
and Toxeus, the brothers of Meleager's mother, beyond the rest
opposed the gift, and snatched from the maiden the trophy she had
received. Meleager, kindling with rage at the wrong done to
himself, and still more at the insult offered to her whom he
loved, forgot the claims of kindred, and plunged his sword into
the offenders' hearts.

As Althea bore gifts of thankfulness to the temples for the
victory of her son, the bodies of her murdered brothers met her
sight. She shrieks, and beats her breast, and hastens to change
the garments of rejoicing for those of mourning. But when the
author of the deed is known, grief gives way to the stern desire
of vengeance on her son. The fatal brand, which once she rescued
from the flames, the brand which the destinies had linked with
Meleager's life, she brings forth, and commands a fire to be
prepared. Then four times she essays to place the brand upon the
pile; four times draws back, shuddering at the thought of bringing
destruction on her son. The feelings of the mother and the sister
contend within her. Now she is pale at the thought of the proposed
deed, now flushed again with anger at the act of her son. As a
vessel, driven in one direction by the wind, and in the opposite
by the tide, the mind of Althea hangs suspended in uncertainty.
But now the sister prevails above the mother, and she begins as
she holds the fatal wood: "Turn, ye Furies, goddesses of
punishment! turn to behold the sacrifice I bring! Crime must atone
for crime. Shall OEneus rejoice in his victor son, while the house
of Thestius is desolate? But, alas! to what deed am I borne along?
Brothers forgive a mother's weakness! my hand fails me. He
deserves death, but not that I should destroy him. But shall he
then live, and triumph, and reign over Calydon, while you, my
brothers, wander unavenged among the shades? No! thou hast lived
by my gift; die, now, for thine own crime. Return the life which
twice I gave thee, first at thy birth, again when I snatched this
brand from the flames. O that thou hadst then died! Alas! evil is
the conquest; but, brothers, ye have conquered." And, turning away
her face, she threw the fatal wood upon the burning pile.

It gave, or seemed to give, a deadly groan. Meleager, absent and
unknowing of the cause, felt a sudden pang. He burns, and only by
courageous pride conquers the pain which destroys him. He mourns
only that he perishes by a bloodless and unhonored death. With his
last breath he calls upon his aged father, his brother, and his
fond sisters, upon his beloved Atalanta, and upon his mother, the
unknown cause of his fate. The flames increase, and with them the
pain of the hero. Now both subside; now both are quenched. The
brand is ashes, and the life of Meleager is breathed forth to the
wandering winds.

Althea, when the deed was done, laid violent hands upon herself.
The sisters of Meleager mourned their brother with uncontrollable
grief; till Diana, pitying the sorrows of the house that once had
aroused her anger, turned them into birds.

ATALANTA

The innocent cause of so much sorrow was a maiden whose face you
might truly say was boyish for a girl, yet too girlish for a boy.
Her fortune had been told, and it was to this effect: "Atalanta,
do not marry; marriage will be your ruin." Terrified by this
oracle, she fled the society of men, and devoted herself to the
sports of the chase. To all suitors (for she had many) she imposed
a condition which was generally effectual in relieving her of
their persecutions,--"I will be the prize of him who shall conquer
me in the race; but death must be the penalty of all who try and
fail." In spite of this hard condition some would try. Hippomenes
was to be judge of the race. "Can it be possible that any will be
so rash as to risk so much for a wife?" said he. But when he saw
her lay aside her robe for the race, he changed his mind, and
said, "Pardon me, youths, I knew not the prize you were competing
for." As he surveyed them he wished them all to be beaten, and
swelled with envy of any one that seemed at all likely to win.
While such were his thoughts, the virgin darted forward. As she
ran she looked more beautiful than ever. The breezes seemed to
give wings to her feet; her hair flew over her shoulders, and the
gay fringe of her garment fluttered behind her. A ruddy hue tinged
the whiteness of her skin, such as a crimson curtain casts on a
marble wall. All her competitors were distanced, and were put to
death without mercy. Hippomenes, not daunted by this result,
fixing his eyes on the virgin, said, "Why boast of beating those
laggards? I offer myself for the contest." Atalanta looked at him
with a pitying countenance, and hardly knew whether she would
rather conquer him or not. "What god can tempt one so young and
handsome to throw himself away? I pity him, not for his beauty
(yet he is beautiful), but for his youth. I wish he would give up
the race, or if he will be so mad, I hope he may outrun me." While
she hesitates, revolving these thoughts, the spectators grow
impatient for the race, and her father prompts her to prepare.
Then Hippomenes addressed a prayer to Venus: "Help me, Venus, for
you have led me on." Venus heard and was propitious.

In the garden of her temple, in her own island of Cyprus, is a
tree with yellow leaves and yellow branches and golden fruit.
Hence she gathered three golden apples, and, unseen by any one
else, gave them to Hippomenes, and told him how to use them. The
signal is given; each starts from the goal and skims over the
sand. So light their tread, you would almost have thought they
might run over the river surface or over the waving grain without
sinking. The cries of the spectators cheered Hippomenes,--"Now,
now, do your best! haste, haste! you gain on her! relax not! one
more effort!" It was doubtful whether the youth or the maiden
heard these cries with the greater pleasure. But his breath began
to fail him, his throat was dry, the goal yet far off. At that
moment he threw down one of the golden apples. The virgin was all
amazement. She stopped to pick it up. Hippomenes shot ahead.
Shouts burst forth from all sides. She redoubled her efforts, and
soon overtook him. Again he threw an apple. She stopped again, but
again came up with him. The goal was near; one chance only
remained. "Now, goddess," said he, "prosper your gift!" and threw
the last apple off at one side. She looked at it, and hesitated;
Venus impelled her to turn aside for it. She did so, and was
vanquished. The youth carried off his prize.

But the lovers were so full of their own happiness that they
forgot to pay due honor to Venus; and the goddess was provoked at
their ingratitude. She caused them to give offence to Cybele. That
powerful goddess was not to be insulted with impunity. She took
from them their human form and turned them into animals of
characters resembling their own: of the huntress-heroine,
triumphing in the blood of her lovers, she made a lioness, and of
her lord and master a lion, and yoked them to her car, where they
are still to be seen in all representations, in statuary or
painting, of the goddess Cybele.

Cybele is the Latin name of the goddess called by the Greeks Rhea
and Ops. She was the wife of Cronos and mother of Zeus. In works
of art she exhibits the matronly air which distinguishes Juno and
Ceres. Sometimes she is veiled, and seated on a throne with lions
at her side, at other times riding in a chariot drawn by lions.
She wears a mural crown, that is, a crown whose rim is carved in
the form of towers and battlements. Her priests were called
Corybantes.

Byron, in describing the city of Venice, which is built on a low
island in the Adriatic Sea, borrows an illustration from Cybele:

    "She looks a sea-Cybele fresh from ocean,
     Rising with her tiara of proud towers
     At airy distance, with majestic motion,
     A ruler of the waters and their powers."

    --Childe Harold, IV.

In Moore's "Rhymes on the Road," the poet, speaking of Alpine
scenery, alludes to the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes thus:

    "Even here, in this region of wonders, I find
     That light-footed Fancy leaves Truth far behind,
     Or at least, like Hippomenes, turns her astray
     By the golden illusions he flings in her way."





CHAPTER XIX

HERCULES--HEBE AND GANYMEDE

HERCULES


Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. As Juno was always
hostile to the offspring of her husband by mortal mothers, she
declared war against Hercules from his birth. She sent two
serpents to destroy him as he lay in his cradle, but the
precocious infant strangled them with his own hands. He was,
however, by the arts of Juno rendered subject to Eurystheus and
compelled to perform all his commands. Eurystheus enjoined upon
him a succession of desperate adventures, which are called the
"Twelve Labors of Hercules." The first was the fight with the
Nemean lion. The valley of Nemea was infested by a terrible lion.
Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the skin of this monster.
After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion, Hercules
strangled the animal with his hands. He returned carrying the dead
lion on his shoulders; but Eurystheus was so frightened at the
sight of it and at this proof of the prodigious strength of the
hero, that he ordered him to deliver the account of his exploits
in future outside the town.

His next labor was the slaughter of the Hydra. This monster
ravaged the country of Argos, and dwelt in a swamp near the well
of Amymone. This well had been discovered by Amymone when the
country was suffering from drought, and the story was that
Neptune, who loved her, had permitted her to touch the rock with
his trident, and a spring of three outlets burst forth. Here the
Hydra took up his position, and Hercules was sent to destroy him.
The Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one was immortal.
Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of
the head knocked off, two new ones grew forth each time. At length
with the assistance of his faithful servant Iolaus, he burned away
the heads of the Hydra, and buried the ninth or immortal one under
a huge rock.

Another labor was the cleaning of the Augean stables. Augeas, king
of Elis, had a herd of three thousand oxen, whose stalls had not
been cleansed for thirty years. Hercules brought the rivers
Alpheus and Peneus through them, and cleansed them thoroughly in
one day.

His next labor was of a more delicate kind. Admeta, the daughter
of Eurystheus, longed to obtain the girdle of the queen of the
Amazons, and Eurystheus ordered Hercules to go and get it. The
Amazons were a nation of women. They were very warlike and held
several flourishing cities. It was their custom to bring up only
the female children; the boys were either sent away to the
neighboring nations or put to death. Hercules was accompanied by a
number of volunteers, and after various adventures at last reached
the country of the Amazons. Hippolyta, the queen, received him
kindly, and consented to yield him her girdle, but Juno, taking
the form of an Amazon, went and persuaded the rest that the
strangers were carrying off their queen. They instantly armed and
came in great numbers down to the ship. Hercules, thinking that
Hippolyta had acted treacherously, slew her, and taking her girdle
made sail homewards.

Another task enjoined him was to bring to Eurystheus the oxen of
Geryon, a monster with three bodies, who dwelt in the island
Erytheia (the red), so called because it lay at the west, under
the rays of the setting sun. This description is thought to apply
to Spain, of which Geryon was king. After traversing various
countries, Hercules reached at length the frontiers of Libya and
Europe, where he raised the two mountains of Calpe and Abyla, as
monuments of his progress, or, according to another account, rent
one mountain into two and left half on each side, forming the
straits of Gibraltar, the two mountains being called the Pillars
of Hercules. The oxen were guarded by the giant Eurytion and his
two-headed dog, but Hercules killed the giant and his dog and
brought away the oxen in safety to Eurystheus.

The most difficult labor of all was getting the golden apples of
the Hesperides, for Hercules did not know where to find them.
These were the apples which Juno had received at her wedding from
the goddess of the Earth, and which she had intrusted to the
keeping of the daughters of Hesperus, assisted by a watchful
dragon. After various adventures Hercules arrived at Mount Atlas
in Africa. Atlas was one of the Titans who had warred against the
gods, and after they were subdued, Atlas was condemned to bear on
his shoulders the weight of the heavens. He was the father of the
Hesperides, and Hercules thought might, if any one could, find the
apples and bring them to him. But how to send Atlas away from his
post, or bear up the heavens while he was gone? Hercules took the
burden on his own shoulders, and sent Atlas to seek the apples. He
returned with them, and though somewhat reluctantly, took his
burden upon his shoulders again, and let Hercules return with the
apples to Eurystheus.

Milton, in his "Comus," makes the Hesperides the daughters of
Hesperus and nieces of Atlas:

   "... amidst the gardens fair
    Of Hesperus and his daughters three,
    That sing about the golden tree."

The poets, led by the analogy of the lovely appearance of the
western sky at sunset, viewed the west as a region of brightness
and glory. Hence they placed in it the Isles of the Blest, the
ruddy Isle Erythea, on which the bright oxen of Geryon were
pastured, and the Isle of the Hesperides. The apples are supposed
by some to be the oranges of Spain, of which the Greeks had heard
some obscure accounts.

A celebrated exploit of Hercules was his victory over Antaeus.
Antaeus, the son of Terra, the Earth, was a mighty giant and
wrestler, whose strength was invincible so long as he remained in
contact with his mother Earth. He compelled all strangers who came
to his country to wrestle with him, on condition that if conquered
(as they all were) they should be put to death. Hercules
encountered him, and finding that it was of no avail to throw him,
for he always rose with renewed strength from every fall, he
lifted him up from the earth and strangled him in the air.

Cacus was a huge giant, who inhabited a cave on Mount Aventine,
and plundered the surrounding country. When Hercules was driving
home the oxen of Geryon, Cacus stole part of the cattle, while the
hero slept. That their footprints might not serve to show where
they had been driven, he dragged them backward by their tails to
his cave; so their tracks all seemed to show that they had gone in
the opposite direction. Hercules was deceived by this stratagem,
and would have failed to find his oxen, if it had not happened
that in driving the remainder of the herd past the cave where the
stolen ones were concealed, those within began to low, and were
thus discovered. Cacus was slain by Hercules.

The last exploit we shall record was bringing Cerberus from the
lower world. Hercules descended into Hades, accompanied by Mercury
and Minerva. He obtained permission from Pluto to carry Cerberus
to the upper air, provided he could do it without the use of
weapons; and in spite of the monster's struggling, he seized him,
held him fast, and carried him to Eurystheus, and afterwards
brought him back again. When he was in Hades he obtained the
liberty of Theseus, his admirer and imitator, who had been
detained a prisoner there for an unsuccessful attempt to carry off
Proserpine.

Hercules in a fit of madness killed his friend Iphitus, and was
condemned for this offence to become the slave of Queen Omphale
for three years. While in this service the hero's nature seemed
changed. He lived effeminately, wearing at times the dress of a
woman, and spinning wool with the hand-maidens of Omphale, while
the queen wore his lion's skin. When this service was ended he
married Dejanira and lived in peace with her three years. On one
occasion as he was travelling with his wife, they came to a river,
across which the Centaur Nessus carried travellers for a stated
fee. Hercules himself forded the river, but gave Dejanira to
Nessus to be carried across. Nessus attempted to run away with
her, but Hercules heard her cries and shot an arrow into the heart
of Nessus. The dying Centaur told Dejanira to take a portion of
his blood and keep it, as it might be used as a charm to preserve
the love of her husband.

Dejanira did so and before long fancied she had occasion to use
it. Hercules in one of his conquests had taken prisoner a fair
maiden, named Iole, of whom he seemed more fond than Dejanira
approved. When Hercules was about to offer sacrifices to the gods
in honor of his victory, he sent to his wife for a white robe to
use on the occasion. Dejanira, thinking it a good opportunity to
try her love-spell, steeped the garment in the blood of Nessus. We
are to suppose she took care to wash out all traces of it, but the
magic power remained, and as soon as the garment became warm on
the body of Hercules the poison penetrated into all his limbs and
caused him the most intense agony. In his frenzy he seized Lichas,
who had brought him the fatal robe, and hurled him into the sea.
He wrenched off the garment, but it stuck to his flesh, and with
it he tore away whole pieces of his body. In this state he
embarked on board a ship and was conveyed home. Dejanira, on
seeing what she had unwittingly done, hung herself. Hercules,
prepared to die, ascended Mount Oeta, where he built a funeral
pile of trees, gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes, and laid
himself down on the pile, his head resting on his club, and his
lion's skin spread over him. With a countenance as serene as if he
were taking his place at a festal board he commanded Philoctetes
to apply the torch. The flames spread apace and soon invested the
whole mass.

Milton thus alludes to the frenzy of Hercules:

   "As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
    With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
    Through pain, up by the roots Thessalian pines
    And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
    Into the Euboic Sea."

[Footnote: Alcides, a name of Hercules.]

The gods themselves felt troubled at seeing the champion of the
earth so brought to his end. But Jupiter with cheerful countenance
thus addressed them: "I am pleased to see your concern, my
princes, and am gratified to perceive that I am the ruler of a
loyal people, and that my son enjoys your favor. For although your
interest in him arises from his noble deeds, yet it is not the
less gratifying to me. But now I say to you, Fear not. He who
conquered all else is not to be conquered by those flames which
you see blazing on Mount Oeta. Only his mother's share in him can
perish; what he derived from me is immortal. I shall take him,
dead to earth, to the heavenly shores, and I require of you all to
receive him kindly. If any of you feel grieved at his attaining
this honor, yet no one can deny that he has deserved it." The gods
all gave their assent; Juno only heard the closing words with some
displeasure that she should be so particularly pointed at, yet not
enough to make her regret the determination of her husband. So
when the flames had consumed the mother's share of Hercules, the
diviner part, instead of being injured thereby, seemed to start
forth with new vigor, to assume a more lofty port and a more awful
dignity. Jupiter enveloped him in a cloud, and took him up in a
four-horse chariot to dwell among the stars. As he took his place
in heaven, Atlas felt the added weight.

Juno, now reconciled to him, gave him her daughter Hebe in
marriage.

The poet Schiller, in one of his pieces called the "Ideal and
Life," illustrates the contrast between the practical and the
imaginative in some beautiful stanzas, of which the last two may
be thus translated:

   "Deep degraded to a coward's slave,
    Endless contests bore Alcides brave,
    Through the thorny path of suffering led;
    Slew the Hydra, crushed the lion's might,
    Threw himself, to bring his friend to light,
    Living, in the skiff that bears the dead.
    All the torments, every toil of earth
    Juno's hatred on him could impose,
    Well he bore them, from his fated birth
    To life's grandly mournful close.

   "Till the god, the earthly part forsaken,
    From the man in flames asunder taken,
    Drank the heavenly ether's purer breath.
    Joyous in the new unwonted lightness,
    Soared he upwards to celestial brightness,
    Earth's dark heavy burden lost in death.
    High Olympus gives harmonious greeting
    To the hall where reigns his sire adored;
    Youth's bright goddess, with a blush at meeting,
    Gives the nectar to her lord."

    --S. G. B.

HEBE AND GANYMEDE

Hebe, the daughter of Juno, and goddess of youth, was cup-bearer
to the gods. The usual story is that she resigned her office on
becoming the wife of Hercules. But there is another statement
which our countryman Crawford, the sculptor, has adopted in his
group of Hebe and Ganymede, now in the Athenaeum gallery.
According to this, Hebe was dismissed from her office in
consequence of a fall which she met with one day when in
attendance on the gods. Her successor was Ganymede, a Trojan boy,
whom Jupiter, in the disguise of an eagle, seized and carried off
from the midst of his playfellows on Mount Ida, bore up to heaven,
and installed in the vacant place.

Tennyson, in his "Palace of Art," describes among the decorations
on the walls a picture representing this legend:

   "There, too, flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
      Half buried in the eagle's down,
    Sole as a flying star shot through the sky
      Above the pillared town."

And in Shelley's "Prometheus" Jupiter calls to his cup-bearer
thus:

   "Pour forth heaven's wine, Idaean Ganymede,
      And let it fill the Daedal cups like fire."

The beautiful legend of the "Choice of Hercules" may be found in
the "Tatler," No. 97.





CHAPTER XX

THESEUS--DAEDALUS--CASTOR AND POLLUX

THESEUS


Theseus was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and of Aethra,
daughter of the king of Troezen. He was brought up at Troezen, and
when arrived at manhood was to proceed to Athens and present
himself to his father. Aegeus on parting from Aethra, before the
birth of his son, placed his sword and shoes under a large stone
and directed her to send his son to him when he became strong
enough to roll away the stone and take them from under it. When
she thought the time had come, his mother led Theseus to the
stone, and he removed it with ease and took the sword and shoes.
As the roads were infested with robbers, his grandfather pressed
him earnestly to take the shorter and safer way to his father's
country--by sea; but the youth, feeling in himself the spirit and
the soul of a hero, and eager to signalize himself like Hercules,
with whose fame all Greece then rang, by destroying the evil-doers
and monsters that oppressed the country, determined on the more
perilous and adventurous journey by land.

His first day's journey brought him to Epidaurus, where dwelt a
man named Periphetes, a son of Vulcan. This ferocious savage
always went armed with a club of iron, and all travellers stood in
terror of his violence. When he saw Theseus approach he assailed
him, but speedily fell beneath the blows of the young hero, who
took possession of his club and bore it ever afterwards as a
memorial of his first victory.

Several similar contests with the petty tyrants and marauders of
the country followed, in all of which Theseus was victorious. One
of these evil-doers was called Procrustes, or the Stretcher. He
had an iron bedstead, on which he used to tie all travellers who
fell into his hands. If they were shorter than the bed, he
stretched their limbs to make them fit it; if they were longer
than the bed, he lopped off a portion. Theseus served him as he
had served others.

Having overcome all the perils of the road, Theseus at length
reached Athens, where new dangers awaited him. Medea, the
sorceress, who had fled from Corinth after her separation from
Jason, had become the wife of Aegeus, the father of Theseus.
Knowing by her arts who he was, and fearing the loss of her
influence with her husband if Theseus should be acknowledged as
his son, she filled the mind of Aegeus with suspicions of the
young stranger, and induced him to present him a cup of poison;
but at the moment when Theseus stepped forward to take it, the
sight of the sword which he wore discovered to his father who he
was, and prevented the fatal draught. Medea, detected in her arts,
fled once more from deserved punishment, and arrived in Asia,
where the country afterwards called Media received its name from
her, Theseus was acknowledged by his father, and declared his
successor.

The Athenians were at that time in deep affliction, on account of
the tribute which they were forced to pay to Minos, king of Crete.
This tribute consisted of seven youths and seven maidens, who were
sent every year to be devoured by the Minotaur, a monster with a
bull's body and a human head. It was exceedingly strong and
fierce, and was kept in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalus, so
artfully contrived that whoever was enclosed in it could by no
means, find his way out unassisted. Here the Minotaur roamed, and
was fed with human victims.

Theseus resolved to deliver his countrymen from this calamity, or
to die in the attempt. Accordingly, when the time of sending off
the tribute came, and the youths and maidens were, according to
custom, drawn by lot to be sent, he offered himself as one of the
victims, in spite of the entreaties of his father. The ship
departed under black sails, as usual, which Theseus promised his
father to change for white, in case of his returning victorious.
When they arrived in Crete, the youths and maidens were exhibited
before Minos; and Ariadne, the daughter of the king, being
present, became deeply enamored of Theseus, by whom her love was
readily returned. She furnished him with a sword, with which to
encounter the Minotaur, and with a clew of thread by which he
might find his way out of the labyrinth. He was successful, slew
the Minotaur, escaped from the labyrinth, and taking Ariadne as
the companion of his way, with his rescued companions sailed for
Athens. On their way they stopped at the island of Naxos, where
Theseus abandoned Ariadne, leaving her asleep. [Footnote: One of
the finest pieces of sculpture in Italy, the recumbent Ariadne of
the Vatican, represents this incident. A copy is owned by the
Athenaeum, Boston, and deposited, in the Museum of Fine Arts.] His
excuse for this ungrateful treatment of his benefactress was that
Minerva appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to do so.

On approaching the coast of Attica, Theseus forgot the signal
appointed by his father, and neglected to raise the white sails,
and the old king, thinking his son had perished, put an end to his
own life. Theseus thus became king of Athens.

One of the most celebrated of the adventures of Theseus is his
expedition against the Amazons. He assailed them before they had
recovered from the attack of Hercules, and carried off their queen
Antiope. The Amazons in their turn invaded the country of Athens
and penetrated into the city itself; and the final battle in which
Theseus overcame them was fought in the very midst of the city.
This battle was one of the favorite subjects of the ancient
sculptors, and is commemorated in several works of art that are
still extant.

The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous was of a most
intimate nature, yet it originated in the midst of arms. Pirithous
had made an irruption into the plain of Marathon, and carried off
the herds of the king of Athens. Theseus went to repel the
plunderers. The moment Pirithous beheld him, he was seized with
admiration; he stretched out his hand as a token of peace, and
cried, "Be judge thyself--what satisfaction dost thou require?"
"Thy friendship," replied the Athenian, and they swore inviolable
fidelity. Their deeds corresponded to their professions, and they
ever continued true brothers in arms. Each of them aspired to
espouse a daughter of Jupiter. Theseus fixed his choice on Helen,
then but a child, afterwards so celebrated as the cause of the
Trojan war, and with the aid of his friend he carried her off.
Pirithous aspired to the wife of the monarch of Erebus; and
Theseus, though aware of the danger, accompanied the ambitious
lover in his descent to the under-world. But Pluto seized and set
them on an enchanted rock at his palace gate, where they remained
till Hercules arrived and liberated Theseus, leaving Pirithous to
his fate.

After the death of Antiope, Theseus married Phaedra, daughter of
Minos, king of Crete. Phaedra saw in Hippolytus, the son of
Theseus, a youth endowed with all the graces and virtues of his
father, and of an age corresponding to her own. She loved him, but
he repulsed her advances, and her love was changed to hate. She
used her influence over her infatuated husband to cause him to be
jealous of his son, and he imprecated the vengeance of Neptune
upon him. As Hippolytus was one day driving his chariot along the
shore, a sea-monster raised himself above the waters, and
frightened the horses so that they ran away and dashed the chariot
to pieces. Hippolytus was killed, but by Diana's assistance
Aesculapius restored him to life. Diana removed Hippolytus from
the power of his deluded father and false stepmother, and placed
him in Italy under the protection of the nymph Egeria.

Theseus at length lost the favor of his people, and retired to the
court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros, who at first received him
kindly, but afterwards treacherously slew him. In a later age the
Athenian general Cimon discovered the place where his remains were
laid, and caused them to be removed to Athens, where they were
deposited in a temple called the Theseum, erected in honor of the
hero.

The queen of the Amazons whom Theseus espoused is by some called
Hippolyta. That is the name she bears in Shakspeare's "Midsummer
Night's Dream,"--the subject of which is the festivities attending
the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta.

Mrs. Hemans has a poem on the ancient Greek tradition that the
"Shade of Theseus" appeared strengthening his countrymen at the
battle of Marathon.

Theseus is a semi-historical personage. It is recorded of him that
he united the several tribes by whom the territory of Attica was
then possessed into one state, of which Athens was the capital. In
commemoration of this important event, he instituted the festival
of Panathenaea, in honor of Minerva, the patron deity of Athens.
This festival differed from the other Grecian games chiefly in two
particulars. It was peculiar to the Athenians, and its chief
feature was a solemn procession in which the Peplus, or sacred
robe of Minerva, was carried to the Parthenon, and suspended
before the statue of the goddess. The Peplus was covered with
embroidery, worked by select virgins of the noblest families in
Athens. The procession consisted of persons of all ages and both
sexes. The old men carried olive branches in their hands, and the
young men bore arms. The young women carried baskets on their
heads, containing the sacred utensils, cakes, and all things
necessary for the sacrifices. The procession formed the subject of
the bas-reliefs which embellished the outside of the temple of the
Parthenon. A considerable portion of these sculptures is now in
the British Museum among those known as the "Elgin marbles."

OLYMPIC AND OTHER GAMES

It seems not inappropriate to mention here the other celebrated
national games of the Greeks. The first and most distinguished
were the Olympic, founded, it was said, by Jupiter himself. They
were celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectators
flocked to them from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa,
and Sicily. They were repeated every fifth year in mid-summer,
and continued five days. They gave rise to the custom of reckoning
time and dating events by Olympiads. The first Olympiad is
generally considered as corresponding with the year 776 B.C. The
Pythian games were celebrated in the vicinity of Delphi, the
Isthmian on the Corinthian isthmus, the Nemean at Nemea, a city of
Argolis.

The exercises in these games were of five sorts: running, leaping,
wrestling, throwing the quoit, and hurling the javelin, or boxing.
Besides these exercises of bodily strength and agility, there were
contests in music, poetry, and eloquence. Thus these games
furnished poets, musicians, and authors the best opportunities to
present their productions to the public, and the fame of the
victors was diffused far and wide.

DAEDALUS

The labyrinth from which Theseus escaped by means of the clew of
Ariadne was built by Daedalus, a most skilful artificer. It was an
edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings opening into
one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like
the river Maeander, which returns on itself, and flows now onward,
now backward, in its course to the sea. Daedalus built the
labyrinth for King Minos, but afterwards lost the favor of the
king, and was shut up in a tower. He contrived to make his escape
from his prison, but could not leave the island by sea, as the
king kept strict watch on all the vessels, and permitted none to
sail without being carefully searched. "Minos may control the land
and sea," said Daedalus, "but not the regions of the air. I will
try that way." So he set to work to fabricate wings for himself
and his young son Icarus. He wrought feathers together, beginning
with the smallest and adding larger, so as to form an increasing
surface. The larger ones he secured with thread and the smaller
with wax, and gave the whole a gentle curvature like the wings of
a bird. Icarus, the boy, stood and looked on, sometimes running to
gather up the feathers which the wind had blown away, and then
handling the wax and working it over with his fingers, by his play
impeding his father in his labors. When at last the work was done,
the artist, waving his wings, found himself buoyed upward, and
hung suspended, poising himself on the beaten air. He next
equipped his son in the same manner, and taught him how to fly, as
a bird tempts her young ones from the lofty nest into the air.
When all was prepared for flight he said, "Icarus, my son, I
charge you to keep at a moderate height, for if you fly too low
the damp will clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt
them. Keep near me and you will be safe." While he gave him these
instructions and fitted the wings to his shoulders, the face of
the father was wet with tears, and his hands trembled. He kissed
the boy, not knowing that it was for the last time. Then rising on
his wings, he flew off, encouraging him to follow, and looked back
from his own flight to see how his son managed his wings. As they
flew the ploughman stopped his work to gaze, and the shepherd
leaned on his staff and watched them, astonished at the sight, and
thinking they were gods who could thus cleave the air.

They passed Samos and Delos on the left and Lebynthos on the
right, when the boy, exulting in his career, began to leave the
guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven.
The nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the
feathers together, and they came off. He fluttered with his arms,
but no feathers remained to hold the air. While his mouth uttered
cries to his father it was submerged in the blue waters of the
sea, which thenceforth was called by his name. His father cried,
"Icarus, Icarus, where are you?" At last he saw the feathers
floating on the water, and bitterly lamenting his own arts, he
buried the body and called the land Icaria in memory of his child.
Daedalus arrived safe in Sicily, where he built a temple to
Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god.

Daedalus was so proud of his achievements that he could not bear
the idea of a rival. His sister had placed her son Perdix under
his charge to be taught the mechanical arts. He was an apt scholar
and gave striking evidences of ingenuity. Walking on the seashore
he picked up the spine of a fish. Imitating it, he took a piece of
iron and notched it on the edge, and thus invented the SAW. He put
two pieces of iron together, connecting them at one end with a
rivet, and sharpening the other ends, and made a PAIR OF
COMPASSES. Daedalus was so envious of his nepnew's performances
that he took an opportunity, when they were together one day on
the top of a high tower, to push him off. But Minerva, who favors
ingenuity, saw him falling, and arrested his fate by changing him
into a bird called after his name, the Partridge. This bird does
not build his nest in the trees, nor take lofty flights, but
nestles in the hedges, and mindful of his fall, avoids high
places.

The death of Icarus is told in the following lines by Darwin:

    "... with melting wax and loosened strings
     Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings;
     Headlong he rushed through the affrighted air,
     With limbs distorted and dishevelled hair;
     His scattered plumage danced upon the wave,
     And sorrowing Nereids decked his watery grave;
     O'er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,
     And strewed with crimson moss his marble bed;
     Struck in their coral towers the passing bell,
     And wide in ocean tolled his echoing knell."

CASTOR AND POLLUX

Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda and the Swan, under
which disguise Jupiter had concealed himself. Leda gave birth to
an egg from which sprang the twins. Helen, so famous afterwards as
the cause of the Trojan war, was their sister.

When Theseus and his friend Pirithous had carried off Helen from
Sparta, the youthful heroes Castor and Pollux, with their
followers, hastened to her rescue. Theseus was absent from Attica
and the brothers were successful in recovering their sister.

Castor was famous for taming and managing horses, and Pollux for
skill in boxing. They were united by the warmest affection and
inseparable in all their enterprises. They accompanied the
Argonautic expedition. During the voyage a storm arose, and
Orpheus prayed to the Samothracian gods, and played on his harp,
whereupon the storm ceased and stars appeared on the heads of the
brothers. From this incident, Castor and Pollux came afterwards to
be considered the patron deities of seamen and voyagers, and the
lambent flames, which in certain states of the atmosphere play
round the sails and masts of vessels, were called by their names.

After the Argonautic expedition, we find Castor and Pollux engaged
in a war with Idas and Lynceus. Castor was slain, and Pollux,
inconsolable for the loss of his brother, besought Jupiter to be
permitted to give his own life as a ransom for him. Jupiter so far
consented as to allow the two brothers to enjoy the boon of life
alternately, passing one day under the earth and the next in the
heavenly abodes. According to another form of the story, Jupiter
rewarded the attachment of the brothers by placing them among the
stars as Gemini the Twins.

They received divine honors under the name of Dioscuri (sons of
Jove). They were believed to have appeared occasionally in later
times, taking part with one side or the other, in hard-fought
fields, and were said on such occasions to be mounted on
magnificent white steeds. Thus in the early history of Rome they
are said to have assisted the Romans at the battle of Lake
Regillus, and after the victory a temple was erected in their
honor on the spot where they appeared.

Macaulay, in his "Lays of Ancient Rome," thus alludes to the
legend:

    "So like they were, no mortal
       Might one from other know;
     White as snow their armor was,
       Their steeds were white as snow.
     Never on earthly anvil
       Did such rare armor gleam,
     And never did such gallant steeds
       Drink of an earthly stream.

    "Back comes the chief in triumph
       Who in the hour of fight
     Hath seen the great Twin Brethren
       In harness on his right.
     Safe comes the ship to haven,
       Through billows and through gales.
     If once the great Twin Brethren
       Sit shining on the sails."





CHAPTER XXI

BACCHUS--ARIADNE

BACCHUS


Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele. Juno, to gratify her
resentment against Semele, contrived a plan for her destruction.
Assuming the form of Beroe, her aged nurse, she insinuated doubts
whether it was indeed Jove himself who came as a lover. Heaving a
sigh, she said, "I hope it will turn out so, but I can't help
being afraid. People are not always what they pretend to be. If he
is indeed Jove, make him give some proof of it. Ask him to come
arrayed in all his splendors, such as he wears in heaven. That
will put the matter beyond a doubt." Semele was persuaded to try
the experiment. She asks a favor, without naming what it is. Jove
gives his promise, and confirms it with the irrevocable oath,
attesting the river Styx, terrible to the gods themselves. Then
she made known her request. The god would have stopped her as she
spake, but she was too quick for him. The words escaped, and he
could neither unsay his promise nor her request. In deep distress
he left her and returned to the upper regions. There he clothed
himself in his splendors, not putting on all his terrors, as when
he overthrew the giants, but what is known among the gods as his
lesser panoply. Arrayed in this, he entered the chamber of Semele.
Her mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the immortal
radiance. She was consumed to ashes.

Jove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nysaean
nymphs, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their
care were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed, as the Hyades,
among the stars. When Bacchus grew up he discovered the culture of
the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Juno
struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through
various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Rhea cured him
and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress
through Asia, teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The
most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India,
which is said to have lasted several years. Returning in triumph,
he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed
by some princes, who dreaded its introduction on account of the
disorders and madness it brought with it.

As he approached his native city Thebes, Pentheus the king, who
had no respect for the new worship, forbade its rites to be
performed. But when it was known that Bacchus was advancing, men
and women, but chiefly the latter, young and old, poured forth to
meet him and to join his triumphal march.

Mr. Longfellow in his "Drinking Song" thus describes the march of
Bacchus:

    "Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
       Ivy crowns that brow, supernal
     As the forehead of Apollo,
       And possessing youth eternal.

    "Round about him fair Bacchantes,
       Bearing cymbals, flutes and thyrses,
     Wild from Naxian groves of Zante's
       Vineyards, sing delirious verses,"

It was in vain Pentheus remonstrated, commanded, and threatened.
"Go," said he to his attendants, "seize this vagabond leader of
the rout and bring him to me. I will soon make him confess his
false claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit
worship." It was in vain his nearest friends and wisest
counsellors remonstrated and begged him not to oppose the god.
Their remonstrances only made him more violent.

But now the attendants returned whom he had despatched to seize
Bacchus. They had been driven away by the Bacchanals, but had
succeeded in taking one of them prisoner, whom, with his hands
tied behind him, they brought before the king. Pentheus, beholding
him with wrathful countenance, said, "Fellow! you shall speedily
be put to death, that your fate may be a warning to others; but
though I grudge the delay of your punishment, speak, tell us who
you are, and what are these new rites you presume to celebrate."

The prisoner, unterrified, responded, "My name is Acetes; my
country is Maeonia; my parents were poor people, who had no fields
or flocks to leave me, but they left me their fishing rods and
nets and their fisherman's trade. This I followed for some time,
till growing weary of remaining in one place, I learned the
pilot's art and how to guide my course by the stars. It happened
as I was sailing for Delos we touched at the island of Dia and
went ashore. Next morning I sent the men for fresh water, and
myself mounted the hill to observe the wind; when my men returned
bringing with them a prize, as they thought, a boy of delicate
appearance, whom they had found asleep. They judged he was a noble
youth, perhaps a king's son, and they might get a liberal ransom
for him. I observed his dress, his walk, his face. There was
something in them which I felt sure was more than mortal. I said
to my men, 'What god there is concealed in that form I know not,
but some one there certainly is. Pardon us, gentle deity, for the
violence we have done you, and give success to our undertakings.'
Dictys, one of my best hands for climbing the mast and coming down
by the ropes, and Melanthus, my steersman, and Epopeus, the leader
of the sailor's cry, one and all exclaimed, 'Spare your prayers
for us.' So blind is the lust of gain! When they proceeded to put
him on board I resisted them. 'This ship shall not be profaned by
such impiety,' said I. 'I have a greater share in her than any of
you.' But Lycabas, a turbulent fellow, seized me by the throat and
attempted to throw me overboard, and I scarcely saved myself by
clinging to the ropes. The rest approved the deed.

"Then Bacchus (for it was indeed he), as if shaking off his
drowsiness, exclaimed, 'What are you doing with me? What is this
fighting about? Who brought me here? Where are you going to carry
me?' One of them replied, 'Fear nothing; tell us where you wish to
go and we will take you there.' 'Naxos is my home,' said Bacchus;
'take me there and you shall be well rewarded.' They promised so
to do, and told me to pilot the ship to Naxos. Naxos lay to the
right, and I was trimming the sails to carry us there, when some
by signs and others by whispers signified to me their will that I
should sail in the opposite direction, and take the boy to Egypt
to sell him for a slave. I was confounded and said, 'Let some one
else pilot the ship;' withdrawing myself from any further agency
in their wickedness. They cursed me, and one of them, exclaiming,
'Don't flatter yourself that we depend on you for our safety;'
took any place as pilot, and bore away from Naxos.

"Then the god, pretending that he had just become aware of their
treachery, looked out over the sea and said in a voice of weeping,
'Sailors, these are not the shores you promised to take me to;
yonder island is not my home. What have I done that you should
treat me so? It is small glory you will gain by cheating a poor
boy.' I wept to hear him, but the crew laughed at both of us, and
sped the vessel fast over the sea. All at once--strange as it may
seem, it is true,--the vessel stopped, in the mid sea, as fast as
if it was fixed on the ground. The men, astonished, pulled at
their oars, and spread more sail, trying to make progress by the
aid of both, but all in vain. Ivy twined round the oars and
hindered their motion, and clung to the sails, with heavy clusters
of berries. A vine, laden with grapes, ran up the mast, and along
the sides of the vessel. The sound of flutes was heard and the
odor of fragrant wine spread all around. The god himself had a
chaplet of vine leaves, and bore in his hand a spear wreathed with
ivy. Tigers crouched at his feet, and forms of lynxes and spotted
panthers played around him. The men were seized with terror or
madness; some leaped overboard; others preparing to do the same
beheld their companions in the water undergoing a change, their
bodies becoming flattened and ending in a crooked tail. One
exclaimed, 'What miracle is this!' and as he spoke his mouth
widened, his nostrils expanded, and scales covered all his body.
Another, endeavoring to pull the oar, felt his hands shrink up and
presently to be no longer hands but fins; another, trying to raise
his arms to a rope, found he had no arms, and curving his
mutilated body, jumped into the sea. What had been his legs became
the two ends of a crescent-shaped tail. The whole crew became
dolphins and swam about the ship, now upon the surface, now under
it, scattering the spray, and spouting the water from their broad
nostrils. Of twenty men I alone was left. Trembling with fear, the
god cheered me. 'Fear not,' said he; 'steer towards Naxos.' I
obeyed, and when we arrived there, I kindled the altars and
celebrated the sacred rites of Bacchus."

Pentheus here exclaimed, "We have wasted time enough on this silly
story. Take him away and have him executed without delay." Acetes
was led away by the attendants and shut up fast in prison; but
while they were getting ready the instruments of execution the
prison doors came open of their own accord and the chains fell
from his limbs, and when they looked for him he was nowhere to be
found.

Pentheus would take no warning, but instead of sending others,
determined to go himself to the scene of the solemnities. The
mountain Citheron was all alive with worshippers, and the cries of
the Bacchanals resounded on every side. The noise roused the anger
of Pentheus as the sound of a trumpet does the fire of a war-
horse. He penetrated through the wood and reached an open space
where the chief scene of the orgies met his eyes. At the same
moment the women saw him; and first among them his own mother,
Agave, blinded by the god, cried out, "See there the wild boar,
the hugest monster that prowls in these woods! Come on, sisters! I
will be the first to strike the wild boar." The whole band rushed
upon him, and while he now talks less arrogantly, now excuses
himself, and now confesses his crime and implores pardon, they
press upon him and wound him. In vain he cries to his aunts to
protect him from his mother. Autonoe seized one arm, Ino the
other, and between them he was torn to pieces, while his mother
shouted, "Victory! Victory! we have done it; the glory is ours!"

So the worship of Bacchus was established in Greece.

There is an allusion to the story of Bacchus and the mariners in
Milton's "Comus," at line 46, The story of Circe will be found in





CHAPTER XXIX.

    "Bacchus that first from out the purple grapes
     Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,
     After the Tuscan manners transformed,
     Coasting the Tyrrhene shore as the winds listed
     On Circe's island fell (who knows not Circe,
     The daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup
     Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,
     And downward fell into a grovelling swine)."

ARIADNE


We have seen in the story of Theseus how Ariadne, the daughter of
King Minos, after helping Theseus to escape from the labyrinth,
was carried by him to the island of Naxos and was left there
asleep, while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without
her. Ariadne, on waking and finding herself deserted, abandoned
herself to grief. But Venus took pity on her, and consoled her
with the promise that she should have an immortal lover, instead
of the mortal one she had lost.

The island where Ariadne was left was the favorite island of
Bacchus, the same that he wished the Tyrrhenian mariners to carry
him to, when they so treacherously attempted to make prize of him.
As Ariadne sat lamenting her fate, Bacchus found her, consoled
her, and made her his wife. As a marriage present he gave her a
golden crown, enriched with gems, and when she died, he took her
crown and threw it up into the sky. As it mounted the gems grew
brighter and were turned into stars, and preserving its form
Ariadne's crown remains fixed in the heavens as a constellation,
between the kneeling Hercules and the man who holds the serpent.

Spenser alludes to Ariadne's crown, though he has made some
mistakes in his mythology. It was at the wedding of Pirithous, and
not Theseus, that the Centaurs and Lapithae quarrelled.

    "Look how the crown which Ariadne wore
    Upon her ivory forehead that same day
    That Theseus her unto his bridal bore,
    Then the bold Centaurs made that bloody fray
    With the fierce Lapiths which did them dismay;
    Being now placed in the firmament,
    Through the bright heaven doth her beams display,
    And is unto the stars an ornament,
    Which round about her move in order excellent."





CHAPTER XXII

THE RURAL DEITIES--ERISICHTHON--RHOECUS--THE WATER DEITIES--
CAMENAE--WINDS

THE RURAL DEITIES


Pan, the god of woods and fields, of flocks and shepherds, dwelt
in grottos, wandered on the mountains and in valleys, and amused
himself with the chase or in leading the dances of the nymphs. He
was fond of music, and as we have seen, the inventor of the
syrinx, or shepherd's pipe, which he himself played in a masterly
manner. Pan, like other gods who dwelt in forests, was dreaded by
those whose occupations caused them to pass through the woods by
night, for the gloom and loneliness of such scenes dispose the
mind to superstitious fears. Hence sudden fright without any
visible cause was ascribed to Pan, and called a Panic terror.

As the name of the god signifies ALL, Pan came to be considered a
symbol of the universe and personification of Nature; and later
still to be regarded as a representative of all the gods and of
heathenism itself.

Sylvanus and Faunus were Latin divinities, whose characteristics
are so nearly the same as those of Pan that we may safely consider
them as the same personage under different names.

The wood-nymphs, Pan's partners in the dance, were but one class
of nymphs. There were beside them the Naiads, who presided over
brooks and fountains, the Oreads, nymphs of mountains and grottos,
and the Nereids, sea-nymphs. The three last named were immortal,
but the wood-nymphs, called Dryads or Hamadryads, were believed to
perish with the trees which had been their abode and with which
they had come into existence. It was therefore an impious act
wantonly to destroy a tree, and in some aggravated cases were
severely punished, as in the instance of Erisichthon, which we are
about to record.

Milton in his glowing description of the early creation, thus
alludes to Pan as the personification of Nature:

    "... Universal Pan,
     Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
     Led on the eternal spring."

And describing Eve's abode:

    "... In shadier bower,
     More sacred or sequestered, though but feigned,
     Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor nymph
     Nor Faunus haunted."

    --Paradise Lost, B. IV.

It was a pleasing trait in the old Paganism that it loved to trace
in every operation of nature the agency of deity. The imagination
of the Greeks peopled all the regions of earth and sea with
divinities, to whose agency it attributed those phenomena which
our philosophy ascribes to the operation of the laws of nature.
Sometimes in our poetical moods we feel disposed to regret the
change, and to think that the heart has lost as much as the head
has gained by the substitution. The poet Wordsworth thus strongly
expresses this sentiment:

    "... Great God, I'd rather be
    A Pagan, suckled in a creed outworn,
    So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
     Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
     Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
     And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."

Schiller, in his poem "Die Gotter Griechenlands," expresses his
regret for the overthrow of the beautiful mythology of ancient
times in a way which has called forth an answer from a Christian
poet, Mrs. E. Barrett Browning, in her poem called "The Dead Pan."
The two following verses are a specimen:

    "By your beauty which confesses
     Some chief Beauty conquering you,
     By our grand heroic guesses
     Through your falsehood at the True,
     We will weep NOT! earth shall roll
     Heir to each god's aureole,
                   And Pan is dead.

    "Earth outgrows the mythic fancies
     Sung beside her in her youth;
     And those debonaire romances
     Sound but dull beside the truth.
     Phoebus' chariot course is run!
     Look up, poets, to the sun!
                      Pan, Pan is dead."

These lines are founded on an early Christian tradition that when
the heavenly host told the shepherds at Bethlehem of the birth of
Christ, a deep groan, heard through all the isles of Greece, told
that the great Pan was dead, and that all the royalty of Olympus
was dethroned and the several deities were sent wandering in cold
and darkness. So Milton in his "Hymn on the Nativity":

    "The lonely mountains o'er,
     And the resounding shore,
       A voice of weeping heard and loud lament;
     From haunted spring and dale,
     Edged with poplar pale,
       The parting Genius is with sighing sent;
     With flower-enwoven tresses torn,
     The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn."

ERISICHTHON

Erisichthon was a profane person and a despiser of the gods. On
one occasion he presumed to violate with the axe a grove sacred to
Ceres. There stood in this grove a venerable oak so large that it
seemed a wood in itself, its ancient trunk towering aloft, whereon
votive garlands were often hung and inscriptions carved expressing
the gratitude of suppliants to the nymph of the tree. Often had
the Dryads danced round it hand in hand. Its trunk measured
fifteen cubits round, and it overtopped the other trees as they
overtopped the shrubbery. But for all that, Erisichthon saw no
reason why he should spare it and he ordered his servants to cut
it down. When he saw them hesitate he snatched an axe from one,
and thus impiously exclaimed: "I care not whether it be a tree
beloved of the goddess or not; were it the goddess herself it
should come down if it stood in my way." So saying, he lifted the
axe and the oak seemed to shudder and utter a groan. When the
first blow fell upon the trunk blood flowed from the wound. All
the bystanders were horror-struck, and one of them ventured to
remonstrate and hold back the fatal axe. Erisichthon, with a
scornful look, said to him, "Receive the reward of your piety;"
and turned against him the weapon which he had held aside from the
tree, gashed his body with many wounds, and cut off his head. Then
from the midst of the oak came a voice, "I who dwell in this tree
am a nymph beloved of Ceres, and dying by your hands forewarn you
that punishment awaits you." He desisted not from his crime, and
at last the tree, sundered by repeated blows and drawn by ropes,
fell with a crash and prostrated a great part of the grove in its
fall.

The Dryads in dismay at the loss of their companion and at seeing
the pride of the forest laid low, went in a body to Ceres, all
clad in garments of mourning, and invoked punishment upon
Erisichthon. She nodded her assent, and as she bowed her head the
grain ripe for harvest in the laden fields bowed also. She planned
a punishment so dire that one would pity him, if such a culprit as
he could be pitied,--to deliver him over to Famine. As Ceres
herself could not approach Famine, for the Fates have ordained
that these two goddesses shall never come together, she called an
Oread from her mountain and spoke to her in these words: "There is
a place in the farthest part of ice-clad Scythia, a sad and
sterile region without trees and without crops. Cold dwells there,
and Fear and Shuddering, and Famine. Go and tell the last to take
possession of the bowels of Erisichthon. Let not abundance subdue
her, nor the power of my gifts drive her away. Be not alarmed at
the distance" (for Famine dwells very far from Ceres), "but take
my chariot. The dragons are fleet and obey the rein, and will take
you through the air in a short time." So she gave her the reins,
and she drove away and soon reached Scythia. On arriving at Mount
Caucasus she stopped the dragons and found Famine in a stony
field, pulling up with teeth and claws the scanty herbage. Her
hair was rough, her eyes sunk, her face pale, her lips blanched,
her jaws covered with dust, and her skin drawn tight, so as to
show all her bones. As the Oread saw her afar off (for she did not
dare to come near), she delivered the commands of Ceres; and,
though she stopped as short a time as possible, and kept her
distance as well as she could, yet she began to feel hungry, and
turned the dragons' heads and drove back to Thessaly.

Famine obeyed the commands of Ceres and sped through the air to
the dwelling of Erisichthon, entered the bedchamber of the guilty
man, and found him asleep. She enfolded him with her wings and
breathed herself into him, infusing her poison into his veins.
Having discharged her task, she hastened to leave the land of
plenty and returned to her accustomed haunts. Erisichthon still
slept, and in his dreams craved food, and moved his jaws as if
eating. When he awoke, his hunger was raging. Without a moment's
delay he would have food set before him, of whatever kind earth
sea, or air produces; and complained of hunger even while he ate.
What would have sufficed for a city or a nation, was not enough
for him. The more he ate the more he craved. His hunger was like
the sea, which receives all the rivers, yet is never filled; or
like fire, that burns all the fuel that is heaped upon it, yet is
still voracious for more.

His property rapidly diminished under the unceasing demands of his
appetite, but his hunger continued unabated. At length he had
spent all and had only his daughter left, a daughter worthy of a
better parent. Her too he sold. She scorned to be the slave of a
purchaser and as she stood by the seaside raised her hands in
prayer to Neptune. He heard her prayer, and though her new master
was not far off and had his eye upon her a moment before, Neptune
changed her form and made her assume that of a fisherman busy at
his occupation. Her master, looking for her and seeing her in her
altered form, addressed her and said, "Good fisherman, whither
went the maiden whom I saw just now, with hair dishevelled and in
humble garb, standing about where you stand? Tell me truly; so may
your luck be good and not a fish nibble at your hook and get
away." She perceived that her prayer was answered and rejoiced
inwardly at hearing herself inquired of about herself. She
replied, "Pardon me, stranger, but I have been so intent upon my
line that I have seen nothing else; but I wish I may never catch
another fish if I believe any woman or other person except myself
to have been hereabouts for some time." He was deceived and went
his way, thinking his slave had escaped. Then she resumed her own
form. Her father was well pleased to find her still with him, and
the money too that he got by the sale of her; so he sold her
again. But she was changed by the favor of Neptune as often as she
was sold, now into a horse, now a bird, now an ox, and now a
stag,--got away from her purchasers and came home. By this base
method the starving father procured food; but not enough for his
wants, and at last hunger compelled him to devour his limbs, and
he strove to nourish his body by eating his body, till death
relieved him from the vengeance of Ceres.

RHOECUS

The Hamadryads could appreciate services as well as punish
injuries. The story of Rhoecus proves this. Rhoecus, happening to
see an oak just ready to fall, ordered his servants to prop it up.
The nymph, who had been on the point of perishing with the tree,
came and expressed her gratitude to him for having saved her life
and bade him ask what reward he would. Rhoecus boldly asked her
love and the nymph yielded to his desire. She at the same time
charged him to be constant and told him that a bee should be her
messenger and let him know when she would admit his society. One
time the bee came to Rhoecus when he was playing at draughts and
he carelessly brushed it away. This so incensed the nymph that she
deprived him of sight.

Our countryman, J. R. Lowell, has taken this story for the subject
of one of his shorter poems. He introduces it thus:

    "Hear now this fairy legend of old Greece,
     As full of freedom, youth and beauty still,
     As the immortal freshness of that grace
     Carved for all ages on some Attic frieze."

THE WATER DEITIES

Oceanus and Tethys were the Titans who ruled over the watery
element. When Jove and his brothers overthrew the Titans and
assumed their power, Neptune and Amphitrite succeeded to the
dominion of the waters in place of Oceanus and Tethys.

NEPTUNE

Neptune was the chief of the water deities. The symbol of his
power was the trident, or spear with three points, with which he
used to shatter rocks, to call forth or subdue storms, to shake
the shores and the like. He created the horse and was the patron
of horse races. His own horses had brazen hoofs and golden manes.
They drew his chariot over the sea, which became smooth before
him, while the monsters of the deep gambolled about his path.

AMPHITRITE

Amphitrite was the wife of Neptune. She was the daughter of Nereus
and Doris, and the mother of Triton. Neptune, to pay his court to
Amphitrite, came riding on a dolphin. Having won her he rewarded
the dolphin by placing him among the stars.

NEREUS AND DORIS

Nereus and Doris were the parents of the Nereids, the most
celebrated of whom were Amphitrite, Thetis, the mother of
Achilles, and Galatea, who was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Nereus was distinguished for his knowledge and his love of truth
and justice, whence he was termed an elder; the gift of prophecy
was also assigned to him.

TRITON AND PROTEUS

Triton was the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and the poets make
him his father's trumpeter. Proteus was also a son of Neptune. He,
like Nereus, is styled a sea-elder for his wisdom and knowledge of
future events. His peculiar power was that of changing his shape
at will.

THETIS

Thetis, the daughter of Nereus and Doris, was so beautiful that
Jupiter himself sought her in marriage; but having learned from
Prometheus the Titan that Thetis should bear a son who should grow
greater than his father, Jupiter desisted from his suit and
decreed that Thetis should be the wife of a mortal. By the aid of
Chiron the Centaur, Peleus succeeded in winning the goddess for
his bride and their son was the renowned Achilles. In our chapter
on the Trojan war it will appear that Thetis was a faithful mother
to him, aiding him in all difficulties, and watching over his
interests from the first to the last.

LEUCOTHEA AND PALAEMON

Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athamas, flying from her
frantic husband with her little son Melicertes in her arms, sprang
from a cliff into the sea. The gods, out of compassion, made her a
goddess of the sea, under the name of Leucothea, and him a god,
under that of Palaemon. Both were held powerful to save from
shipwreck and were invoked by sailors. Palaemon was usually
represented riding on a dolphin. The Isthmian games were
celebrated in his honor. He was called Portunus by the Romans, and
believed to have jurisdiction of the ports and shores.

Milton alludes to all these deities in the song at the conclusion
of "Comus":

    "... Sabrina fair,
     Listen and appear to us,
     In name of great Oceanus;
     By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
     And Tethys' grave, majestic pace,
     By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
     And the Carpathian wizard's hook, [Footnote: Proteus]
     By scaly Triton's winding shell,
     And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,
     By Leucothea's lovely hands,
     And her son who rules the strands.
     By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet,
     And the songs of Sirens sweet;" etc.

Armstrong, the poet of the "Art of preserving Health," under the
inspiration of Hygeia, the goddess of health, thus celebrates the
Naiads. Paeon is a name both of Apollo and Aesculapius.

    "Come, ye Naiads! to the fountains lead!
     Propitious maids! the task remains to sing
     Your gifts (so Paeon, so the powers of Health
     Command), to praise your crystal element.
     O comfortable streams! with eager lips
     And trembling hands the languid thirsty quaff
     New life in you; fresh vigor fills their veins.
     No warmer cups the rural ages knew,
     None warmer sought the sires of humankind;
     Happy in temperate peace their equal days
     Felt not the alternate fits of feverish mirth
     And sick dejection; still serene and pleased,
     Blessed with divine immunity from ills,
     Long centuries they lived; their only fate
     Was ripe old age, and rather sleep than death."

THE CAMENAE

By this name the Latins designated the Muses, but included under
it also some other deities, principally nymphs of fountains.
Egeria was one of them, whose fountain and grotto are still shown.
It was said that Numa, the second king of Rome, was favored by
this nymph with secret interviews, in which she taught him those
lessons of wisdom and of law which he imbodied in the institutions
of his rising nation. After the death of Numa the nymph pined away
and was changed into a fountain.

Byron, in "Childe Harold," Canto IV., thus alludes to Egeria and
her grotto:

    "Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted cover,
     Egeria! all thy heavenly bosom beating
     For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover;
     The purple midnight veiled that mystic meeting
     With her most starry canopy;" etc.

Tennyson, also, in his "Palace of Art," gives us a glimpse of the
royal lover expecting the interview:

    "Holding one hand against his ear,
        To list a footfall ere he saw
     The wood-nymph, stayed the Tuscan king to hear
        Of wisdom and of law."

THE WINDS

When so many less active agencies were personified, it is not to
be supposed that the winds failed to be so. They were Boreas or
Aquilo, the north wind; Zephyrus or Favonius, the west; Notus or
Auster, the south; and Eurus, the east. The first two have been
chiefly celebrated by the poets, the former as the type of
rudeness, the latter of gentleness. Boreas loved the nymph
Orithyia, and tried to play the lover's part, but met with poor
success. It was hard for him to breathe gently, and sighing was
out of the question. Weary at last of fruitless endeavors, he
acted out his true character, seized the maiden and carried her
off. Their children were Zetes and Calais, winged warriors, who
accompanied the Argonautic expedition, and did good service in an
encounter with those monstrous birds the Harpies.

Zephyrus was the lover of Flora. Milton alludes to them in
"Paradise Lost," where he describes Adam waking and contemplating
Eve still asleep.

    "... He on his side
     Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love,
     Hung over her enamored, and beheld
     Beauty which, whether waking or asleep,
     Shot forth peculiar graces; then with voice,
     Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
     Her hand soft touching, whispered thus: 'Awake!
     My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,
     Heaven's last, best gift, my ever-new delight.'"

Dr. Young, the poet of the "Night Thoughts," addressing the idle
and luxurious, says:

    "Ye delicate! who nothing can support
     (Yourselves most insupportable) for whom
     The winter rose must blow, ...
     ... and silky soft
     Favonius breathe still softer or be chid!"





CHAPTER XXIII

ACHELOUS AND HERCULES--ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS--ANTIGONE--PENELOPE

ACHELOUS AND HERCULES


The river-god Achelous told the story of Erisichthon to Theseus
and his companions, whom he was entertaining at his hospitable
board, while they were delayed on their journey by the overflow of
his waters. Having finished his story, he added, "But why should I
tell of other persons' transformations when I myself am an
instance of the possession of this power? Sometimes I become a
serpent, and sometimes a bull, with horns on my head. Or I should
say I once could do so; but now I have but one horn, having lost
one." And here he groaned and was silent.

Theseus asked him the cause of his grief, and how he lost his
horn. To which question the river-god replied as follows: "Who
likes to tell of his defeats? Yet I will not hesitate to relate
mine, comforting myself with the thought of the greatness of my
conqueror, for it was Hercules. Perhaps you have heard of the fame
of Dejanira, the fairest of maidens, whom a host of suitors strove
to win. Hercules and myself were of the number, and the rest
yielded to us two. He urged in his behalf his descent from Jove
and his labors by which he had exceeded the exactions of Juno, his
stepmother. I, on the other hand, said to the father of the
maiden, 'Behold me, the king of the waters that flow through your
land. I am no stranger from a foreign shore, but belong to the
country, a part of your realm. Let it not stand in my way that
royal Juno owes me no enmity nor punishes me with heavy tasks. As
for this man, who boasts himself the son of Jove, it is either a
false pretence, or disgraceful to him if true, for it cannot be
true except by his mother's shame.' As I said this Hercules
scowled upon me, and with difficulty restrained his rage. 'My hand
will answer better than my tongue,' said he. 'I yield to you the
victory in words, but trust my cause to the strife of deeds.' With
that he advanced towards me, and I was ashamed, after what I had
said, to yield. I threw off my green vesture and presented myself
for the struggle. He tried to throw me, now attacking my head, now
my body. My bulk was my protection, and he assailed me in vain.
For a time we stopped, then returned to the conflict. We each kept
our position, determined not to yield, foot to foot, I bending
over him, clenching his hand in mine, with my forehead almost
touching his. Thrice Hercules tried to throw me off, and the
fourth time he succeeded, brought me to the ground, and himself
upon my back. I tell you the truth, it was as if a mountain had
fallen on me. I struggled to get my arms at liberty, panting and
reeking with perspiration. He gave me no chance to recover, but
seized my throat. My knees were on the earth and my mouth in the
dust.

"Finding that I was no match for him in the warrior's art, I
resorted to others and glided away in the form of a serpent. I
curled my body in a coil and hissed at him with my forked tongue.
He smiled scornfully at this, and said, 'It was the labor of my
infancy to conquer snakes.' So saying he clasped my neck with his
hands. I was almost choked, and struggled to get my neck out of
his grasp. Vanquished in this form, I tried what alone remained to
me and assumed the form of a bull. He grasped my neck with his
arm, and dragging my head down to the ground, overthrew me on the
sand. Nor was this enough. His ruthless hand rent my horn from my
head. The Naiades took it, consecrated it, and filled it with
fragrant flowers. Plenty adopted my horn and made it her own, and
called it 'Cornucopia.'"

The ancients were fond of finding a hidden meaning in their
mythological tales. They explain this fight of Achelous with
Hercules by saying Achelous was a river that in seasons of rain
overflowed its banks. When the fable says that Achelous loved
Dejanira, and sought a union with her, the meaning is that the
river in its windings flowed through part of Dejanira's kingdom.
It was said to take the form of a snake because of its winding,
and of a bull because it made a brawling or roaring in its course.
When the river swelled, it made itself another channel. Thus its
head was horned. Hercules prevented the return of these periodical
overflows by embankments and canals; and therefore he was said to
have vanquished the river-god and cut off his horn. Finally, the
lands formerly subject to overflow, but now redeemed, became very
fertile, and this is meant by the horn of plenty.

There is another account of the origin of the Cornucopia. Jupiter
at his birth was committed by his mother Rhea to the care of the
daughters of Melisseus, a Cretan king. They fed the infant deity
with the milk of the goat Amalthea. Jupiter broke off one of the
horns of the goat and gave it to his nurses, and endowed it with
the wonderful power of becoming filled with whatever the possessor
might wish.

The name of Amalthea is also given by some writers to the mother
of Bacchus. It is thus used by Milton, "Paradise Lost," Book IV.:

    "... That Nyseian isle,
     Girt with the river Triton, where old Cham,
     Whom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove,
     Hid Amalthea and her florid son,
     Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye."

ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS

Aesculapius, the son of Apollo, was endowed by his father with
such skill in the healing art that he even restored the dead to
life. At this Pluto took alarm, and prevailed on Jupiter to launch
a thunderbolt at Aesculapius. Apollo was indignant at the
destruction of his son, and wreaked his vengeance on the innocent
workmen who had made the thunderbolt. These were the Cyclopes, who
have their workshop under Mount Aetna, from which the smoke and
flames of their furnaces are constantly issuing. Apollo shot his
arrows at the Cyclopes, which so incensed Jupiter that he
condemned him as a punishment to become the servant of a mortal
for the space of one year. Accordingly Apollo went into the
service of Admetus, king of Thessaly, and pastured his flocks for
him on the verdant banks of the river Amphrysos.

Admetus was a suitor, with others, for the hand of Alcestis, the
daughter of Pelias, who promised her to him who should come for
her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. This task Admetus
performed by the assistance of his divine herdsman, and was made
happy in the possession of Alcestis. But Admetus fell ill, and
being near to death, Apollo prevailed on the Fates to spare him on
condition that some one would consent to die in his stead.
Admetus, in his joy at this reprieve, thought little of the
ransom, and perhaps remembering the declarations of attachment
which he had often heard from his courtiers and dependents fancied
that it would be easy to find a substitute. But it was not so.
Brave warriors, who would willingly have perilled their lives for
their prince, shrunk from the thought of dying for him on the bed
of sickness; and old servants who had experienced his bounty and
that of his house from their childhood up, were not willing to lay
down the scanty remnant of their days to show their gratitude. Men
asked, "Why does not one of his parents do it? They cannot in the
course of nature live much longer, and who can feel like them the
call to rescue the life they gave from an untimely end?" But the
parents, distressed though they were at the thought of losing him,
shrunk from the call. Then Alcestis, with a generous self-
devotion, proffered herself as the substitute. Admetus, fond as he
was of life, would not have submitted to receive it at such a
cost; but there was no remedy. The condition imposed by the Fates
had been met, and the decree was irrevocable. Alcestis sickened as
Admetus revived, and she was rapidly sinking to the grave.

Just at this time Hercules arrived at the palace of Admetus, and
found all the inmates in great distress for the impending loss of
the devoted wife and beloved mistress. Hercules, to whom no labor
was too arduous, resolved to attempt her rescue. He went and lay
in wait at the door of the chamber of the dying queen, and when
Death came for his prey, he seized him and forced him to resign
his victim. Alcestis recovered, and was restored to her husband.

Milton alludes to the story of Alcestis in his Sonnet "on his
deceased wife:"

    "Methought I saw my late espoused saint
       Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,
       Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave,
     Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint."

J. R. Lowell has chosen the "Shepherd of King Admetus" for the
subject of a short poem. He makes that event the first
introduction of poetry to men.

    "Men called him but a shiftless youth,
       In whom no good they saw,
     And yet unwittingly, in truth,
       They made his careless words their law.

    "And day by day more holy grew
       Each spot where he had trod,
     Till after-poets only knew
       Their first-born brother was a god."

ANTIGONE

A large proportion both of the interesting persons and of the
exalted acts of legendary Greece belongs to the female sex.
Antigone was as bright an example of filial and sisterly fidelity
as was Alcestis of connubial devotion. She was the daughter of
Oedipus and Jocasta, who with all their descendants were the
victims of an unrelenting fate, dooming them to destruction.
OEdipus in his madness had torn out his eyes, and was driven forth
from his kingdom Thebes, dreaded and abandoned by all men, as an
object of divine vengeance. Antigone, his daughter, alone shared
his wanderings and remained with him till he died, and then
returned to Thebes.

Her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, had agreed to share the
kingdom between them, and reign alternately year by year. The
first year fell to the lot of Eteocles, who, when his time
expired, refused to surrender the kingdom to his brother.
Polynices fled to Adrastus, king of Argos, who gave him his
daughter in marriage, and aided him with an army to enforce his
claim to the kingdom. This led to the celebrated expedition of the
"Seven against Thebes," which furnished ample materials for the
epic and tragic poets of Greece.

Amphiaraus, the brother-in-law of Adrastus, opposed the
enterprise, for he was a soothsayer, and knew by his art that no
one of the leaders except Adrastus would live to return. But
Amphiaraus, on his marriage to Eriphyle, the king's sister, had
agreed that whenever he and Adrastus should differ in opinion, the
decision should be left to Eriphyle. Polynices, knowing this, gave
Eriphyle the collar of Harmonia, and thereby gained her to his
interest. This collar or necklace was a present which Vulcan had
given to Harmonia on her marriage with Cadmus, and Polynices had
taken it with him on his flight from Thebes. Eriphyle could not
resist so tempting a bribe, and by her decision the war was
resolved on, and Amphiaraus went to his certain fate. He bore his
part bravely in the contest, but could not avert his destiny.
Pursued by the enemy, he fled along the river, when a thunderbolt
launched by Jupiter opened the ground, and he, his chariot, and
his charioteer were swallowed up.

It would not be in place here to detail all the acts of heroism or
atrocity which marked the contest; but we must not omit to record
the fidelity of Evadne as an offset to the weakness of Eriphyle.
Capaneus, the husband of Evadne, in the ardor of the fight
declared that he would force his way into the city in spite of
Jove himself. Placing a ladder against the wall he mounted, but
Jupiter, offended at his impious language, struck him with a
thunderbolt. When his obsequies were celebrated, Evadne cast
herself on his funeral pile and perished.

Early in the contest Eteocles consulted the soothsayer Tiresias as
to the issue. Tiresias in his youth had by chance seen Minerva
bathing. The goddess in her wrath deprived him of his sight, but
afterwards relenting gave him in compensation the knowledge of
future events. When consulted by Eteocles, he declared that
victory should fall to Thebes if Menoeceus, the son of Creon, gave
himself a voluntary victim. The heroic youth, learning the
response, threw away his life in the first encounter.

The siege continued long, with various success. At length both
hosts agreed that the brothers should decide their quarrel by
single combat. They fought and fell by each other's hands. The
armies then renewed the fight, and at last the invaders were
forced to yield, and fled, leaving their dead unburied. Creon, the
uncle of the fallen princes, now become king, caused Eteocles to
be buried with distinguished honor, but suffered the body of
Polynices to lie where it fell, forbidding every one on pain of
death to give it burial.

Antigone, the sister of Polynices, heard with indignation the
revolting edict which consigned her brother's body to the dogs and
vultures, depriving it of those rites which were considered
essential to the repose of the dead. Unmoved by the dissuading
counsel of an affectionate but timid sister, and unable to procure
assistance, she determined to brave the hazard, and to bury the
body with her own hands. She was detected in the act, and Creon
gave orders that she should be buried alive, as having
deliberately set at naught the solemn edict of the city. Her
lover, Haemon, the son of Creon, unable to avert her fate, would
not survive her, and fell by his own hand.

Antigone forms the subject of two fine tragedies of the Grecian
poet Sophocles. Mrs. Jameson, in her "Characteristics of Women,"
has compared her character with that of Cordelia, in Shakspeare's
"King Lear." The perusal of her remarks cannot fail to gratify our
readers.

The following is the lamentation of Antigone over OEdipus, when
death has at last relieved him from his sufferings:

    "Alas! I only wished I might have died
     With my poor father; wherefore should I ask
     For longer life?
     O, I was fond of misery with him;
     E'en what was most unlovely grew beloved
     When he was with me. O my dearest father,
     Beneath the earth now in deep darkness hid,
     Worn as thou wert with age, to me thou still
     Wast dear, and shalt be ever."

    --Francklin's Sophocles.

PENELOPE

Penelope is another of those mythic heroines whose beauties were
rather those of character and conduct than of person. She was the
daughter of Icarius, a Spartan prince. Ulysses, king of Ithaca,
sought her in marriage, and won her, over all competitors. When
the moment came for the bride to leave her father's house,
Icarius, unable to bear the thoughts of parting with his daughter,
tried to persuade her to remain with him, and not accompany her
husband to Ithaca. Ulysses gave Penelope her choice, to stay or go
with him. Penelope made no reply, but dropped her veil over her
face. Icarius urged her no further, but when she was gone erected
a statue to Modesty on the spot where they parted.

Ulysses and Penelope had not enjoyed their union more than a year
when it was interrupted by the events which called Ulysses to the
Trojan war. During his long absence, and when it was doubtful
whether he still lived, and highly improbable that he would ever
return, Penelope was importuned by numerous suitors, from whom
there seemed no refuge but in choosing one of them for her
husband. Penelope, however, employed every art to gain time, still
hoping for Ulysses' return. One of her arts of delay was engaging
in the preparation of a robe for the funeral canopy of Laertes,
her husband's father. She pledged herself to make her choice among
the suitors when the robe was finished. During the day she worked
at the robe, but in the night she undid the work of the day. This
is the famous Penelope's web, which is used as a proverbial
expression for anything which is perpetually doing but never done.
The rest of Penelope's history will be told when we give an
account of her husband's adventures.





CHAPTER XXIV

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE--ARISTAEUS--AMPHION--LINUS--THAMYRIS--
MARSYAS--MELAMPUS--MUSAEUS

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE


Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was
presented by his father with a Lyre and taught to play upon it,
which he did to such perfection that nothing could withstand the
charm of his music. Not only his fellow-mortals but wild beasts
were softened by his strains, and gathering round him laid by
their fierceness, and stood entranced with his lay. Nay, the very
trees and rocks were sensible to the charm. The former crowded
round him and the latter relaxed somewhat of their hardness,
softened by his notes.

Hymen had been called to bless with his presence the nuptials of
Orpheus with Eurydice; but though he attended, he brought no happy
omens with him. His very torch smoked and brought tears into their
eyes. In coincidence with such prognostics, Eurydice, shortly
after her marriage, while wandering with the nymphs, her
companions, was seen by the shepherd Aristaeus, who was struck
with her beauty and made advances to her. She fled, and in flying
trod upon a snake in the grass, was bitten in the foot, and died.
Orpheus sang his grief to all who breathed the upper air, both
gods and men, and finding it all unavailing resolved to seek his
wife in the regions of the dead. He descended by a cave situated
on the side of the promontory of Taenarus and arrived at the
Stygian realm. He passed through crowds of ghosts and presented
himself before the throne of Pluto and Proserpine. Accompanying
the words with the lyre, he sung, "O deities of the underworld, to
whom all we who live must come, hear my words, for they are true.
I come not to spy out the secrets of Tartarus, nor to try my
strength against the three-headed dog with snaky hair who guards
the entrance. I come to seek my wife, whose opening years the
poisonous viper's fang has brought to an untimely end. Love has
led me here, Love, a god all powerful with us who dwell on the
earth, and, if old traditions say true, not less so here. I
implore you by these abodes full of terror, these realms of
silence and uncreated things, unite again the thread of Eurydice's
life. We all are destined to you and sooner or later must pass to
your domain. She too, when she shall have filled her term of life,
will rightly be yours. But till then grant her to me, I beseech
you. If you deny me I cannot return alone; you shall triumph in
the death of us both."

As he sang these tender strains, the very ghosts shed tears.
Tantalus, in spite of his thirst, stopped for a moment his efforts
for water, Ixion's wheel stood still, the vulture ceased to tear
the giant's liver, the daughters of Danaus rested from their task
of drawing water in a sieve, and Sisyphus sat on his rock to
listen. Then for the first time, it is said, the cheeks of the
Furies were wet with tears. Proserpine could not resist, and Pluto
himself gave way. Eurydice was called. She came from among the
new-arrived ghosts, limping with her wounded foot. Orpheus was
permitted to take her away with him on one condition, that he
should not turn around to look at her till they should have
reached the upper air. Under this condition they proceeded on
their way, he leading, she following, through passages dark and
steep, in total silence, till they had nearly reached the outlet
into the cheerful upper world, when Orpheus, in a moment of
forgetfulness, to assure himself that she was still following,
cast a glance behind him, when instantly she was borne away.
Stretching out their arms to embrace each other, they grasped only
the air! Dying now a second time, she yet cannot reproach her
husband, for how can she blame his impatience to behold her?
"Farewell," she said, "a last farewell,"--and was hurried away, so
fast that the sound hardly reached his ears.

Orpheus endeavored to follow her, and besought permission to
return and try once more for her release; but the stern ferryman
repulsed him and refused passage. Seven days he lingered about the
brink, without food or sleep; then bitterly accusing of cruelty
the powers of Erebus, he sang his complaints to the rocks and
mountains, melting the hearts of tigers and moving the oaks from
their stations. He held himself aloof from womankind, dwelling
constantly on the recollection of his sad mischance. The Thracian
maidens tried their best to captivate him, but he repulsed their
advances. They bore with him as long as they could; but finding
him insensible one day, excited by the rites of Bacchus, one of
them exclaimed, "See yonder our despiser!" and threw at him her
javelin. The weapon, as soon as it came within the sound of his
lyre, fell harmless at his feet. So did also the stones that they
threw at him. But the women raised a scream and drowned the voice
of the music, and then the missiles reached him and soon were
stained with his blood. The maniacs tore him limb from limb, and
threw his head and his lyre into the river Hebrus, down which they
floated, murmuring sad music, to which the shores responded a
plaintive symphony. The Muses gathered up the fragments of his
body and buried them at Libethra, where the nightingale is said to
sing over his grave more sweetly than in any other part of Greece.
His lyre was placed by Jupiter among the stars. His shade passed a
second time to Tartarus, where he sought out his Eurydice and
embraced her with eager arms. They roam the happy fields together
now, sometimes he leading, sometimes she; and Orpheus gazes as
much as he will upon her, no longer incurring a penalty for a
thoughtless glance.

The story of Orpheus has furnished Pope with an illustration of
the power of music, for his "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" The
following stanza relates the conclusion of the story:

    "But soon, too soon the lover turns his eyes;
     Again she falls, again she dies, she dies!
     How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move?
     No crime was thine, if't is no crime to love.
         Now under hanging mountains,
         Beside the falls of fountains,
         Or where Hebrus wanders,
         Rolling in meanders,
             All alone,
             He makes his moan,
             And calls her ghost,
           Forever, ever, ever lost!
         Now with furies surrounded,
         Despairing, confounded,
         He trembles, he glows,
         Amidst Rhodope's snows
     See, wild as the winds o'er the desert he flies;
     Hark! Haemus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries;
         Ah, see, he dies!
     Yet even in death Eurydice he sung,
     Eurydice still trembled on his tongue:
     Eurydice the woods
     Eurydice the floods
     Eurydice the rocks and hollow mountains rung"

The superior melody of the nightingale's song over the grave of
Orpheus is alluded to by Southey in his "Thalaba":

        "Then on his ear what sounds
           Of harmony arose'
     Far music and the distance-mellowed song
         From bowers of merriment,
           The waterfall remote,
       The murmuring of the leafy groves;
           The single nightingale
     Perched in the rosier by, so richly toned,
     That never from that most melodious bird
     Singing a love song to his brooding mate,
       Did Thracian shepherd by the grave
       Of Orpheus hear a sweeter melody,
     Though there the spirit of the sepulchre
       All his own power infuse, to swell
       The incense that he loves"

ARISTAEUS, THE BEE-KEEPER

Man avails himself of the instincts of the inferior animals for
his own advantage. Hence sprang the art of keeping bees. Honey
must first have been known as a wild product, the bees building
their structures in hollow trees or holes in the rocks, or any
similar cavity that chance offered. Thus occasionally the carcass
of a dead animal would be occupied by the bees for that purpose.
It was no doubt from some such incident that the superstition
arose that the bees were engendered by the decaying flesh of the
animal; and Virgil, in the following story, shows how this
supposed fact may be turned to account for renewing the swarm when
it has been lost by disease or accident:

Aristaeus, who first taught the management of bees, was the son of
the water-nymph Cyrene. His bees had perished, and he resorted for
aid to his mother. He stood at the river side and thus addressed
her: "O mother, the pride of my life is taken from me! I have lost
my precious bees. My care and skill have availed me nothing, and
you my mother have not warded off from me the blow of misfortune."
His mother heard these complaints as she sat in her palace at the
bottom of the river, with her attendant nymphs around her. They
were engaged in female occupations, spinning and weaving, while
one told stories to amuse the rest. The sad voice of Aristaeus
interrupting their occupation, one of them put her head above the
water and seeing him, returned and gave information to his mother,
who ordered that he should be brought into her presence. The river
at her command opened itself and let him pass in, while it stood
curled like a mountain on either side. He descended to the region
where the fountains of the great rivers lie; he saw the enormous
receptacles of waters and was almost deafened with the roar, while
he surveyed them hurrying off in various directions to water the
face of the earth. Arriving at his mother's apartment, he was
hospitably received by Cyrene and her nymphs, who spread their
table with the richest dainties. They first poured out libations
to Neptune, then regaled themselves with the feast, and after that
Cyrene thus addressed him: "There is an old prophet named Proteus,
who dwells in the sea and is a favorite of Neptune, whose herd of
sea-calves he pastures. We nymphs hold him in great respect, for
he is a learned sage and knows all things, past, present, and to
come. He can tell you, my son, the cause of the mortality among
your bees, and how you may remedy it. But he will not do it
voluntarily, however you may entreat him. You must compel him by
force. If you seize him and chain him, he will answer your
questions in order to get released, for he cannot by all his arts
get away if you hold fast the chains. I will carry you to his
cave, where he comes at noon to take his midday repose. Then you
may easily secure him. But when he finds himself captured, his
resort is to a power he possesses of changing himself into various
forms. He will become a wild boar or a fierce tiger, a scaly
dragon or lion with yellow mane. Or he will make a noise like the
crackling of flames or the rush of water, so as to tempt you to
let go the chain, when he will make his escape. But you have only
to keep him fast bound, and at last when he finds all his arts
unavailing, he will return to his own figure and obey your
commands." So saying she sprinkled her son with fragrant nectar,
the beverage of the gods, and immediately an unusual vigor filled
his frame, and courage his heart, while perfume breathed all
around him.

The nymph led her son to the prophet's cave and concealed him
among the recesses of the rocks, while she herself took her place
behind the clouds. When noon came and the hour when men and herds
retreat from the glaring sun to indulge in quiet slumber, Proteus
issued from the water, followed by his herd of sea-calves which
spread themselves along the shore. He sat on the rock and counted
his herd; then stretched himself on the floor of the cave and went
to sleep. Aristaeus hardly allowed him to get fairly asleep before
he fixed the fetters on him and shouted aloud. Proteus, waking and
finding himself captured, immediately resorted to his arts,
becoming first a fire, then a flood, then a horrible wild beast,
in rapid succession. But finding all would not do, he at last
resumed his own form and addressed the youth in angry accents:
"Who are you, bold youth, who thus invade my abode, and what do
yot want of me?" Aristaeus replied, "Proteus, you know already,
for it is needless for any one to attempt to deceive you. And do
you also cease your efforts to elude me. I am led hither by divine
assistance, to know from you the cause of my misfortune and how to
remedy it." At these words the prophet, fixing on him his gray
eyes with a piercing look, thus spoke: "You receive the merited
reward of your deeds, by which Eurydice met her death, for in
flying from you she trod upon a serpent, of whose bite she died.
To avenge her death, the nymphs, her companions, have sent this
destruction to your bees. You have to appease their anger, and
thus it must be done: Select four bulls, of perfect form and size,
and four cows of equal beauty, build four altars to the nymphs,
and sacrifice the animals, leaving their carcasses in the leafy
grove. To Orpheus and Eurydice you shall pay such funeral honors
as may allay their resentment. Returning after nine days, you will
examine the bodies of the cattle slain and see what will befall."
Aristaeus faithfully obeyed these directions. He sacrificed the
cattle, he left their bodies in the grove, he offered funeral
honors to the shades of Orpheus and Eurydice; then returning on
the ninth day he examined the bodies of the animals, and,
wonderful to relate! a swarm of bees had taken possession of one
of the carcasses and were pursuing their labors there as in a
hive.

In "The Task," Cowper alludes to the story of Aristaeus, when
speaking of the ice-palace built by the Empress Anne of Russia. He
has been describing the fantastic forms which ice assumes in
connection with waterfalls, etc.:

    "Less worthy of applause though more admired
     Because a novelty, the work of man,
     Imperial mistress of the fur-clad Russ,
     Thy most magnificent and mighty freak,
     The wonder of the north. No forest fell
     When thou wouldst build, no quarry sent its stores
     T' enrich thy walls; but thou didst hew the floods
     And make thy marble of the glassy wave.
     In such a palace Aristaeus found
     Cyrene, when he bore the plaintive tale
     Of his lost bees to her maternal ear."

Milton also appears to have had Cyrene and her domestic scene in
his mind when he describes to us Sabrina, the nymph of the river
Severn, in the Guardian-spirit's Song in "Comus":

          "Sabrina fair!
       Listen where thou art sitting
     Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave
       In twisted braids of lilies knitting
     The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
       Listen for dear honor's sake,
       Goddess of the silver lake!
            Listen and save."

The following are other celebrated mythical poets and musicians,
some of whom were hardly inferior to Orpheus himself:

AMPHION

Amphion was the son of Jupiter and Antiope, queen of Thebes. With
his twin brother Zethus he was exposed at birth on Mount
Cithaeron, where they grew up among the shepherds, not knowing
their parentage. Mercury gave Amphion a lyre and taught him to
play upon it, and his brother occupied himself in hunting and
tending the flocks. Meanwhile Antiope, their mother, who had been
treated with great cruelty by Lycus, the usurping king of Thebes,
and by Dirce, his wife, found means to inform her children of
their rights and to summon them to her assistance. With a band of
their fellow-herdsmen they attacked and slew Lycus, and tying
Dirce by the hair of her head to a bull, let him drag her till she
was dead. Amphion, having become king of Thebes, fortified the
city with a wall. It is said that when he played on his lyre the
stones moved of their own accord and took their places in the
wall.

See Tennyson's poem of "Amphion" for an amusing use made of this
story.

LINUS

Linus was the instructor of Hercules in music, but having one day
reproved his pupil rather harshly, he roused the anger of
Hercules, who struck him with his lyre and killed him.

THAMYRIS

An ancient Thracian bard, who in his presumption challenged the
Muses to a trial of skill, and being overcome in the contest, was
deprived by them of his sight. Milton alludes to him with other
blind bards, when speaking of his own blindness, "Paradise Lost,"
Book III., 35.

MARSYAS

Minerva invented the flute, and played upon it to the delight of
all the celestial auditors; but the mischievous urchin Cupid
having dared to laugh at the queer face which the goddess made
while playing, Minerva threw the instrument indignantly away, and
it fell down to earth, and was found by Marsyas. He blew upon it,
and drew from it such ravishing sounds that he was tempted to
challenge Apollo himself to a musical contest. The god of course
triumphed, and punished Marsyas by flaying him alive.

MELAMPUS

Melampus was the first mortal endowed with prophetic powers.
Before his house there stood an oak tree containing a serpent's
nest. The old serpents were killed by the servants, but Melampus
took care of the young ones and fed them carefully. One day when
he was asleep under the oak the serpents licked his ears with
their tongues. On awaking he was astonished to find that he now
understood the language of birds and creeping things. This
knowledge enabled him to foretell future events, and he became a
renowned soothsayer. At one time his enemies took him captive and
kept him strictly imprisoned. Melampus in the silence of the night
heard the woodworms in the timbers talking together, and found out
by what they said that the timbers were nearly eaten through and
the roof would soon fall in. He told his captors and demanded to
be let out, warning them also. They took his warning, and thus
escaped destruction, and rewarded Melampus and held him in high
honor.

MUSAEUS A semi-mythological personage who was represented by one
tradition to be the son of Orpheus. He is said to have written
sacred poems and oracles. Milton couples his name with that of
Orpheus in his "Il Penseroso":

    "But O, sad virgin, that thy power
     Might raise Musaeus from his bower,
     Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
     Such notes as warbled to the string,
     Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
     And made Hell grant what love did seek."





CHAPTER XXV

ARION--IBYCUS--SIMONIDES--SAPPHO


The poets whose adventures compose this chapter were real persons
some of whose works yet remain, and their influence on poets who
succeeded them is yet more important than their poetical remains.
The adventures recorded of them in the following stories rest on
the same authority as other narratives of the "Age of Fable," that
is, of the poets who have told them. In their present form, the
first two are translated from the German, Arion from Schlegel, and
Ibycus from Schiller.

ARION

Arion was a famous musician, and dwelt in the court of Periander,
king of Corinth, with whom he was a great favorite. There was to
be a musical contest in Sicily, and Arion longed to compete for
the prize. He told his wish to Periander, who besought him like a
brother to give up the thought. "Pray stay with me," he said, "and
be contented. He who strives to win may lose." Arion answered, "A
wandering life best suits the free heart of a poet. The talent
which a god bestowed on me, I would fain make a source of pleasure
to others. And if I win the prize, how will the enjoyment of it be
increased by the consciousness of my widespread fame!" He went,
won the prize, and embarked with his wealth in a Corinthian ship
for home. On the second morning after setting sail, the wind
breathed mild and fair. "O Periander," he exclaimed, "dismiss your
fears! Soon shall you forget them in my embrace. With what lavish
offerings will we display our gratitude to the gods, and how merry
will we be at the festal board!" The wind and sea continued
propitious. Not a cloud dimmed the firmament. He had not trusted
too much to the ocean--but he had to man. He overheard the seamen
exchanging hints with one another, and found they were plotting to
possess themselves of his treasure. Presently they surrounded him
loud and mutinous, and said, "Arion, you must die! If you would
have a grave on shore, yield yourself to die on this spot; but if
otherwise, cast yourself into the sea." "Will nothing satisfy you
but my life?" said he. "Take my gold, and welcome. I willingly buy
my life at that price." "No, no; we cannot spare you. Your life
would be too dangerous to us. Where could we go to escape from
Periander, if he should know that you had been robbed by us? Your
gold would be of little use to us, if on returning home, we could
never more be free from fear." "Grant me, then," said he, "a last
request, since nought will avail to save my life, that I may die,
as I have lived, as becomes a bard. When I shall have sung my
death song, and my harp-strings shall have ceased to vibrate, then
I will bid farewell to life, and yield uncomplaining to my fate."
This prayer, like the others, would have been unheeded,--they
thought only of their booty,--but to hear so famous a musician,
that moved their rude hearts. "Suffer me," he added, "to arrange
my dress. Apollo will not favor me unless I be clad in my minstrel
garb."

He clothed his well-proportioned limbs in gold and purple fair to
see, his tunic fell around him in graceful folds, jewels adorned
his arms, his brow was crowned with a golden wreath, and over his
neck and shoulders flowed his hair perfumed with odors. His left
hand held the lyre, his right the ivory wand with which he struck
its chords. Like one inspired, he seemed to drink the morning air
and glitter in the morning ray. The seamen gazed with admiration.
He strode forward to the vessel's side and looked down into the
deep blue sea. Addressing his lyre, he sang, "Companion of my
voice, come with me to the realm of shades. Though Cerberus may
growl, we know the power of song can tame his rage. Ye heroes of
Elysium, who have passed the darkling flood,--ye happy souls, soon
shall I join your band. Yet can ye relieve my grief? Alas, I leave
my friend behind me. Thou, who didst find thy Eurydice, and lose
her again as soon as found; when she had vanished like a dream,
how didst thou hate the cheerful light! I must away, but I will
not fear. The gods look down upon us. Ye who slay me unoffending,
when I am no more, your time of trembling shall come. Ye Nereids,
receive your guest, who throws himself upon your mercy!" So
saying, he sprang into the deep sea. The waves covered him, and
the seamen held on their way, fancying themselves safe from all
danger of detection.

But the strains of his music had drawn round him the inhabitants
of the deep to listen, and Dolphins followed the ship as if
chained by a spell. While he struggled in the waves, a Dolphin
offered him his back, and carried him mounted thereon safe to
shore. At the spot where he landed, a monument of brass was
afterwards erected upon the rocky shore, to preserve the memory of
the event.

When Arion and the dolphin parted, each to his own element, Arion
thus poured forth his thanks: "Farewell, thou faithful, friendly
fish! Would that I could reward thee; but thou canst not wend with
me, nor I with thee. Companionship we may not have. May Galatea,
queen of the deep, accord thee her favor, and thou, proud of the
burden, draw her chariot over the smooth mirror of the deep."

Arion hastened from the shore, and soon saw before him the towers
of Corinth. He journeyed on, harp in hand, singing as he went,
full of love and happiness, forgetting his losses, and mindful
only of what remained, his friend and his lyre. He entered the
hospitable halls, and was soon clasped in the embrace of
Periander. "I come back to thee, my friend," he said. "The talent
which a god bestowed has been the delight of thousands, but false
knaves have stripped me of my well-earned treasure; yet I retain
the consciousness of wide spread fame." Then he told Periander all
the wonderful events that had befallen him, who heard him with
amazement. "Shall such wickedness triumph?" said he. "Then in vain
is power lodged in my hands. That we may discover the criminals,
you must remain here in concealment, and so they will approach
without suspicion." When the ship arrived in the harbor, he
summoned the mariners before him. "Have you heard anything of
Arion?" he inquired. "I anxiously look for his return." They
replied, "We left him well and prosperous in Tarentum." As they
said these words, Arion stepped forth and faced them. His well-
proportioned limbs were arrayed in gold and purple fair to see,
his tunic fell around him in graceful folds, jewels adorned his
arms, his brow was crowned with a golden wreath, and over his neck
and shoulders flowed his hair perfumed with odors; his left hand
held the lyre, his right the ivory wand with which he struck its
chords. They fell prostrate at his feet, as if a lightning bolt
had struck them. "We meant to murder him, and he has become a god.
O Earth, open and receive us!" Then Periander spoke. "He lives,
the master of the lay! Kind Heaven protects the poet's life. As
for you, I invoke not the spirit of vengeance; Arion wishes not
your blood. Ye slaves of avarice, begone! Seek some barbarous
land, and never may aught beautiful delight your souls!"

Spenser represents Arion, mounted on his dolphin, accompanying the
train of Neptune and Amphitrite:

    "Then was there heard a most celestial sound
     Of dainty music which did next ensue,
     And, on the floating waters as enthroned,
     Arion with his harp unto him drew
     The ears and hearts of all that goodly crew;
     Even when as yet the dolphin which him bore
     Through the Aegean Seas from pirates' view,
     Stood still, by him astonished at his lore,
     And all the raging seas for joy forgot to roar."

Byron, in his "Childe Harold," Canto II., alludes to the story of
Arion, when, describing his voyage, he represents one of the
seamen making music to entertain the rest:

    "The moon is up; by Heaven a lovely eve!
     Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand;
     Now lads on shore may sigh and maids believe;
     Such be our fate when we return to land!
     Meantime some rude Arion's restless hand
     Wakes the brisk harmony that sailors love;
     A circle there of merry listeners stand,
     Or to some well-known measure featly move
   Thoughtless as if on shore they still were free to rove."

IBYCUS

In order to understand the story of Ibycus which follows it is
necessary to remember, first, that the theatres of the ancients
were immense fabrics capable of containing from ten to thirty
thousand spectators, and as they were used only on festival
occasions, and admission was free to all, they were usually
filled. They were without roofs and open to the sky, and the
performances were in the daytime. Secondly, the appalling
representation of the Furies is not exaggerated in the story. It
is recorded that Aeschylus, the tragic poet, having on one
occasion represented the Furies in a chorus of fifty performers,
the terror of the spectators was such that many fainted and were
thrown into convulsions, and the magistrates forbade a like
representation for the future.

Ibycus, the pious poet, was on his way to the chariot races and
musical competitions held at the Isthmus of Corinth, which
attracted all of Grecian lineage. Apollo had bestowed on him the
gift of song, the honeyed lips of the poet, and he pursued his way
with lightsome step, full of the god. Already the towers of
Corinth crowning the height appeared in view, and he had entered
with pious awe the sacred grove of Neptune. No living object was
in sight, only a flock of cranes flew overhead taking the same
course as himself in their migration to a southern clime. "Good
luck to you, ye friendly squadrons," he exclaimed, "my companions
from across the sea. I take your company for a good omen. We come
from far and fly in search of hospitality. May both of us meet
that kind reception which shields the stranger guest from harm!"

He paced briskly on, and soon was in the middle of the wood. There
suddenly, at a narrow pass, two robbers stepped forth and barred
his way. He must yield or fight. But his hand, accustomed to the
lyre, and not to the strife of arms, sank powerless. He called for
help on men and gods, but his cry reached no defender's ear. "Then
here must I die," said he, "in a strange land, unlamented, cut off
by the hand of outlaws, and see none to avenge my cause." Sore
wounded, he sank to the earth, when hoarse screamed the cranes
overhead. "Take up my cause, ye cranes," he said, "since no voice
but yours answers to my cry." So saying he closed his eyes in
death.

The body, despoiled and mangled, was found, and though disfigured
with wounds, was recognized by the friend in Corinth who had
expected him as a guest. "Is it thus I find you restored to me?"
he exclaimed. "I who hoped to entwine your temples with the wreath
of triumph in the strife of song!"

The guests assembled at the festival heard the tidings with
dismay. All Greece felt the wound, every heart owned its loss.
They crowded round the tribunal of the magistrates, and demanded
vengeance on the murderers and expiation with their blood.

But what trace or mark shall point out the perpetrator from amidst
the vast multitude attracted by the splendor of the feast? Did he
fall by the hands of robbers or did some private enemy slay him?
The all-discerning sun alone can tell, for no other eye beheld
it. Yet not improbably the murderer even now walks in the midst of
the throng, and enjoys the fruits of his crime, while vengeance
seeks for him in vain. Perhaps in their own temple's enclosure he
defies the gods mingling freely in this throng of men that now
presses into the amphitheatre.

For now crowded together, row on row, the multitude fill the seats
till it seems as if the very fabric would give way. The murmur of
voices sounds like the roar of the sea, while the circles widening
in their ascent rise tier on tier, as if they would reach the sky.

And now the vast assemblage listens to the awful voice of the
chorus personating the Furies, which in solemn guise advances with
measured step, and moves around the circuit of the theatre. Can
they be mortal women who compose that awful group, and can that
vast concourse of silent forms be living beings?

The choristers, clad in black, bore in their fleshless hands
torches blazing with a pitchy flame. Their cheeks were bloodless,
and in place of hair writhing and swelling serpents curled around
their brows. Forming a circle, these awful beings sang their
hymns, rending the hearts of the guilty, and enchaining all their
faculties. It rose and swelled, overpowering the sound of the
instruments, stealing the judgment, palsying the heart, curdling
the blood.

"Happy the man who keeps his heart pure from guilt and crime! Him
we avengers touch not; he treads the path of life secure from us.
But woe! woe! to him who has done the deed of secret murder. We
the fearful family of Night fasten ourselves upon his whole being.
Thinks he by flight to escape us? We fly still faster in pursuit,
twine our snakes around his feet, and bring him to the ground.
Unwearied we pursue; no pity checks our course; still on and on,
to the end of life, we give him no peace nor rest." Thus the
Eumenides sang, and moved in solemn cadence, while stillness like
the stillness of death sat over the whole assembly as if in the
presence of superhuman beings; and then in solemn march completing
the circuit of the theatre, they passed out at the back of the
stage.

Every heart fluttered between illusion and reality, and every
breast panted with undefined terror, quailing before the awful
power that watches secret crimes and winds unseen the skein of
destiny. At that moment a cry burst forth from one of the
uppermost benches--"Look! look! comrade, yonder are the cranes of
Ibycus!" And suddenly there appeared sailing across the sky a dark
object which a moment's inspection showed to be a flock of cranes
flying directly over the theatre. "Of Ibycus! did he say?" The
beloved name revived the sorrow in every breast. As wave follows
wave over the face of the sea, so ran from mouth to mouth the
words, "Of Ibycus! him whom we all lament, whom some murderer's
hand laid low! What have the cranes to do with him?" And louder
grew the swell of voices, while like a lightning's flash the
thought sped through every heart, "Observe the power of the
Eumenides! The pious poet shall be avenged! the murderer has
informed against himself. Seize the man who uttered that cry and
the other to whom he spoke!"

The culprit would gladly have recalled his words, but it was too
late. The faces of the murderers, pale with terror, betrayed their
guilt. The people took them before the judge, they confessed their
crime, and suffered the punishment they deserved.

SIMONIDES

Simonides was one of the most prolific of the early poets of
Greece, but only a few fragments of his compositions have
descended to us. He wrote hymns, triumphal odes, and elegies. In
the last species of composition he particularly excelled. His
genius was inclined to the pathetic, and none could touch with
truer effect the chords of human sympathy. The "Lamentation of
Danae," the most important of the fragments which remain of his
poetry, is based upon the tradition that Danae and her infant son
were confined by order of her father, Acrisius, in a chest and set
adrift on the sea. The chest floated towards the island of
Seriphus, where both were rescued by Dictys, a fisherman, and
carried to Polydectes, king of the country, who received and
protected them. The child, Perseus, when grown up became a famous
hero, whose adventures have been recorded in a previous chapter.

Simonides passed much of his life at the courts of princes, and
often employed his talents in panegyric and festal odes, receiving
his reward from the munificence of those whose exploits he
celebrated. This employment was not derogatory, but closely
resembles that of the earliest bards, such as Demodocus, described
by Homer, or of Homer himself, as recorded by tradition.

On one occasion, when residing at the court of Scopas, king of
Thessaly, the prince desired him to prepare a poem in celebration
of his exploits, to be recited at a banquet. In order to diversify
his theme, Simonides, who was celebrated for his piety, introduced
into his poem the exploits of Castor and Pollux. Such digressions
were not unusual with the poets on similar occasions, and one
might suppose an ordinary mortal might have been content to share
the praises of the sons of Leda. But vanity is exacting; and as
Scopas sat at his festal board among his courtiers and sycophants,
he grudged every verse that did not rehearse his own praises. When
Simonides approached to receive the promised reward Scopas
bestowed but half the expected sum, saying, "Here is payment for
my portion of thy performance; Castor and Pollux will doubtless
compensate thee for so much as relates to them." The disconcerted
poet returned to his seat amidst the laughter which followed the
great man's jest. In a little time he received a message that two
young men on horseback were waiting without and anxious to see
him. Simonides hastened to the door, but looked in vain for the
visitors. Scarcely, however, had he left the banqueting hall when
the roof fell in with a loud crash, burying Scopas and all his
guests beneath the ruins. On inquiring as to the appearance of the
young men who had sent for him, Simonides was satisfied that they
were no other than Castor and Pollux themselves.

SAPPHO

Sappho was a poetess who flourished in a very early age of Greek
literature. Of her works few fragments remain, but they are enough
to establish her claim to eminent poetical genius. The story of
Sappho commonly alluded to is that she was passionately in love
with a beautiful youth named Phaon, and failing to obtain a return
of affection she threw herself from the promontory of Leucadia
into the sea, under a superstition that those who should take that
"Lover's-leap" would, if not destroyed, be cured of their love.

Byron alludes to the story of Sappho in "Childe Harold," Canto
II.:

   "Childe Harold sailed and passed the barren spot
    Where sad Penelope o'erlooked the wave,
    And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot,
    The lover's refuge and the Lesbian's grave.
    Dark Sappho! could not verse immortal save
    That breast imbued with such immortal fire?

   "'Twas on a Grecian autumn's gentle eve
    Childe Harold hailed Leucadia's cape afar;" etc.

Those who wish to know more of Sappho and her "leap" are referred
to the "Spectator," Nos. 223 and 229. See also Moore's "Evenings
in Greece."





CHAPTER XXVI

ENDYMION--ORION--AURORA AND TITHONUS--ACIS AND GALATEA

DIANA AND ENDYMION


Endymion was a beautiful youth who fed his flock on Mount Latmos.
One calm, clear night Diana, the moon, looked down and saw him
sleeping. The cold heart of the virgin goddess was warmed by his
surpassing beauty, and she came down to him, kissed him, and
watched over him while he slept.

Another story was that Jupiter bestowed on him the gift of
perpetual youth united with perpetual sleep. Of one so gifted we
can have but few adventures to record. Diana, it was said, took
care that his fortunes should not suffer by his inactive life, for
she made his flock increase, and guarded his sheep and lambs from
the wild beasts.

The story of Endymion has a peculiar charm from the human meaning
which it so thinly veils. We see in Endymion the young poet, his
fancy and his heart seeking in vain for that which can satisfy
them, finding his favorite hour in the quiet moonlight, and
nursing there beneath the beams of the bright and silent witness
the melancholy and the ardor which consumes him. The story
suggests aspiring and poetic love, a life spent more in dreams
than in reality, and an early and welcome death.--S. G. B.

The "Endymion" of Keats is a wild and fanciful poem, containing
some exquisite poetry, as this, to the moon:

   "... The sleeping kine
    Couched in thy brightness dream of fields divine.
    Innumerable mountains rise, and rise,
    Ambitious for the hallowing of thine eyes,
    And yet thy benediction passeth not
    One obscure hiding-place, one little spot
    Where pleasure may be sent; the nested wren
    Has thy fair face within its tranquil ken;" etc., etc.

Dr. Young, in the "Night Thoughts," alludes to Endymion thus:

   "... These thoughts, O night, are thine;
    From thee they came like lovers' secret sighs,
    While others slept. So Cynthia, poets feign,
    In shadows veiled, soft, sliding from her sphere,
    Her shepherd cheered, of her enamoured less
    Than I of thee."

Fletcher, in the "Faithful Shepherdess," tells:

   "How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove,
    First saw the boy Endymion, from whose eyes
    She took eternal fire that never dies;
    How she conveyed him softly in a sleep,
    His temples bound with poppy, to the steep
    Head of old Latmos, where she stoops each night,
    Gilding the mountain with her brother's light,
    To kiss her sweetest."

ORION

Orion was the son of Neptune. He was a handsome giant and a mighty
hunter. His father gave him the power of wading through the depths
of the sea, or, as others say, of walking on its surface.

Orion loved Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, king of Chios, and
sought her in marriage. He cleared the island of wild beasts, and
brought the spoils of the chase as presents to his beloved; but as
Oenopion constantly deferred his consent, Orion attempted to gain
possession of the maiden by violence. Her father, incensed at this
conduct, having made Orion drunk, deprived him of his sight and
cast him out on the seashore. The blinded hero followed the sound
of a Cyclops' hammer till he reached Lemnos, and came to the forge
of Vulcan, who, taking pity on him, gave him Kedalion, one of his
men, to be his guide to the abode of the sun. Placing Kedalion on
his shoulders, Orion proceeded to the east, and there meeting the
sun-god, was restored to sight by his beam.

After this he dwelt as a hunter with Diana, with whom he was a
favorite, and it is even said she was about to marry him. Her
brother was highly displeased and often chid her, but to no
purpose. One day, observing Orion wading through the sea with his
head just above the water, Apollo pointed it out to his sister and
maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the sea. The
archer-goddess discharged a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled
the dead body of Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error
with many tears, Diana placed him among the stars, where he
appears as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion's skin, and club.
Sirius, his dog, follows him, and the Pleiads fly before him.

The Pleiads were daughters of Atlas, and nymphs of Diana's train.
One day Orion saw them and became enamoured and pursued them. In
their distress they prayed to the gods to change their form, and
Jupiter in pity turned them into pigeons, and then made them a
constellation in the sky. Though their number was seven, only six
stars are visible, for Electra, one of them, it is said left her
place that she might not behold the ruin of Troy, for that city
was founded by her son Dardanus. The sight had such an effect on
her sisters that they have looked pale ever since.

Mr. Longfellow has a poem on the "Occultation of Orion." The
following lines are those in which he alludes to the mythic story.
We must premise that on the celestial globe Orion is represented
as robed in a lion's skin and wielding a club. At the moment the
stars of the constellation, one by one, were quenched in the light
of the moon, the poet tells us

   "Down fell the red skin of the lion
    Into the river at his feet.
    His mighty club no longer beat
    The forehead of the bull; but he
    Reeled as of yore beside the sea,
    When blinded by Oenopion
      He sought the blacksmith at his forge,
      And climbing up the narrow gorge,
    Fixed his blank eyes upon the sun."

Tennyson has a different theory of the Pleiads:

   "Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow
      shade,
    Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid."

    --Locksley Hall.

Byron alludes to the lost Pleiad:

"Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below."

See also Mrs. Hemans's verses on the same subject.

AURORA AND TITHONUS

The goddess of the Dawn, like her sister the Moon, was at times
inspired with the love of mortals. Her greatest favorite was
Tithonus, son of Laomedon, king of Troy. She stole him away, and
prevailed on Jupiter to grant him immortality; but, forgetting to
have youth joined in the gift, after some time she began to
discern, to her great mortification, that he was growing old. When
his hair was quite white she left his society; but he still had
the range of her palace, lived on ambrosial food, and was clad in
celestial raiment. At length he lost the power of using his limbs,
and then she shut him up in his chamber, whence his feeble voice
might at times be heard. Finally she turned him into a
grasshopper.

Memnon was the son of Aurora and Tithonus. He was king of the
Aethiopians, and dwelt in the extreme east, on the shore of Ocean.
He came with his warriors to assist the kindred of his father in
the war of Troy. King Priam received him with great honors, and
listened with admiration to his narrative of the wonders of the
ocean shore.

The very day after his arrival, Memnon, impatient of repose, led
his troops to the field. Antilochus, the brave son of Nestor, fell
by his hand, and the Greeks were put to flight, when Achilles
appeared and restored the battle. A long and doubtful contest
ensued between him and the son of Aurora; at length victory
declared for Achilles, Memnon fell, and the Trojans fled in
dismay.

Aurora, who from her station in the sky had viewed with
apprehension the danger of her son, when she saw him fall,
directed his brothers, the Winds, to convey his body to the banks
of the river Esepus in Paphlagonia. In the evening Aurora came,
accompanied by the Hours and the Pleiads, and wept and lamented
over her son. Night, in sympathy with her grief, spread the heaven
with clouds; all nature mourned for the offspring of the Dawn. The
Aethiopians raised his tomb on the banks of the stream in the
grove of the Nymphs, and Jupiter caused the sparks and cinders of
his funeral pile to be turned into birds, which, dividing into two
flocks, fought over the pile till they fell into the flame. Every
year at the anniversary of his death they return and celebrate his
obsequies in like manner. Aurora remains inconsolable for the loss
of her son. Her tears still flow, and may be seen at early morning
in the form of dew-drops on the grass.

Unlike most of the marvels of ancient mythology, there still exist
some memorials of this. On the banks of the river Nile, in Egypt,
are two colossal statues, one of which is said to be the statue of
Memnon. Ancient writers record that when the first rays of the
rising sun fall upon this statue a sound is heard to issue from
it, which they compare to the snapping of a harp-string. There is
some doubt about the identification of the existing statue with
the one described by the ancients, and the mysterious sounds are
still more doubtful. Yet there are not wanting some modern
testimonies to their being still audible. It has been suggested
that sounds produced by confined air making its escape from
crevices or caverns in the rocks may have given some ground for
the story. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, a late traveller, of the highest
authority, examined the statue itself, and discovered that it was
hollow, and that "in the lap of the statue is a stone, which on
being struck emits a metallic sound, that might still be made use
of to deceive a visitor who was predisposed to believe its
powers."

The vocal statue of Memnon is a favorite subject of allusion with
the poets. Darwin, in his "Botanic Garden," says:

   "So to the sacred Sun in Memnon's fane
    Spontaneous concords choired the matin strain;
    Touched by his orient beam responsive rings
    The living lyre and vibrates all its strings;
    Accordant aisles the tender tones prolong,
    And holy echoes swell the adoring song."

Book I., 1., 182.

ACIS AND GALATEA

Scylla was a fair virgin of Sicily, a favorite of the Sea-Nymphs.
She had many suitors, but repelled them all, and would go to the
grotto of Galatea, and tell her how she was persecuted. One day
the goddess, while Scylla dressed her hair, listened to the story,
and then replied, "Yet, maiden, your persecutors are of the not
ungentle race of men, whom, if you will, you can repel; but I, the
daughter of Nereus, and protected by such a band of sisters, found
no escape from the passion of the Cyclops but in the depths of the
sea;" and tears stopped her utterance, which when the pitying
maiden had wiped away with her delicate finger, and soothed the
goddess, "Tell me, dearest," said she, "the cause of your grief."
Galatea then said, "Acis was the son of Faunus and a Naiad. His
father and mother loved him dearly, but their love was not equal
to mine. For the beautiful youth attached himself to me alone, and
he was just sixteen years old, the down just beginning to darken
his cheeks. As much as I sought his society, so much did the
Cyclops seek mine; and if you ask me whether my love for Acis or
my hatred of Polyphemus was the stronger, I cannot tell you; they
were in equal measure. O Venus, how great is thy power! this
fierce giant, the terror of the woods, whom no hapless stranger
escaped unharmed, who defied even Jove himself, learned to feel
what love was, and, touched with a passion for me, forgot his
flocks and his well-stored caverns. Then for the first time he
began to take some care of his appearance, and to try to make
himself agreeable; he harrowed those coarse locks of his with a
comb, and mowed his beard with a sickle, looked at his harsh
features in the water, and composed his countenance. His love of
slaughter, his fierceness and thirst of blood prevailed no more,
and ships that touched at his island went away in safety. He paced
up and down the sea-shore, imprinting huge tracks with his heavy
tread, and, when weary, lay tranquilly in his cave.

"There is a cliff which projects into the sea, which washes it on
either side. Thither one day the huge Cyclops ascended, and sat
down while his flocks spread themselves around. Laying down his
staff, which would have served for a mast to hold a vessel's sail,
and taking his instrument compacted of numerous pipes, he made the
hills and the waters echo the music of his song. I lay hid under a
rock by the side of my beloved Acis, and listened to the distant
strain. It was full of extravagant praises of my beauty, mingled
with passionate reproaches of my coldness and cruelty.

"When he had finished he rose up, and, like a raging bull that
cannot stand still, wandered off into the woods. Acis and I
thought no more of him, till on a sudden he came to a spot which
gave him a view of us as we sat. 'I see you,' he exclaimed, 'and I
will make this the last of your love-meetings.' His voice was a
roar such as an angry Cyclops alone could utter. Aetna trembled at
the sound. I, overcome with terror, plunged into the water. Acis
turned and fled, crying, 'Save me, Galatea, save me, my parents!'
The Cyclops pursued him, and tearing a rock from the side of the
mountain hurled it at him. Though only a corner of it touched him,
it overwhelmed him.

"All that fate left in my power I did for Acis. I endowed him with
the honors of his grandfather, the river-god. The purple blood
flowed out from under the rock, but by degrees grew paler and
looked like the stream of a river rendered turbid by rains, and in
time it became clear. The rock cleaved open, and the water, as it
gushed from the chasm, uttered a pleasing murmur."

Thus Acis was changed into a river, and the river retains the name
of Acis.

Dryden, in his "Cymon and Iphigenia," has told the story of a
clown converted into a gentleman by the power of love, in a way
that shows traces of kindred to the old story of Galatea and the
Cyclops.

   "What not his father's care nor tutor's art
    Could plant with pains in his unpolished heart,
    The best instructor, Love, at once inspired,
    As barren grounds to fruitfulness are fired.
    Love taught him shame, and shame with love at strife
    Soon taught the sweet civilities of life."





CHAPTER XXVII

THE TROJAN WAR


Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, but on one occasion she did a
very foolish thing; she entered into competition with Juno and
Venus for the prize of beauty. It happened thus: At the nuptials
of Peleus and Thetis all the gods were invited with the exception
of Eris, or Discord. Enraged at her exclusion, the goddess threw a
golden apple among the guests, with the inscription, "For the
fairest." Thereupon Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed the
apple. Jupiter, not willing to decide in so delicate a matter,
sent the goddesses to Mount Ida, where the beautiful shepherd
Paris was tending his flocks, and to him was committed the
decision. The goddesses accordingly appeared before him. Juno
promised him power and riches, Minerva glory and renown in war,
and Venus the fairest of women for his wife, each attempting to
bias his decision in her own favor. Paris decided in favor of
Venus and gave her the golden apple, thus making the two other
goddesses his enemies. Under the protection of Venus, Paris sailed
to Greece, and was hospitably received by Menelaus, king of
Sparta. Now Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was the very woman whom
Venus had destined for Paris, the fairest of her sex. She had been
sought as a bride by numerous suitors, and before her decision was
made known, they all, at the suggestion of Ulysses, one of their
number, took an oath that they would defend her from all injury
and avenge her cause if necessary. She chose Menelaus, and was
living with him happily when Paris became their guest. Paris,
aided by Venus, persuaded her to elope with him, and carried her
to Troy, whence arose the famous Trojan war, the theme of the
greatest poems of antiquity, those of Homer and Virgil.

Menelaus called upon his brother chieftains of Greece to fulfil
their pledge, and join him in his efforts to recover his wife.
They generally came forward, but Ulysses, who had married
Penelope, and was very happy in his wife and child, had no
disposition to embark in such a troublesome affair. He therefore
hung back and Palamedes was sent to urge him. When Palamedes
arrived at Ithaca Ulysses pretended to be mad. He yoked an ass and
an ox together to the plough and began to sow salt. Palamedes, to
try him, placed the infant Telemachus before the plough, whereupon
the father turned the plough aside, showing plainly that he was no
madman, and after that could no longer refuse to fulfil his
promise. Being now himself gained for the undertaking, he lent his
aid to bring in other reluctant chiefs, especially Achilles. This
hero was the son of that Thetis at whose marriage the apple of
Discord had been thrown among the goddesses. Thetis was herself
one of the immortals, a sea-nymph, and knowing that her son was
fated to perish before Troy if he went on the expedition, she
endeavored to prevent his going. She sent him away to the court of
King Lycomedes, and induced him to conceal himself in the disguise
of a maiden among the daughters of the king. Ulysses, hearing he
was there, went disguised as a merchant to the palace and offered
for sale female ornaments, among which he had placed some arms.
While the king's daughters were engrossed with the other contents
of the merchant's pack, Achilles handled the weapons and thereby
betrayed himself to the keen eye of Ulysses, who found no great
difficulty in persuading him to disregard his mother's prudent
counsels and join his countrymen in the war.

Priam was king of Troy, and Paris, the shepherd and seducer of
Helen, was his son. Paris had been brought up in obscurity,
because there were certain ominous forebodings connected with him
from his infancy that he would be the ruin of the state. These
forebodings seemed at length likely to be realized, for the
Grecian armament now in preparation was the greatest that had ever
been fitted out. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and brother of the
injured Menelaus, was chosen commander-in-chief. Achilles was
their most illustrious warrior. After him ranked Ajax, gigantic in
size and of great courage, but dull of intellect; Diomede, second
only to Achilles in all the qualities of a hero; Ulysses, famous
for his sagacity; and Nestor, the oldest of the Grecian chiefs,
and one to whom they all looked up for counsel. But Troy was no
feeble enemy. Priam, the king, was now old, but he had been a wise
prince and had strengthened his state by good government at home
and numerous alliances with his neighbors. But the principal stay
and support of his throne was his son Hector, one of the noblest
characters painted by heathen antiquity. He felt, from the first,
a presentiment of the fall of his country, but still persevered in
his heroic resistance, yet by no means justified the wrong which
brought this danger upon her. He was united in marriage with
Andromache, and as a husband and father his character was not less
admirable than as a warrior. The principal leaders on the side of
the Trojans, besides Hector, were Aeneas and Deiphobus, Glaucus
and Sarpedon.

After two years of preparation the Greek fleet and army assembled
in the port of Aulis in Boeotia. Here Agamemnon in hunting killed
a stag which was sacred to Diana, and the goddess in return
visited the army with pestilence, and produced a calm which
prevented the ships from leaving the port. Calchas, the
soothsayer, thereupon announced that the wrath of the virgin
goddess could only be appeased by the sacrifice of a virgin on her
altar, and that none other but the daughter of the offender would
be acceptable. Agamemnon, however reluctant, yielded his consent,
and the maiden Iphigenia was sent for under the pretence that she
was to be married to Achilles. When she was about to be sacrificed
the goddess relented and snatched her away, leaving a hind in her
place, and Iphigenia, enveloped in a cloud, was carried to Tauris,
where Diana made her priestess of her temple.

Tennyson, in his "Dream of Fair Women," makes Iphigenia thus
describe her feelings at the moment of sacrifice:

   "I was cut off from hope in that sad place,
      Which yet to name my spirit loathes and fears;
    My father held his hand upon his face;
      I, blinded by my tears,

   "Still strove to speak; my voice was thick with sighs,
      As in a dream. Dimly I could descry
    The stern black-bearded kings, with wolfish eyes,
      Waiting to see me die.

   "The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
      The temples and the people and the shore;
    One drew a sharp knife through my tender throat
      Slowly,--and--nothing more."

The wind now proving fair the fleet made sail and brought the
forces to the coast of Troy. The Trojans came to oppose their
landing, and at the first onset Protesilaus fell by the hand of
Hector. Protesilaus had left at home his wife, Laodamia, who was
most tenderly attached to him. When the news of his death reached
her she implored the gods to be allowed to converse with him only
three hours. The request was granted. Mercury led Protesilaus back
to the upper world, and when he died a second time Laodamia died
with him. There was a story that the nymphs planted elm trees
round his grave which grew very well till they were high enough to
command a view of Troy, and then withered away, while fresh
branches sprang from the roots.

Wordsworth has taken the story of Protesilaus and Laodamia for the
subject of a poem. It seems the oracle had declared that victory
should be the lot of that party from which should fall the first
victim to the war. The poet represents Protesilaus, on his brief
return to earth, as relating to Laodamia the story of his fate:

   "'The wished-for wind was given; I then revolved
      The oracle, upon the silent sea;
    And if no worthier led the way, resolved
      That of a thousand vessels mine should be
    The foremost prow impressing to the strand,--
    Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.

   "'Yet bitter, ofttimes bitter was the pang
      When of thy loss I thought, beloved wife!
    On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
      And on the joys we shared in mortal life,
    The paths which we had trod,--these fountains, flowers;
    My new planned cities and unfinished towers.

   "'But should suspense permit the foe to cry,
      "Behold they tremble! haughty their array,
    Yet of their number no one dares to die?"
      In soul I swept the indignity away:
    Old frailties then recurred: but lofty thought
    In act embodied my deliverance wrought.'

   "... upon the side
      Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
    A knot of spiry trees for ages grew
      From out the tomb of him for whom she died;
      And ever when such stature they had gained
    That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
    The trees' tall summits withered at the sight,
    A constant interchange of growth and blight!"

"THE ILIAD"

The war continued without decisive results for nine years. Then an
event occurred which seemed likely to be fatal to the cause of the
Greeks, and that was a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. It
is at this point that the great poem of Homer, "The Iliad,"
begins. The Greeks, though unsuccessful against Troy, had taken
the neighboring and allied cities, and in the division of the
spoil a female captive, by name Chryseis, daughter of Chryses,
priest of Apollo, had fallen to the share of Agamemnon. Chryses
came bearing the sacred emblems of his office, and begged the
release of his daughter. Agamemnon refused. Thereupon Chryses
implored Apollo to afflict the Greeks till they should be forced
to yield their prey. Apollo granted the prayer of his priest, and
sent pestilence into the Grecian camp. Then a council was called
to deliberate how to allay the wrath of the gods and avert the
plague. Achilles boldly charged their misfortunes upon Agamemnon
as caused by his withholding Chryseis. Agamemnon, enraged,
consented to relinquish his captive, but demanded that Achilles
should yield to him in her stead Briseis, a maiden who had fallen
to Achilles' share in the division of the spoil. Achilles
submitted, but forthwith declared that he would take no further
part in the war. He withdrew his forces from the general camp and
openly avowed his intention of returning home to Greece.

The gods and goddesses interested themselves as much in this
famous war as the parties themselves. It was well known to them
that fate had decreed that Troy should fall, at last, if her
enemies should persevere and not voluntarily abandon the
enterprise. Yet there was room enough left for chance to excite by
turns the hopes and fears of the powers above who took part with
either side. Juno and Minerva, in consequence of the slight put
upon their charms by Paris, were hostile to the Trojans; Venus for
the opposite cause favored them. Venus enlisted her admirer Mars
on the same side, but Neptune favored the Greeks. Apollo was
neutral, sometimes taking one side, sometimes the other, and Jove
himself, though he loved the good King Priam, yet exercised a
degree of impartiality; not, however, without exceptions.

Thetis, the mother of Achilles, warmly resented the injury done to
her son. She repaired immediately to Jove's palace and besought
him to make the Greeks repent of their injustice to Achilles by
granting success to the Trojan arms. Jupiter consented, and in the
battle which ensued the Trojans were completely successful. The
Greeks were driven from the field and took refuge in their ships.

Then Agamemnon called a council of his wisest and bravest chiefs.
Nestor advised that an embassy should be sent to Achilles to
persuade him to return to the field; that Agamemnon should yield
the maiden, the cause of the dispute, with ample gifts to atone
for the wrong he had done. Agamemnon consented, and Ulysses, Ajax,
and Phoenix were sent to carry to Achilles the penitent message.
They performed that duty, but Achilles was deaf to their
entreaties. He positively refused to return to the field, and
persisted in his resolution to embark for Greece without delay.

The Greeks had constructed a rampart around their ships, and now
instead of besieging Troy they were in a manner besieged
themselves, within their rampart. The next day after the
unsuccessful embassy to Achilles, a battle was fought, and the
Trojans, favored by Jove, were successful, and succeeded in
forcing a passage through the Grecian rampart, and were about to
set fire to the ships. Neptune, seeing the Greeks so pressed, came
to their rescue. He appeared in the form of Calchas the prophet,
encouraged the warriors with his shouts, and appealed to each
individually till he raised their ardor to such a pitch that they
forced the Trojans to give way. Ajax performed prodigies of valor,
and at length encountered Hector. Ajax shouted defiance, to which
Hector replied, and hurled his lance at the huge warrior. It was
well aimed and struck Ajax, where the belts that bore his sword
and shield crossed each other on the breast. The double guard
prevented its penetrating and it fell harmless. Then Ajax, seizing
a huge stone, one of those that served to prop the ships, hurled
it at Hector. It struck him in the neck and stretched him on the
plain. His followers instantly seized him and bore him off,
stunned and wounded.

While Neptune was thus aiding the Greeks and driving back the
Trojans, Jupiter saw nothing of what was going on, for his
attention had been drawn from the field by the wiles of Juno. That
goddess had arrayed herself in all her charms, and to crown all
had borrowed of Venus her girdle, called "Cestus," which had the
effect to heighten the wearer's charms to such a degree that they
were quite irresistible. So prepared, Juno went to join her
husband, who sat on Olympus watching the battle. When he beheld
her she looked so charming that the fondness of his early love
revived, and, forgetting the contending armies and all other
affairs of state, he thought only of her and let the battle go as
it would.

But this absorption did not continue long, and when, upon turning
his eyes downward, he beheld Hector stretched on the plain almost
lifeless from pain and bruises, he dismissed Juno in a rage,
commanding her to send Iris and Apollo to him. When Iris came he
sent her with a stern message to Neptune, ordering him instantly
to quit the field. Apollo was despatched to heal Hector's bruises
and to inspirit his heart. These orders were obeyed with such
speed that, while the battle still raged, Hector returned to the
field and Neptune betook himself to his own dominions.

An arrow from Paris's bow wounded Machaon, son of Aesculapius, who
inherited his father's art of healing, and was therefore of great
value to the Greeks as their surgeon, besides being one of their
bravest warriors. Nestor took Machaon in his chariot and conveyed
him from the field. As they passed the ships of Achilles, that
hero, looking out over the field, saw the chariot of Nestor and
recognized the old chief, but could not discern who the wounded
chief was. So calling Patroclus, his companion and dearest friend,
he sent him to Nestor's tent to inquire.

Patroclus, arriving at Nestor's tent, saw Machaon wounded, and
having told the cause of his coming would have hastened away, but
Nestor detained him, to tell him the extent of the Grecian
calamities. He reminded him also how, at the time of departing for
Troy, Achilles and himself had been charged by their respective
fathers with different advice: Achilles to aspire to the highest
pitch of glory, Patroclus, as the elder, to keep watch over his
friend, and to guide his inexperience. "Now," said Nestor, "is the
time for such influence. If the gods so please, thou mayest win
him back to the common cause; but if not let him at least send his
soldiers to the field, and come thou, Patroclus, clad in his
armor, and perhaps the very sight of it may drive back the
Trojans."

Patroclus was strongly moved with this address, and hastened back
to Achilles, revolving in his mind all he had seen and heard. He
told the prince the sad condition of affairs at the camp of their
late associates: Diomede, Ulysses, Agamemnon, Machaon, all
wounded, the rampart broken down, the enemy among the ships
preparing to burn them, and thus to cut off all means of return to
Greece. While they spoke the flames burst forth from one of the
ships. Achilles, at the sight, relented so far as to grant
Patroclus his request to lead the Myrmidons (for so were Achilles'
soldiers called) to the field, and to lend him his armor, that he
might thereby strike more terror into the minds of the Trojans.
Without delay the soldiers were marshalled, Patroclus put on the
radiant armor and mounted the chariot of Achilles, and led forth
the men ardent for battle. But before he went, Achilles strictly
charged him that he should be content with repelling the foe "Seek
not," said he, "to press the Trojans without me, lest thou add
still more to the disgrace already mine." Then exhorting the
troops to do their best he dismissed them full of ardor to the
fight.

Patroclus and his Myrmidons at once plunged into the contest where
it raged hottest; at the sight of which the joyful Grecians
shouted and the ships reechoed the acclaim. The Trojans, at the
sight of the well-known armor, struck with terror, looked
everywhere for refuge. First those who had got possession of the
ship and set it on fire left and allowed the Grecians to retake it
and extinguish the flames. Then the rest of the Trojans fled in
dismay. Ajax, Menelaus, and the two sons of Nestor performed
prodigies of valor. Hector was forced to turn his horses' heads
and retire from the enclosure, leaving his men entangled in the
fosse to escape as they could. Patroclus drove them before him,
slaying many, none daring to make a stand against him.

At last Sarpedon, son of Jove, ventured to oppose himself in fight
to Patroclus. Jupiter looked down upon him and would have snatched
him from the fate which awaited him, but Juno hinted that if he
did so it would induce all others of the inhabitants of heaven to
interpose in like manner whenever any of their offspring were
endangered; to which reason Jove yielded. Sarpedon threw his
spear, but missed Patroclus, but Patroclus threw his with better
success. It pierced Sarpedon's breast and he fell, and, calling to
his friends to save his body from the foe, expired. Then a furious
contest arose for the possession of the corpse. The Greeks
succeeded and stripped Sarpedon of his armor; but Jove would not
allow the remains of his son to be dishonored, and by his command
Apollo snatched from the midst of the combatants the body of
Sarpedon and committed it to the care of the twin brothers Death
and Sleep, by whom it was transported to Lycia, the native land of
Sarpedon, where it received due funeral rites.

Thus far Patroclus had succeeded to his utmost wish in repelling
the Trojans and relieving his countrymen, but now came a change of
fortune. Hector, borne in his chariot, confronted him. Patroclus
threw a vast stone at Hector, which missed its aim, but smote
Cebriones, the charioteer, and knocked him from the car. Hector
leaped from the chariot to rescue his friend, and Patroclus also
descended to complete his victory. Thus the two heroes met face to
face. At this decisive moment the poet, as if reluctant to give
Hector the glory, records that Phoebus took part against
Patroclus. He struck the helmet from his head and the lance from
his hand. At the same moment an obscure Trojan wounded him in the
back, and Hector, pressing forward, pierced him with his spear. He
fell mortally wounded.

Then arose a tremendous conflict for the body of Patroclus, but
his armor was at once taken possession of by Hector, who retiring
a short distance divested himself of his own armor and put on that
of Achilles, then returned to the fight. Ajax and Menelaus
defended the body, and Hector and his bravest warriors struggled
to capture it. The battle raged with equal fortunes, when Jove
enveloped the whole face of heaven with a dark cloud. The
lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and Ajax, looking round for
some one whom he might despatch to Achilles to tell him of the
death of his friend, and of the imminent danger that his remains
would fall into the hands of the enemy, could see no suitable
messenger. It was then that he exclaimed in those famous lines so
often quoted,

    "Father of heaven and earth! deliver thou
    Achaia's host from darkness; clear the skies;
    Give day; and, since thy sovereign will is such,
    Destruction with it; but, O, give us day."

    --Cowper.

Or, as rendered by Pope,

    "... Lord of earth and air!
    O king! O father! hear my humble prayer!
    Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore;
    Give me to see and Ajax asks no more;
    If Greece must perish we thy will obey,
    But let us perish in the face of day."

Jupiter heard the prayer and dispersed the clouds. Then Ajax sent
Antilochus to Achilles with the intelligence of Patroclus's death,
and of the conflict raging for his remains. The Greeks at last
succeeded in bearing off the body to the ships, closely pursued by
Hector and Aeneas and the rest of the Trojans.

Achilles heard the fate of his friend with such distress that
Antilochus feared for a while that he would destroy himself. His
groans reached the ears of his mother, Thetis, far down in the
deeps of ocean where she abode, and she hastened to him to inquire
the cause. She found him overwhelmed with self-reproach that he
had indulged his resentment so far, and suffered his friend to
fall a victim to it. But his only consolation was the hope of
revenge. He would fly instantly in search of Hector. But his
mother reminded him that he was now without armor, and promised
him, if he would but wait till the morrow, she would procure for
him a suit of armor from Vulcan more than equal to that he had
lost. He consented, and Thetis immediately repaired to Vulcan's
palace. She found him busy at his forge making tripods for his own
use, so artfully constructed that they moved forward of their own
accord when wanted, and retired again when dismissed. On hearing
the request of Thetis, Vulcan immediately laid aside his work and
hastened to comply with her wishes. He fabricated a splendid suit
of armor for Achilles, first a shield adorned with elaborate
devices, then a helmet crested with gold, then a corselet and
greaves of impenetrable temper, all perfectly adapted to his form,
and of consummate workmanship. It was all done in one night, and
Thetis, receiving it, descended with it to earth, and laid it down
at Achilles' feet at the dawn of day.

The first glow of pleasure that Achilles had felt since the death
of Patroclus was at the sight of this splendid armor. And now,
arrayed in it, he went forth into the camp, calling all the chiefs
to council. When they were all assembled he addressed them.
Renouncing his displeasure against Agamemnon and bitterly
lamenting the miseries that had resulted from it, he called on
them to proceed at once to the field. Agamemnon made a suitable
reply, laying all the blame on Ate, the goddess of discord; and
thereupon complete reconcilement took place between the heroes.

Then Achilles went forth to battle inspired with a rage and thirst
for vengeance that made him irresistible. The bravest warriors
fled before him or fell by his lance. Hector, cautioned by Apollo,
kept aloof; but the god, assuming the form of one of Priam's sons,
Lycaon, urged Aeneas to encounter the terrible warrior. Aeneas,
though he felt himself unequal, did not decline the combat. He
hurled his spear with all his force against the shield the work of
Vulcan. It was formed of five metal plates; two were of brass, two
of tin, and one of gold. The spear pierced two thicknesses, but
was stopped in the third. Achilles threw his with better success.
It pierced through the shield of Aeneas, but glanced near his
shoulder and made no wound. Then Aeneas seized a stone, such as
two men of modern times could hardly lift, and was about to throw
it, and Achilles, with sword drawn, was about to rush upon him,
when Neptune, who looked out upon the contest, moved with pity for
Aeneas, who he saw would surely fall a victim if not speedily
rescued, spread a cloud between the combatants, and lifting Aeneas
from the ground, bore him over the heads of warriors and steeds to
the rear of the battle. Achilles, when the mist cleared away,
looked round in vain for his adversary, and acknowledging the
prodigy, turned his arms against other champions. But none dared
stand before him, and Priam looking down from the city walls
beheld his whole army in full flight towards the city. He gave
command to open wide the gates to receive the fugitives, and to
shut them as soon as the Trojans should have passed, lest the
enemy should enter likewise. But Achilles was so close in pursuit
that that would have been impossible if Apollo had not, in the
form of Agenor, Priam's son, encountered Achilles for a while,
then turned to fly, and taken the way apart from the city.
Achilles pursued and had chased his supposed victim far from the
walls, when Apollo disclosed himself, and Achilles, perceiving how
he had been deluded, gave up the chase.

But when the rest had escaped into the town Hector stood without
determined to await the combat. His old father called to him from
the walls and begged him to retire nor tempt the encounter. His
mother, Hecuba, also besought him to the same effect, but all in
vain. "How can I," said he to himself, "by whose command the
people went to this day's contest, where so many have fallen, seek
safety for myself against a single foe? But what if I offer him to
yield up Helen and all her treasures and ample of our own beside?
Ah, no! it is too late. He would not even hear me through, but
slay me while I spoke." While he thus ruminated. Achilles
approached, terrible as Mars, his armor flashing lightning as he
moved. At that sight Hector's heart failed him and he fled.
Achilles swiftly pursued. They ran, still keeping near the walls,
till they had thrice encircled the city. As often as Hector
approached the walls Achilles intercepted him and forced him to
keep out in a wider circle. But Apollo sustained Hector's strength
and would not let him sink in weariness. Then Pallas, assuming the
form of Deiphobus, Hector's bravest brother, appeared suddenly at
his side. Hector saw him with delight, and thus strengthened
stopped his flight and turned to meet Achilles. Hector threw his
spear, which struck the shield of Achilles and bounded back. He
turned to receive another from the hand of Deiphobus, but
Deiphobus was gone. Then Hector understood his doom and said,
"Alas! it is plain this is my hour to die! I thought Deiphobus at
hand, but Pallas deceived me, and he is still in Troy. But I will
not fall inglorious," So saying he drew his falchion from his side
and rushed at once to combat. Achilles, secured behind his shield,
waited the approach of Hector. When he came within reach of his
spear, Achilles choosing with his eye a vulnerable part where the
armor leaves the neck uncovered, aimed his spear at that part and
Hector fell, death-wounded, and feebly said, "Spare my body! Let
my parents ransom it, and let me receive funeral rites from the
sons and daughters of Troy." To which Achilles replied, "Dog, name
not ransom nor pity to me, on whom you have brought such dire
distress. No! trust me, naught shall save thy carcass from the
dogs. Though twenty ransoms and thy weight in gold were offered, I
would refuse it all."

So saying he stripped the body of its armor, and fastening cords
to the feet tied them behind his chariot, leaving the body to
trail along the ground. Then mounting the chariot he lashed the
steeds and so dragged the body to and fro before the city. What
words can tell the grief of King Priam and Queen Hecuba at this
sight! His people could scarce restrain the old king from rushing
forth. He threw himself in the dust and besought them each by name
to give him way. Hecuba's distress was not less violent. The
citizens stood round them weeping. The sound of the mourning
reached the ears of Andromache, the wife of Hector, as she sat
among her maidens at work, and anticipating evil she went forth to
the wall. When she saw the sight there presented, she would have
thrown herself headlong from the wall, but fainted and fell into
the arms of her maidens. Recovering, she bewailed her fate,
picturing to herself her country ruined, herself a captive, and
her son dependent for his bread on the charity of strangers.

When Achilles and the Greeks had taken their revenge on the killer
of Patroclus they busied themselves in paying due funeral rites to
their friend. A pile was erected, and the body burned with due
solemnity; and then ensued games of strength and skill, chariot
races, wrestling, boxing, and archery. Then the chiefs sat down to
the funeral banquet and after that retired to rest. But Achilles
neither partook of the feast nor of sleep. The recollection of his
lost friend kept him awake, remembering their companionship in
toil and dangers, in battle or on the perilous deep. Before the
earliest dawn he left his tent, and joining to his chariot his
swift steeds, he fastened Hector's body to be dragged behind.
Twice he dragged him around the tomb of Patroclus, leaving him at
length stretched in the dust. But Apollo would not permit the body
to be torn or disfigured with all this abuse, but preserved it
free from all taint or defilement.

While Achilles indulged his wrath in thus disgracing brave Hector,
Jupiter in pity summoned Thetis to his presence. He told her to go
to her son and prevail on him to restore the body of Hector to his
friends. Then Jupiter sent Iris to King Priam to encourage him to
go to Achilles and beg the body of his son. Iris delivered her
message, and Priam immediately prepared to obey. He opened his
treasuries and took out rich garments and cloths, with ten talents
in gold and two splendid tripods and a golden cup of matchless
workmanship. Then he called to his sons and bade them draw forth
his litter and place in it the various articles designed for a
ransom to Achilles. When all was ready, the old king with a single
companion as aged as himself, the herald Idaeus, drove forth from
the gates, parting there with Hecuba, his queen, and all his
friends, who lamented him as going to certain death.

But Jupiter, beholding with compassion the venerable king, sent
Mercury to be his guide and protector. Mercury, assuming the form
of a young warrior, presented himself to the aged couple, and
while at the sight of him they hesitated whether to fly or yield,
the god approached, and grasping Priam's hand offered to be their
guide to Achilles' tent. Priam gladly accepted his offered
service, and he, mounting the carriage, assumed the reins and soon
conveyed them to the tent of Achilles. Mercury's wand put to sleep
all the guards, and without hinderance he introduced Priam into
the tent where Achilles sat, attended by two of his warriors. The
old king threw himself at the feet of Achilles, and kissed those
terrible hands which had destroyed so many of his sons. "Think, O
Achilles," he said, "of thy own father, full of days like me, and
trembling on the gloomy verge of life. Perhaps even now some
neighbor chief oppresses him and there is none at hand to succor
him in his distress. Yet doubtless knowing that Achilles lives he
still rejoices, hoping that one day he shall see thy face again.
But no comfort cheers me, whose bravest sons, so late the flower
of Ilium, all have fallen. Yet one I had, one more than all the
rest the strength of my age, whom, fighting for his country, thou
hast slain. I come to redeem his body, bringing inestimable ransom
with me. Achilles! reverence the gods! recollect thy father! for
his sake show compassion to me!" These words moved Achilles, and
he wept; remembering by turns his absent father and his lost
friend. Moved with pity of Priam's silver locks and beard, he
raised him from the earth, and thus spake: "Priam, I know that
thou hast reached this place conducted by some god, for without
aid divine no mortal even in his prime of youth had dared the
attempt. I grant thy request, moved thereto by the evident will of
Jove." So saying he arose, and went forth with his two friends,
and unloaded of its charge the litter, leaving two mantles and a
robe for the covering of the body, which they placed on the
litter, and spread the garments over it, that not unveiled it
should be borne back to Troy. Then Achilles dismissed the old king
with his attendants, having first pledged himself to allow a truce
of twelve days for the funeral solemnities.

As the litter approached the city and was descried from the walls,
the people poured forth to gaze once more on the face of their
hero. Foremost of all, the mother and the wife of Hector came, and
at the sight of the lifeless body renewed their lamentations. The
people all wept with them, and to the going down of the sun there
was no pause or abatement of their grief.

The next day preparations were made for the funeral solemnities.
For nine days the people brought wood and built the pile, and on
the tenth they placed the body on the summit and applied the
torch; while all Troy thronging forth encompassed the pile. When
it had completely burned, they quenched the cinders with wine,
collected the bones and placed them in a golden urn, which they
buried in the earth, and reared a pile of stones over the spot.

    "Such honors Ilium to her hero paid,
    And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade."

    --Pope.





CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FALL OF TROY--RETURN OF THE GREEKS--ORESTES AND ELECTRA

THE FALL OF TROY


The story of the Iliad ends with the death of Hector, and it is
from the Odyssey and later poems that we learn the fate of the
other heroes. After the death of Hector, Troy did not immediately
fall, but receiving aid from new allies still continued its
resistance. One of these allies was Memnon, the Aethiopian prince,
whose story we have already told. Another was Penthesilea, queen
of the Amazons, who came with a band of female warriors. All the
authorities attest their valor and the fearful effect of their war
cry. Penthesilea slew many of the bravest warriors, but was at
last slain by Achilles. But when the hero bent over his fallen
foe, and contemplated her beauty, youth, and valor, he bitterly
regretted his victory. Thersites, an insolent brawler and
demagogue, ridiculed his grief, and was in consequence slain by
the hero.

Achilles by chance had seen Polyxena, daughter of King Priam,
perhaps on the occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans
for the burial of Hector. He was captivated with her charms, and
to win her in marriage agreed to use his influence with the Greeks
to grant peace to Troy. While in the temple of Apollo, negotiating
the marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which,
guided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel, the only
vulnerable part about him. For Thetis his mother had dipped him
when an infant in the river Styx, which made every part of him
invulnerable except the heel by which she held him. [Footnote 1:
The story of the invulnerability of Achilles is not found in
Homer, and is inconsistent with his account. For how could
Achilles require the aid of celestial armor if be were
invulnerable?]

The body of Achilles so treacherously slain was rescued by Ajax
and Ulysses. Thetis directed the Greeks to bestow her son's armor
on the hero who of all the survivors should be judged most
deserving of it. Ajax and Ulysses were the only claimants; a
select number of the other chiefs were appointed to award the
prize. It was awarded to Ulysses, thus placing wisdom before
valor; whereupon Ajax slew himself. On the spot where his blood
sank into the earth a flower sprang up, called the hyacinth,
bearing on its leaves the first two letters of the name of Ajax,
Ai, the Greek for "woe." Thus Ajax is a claimant with the boy
Hyacinthus for the honor of giving birth to this flower. There is
a species of Larkspur which represents the hyacinth of the poets
in preserving the memory of this event, the Delphinium Ajacis--
Ajax's Larkspur.

It was now discovered that Troy could not be taken but by the aid
of the arrows of Hercules. They were in possession of Philoctetes,
the friend who had been with Hercules at the last and lighted his
funeral pyre. Philoctetes had joined the Grecian expedition
against Troy, but had accidentally wounded his foot with one of
the poisoned arrows, and the smell from his wound proved so
offensive that his companions carried him to the isle of Lemnos
and left him there. Diomed was now sent to induce him to rejoin
the army. He sukcceeded. Philoctetes was cured of his wound by
Machaon, and Paris was the first victim of the fatal arrows. In
his distress Paris bethought him of one whom in his prosperity he
had forgotten. This was the nymph OEnone, whom he had married when
a youth, and had abandoned for the fatal beauty Helen. OEnone,
remembering the wrongs she had suffered, refused to heal the
wound, and Paris went back to Troy and died. OEnone quickly
repented, and hastened after him with remedies, but came too late,
and in her grief hung herself. [Footnote 1: Tennyson has chosen
OEnone as the subject of a short poem; but he has omitted the most
poetical part of the story, the return of Paris wounded, her
cruelty and subsequent repentance.]

There was in Troy a celebrated statue of Minerva called the
Palladium. It was said to have fallen from heaven, and the belief
was that the city could not be taken so long as this statue
remained within it. Ulysses and Diomed entered the city in
disguise and succeeded in obtaining the Palladium, which they
carried off to the Grecian camp.

But Troy still held out, and the Greeks began to despair of ever
subduing it by force, and by advice of Ulysses resolved to resort
to stratagem. They pretended to be making preparations to abandon
the siege, and a portion of the ships were withdrawn and lay hid
behind a neighboring island. The Greeks then constructed an
immense WOODEN HORSE, which they gave out was intended as a
propitiatory offering to Minerva, but in fact was filled with
armed men. The remaining Greeks then betook themselves to their
ships and sailed away, as if for a final departure. The Trojans,
seeing the encampment broken up and the fleet gone, concluded the
enemy to have abandoned the siege. The gates were thrown open, and
the whole population issued forth rejoicing at the long-prohibited
liberty of passing freely over the scene of the late encampment.
The great HORSE was the chief object of curiosity. All wondered
what it could be for. Some recommended to take it into the city as
a trophy; others felt afraid of it.

While they hesitate, Laocoon, the priest of Neptune exclaims,
"What madness, citizens, is this? Have you not learned enough of
Grecian fraud to be on your guard against it? For my part, I fear
the Greeks even when they offer gifts." [Footnote: See Proverbial
Expressions.] So saying he threw his lance at the horse's side. It
struck, and a hollow sound reverberated like a groan. Then perhaps
the people might have taken his advice and destroyed the fatal
horse and all its contents; but just at that moment a group of
people appeared, dragging forward one who seemed a prisoner and a
Greek. Stupefied with terror, he was brought before the chiefs,
who reassured him, promising that his life should be spared on
condition of his returning true answers to the questions asked
him. He informed them that he was a Greek, Sinon by name, and that
in consequence of the malice of Ulysses he had been left behind by
his countrymen at their departure. With regard to the wooden
horse, he told them that it was a propitiatory offering to
Minerva, and made so huge for the express purpose of preventing
its being carried within the city; for Calchas the prophet had
told them that if the Trojans took possession of it they would
assuredly triumph over the Greeks. This language turned the tide
of the people's feelings and they began to think how they might
best secure the monstrous horse and the favorable auguries
connected with it, when suddenly a prodigy occurred which left no
room to doubt. There appeared, advancing over the sea, two immense
serpents. They came upon the land, and the crowd fled in all
directions. The serpents advanced directly to the spot where
Laocoon stood with his two sons. They first attacked the children,
winding round their bodies and breathing their pestilential breath
in their faces. The father, attempting to rescue them, is next
seized and involved in the serpents' coils. He struggles to tear
them away, but they overpower all his efforts and strangle him and
the children in their poisonous folds. This event was regarded as
a clear indication of the displeasure of the gods at Laocoon's
irreverent treatment of the wooden horse, which they no longer
hesitated to regard as a sacred object, and prepared to introduce
with due solemnity into the city. This was done with songs and
triumphal acclamations, and the day closed with festivity. In the
night the armed men who were enclosed in the body of the horse,
being let out by the traitor Sinon, opened the gates of the city
to their friends, who had returned under cover of the night. The
city was set on fire; the people, overcome with feasting and
sleep, put to the sword, and Troy completely subdued.

One of the most celebrated groups of statuary in existence is that
of Laocoon and his children in the embrace of the serpents. A cast
of it is owned by the Boston Athenaeum; the original is in the
Vatican at Rome. The following lines are from the "Childe Harold"
of Byron:

    "Now turning to the Vatican go see
    Laocoon's torture dignifying pain;
    A father's love and mortal's agony
    With an immortal's patience blending;--vain
    The struggle! vain against the coiling strain
    And gripe and deepening of the dragon's grasp
    The old man's clinch; the long envenomed chain
    Rivets the living links; the enormous asp
    Enforces pang on pang and stifles gasp on gasp."

The comic poets will also occasionally borrow a classical
allusion. The following is from Swift's "Description of a City
Shower":

    "Boxed in a chair the beau impatient sits,
    While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits,
    And ever and anon with frightful din
    The leather sounds; he trembles from within.
    So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed
    Pregnant with Greeks impatient to be freed,
    (Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
    Instead of paying chairmen, run them through);
    Laocoon struck the outside with a spear,
    And each imprisoned champion quaked with fear."

King Priam lived to see the downfall of his kingdom and was slain
at last on the fatal night when the Greeks took the city. He had
armed himself and was about to mingle with the combatants, but was
prevailed on by Hecuba, his aged queen, to take refuge with
herself and his daughters as a suppliant at the altar of Jupiter.
While there, his youngest son Polites, pursued by Pyrrhus, the son
of Achilles, rushed in wounded, and expired at the feet of his
father; whereupon Priam, overcome with indignation, hurled his
spear with feeble hand against Pyrrhus, [Footnote 1: Pyrrhus's
exclamation, "Not such aid nor such defenders does the time
require," has become proverbial. See Proverbial Expressions.] and
was forthwith slain by him.

Queen Hecuba and her daughter Cassandra were carried captives to
Greece. Cassandra had been loved by Apollo, and he gave her the
gift of prophecy; but afterwards offended with her, he rendered
the gift unavailing by ordaining that her predictions should never
be believed. Polyxena, another daughter, who had been loved by
Achilles, was demanded by the ghost of that warrior, and was
sacrificed by the Greeks upon his tomb.

MENELAUS AND HELEN

Our readers will be anxious to know the fate of Helen, the fair
but guilty occasion of so much slaughter. On the fall of Troy
Menelaus recovered possession of his wife, who had not ceased to
love him, though she had yielded to the might of Venus and
deserted him for another. After the death of Paris she aided the
Greeks secretly on several occasions, and in particular when
Ulysses and Diomed entered the city in disguise to carry off the
Palladium. She saw and recognized Ulysses, but kept the secret and
even assisted them in obtaining the image. Thus she became
reconciled to her husband, and they were among the first to leave
the shores of Troy for their native land. But having incurred the
displeasure of the gods they were driven by storms from shore to
shore of the Mediterranean, visiting Cyprus, Phoenicia, and Egypt.
In Egypt they were kindly treated and presented with rich gifts,
of which Helen's share was a golden spindle and a basket on
wheels. The basket was to hold the wool and spools for the queen's
work.

Dyer, in his poem of the "Fleece," thus alludes to this incident:

    "... many yet adhere
    To the ancient distaff, at the bosom fixed,
    Casting the whirling spindle as they walk.

    This was of old, in no inglorious days,
    The mode of spinning, when the Egyptian prince
    A golden distaff gave that beauteous nymph,
    Too beauteous Helen; no uncourtly gift."

Milton also alludes to a famous recipe for an invigorating
draught, called Nepenthe, which the Egyptian queen gave to Helen:

    "Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
    In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena,
    Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
    To life so friendly or so cool to thirst."

    --Comus.

Menelaus and Helen at length arrived in safety at Sparta, resumed
their royal dignity, and lived and reigned in splendor; and when
Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, in search of his father, arrived
at Sparta, he found Menelaus and Helen celebrating the marriage of
their daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles.

AGAMEMNON, ORESTES, AND ELECTRA

Agamemnon, the general-in-chief of the Greeks, the brother of
Menelaus, and who had been drawn into the quarrel to avenge his
brother's wrongs, not his own, was not so fortunate in the issue.
During his absence his wife Clytemnestra had been false to him,
and when his return was expected, she with her paramour,
Aegisthus, laid a plan for his destruction, and at the banquet
given to celebrate his return, murdered him.

It was intended by the conspirators to slay his son Orestes also,
a lad not yet old enough to be an object of apprehension, but from
whom, if he should be suffered to grow up, there might be danger.
Electra, the sister of Orestes, saved her brother's life by
sending him secretly away to his uncle Strophius, King of Phocis.
In the palace of Strophius Orestes grew up with the king's son
Pylades, and formed with him that ardent friendship which has
become proverbial. Electra frequently reminded her brother by
messengers of the duty of avenging his father's death, and when
grown up he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which confirmed him in
his design. He therefore repaired in disguise to Argos, pretending
to be a messenger from Strophius, who had come to announce the
death of Orestes, and brought the ashes of the deceased in a
funeral urn. After visiting his father's tomb and sacrificing upon
it, according to the rites of the ancients, he made himself known
to his sister Electra, and soon after slew both Aegisthus and
Clytemnestra.

This revolting act, the slaughter of a mother by her son, though
alleviated by the guilt of the victim and the express command of
the gods, did not fail to awaken in the breasts of the ancients
the same abhorrence that it does in ours. The Eumenides, avenging
deities, seized upon Orestes, and drove him frantic from land to
land. Pylades accompanied him in his wanderings and watched over
him. At length, in answer to a second appeal to the oracle, he was
directed to go to Tauris in Scythia, and to bring thence a statue
of Diana which was believed to have fallen from heaven.
Accordingly Orestes and Pylades went to Tauris, where the
barbarous people were accustomed to sacrifice to the goddess all
strangers who fell into their hands. The two friends were seized
and carried bound to the temple to be made victims. But the
priestess of Diana was no other than Iphigenia, the sister of
Orestes, who, our readers will remember, was snatched away by
Diana at the moment when she was about to be sacrificed.
Ascertaining from the prisoners who they were, Iphigenia disclosed
herself to them, and the three made their escape with the statue
of the goddess, and returned to Mycenae.

But Orestes was not yet relieved from the vengeance of the
Erinyes. At length he took refuge with Minerva at Athens. The
goddess afforded him protection, and appointed the court of
Areopagus to decide his fate. The Erinyes brought forward their
accusation, and Orestes made the command of the Delphic oracle his
excuse. When the court voted and the voices were equally divided,
Orestes was acquitted by the command of Minerva.

Byron, in "Childe Harold," Canto IV., alludes to the story of
Orestes:

    "O thou who never yet of human wrong
    Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!
    Thou who didst call the Furies from the abyss,
    And round Orestes bade them howl and hiss,
    For that unnatural retribution,--just,
    Had it but been from hands less near,--in this,
    Thy former realm, I call thee from the dust!"

One of the most pathetic scenes in the ancient drama is that in
which Sophocles represents the meeting of Orestes and Electra, on
his return from Phocis. Orestes, mistaking Electra for one of the
domestics, and desirous of keeping his arrival a secret till the
hour of vengeance should arrive, produces the urn in which his
ashes are supposed to rest. Electra, believing him to be really
dead, takes the urn and, embracing it, pours forth her grief in
language full of tenderness and despair.

Milton, in one of his sonnets, says:

    "... The repeated air
    Of sad Electra's poet had the power
    To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare."

This alludes to the story that when, on one occasion, the city of
Athens was at the mercy of her Spartan foes, and it was proposed
to destroy it, the thought was rejected upon the accidental
quotation, by some one, of a chorus of Euripides.

TROY

The facts relating to the city of Troy are still unknown to
history. Antiquarians have long sought for the actual city and
some record of its rulers. The most interesting explorations were
those conducted about 1890 by the German scholar, Henry
Schliemann, who believed that at the mound of Hissarlik, the
traditional site of Troy, he had uncovered the ancient capital.
Schliemann excavated down below the ruins of three or four
settlements, each revealing an earlier civilization, and finally
came upon some royal jewels and other relics said to be "Priam's
Treasure." Scholars are by no means agreed as to the historic
value of these discoveries.





CHAPTER XXIX

ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES--THE LOTUS-EATERS--CYCLOPES--CIRCE--SIRENS
--SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS--CALYPSO

RETURN OF ULYSSES


The romantic poem of the Odyssey is now to engage our attention.
It narrates the wanderings of Ulysses (Odysseus in the Greek
language) in his return from Troy to his own kingdom Ithaca.

From Troy the vessels first made land at Ismarus, city of the
Ciconians, where, in a skirmish with the inhabitants, Ulysses lost
six men from each ship. Sailing thence, they were overtaken by a
storm which drove them for nine days along the sea till they
reached the country of the Lotus-eaters. Here, after watering,
Ulysses sent three of his men to discover who the inhabitants
were. These men on coming among the Lotus-eaters were kindly
entertained by them, and were given some of their own food, the
lotus-plant, to eat. The effect of this food was such that those
who partook of it lost all thoughts of home and wished to remain
in that country. It was by main force that Ulysses dragged these
men away, and he was even obliged to tie them under the benches of
the ships.

[Footnote: Tennyson in the "Lotus-eaters" has charmingly expressed
the dreamy, languid feeling which the lotus food is said to have
produced.

   "How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream
    With half-shut eyes ever to seem
    Falling asleep in a half dream!
    To dream and dream, like yonder amber light
    Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height;
    To hear each others' whispered speech;
    Eating the Lotos, day by day,
    To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,
    And tender curving lines of creamy spray:
    To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
    To the influence of mild-minded melancholy;
    To muse and brood and live again in memory,
    With those old faces of our infancy
    Heaped over with a mound of grass,
    Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass."]

They next arrived at the country of the Cyclopes. The Cyclopes
were giants, who inhabited an island of which they were the only
possessors. The name means "round eye," and these giants were so
called because they had but one eye, and that placed in the middle
of the forehead. They dwelt in caves and fed on the wild
productions of the island and on what their flocks yielded, for
they were shepherds. Ulysses left the main body of his ships at
anchor, and with one vessel went to the Cyclopes' island to
explore for supplies. He landed with his companions, carrying with
them a jar of wine for a present, and coming to a large cave they
entered it, and finding no one within examined its contents. They
found it stored with the richest of the flock, quantities of
cheese, pails and bowls of milk, lambs and kids in their pens, all
in nice order. Presently arrived the master of the cave,
Polyphemus, bearing an immense bundle of firewood, which he threw
down before the cavern's mouth. He then drove into the cave the
sheep and goats to be milked, and, entering, rolled to the cave's
mouth an enormous rock, that twenty oxen could not draw. Next he
sat down and milked his ewes, preparing a part for cheese, and
setting the rest aside for his customary drink. Then, turning
round his great eye, he discerned the strangers, and growled out
to them, demanding who they were, and where from. Ulysses replied
most humbly, stating that they were Greeks, from the great
expedition that had lately won so much glory in the conquest of
Troy; that they were now on their way home, and finished by
imploring his hospitality in the name of the gods. Polyphemus
deigned no answer, but reaching out his hand seized two of the
Greeks, whom he hurled against the side of the cave, and dashed
out their brains. He proceeded to devour them with great relish,
and having made a hearty meal, stretched himself out on the floor
to sleep. Ulysses was tempted to seize the opportunity and plunge
his sword into him as he slept, but recollected that it would only
expose them all to certain destruction, as the rock with which the
giant had closed up the door was far beyond their power to remove,
and they would therefore be in hopeless imprisonment. Next morning
the giant seized two more of the Greeks, and despatched them in
the same manner as their companions, feasting on their flesh till
no fragment was left. He then moved away the rock from the door,
drove out his flocks, and went out, carefully replacing the
barrier after him. When he was gone Ulysses planned how he might
take vengeance for his murdered friends, and effect his escape
with his surviving companions. He made his men prepare a massive
bar of wood cut by the Cyclops for a staff, which they found in
the cave. They sharpened the end of it, and seasoned it in the
fire, and hid it under the straw on the cavern floor. Then four of
the boldest were selected, with whom Ulysses joined himself as a
fifth. The Cyclops came home at evening, rolled away the stone and
drove in his flock as usual. After milking them and making his
arrangements as before, he seized two more of Ulysses' companions
and dashed their brains out, and made his evening meal upon them
as he had on the others. After he had supped, Ulysses approaching
him handed him a bowl of wine, saying, "Cyclops, this is wine;
taste and drink after thy meal of men's flesh." He took and drank
it, and was hugely delighted with it, and called for more. Ulysses
supplied him once again, which pleased the giant so much that he
promised him as a favor that he should be the last of the party
devoured. He asked his name, to which Ulysses replied, "My name is
Noman."

After his supper the giant lay down to repose, and was soon sound
asleep. Then Ulysses with his four select friends thrust the end
of the stake into the fire till it was all one burning coal, then
poising it exactly above the giant's only eye, they buried it
deeply into the socket, twirling it round as a carpenter does his
auger. The howling monster with his outcry filled the cavern, and
Ulysses with his aids nimbly got out of his way and concealed
themselves in the cave. He, bellowing, called aloud on all the
Cyclopes dwelling in the caves around him, far and near. They on
his cry flocked round the den, and inquired what grievous hurt had
caused him to sound such an alarm and break their slumbers. He
replied, "O friends, I die, and Noman gives the blow." They
answered, "If no man hurts thee it is the stroke of Jove, and thou
must bear it." So saying, they left him groaning.

Next morning the Cyclops rolled away the stone to let his flock
out to pasture, but planted himself in the door of the cave to
feel of all as they went out, that Ulysses and his men should not
escape with them. But Ulysses had made his men harness the rams of
the flock three abreast, with osiers which they found on the floor
of the cave. To the middle ram of the three one of the Greeks
suspended himself, so protected by the exterior rams on either
side. As they passed, the giant felt of the animals' backs and
sides, but never thought of their bellies; so the men all passed
safe, Ulysses himself being on the last one that passed. When they
had got a few paces from the cavern, Ulysses and his friends
released themselves from their rams, and drove a good part of the
flock down to the shore to their boat. They put them aboard with
all haste, then pushed off from the shore, and when at a safe
distance Ulysses shouted out, "Cyclops, the gods have well
requited thee for thy atrocious deeds. Know it is Ulysses to whom
thou owest thy shameful loss of sight." The Cyclops, hearing this,
seized a rock that projected from the side of the mountain, and
rending it from its bed, he lifted it high in the air, then
exerting all his force, hurled it in the direction of the voice.
Down came the mass, just clearing the vessel's stern. The ocean,
at the plunge of the huge rock, heaved the ship towards the land,
so that it barely escaped being swamped by the waves. When they
had with the utmost difficulty pulled off shore, Ulysses was about
to hail the giant again, but his friends besought him not to do
so. He could not forbear, however, letting the giant know that
they had escaped his missile, but waited till they had reached a
safer distance than before. The giant answered them with curses,
but Ulysses and his friends plied their oars vigorously, and soon
regained their companions.

Ulysses next arrived at the island of Aeolus. To this monarch
Jupiter had intrusted the government of the winds, to send them
forth or retain them at his will. He treated Ulysses hospitably,
and at his departure gave him, tied up in a leathern bag, with a
silver string, such winds as might be hurtful and dangerous,
commanding fair winds to blow the barks towards their country.
Nine days they sped before the wind, and all that time Ulysses had
stood at the helm, without sleep. At last quite exhausted he lay
down to sleep. While he slept, the crew conferred together about
the mysterious bag, and concluded it must contain treasures given
by the hospitable king Aeolus to their commander. Tempted to
secure some portion for themselves, they loosed the string, when
immediately the winds rushed forth. The ships were driven far from
their course, and back again to the island they had just left.
Aeolus was so indignant at their folly that he refused to assist
them further, and they were obliged to labor over their course
once more by means of their oars.

THE LAESTRYGONIANS

Their next adventure was with the barbarous tribe of
Laestrygonians. The vessels all pushed into the harbor, tempted by
the secure appearance of the cove, completely land-locked; only
Ulysses moored his vessel without. As soon as the Laestrygonians
found the ships completely in their power they attacked them,
heaving huge stones which broke and overturned them, and with
their spears despatched the seamen as they struggled in the water.
All the vessels with their crews were destroyed, except Ulysses'
own ship, which had remained outside, and finding no safety but in
flight, he exhorted his men to ply their oars vigorously, and they
escaped.

With grief for their slain companions mixed with joy at their own
escape, they pursued their way till they arrived at the Aeaean
isle, where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the sun. Landing here,
Ulysses climbed a hill, and gazing round saw no signs of
habitation except in one spot at the centre of the island, where
he perceived a palace embowered with trees. He sent forward one-
half of his crew, under the command of Eurylochus, to see what
prospect of hospitality they might find. As they approached the
palace, they found themselves surrounded by lions, tigers, and
wolves, not fierce, but tamed by Circe's art, for she was a
powerful magician. All these animals had once been men, but had
been changed by Circe's enchantments into the forms of beasts. The
sounds of soft music were heard from within, and a sweet female
voice singing. Eurylochus called aloud and the goddess came forth
and invited them in; they all gladly entered except Eurylochus,
who suspected danger. The goddess conducted her guests to a seat,
and had them served with wine and other delicacies. When they had
feasted heartily, she touched them one by one with her wand, and
they became immediately changed into SWINE, in "head, body, voice,
and bristles," yet with their intellects as before. She shut them
in her sties and supplied them with acorns and such other things
as swine love.

Eurylochus hurried back to the ship and told the tale. Ulysses
thereupon determined to go himself, and try if by any means he
might deliver his companions. As he strode onward alone, he met a
youth who addressed him familiarly, appearing to be acquainted
with his adventures. He announced himself as Mercury, and informed
Ulysses of the arts of Circe, and of the danger of approaching
her. As Ulysses was not to be dissuaded from his attempt, Mercury
provided him with a sprig of the plant Moly, of wonderful power to
resist sorceries, and instructed him how to act. Ulysses
proceeded, and reaching the palace was courteously received by
Circe, who entertained him as she had done his companions, and
after he had eaten and drank, touched him with her wand, saying,
"Hence, seek the sty and wallow with thy friends." But he, instead
of obeying, drew his sword and rushed upon her with fury in his
countenance. She fell on her knees and begged for mercy. He
dictated a solemn oath that she would release his companions and
practise no further harm against him or them; and she repeated it,
at the same time promising to dismiss them all in safety after
hospitably entertaining them. She was as good as her word. The men
were restored to their shapes, the rest of the crew summoned from
the shore, and the whole magnificently entertained day after day,
till Ulysses seemed to have forgotten his native land, and to have
reconciled himself to an inglorious life of ease and pleasure.

At length his companions recalled him to nobler sentiments, and he
received their admonition gratefully. Circe aided their departure,
and instructed them how to pass safely by the coast of the Sirens.
The Sirens were sea-nymphs who had the power of charming by their
song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were
irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their
destruction. Circe directed Ulysses to fill the ears of his seamen
with wax, so that they should not hear the strain; and to cause
himself to be bound to the mast, and his people to be strictly
enjoined, whatever he might say or do, by no means to release him
till they should have passed the Sirens' island. Ulysses obeyed
these directions. He filled the ears of his people with wax, and
suffered them to bind him with cords firmly to the mast. As they
approached the Sirens' island, the sea was calm, and over the
waters came the notes of music so ravishing and attractive that
Ulysses struggled to get loose, and by cries and signs to his
people begged to be released; but they, obedient to his previous
orders, sprang forward and bound him still faster. They held on
their course, and the music grew fainter till it ceased to be
heard, when with joy Ulysses gave his companions the signal to
unseal their ears, and they relieved him from his bonds.

The imagination of a modern poet, Keats, has discovered for us the
thoughts that passed through the brains of the victims of Circe,
after their transformation. In his "Endymion" he represents one of
them, a monarch in the guise of an elephant, addressing the
sorceress in human language, thus:

    "I sue not for my happy crown again;
    I sue not for my phalanx on the plain;
    I sue not for my lone, my widowed wife;
    I sue not for my ruddy drops of life,
    My children fair, my lovely girls and boys;
    I will forget them; I will pass these joys,
    Ask nought so heavenward; so too--too high;
    Only I pray, as fairest boon, to die;
    To be delivered from this cumbrous flesh,
    From this gross, detestable, filthy mesh,
    And merely given to the cold, bleak air.
    Have mercy, goddess! Circe, feel my prayer!"

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS

Ulysses had been warned by Circe of the two monsters Scylla and
Charybdis. We have already met with Scylla in the story of
Glaucus, and remember that she was once a beautiful maiden and was
changed into a snaky monster by Circe. She dwelt in a cave high up
on the cliff, from whence she was accustomed to thrust forth her
long necks (for she had six heads), and in each of her mouths to
seize one of the crew of every vessel passing within reach. The
other terror, Charybdis, was a gulf, nearly on a level with the
water. Thrice each day the water rushed into a frightful chasm,
and thrice was disgorged. Any vessel coming near the whirlpool
when the tide was rushing in must inevitably be ingulfed; not
Neptune himself could save it.

On approaching the haunt of the dread monsters, Ulysses kept
strict watch to discover them. The roar of the waters as Charybdis
ingulfed them, gave warning at a distance, but Scylla could
nowhere be discerned. While Ulysses and his men watched with
anxious eyes the dreadful whirlpool, they were not equally on
their guard from the attack of Scylla, and the monster, darting
forth her snaky heads, caught six of his men, and bore them away,
shrieking, to her den. It was the saddest sight Ulysses had yet
seen; to behold his friends thus sacrificed and hear their cries,
unable to afford them any assistance.

Circe had warned him of another danger. After passing Scylla and
Charybdis the next land he would make was Thrinakia, an island
whereon were pastured the cattle of Hyperion, the Sun, tended by
his daughters Lampetia and Phaethusa. These flocks must not be
violated, whatever the wants of the voyagers might be. If this
injunction were transgressed destruction was sure to fall on the
offenders.

Ulysses would willingly have passed the island of the Sun without
stopping, but his companions so urgently pleaded for the rest and
refreshment that would be derived from anchoring and passing the
night on shore, that Ulysses yielded. He bound them, however, with
an oath that they would not touch one of the animals of the sacred
flocks and herds, but content themselves with what provision they
yet had left of the supply which Circe had put on board. So long
as this supply lasted the people kept their oath, but contrary
winds detained them at the island for a month, and after consuming
all their stock of provisions, they were forced to rely upon the
birds and fishes they could catch. Famine pressed them, and at
length one day, in the absence of Ulysses, they slew some of the
cattle, vainly attempting to make amends for the deed by offering
from them a portion to the offended powers. Ulysses, on his return
to the shore, was horror-struck at perceiving what they had done,
and the more so on account of the portentous signs which followed.
The skins crept on the ground, and the joints of meat lowed on the
spits while roasting.

The wind becoming fair they sailed from the island. They had not
gone far when the weather changed, and a storm of thunder and
lightning ensued. A stroke of lightning shattered their mast,
which in its fall killed the pilot. At last the vessel itself came
to pieces. The keel and mast floating side by side, Ulysses formed
of them a raft, to which he clung, and, the wind changing, the
waves bore him to Calypso's island. All the rest of the crew
perished.

The following allusion to the topics we have just been considering
is from Milton's "Comus," line 252:

    "... I have often heard
    My mother Circe and the Sirens three,
    Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades,
    Culling their potent herbs and baneful drugs,
    Who as they sung would take the prisoned soul
    And lap it in Elysium. Scylla wept,
    And chid her barking waves into attention,
    And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause."

Scylla and Charybdis have become proverbial, to denote opposite
dangers which beset one's course. See Proverbial Expressions.

 CALYPSO

Calypso was a sea-nymph, which name denotes a numerous class of
female divinities of lower rank, yet sharing many of the
attributes of the gods. Calypso received Ulysses hospitably,
entertained him magnificently, became enamoured of him, and wished
to retain him forever, conferring on him immortality. But he
persisted in his resolution to return to his country and his wife
and son. Calypso at last received the command of Jove to dismiss
him. Mercury brought the message to her, and found her in her
grotto, which is thus described by Homer:

    "A garden vine, luxuriant on all sides,
    Mantled the spacious cavern, cluster-hung
    Profuse; four fountains of serenest lymph,
    Their sinuous course pursuing side by side,
    Strayed all around, and everywhere appeared
    Meadows of softest verdure, purpled o'er
    With violets; it was a scene to fill
    A god from heaven with wonder and delight."

Calypso with much reluctance proceeded to obey the commands of
Jupiter. She supplied Ulysses with the means of constructing a
raft, provisioned it well for him, and gave him a favoring gale.
He sped on his course prosperously for many days, till at length,
when in sight of land, a storm arose that broke his mast, and
threatened to rend the raft asunder. In this crisis he was seen by
a compassionate sea-nymph, who in the form of a cormorant alighted
on the raft, and presented him a girdle, directing him to bind it
beneath his breast, and if he should be compelled to trust himself
to the waves, it would buoy him up and enable him by swimming to
reach the land.

Fenelon, in his romance of "Telemachus," has given us the
adventures of the son of Ulysses in search of his father. Among
other places at which he arrived, following on his father's
footsteps, was Calypso's isle, and, as in the former case, the
goddess tried every art to keep him with her, and offered to share
her immortality with him. But Minerva, who in the shape of Mentor
accompanied him and governed all his movements, made him repel her
allurements, and when no other means of escape could be found, the
two friends leaped from a cliff into the sea, and swam to a vessel
which lay becalmed off shore. Byron alludes to this leap of
Telemachus and Mentor in the following stanza:

    "But not in silence pass Calypso's isles,
    The sister tenants of the middle deep;
    There for the weary still a haven smiles,
    Though the fair goddess long has ceased to weep,
    And o'er her cliffs a fruitless watch to keep
    For him who dared prefer a mortal bride.
    Here too his boy essayed the dreadful leap,
    Stern Mentor urged from high to yonder tide;
    While thus of both bereft the nymph-queen doubly sighed."





CHAPTER XXX

THE PHAEACIANS--FATE OF THE SUITORS

THE PHAEACIANS


Ulysses clung to the raft while any of its timbers kept together,
and when it no longer yielded him support, binding the girdle
around him, he swam. Minerva smoothed the billows before him and
sent him a wind that rolled the waves towards the shore. The surf
beat high on the rocks and seemed to forbid approach; but at
length finding calm water at the mouth of a gentle stream, he
landed, spent with toil, breathless and speechless and almost
dead. After some time, reviving, he kissed the soil, rejoicing,
yet at a loss what course to take. At a short distance he
perceived a wood, to which he turned his steps. There, finding a
covert sheltered by intermingling branches alike from the sun and
the rain, he collected a pile of leaves and formed a bed, on which
he stretched himself, and heaping the leaves over him, fell
asleep.

The land where he was thrown was Scheria, the country of the
Phaeacians. These people dwelt originally near the Cyclopes; but
being oppressed by that savage race, they migrated to the isle of
Scheria, under the conduct of Nausithous, their king. They were,
the poet tells us, a people akin to the gods, who appeared
manifestly and feasted among them when they offered sacrifices,
and did not conceal themselves from solitary wayfarers when they
met them. They had abundance of wealth and lived in the enjoyment
of it undisturbed by the alarms of war, for as they dwelt remote
from gain-seeking man, no enemy ever approached their shores, and
they did not even require to make use of bows and quivers. Their
chief employment was navigation. Their ships, which went with the
velocity of birds, were endued with intelligence; they knew every
port and needed no pilot. Alcinous, the son of Nausithous, was now
their king, a wise and just sovereign, beloved by his people.

Now it happened that the very night on which Ulysses was cast
ashore on the Phaeacian island, and while he lay sleeping on his
bed of leaves, Nausicaa, the daughter of the king, had a dream
sent by Minerva, reminding her that her wedding-day was not far
distant, and that it would be but a prudent preparation for that
event to have a general washing of the clothes of the family. This
was no slight affair, for the fountains were at some distance, and
the garments must be carried thither. On awaking, the princess
hastened to her parents to tell them what was on her mind; not
alluding to her wedding-day, but finding other reasons equally
good. Her father readily assented and ordered the grooms to
furnish forth a wagon for the purpose. The clothes were put
therein, and the queen mother placed in the wagon, likewise, an
abundant supply of food and wine. The princess took her seat and
plied the lash, her attendant virgins following her on foot.
Arrived at the river side, they turned out the mules to graze, and
unlading the carriage, bore the garments down to the water, and
working with cheerfulness and alacrity soon despatched their
labor. Then having spread the garments on the shore to dry, and
having themselves bathed, they sat down to enjoy their meal; after
which they rose and amused themselves with a game of ball, the
princess singing to them while they played. But when they had
refolded the apparel and were about to resume their way to the
town, Minerva caused the ball thrown by the princess to fall into
the water, whereat they all screamed and Ulysses awaked at the
sound.

Now we must picture to ourselves Ulysses, a ship-wrecked mariner,
but a few hours escaped from the waves, and utterly destitute of
clothing, awaking and discovering that only a few bushes were
interposed tween him and a group of young maidens whom, by their
deportment and attire, he discovered to be not mere peasant girls,
but of a higher class. Sadly needing help, how could he yet
venture, naked as he was, to discover himself and make his wants
known? It certainly was a case worthy of the interposition of his
patron goddess Minerva, who never failed him at a crisis. Breaking
off a leafy branch from a tree, he held it before him and stepped
out from the thicket. The virgins at sight of him fled in all
directions, Nausicaa alone excepted, for HER Minerva aided and
endowed with courage and discernment. Ulysses, standing
respectfully aloof, told his sad case, and besought the fair
object (whether queen or goddess he professed he knew not) for
food and clothing. The princess replied courteously, promising
present relief and her father's hospitality when he should become
acquainted with the facts. She called back her scattered maidens,
chiding their alarm, and reminding them that the Phaeacians had no
enemies to fear. This man, she told them, was an unhappy wanderer,
whom it was a duty to cherish, for the poor and stranger are from
Jove. She bade them bring food and clothing, for some of her
brother's garments were among the contents of the wagon. When this
was done, and Ulysses, retiring to a sheltered place, had washed
his body free from the sea-foam, clothed and refreshed himself
with food, Pallas dilated his form and diffused grace over his
ample chest and manly brows.

The princess, seeing him, was filled with admiration, and scrupled
not to say to her damsels that she wished the gods would send her
such a husband. To Ulysses she recommended that he should repair
to the city, following herself and train so far as the way lay
through the fields; but when they should approach the city she
desired that he would no longer be seen in her company, for she
feared the remarks which rude and vulgar people might make on
seeing her return accompanied by such a gallant stranger. To avoid
which she directed him to stop at a grove adjoining the city, in
which were a farm and garden belonging to the king. After allowing
time for the princess and her companions to reach the city, he was
then to pursue his way thither, and would be easily guided by any
he might meet to the royal abode.

Ulysses obeyed the directions and in due time proceeded to the
city, on approaching which he met a young woman bearing a pitcher
forth for water. It was Minerva, who had assumed that form.
Ulysses accosted her and desired to be directed to the palace of
Alcinous the king. The maiden replied respectfully, offering to be
his guide; for the palace, she informed him, stood near her
father's dwelling. Under the guidance of the goddess, and by her
power enveloped in a cloud which shielded him from observation,
Ulysses passed among the busy crowd, and with wonder observed
their harbor, their ships, their forum (the resort of heroes), and
their battlements, till they came to the palace, where the
goddess, having first given him some information of the country,
king, and people he was about to meet, left him. Ulysses, before
entering the courtyard of the palace, stood and surveyed the
scene. Its splendor astonished him. Brazen walls stretched from
the entrance to the interior house, of which the doors were gold,
the doorposts silver, the lintels silver ornamented with gold. On
either side were figures of mastiffs wrought in gold and silver,
standing in rows as if to guard the approach. Along the walls were
seats spread through all their length with mantles of finest
texture, the work of Phaeacian maidens. On these seats the princes
sat and feasted, while golden statues of graceful youths held in
their hands lighted torches which shed radiance over the scene.
Full fifty female menials served in household offices, some
employed to grind the corn, others to wind off the purple wool or
ply the loom. For the Phaeacian women as far exceeded all other
women in household arts as the mariners of that country did the
rest of mankind in the management of ships. Without the court a
spacious garden lay, four acres in extent. In it grew many a lofty
tree, pomegranate, pear, apple, fig, and olive. Neither winter's
cold nor summer's drought arrested their growth, but they
flourished in constant succession, some budding while others were
maturing. The vineyard was equally prolific. In one quarter you
might see the vines, some in blossom, some loaded with ripe
grapes, and in another observe the vintagers treading the wine
press. On the garden's borders flowers of all hues bloomed all the
year round, arranged with neatest art. In the midst two fountains
poured forth their waters, one flowing by artificial channels over
all the garden, the other conducted through the courtyard of the
palace, whence every citizen might draw his supplies.

Ulysses stood gazing in admiration, unobserved himself, for the
cloud which Minerva spread around him still shielded him. At
length, having sufficiently observed the scene, he advanced with
rapid step into the hall where the chiefs and senators were
assembled, pouring libation to Mercury, whose worship followed the
evening meal. Just then Minerva dissolved the cloud and disclosed
him to the assembled chiefs. Advancing to the place where the
queen sat, he knelt at her feet and implored her favor and
assistance to enable him to return to his native country. Then
withdrawing, he seated himself in the manner of suppliants, at the
hearth side.

For a time none spoke. At last an aged statesman, addressing the
king, said, "It is not fit that a stranger who asks our
hospitality should be kept waiting in suppliant guise, none
welcoming him. Let him therefore be led to a seat among us and
supplied with food and wine." At these words the king rising gave
his hand to Ulysses and led him to a seat, displacing thence his
own son to make room for the stranger. Food and wine were set
before him and he ate and refreshed himself.

The king then dismissed his guests, notifying them that the next
day he would call them to council to consider what had best be
done for the stranger.

When the guests had departed and Ulysses was left alone with the
king and queen, the queen asked him who he was and whence he came,
and (recognizing the clothes which he wore as those which her
maidens and herself had made) from whom he received those
garments. He told them of his residence in Calypso's isle and his
departure thence; of the wreck of his raft, his escape by
swimming, and of the relief afforded by the princess. The parents
heard approvingly, and the king promised to furnish a ship in
which his guest might return to his own land.

The next day the assembled chiefs confirmed the promise of the
king. A bark was prepared and a crew of stout rowers selected, and
all betook themselves to the palace, where a bounteous repast was
provided. After the feast the king proposed that the young men
should show their guest their proficiency in manly sports, and all
went forth to the arena for games of running, wrestling, and other
exercises. After all had done their best, Ulysses being challenged
to show what he could do, at first declined, but being taunted by
one of the youths, seized a quoit of weight far heavier than any
of the Phaeacians had thrown, and sent it farther than the utmost
throw of theirs. All were astonished, and viewed their guest with
greatly increased respect.

After the games they returned to the hall, and the herald led in
Demodocus, the blind bard,--

    "... Dear to the Muse,
    Who yet appointed him both good and ill,
    Took from him sight, but gave him strains divine."

He took for his theme the "Wooden Horse," by means of which the
Greeks found entrance into Troy. Apollo inspired him, and he sang
so feelingly the terrors and the exploits of that eventful time
that all were delighted, but Ulysses was moved to tears. Observing
which, Alcinous, when the song was done, demanded of him why at
the mention of Troy his sorrows awaked. Had he lost there a
father, or brother, or any dear friend? Ulysses replied by
announcing himself by his true name, and at their request,
recounted the adventures which had befallen him since his
departure from Troy. This narrative raised the sympathy and
admiration of the Phaeacians for their guest to the highest pitch.
The king proposed that all the chiefs should present him with a
gift, himself setting the example. They obeyed, and vied with one
another in loading the illustrious stranger with costly gifts.

The next day Ulysses set sail in the Phaeacian vessel, and in a
short time arrived safe at Ithaca, his own island. When the vessel
touched the strand he was asleep. The mariners, without waking
him, carried him on shore, and landed with him the chest
containing his presents, and then sailed away.

Neptune was so displeased at the conduct of the Phaeacians in thus
rescuing Ulysses from his hands that on the return of the vessel
to port he transformed it into a rock, right opposite the mouth of
the harbor.

Homer's description of the ships of the Phaeacians has been
thought to look like an anticipation of the wonders of modern
steam navigation. Alcinous says to Ulysses:

    "Say from what city, from what regions tossed,
    And what inhabitants those regions boast?
    So shalt thou quickly reach the realm assigned,
    In wondrous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind;
    No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;
    Like man intelligent they plough the tides,
    Conscious of every coast and every bay
    That lies beneath the sun's all-seeing ray."

    --Odyssey, Book VIII.

Lord Carlisle, in his "Diary in the Turkish and Greek Waters,"
thus speaks of Corfu, which he considers to be the ancient
Phaeacian island:

"The sites explain the 'Odyssey.' The temple of the sea-god could
not have been more fitly placed, upon a grassy platform of the
most elastic turf, on the brow of a crag commanding harbor, and
channel, and ocean. Just at the entrance of the inner harbor there
is a picturesque rock with a small convent perched upon it, which
by one legend is the transformed pinnace of Ulysses.

"Almost the only river in the island is just at the proper
distance from the probable site of the city and palace of the
king, to justify the princess Nausicaa having had resort to her
chariot and to luncheon when she went with the maidens of the
court to wash their garments."

FATE OF THE SUITORS

Ulysses had now been away from Ithaca for twenty years, and when
he awoke he did not recognize his native land. Minerva appeared to
him in the form of a young shepherd, informed him where he was,
and told him the state of things at his palace. More than a
hundred nobles of Ithaca and of the neighboring islands had been
for years suing for the hand of Penelope, his wife, imagining him
dead, and lording it over his palace and people, as if they were
owners of both. That he might be able to take vengeance upon them,
it was important that he should not be recognized. Minerva
accordingly metamorphosed him into an unsightly beggar, and as
such he was kindly received by Eumaeus, the swine-herd, a faithful
servant of his house.

Telemachus, his son, was absent in quest of his father. He had
gone to the courts of the other kings, who had returned from the
Trojan expedition. While on the search, he received counsel from
Minerva to return home. He arrived and sought Eumaeus to learn
something of the state of affairs at the palace before presenting
himself among the suitors. Finding a stranger with Eumaeus, he
treated him courteously, though in the garb of a beggar, and
promised him assistance. Eumaeus was sent to the palace to inform
Penelope privately of her son's arrival, for caution was necessary
with regard to the suitors, who, as Telemachus had learned, were
plotting to intercept and kill him. When Eumaeus was gone, Minerva
presented herself to Ulysses, and directed him to make himself
known to his son. At the same time she touched him, removed at
once from him the appearance of age and penury, and gave him the
aspect of vigorous manhood that belonged to him. Telemachus viewed
him with astonishment, and at first thought he must be more than
mortal. But Ulysses announced himself as his father, and accounted
for the change of appearance by explaining that it was Minerva's
doing.

    "... Then threw Telemachus
    His arms around his father's neck and wept.
    Desire intense of lamentation seized
    On both; soft murmurs uttering, each indulged
    His grief."

The father and son took counsel together how they should get the
better of the suitors and punish them for their outrages. It was
arranged that Telemachus should proceed to the palace and mingle
with the suitors as formerly; that Ulysses should also go as a
beggar, a character which in the rude old times had different
privileges from what we concede to it now. As traveller and
storyteller, the beggar was admitted in the halls of chieftains,
and often treated like a guest; though sometimes, also, no doubt,
with contumely. Ulysses charged his son not to betray, by any
display of unusual interest in him, that he knew him to be other
than he seemed, and even if he saw him insulted, or beaten, not to
interpose otherwise than he might do for any stranger. At the
palace they found the usual scene of feasting and riot going on.
The suitors pretended to receive Telemachus with joy at his
return, though secretly mortified at the failure of their plots to
take his life. The old beggar was permitted to enter, and provided
with a portion from the table. A touching incident occurred as
Ulysses entered the courtyard of the palace. An old dog lay in the
yard almost dead with age, and seeing a stranger enter, raised his
head, with ears erect. It was Argus, Ulysses' own dog, that he had
in other days often led to the chase.

    "... Soon as he perceived
    Long-lost Ulysses nigh, down fell his ears
    Clapped close, and with his tail glad sign he gave
    Of gratulation, impotent to rise,
    And to approach his master as of old.
    Ulysses, noting him, wiped off a tear
    Unmarked.
    ... Then his destiny released
    Old Argus, soon as he had lived to see
    Ulysses in the twentieth year restored."

As Ulysses sat eating his portion in the hall, the suitors began
to exhibit their insolence to him. When he mildly remonstrated,
one of them, raised a stool and with it gave him a blow.
Telemachus had hard work to restrain his indignation at seeing his
father so treated in his own hall, but remembering his father's
injunctions, said no more than what became him as master of the
house, though young, and protector of his guests.

Penelope had protracted her decision in favor of either of her
suitors so long that there seemed to be no further pretence for
delay. The continued absence of her husband seemed to prove that
his return was no longer to be expected. Meanwhile, her son had
grown up, and was able to manage his own affairs. She therefore
consented to submit the question of her choice to a trial of skill
among the suitors. The test selected was shooting with the bow.
Twelve rings were arranged in a line, and he whose arrow was sent
through the whole twelve was to have the queen for his prize. A
bow that one of his brother heroes had given to Ulysses in former
times was brought from the armory, and with its quiver full of
arrows was laid in the hall. Telemachus had taken care that all
other weapons should be removed, under pretence that in the heat
of competition there was danger, in some rash moment, of putting
them to an improper use.

All things being prepared for the trial, the first thing to be
done was to bend the bow in order to attach the string. Telemachus
endeavored to do it, but found all his efforts fruitless; and
modestly confessing that he had attempted a task beyond his
strength, he yielded the bow to another. He tried it with no
better success, and, amidst the laughter and jeers of his
companions, gave it up. Another tried it and another; they rubbed
the bow with tallow, but all to no purpose; it would not bend.
Then spoke Ulysses, humbly suggesting that he should be permitted
to try; for, said he, "beggar as I am, I was once a soldier, and
there is still some strength in these old limbs of mine." The
suitors hooted with derision, and commanded to turn him out of the
hall for his insolence. But Telemachus spoke up for him, and,
merely to gratify the old man, bade him try. Ulysses took the bow,
and handled it with the hand of a master. With ease he adjusted
the cord to its notch, then fitting an arrow to the bow he drew
the string and sped the arrow unerring through the rings.

Without allowing them time to express their astonishment, he said,
"Now for another mark!" and aimed direct at the most insolent one
of the suitors. The arrow pierced through his throat and he fell
dead. Telemachus, Eumaeus, and another faithful follower, well
armed, now sprang to the side of Ulysses. The suitors, in
amazement, looked round for arms, but found none, neither was
there any way of escape, for Eumaeus had secured the door. Ulysses
left them not long in uncertainty; he announced himself as the
long-lost chief, whose house they had invaded, whose substance
they had squandered, whose wife and son they had persecuted for
ten long years; and told them he meant to have ample vengeance.
All were slain, and Ulysses was left master of his palace and
possessor of his kingdom and his wife.

Tennyson's poem of "Ulysses" represents the old hero, after his
dangers past and nothing left but to stay at home and be happy,
growing tired of inaction and resolving to set forth again in
quest of new adventures.

    "... Come, my friends,
    'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
    Push off, and sitting well in order smite
    The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
    To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
    Of all the western stars, until I die.
    It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
    It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
    And see the great Achilles whom we knew;" etc.





CHAPTER XXXI

ADVENTURES OF AENEAS--THE HARPIES--DIDO--PALINURUS

ADVENTURES OF AENEAS


We have followed one of the Grecian heroes, Ulysses, in his
wanderings on his return home from Troy, and now we propose to
share the fortunes of the remnant of the conquered people, under
their chief Aeneas, in their search for a new home, after the ruin
of their native city. On that fatal night when the wooden horse
disgorged its contents of armed men, and the capture and
conflagration of the city were the result, Aeneas made his escape
from the scene of destruction, with his father, and his wife, and
young son. The father, Anchises, was too old to walk with the
speed required, and Aeneas took him upon his shoulders. Thus
burdened, leading his son and followed by his wife, he made the
best of his way out of the burning city; but, in the confusion,
his wife was swept away and lost.

On arriving at the place of rendezvous, numerous fugitives, of
both sexes, were found, who put themselves under the guidance of
Aeneas. Some months were spent in preparation, and at length they
embarked. They first landed on the neighboring shores of Thrace,
and were preparing to build a city, but Aeneas was deterred by a
prodigy. Preparing to offer sacrifice, he tore some twigs from one
of the bushes. To his dismay the wounded part dropped blood. When
he repeated the act a voice from the ground cried out to him,
"Spare me, Aeneas; I am your kinsman, Polydore, here murdered with
many arrows, from which a bush has grown, nourished with my
blood." These words recalled to the recollection of Aeneas that
Polydore was a young prince of Troy, whom his father had sent with
ample treasures to the neighboring land of Thrace, to be there
brought up, at a distance from the horrors of war. The king to
whom he was sent had murdered him and seized his treasures. Aeneas
and his companions, considering the land accursed by the stain of
such a crime, hastened away.

They next landed on the island of Delos, which was once a floating
island, till Jupiter fastened it by adamantine chains to the
bottom of the sea. Apollo and Diana were born there, and the
island was sacred to Apollo. Here Aeneas consulted the oracle of
Apollo, and received an answer, ambiguous as usual,--"Seek your
ancient mother; there the race of Aeneas shall dwell, and reduce
all other nations to their sway." The Trojans heard with joy and
immediately began to ask one another, "Where is the spot intended
by the oracle?" Anchises remembered that there was a tradition
that their forefathers came from Crete and thither they resolved
to steer. They arrived at Crete and began to build their city, but
sickness broke out among them, and the fields that they had
planted failed to yield a crop. In this gloomy aspect of affairs
Aeneas was warned in a dream to leave the country and seek a
western land, called Hesperia, whence Dardanus, the true founder
of the Trojan race, had originally migrated. To Hesperia, now
called Italy, therefore, they directed their future course, and
not till after many adventures and the lapse of time sufficient to
carry a modern navigator several times round the world, did they
arrive there.

Their first landing was at the island of the Harpies. These were
disgusting birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and
faces pale with hunger. They were sent by the gods to torment a
certain Phineus, whom Jupiter had deprived of his sight, in
punishment of his cruelty; and whenever a meal was placed before
him the Harpies darted down from the air and carried it off. They
were driven away from Phineus by the heroes of the Argonautic
expedition, and took refuge in the island where Aeneas now found
them.

When they entered the port the Trojans saw herds of cattle roaming
over the plain. They slew as many as they wished and prepared for
a feast. But no sooner had they seated themselves at the table
than a horrible clamor was heard in the air, and a flock of these
odious harpies came rushing down upon them, seizing in their
talons the meat from the dishes and flying away with it. Aeneas
and his companions drew their swords and dealt vigorous blows
among the monsters, but to no purpose, for they were so nimble it
was almost impossible to hit them, and their feathers were like
armor impenetrable to steel. One of them, perched on a neighboring
cliff, screamed out, "Is it thus, Trojans, you treat us innocent
birds, first slaughter our cattle and then make war on ourselves?"
She then predicted dire sufferings to them in their future course,
and having vented her wrath flew away. The Trojans made haste to
leave the country, and next found themselves coasting along the
shore of Epirus. Here they landed, and to their astonishment
learned that certain Trojan exiles, who had been carried there as
prisoners, had become rulers of the country. Andromache, the widow
of Hector, became the wife of one of the victorious Grecian
chiefs, to whom she bore a son. Her husband dying, she was left
regent of the country, as guardian of her son, and had married a
fellow-captive, Helenus, of the royal race of Troy. Helenus and
Andromache treated the exiles with the utmost hospitality, and
dismissed them loaded with gifts.

From hence Aeneas coasted along the shore of Sicily and passed the
country of the Cyclopes. Here they were hailed from the shore by a
miserable object, whom by his garments, tattered as they were,
they perceived to be a Greek. He told them he was one of Ulysses's
companions, left behind by that chief in his hurried departure. He
related the story of Ulysses's adventure with Polyphemus, and
besought them to take him off with them as he had no means of
sustaining his existence where he was but wild berries and roots,
and lived in constant fear of the Cyclopes. While he spoke
Polyphemus made his appearance; a terrible monster, shapeless,
vast, whose only eye had been put out. [Footnote: See Proverbial
Expressions.] He walked with cautious steps, feeling his way with
a staff, down to the sea-side, to wash his eye-socket in the
waves. When he reached the water, he waded out towards them, and
his immense height enabled him to advance far into the sea, so
that the Trojans, in terror, took to their oars to get out of his
way. Hearing the oars, Polyphemus shouted after them, so that the
shores resounded, and at the noise the other Cyclopes came forth
from their caves and woods and lined the shore, like a row of
lofty pine trees. The Trojans plied their oars and soon left them
out of sight.

Aeneas had been cautioned by Helenus to avoid the strait guarded
by the monsters Scylla and Charybdis. There Ulysses, the reader
will remember, had lost six of his men, seized by Scylla while the
navigators were wholly intent upon avoiding Charybdis. Aeneas,
following the advice of Helenus, shunned the dangerous pass and
coasted along the island of Sicily.

Juno, seeing the Trojans speeding their way prosperously towards
their destined shore, felt her old grudge against them revive, for
she could not forget the slight that Paris had put upon her, in
awarding the prize of beauty to another. In heavenly minds can
such resentments dwell. [Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.]
Accordingly she hastened to Aeolus, the ruler of the winds,--the
same who supplied Ulysses with favoring gales, giving him the
contrary ones tied up in a bag. Aeolus obeyed the goddess and sent
forth his sons, Boreas, Typhon, and the other winds, to toss the
ocean. A terrible storm ensued and the Trojan ships were driven
out of their course towards the coast of Africa. They were in
imminent danger of being wrecked, and were separated, so that
Aeneas thought that all were lost except his own.

At this crisis, Neptune, hearing the storm raging, and knowing
that he had given no orders for one, raised his head above the
waves, and saw the fleet of Aeneas driving before the gale.
Knowing the hostility of Juno, he was at no loss to account for
it, but his anger was not the less at this interference in his
province. He called the winds and dismissed them with a severe
reprimand. He then soothed the waves, and brushed away the clouds
from before the face of the sun. Some of the ships which had got
on the rocks he pried off with his own trident, while Triton and a
sea-nymph, putting their shoulders under others, set them afloat
again. The Trojans, when the sea became calm, sought the nearest
shore, which was the coast of Carthage, where Aeneas was so happy
as to find that one by one the ships all arrived safe, though
badly shaken.

Waller, in his "Panegyric to the Lord Protector" (Cromwell),
alludes to this stilling of the storm by Neptune:

    "Above the waves, as Neptune showed his face,
    To chide the winds and save the Trojan race,
    So has your Highness, raised above the rest,
    Storms of ambition tossing us repressed."

DIDO

Carthage, where the exiles had now arrived, was a spot on the
coast of Africa opposite Sicily, where at that time a Tyrian
colony under Dido, their queen, were laying the foundations of a
state destined in later ages to be the rival of Rome itself. Dido
was the daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, and sister of Pygmalion,
who succeeded his father on the throne. Her husband was Sichaeus,
a man of immense wealth, but Pygmalion, who coveted his treasures,
caused him to be put to death. Dido, with a numerous body of
friends and followers, both men and women, succeeded in effecting
their escape from Tyre, in several vessels, carrying with them the
treasures of Sichaeus. On arriving at the spot which they selected
as the seat of their future home, they asked of the natives only
so much land as they could enclose with a bull's hide. When this
was readily granted, she caused the hide to be cut into strips,
and with them enclosed a spot on which she built a citadel, and
called it Byrsa (a hide). Around this fort the city of Carthage
rose, and soon became a powerful and flourishing place.

Such was the state of affairs when Aeneas with his Trojans arrived
there. Dido received the illustrious exiles with friendliness and
hospitality. "Not unacquainted with distress," she said, "I have
learned to succor the unfortunate." [Footnote: See Proverbial
Expressions.] The queen's hospitality displayed itself in
festivities at which games of strength and skill were exhibited.
The strangers contended for the palm with her own subjects, on
equal terms, the queen declaring that whether the victor were
"Trojan or Tyrian should make no difference to her." [Footnote 1:
See Proverbial Expressions.] At the feast which followed the
games, Aeneas gave at her request a recital of the closing events
of the Trojan history and his own adventures after the fall of the
city. Dido was charmed with his discourse and filled with
admiration of his exploits. She conceived an ardent passion for
him, and he for his part seemed well content to accept the
fortunate chance which appeared to offer him at once a happy
termination of his wanderings, a home, a kingdom, and a bride.
Months rolled away in the enjoyment of pleasant intercourse, and
it seemed as if Italy and the empire destined to be founded on its
shores were alike forgotten. Seeing which, Jupiter despatched
Mercury with a message to Aeneas recalling him to a sense of his
high destiny, and commanding him to resume his voyage.

Aeneas parted from Dido, though she tried every allurement and
persuasion to detain him. The blow to her affection and her pride
was too much for her to endure, and when she found that he was
gone, she mounted a funeral pile which she had caused to be
erected, and having stabbed herself was consumed with the pile.
The flames rising over the city were seen by the departing
Trojans, and, though the cause was unknown, gave to Aeneas some
intimation of the fatal event.

The following epigram we find in "Elegant Extracts":

FROM THE LATIN

   "Unhappy, Dido, was thy fate
    In first and second married state!
    One husband caused thy flight by dying,
    Thy death the other caused by flying"

PALINURUS

After touching at the island of Sicily, where Acestes, a prince of
Trojan lineage, bore sway, who gave them a hospitable reception,
the Trojans re-embarked, and held on their course for Italy. Venus
now interceded with Neptune to allow her son at last to attain the
wished-for goal and find an end of his perils on the deep. Neptune
consented, stipulating only for one life as a ransom for the rest.
The victim was Palinurus, the pilot. As he sat watching the stars,
with his hand on the helm, Somnus sent by Neptune approached in
the guise of Phorbas and said: "Palinurus, the breeze is fair, the
water smooth, and the ship sails steadily on her course. Lie down
awhile and take needful rest. I will stand at the helm in your
place." Palinurus replied, "Tell me not of smooth seas or favoring
winds,--me who have seen so much of their treachery. Shall I
trust Aeneas to the chances of the weather and the winds?" And he
continued to grasp the helm and to keep his eyes fixed on the
stars. But Somnus waved over him a branch moistened with Lethaean
dew, and his eyes closed in spite of all his efforts. Then Somnus
pushed him overboard and he fell; but keeping his hold upon the
helm, it came away with him. Neptune was mindful of his promise
and kept the ship on her track without helm or pilot, till Aeneas
discovered his loss, and, sorrowing deeply for his faithful
steersman, took charge of the ship himself.

There is a beautiful allusion to the story of Palinurus in Scott's
"Marmion," Introduction to Canto I., where the poet, speaking of
the recent death of William Pitt, says:

    "O, think how, to his latest day,
    When death just hovering claimed his prey,
    With Palinure's unaltered mood,
    Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
    Each call for needful rest repelled,
    With dying hand the rudder held,
    Till in his fall, with fateful sway,
    The steerage of the realm gave way."

The ships at last reached the shores of Italy, and joyfully did
the adventurers leap to land. While his people were employed in
making their encampment Aeneas sought the abode of the Sibyl. It
was a cave connected with a temple and grove, sacred to Apollo and
Diana. While Aeneas contemplated the scene, the Sibyl accosted
him. She seemed to know his errand, and under the influence of the
deity of the place, burst forth in a prophetic strain, giving dark
intimations of labors and perils through which he was destined to
make his way to final success. She closed with the encouraging
words which have become proverbial: "Yield not to disasters, but
press onward the more bravely." [Footnote: See Proverbial
Expressions.] Aeneas replied that he had prepared himself for
whatever might await him. He had but one request to make. Having
been directed in a dream to seek the abode of the dead in order to
confer with his father, Anchises, to receive from him a revelation
of his future fortunes and those of his race, he asked her
assistance to enable him to accomplish the task. The Sibyl
replied, "The descent to Avernus is easy: the gate of Pluto stands
open night and day; but to retrace one's steps and return to the
upper air, that is the toil, that the difficulty."[Footnote: See
Proverbial Expressions.] She instructed him to seek in the forest
a tree on which grew a golden branch. This branch was to be
plucked off and borne as a gift to Proserpine, and if fate was
propitious it would yield to the hand and quit its parent trunk,
but otherwise no force could rend it away. If torn away, another
would succeed.[Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.]

Aeneas followed the directions of the Sibyl. His mother, Venus,
sent two of her doves to fly before him and show him the way, and
by their assistance he found the tree, plucked the branch, and
hastened back with it to the Sibyl.





CHAPTER XXXII

THE INFERNAL REGIONS--THE SIBYL

THE INFERNAL REGIONS


As at the commencement of our series we have given the pagan
account of the creation of the world, so as we approach its
conclusion we present a view of the regions of the dead, depicted
by one of their most enlightened poets, who drew his doctrines
from their most esteemed philosophers. The region where Virgil
locates the entrance to this abode is perhaps the most strikingly
adapted to excite ideas of the terrific and preternatural of any
on the face of the earth. It is the volcanic region near Vesuvius,
where the whole country is cleft with chasms, from which
sulphurous flames arise, while the ground is shaken with pent-up
vapors, and mysterious sounds issue from the bowels of the earth.
The lake Avernus is supposed to fill the crater of an extinct
volcano. It is circular, half a mile wide, and very deep,
surrounded by high banks, which in Virgil's time were covered with
a gloomy forest. Mephitic vapors rise from its waters, so that no
life is found on its banks, and no birds fly over it. Here,
according to the poet, was the cave which afforded access to the
infernal regions, and here Aeneas offered sacrifices to the
infernal deities, Proserpine, Hecate, and the Furies. Then a
roaring was heard in the earth, the woods on the hill-tops were
shaken, and the howling of dogs announced the approach of the
deities. "Now," said the Sibyl, "summon up your courage, for you
will need it." She descended into the cave, and Aeneas followed.
Before the threshold of hell they passed through a group of beings
who are enumerated as Griefs and avenging Cares, pale Diseases and
melancholy Age, Fear and Hunger that tempt to crime, Toil,
Poverty, and Death,--forms horrible to view. The Furies spread
their couches there, and Discord, whose hair was of vipers tied up
with a bloody fillet. Here also were the monsters, Briareus, with
his hundred arms, Hydras hissing, and Chimaeras breathing fire.
Aeneas shuddered at the sight, drew his sword and would have
struck, but the Sibyl restrained him. They then came to the black
river Cocytus, where they found the ferryman, Charon, old and
squalid, but strong and vigorous, who was receiving passengers of
all kinds into his boat, magnanimous heroes, boys and unmarried
girls, as numerous as the leaves that fall at autumn, or the
flocks that fly southward at the approach of winter. They stood
pressing for a passage and longing to touch the opposite shore.
But the stern ferryman took in only such as he chose, driving the
rest back. Aeneas, wondering at the sight, asked the Sibyl, "Why
this discrimination?" She answered, "Those who are taken on board
the bark are the souls of those who have received due burial
rites; the host of others who have remained unburied are not
permitted to pass the flood, but wander a hundred years, and flit
to and fro about the shore, till at last they are taken over."
Aeneas grieved at recollecting some of his own companions who had
perished in the storm. At that moment he beheld Palinurus, his
pilot, who fell overboard and was drowned. He addressed him and
asked him the cause of his misfortune. Palinurus replied that the
rudder was carried away, and he, clinging to it, was swept away
with it. He besought Aeneas most urgently to extend to him his
hand and take him in company to the opposite shore. But the Sibyl
rebuked him for the wish thus to transgress the laws of Pluto; but
consoled him by informing him that the people of the shore where
his body had been wafted by the waves should be stirred up by
prodigies to give it due burial, and that the promontory should
bear the name of Cape Palinurus, which it does to this day.
Leaving Palinurus consoled by these words, they approached the
boat. Charon, fixing his eyes sternly upon the advancing warrior,
demanded by what right he, living and armed, approached that
shore. To which the Sibyl replied that they would commit no
violence, that Aeneas's only object was to see his father, and
finally exhibited the golden branch, at sight of which Charon's
wrath relaxed, and he made haste to turn his bark to the shore,
and receive them on board. The boat, adapted only to the light
freight of bodiless spirits, groaned under the weight of the hero.
They were soon conveyed to the opposite shore. There they were
encountered by the three-headed dog, Cerberus, with his necks
bristling with snakes. He barked with all his three throats till
the Sibyl threw him a medicated cake which he eagerly devoured,
and then stretched himself out in his den and fell asleep. Aeneas
and the Sibyl sprang to land. The first sound that struck their
ears was the wailing of young children, who had died on the
threshold of life, and near to these were they who had perished
under false charges. Minos presides over them as judge, and
examines the deeds of each. The next class was of those who had
died by their own hand, hating life and seeking refuge in death. O
how willingly would they now endure poverty, labor, and any other
infliction, if they might but return to life! Next were situated
the regions of sadness, divided off into retired paths, leading
through groves of myrtle. Here roamed those who had fallen victims
to unrequited love, not freed from pain even by death itself.
Among these, Aeneas thought he descried the form of Dido, with a
wound still recent. In the dim light he was for a moment
uncertain, but approaching, perceived it was indeed herself. Tears
fell from his eyes, and he addressed her in the accents of love.
"Unhappy Dido! was then the rumor true that you had perished? and
was I, alas! the cause? I call the gods to witness that my
departure from you was reluctant, and in obedience to the commands
of Jove; nor could I believe that my absence would cost you so
dear. Stop, I beseech you, and refuse me not a last farewell." She
stood for a moment with averted countenance, and eyes fixed on the
ground, and then silently passed on, as insensible to his
pleadings as a rock. Aeneas followed for some distance; then, with
a heavy heart, rejoined his companion and resumed his route.

They next entered the fields where roam the heroes who have fallen
in battle. Here they saw many shades of Grecian and Trojan
warriors. The Trojans thronged around him, and could not be
satisfied with the sight. They asked the cause of his coming, and
plied him with innumerable questions. But the Greeks, at the sight
of his armor glittering through the murky atmosphere, recognized
the hero, and filled with terror turned their backs and fled, as
they used to do on the plains of Troy.

Aeneas would have lingered long with his Trojan friends, but the
Sibyl hurried him away. They next came to a place where the road
divided, the one leading to Elysium, the other to the regions of
the condemned. Aeneas beheld on one side the walls of a mighty
city, around which Phlegethon rolled its fiery waters. Before him
was the gate of adamant that neither gods nor men can break
through. An iron tower stood by the gate, on which Tisiphone, the
avenging Fury, kept guard. From the city were heard groans, and
the sound of the scourge, the creaking of iron, and the clanking
of chains. Aeneas, horror-struck, inquired of his guide what
crimes were those whose punishments produced the sounds he heard?
The Sibyl answered, "Here is the judgment hall of Rhadamanthus,
who brings to light crimes done in life, which the perpetrator
vainly thought impenetrably hid. Tisiphone applies her whip of
scorpions, and delivers the offender over to her sister Furies."
At this moment with horrid clang the brazen gates unfolded, and
Aeneas saw within a Hydra with fifty heads guarding the entrance.
The Sibyl told him that the gulf of Tartarus descended deep, so
that its recesses were as far beneath their feet as heaven was
high above their heads. In the bottom of this pit, the Titan race,
who warred against the gods, lie prostrate; Salmoneus, also, who
presumed to vie with Jupiter, and built a bridge of brass over
which he drove his chariot that the sound might resemble thunder,
launching flaming brands at his people in imitation of lightning,
till Jupiter struck him with a real thunderbolt, and taught him
the difference between mortal weapons and divine. Here, also, is
Tityus, the giant, whose form is so immense that as he lies he
stretches over nine acres, while a vulture preys upon his liver,
which as fast as it is devoured grows again, so that his
punishment will have no end.

Aeneas saw groups seated at tables loaded with dainties, while
near by stood a Fury who snatched away the viands from their lips
as fast as they prepared to taste them. Others beheld suspended
over their heads huge rocks, threatening to fall, keeping them in
a state of constant alarm. These were they who had hated their
brothers, or struck their parents, or defrauded the friends who
trusted them, or who, having grown rich, kept their money to
themselves, and gave no share to others; the last being the most
numerous class. Here also were those who had violated the marriage
vow, or fought in a bad cause, or failed in fidelity to their
employers. Here was one who had sold his country for gold, another
who perverted the laws, making them say one thing to-day and
another to-morrow.

Ixion was there, fastened to the circumference of a wheel
ceaselessly revolving; and Sisyphus, whose task was to roll a huge
stone up to a hill-top, but when the steep was well-nigh gained,
the rock, repulsed by some sudden force, rushed again headlong
down to the plain. Again he toiled at it, while the sweat bathed
all his weary limbs, but all to no effect. There was Tantalus, who
stood in a pool, his chin level with the water, yet he was parched
with thirst, and found nothing to assuage it; for when he bowed
his hoary head, eager to quaff, the water fled away, leaving the
ground at his feet all dry. Tall trees laden with fruit stooped
their heads to him, pears, pomegranates, apples, and luscious
figs; but when with a sudden grasp he tried to seize them winds
whirled them high above his reach.

The Sibyl now warned Aeneas that it was time to turn from these
melancholy regions and seek the city of the blessed. They passed
through a middle tract of darkness, and came upon the Elysian
fields, the groves where the happy reside. They breathed a freer
air, and saw all objects clothed in a purple light. The region has
a sun and stars of its own. The inhabitants were enjoying
themselves in various ways, some in sports on the grassy turf, in
games of strength or skill. others dancing or singing. Orpheus
struck the chords of his lyre, and called forth ravishing sounds.
Here Aeneas saw the founders of the Trojan state, magnanimous
heroes who lived in happier times. He gazed with admiration on the
war chariots and glittering arms now reposing in disuse. Spears
stood fixed in the ground, and the horses, unharnessed, roamed
over the plain. The same pride in splendid armor and generous
steeds which the old heroes felt in life, accompanied them here.
He saw another group feasting and listening to the strains of
music. They were in a laurel grove, whence the great river Po has
its origin, and flows out among men. Here dwelt those who fell by
wounds received in their country's cause, holy priests also, and
poets who have uttered thoughts worthy of Apollo, and others who
have contributed to cheer and adorn life by their discoveries in
the useful arts, and have made their memory blessed by rendering
service to mankind. They wore snow-white fillets about their
brows. The Sibyl addressed a group of these, and inquired where
Anchises was to be found. They were directed where to seek him,
and soon found him in a verdant valley, where he was contemplating
the ranks of his posterity, their destinies and worthy deeds to be
achieved in coming times. When he recognized Aeneas approaching,
he stretched out both hands to him, while tears flowed freely.
"Have you come at last," said he, "long expected, and do I behold
you after such perils past? O my son, how have I trembled for you
as I have watched your career!" To which Aeneas replied, "O
father! your image was always before me to guide and guard me."
Then he endeavored to enfold his father in his embrace, but his
arms enclosed only an unsubstantial image.

Aeneas perceived before him a spacious valley, with trees gently
waving to the wind, a tranquil landscape, through which the river
Lethe flowed. Along the banks of the stream wandered a countless
multitude, numerous as insects in the summer air. Aeneas, with
surprise, inquired who were these. Anchises answered, "They are
souls to which bodies are to be given in due time. Meanwhile they
dwell on Lethe's bank, and drink oblivion of their former lives."
"O father!" said Aeneas, "is it possible that any can be so in
love with life as to wish to leave these tranquil seats for the
upper world?" Anchises replied by explaining the plan of creation.
The Creator, he told him, originally made the material of which
souls are composed of the four elements, fire, air, earth, and
water, all which when united took the form of the most excellent
part, fire, and became FLAME. This material was scattered like
seed among the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars. Of this
seed the inferior gods created man and all other animals, mingling
it with various proportions of earth, by which its purity was
alloyed and reduced. Thus, the more earth predominates in the
composition the less pure is the individual; and we see men and
women with their full-grown bodies have not the purity of
childhood. So in proportion to the time which the union of body
and soul has lasted is the impurity contracted by the spiritual
part. This impurity must be purged away after death, which is done
by ventilating the souls in the current of winds, or merging them
in water, or burning out their impurities by fire. Some few, of
whom Anchises intimates that he is one, are admitted at once to
Elysium, there to remain. But the rest, after the impurities of
earth are purged away, are sent back to life endowed with new
bodies, having had the remembrance of their former lives
effectually washed away by the waters of Lethe. Some, however,
there still are, so thoroughly corrupted, that they are not fit to
be intrusted with human bodies, and these are made into brute
animals, lions, tigers, cats, dogs, monkeys, etc. This is what the
ancients called Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls; a
doctrine which is still held by the natives of India, who scruple
to destroy the life even of the most insignificant animal, not
knowing but it may be one of their relations in an altered form.

Anchises, having explained so much, proceeded to point out to
Aeneas individuals of his race, who were hereafter to be born, and
to relate to him the exploits they should perform in the world.
After this he reverted to the present, and told his son of the
events that remained to him to be accomplished before the complete
establishment of himself and his followers in Italy. Wars were to
be waged, battles fought, a bride to be won, and in the result a
Trojan state founded, from which should rise the Roman power, to
be in time the sovereign of the world.

Aeneas and the Sibyl then took leave of Anchises, and returned by
some short cut, which the poet does not explain, to the upper
world.

ELYSIUM

Virgil, we have seen, places his Elysium under the earth, and
assigns it for a residence to the spirits of the blessed. But in
Homer Elysium forms no part of the realms of the dead. He places
it on the west of the earth, near Ocean, and describes it as a
happy land, where there is neither snow, nor cold, nor rain, and
always fanned by the delightful breezes of Zephyrus. Hither
favored heroes pass without dying and live happy under the rule of
Rhadamanthus. The Elysium of Hesiod and Pindar is in the Isles of
the Blessed, or Fortunate Islands, in the Western Ocean. From
these sprang the legend of the happy island Atlantis. This
blissful region may have been wholly imaginary, but possibly may
have sprung from the reports of some storm-driven mariners who had
caught a glimpse of the coast of America.

J. R. Lowell, in one of his shorter poems, claims for the present
age some of the privileges of that happy realm. Addressing the
Past, he says:

     "Whatever of true life there was in thee,
        Leaps in our age's veins.

     Here, 'mid the bleak waves of our strife and care,
       Float the green 'Fortunate Isles,'
     Where all thy hero-spirits dwell and share
       Our martyrdoms and toils.
         The present moves attended
     With all of brave and excellent and fair
         That made the old time splendid."

Milton also alludes to the same fable in "Paradise Lost," Book
III, 1. 568:

    "Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
    Fortunate fields and groves and flowery vales,
    Thrice happy isles."

And in Book II. he characterizes the rivers of Erebus according to
the meaning of their names in the Greek language:

    "Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate,
    Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep;
    Cocytus named of lamentation loud
    Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon
    Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.
    Far off from these a slow and silent stream,
    Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
    Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
    Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
    Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain."

THE SIBYL

As Aeneas and the Sibyl pursued their way back to earth, he said
to her, "Whether thou be a goddess or a mortal beloved of the
gods, by me thou shalt always be held in reverence. When I reach
the upper air I will cause a temple to be built to thy honor, and
will myself bring offerings." "I am no goddess," said the Sibyl;
"I have no claim to sacrifice or offering. I am mortal; yet if I
could have accepted the love of Apollo I might have been immortal.
He promised me the fulfilment of my wish, if I would consent to be
his. I took a handful of sand, and holding it forth, said, 'Grant
me to see as many birthdays as there are sand grains in my hand.'
Unluckily I forgot to ask for enduring youth. This also he would
have granted, could I have accepted his love, but offended at my
refusal, he allowed me to grow old. My youth and youthful strength
fled long ago. I have lived seven hundred years, and to equal the
number of the sand grains I have still to see three hundred
springs and three hundred harvests. My body shrinks up as years
increase, and in time, I shall be lost to sight, but my voice will
remain, and future ages will respect my sayings."

These concluding words of the Sibyl alluded to her prophetic
power. In her cave she was accustomed to inscribe on leaves
gathered from the trees the names and fates of individuals. The
leaves thus inscribed were arranged in order within the cave, and
might be consulted by her votaries. But if perchance at the
opening of the door the wind rushed in and dispersed the leaves
the Sibyl gave no aid to restoring them again, and the oracle was
irreparably lost.

The following legend of the Sibyl is fixed at a later date. In the
reign of one of the Tarquins there appeared before the king a
woman who offered him nine books for sale. The king refused to
purchase them, whereupon the woman went away and burned three of
the books, and returning offered the remaining books for the same
price she had asked for the nine. The king again rejected them;
but when the woman, after burning three books more, returned and
asked for the three remaining the same price which she had before
asked for the nine, his curiosity was excited, and he purchased
the books. They were found to contain the destinies of the Roman
state. They were kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
preserved in a stone chest, and allowed to be inspected only by
especial officers appointed for that duty, who, on great
occasions, consulted them and interpreted their oracles to the
people.

There were various Sibyls; but the Cumaean Sibyl, of whom Ovid and
Virgil write, is the most celebrated of them. Ovid's story of her
life protracted to one thousand years may be intended to represent
the various Sibyls as being only reappearances of one and the same
individual.

Young, in the "Night Thoughts," alludes to the Sibyl. Speaking of
Worldly Wisdom, he says:

   "If future fate she plans 'tis all in leaves,
    Like Sibyl, unsubstantial, fleeting bliss;
    At the first blast it vanishes in air.

    As worldly schemes resemble Sibyl's leaves,
    The good man's days to Sibyl's books compare,
    The price still rising as in number less."





CHAPTER XXXIII

CAMILLA--EVANDER--NISUS AND EURYALUS--MEZENTIUS--TURNUS


Aeneas, having parted from the Sibyl and rejoined his fleet,
coasted along the shores of Italy and cast anchor in the mouth of
the Tiber. The poet, having brought his hero to this spot, the
destined termination of his wanderings, invokes his Muse to tell
him the situation of things at that eventful moment. Latinus,
third in descent from Saturn, ruled the country. He was now old
and had no male descendant, but had one charming daughter,
Lavinia, who was sought in marriage by many neighboring chiefs,
one of whom, Turnus, king of the Rutulians, was favored by the
wishes of her parents. But Latinus had been warned in a dream by
his father Faunus, that the destined husband of Lavinia should
come from a foreign land. From that union should spring a race
destined to subdue the world.

Our readers will remember that in the conflict with the Harpies
one of those half-human birds had threatened the Trojans with dire
sufferings. In particular she predicted that before their
wanderings ceased they should be pressed by hunger to devour their
tables. This portent now came true; for as they took their scanty
meal, seated on the grass, the men placed their hard biscuit on
their laps, and put thereon whatever their gleanings in the woods
supplied. Having despatched the latter they finished by eating the
crusts. Seeing which, the boy Iulus said playfully, "See, we are
eating our tables." Aeneas caught the words and accepted the omen.
"All hail, promised land!" he exclaimed, "this is our home, this
our country." He then took measures to find out who were the
present inhabitants of the land, and who their rulers. A hundred
chosen men were sent to the village of Latinus, bearing presents
and a request for friendship and alliance. They went and were
favorably received. Latinus immediately concluded that the Trojan
hero was no other than the promised son-in-law announced by the
oracle. He cheerfully granted his alliance and sent back the
messengers mounted on steeds from his stables, and loaded with
gifts and friendly messages.

Juno, seeing things go thus prosperously for the Trojans, felt her
old animosity revive, summoned Alecto from Erebus, and sent her to
stir up discord. The Fury first took possession of the queen,
Amata, and roused her to oppose in every way the new alliance.
Alecto then speeded to the city of Turnus, and assuming the form
of an old priestess, informed him of the arrival of the foreigners
and of the attempts of their prince to rob him of his bride. Next
she turned her attention to the camp of the Trojans. There she saw
the boy Iulus and his companions amusing themselves with hunting.
She sharpened the scent of the dogs, and led them to rouse up from
the thicket a tame stag, the favorite of Silvia, the daughter of
Tyrrheus, the king's herdsman. A javelin from the hand of Iulus
wounded the animal, and he had only strength left to run
homewards, and died at his mistress's feet. Her cries and tears
roused her brothers and the herdsmen, and they, seizing whatever
weapons came to hand, furiously assaulted the hunting party. These
were protected by their friends, and the herdsmen were finally
driven back with the loss of two of their number.

These things were enough to rouse the storm of war, and the queen,
Turnus, and the peasants all urged the old king to drive the
strangers from the country. He resisted as long as he could, but,
finding his opposition unavailing, finally gave way and retreated
to his retirement.

OPENING THE GATES OF JANUS

It was the custom of the country, when war was to be undertaken,
for the chief magistrate, clad in his robes of office, with solemn
pomp to open the gates of the temple of Janus, which were kept
shut as long as peace endured. His people now urged the old king
to perform that solemn office, but he refused to do so. While they
contested, Juno herself, descending from the skies, smote the
doors with irresistible force, and burst them open. Immediately
the whole country was in a flame. The people rushed from every
side breathing nothing but war.

Turnus was recognized by all as leader; others joined as allies,
chief of whom was Mezentius, a brave and able soldier, but of
detestable cruelty. He had been the chief of one of the
neighboring cities, but his people drove him out. With him was
joined his son Lausus, a generous youth, worthy of a better sire.

CAMILLA

Camilla, the favorite of Diana, a huntress and warrior, after the
fashion of the Amazons, came with her band of mounted followers,
including a select number of her own sex, and ranged herself on
the side of Turnus. This maiden had never accustomed her fingers
to the distaff or the loom, but had learned to endure the toils of
war, and in speed to outstrip the wind. It seemed as if she might
run over the standing corn without crushing it, or over the
surface of the water without dipping her feet. Camilla's history
had been singular from the beginning. Her father, Metabus, driven
from his city by civil discord, carried with him in his flight his
infant daughter. As he fled through the woods, his enemies in hot
pursuit, he reached the bank of the river Amazenus, which, swelled
by rains, seemed to debar a passage. He paused for a moment, then
decided what to do. He tied the infant to his lance with wrappers
of bark, and poising the weapon in his upraised hand thus
addressed Diana: "Goddess of the woods! I consecrate this maid to
you;" then hurled the weapon with its burden to the opposite bank.
The spear flew across the roaring water. His pursuers were already
upon him, but he plunged into the river and swam across, and found
the spear, with the infant safe on the other side. Thenceforth he
lived among the shepherds and brought up his daughter in woodland
arts. While a child she was taught to use the bow and throw the
javelin. With her sling she could bring down the crane or the wild
swan. Her dress was a tiger's skin. Many mothers sought her for a
daughter-in-law, but she continued faithful to Diana and repelled
the thought of marriage.

EVANDER

Such were the formidable allies that ranged themselves against
Aeneas. It was night and he lay stretched in sleep on the bank of
the river under the open heavens. The god of the stream, Father
Tiber, seemed to raise his head above the willows and to say, "O
goddess-born, destined possessor of the Latin realms, this is the
promised land, here is to be your home, here shall terminate the
hostility of the heavenly powers, if only you faithfully
persevere. There are friends not far distant. Prepare your boats
and row up my stream; I will lead you to Evander, the Arcadian
chief, he has long been at strife with Turnus and the Rutulians,
and is prepared to become an ally of yours. Rise! offer your vows
to Juno, and deprecate her anger. When you have achieved your
victory then think of me." Aeneas woke and paid immediate
obedience to the friendly vision. He sacrificed to Juno, and
invoked the god of the river and all his tributary fountains to
lend their aid. Then for the first time a vessel filled with armed
warriors floated on the stream of the Tiber. The river smoothed
its waves, and bade its current flow gently, while, impelled by
the vigorous strokes of the rowers, the vessels shot rapidly up
the stream.

About the middle of the day they came in sight of the scattered
buildings of the infant town, where in after times the proud city
of Rome grew, whose glory reached the skies. By chance the old
king, Evander, was that day celebrating annual solemnities in
honor of Hercules and all the gods. Pallas, his son, and all the
chiefs of the little commonwealth stood by. When they saw the tall
ship gliding onward near the wood, they were alarmed at the sight,
and rose from the tables. But Pallas forbade the solemnities to be
interrupted, and seizing a weapon, stepped forward to the river's
bank. He called aloud, demanding who they were, and what their
object. Aeneas, holding forth an olive-branch, replied, "We are
Trojans, friends to you, and enemies to the Rutulians. We seek
Evander, and offer to join our arms with yours." Pallas, in amaze
at the sound of so great a name, invited them to land, and when
Aeneas touched the shore he seized his hand, and held it long in
friendly grasp. Proceeding through the wood, they joined the king
and his party and were most favorably received. Seats were
provided for them at the tables, and the repast proceeded.

INFANT ROME

When the solemnities were ended all moved towards the city. The
king, bending with age, walked between his son and Aeneas, taking
the arm of one or the other of them, and with much variety of
pleasing talk shortening the way. Aeneas with delight looked and
listened, observing all the beauties of the scene, and learning
much of heroes renowned in ancient times. Evander said, "These
extensive groves were once inhabited by fauns and nymphs, and a
rude race of men who sprang from the trees themselves, and had
neither laws nor social culture. They knew not how to yoke the
cattle nor raise a harvest, nor provide from present abundance for
future want; but browsed like beasts upon the leafy boughs, or fed
voraciously on their hunted prey. Such were they when Saturn,
expelled from Olympus by his sons, came among them and drew
together the fierce savages, formed them into society, and gave
them laws. Such peace and plenty ensued that men ever since have
called his reign the golden age; but by degrees far other times
succeeded, and the thirst of gold and the thirst of blood
prevailed. The land was a prey to successive tyrants, till fortune
and resistless destiny brought me hither, an exile from my native
land, Arcadia."

Having thus said, he showed him the Tarpeian rock, and the rude
spot then overgrown with bushes where in after times the Capitol
rose in all its magnificence. He next pointed to some dismantled
walls, and said, "Here stood Janiculum, built by Janus, and there
Saturnia, the town of Saturn." Such discourse brought them to the
cottage of poor Evander, whence they saw the lowing herds roaming
over the plain where now the proud and stately Forum stands. They
entered, and a couch was spread for Aeneas, well stuffed with
leaves, and covered with the skin of a Libyan bear.

Next morning, awakened by the dawn and the shrill song of birds
beneath the eaves of his low mansion, old Evander rose. Clad in a
tunic, and a panther's skin thrown over his shoulders, with
sandals on his feet and his good sword girded to his side, he went
forth to seek his guest. Two mastiffs followed him, his whole
retinue and body guard. He found the hero attended by his faithful
Achates, and, Pallas soon joining them, the old king spoke thus:

"Illustrious Trojan, it is but little we can do in so great a
cause. Our state is feeble, hemmed in on one side by the river, on
the other by the Rutulians. But I propose to ally you with a
people numerous and rich, to whom fate has brought you at the
propitious moment. The Etruscans hold the country beyond the
river. Mezentius was their king, a monster of cruelty, who
invented unheard-of torments to gratify his vengeance. He would
fasten the dead to the living, hand to hand and face to face, and
leave the wretched victims to die in that dreadful embrace. At
length the people cast him out, him and his house. They burned his
palace and slew his friends. He escaped and took refuge with
Turnus, who protects him with arms. The Etruscans demand that he
shall be given up to deserved punishment, and would ere now have
attempted to enforce their demand; but their priests restrain
them, telling them that it is the will of heaven that no native of
the land shall guide them to victory, and that thsir destined
leader must come from across the sea. They have offered the crown
to me, but I am too old to undertake such great affairs, and my
son is native-born, which precludes him from the choice. You,
equally by birth and time of life, and fame in arms, pointed out
by the gods, have but to appear to be hailed at once as their
leader. With you I will join Pallas, my son, my only hope and
comfort. Under you he shall learn the art of war, and strive to
emulate your great exploits."

Then the king ordered horses to be furnished for the Trojan
chiefs, and Aeneas, with a chosen band of followers and Pallas
accompanying, mounted and took the way to the Etruscan city,
[Footnote: The poet here inserts a famous line which is thought to
imitate in its sound the galloping of horses. It may be thus
translated--"Then struck the hoofs of the steeds on the ground
with a four-footed trampling."--See Proverbial Expressions.]
having sent back the rest of his party in the ships. Aeneas and
his band safely arrived at the Etruscan camp and were received
with open arms by Tarchon and his countrymen.

NISUS AND EURYALUS

In the meanwhile Turnus had collected his bands and made all
necessary preparations for the war. Juno sent Iris to him with a
message inciting him to take advantage of the absence of Aeneas
and surprise the Trojan camp. Accordingly the attempt was made,
but the Trojans were found on their guard, and having received
strict orders from Aeneas not to fight in his absence, they lay
still in their intrenchments, and resisted all the efforts of the
Rutulians to draw them into the field. Night coming on, the army
of Turnus, in high spirits at their fancied superiority, feasted
and enjoyed themselves, and finally stretched themselves on the
field and slept secure.

In the camp of the Trojans things were far otherwise. There all
was watchfulness and anxiety and impatience for Aeneas's return.
Nisus stood guard at the entrance of the camp, and Euryalus, a
youth distinguished above all in the army for graces of person and
fine qualities, was with him. These two were friends and brothers
in arms. Nisus said to his friend, "Do you perceive what
confidence and carelessness the enemy display? Their lights are
few and dim, and the men seem all oppressed with wine or sleep.
You know how anxiously our chiefs wish to send to Aeneas, and to
get intelligence from him. Now, I am strongly moved to make my way
through the enemy's camp and to go in search of our chief. If I
succeed, the glory of the deed will be reward enough for me, and
if they judge the service deserves anything more, let them pay it
to you."

Euryalus, all on fire with the love of adventure, replied, "Would
you, then, Nisus, refuse to share your enterprise with me? And
shall I let you go into such danger alone? Not so my brave father
brought me up, nor so have I planned for myself when I joined the
standard of Aeneas, and resolved to hold my life cheap in
comparison with honor." Nisus replied, "I doubt it not, my friend;
but you know the uncertain event of such an undertaking, and
whatever may happen to me, I wish you to be safe. You are younger
than I and have more of life in prospect. Nor can I be the cause
of such grief to your mother, who has chosen to be here in the
camp with you rather than stay and live in peace with the other
matrons in Acestes' city." Euryalus replied, "Say no more. In vain
you seek arguments to dissuade me. I am fixed in the resolution to
go with you. Let us lose no time." They called the guard, and
committing the watch to them, sought the general's tent. They
found the chief officers in consultation, deliberating how they
should send notice to Aeneas of their situation. The offer of the
two friends was gladly accepted, themselves loaded with praises
and promised the most liberal rewards in case of success. Iulus
especially addressed Euryalus, assuring him of his lasting
friendship. Euryalus replied, "I have but one boon to ask. My aged
mother is with me in the camp. For me she left the Trojan soil,
and would not stay behind with the other matrons at the city of
Acestes. I go now without taking leave of her. I could not bear
her tears nor set at nought her entreaties. But do thou, I beseech
you, comfort her in her distress. Promise me that and I shall go
more boldly into whatever dangers may present themselves." Iulus
and the other chiefs were moved to tears, and promised to do all
his request. "Your mother shall be mine," said Iulus, "and all
that I have promised to you shall be made good to her, if you do
not return to receive it."

The two friends left the camp and plunged at once into the midst
of the enemy. They found no watch, no sentinels posted, but, all
about, the sleeping soldiers strewn on the grass and among the
wagons. The laws of war at that early day did not forbid a brave
man to slay a sleeping foe, and the two Trojans slew, as they
passed, such of the enemy as they could without exciting alarm. In
one tent Euryalus made prize of a helmet brilliant with gold and
plumes. They had passed through the enemy's ranks without being
discovered, but now suddenly appeared a troop directly in front of
them, which, under Volscens, their leader, were approaching the
camp. The glittering helmet of Euryalus caught their attention,
and Volscens hailed the two, and demanded who and whence they
were. They made no answer, but plunged into the wood. The horsemen
scattered in all directions to intercept their flight. Nisus had
eluded pursuit and was out of danger, but Euryalus being missing
he turned back to seek him. He again entered the wood and soon
came within sound of voices. Looking through the thicket he saw
the whole band surrounding Euryalus with noisy questions. What
should he do? how extricate the youth, or would it be better to
die with him.

Raising his eyes to the moon, which now shone clear, he said,
"Goddess! favor my effort!" and aiming his javelin at one of the
leaders of the troop, struck him in the back and stretched him on
the plain with a death-blow. In the midst of their amazement
another weapon flew and another of the party fell dead. Volscens,
the leader, ignorant whence the darts came, rushed sword in hand
upon Euryalus. "You shall pay the penalty of both," he said, and
would have plunged the sword into his bosom, when Nisus, who from
his concealment saw the peril of his friend, rushed forward
exclaiming, "'Twas I, 'twas I; turn your swords against me,
Rutulians, I did it; he only followed me as a friend." While he
spoke the sword fell, and pierced the comely bosom of Euryalus.
His head fell over on his shoulder, like a flower cut down by the
plough. Nisus rushed upon Volscens and plunged his sword into his
body, and was himself slain on the instant by numberless blows.

MEZENTIUS

Aeneas, with his Etrurian allies, arrived on the scene of action
in time to rescue his beleaguered camp; and now the two armies
being nearly equal in strength, the war began in good earnest. We
cannot find space for all the details, but must simply record the
fate of the principal characters whom we have introduced to our
readers. The tyrant Mezentius, finding himself engaged against his
revolting subjects, raged like a wild beast. He slew all who dared
to withstand him, and put the multitude to flight wherever he
appeared. At last he encountered Aeneas, and the armies stood
still to see the issue. Mezentius threw his spear, which striking
Aeneas's shield glanced off and hit Anthor. He was a Grecian by
birth, who had left Argos, his native city, and followed Evander
into Italy. The poet says of him with simple pathos which has made
the words proverbial, "He fell, unhappy, by a wound intended for
another, looked up at the skies, and dying remembered sweet
Argos." [Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.] Aeneas now in turn
hurled his lance. It pierced the shield of Mezentius, and wounded
him in the thigh. Lausus, his son, could not bear the sight, but
rushed forward and interposed himself, while the followers pressed
round Mezentius and bore him away. Aeneas held his sword suspended
over Lausus and delayed to strike, but the furious youth pressed
on and he was compelled to deal the fatal blow. Lausus fell, and
Aeneas bent over him in pity. "Hapless youth," he said, "what can
I do for you worthy of your praise? Keep those arms in which you
glory, and fear not but that your body shall be restored to your
friends, and have due funeral honors." So saying, he called the
timid followers and delivered the body into their hands.

Mezentius meanwhile had been borne to the riverside, and washed
his wound. Soon the news reached him of Lausus's death, and rage
and despair supplied the place of strength. He mounted his horse
and dashed into the thickest of the fight, seeking Aeneas. Having
found him, [Footnote: See Proverbial Expressions.] he rode round
him in a circle, throwing one javelin after another, while Aeneas
stood fenced with his shield, turning every way to meet them. At
last, after Mezentius had three times made the circuit, Aeneas
threw his lance directly at the horse's head. It pierced his
temples and he fell, while a shout from both armies rent the
skies. Mezentius asked no mercy, but only that his body might be
spared the insults of his revolted subjects, and be buried in the
same grave with his son. He received the fatal stroke not
unprepared, and poured out his life and his blood together.

PALLAS, CAMILLA, TURNUS

While these things were doing in one part of the field, in another
Turnus encountered the youthful Pallas. The contest between
champions so unequally matched could not be doubtful. Pallas bore
himself bravely, but fell by the lance of Turnus. The victor
almost relented when he saw the brave youth lying dead at his
feet, and spared to use the privilege of a conqueror in despoiling
him of his arms. The belt only, adorned with studs and carvings of
gold, he took and clasped round his own body. The rest he remitted
to the friends of the slain.

After the battle there was a cessation of arms for some days to
allow both armies to bury their dead. In this interval Aeneas
challenged Turnus to decide the contest by single combat, but
Turnus evaded the challenge. Another battle ensued, in which
Camilla, the virgin warrior, was chiefly conspicuous. Her deeds of
valor surpassed those of the bravest warriors, and many Trojans
and Etruscans fell pierced with her darts or struck down by her
battle-axe. At last an Etruscan named Aruns, who had watched her
long, seeking for some advantage, observed her pursuing a flying
enemy whose splendid armor offered a tempting prize. Intent on the
chase she observed not her danger, and the javelin of Aruns struck
her and inflicted a fatal wound. She fell and breathed her last in
the arms of her attendant maidens. But Diana, who beheld her fate,
suffered not her slaughter to be unavenged. Aruns, as he stole
away, glad, but frightened, was struck by a secret arrow, launched
by one of the nymphs of Diana's train, and died ignobly and
unknown.

At length the final conflict took place between Aeneas and Turnus.
Turnus had avoided the contest as long as he could, but at last,
impelled by the ill success of his arms and by the murmurs of his
followers, he braced himself to the conflict. It could not be
doubtful. On the side of Aeneas were the expressed decree of
destiny, the aid of his goddess-mother at every emergency, and
impenetrable armor fabricated by Vulcan, at her request, for her
son. Turnus, on the other hand, was deserted by his celestial
allies, Juno having been expressly forbidden by Jupiter to assist
him any longer. Turnus threw his lance, but it recoiled harmless
from the shield of Aeneas. The Trojan hero then threw his, which
penetrated the shield of Turnus, and pierced his thigh. Then
Turnus's fortitude forsook him and he begged for mercy; and Aeneas
would have given him his life, but at the instant his eye fell on
the belt of Pallas, which Turnus had taken from the slaughtered
youth. Instantly his rage revived, and exclaiming, "Pallas
immolates thee with this blow," he thrust him through with his
sword.

Here the poem of the "Aeneid" closes, and we are left to infer
that Aeneas, having triumphed over his foes, obtained Lavinia for
his bride. Tradition adds that he founded his city, and called it
after her name, Lavinium. His son Iulus founded Alba Longa, which
was the birthplace of Romulus and Remus and the cradle of Rome
itself.

There is an allusion to Camilla in those well-known lines of Pope,
in which, illustrating the rule that "the sound should be an echo
to the sense," he says:

   "When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
    The line too labors and the words move slow.
    Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
    Flies o'er th' unbending corn or skims along the main."

    --Essay on Criticism.





CHAPTER XXXIV

PYTHAGORAS--EGYPTIAN DEITIES--ORACLES

PYTHAGORAS


The teachings of Anchises to Aeneas, respecting the nature of the
human soul, were in conformity with the doctrines of the
Pythagoreans. Pythagoras (born five hundred and forty years B.C.)
was a native of the island of Samos, but passed the chief portion
of his life at Crotona in Italy. He is therefore sometimes called
"the Samian," and sometimes "the philosopher of Crotona." When
young he travelled extensively, and it is said visited Egypt,
where he was instructed by the priests in all their learning, and
afterwards journeyed to the East, and visited the Persian and
Chaldean Magi, and the Brahmins of India.

At Crotona, where he finally established himself, his
extraordinary qualities collected round him a great number of
disciples. The inhabitants were notorious for luxury and
licentiousness, but the good effects of his influence were soon
visible. Sobriety and temperance succeeded. Six hundred of the
inhabitants became his disciples and enrolled themselves in a
society to aid each other in the pursuit of wisdom, uniting their
property in one common stock for the benefit of the whole. They
were required to practise the greatest purity and simplicity of
manners. The first lesson they learned was SILENCE; for a time
they were required to be only hearers. "He [Pythagoras] said so"
(Ipse dixit), was to be held by them as sufficient, without any
proof. It was only the advanced pupils, after years of patient
submission, who were allowed to ask questions and to state
objections.

Pythagoras considered NUMBERS as the essence and principle of all
things, and attributed to them a real and distinct existence; so
that, in his view, they were the elements out of which the
universe was constructed. How he conceived this process has never
been satisfactorily explained. He traced the various forms and
phenomena of the world to numbers as their basis and essence. The
"Monad" or unit he regarded as the source of all numbers. The
number Two was imperfect, and the cause of increase and division.
Three was called the number of the whole because it had a
beginning, middle, and end. Four, representing the square, is in
the highest degree perfect; and Ten, as it contains the sum of the
four prime numbers, comprehends all musical and arithmetical
proportions, and denotes the system of the world.

As the numbers proceed from the monad, so he regarded the pure and
simple essence of the Deity as the source of all the forms of
nature. Gods, demons, and heroes are emanations of the Supreme,
and there is a fourth emanation, the human soul. This is immortal,
and when freed from the fetters of the body passes to the
habitation of the dead, where it remains till it returns to the
world, to dwell in some other human or animal body, and at last,
when sufficiently purified, it returns to the source from which it
proceeded. This doctrine of the transmigration of souls
(metempsychosis), which was originally Egyptian and connected with
the doctrine of reward and punishment of human actions, was the
chief cause why the Pythagoreans killed no animals. Ovid
represents Pythagoras addressing his disciples in these words:
"Souls never die, but always on quitting one abode pass to
another. I myself can remember that in the time of the Trojan war
I was Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, and fell by the spear of
Menelaus. Lately being in the temple of Juno, at Argos, I
recognized my shield hung up there among the trophies. All things
change, nothing perishes. The soul passes hither and thither,
occupying now this body, now that, passing from the body of a
beast into that of a man, and thence to a beast's again. As wax is
stamped with certain figures, then melted, then stamped anew with
others, yet is always the same wax, so the soul, being always the
same, yet wears, at different times, different forms. Therefore,
if the love of kindred is not extinct in your bosoms, forbear, I
entreat you, to violate the life of those who may haply be your
own relatives."

Shakspeare, in the "Merchant of Venice," makes Gratiano allude to
the metempsychosis, where he says to Shylock:

   "Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,
    To hold opinion with Pythagoras,
    That souls of animals infuse themselves
    Into the trunks of men; thy currish spirit
    Governed a wolf; who hanged for human slaughter
    Infused his soul in thee; for thy desires
    Are wolfish, bloody, starved and ravenous."

The relation of the notes of the musical scale to numbers, whereby
harmony results from vibrations in equal times, and discord from
the reverse, led Pythagoras to apply the word "harmony" to the
visible creation, meaning by it the just adaptation of parts to
each other. This is the idea which Dryden expresses in the
beginning of his "Song for St. Cecilia's Day":

   "From harmony, from heavenly harmony
    This everlasting frame began;
    From harmony to harmony
    Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
    The Diapason closing full in Man."

In the centre of the universe (he taught) there was a central
fire, the principle of life. The central fire was surrounded by
the earth, the moon, the sun, and the five planets. The distances
of the various heavenly bodies from one another were conceived to
correspond to the proportions of the musical scale. The heavenly
bodies, with the gods who inhabited them, were supposed to perform
a choral dance round the central fire, "not without song." It is
this doctrine which Shakspeare alludes to when he makes Lorenzo
teach astronomy to Jessica in this fashion:

   "Look, Jessica, see how the floor of heaven
    Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!
    There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st
    But in his motion like an angel sings,
    Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim;
    Such harmony is in immortal souls!
    But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
    Doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it."

    --Merchant of Venice.

The spheres were conceived to be crystalline or glassy fabrics
arranged over one another like a nest of bowls reversed. In the
substance of each sphere one or more of the heavenly bodies was
supposed to be fixed, so as to move with it. As the spheres are
transparent we look through them and see the heavenly bodies which
they contain and carry round with them. But as these spheres
cannot move on one another without friction, a sound is thereby
produced which is of exquisite harmony, too fine for mortal ears
to recognize. Milton, in his "Hymn on the Nativity," thus alludes
to the music of the spheres:

   "Ring out, ye crystal spheres!
    Once bless our human ears
      (If ye have power to charm our senses so);
    And let your silver chime
    Move in melodious time,
      And let the base of Heaven's deep organ blow;
    And with your ninefold harmony
    Make up full concert with the angelic symphony."

Pythagoras is said to have invented the lyre. Our own poet
Longfellow, in "Verses to a Child," thus relates the story:

   "As great Pythagoras of yore,
    Standing beside the blacksmith's door,
    And hearing the hammers as they smote
    The anvils with a different note,
    Stole from the varying tones that hung
    Vibrant on every iron tongue,
    The secret of the sounding wire,
    And formed the seven-chorded lyre."

See also the same poet's "Occupation of Orion"--

   "The Samian's great Aeolian lyre."

SYBARIS AND CROTONA

Sybaris, a neighboring city to Crotona, was as celebrated for
luxury and effeminacy as Crotona for the reverse. The name has
become proverbial. J. R. Lowell uses it in this sense in his
charming little poem "To the Dandelion":

   "Not in mid June the golden cuirassed bee
    Feels a more summer-like, warm ravishment
      In the white lily's breezy tent
    (His conquered Sybaris) than I when first
    From the dark green thy yellow circles burst."

A war arose between the two cities, and Sybaris was conquered and
destroyed. Milo, the celebrated athlete, led the army of Crotona.
Many stories are told of Milo's vast strength, such as his
carrying a heifer of four years old upon his shoulders and
afterwards eating the whole of it in a single day. The mode of his
death is thus related: As he was passing through a forest he saw
the trunk of a tree which had been partially split open by wood-
cutters, and attempted to rend it further; but the wood closed
upon his hands and held him fast, in which state he was attacked
and devoured by wolves.

Byron, in his "Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte," alludes to the story of
Milo:

   "He who of old would rend the oak
      Deemed not of the rebound;
    Chained by the trunk he vainly broke,
      Alone, how looked he round!"

EGYPTIAN DEITIES

The Egyptians acknowledged as the highest deity Amun, afterwards
called Zeus, or Jupiter Ammon. Amun manifested himself in his word
or will, which created Kneph and Athor, of different sexes. From
Kneph and Athor proceeded Osiris and Isis. Osiris was worshipped
as the god of the sun, the source of warmth, life, and
fruitfulness, in addition to which he was also regarded as the god
of the Nile, who annually visited his wife, Isis (the Earth), by
means of an inundation. Serapis or Hermes is sometimes represented
as identical with Osiris, and sometimes as a distinct divinity,
the ruler of Tartarus and god of medicine. Anubis is the guardian
god, represented with a dog's head, emblematic of his character of
fidelity and watchfulness. Horus or Harpocrates was the son of
Osiris. He is represented seated on a Lotus flower, with his
finger on his lips, as the god of Silence.

In one of Moore's "Irish Melodies" is an allusion to Harpocrates:

   "Thyself shall, under some rosy bower,
      Sit mute, with thy finger on thy lip;
    Like him, the boy, who born among
      The flowers that on the Nile-stream blush,
    Sits ever thus,--his only song
      To Earth and Heaven, 'Hush all, hush!'"

MYTH OF OSIRIS AND ISIS

Osiris and Isis were at one time induced to descend to the earth
to bestow gifts and blessings on its inhabitants. Isis showed them
first the use of wheat and barley, and Osiris made the instruments
of agriculture and taught men the use of them, as well as how to
harness the ox to the plough. He then gave men laws, the
institution of marriage, a civil organization, and taught them how
to worship the gods. After he had thus made the valley of the Nile
a happy country, he assembled a host with which he went to bestow
his blessings upon the rest of the world. He conquered the nations
everywhere, but not with weapons, only with music and eloquence.
His brother Typhon saw this, and filled with envy and malice
sought during his absence to usurp his throne. But Isis, who held
the reins of government, frustrated his plans. Still more
embittered, he now resolved to kill his brother. This he did in
the following manner: Having organized a conspiracy of seventy-two
members, he went with them to the feast which was celebrated in
honor of the king's return. He then caused a box or chest to be
brought in, which had been made to fit exactly the size of Osiris,
and declared that he wouldd would give that chest of precious wood
to whosoever could get into it. The rest tried in vain, but no
sooner was Osiris in it than Typhon and his companions closed the
lid and flung the chest into the Nile. When Isis heard of the
cruel murder she wept and mourned, and then with her hair shorn,
clothed in black and beating her breast, she sought diligently for
the body of her husband. In this search she was materially
assisted by Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys. They sought in
vain for some time; for when the chest, carried by the waves to
the shores of Byblos, had become entangled in the reeds that grew
at the edge of the water, the divine power that dwelt in the body
of Osiris imparted such strength to the shrub that it grew into a
mighty tree, enclosing in its trunk the coffin of the god. This
tree with its sacred deposit was shortly after felled, and erected
as a column in the palace of the king of Phoenicia. But at length
by the aid of Anubis and the sacred birds, Isis ascertained these
facts, and then went to the royal city. There she offered herself
at the palace as a servant, and being admitted, threw off her
disguise and appeared as a goddess, surrounded with thunder and
lightning. Striking the column with her wand she caused it to
split open and give up the sacred coffin. This she seized and
returned with it, and concealed it in the depth of a forest, but
Typhon discovered it, and cutting the body into fourteen pieces
scattered them hither and thither. After a tedious search, Isis
found thirteen pieces, the fishes of the Nile having eaten the
other. This she replaced by an imitation of sycamore wood, and
buried the body at Philae, which became ever after the great
burying place of the nation, and the spot to which pilgrimages
were made from all parts of the country. A temple of surpassing
magnificence was also erected there in honor of the god, and at
every place where one of his limbs had been found minor temples
and tombs were built to commemorate the event. Osiris became after
that the tutelar deity of the Egyptians. His soul was supposed
always to inhabit the body of the bull Apis, and at his death to
transfer itself to his successor.

Apis, the Bull of Memphis, was worshipped with the greatest
reverence by the Egyptians. The individual animal who was held to
be Apis was recognized by certain signs. It was requisite that he
should be quite black, have a white square mark on the forehead,
another, in the form of an eagle, on his back, and under his
tongue a lump somewhat in the shape of a scarabaeus or beetle. As
soon as a bull thus marked was found by those sent in search of
him, he was placed in a building facing the east, and was fed with
milk for four months. At the expiration of this term the priests
repaired at new moon, with great pomp, to his habitation and
saluted him Apis. He was placed in a vessel magnificently
decorated and conveyed down the Nile to Memphis, where a temple,
with two chapels and a court for exercise, was assigned to him.
Sacrifices were made to him, and once every year, about the time
when the Nile began to rise, a golden cup was thrown into the
river, and a grand festival was held to celebrate his birthday.
The people believed that during this festival the crocodiles
forgot their natural ferocity and became harmless. There was,
however, one drawback to his happy lot: he was not permitted to
live beyond a certain period, and if, when he had attained the age
of twenty-five years, he still survived, the priests drowned him
in the sacred cistern and then buried him in the temple of
Serapis. On the death of this bull, whether it occurred in the
course of nature or by violence, the whole land was filled with
sorrow and lamentations, which lasted until his successor was
found.

We find the following item in one of the newspapers of the day:

"The Tomb of Apis.--The excavations going on at Memphis bid fair
to make that buried city as interesting as Pompeii. The monster
tomb of Apis is now open, after having lain unknown for
centuries."

Milton, in his "Hymn on the Nativity," alludes to the Egyptian
deities, not as imaginary beings, but as real demons, put to
flight by the coming of Christ.

    "The brutish god of Nile as fast,
    Isis and Horus and the dog Anubis haste.
         Nor is Osiris seen
         In Memphian grove or green
    Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud;
         Nor can he be at rest
         Within his sacred chest;
    Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud.
       In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark
    The sable-stole sorcerers bear his worshipped ark."

[Footnote: There being no rain in Egypt, the grass is
"unshowered," and the country depend for its fertility upon the
overflowings of the Nile. The ark alluded to in the last line is
shown by pictures still remaining on the walls of the Egyptian
temples to have been borne by the priests in their religious
processions. It probably represented the chest in which Osiris was
placed.]

Isis was represinted in statuary with the head veiled, a symbol of
mystery. It is this which Tennyson alludes to in "Maud," IV., 8:

"For the drift of the Maker is dark, an Isis hid by the veil,"
etc.

ORACLES Oracle was the name used to denote the place where answers
were supposed to be given by any of the divinities to those who
consulted them respecting the future. The word was also used to
signify the response which was given.

The most ancient Grecian oracle was that of Jupiter at Dodona.
According to one account, it was established in the following
manner: Two black doves took their flight from Thebes in Egypt.
One flew to Dodona in Epirus, and alighting in a grove of oaks, it
proclaimed in human language to the inhabitants of the district
that they must establish there an oracle of Jupiter. The other
dove flew to the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan Oasis, and
delivered a similar command there. Another account is, that they
were not doves, but priestesses, who were carried off from Thebes
in Egypt by the Phoenicians, and set up oracles at the Oasis and
Dodona. The responses of the oracle were given from the trees, by
the branches rustling in the wind, the sounds being interpreted by
the priests.

But the most celebrated of the Grecian oracles was that of Apollo
at Delphi, a city built on the slopes of Parnassus in Phocis.

It had been observed at a very early period that the goats feeding
on Parnassus were thrown into convulsions when they approached a
certain long deep cleft in the side of the mountain. This was
owing to a peculiar vapor arising out of the cavern, and one of
the goatherds was induced to try its effects upon himself.
Inhaling the intoxicating air, he was affected in the same manner
as the cattle had been, and the inhabitants of the surrounding
country, unable to explain the circumstance, imputed the
convulsive ravings to which he gave utterance while under the
power of the exhalations to a divine inspiration. The fact was
speedily circulated widely, and a temple was erected on the spot.
The prophetic influence was at first variously attributed to the
goddess Earth, to Neptune, Themis, and others, but it was at
length assigned to Apollo, and to him alone. A priestess was
appointed whose office it was to inhale the hallowed air, and who
was named the Pythia. She was prepared for this duty by previous
ablution at the fountain of Castalia, and being crowned with
laurel was seated upon a tripod similarly adorned, which was
placed over the chasm whence the divine afflatus proceeded. Her
inspired words while thus situated were interpreted by the
priests.

ORACLE OF TROPHONIUS

Besides the oracles of Jupiter and Apollo, at Dodona and Delphi,
that of Trophonius in Boeotia was held in high estimation.
Trophonius and Agamedes were brothers. They were distinguished
architects, and built the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and a
treasury for King Hyrieus. In the wall of the treasury they placed
a stone, in such a manner that it could be taken out; and by this
means, from time to time, purloined the treasure. This amazed
Hyrieus, for his locks and seals were untouched, and yet his
wealth continually diminished. At length he set a trap for the
thief and Agamedes was caught. Trophonias, unable to extricate
him, and fearing that when found he would be compelled by torture
to discover his accomplice, cut off his head. Trophonius himself
is said to have been shortly afterwards swallowed up by the earth.

The oracle of Trophonius was at Lebadea in Boeotia. During a great
drought the Boeotians, it is said, were directed by the god at
Delphi to seek aid of Trophonius at Lebadea. They came thither,
but could find no pracle. One of them, however, happening to see a
swarm of bees, followed them to a chasm in the earth, which proved
to be the place sought.

Peculiar ceremonies were to be performed by the person who came to
consult the oracle. After these preliminaries, he descended into
the cave by a narrow passage. This place could be entered only in
the night. The person returned from the cave by the same narrow
passage, bat walking backwards. He appeared melancholy and
defected; and hence the proverb which was applied to a person low-
spirited and gloomy, "He has been consulting the oracle of
Trophonius."

ORACLE OF AESCULAPIUS

There were numerous oracles of Aesculapius, but the most
celebrated one was at Epidaurus. Here the sick sought responses
and the recovery of their health by sleeping in the temple. It has
been inferred from the accounts that have come down to us that the
treatment of the sick resembled what is now called Animal
Magnetism or Mesmerism.

Serpents 'were sacred to Aesculapius, probably because of a
superstition that those animals have a faculty of renewing their
youth by a change of skin. The worship of Aesculapius was
introduced into Rome in a time of great sickness, and an embassy
sent to the temple of Epidaurus to entreat the aid of the god.
Aesculapius was propitious, and on the return of the ship
accompanied it in the form of a serpent. Arriving in the river
Tiber, the serpent glided from the vessel and took possession of
an island in the river, and a temple was there erected to his
honor.

ORACLE OF APIS

At Memphis the sacred bull Apis gave answer to those who consulted
him by the manner in which he received or rejected what was
presented to him. If the bull refused food from the hand of the
inquirer it was considered an unfavorable sign, and the contrary
when he received it.

It has been a question whether oracular responses ought to be
ascribed to mere human contrivance or to the agency of evil
spirits. The latter opinion has been most general in past ages. A
third theory has been advanced since the phenomena of Mesmerism
have attracted attention, that something like the mesmeric trance
was induced in the Pythoness, and the faculty of clairvoyance
really called into action.

Another question is as to the time when the Pagan oracles ceased
to give responses. Ancient Christian writers assert that they
became silent at the birth of Christ, and were heard no more after
that date. Milton adopts, this view in his "Hymn on the Mativity,"
and in lines of solemn and elevated beauty pictures the
consternation of the heathen idols at the Advent of the Saviour:

    "The oracles are dumb;
    No voice or hideous hum
     Rings through the arched roof in words Deceiving.
    Apollo from his shrine
    Can no more divine,
      With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos heaving.
    No nightly trance or breathed spell
    Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell"

In Cowper's poem of "Yardley Oak" there are some beautiful
mythological allusions. The former of the two following is to the
fable of Castor and Pollux; the latter is more appropriate to our
present subject. Addressing the acorn he says:

   "Thou fell'st mature; and in the loamy clod,
    Swelling with vegetative force instinct,
    Didst burst thine, as theirs the fabled Twins
    Now stars; twor lobes protruding, paired exact;
    A leaf succeede and another leaf,
    And, all the elements thy puny growth
    Fostering propitious, thou becam'st a twig.
    Who lived  when thou wast such? Of couldst thou speak,
    As in Dodona once thy kindred trees
    Oracular, I would not curious ask
    The future, best unknown, but at thy mouth
    Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past."

Tennyson, in his "Talking Oak," alludes to the oaks of Dodona in
these lines:

    And I will work in prose and rhyme,
     And praise thee more in both
    Than bard has honored beech or lime,
     Or that Thessalian growth
    In which the swarthy ring-dove sat
     And mystic sentence spoke; etc.

Byron alludes to the oracle of Delphi where, speaking of Rousseau,
whose writings he conceives did much to bring on the French
revolution, he says:

    "For the, he was inspired, and from him came,
       As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore,
    Those oracles which set the world in flame,
       Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more."





CHAPTER XXXV

ORIGIN OF MYTHOLOGY--STATUES OF GODS AND GODDESSES--POETS OF
MYTHOLOGY

ORIGINS OF MYTHOLOGY


Having reached the close of our series of stories of Pagan
mythology, and inquiry suggests itself. "Whence came these
stories? Have they a foundation in truth or are they simply dreams
of the imagination?" Philosophers have suggested various theories
on the subject; and 1. The Scriptural theory; according to which
all mythological legends are derived from the narratives of
Scripture, though the real facts have been disguised and altered.
Thus Deucalion is only another name for Noah, Hercules for Samson,
Arion for Jonah, etc. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his "History of the
World," says, "Jubal, Tubal, and Tubal-Cain were Mercury, Vulcan,
and Apollo, inventors of Pasturage, Smithing, and Music. The
Dragon which kept the golden apples was the serpent that beguiled
Eve. Nimrod's tower was the attempt of the Giants against Heaven."
There are doubtless many curious coincidences like these, but the
theory cannot without extravagance be pushed so far as to account
for any great proportion of the stories.

2. The Historical theory; according to which all the persons
mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the
legends and fabulous traditions relating to them are merely the
additions and embellishments of later times. Thus the story of
Aeolus, the king and god of the winds, is supposed to have risen
from the fact that Aeolus was the ruler of some islands in the
Tyrrhenian Sea, where he reigned as a just and pious king, and
taught the natives the use of sails for ships, and how to tell
from the signs of the atmosphere the changes of the weather and
the winds. Cadmus, who, the legend says, sowed the earth with
dragon's teeth, from which sprang a crop of armed men, was in fact
an emigrant from Phoenicia, and brought with him into Greece the
knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, which he taught to the
natives. From these rudiments of learning sprung civilization,
which the poets have always been prone to describe as a
deterioration of man's first estate, the Golden Age of innocence
and simplicity.

3. The Allegorical theory supposes that all the myths of the
ancients were allegorical and symbolical, and contained some
moral, religious, or philosophical truth or historical fact, under
the form of an allegory, but came in process of time to be
understood literally. Thus Saturn, who devours his own children,
is the same power whom the Greeks called Cronos (Time), which may
truly be said to destroy whatever it has brought into existence.
The story of Io is interpreted in a similar manner. Io is the
moon, and Argus the starry sky, which, as it were, keeps sleepless
watch over her. The fabulous wanderings of Io represent the
continual revolutions of the moon, which also suggested to Milton
the same idea.

   "To behold the wandering moon
    Riding near her highest noon,
    Like one that had been led astray
    In the heaven's wide, pathless way."

    --Il Penseroso.

4. The Physical theory; according to which the elements of air,
fire, and water were originally the objects of religious
adoration, and the principal deities were personifications of the
powers of nature. The transition was easy from a personification
of the elements to the notion of supernatural beings presiding
over and governing the different objects of nature. The Greeks,
whose imagination was lively, peopled all nature with invisible
beings, and supposed that every object, from the sun and sea to
the smallest fountain and rivulet, was under the care of some
particular divinity. Wordsworth, in his "Excursion," has
beautifully developed this view of Grecian mythology:

   "In that fair clime the lonely herdsman, stretched
    On the soft grass through half a summer's day,
    With music lulled his indolent repose;
    And, in some fit of weariness, if he,
    When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear
    A distant strain far sweeter than the sounds
    Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched
    Even from the blazing chariot of the Sun
    A beardless youth who touched a golden lute,
    And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.
    The mighty hunter, lifting up his eyes
    Toward the crescent Moon, with grateful heart
    Called on the lovely Wanderer who bestowed
    That timely light to share his joyous sport;
    And hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs
    Across the lawn and through the darksome grove
    (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes
    By echo multiplied from rock or cave)
    Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars
    Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven
    When winds are blowing strong. The Traveller slaked
    His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked
    The Naiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills
    Gliding apace with shadows in their train,
    Might with small help from fancy, be transformed
    Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.
    The Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings,
    Lacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed
    With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque,
    Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age,
    From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth
    In the low vale, or on steep mountain side;
    And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns
    Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard;
    These were the lurking Satyrs, wild brood
    Of gamesome deities; or Pan himself,
    That simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god."

All the theories which have been mentioned are true to a certain
extent. It would therefore be more correct to say that the
mythology of a nation has sprung from all these sources combined
than from any one in particular. We may add also that there are
many myths which have arisen from the desire of man to account for
those natural phenomena which he cannot understand; and not a few
have had their rise from a similar desire of giving a reason for
the names of places and persons.

STATUES OF THE GODS

To adequately represent to the eye the ideas intended to be
conveyed to the mind under the several names of deities was a task
which called into exercise the highest powers of genius and art.
Of the many attempts FOUR have been most celebrated, the first two
known to us only by the descriptions of the ancients, the others
still extant and the acknowledged masterpieces of the sculptor's
art.

THE OLYMPIAN JUPITER

The statue of the Olympian Jupiter by Phidias was considered the
highest achievement of this department of Grecian art. It was of
colossal dimensions, and was what the ancients called
"chryselephantine;" that is, composed of ivory and gold; the parts
representing flesh being of ivory laid on a core of wood or stone,
while the drapery and other ornaments were of gold. The height of
the figure was forty feet, on a pedestal twelve feet high. The god
was represented seated on his throne. His brows were crowned with
a wreath of olive, and he held in his right hand a sceptre, and in
his left a statue of Victory. The throne was of cedar, adorned
with gold and precious stones.

The idea which the artist essayed to embody was that of the
supreme deity of the Hellenic (Grecian) nation, enthroned as a
conqueror, in perfect majesty and repose, and ruling with a nod
the subject world. Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the
representation which Homer gives in the first book of the "Iliad,"
in the passage thus translated by Pope:

   "He spoke and awful bends his sable brows,
    Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,
    The stamp of fate and sanction of the god.
    High heaven with reverence the dread signal took,
    And all Olympus to the centre shook."

[Footnote: Cowper's version is less elegant, but truer to the
original:

   "He ceased, and under his dark brows the nod
    Vouchsafed of confirmation. All around
    The sovereign's everlasting head his curls
    Ambrosial shook, and the huge mountain reeled."

It may interest our readers to see how this passage appears in
another famous version, that which was issued under the name of
Tickell, contemporaneously with Pope's, and which, being by many
attributed to Addison, led to the quarrel which ensued between
Addison and Pope:

   "This said, his kingly brow the sire inclined;
    The large black curls fell awful from behind,
    Thick shadowing the stern forehead of the god;
    Olympus trembled at the almighty nod."]

THE MINERVA OF THE PARTHENON

This was also the work of Phidias. It stood in the Parthenon, or
temple of Minerva at Athens. The goddess was represented standing.
In one hand she held a spear, in the other a statue of Victory.
Her helmet, highly decorated, was surmounted by a Sphinx. The
statue was forty feet in height, and, like the Jupiter, composed
of ivory and gold. The eyes were of marble, and probably painted
to represent the iris and pupil. The Parthenon, in which this
statue stood, was also constructed under the direction and
superintendence of Phidias. Its exterior was enriched with
sculptures, many of them from the hand of Phidias. The Elgin
marbles, now in the British Museum, are a part of them.

Both the Jupiter and Minerva of Phidias are lost, but there is
good ground to believe that we have, in several extant statues and
busts, the artist's conceptions of the countenances of both. They
are characterized by grave and dignified beauty, and freedom from
any transient expression, which in the language of art is called
repose.

THE VENUS DE' MEDICI

The Venus of the Medici is so called from its having been in the
possession of the princes of that name in Rome when it first
attracted attention, about two hundred years ago. An inscription
on the base records it to be the work of Cleomenes, an Athenian
sculptor of 200 B.C., but the authenticity of the inscription is
doubtful. There is a story that the artist was employed by public
authority to make a statue exhibiting the perfection of female
beauty, and to aid him in his task the most perfect forms the city
could supply were furnished him for models. It is this which
Thomson alludes to in his "Summer":

   "So stands the statue that enchants the world;
    So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
    The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."

Byron also alludes to this statue. Speaking of the Florence
Museum, he says:

   "There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills
    The air around with beauty;" etc.

And in the next stanza,

   "Blood, pulse, and breast confirm the Dardan shepherd's prize."

See this last allusion explained in Chapter XXVII.

THE APOLLO BELVEDERE

The most highly esteemed of all the remains of ancient sculpture
is the statue of Apollo, called the Belvedere, from the name of
the apartment of the Pope's palace at Rome in which it was placed.
The artist is unknown. It is supposed to be a work of Roman art,
of about the first century of our era. It is a standing figure, in
marble, more than seven feet high, naked except for the cloak
which is fastened around the neck and hangs over the extended left
arm. It is supposed to represent the god in the moment when he has
shot the arrow to destroy the monster Python. (See Chapter III.)
The victorious divinity is in the act of stepping forward. The
left arm, which seems to have held the bow, is outstretched, and
the head is turned in the same direction. In attitude and
proportion the graceful majesty of the figure is unsurpassed. The
effect is completed by the countenance, where on the perfection of
youthful godlike beauty there dwells the consciousness of
triumphant power.

THE DIANA A LA BICHE

The Diana of the Hind, in the palace of the Louvre, may be
considered the counterpart to the Apollo Belvedere. The attitude
much resembles that of the Apollo, the sizes correspond and also
the style of execution. It is a work of the highest order, though
by no means equal to the Apollo. The attitude is that of hurried
and eager motion, the face that of a huntress in the excitement of
the chase. The left hand is extended over the forehead of the
Hind, which runs by her side, the right arm reaches backward over
the shoulder to draw an arrow from the quiver.

THE POETS OF MYTHOLOGY

Homer, from whose poems of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" we have taken
the chief part of our chapters of the Trojan war and the return of
the Grecians, is almost as mythical a personage as the heroes he
celebrates. The traditionary story is that he was a wandering
minstrel, blind and old, who travelled from place to place singing
his lays to the music of his harp, in the courts of princes or the
cottages of peasants, and dependent upon the voluntary offerings
of his hearers for support. Byron calls him "The blind old man of
Scio's rocky isle," and a well-known epigram, alluding to the
uncertainty of the fact of his birthplace, says:

   "Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,
    Through which the living Homer begged his bread."

These seven were Smyrna, Scio, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Argos,
and Athens.

Modern scholars have doubted whether the Homeric poems are the
work of any single mind. This arises from the difficulty of
believing that poems of such length could have been committed to
writing at so early an age as that usually assigned to these, an
age earlier than the date of any remaining inscriptions or coins,
and when no materials capable of containing such long productions
were yet introduced into use. On the other hand it is asked how
poems of such length could have been handed down from age to age
by means of the memory alone. This is answered by the statement
that there was a professional body of men, called Rhapsodists, who
recited the poems of others, and whose business it was to commit
to memory and rehearse for pay the national and patriotic legends.

The prevailing opinion of the learned, at this time, seems to be
that the framework and much of the structure of the poems belong
to Homer, but that there are numerous interpolations and additions
by other hands.

The date assigned to Homer, on the authority of Herodotus, is 850
B.C.

VIRGIL

Virgil, called also by his surname, Maro, from whose poem of the
"Aeneid" we have taken the story of Aeneas, was one of the great
poets who made the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus so
celebrated, under the name of the Augustan age. Virgil was born in
Mantua in the year 70 B.C. His great poem is ranked next to those
of Homer, in the highest class of poetical composition, the Epic.
Virgil is far inferior to Homer in originality and invention, but
superior to him in correctness and elegance. To critics of English
lineage Milton alone of modern poets seems worthy to be classed
with these illustrious ancients. His poem of "Paradise Lost," from
which we have borrowed so many illustrations, is in many respects
equal, in some superior, to either of the great works of
antiquity. The following epigram of Dryden characterizes the three
poets with as much truth as it is usual to find in such pointed
criticism:

   "ON MILTON

   "Three poets in three different ages born,
    Greece, Italy, and England did adorn
    The first in loftiness of soul surpassed,
    The next in majesty, in both the last.
    The force of nature could no further go;
    To make a third she joined the other two."

From Cowper's "Table Talk":

   "Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,
    And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard.
    To carry nature lengths unknown before,
    To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.
    Thus genius rose and set at ordered times,
    And shot a dayspring into distant climes,
    Ennobling every region that he chose;
    He sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose,
    And, tedious years of Gothic darkness past,
    Emerged all splendor in our isle at last.
    Thus lovely Halcyons dive into the main,
    Then show far off their shining plumes again."

OVID

Ovid, often alluded to in poetry by his other name of Naso, was
born in the year 43 B.C. He was educated for public life and held
some offices of considerable dignity, but poetry was his delight,
and he early resolved to devote himself to it. He accordingly
sought the society of the contemporary poets, and was acquainted
with Horace and saw Virgil, though the latter died when Ovid was
yet too young and undistinguished to have formed his acquaintance.
Ovid spent an easy life at Rome in the enjoyment of a competent
income. He was intimate with the family of Augustus, the emperor,
and it is supposed that some serious offence given to some member
of that family was the cause of an event which reversed the poet's
happy circumstances and clouded all the latter portion of his
life. At the age of fifty he was banished from Rome, and ordered
to betake himself to Tomi, on the borders of the Black Sea. Here,
among the barbarous people and in a severe climate, the poet, who
had been accustomed to all the pleasures of a luxurious capital
and the society of his most distinguished contemporaries, spent
the last ten years of his life, worn out with grief and anxiety.
His only consolation in exile was to address his wife and absent
friends, and his letters were all poetical. Though these poems
(the "Trista" and "Letters from Pontus") have no other topic than
the poet's sorrows, his exquisite taste and fruitful invention
have redeemed them from the charge of being tedious, and they are
read with pleasure and even with sympathy.

The two great works of Ovid are his "Metamorphoses" and his
"Fasti." They are both mythological poems, and from the former we
have taken most of our stories of Grecian and Roman mythology. A
late writer thus characterizes these poems:

"The rich mythology of Greece furnished Ovid, as it may still
furnish the poet, the painter, and the sculptor, with materials
for his art. With exquisite taste, simplicity, and pathos he has
narrated the fabulous traditions of early ages, and given to them
that appearance of reality which only a master hand could impart.
His pictures of nature are striking and true; he selects with care
that which is appropriate; he rejects the superfluous; and when he
has completed his work, it is neither defective nor redundant. The
'Metamorphoses' are read with pleasure by youth, and are re-read
in more advanced age with still greater delight. The poet ventured
to predict that his poem would survive him, and be read wherever
the Roman name was known."

The prediction above alluded to is contained in the closing lines
of the "Metamorphoses," of which we give a literal translation
below:

   "And now I close my work, which not the ire
    Of Jove, nor tooth of time, nor sword, nor fire
    Shall bring to nought. Come when it will that day
    Which o'er the body, not the mind, has sway,
    And snatch the remnant of my life away,
    My better part above the stars shall soar,
    And my renown endure forevermore.
    Where'er the Roman arms and arts shall spread
    There by the people shall my book be read;
    And, if aught true in poet's visions be,
    My name and fame have immortality."





CHAPTER XXXVI

MODERN MONSTERS--THE PHOENIX--BASILISK--UNICORN--SALAMANDER

MODERN MONSTERS


There is a set of imaginary beings which seem to have been the
successors of the "Gorgons, Hydras, and Chimeras dire" of the old
superstitions, and, having no connection with the false gods of
Paganism, to have continued to enjoy an existence in the popular
belief after Paganism was superseded by Christianity. They are
mentioned perhaps by the classical writers, but their chief
popularity and currency seem to have been in more modern times. We
seek our accounts of them not so much in the poetry of the
ancients as in the old natural history books and narrations of
travellers. The accounts which we are about to give are taken
chiefly from the Penny Cyclopedia.

THE PHOENIX

Ovid tells the story of the Phoenix as follows: "Most beings
spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which
reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Phoenix. It does not
live on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous
gums. When it has lived five hundred years, it builds itself a
nest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm tree. In
this it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these
materials builds a pile on which it deposits itself, and dying,
breathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the
parent bird, a young Phoenix issues forth, destined to live as
long a life as its predecessor. When this has grown up and gained
sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own
cradle and its parent's sepulchre), and carries it to the city of
Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun."

Such is the account given by a poet. Now let us see that of a
philosophic historian. Tacitus says, "In the consulship of Paulus
Fabius (A.D. 34) the miraculous bird known to the world by the
name of the Phoenix, after disappearing for a series of ages,
revisited Egypt. It was attended in its flight by a group of
various birds, all attracted by the novelty, and gazing with
wonder at so beautiful an appearance." He then gives an account of
the bird, not varying materially from the preceding, but adding
some details. "The first care of the young bird as soon as
fledged, and able to trust to his wings, is to perform the
obsequies of his father. But this duty is not undertaken rashly.
He collects a quantity of myrrh, and to try his strength makes
frequent excursions with a load on his back. When he has gained
sufficient confidence in his own vigor, he takes up the body of
his father and flies with it to the altar of the Sun, where he
leaves it to be consumed in flames of fragrance." Other writers
add a few particulars. The myrrh is compacted in the form of an
egg, in which the dead Phoenix is enclosed. From the mouldering
flesh of the dead bird a worm springs, and this worm, when grown
large, is transformed into a bird. Herodotus DESCRIBES the bird,
though he says, "I have not seen it myself, except in a picture.
Part of his plumage is gold-colored, and part crimson; and he is
for the most part very much like an eagle in outline and bulk."

The first writer who disclaimed a belief in the existence of the
Phoenix was Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," published
in 1646. He was replied to a few years later by Alexander Ross,
who says, in answer to the objection of the Phoenix so seldom
making his appearance, "His instinct teaches him to keep out of
the way of the tyrant of the creation, MAN, for if he were to be
got at, some wealthy glutton would surely devour him, though there
were no more in the world."

Dryden in one of his early poems has this allusion to the Phoenix:

   "So when the new-born Phoenix first is seen,
    Her feathered subjects all adore their queen,
    And while she makes her progress through the East,
    From every grove her numerous train's increased;
    Each poet of the air her glory sings,
    And round him the pleased audience clap their wings."

Milton, in "Paradise Lost," Book V., compares the angel Raphael
descending to earth to a Phoenix:

   "... Down thither, prone in flight
    He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
    Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,
    Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
    Winnows the buxom air; till within soar
    Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems
    A Phoenix, gazed by all; as that sole bird
    When, to enshrine his relics in the sun's
    Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies."

THE COCKATRICE, OR BASILISK

This animal was called the king of the serpents. In confirmation
of his royalty, he was said to be endowed with a crest, or comb
upon the head, constituting a crown. He was supposed to be
produced from the egg of a cock hatched under toads or serpents.
There were several species of this animal. One species burned up
whatever they approached; a second were a kind of wandering
Medusa's heads, and their look caused an instant horror which was
immediately followed by death. In Shakspeare's play of "Richard
the Third," Lady Anne, in answer to Richard's compliment on her
eyes, says, "Would they were basilisk's, to strike thee dead!"

The basilisks were called kings of serpents because all other
serpents and snakes, behaving like good subjects, and wisely not
wishing to be burned up or struck dead, fled the moment they heard
the distant hiss of their king, although they might be in full
feed upon the most delicious prey, leaving the sole enjoyment of
the banquet to the royal monster.

The Roman naturalist Pliny thus describes him: "He does not impel
his body, like other serpents, by a multiplied flexion, but
advances lofty and upright. He kills the shrubs, not only by
contact, but by breathing on them, and splits the rocks, such
power of evil is there in him." It was formerly believed that if
killed by a spear from on horseback the power of the poison
conducted through the weapon killed not only the rider, but the
horse also. To this Lucan alludes in these lines:

   "What though the Moor the basilisk hath slain,
    And pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain,
    Up through the spear the subtle venom flies,
    The hand imbibes it, and the victor dies."

Such a prodigy was not likely to be passed over in the legends of
the saints. Accordingly we find it recorded that a certain holy
man, going to a fountain in the desert, suddenly beheld a
basilisk. He immediately raised his eyes to heaven, and with a
pious appeal to the Deity laid the monster dead at his feet.

These wonderful powers of the basilisk are attested by a host of
learned persons, such as Galen, Avicenna, Scaliger, and others.
Occasionally one would demur to some part of the tale while he
admitted the rest. Jonston, a learned physician, sagely remarks,
"I would scarcely believe that it kills with its look, for who
could have seen it and lived to tell the story?" The worthy sage
was not aware that those who went to hunt the basilisk of this
sort took with them a mirror, which reflected back the deadly
glare upon its author, and by a kind of poetical justice slew the
basilisk with his own weapon.

But what was to attack this terrible and unapproachable monster?
There is an old saying that "everything has its enemy"--and the
cockatrice quailed before the weasel. The basilisk might look
daggers, the weasel cared not, but advanced boldly to the
conflict. When bitten, the weasel retired for a moment to eat some
rue, which was the only plant the basilisks could not wither,
returned with renewed strength and soundness to the charge, and
never left the enemy till he was stretched dead on the plain. The
monster, too, as if conscious of the irregular way in which he
came into the world, was supposed to have a great antipathy to a
cock; and well he might, for as soon as he heard the cock crow he
expired.

The basilisk was of some use after death. Thus we read that its
carcass was suspended in the temple of Apollo, and in private
houses, as a sovereign remedy against spiders, and that it was
also hung up in the temple of Diana, for which reason no swallow
ever dared enter the sacred place.

The reader will, we apprehend, by this time have had enough of
absurdities, but still we can imagine his anxiety to know what a
cockatrice was like. The following is from Aldrovandus, a
celebrated naturalist of the sixteenth century, whose work on
natural history, in thirteen folio volumes, contains with much
that is valuable a large proportion of fables and inutilities. In
particular he is so ample on the subject of the cock and the bull
that from his practice, all rambling, gossiping tales of doubtful
credibility are called COCK AND BULL STORIES. Aldrovandus,
however, deserves our respect and esteem as the founder of a
botanic garden, and as a pioneer in the now prevalent custom of
making scientific collections for purposes of investigation and
research.

Shelley, in his "Ode to Naples," full of the enthusiasm excited by
the intelligence of the proclamation of a Constitutional
Government at Naples, in 1820, thus uses an allusion to the
basilisk:

   "What though Cimmerian anarchs dare blaspheme
    Freedom and thee? a new Actaeon's error
    Shall theirs have been,--devoured by their own hounds!
      Be thou like the imperial basilisk,
    Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds!
      Gaze on oppression, till at that dread risk,
      Aghast she pass from the earth's disk.
    Fear not, but gaze,--for freemen mightier grow,
    And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe."

THE UNICORN

Pliny, the Roman naturalist, out of whose account of the unicorn
most of the modern unicorns have been described and figured,
records it as "a very ferocious beast, similar in the rest of its
body to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant,
the tail of a boar, a deep, bellowing voice, and a single black
horn, two cubits in length, standing out in the middle of its
forehead." He adds that "it cannot be taken alive;" and some such
excuse may have been necessary in those days for not producing the
living animal upon the arena of the amphitheatre.

The unicorn seems to have been a sad puzzle to the hunters, who
hardly knew how to come at so valuable a piece of game. Some
described the horn as movable at the will of the animal, a kind of
small sword, in short, with which no hunter who was not
exceedingly cunning in fence could have a chance. Others
maintained that all the animal's strength lay in its horn, and
that when hard pressed in pursuit, it would throw itself from the
pinnacle of the highest rocks horn foremost, so as to pitch upon
it, and then quietly march off not a whit the worse for its fall.

But it seems they found out how to circumvent the poor unicorn at
last. They discovered that it was a great lover of purity and
innocence, so they took the field with a young virgin, who was
placed in the unsuspecting admirer's way. When the unicorn spied
her, he approached with all reverence, couched beside her, and
laying his head in her lap, fell asleep. The treacherous virgin
then gave a signal, and the hunters made in and captured the
simple beast.

Modern zoologists, disgusted as they well may be with such fables
as these, disbelieve generally the existence of the unicorn. Yet
there are animals bearing on their heads a bony protuberance more
or less like a horn, which may have given rise to the story. The
rhinoceros horn, as it is called, is such a protuberance, though
it does not exceed a few inches in height, and is far from
agreeing with the descriptions of the horn of the unicorn. The
nearest approach to a horn in the middle of the forehead is
exhibited in the bony protuberance on the forehead of the giraffe;
but this also is short and blunt, and is not the only horn of the
animal, but a third horn, standing in front of the two others. In
fine, though it would be presumptuous to deny the existence of a
one-horned quadruped other than the rhinoceros, it may be safely
stated that the insertion of a long and solid horn in the living
forehead of a horse-like or deer-like animal is as near an
impossibility as anything can be.

THE SALAMANDER

The following is from the "Life of Benvenuto Cellini," an Italian
artist of the sixteenth century, written by himself: "When I was
about five years of age, my father, happening to be in a little
room in which they had been washing, and where there was a good
fire of oak burning, looked into the flames and saw a little
animal resembling a lizard, which could live in the hottest part
of that element. Instantly perceiving what it was, he called for
my sister and me, and after he had shown us the creature, he gave
me a box on the ear. I fell a-crying, while he, soothing me with
caresses, spoke these words: 'My dear child, I do not give you
that blow for any fault you have committed, but that you may
recollect that the little creature you see in the fire is a
salamander; such a one as never was beheld before to my
knowledge.' So saying he embraced me, and gave me some money."

It seems unreasonable to doubt a story of which Signor Cellini was
both an eye and ear witness. Add to which the authority of
numerous sage philosophers, at the head of whom are Aristotle and
Pliny, affirms this power of the salamander. According to them,
the animal not only resists fire, but extinguishes it, and when he
sees the flame charges it as an enemy which he well knows how to
vanquish.

That the skin of an animal which could resist the action of fire
should be considered proof against that element is not to be
wondered at. We accordingly find that a cloth made of the skin of
salamanders (for there really is such an animal, a kind of lizard)
was incombustible, and very valuable for wrapping up such articles
as were too precious to be intrusted to any other envelopes. These
fire-proof cloths were actually produced, said to be made of
salamander's wool, though the knowing ones detected that the
substance of which they were composed was asbestos, a mineral,
which is in fine filaments capable of being woven into a flexible
cloth.

The foundation of the above fables is supposed to be the fact that
the salamander really does secrete from the pores of his body a
milky juice, which when he is irritated is produced in
considerable quantity, and would doubtless, for a few moments,
defend the body from fire. Then it is a hibernating animal, and in
winter retires to some hollow tree or other cavity, where it coils
itself up and remains in a torpid state till the spring again
calls it forth. It may therefore sometimes be carried with the
fuel to the fire, and wake up only time enough to put forth all
its faculties for its defence. Its viscous juice would do good
service, and all who profess to have seen it, acknowledge that it
got out of the fire as fast as its legs could carry it; indeed,
too fast for them ever to make prize of one, except in one
instance, and in that one the animal's feet and some parts of its
body were badly burned.

Dr. Young, in the "Night Thoughts," with more quaintness than good
taste, compares the sceptic who can remain unmoved in the
contemplation of the starry heavens to a salamander unwarmed in
the fire:

   "An undevout astronomer is mad!

   "O, what a genius must inform the skies!
    And is Lorenzo's salamander-heart
    Cold and untouched amid these sacred fires?"





CHAPTER XXXVII

EASTERN MYTHOLOGY--ZOROASTER--HINDU MYTHOLOGY--CASTES--BUDDHA--
GRAND LAMA

ZOROASTER


Our knowledge of the religion of the ancient Persians is
principally derived from the Zendavesta, or sacred books of that
people. Zoroaster was the founder of their religion, or rather the
reformer of the religion which preceded him. The time when he
lived is doubtful, but it is certain that his system became the
dominant religion of Western Asia from the time of Cyrus (550
B.C.) to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. Under the
Macedonian monarchy the doctrines of Zoroaster appear to have been
considerably corrupted by the introduction of foreign opinions,
but they afterwards recovered their ascendency.

Zoroaster taught the existence of a supreme being, who created two
other mighty beings and imparted to them as much of his own nature
as seemed good to him. Of these, Ormuzd (called by the Greeks
Oromasdes) remained faithful to his creator, and was regarded as
the source of all good, while Ahriman (Arimanes) rebelled, and
became the author of all evil upon the earth. Ormuzd created man
and supplied him with all the materials of happiness; but Ahriman
marred this happiness by introducing evil into the world, and
creating savage beasts and poisonous reptiles and plants. In
consequence of this, evil and good are now mingled together in
every part of the world, and the followers of good and evil--the
adherents of Ormuzd and Ahriman--carry on incessant war. But this
state of things will not last forever. The time will come when the
adherents of Ormuzd shall everywhere be victorious, and Ahriman
and his followers be consigned to darkness forever.

The religious rites of the ancient Persians were exceedingly
simple. They used neither temples, altars, nor statues, and
performed their sacrifices on the tops of mountains. They adored
fire, light, and the sun as emblems of Ormuzd, the source of all
light and purity, but did not regard them as independent deities.
The religious rites and ceremonies were regulated by the priests,
who were called Magi. The learning of the Magi was connected with
astrology and enchantment, in which they were so celebrated that
their name was applied to all orders of magicians and enchanters.

Wordsworth thus alludes to the worship of the Persians:

   "... the Persian,--zealous to reject
    Altar and Image, and the inclusive walls
    And roofs of temples built by human hands,--
    The loftiest heights ascending, from their tops,
    With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows,
    Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars,
    And to the Winds and mother Elements,
    And the whole circle of the Heavens, for him
    A sensitive existence and a God."

    --Excursion, Book IV.

In "Childe Harold" Byron speaks thus of the Persian worship:

   "Not vainly did the early Persian make
    His altar the high places and the peak
    Of earth-o'er-gazing mountains, and thus take
    A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek
    The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak,
    Upreared of human hands. Come and compare
    Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek,
    With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air,
    Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer."

III., 91.

The religion of Zoroaster continued to flourish even after the
introduction of Christianity, and in the third century was the
dominant faith of the East, till the rise of the Mahometan power
and the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the seventh century,
who compelled the greater number of the Persians to renounce their
ancient faith. Those who refused to abandon the religion of their
ancestors fled to the deserts of Kerman and to Hindustan, where
they still exist under the name of Parsees, a name derived from
Pars, the ancient name of Persia. The Arabs call them Guebers,
from an Arabic word signifying unbelievers. At Bombay the Parsees
are at this day a very active, intelligent, and wealthy class. For
purity of life, honesty, and conciliatory manners, they are
favorably distinguished. They have numerous temples to Fire, which
they adore as the symbol of the divinity.

The Persian religion makes the subject of the finest tale in
Moore's "Lalla Rookh," the "Fire Worshippers." The Gueber chief
says,

   "Yes! I am of that impious race,
      Those slaves of Fire, that morn and even
    Hail their creator's dwelling-place
      Among the living lights of heaven;
    Yes! I am of that outcast crew
    To Iran and to vengeance true,
    Who curse the hour your Arabs came
    To desecrate our shrines of flame,
    And swear before God's burning eye,
    To break our country's chains or die."

HINDU MYTHOLOGY

The religion of the Hindus is professedly founded on the Vedas. To
these books of their scripture they attach the greatest sanctity,
and state that Brahma himself composed them at the creation. But
the present arrangement of the Vedas is attributed to the sage
Vyasa, about five thousand years ago.

The Vedas undoubtedly teach the belief of one supreme God. The
name of this deity is Brahma. His attributes are represented by
the three personified powers of creation, preservation, and
destruction, which under the respective names of Brahma, Vishnu,
and Siva form the Trimurti or triad of principal Hindu gods. Of
the inferior gods the most important are: 1. Indra, the god of
heaven, of thunder, lightning, storm, and rain; 2. Agni, the god
of fire; 3. Yama, the god of the infernal regions; 4. Surya, the
god of the sun.

Brahma is the creator of the universe, and the source from which
all the individual deities have sprung, and into which all will
ultimately be absorbed. "As milk changes to curd, and water to
ice, so is Brahma variously transformed and diversified, without
aid of exterior means of any sort." The human soul, according to
the Vedas, is a portion of the supreme ruler, as a spark is of the
fire.

VISHNU

Vishnu occupies the second place in the triad of the Hindus, and
is the personification of the preserving principle. To protect the
world in various epochs of danger, Vishnu descended to the earth
in different incarnations, or bodily forms, which descents are
called Avatars. They are very numerous, but ten are more
particularly specified. The first Avatar was as Matsya, the Fish,
under which form Vishnu preserved Manu, the ancestor of the human
race, during a universal deluge. The second Avatar was in the form
of a Tortoise, which form he assumed to support the earth when the
gods were churning the sea for the beverage of immortality,
Amrita.

We may omit the other Avatars, which were of the same general
character, that is, interpositions to protect the right or to
punish wrong-doers, and come to the ninth, which is the most
celebrated of the Avatars of Vishnu, in which he appeared in the
human form of Krishna, an invincible warrior, who by his exploits
relieved the earth from the tyrants who oppressed it.

Buddha is by the followers of the Brahmanical religion regarded as
a delusive incarnation of Vishnu, assumed by him in order to
induce the Asuras, opponents of the gods, to abandon the sacred
ordinances of the Vedas, by which means they lost their strength
and supremacy.

Kalki is the name of the tenth Avatar, in which Vishnu will appear
at the end of the present age of the world to destroy all vice and
wickedness, and to restore mankind to virtue and purity.

SIVA

Siva is the third person of the Hindu triad. He is the
personification of the destroying principle. Though the third
name, he is, in respect to the number of his worshippers and the
extension of his worship, before either of the others. In the
Puranas (the scriptures of the modern Hindu religion) no allusion
is made to the original power of this god as a destroyer; that
power not being to be called into exercise till after the
expiration of twelve millions of years, or when the universe will
come to an end; and Mahadeva (another name for Siva) is rather the
representative of regeneration than of destruction.

The worshippers of Vishnu and Siva form two sects, each of which
proclaims the superiority of its favorite deity, denying the
claims of the other, and Brahma, the creator, having finished his
work, seems to be regarded as no longer active, and has now only
one temple in India, while Mahadeva and Vishnu have many. The
worshippers of Vishnu are generally distinguished by a greater
tenderness for life, and consequent abstinence from animal food,
and a worship less cruel than that of the followers of Siva.

JUGGERNAUT

Whether the worshippers of Juggernaut are to be reckoned among the
followers of Vishnu or Siva, our authorities differ. The temple
stands near the shore, about three hundred miles south-west of
Calcutta. The idol is a carved block of wood, with a hideous face,
painted black, and a distended blood-red mouth. On festival days
the throne of the image is placed on a tower sixty feet high,
moving on wheels. Six long ropes are attached to the tower, by
which the people draw it along. The priests and their attendants
stand round the throne on the tower, and occasionally turn to the
worshippers with songs and gestures. While the tower moves along
numbers of the devout worshippers throw themselves on the ground,
in order to be crushed by the wheels, and the multitude shout in
approbation of the act, as a pleasing sacrifice to the idol. Every
year, particularly at two great festivals in March and July,
pilgrims flock in crowds to the temple. Not less than seventy or
eighty thousand people are said to visit the place on these
occasions, when all castes eat together.

CASTES

The division of the Hindus into classes or castes, with fixed
occupations, existed from the earliest times. It is supposed by
some to have been founded upon conquest, the first three castes
being composed of a foreign race, who subdued the natives of the
country and reduced them to an inferior caste. Others trace it to
the fondness of perpetuating, by descent from father to son,
certain offices or occupations.

The Hindu tradition gives the following account of the origin of
the various castes: At the creation Brahma resolved to give the
earth inhabitants who should be direct emanations from his own
body. Accordingly from his mouth came forth the eldest born,
Brahma (the priest), to whom he confided the four Vedas; from his
right arm issued Shatriya (the warrior), and from his left, the
warrior's wife. His thighs produced Vaissyas, male and female
(agriculturists and traders), and lastly from his feet sprang
Sudras (mechanics and laborers).

The four sons of Brahma, so significantly brought into the world,
became the fathers of the human race, and heads of their
respective castes. They were commanded to regard the four Vedas as
containing all the rules of their faith, and all that was
necessary to guide them in their religious ceremonies. They were
also commanded to take rank in the order of their birth, the
Brahmans uppermost, as having sprung from the head of Brahma.

A strong line of demarcation is drawn between the first three
castes and the Sudras. The former are allowed to receive
instruction from the Vedas, which is not permitted to the Sudras.
The Brahmans possess the privilege of teaching the Vedas, and were
in former times in exclusive possession of all knowledge. Though
the sovereign of the country was chosen from the Shatriya class,
also called Rajputs, the Brahmans possessed the real power, and
were the royal counsellors, the judges and magistrates of the
country; their persons and property were inviolable; and though
they committed the greatest crimes, they could only be banished
from the kingdom. They were to be treated by sovereigns with the
greatest respect, for "a Brahman, whether learned or ignorant, is
a powerful divinity."

When the Brahman arrives at years of maturity it becomes his duty
to marry. He ought to be supported by the contributions of the
rich, and not to be obliged to gain his subsistence by any
laborious or productive occupation. But as all the Brahmans could
not be maintained by the working classes of the community, it was
found necessary to allow them to engage in productive employments.

We need say little of the two intermediate classes, whose rank and
privileges may be readily inferred from their occupations. The
Sudras or fourth class are bound to servile attendance on the
higher classes, especially the Brahmans, but they may follow
mechanical occupations and practical arts, as painting and
writing, or become traders or husbandmen. Consequently they
sometimes grow rich, and it will also sometimes happen that
Brahmans become poor. That fact works its usual consequence, and
rich Sudras sometimes employ poor Brahmans in menial occupations.

There is another class lower even than the Sudras, for it is not
one of the original pure classes, but springs from an unauthorized
union of individuals of different castes. These are the Pariahs,
who are employed in the lowest services and treated with the
utmost severity. They are compelled to do what no one else can do
without pollution. They are not only considered unclean
themselves, but they render unclean everything they touch. They
are deprived of all civil rights, and stigmatized by particular
laws regulating their mode of life, their houses, and their
furniture. They are not allowed to visit the pagodas or temples of
the other castes, but have their own pagodas and religious
exercises. They are not suffered to enter the houses of the other
castes; if it is done incautiously or from necessity, the place
must be purified by religious ceremonies. They must not appear at
public markets, and are confined to the use of particular wells,
which they are obliged to surround with bones of animals, to warn
others against using them. They dwell in miserable hovels, distant
from cities and villages, and are under no restrictions in regard
to food, which last is not a privilege, but a mark of ignominy, as
if they were so degraded that nothing could pollute them. The
three higher castes are prohibited entirely the use of flesh. The
fourth is allowed to use all kinds except beef, but only the
lowest caste is allowed every kind of food without restriction.

BUDDHA

Buddha, whom the Vedas represent as a delusive incarnation of
Vishnu, is said by his followers to have been a mortal sage, whose
name was Gautama, called also by the complimentary epithets of
Sakyasinha, the Lion, and Buddha, the Sage.

By a comparison of the various epochs assigned to his birth, it is
inferred that he lived about one thousand years before Christ.

He was the son of a king; and when in conformity to the usage of
the country he was, a few days after his birth, presented before
the altar of a deity, the image is said to have inclined its head
as a presage of the future greatness of the new-born prophet. The
child soon developed faculties of the first order, and became
equally distinguished by the uncommon beauty of his person. No
sooner had he grown to years of maturity than he began to reflect
deeply on the depravity and misery of mankind, and he conceived
the idea of retiring from society and devoting himself to
meditation. His father in vain opposed this design. Buddha escaped
the vigilance of his guards, and having found a secure retreat,
lived for six years undisturbed in his devout contemplations. At
the expiration of that period he came forward at Benares as a
religious teacher. At first some who heard him doubted of the
soundness of his mind; but his doctrines soon gained credit, and
were propagated so rapidly that Buddha himself lived to see them
spread all over India. He died at the age of eighty years.

The Buddhists reject entirely the authority of the Vedas, and the
religious observances prescribed in them and kept by the Hindus.
They also reject the distinction of castes, and prohibit all
bloody sacrifices, and allow animal food. Their priests are chosen
from all classes; they are expected to procure their maintenance
by perambulation and begging, and among other things it is their
duty to endeavor to turn to some use things thrown aside as
useless by others, and to discover the medicinal power of plants.
But in Ceylon three orders of priests are recognized; those of the
highest order are usually men of high birth and learning, and are
supported at the principal temples, most of which have been richly
endowed by the former monarchs of the country.

For several centuries after the appearance of Buddha, his sect
seems to have been tolerated by the Brahmans, and Buddhism appears
to have penetrated the peninsula of Hindustan in every direction,
and to have been carried to Ceylon, and to the eastern peninsula.
But afterwards it had to endure in India a long-continued
persecution, which ultimately had the effect of entirely
abolishing it in the country where it had originated, but to
scatter it widely over adjacent countries. Buddhism appears to
have been introduced into China about the year 65 of our era. From
China it was subsequently extended to Corea, Japan, and Java.

THE GRAND LAMA

It is a doctrine alike of the Brahminical Hindus and of the
Buddhist sect that the confinement of the human soul, an emanation
of the divine spirit, in a human body, is a state of misery, and
the consequence of frailties and sins committed during former
existences. But they hold that some few individuals have appeared
on this earth from time to time, not under the necessity of
terrestrial existence, but who voluntarily descended to the earth
to promote the welfare of mankind. These individuals have
gradually assumed the character of reappearances of Buddha
himself, in which capacity the line is continued till the present
day, in the several Lamas of Thibet, China, and other countries
where Buddhism prevails. In consequence of the victories of Gengis
Khan and his successors, the Lama residing in Thibet was raised to
the dignity of chief pontiff of the sect. A separate province was
assigned to him as his own territory, and besides his spiritual
dignity he became to a limited extent a temporal monarch. He is
styled the Dalai Lama.

The first Christian missionaries who proceeded to Thibet were
surprised to find there in the heart of Asia a pontifical court
and several other ecclesiastical institutions resembling those of
the Roman Catholic church. They found convents for priests and
nuns; also processions and forms of religious worship, attended
with much pomp and splendor; and many were induced by these
similarities to consider Lamaism as a sort of degenerated
Christianity. It is not improbable that the Lamas derived some of
these practices from the Nestorian Christians, who were settled in
Tartary when Buddhism was introduced into Thibet.

PRESTER JOHN

An early account, communicated probably by travelling merchants,
of a Lama or spiritual chief among the Tartars, seems to have
occasioned in Europe the report of a Presbyter or Prester John, a
Christian pontiff resident in Upper Asia. The Pope sent a mission
in search of him, as did also Louis IX. of France, some years
later, but both missions were unsuccessful, though the small
communities of Nestorian Christians, which they did find, served
to keep up the belief in Europe that such a personage did exist
somewhere in the East. At last in the fifteenth century, a
Portuguese traveller, Pedro Covilham, happening to hear that there
was a Christian prince in the country of the Abessines
(Abyssinia), not far from the Red Sea, concluded that this must be
the true Prester John. He accordingly went thither, and penetrated
to the court of the king, whom he calls Negus. Milton alludes to
him in "Paradise Lost," Book XI., where, describing Adam's vision
of his descendants in their various nations and cities, scattered
over the face of the earth, he says,--

    "... Nor did his eyes not ken
     Th' empire of Negus, to his utmost port,
     Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,
     Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind."





CHAPTER XXXVIII

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY--VALHALLA--THE VALKYRIOR

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY


The stories which have engaged our attention thus far relate to
the mythology of southern regions. But there is another branch of
ancient superstitions which ought not to be entirely overlooked,
especially as it belongs to the nations from which we, through our
English ancestors, derive our origin. It is that of the northern
nations, called Scandinavians, who inhabited the countries now
known as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. These mythological
records are contained in two collections called the Eddas, of
which the oldest is in poetry and dates back to the year 1056, the
more modern or prose Edda being of the date of 1640.

According to the Eddas there was once no heaven above nor earth
beneath, but only a bottomless deep, and a world of mist in which
flowed a fountain. Twelve rivers issued from this fountain, and
when they had flowed far from their source, they froze into ice,
and one layer accumulating over another, the great deep was filled
up.

Southward from the world of mist was the world of light. From this
flowed a warm wind upon the ice and melted it. The vapors rose in
the air and formed clouds, from which sprang Ymir, the Frost giant
and his progeny, and the cow Audhumbla, whose milk afforded
nourishment and food to the giant. The cow got nourishment by
licking the hoar frost and salt from the ice. While she was one
day licking the salt stones there appeared at first the hair of a
man, on the second day the whole head, and on the third the entire
form endowed with beauty, agility, and power. This new being was a
god, from whom and his wife, a daughter of the giant race, sprang
the three brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve. They slew the giant Ymir,
and out of his body formed the earth, of his blood the seas, of
his bones the mountains, of his hair the trees, of his skull the
heavens, and of his brain clouds, charged with hail and snow. Of
Ymir's eyebrows the gods formed Midgard (mid earth), destined to
become the abode of man.

Odin then regulated the periods of day and night and the seasons
by placing in the heavens the sun and moon and appointing to them
their respective courses. As soon as the sun began to shed its
rays upon the earth, it caused the vegetable world to bud and
sprout. Shortly after the gods had created the world they walked
by the side of the sea, pleased with their new work, but found
that it was still incomplete, for it was without human beings.
They therefore took an ash tree and made a man out of it, and they
made a woman out of an elder, and called the man Aske and the
woman Embla. Odin then gave them life and soul, Vili reason and
motion, and Ve bestowed upon them the senses, expressive features,
and speech. Midgard was then given them as their residence, and
they became the progenitors of the human race.

The mighty ash tree Ygdrasill was supposed to support the whole
universe. It sprang from the body of Ymir, and had three immense
roots, extending one into Asgard (the dwelling of the gods), the
other into Jotunheim (the abode of the giants), and the third to
Niffleheim (the regions of darkness and cold). By the side of each
of these roots is a spring, from which it is watered. The root
that extends into Asgard is carefully tended by the three Norns,
goddesses, who are regarded as the dispensers of fate. They are
Urdur (the past), Verdandi (the present), Skuld (the future). The
spring at the Jotunheim side is Ymir's well, in which wisdom and
wit lie hidden, but that of Niffleheim feeds the adder Nidhogge
(darkness), which perpetually gnaws at the root. Four harts run
across the branches of the tree and bite the buds; they represent
the four winds. Under the tree lies Ymir, and when he tries to
shake off its weight the earth quakes.

Asgard is the name of the abode of the gods, access to which is
only gained by crossing the bridge Bifrost (the rainbow). Asgard
consists of golden and silver palaces, the dwellings of the gods,
but the most beautiful of these is Valhalla, the residence of
Odin. When seated on his throne he overlooks all heaven and earth.
Upon his shoulders are the ravens Hugin and Munin, who fly every
day over the whole world, and on their return report to him all
they have seen and heard. At his feet lie his two wolves, Geri and
Freki, to whom Odin gives all the meat that is set before him, for
he himself stands in no need of food. Mead is for him both food
and drink. He invented the Runic characters, and it is the
business of the Norns to engrave the runes of fate upon a metal
shield. From Odin's name, spelt Woden, as it sometimes is, came
Wednesday, the name of the fourth day of the week.

Odin is frequently called Alfadur (All-father), but this name is
sometimes used in a way that shows that the Scandinavians had an
idea of a deity superior to Odin, uncreated and eternal.

OF THE JOYS OF VALHALLA

Valhalla is the great hall of Odin, wherein he feasts with his
chosen heroes, all those who have fallen bravely in battle, for
all who die a peaceful death are excluded. The flesh of the boar
Schrimnir is served up to them, and is abundant for all. For
although this boar is cooked every morning, he becomes whole again
every night. For drink the heroes are supplied abundantly with
mead from the she-goat Heidrum. When the heroes are not feasting
they amuse themselves with fighting. Every day they ride out into
the court or field and fight until they cut each other in pieces.
This is their pastime; but when meal time comes they recover from
their wounds and return to feast in Valhalla.

THE VALKYRIE

The Valkyrie are warlike virgins, mounted upon horses and armed
with helmets and spears. Odin, who is desirous to collect a great
many heroes in Valhalla to be able to meet the giants in a day
when the final contest must come, sends down to every battle-field
to make choice of those who shall be slain. The Valkyrie are his
messengers, and their name means "Choosers of the slain." When
they ride forth on their errand, their armor sheds a strange
flickering light, which flashes up over the northern skies, making
what men call the "Aurora Borealis," or "Northern Lights."
[Footnote: Gray's ode, "The Fatal Sisters," is founded on this
superstition.]

OF THOR AND THE OTHER GODS

Thor, the thunderer, Odin's eldest son, is the strongest of gods
and men, and possesses three very precious things. The first is a
hammer, which both the Frost and the Mountain giants know to their
cost, when they see it hurled against them in the air, for it has
split many a skull of their fathers and kindred. When thrown, it
returns to his hand of its own accord. The second rare thing he
possesses is called the belt of strength. When he girds it about
him his divine might is doubled. The third, also very precious, is
his iron gloves, which he puts on whenever he would use his mallet
efficiently. From Thor's name is derived our word Thursday.

Frey is one of the most celebrated of the gods. He presides over
rain and sunshine and all the fruits of the earth. His sister
Freya is the most propitious of the goddesses. She loves music,
spring, and flowers, and is particularly fond of the Elves
(fairies). She is very fond of love ditties, and all lovers would
do well to invoke her.

Bragi is the god of poetry, and his song records the deeds of
warriors. His wife, Iduna, keeps in a box the apples which the
gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to
become young again.

Heimdall is the watchman of the gods, and is therefore placed on
the borders of heaven to prevent the giants from forcing their way
over the bridge Bifrost (the rainbow). He requires less sleep than
a bird, and sees by night as well as by day a hundred miles around
him. So acute is his ear that no sound escapes him, for he can
even hear the grass grow and the wool on a sheep's back.

OF LOKI AND HIS PROGENY

There is another deity who is described as the calumniator of the
gods and the contriver of all fraud and mischief. His name is
Loki. He is handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood and
most evil disposition. He is of the giant race, but forced himself
into the company of the gods, and seems to take pleasure in
bringing them into difficulties, and in extricating them out of
the danger by his cunning, wit, and skill. Loki has three
children. The first is the wolf Fenris, the second the Midgard
serpent, the third Hela (Death), The gods were not ignorant that
these monsters were growing up, and that they would one day bring
much evil upon gods and men. So Odin deemed it advisable to send
one to bring them to him. When they came he threw the serpent into
that deep ocean by which the earth is surrounded. But the monster
had grown to such an enormous size that holding his tail in his
mouth he encircles the whole earth. Hela he cast into Niffleheim,
and gave her power over nine worlds or regions, into which she
distributes those who are sent to her; that is, all who die of
sickness or old age. Her hall is called Elvidner. Hunger is her
table, Starvation her knife, Delay her man, Slowness her maid,
Precipice her threshold, Care her bed, and Burning Anguish forms
the hangings of the apartments. She may easily be recognized, for
her body is half flesh color and half blue, and she has a
dreadfully stern and forbidding countenance. The wolf Fenris gave
the gods a great deal of trouble before they succeeded in chaining
him. He broke the strongest fetters as if they were made of
cobwebs. Finally the gods sent a messenger to the mountain
spirits, who made for them the chain called Gleipnir. It is
fashioned of six things, viz., the noise made by the footfall of a
cat, the beards of women, the roots of stones, the breath of
fishes, the nerves (sensibilities) of bears, and the spittle of
birds. When finished it was as smooth and soft as a silken string.
But when the gods asked the wolf to suffer himself to be bound
with this apparently slight ribbon, he suspected their design,
fearing that it was made by enchantment. He therefore only
consented to be bound with it upon condition that one of the gods
put his hand in his (Fenris's) mouth as a pledge that the band was
to be removed again. Tyr (the god of battles) alone had courage
enough to do this. But when the wolf found that he could not break
his fetters, and that the gods would not release him, he bit off
Tyr's hand, and he has ever since remained one-handed. HOW THOR
PAID THE MOUNTAIN GIANT HIS WAGES

Once on a time, when the gods were constructing their abodes and
had already finished Midgard and Valhalla, a certain artificer
came and offered to build them a residence so well fortified that
they should be perfectly safe from the incursions of the Frost
giants and the giants of the mountains. But he demanded for his
reward the goddess Freya, together with the sun and moon. The gods
yielded to his terms, provided he would finish the whole work
himself without any one's assistance, and all within the space of
one winter. But if anything remained unfinished on the first day
of summer he should forfeit the recompense agreed on. On being
told these terms the artificer stipulated that he should be
allowed the use of his horse Svadilfari, and this by the advice of
Loki was granted to him. He accordingly set to work on the first
day of winter, and during the night let his horse draw stone for
the building. The enormous size of the stones struck the gods with
astonishment, and they saw clearly that the horse did one-half
more of the toilsome work than his master. Their bargain, however,
had been concluded, and confirmed by solemn oaths, for without
these precautions a giant would not have thought himself safe
among the gods, especially when Thor should return from an
expedition he had then undertaken against the evil demons.

As the winter drew to a close, the building was far advanced, and
the bulwarks were sufficiently high and massive to render the
place impregnable. In short, when it wanted but three days to
summer, the only part that remained to be finished was the
gateway. Then sat the gods on their seats of justice and entered
into consultation, inquiring of one another who among them could
have advised to give Freya away, or to plunge the heavens in
darkness by permitting the giant to carry away the sun and the
moon.

They all agreed that no one but Loki, the author of so many evil
deeds, could have given such bad counsel, and that he should be
put to a cruel death if he did not contrive some way to prevent
the artificer from completing his task and obtaining the
stipulated recompense. They proceeded to lay hands on Loki, who in
his fright promised upon oath that, let it cost him what it would,
he would so manage matters that the man should lose his reward.
That very night when the man went with Svadilfari for building
stone, a mare suddenly ran out of a forest and began to neigh. The
horse thereat broke loose and ran after the mare into the forest,
which obliged the man also to run after his horse, and thus
between one and another the whole night was lost, so that at dawn
the work had not made the usual progress. The man, seeing that he
must fail of completing his task, resumed his own gigantic
stature, and the gods now clearly perceived that it was in reality
a mountain giant who had come amongst them. Feeling no longer
bound by their oaths, they called on Thor, who immediately ran to
their assistance, and lifting up his mallet, paid the workman his
wages, not with the sun and moon, and not even by sending him back
to Jotunheim, for with the first blow he shattered the giant's
skull to pieces and hurled him headlong into Niffleheim.

THE RECOVERY OF THE HAMMER

Once upon a time it happened that Thor's hammer fell into the
possession of the giant Thrym, who buried it eight fathoms deep
under the rocks of Jotunheim. Thor sent Loki to negotiate with
Thrym, but he could only prevail so far as to get the giant's
promise to restore the weapon if Freya would consent to be his
bride. Loki returned and reported the result of his mission, but
the goddess of love was quite horrified at the idea of bestowing
her charms on the king of the Frost giants. In this emergency Loki
persuaded Thor to dress himself in Freya's clothes and accompany
him to Jotunheim. Thrym received his veiled bride with due
courtesy, but was greatly surprised at seeing her eat for her
supper eight salmons and a full grown ox, besides other
delicacies, washing the whole down with three tuns of mead. Loki,
however, assured him that she had not tasted anything for eight
long nights, so great was her desire to see her lover, the
renowned ruler of Jotunheim. Thrym had at length the curiosity to
peep under his bride's veil, but started back in affright and
demanded why Freya's eyeballs glistened with fire. Loki repeated
the same excuse and the giant was satisfied. He ordered the hammer
to be brought in and laid on the maiden's lap. Thereupon Thor
threw off his disguise, grasped his redoubted weapon, and
slaughtered Thrym and all his followers.

Frey also possessed a wonderful weapon, a sword which would of
itself spread a field with carnage whenever the owner desired it.
Frey parted with this sword, but was less fortunate than Thor and
never recovered it. It happened in this way: Frey once mounted
Odin's throne, from whence one can see over the whole universe,
and looking round saw far off in the giant's kingdom a beautiful
maid, at the sight of whom he was struck with sudden sadness,
insomuch that from that moment he could neither sleep, nor drink,
nor speak. At last Skirnir, his messenger, drew his secret from
him, and undertook to get him the maiden for his bride, if he
would give him his sword as a reward. Frey consented and gave him
the sword, and Skirnir set off on his journey and obtained the
maiden's promise that within nine nights she would come to a
certain place and there wed Frey. Skirnir having reported the
success of his errand, Frey exclaimed:

    "Long is one night,
     Long are two nights,
     But how shall I hold out three?
     Shorter hath seemed
     A month to me oft
     Than of this longing time the half."

So Frey obtained Gerda, the most beautiful of all women, for his
wife, but he lost his sword.

This story, entitled "Skirnir For," and the one immediately
preceding it, "Thrym's Quida," will be found poetically told in
Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe."





CHAPTER XXXIX

THOR'S VISIT TO JOTUNHEIM

THOR'S VISIT TO JOTUNHEIM, THE GIANT'S COUNTRY


One day the god Thor, with his servant Thialfi, and accompanied by
Loki, set out on a journey to the giant's country. Thialfi was of
all men the swiftest of foot. He bore Thor's wallet, containing
their provisions. When night came on they found themselves in an
immense forest, and searched on all sides for a place where they
might pass the night, and at last came to a very large hall, with
an entrance that took the whole breadth of one end of the
building. Here they lay down to sleep, but towards midnight were
alarmed by an earthquake which shook the whole edifice. Thor,
rising up, called on his companions to seek with him a place of
safety. On the right they found an adjoining chamber, into which
the others entered, but Thor remained at the doorway with his
mallet in his hand, prepared to defend himself, whatever might
happen. A terrible groaning was heard during the night, and at
dawn of day Thor went out and found lying near him a huge giant,
who slept and snored in the way that had alarmed them so. It is
said that for once Thor was afraid to use his mallet, and as the
giant soon waked up, Thor contented himself with simply asking his
name.

"My name is Skrymir," said the giant, "but I need not ask thy
name, for I know that thou art the god Thor. But what has become
of my glove?" Thor then perceived that what they had taken
overnight for a hall was the giant's glove, and the chamber where
his two companions had sought refuge was the thumb. Skrymir then
proposed that they should travel in company, and Thor consenting,
they sat down to eat their breakfast, and when they had done,
Skrymir packed all the provisions into one wallet, threw it over
his shoulder, and strode on before them, taking such tremendous
strides that they were hard put to it to keep up with him. So they
travelled the whole day, and at dusk Skrymir chose a place for
them to pass the night in under a large oak tree. Skrymir then
told them he would lie down to sleep. "But take ye the wallet," he
added, "and prepare your supper."

Skrymir soon fell asleep and began to snore strongly; but when
Thor tried to open the wallet, he found the giant had tied it up
so tight he could not untie a single knot. At last Thor became
wroth, and grasping his mallet with both hands he struck a furious
blow on the giant's head. Skrymir, awakening, merely asked whether
a leaf had not fallen on his head, and whether they had supped and
were ready to go to sleep. Thor answered that they were just going
to sleep, and so saying went and laid himself down under another
tree. But sleep came not that night to Thor, and when Skrymir
snored again so loud that the forest reechoed with the noise, he
arose, and grasping his mallet launched it with such force at the
giant's skull that it made a deep dint in it. Skrymir, awakening,
cried out, "What's the matter? Are there any birds perched on this
tree? I felt some moss from the branches fall on my head. How
fares it with thee, Thor?" But Thor went away hastily, saying that
he had just then awoke, and that as it was only midnight, there
was still time for sleep. He, however, resolved that if he had an
opportunity of striking a third blow, it should settle all matters
between them. A little before daybreak he perceived that Skrymir
was again fast asleep, and again grasping his mallet, he dashed it
with such violence that it forced its way into the giant's skull
up to the handle. But Skrymir sat up, and stroking his cheek said,
"An acorn fell on my head. What! Art thou awake, Thor? Me thinks
it is time for us to get up and dress ourselves; but you have not
now a long way before you to the city called Utgard. I have heard
you whispering to one another that I am not a man of small
dimensions; but if you come to Utgard you will see there many men
much taller than I. Wherefore, I advise you, when you come there,
not to make too much of yourselves, for the followers of Utgard--
Loki will not brook the boasting of such little fellows as you
are. You must take the road that leads eastward, mine lies
northward, so we must part here."

Hereupon he threw his wallet over his shoulders and turned away
from them into the forest, and Thor had no wish to stop him or to
ask for any more of his company.

Thor and his companions proceeded on their way, and towards noon
descried a city standing in the middle of a plain. It was so lofty
that they were obliged to bend their necks quite back on their
shoulders in order to see to the top of it. On arriving they
entered the city, and seeing a large palace before them with the
door wide open, they went in, and found a number of men of
prodigious stature, sitting on benches in the hall. Going further,
they came before the king, Utgard-Loki, whom they saluted with
great respect. The king, regarding them with a scornful smile,
said, "If I do not mistake me, that stripling yonder must be the
god Thor." Then addressing himself to Thor, he said, "Perhaps thou
mayst be more than thou appearest to be. What are the feats that
thou and thy fellows deem yourselves skilled in, for no one is
permitted to remain here who does not, in some feat or other,
excel all other men?"

"The feat that I know," said Loki, "is to eat quicker than any one
else, and in this I am ready to give a proof against any one here
who may choose to compete with me."

"That will indeed be a feat," said Utgard-Loki, "if thou
performest what thou promisest, and it shall be tried forthwith."

He then ordered one of his men who was sitting at the farther end
of the bench, and whose name was Logi, to come forward and try his
skill with Loki. A trough filled with meat having been set on the
hall floor, Loki placed himself at one end, and Logi at the other,
and each of them began to eat as fast as he could, until they met
in the middle of the trough. But it was found that Loki had only
eaten the flesh, while his adversary had devoured both flesh and
bone, and the trough to boot. All the company therefore adjudged
that Loki was vanquished.

Utgard-Loki then asked what feat the young man who accompanied
Thor could perform. Thialfi answered that he would run a race with
any one who might be matched against him. The king observed that
skill in running was something to boast of, but if the youth would
win the match he must display great agility. He then arose and
went with all who were present to a plain where there was good
ground for running on, and calling a young man named Hugi, bade
him run a match with Thialfi. In the first course Hugi so much
out-stripped his competitor that he turned back and met him not
far from the starting place. Then they ran a second and a third
time, but Thialfi met with no better success.

Utgard-Loki then asked Thor in what feats he would choose to give
proofs of that prowess for which he was so famous. Thor answered
that he would try a drinking-match with any one. Utgard-Loki bade
his cup-bearer bring the large horn which his followers were
obliged to empty when they had trespassed in any way against the
law of the feast. The cupbearer having presented it to Thor,
Utgard-Loki said, "Whoever is a good drinker will empty that horn
at a single draught, though most men make two of it, but the most
puny drinker can do it in three."

Thor looked at the horn, which seemed of no extraordinary size
though somewhat long; however, as he was very thirsty, he set it
to his lips, and without drawing breath, pulled as long and as
deeply as he could, that he might not be obliged to make a second
draught of it; but when he set the horn down and looked in, he
could scarcely perceive that the liquor was diminished.

After taking breath, Thor went to it again with all his might, but
when he took the horn from his mouth, it seemed to him that he had
drunk rather less than before, although the horn could now be
carried without spilling.

"How now, Thor?" said Utgard-Loki; "thou must not spare thyself;
if thou meanest to drain the horn at the third draught thou must
pull deeply; and I must needs say that thou wilt not be called so
mighty a man here as thou art at home if thou showest no greater
prowess in other feats than methinks will be shown in this."

Thor, full of wrath, again set the horn to his lips, and did his
best to empty it; but on looking in found the liquor was only a
little lower, so he resolved to make no further attempt, but gave
back the horn to the cup-bearer.

"I now see plainly," said Utgard-Loki, "that thou art not quite so
stout as we thought thee: but wilt thou try any other feat, though
methinks thou art not likely to bear any prize away with thee
hence."

"What new trial hast thou to propose?" said Thor.

"We have a very trifling game here," answered Utgard-Loki, "in
which we exercise none but children. It consists in merely lifting
my cat from the ground; nor should I have dared to mention such a
feat to the great Thor if I had not already observed that thou art
by no means what we took thee for."

As he finished speaking, a large gray cat sprang on the hall
floor. Thor put his hand under the cat's belly and did his utmost
to raise him from the floor, but the cat, bending his back, had,
notwithstanding all Thor's efforts, only one of his feet lifted
up, seeing which Thor made no further attempt.

"This trial has turned out," said Utgard-Loki, "just as I imagined
it would. The cat is large, but Thor is little in comparison to
our men."

"Little as ye call me," answered Thor, "let me see who among you
will come hither now I am in wrath and wrestle with me."

"I see no one here," said Utgard-Loki, looking at the men sitting
on the benches, "who would not think it beneath him to wrestle
with thee; let somebody, however, call hither that old crone, my
nurse Elli, and let Thor wrestle with her if he will. She has
thrown to the ground many a man not less strong than this Thor
is."

A toothless old woman then entered the hall, and was told by
Utgard-Loki to take hold of Thor. The tale is shortly told. The
more Thor tightened his hold on the crone the firmer she stood. At
length after a very violent struggle Thor began to lose his
footing, and was finally brought down upon one knee. Utgard-Loki
then told them to desist, adding that Thor had now no occasion to
ask any one else in the hall to wrestle with him, and it was also
getting late; so he showed Thor and his companions to their seats,
and they passed the night there in good cheer.

The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his companions dressed
themselves and prepared for their departure. Utgard-Loki ordered a
table to be set for them, on which there was no lack of victuals
or drink. After the repast Utgard-Loki led them to the gate of the
city, and on parting asked Thor how he thought his journey had
turned out, and whether he had met with any men stronger than
himself. Thor told him that he could not deny but that he had
brought great shame on himself. "And what grieves me most," he
added, "is that ye will call me a person of little worth."

"Nay," said Utgard-Loki, "it behooves me to tell thee the truth,
now thou art out of the city, which so long as I live and have my
way thou shalt never enter again. And, by my troth, had I known
beforehand that thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst
have brought me so near to a great mishap, I would not have
suffered thee to enter this time. Know then that I have all along
deceived thee by my illusions; first in the forest, where I tied
up the wallet with iron wire so that thou couldst not untie it.
After this thou gavest me three blows with thy mallet; the first,
though the least, would have ended my days had it fallen on me,
but I slipped aside and thy blows fell on the mountain, where thou
wilt find three glens, one of them remarkably deep. These are the
dints made by thy mallet. I have made use of similar illusions in
the contests you have had with my followers. In the first, Loki,
like hunger itself, devoured all that was set before him, but Logi
was in reality nothing else than Fire, and therefore consumed not
only the meat, bat the trough which held it. Hugi, with whom
Thialfi contended in running, was Thought, and it was impossible
for Thialfi to keep pace with that. When thou in thy turn didst
attempt to empty the horn, thou didst perform, by my troth, a deed
so marvellous that had I not seen it myself I should never have
believed it. For one end of that horn reached the sea, which thou
wast not aware of, but when thou comest to the shore thou wilt
perceive how much the sea has sunk by thy draughts. Thou didst
perform a feat no less wonderful by lifting up the cat, and to
tell thee the truth, when we saw that one of his paws was off the
floor, we were all of us terror-stricken, for what thou tookest
for a cat was in reality the Midgard serpent that encompasseth the
earth, and he was so stretched by thee that he was barely long
enough to enclose it between his head and tail. Thy wrestling with
Elli was also a most astonishing feat, for there was never yet a
man, nor ever will be, whom Old Age, for such in fact was Elli,
will not sooner or later lay low. But now, as we are going to
part, let me tell thee that it will be better for both of us if
thou never come near me again, for shouldst thou do so, I shall
again defend myself by other illusions, so that thou wilt only
lose thy labor and get no fame from the contest with me."

On hearing these words Thor in a rage laid hold of his mallet and
would have launched it at him, but Utgard-Loki had disappeared,
and when Thor would have returned to the city to destroy it, he
found nothing around him but a verdant plain.





CHAPTER XL

THE DEATH OF BALDUR--THE ELVES--RUNIC LETTERS--ICELAND--TEUTONIC
MYTHOLOGY--NIBELUNGEN LIED

THE DEATH OF BALDUR


Baldur the Good, having been tormented with terrible dreams
indicating that his life was in peril, told them to the assembled
gods, who resolved to conjure all things to avert from him the
threatened danger. Then Frigga, the wife of Odin, exacted an oath
from fire and water, from iron and all other metals, from stones,
trees, diseases, beasts, birds, poisons, and creeping things, that
none of them would do any harm to Baldur. Odin, not satisfied with
all this, and feeling alarmed for the fate of his son, determined
to consult the prophetess Angerbode, a giantess, mother of Fenris,
Hela, and the Midgard serpent. She was dead, and Odin was forced
to seek her in Hela's dominions. This Descent of Odin forms the
subject of Gray's fine ode beginning,--

    "Uprose the king of men with speed
    And saddled straight his coal-black steed"

But the other gods, feeling that what Frigga had done was quite
sufficient, amused themselves with using Baldur as a mark, some
hurling darts at him, some stones, while others hewed at him with
their swords and battle-axes; for do what they would, none of them
could harm him. And this became a favorite pastime with them and
was regarded as an honor shown to Baldur. But when Loki beheld the
scene he was sorely vexed that Baldur was not hurt. Assuming,
therefore, the shape of a woman, he went to Fensalir, the man-
sion of Frigga. That goddess, when she saw the pretended woman,
inquired of her if she knew what the gods were doing at their
meetings. She replied that they were throwing darts and stones at
Baldur, without being able to hurt him. "Ay," said Frigga,
"neither stones, nor sticks, nor anything else can hurt Baldur,
for I have exacted an oath from all of them." "What," exclaimed
the woman, "have all things sworn to spare Baldur?" "All things,"
replied Frigga, "except one little shrub that grows on the eastern
side of Valhalla, and is called Mistletoe, and which I thought too
young and feeble to crave an oath from."

As soon as Loki heard this he went away, and resuming his natural
shape, cut off the mistletoe, and repaired to the place where the
gods were assembled. There he found Hodur standing apart, without
partaking of the sports, on account of his blindness, and going up
to him, said, "Why dost thou not also throw something at Baldur?"

"Because I am blind," answered Hodur, "and see not where Baldur
is, and have, moreover, nothing to throw."

"Come, then," said Loki, "do like the rest, and show honor to
Baldur by throwing this twig at him, and I will direct thy arm
towards the place where he stands."

Hodur then took the mistletoe, and under the guidance of Loki,
darted it at Baldur, who, pierced through and through, fell down
lifeless. Surely never was there witnessed, either among gods or
men, a more atrocious deed than this. When Baldur fell, the gods
were struck speechless with horror, and then they looked at each
other, and all were of one mind to lay hands on him who had done
the deed, but they were obliged to delay their vengeance out of
respect for the sacred place where they were assembled. They gave
vent to their grief by loud lamentations. When the gods came to
themselves, Frigga asked who among them wished to gain all her
love and good will. "For this," said she, "shall he have who will
ride to Hel and offer Hela a ransom if she will let Baldur return
to Asgard." Whereupon Hermod, surnamed the Nimble, the son of
Odin, offered to undertake the journey. Odin's horse, Sleipnir,
which has eight legs and can outrun the wind, was then led forth,
on which Hermod mounted and galloped away on his mission. For the
space of nine days and as many nights he rode through deep glens
so dark that he could not discern anything, until he arrived at
the river Gyoll, which he passed over on a bridge covered with
glittering gold. The maiden who kept the bridge asked him his name
and lineage, telling him that the day before five bands of dead
persons had ridden over the bridge, and did not shake it as much
as he alone. "But," she added, "thou hast not death's hue on thee;
why then ridest thou here on the way to Hel?"

"I ride to Hel," answered Hermod, "to seek Baldur. Hast thou
perchance seen him pass this way?"

She replied, "Baldur hath ridden over Gyoll's bridge, and yonder
lieth the way he took to the abodes of death"

Hermod pursued his journey until he came to the barred gates of
Hel. Here he alighted, girthed his saddle tighter, and remounting
clapped both spurs to his horse, who cleared the gate by a
tremendous leap without touching it. Hermod then rode on to the
palace, where he found his brother Baldur occupying the most
distinguished seat in the hall, and passed the night in his
company. The next morning he besought Hela to let Baldur ride home
with him, assuring her that nothing but lamentations were to be
heard among the gods. Hela answered that it should now be tried
whether Baldur was so beloved as he was said to be. "If,
therefore," she added, "all things in the world, both living and
lifeless, weep for him, then shall he return to life; but if any
one thing speak against him or refuse to weep, he shall be kept in
Hel."

Hermod then rode back to Asgard and gave an account of all he had
heard and witnessed.

The gods upon this despatched messengers throughout the world to
beg everything to weep in order that Baldur might be delivered
from Hel. All things very willingly complied with this request,
both men and every other living being, as well as earths, and
stones, and trees, and metals, just as we have all seen these
things weep when they are brought from a cold place into a hot
one. As the messengers were returning, they found an old hag named
Thaukt sitting in a cavern, and begged her to weep Baldur out of
Hel. But she answered,

    "Thaukt will wail
    With dry tears
    Baldur's bale-fire.
    Let Hela keep her own."

It was strongly suspected that this hag was no other than Loki
himself, who never ceased to work evil among gods and men. So
Baldur was prevented from coming back to Asgard.

[Footnote: In Longfellow's Poems will be found a poem entitled
"Tegner's Drapa," upon the subject of Baldur's death.]

The gods took up the dead body and bore it to the seashore where
stood Baldur's ship "Hringham," which passed for the largest in
the world. Baldur's dead body was put on the funeral pile, on
board the ship, and his wife Nanna was so struck with grief at the
sight that she broke her heart, and her body was burned on the
same pile as her husband's. There was a vast concourse of various
kinds of people at Baldur's obsequies. First came Odin accompanied
by Frigga, the Valkyrie, and his ravens; then Frey in his car
drawn by Gullinbursti, the boar; Heimdall rode his horse Gulltopp,
and Freya drove in her chariot drawn by cats. There were also a
great many Frost giants and giants of the mountain present.
Baldur's horse was led to the pile fully caparisoned and consumed
in the same flames with his master.

But Loki did not escape his deserved punishment. When he saw how
angry the gods were, he fled to the mountain, and there built
himself a hut with four doors, so that he could see every
approaching danger. He invented a net to catch the fishes, such as
fishermen have used since his time. But Odin found out his hiding-
place and the gods assembled to take him. He, seeing this, changed
himself into a salmon, and lay hid among the stones of the brook.
But the gods took his net and dragged the brook, and Loki, finding
he must be caught, tried to leap over the net; but Thor caught him
by the tail and compressed it, so that salmons ever since have had
that part remarkably fine and thin. They bound him with chains and
suspended a serpent over his head, whose venom falls upon his face
drop by drop. His wife Siguna sits by his side and catches the
drops as they fall, in a cup; but when she carries it away to
empty it, the venom falls upon Loki, which makes him howl with
horror, and twist his body about so violently that the whole earth
shakes, and this produces what men call earthquakes.

THE ELVES

The Edda mentions another class of beings, inferior to the gods,
but still possessed of great power; these were called Elves. The
white spirits, or Elves of Light, were exceedingly fair, more
brilliant than the sun, and clad in garments of a delicate and
transparent texture. They loved the light, were kindly disposed to
mankind, and generally appeared as fair and lovely children. Their
country was called Alfheim, and was the domain of Freyr, the god
of the sun, in whose light they were always sporting.

The Black or Night Elves were a different kind of creatures. Ugly,
long-nosed dwarfs, of a dirty brown color, they appeared only at
night, for they avoided the sun as their most deadly enemy,
because whenever his beams fell upon any of them they changed them
immediately into stones. Their language was the echo of solitudes,
and their dwelling-places subterranean caves and clefts. They were
supposed to have come into existence as maggots produced by the
decaying flesh of Ymir's body, and were afterwards endowed by the
gods with a human form and great understanding. They were
particularly distinguished for a knowledge of the mysterious
powers of nature, and for the runes which they carved and
explained. They were the most skilful artificers of all created
beings, and worked in metals and in wood. Among their most noted
works were Thor's hammer, and the ship "Skidbladnir," which they
gave to Freyr, and which was so large that it could contain all
the deities with their war and household implements, but so
skillfully was it wrought that when folded together it could be
put into a side pocket.

RAGNAROK, THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

It was a firm belief of the northern nations that a time would
come when all the visible creation, the gods of Valhalla and
Niffleheim, the inhabitants of Jotunheim, Alfheim, and Midgard,
together with their habitations, would be destroyed. The fearful
day of destruction will not, however, be without its forerunners.
First will come a triple winter, during which snow will fall from
the four corners of the heavens, the frost be very severe, the
wind piercing, the weather tempestuous, and the sun impart no
gladness. Three such winters will pass away without being tempered
by a single summer. Three other similar winters will then follow,
during which war and discord will spread over the universe. The
earth itself will be frightened and begin to tremble, the sea
leave its basin, the heavens tear asunder, and men perish in great
numbers, and the eagles of the air feast upon their still
quivering bodies. The wolf Fenris will now break his bands, the
Midgard serpent rise out of her bed in the sea, and Loki, released
from his bonds, will join the enemies of the gods. Amidst the
general devastation the sons of Muspelheim will rush forth under
their leader Surtur, before and behind whom are flames and burning
fire. Onward they ride over Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, which
breaks under the horses' hoofs. But they, disregarding its fall,
direct their course to the battlefield called Vigrid. Thither also
repair the wolf Fenris, the Midgard serpent, Loki with all the
followers of Hela, and the Frost giants.

Heimdall now stands up and sounds the Giallar horn to assemble the
gods and heroes for the contest. The gods advance, led on by Odin,
who engages the wolf Fenris, but falls a victim to the monster,
who is, however, slain by Vidar, Odin's son. Thor gains great
renown by killing the Midgard serpent, but recoils and falls dead,
suffocated with the venom which the dying monster vomits over him.
Loki and Heimdall meet and fight till they are both slain. The
gods and their enemies having fallen in battle, Surtur, who has
killed Freyr, darts fire and flames over the world, and the whole
universe is burned up. The sun becomes dim, the earth sinks into
the ocean, the stars fall from heaven, and time is no more.

After this Alfadur (the Almighty) will cause a new heaven and a
new earth to arise out of the sea. The new earth filled with
abundant supplies will spontaneously produce its fruits without
labor or care. Wickedness and misery will no more be known, but
the gods and men will live happily together.

RUNIC LETTERS

One cannot travel far in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden without
meeting with great stones of different forms, engraven with
characters called Runic, which appear at first sight very
different from all we know. The letters consist almost invariably
of straight lines, in the shape of little sticks either singly or
put together. Such sticks were in early times used by the northern
nations for the purpose of ascertaining future events. The sticks
were shaken up, and from the figures that they formed a kind of
divination was derived.

The Runic characters were of various kinds. They were chiefly used
for magical purposes. The noxious, or, as they called them, the
BITTER runes, were employed to bring various evils on their
enemies; the favorable averted misfortune. Some were medicinal,
others employed to win love, etc. In later times they were
frequently used for inscriptions, of which more than a thousand
have been found. The language is a dialect of the Gothic, called
Norse, still in use in Iceland. The inscriptions may therefore be
read with certainty, but hitherto very few have been found which
throw the least light on history. They are mostly epitaphs on
tombstones.

Gray's ode on the "Descent of Odin" contains an allusion to the
use of Runic letters for incantation:

    "Facing to the northern clime,
    Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme;
    Thrice pronounced, in accents dread,
    The thrilling verse that wakes the dead,
    Till from out the hollow ground
    Slowly breathed a sullen sound."

THE SKALDS

The Skalds were the bards and poets of the nation, a very
important class of men in all communities in an early stage of
civilization. They are the depositaries of whatever historic lore
there is, and it is their office to mingle something of
intellectual gratification with the rude feasts of the warriors,
by rehearsing, with such accompaniments of poetry and music as
their skill can afford, the exploits of their heroes living or
dead. The compositions of the Skalds were called Sagas, many of
which have come down to us, and contain valuable materials of
history, and a faithful picture of the state of society at the
time to which they relate.

ICELAND

The Eddas and Sagas have come to us from Iceland. The following
extract from Carlyle's lectures on "Heroes and Hero Worship" gives
an animated account of the region where the strange stories we
have been reading had their origin. Let the reader contrast it for
a moment with Greece, the parent of classical mythology:

"In that strange island, Iceland,--burst up, the geologists say,
by fire from the bottom of the sea, a wild land of barrenness and
lava, swallowed many months of every year in black tempests, yet
with a wild, gleaming beauty in summer time, towering up there
stern and grim in the North Ocean, with its snow yokuls
[mountains], roaring geysers [boiling springs], sulphur pools, and
horrid volcanic chasms, like the waste, chaotic battlefield of
Frost and Fire,--where, of all places, we least looked for
literature or written memorials,--the record of these things was
written down. On the seaboard of this wild land is a rim of grassy
country, where cattle can subsist, and men by means of them and of
what the sea yields; and it seems they were poetic men these, men
who had deep thoughts in them and uttered musically their
thoughts. Much would be lost had Iceland not been burst up from
the sea, not been discovered by the Northmen!"

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

In the mythology of Germany proper, the name of Odin appears as
Wotan; Freya and Frigga are regarded as one and the same divinity,
and the gods are in general represented as less warlike in
character than those in the Scandinavian myths. As a whole,
however, Teutonic mythology runs along almost identical lines with
that of the northern nations. The most notable divergence is due
to modifications of the legends by reason of the difference in
climatic conditions. The more advanced social condition of the
Germans is also apparent in their mythology.

THE NIBELUNGEN LIED

One of the oldest myths of the Teutonic race is found in the great
national epic of the Nibelungen Lied, which dates back to the
prehistoric era when Wotan, Frigga, Thor, Loki, and the other gods
and goddesses were worshipped in the German forests. The epic is
divided into two parts, the first of which tells how Siegfried,
the youngest of the kings of the Netherlands, went to Worms, to
ask in marriage the hand of Kriemhild, sister of Gunther, King of
Burgundy. While he was staying with Gunther, Siegfried helped the
Burgundian king to secure as his wife Brunhild, queen of Issland.
The latter had announced publicly that he only should be her
husband who could beat her in hurling a spear, throwing a huge
stone, and in leaping. Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of
invisibility, aided Gunther in these three contests, and Brunhild
became his wife. In return for these services, Gunther gave
Siegfried his sister Kriemhild in marriage.

After some time had elapsed, Siegfried and Kriemhild went to visit
Gunther, when the two women fell into a dispute about the relative
merits of their husbands. Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted
that it was to the latter that Gunther owed his victories and his
wife. Brunhild, in great anger, employed Hagan, liegeman of
Gunther, to murder Siegfried. In the epic Hagan is described as
follows:

"Well-grown and well-compacted was that redoubted guest; Long were
his legs and sinewy, and deep and broad his chest; His hair, that
once was sable, with gray was dashed of late; Most terrible his
visage, and lordly was his gait."

--Nibelungen Lied, stanza 1789.

This Achilles of German romance stabbed Siegfried between the
shoulders, as the unfortunate King of the Netherlands was stooping
to drink from a brook during a hunting expedition.

The second part of the epic relates how, thirteen years later,
Kriemhild married Etzel, King of the Huns. After a time, she
invited the King of Burgundy, with Hagan and many others, to the
court of her husband. A fearful quarrel was stirred up in the
banquet hall, which ended in the slaughter of all the Burgundians
but Gunther and Hagan. These two were taken prisoners and given to
Kriemhild, who with her own hand cut off the heads of both. For
this bloody act of vengeance Kriemhild was herself slain by
Hildebrand, a magician and champion, who in German mythology holds
a place to an extent corresponding to that of Nestor in the Greek
mythology.

THE NIBELUNGEN HOARD

This was a mythical mass of gold and precious stones which
Siegfried obtained from the Nibelungs, the people of the north
whom he had conquered and whose country he had made tributary to
his own kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon his marriage, Siegfried
gave the treasure to Kriemhild as her wedding portion. After the
murder of Siegfried, Hagan seized it and buried it secretly
beneath the Rhine at Lochham, intending to recover it at a future
period. The hoard was lost forever when Hagan was killed by
Kriemhild. Its wonders are thus set forth in the poem:

    "'Twas as much as twelve huge wagons in four whole nights and days
    Could carry from the mountain down to the salt sea bay;
    Though to and fro each wagon thrice journeyed every day.

    "It was made up of nothing but precious stones and gold;
    Were all the world bought from it, and down the value told,
    Not a mark the less would there be left than erst there was, I ween."

    --Nibelungen Lied, XIX.

Whoever possessed the Nibelungen hoard were termed Nibelungers.
Thus at one time certain people of Norway were so called. When
Siegfried held the treasure he received the title "King of the
Nibelungers."

WAGNER'S NIBELUNGEN RING

Though Richard Wagner's music-drama of the Nibelungen Ring bears
some resemblance to the ancient German epic, it is a wholly
independent composition and was derived from various old songs and
sagas, which the dramatist wove into one great harmonious story.
The principal source was the Volsunga Saga, while lesser parts
were taken from the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, and others
from the Nibelungen Lied, the Ecklenlied, and other Teutonic
folklore.

In the drama there are at first only four distinct races,--the
gods, the giants, the dwarfs, and the nymphs. Later, by a special
creation, there come the valkyrie and the heroes. The gods are the
noblest and highest race, and dwell first in the mountain meadows,
later in the palace of Valhalla on the heights. The giants are a
great and strong race, but lack wisdom; they hate what is noble,
and are enemies of the gods; they dwell in caves near the earth's
surface. The dwarfs, or nibelungs, are black uncouth pigmies,
hating the good, hating the gods; they are crafty and cunning, and
dwell in the bowels of the earth. The nymphs are pure, innocent
creatures of the water. The valkyrie are daughters of the gods,
but mingled with a mortal strain; they gather dead heroes from the
battle-fields and carry them to Valhalla. The heroes are children
of the gods, but also mingled with a mortal strain; they are
destined to become at last the highest race of all, and to succeed
the gods in the government of the world.

The principal gods are Wotan, Loki, Donner, and Froh. The chief
giants are Fafner and Fasolt, brothers. The chief dwarfs are
Alberich and Mime, brothers, and later Hagan, son of Alberich. The
chief nymphs are the Rhine-daughters, Flosshilda, Woglinda, and
Wellgunda. There are nine Valkyrie, of whom Brunhild is the
leading one.

Wagner's story of the Ring may be summarized as follows:

A hoard of gold exists in the depths of the Rhine, guarded by the
innocent Rhine-maidens. Alberich, the dwarf, forswears love to
gain this gold. He makes it into a magic ring. It gives him all
power, and he gathers by it a vast amount of treasures.

Meanwhile Wotan, chief of the gods, has engaged the giants to
build for him a noble castle, Valhalla, from whence to rule the
world, promising in payment Freya, goddess of youth and love. But
the gods find they cannot spare Freya, as they are dependent on
her for their immortal youth. Loki, called upon to provide a
substitute, tells of Alberich's magic ring and other treasure.
Wotan goes with Loki, and they steal the ring and the golden hoard
from Alberich, who curses the ring and lays the curse on all who
shall henceforth possess it. The gods give the ring and the
treasure to the giants as a substitute for Freya. The curse at
once begins. One giant, Fafner, kills his brother to get all, and
transforms himself into a dragon to guard his wealth. The gods
enter Valhalla over the rainbow bridge. This ends the first part
of the drama, called the Rhine-Gold.

The second part, the Valkyrie, relates how Wotan still covets the
ring. He cannot take it himself, for he has given his word to the
giants. He stands or falls by his word. So he devises an artifice
to get the ring. He will get a hero-race to work for him and
recover the ring and the treasures. Siegmund and Sieglinda are
twin children of this new race. Sieglinda is carried off as a
child and is forced into marriage with Hunding. Siegmund comes,
and unknowingly breaks the law of marriage, but wins Nothung, the
great sword, and a bride. Brunhild, chief of the Valkyrie, is
commissioned by Wotan at the instance of Fricka, goddess of
marriage, to slay him for his sin. She disobeys and tries to save
him, but Hunding, helped by Wotan, slays him. Sieglinda, however,
about to bear the free hero, to be called Siegfried, is saved by
Brunhild, and hid in the forest. Brunhild herself is punished by
being made a mortal woman. She is left sleeping on the mountains
with a wall of fire around her which only a hero can penetrate.

The drama continues with the story of Siegfried, which opens with
a scene in the smithy between Mime the dwarf and Siegfried. Mime
is welding a sword, and Siegfried scorns him. Mime tells him
something of his mother, Sieglinda, and shows him the broken
pieces of his father's sword. Wotan comes and tells Mime that only
one who has no fear can remake the sword. Now Siegfried knows no
fear and soon remakes the sword Nothung. Wotan and Alberich come
to where the dragon Fafner is guarding the ring. They both long
for it, but neither can take it. Soon Mime comes bringing
Siegfried with the mighty sword. Fafner comes out, but Siegfried
slays him. Happening to touch his lips with the dragon's blood, he
understands the language of the birds. They tell him of the ring.
He goes and gets it. Siegfried now has possession of the ring, but
it is to bring him nothing of happiness, only evil. It is to curse
love and finally bring death. The birds also tell him of Mime's
treachery. He slays Mime. He longs for some one to love. The birds
tell him of the slumbering Brunnhilda, whom he finds and marries.

The Dusk of the Gods portrays at the opening the three norns or
fates weaving and measuring the thread of destiny. It is the
beginning of the end. The perfect pair, Siegfried and Brunhild,
appear in all the glory of their life, splendid ideals of manhood
and womanhood. But Siegfried goes out into the world to achieve
deeds of prowess. He gives her the Nibelungen ring to keep as a
pledge of his love till his return. Meanwhile Alberich also has
begotten a son, Hagan, to achieve for him the possession of the
ring. He is partly of the Gibichung race, and works through
Gunther and Gutrune, half-brother and half-sister to him. They
beguile Siegfried to them, give him a magic draught which makes
him forget Brunhild and fall in love with Gutrune. Under this same
spell, he offers to bring Brunhild for wife to Gunther. Now is
Valhalla full of sorrow and despair. The gods fear the end. Wotan
murmurs, "O that she would give back the ring to the Rhine." But
Brunhild will not give it up,--it is now her pledge of love.
Siegfried comes, takes the ring, and Brunhild is now brought to
the Rhine castle of the Gibichungs, but Siegfried under the spell
does not love her. She is to be wedded to Gunther. She rises in
wrath and denounces Siegfried. But at a hunting banquet Siegfried
is given another magic draught, remembers all, and is slain by
Hagan by a blow in the back, as he calls on Brunhild's name in
love. Then comes the end. The body of Siegfried is burned on a
funeral pyre, a grand funeral march is heard, and Brunhild rides
into the flames and sacrifices herself for love's sake; the ring
goes back to the Rhine-daughters; and the old world--of the gods
of Valhalla, of passion and sin--is burnt up with flames, for the
gods have broken moral law, and coveted power rather than love,
gold rather than truth, and therefore must perish. They pass, and
a new era, the reign of love and truth, has begun.

Those who wish to study the differences in the legends of the
Nibelungen Lied and the Nibelungen Ring, and the way in which
Wagner used his ancient material, are referred to Professor W. C.
Sawyer's book on "Teutonic Legends in the Nibelungen Lied and the
Nibelungen Ring," where the matter is treated in full detail. For
a very thorough and clear analysis of the Ring as Wagner gives it,
with a study of the musical motifs, probably nothing is better for
general readers than the volume "The Epic of Sounds," by Freda
Winworth. The more scholarly work of Professor Lavignac is
indispensable for the student of Wagner's dramas. There is much
illuminating comment on the sources and materials in "Legends of
the Wagner Drama" by J. L. Weston.





CHAPTER XLI

THE DRUIDS--IONA

DRUIDS


The Druids were the priests or ministers of religion among the
ancient Celtic nations in Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Our
information respecting them is borrowed from notices in the Greek
and Roman writers, compared with the remains of Welsh and Gaelic
poetry still extant.

The Druids combined the functions of the priest, the magistrate,
the scholar, and the physician. They stood to the people of the
Celtic tribes in a relation closely analogous to that in which the
Brahmans of India, the Magi of Persia, and the priests of the
Egyptians stood to the people respectively by whom they were
revered.

The Druids taught the existence of one god, to whom they gave a
name "Be' al," which Celtic antiquaries tell us means "the life of
everything," or "the source of all beings," and which seems to
have affinity with the Phoenician Baal. What renders this affinity
more striking is that the Druids as well as the Phoenicians
identified this, their supreme deity, with the Sun. Fire was
regarded as a symbol of the divinity. The Latin writers assert
that the Druids also worshipped numerous inferior gods.

They used no images to represent the object of their worship, nor
did they meet in temples or buildings of any kind for the
performance of their sacred rites. A circle of stones (each stone
generally of vast size), enclosing an area of from twenty feet to
thirty yards in diameter, constituted their sacred place. The most
celebrated of these now remaining is Stonehenge, on Salisbury
Plain, England.

These sacred circles were generally situated near some stream, or
under the shadow of a grove or wide-spreading oak. In the centre
of the circle stood the Cromlech or altar, which was a large
stone, placed in the manner of a table upon other stones set up on
end. The Druids had also their high places, which were large
stones or piles of stones on the summits of hills. These were
called Cairns, and were used in the worship of the deity under the
symbol of the sun.

That the Druids offered sacrifices to their deity there can be no
doubt. But there is some uncertainty as to what they offered, and
of the ceremonies connected with their religious services we know
almost nothing. The classical (Roman) writers affirm that they
offered on great occasions human sacrifices; as for success in war
or for relief from dangerous diseases. Caesar has given a detailed
account of the manner in which this was done. "They have images of
immense size, the limbs of which are framed with twisted twigs and
filled with living persons. These being set on fire, those within
are encompassed by the flames." Many attempts have been made by
Celtic writers to shake the testimony of the Roman historians to
this fact, but without success.

The Druids observed two festivals in each year. The former took
place in the beginning of May, and was called Beltane or "fire of
God." On this occasion a large fire was kindled on some elevated
spot, in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence they thus
welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this custom
a trace remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts of
Scotland to this day. Sir Walter Scott uses the word in the "Boat
Song" in the "Lady of the Lake":

"Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain, Blooming at
Beltane in winter to fade;" etc.

The other great festival of the Druids was called "Samh'in," or
"fire of peace," and was held on Halloweve (first of November),
which still retains this designation in the Highlands of Scotland.
On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn conclave, in the
most central part of the district, to discharge the judicial
functions of their order. All questions, whether public or
private, all crimes against person or property, were at this time
brought before them for adjudication. With these judicial acts
were combined certain superstitious usages, especially the
kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the fires in the
district, which had been beforehand scrupulously extinguished,
might be relighted. This usage of kindling fires on Hallow-eve
lingered in the British islands long after the establishment of
Christianity.

Besides these two great annual festivals, the Druids were in the
habit of observing the full moon, and especially the sixth day of
the moon. On the latter they sought the Mistletoe, which grew on
their favorite oaks, and to which, as well as to the oak itself,
they ascribed a peculiar virtue and sacredness. The discovery of
it was an occasion of rejoicing and solemn worship. "They call
it," says Pliny, "by a word in their language, which means 'heal-
all,' and having made solemn preparation for feasting and
sacrifice under the tree, they drive thither two milk-white bulls,
whose horns are then for the first time bound. The priest then,
robed in white, ascends the tree, and cuts off the mistletoe with
a golden sickle. It is caught in a white mantle, after which they
proceed to slay the victims, at the same time praying that God
would render his gift prosperous to those to whom he had given
it." They drink the water in which it has been infused, and think
it a remedy for all diseases. The mistletoe is a parasitic plant,
and is not always nor often found on the oak, so that when it is
found it is the more precious.

The Druids were the teachers of morality as well as of religion.
Of their ethical teaching a valuable specimen is preserved in the
Triads of the Welsh Bards, and from this we may gather that their
views of moral rectitude were on the whole just, and that they
held and inculcated many very noble and valuable principles of
conduct. They were also the men of science and learning of their
age and people. Whether they were acquainted with letters or not
has been disputed, though the probability is strong that they
were, to some extent. But it is certain that they committed
nothing of their doctrine, their history, or their poetry to
writing. Their teaching was oral, and their literature (if such a
word may be used in such a case) was preserved solely by
tradition. But the Roman writers admit that "they paid much
attention to the order and laws of nature, and investigated and
taught to the youth under their charge many things concerning the
stars and their motions, the size of the world and the lands, and
concerning the might and power of the immortal gods."

Their history consisted in traditional tales, in which the heroic
deeds of their forefathers were celebrated. These were apparently
in verse, and thus constituted part of the poetry as well as the
history of the Druids. In the poems of Ossian we have, if not the
actual productions of Druidical times, what may be considered
faithful representations of the songs of the Bards.

The Bards were an essential part of the Druidical hierarchy. One
author, Pennant, says, "The Bards were supposed to be endowed with
powers equal to inspiration. They were the oral historians of all
past transactions, public and private. They were also accomplished
genealogists," etc.

Pennant gives a minute account of the Eisteddfods or sessions of
the Bards and minstrels, which were held in Wales for many
centuries, long after the Druidical priesthood in its other
departments became extinct. At these meetings none but Bards of
merit were suffered to rehearse their pieces, and minstrels of
skill to perform. Judges were appointed to decide on their
respective abilities, and suitable degrees were conferred. In the
earlier period the judges were appointed by the Welsh princes, and
after the conquest of Wales, by commission from the kings of
England. Yet the tradition is that Edward I., in revenge for the
influence of the Bards in animating the resistance of the people
to his sway, persecuted them with great cruelty. This tradition
has furnished the poet Gray with the subject of his celebrated
ode, the "Bard."

There are still occasional meetings of the lovers of Welsh poetry
and music, held under the ancient name. Among Mrs. Hemans' poems
is one written for an Eisteddfod, or meeting of Welsh Bards, held
in London, May 22, 1822. It begins with a description of the
ancient meeting, of which the following lines are a part:

    "... midst the eternal cliffs, whose strength defied
    The crested Roman in his hour of pride;
    And where the Druid's ancient cromlech frowned,
    And the oaks breathed mysterious murmurs round,
    There thronged the inspired of yore! on plain or height,
    In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light,
    And baring unto heaven each noble head,
    Stood in the circle, where none else might tread."

The Druidical system was at its height at the time of the Roman
invasion under Julius Caesar. Against the Druids, as their chief
enemies, these conquerors of the world directed their unsparing
fury. The Druids, harassed at all points on the mainland,
retreated to Anglesey and Iona, where for a season they found
shelter and continued their now dishonored rites.

The Druids retained their predominance in Iona and over the
adjacent islands and mainland until they were supplanted and their
superstitions overturned by the arrival of St. Columba, the
apostle of the Highlands, by whom the inhabitants of that district
were first led to profess Christianity.

IONA

One of the smallest of the British Isles, situated near a rugged
and barren coast, surrounded by dangerous seas, and possessing no
sources of internal wealth, Iona has obtained an imperishable
place in history as the seat of civilization and religion at a
time when the darkness of heathenism hung over almost the whole of
Northern Europe. lona or Icolmkill is situated at the extremity of
the island of Mull, from which it is separated by a strait of half
a mile in breadth, its distance from the mainland of Scotland
being thirty-six miles.

Columba was a native of Ireland, and connected by birth with the
princes of the land. Ireland was at that time a land of gospel
light, while the western and northern parts of Scotland were still
immersed in the darkness of heathenism. Columba with twelve
friends landed on the island of lona in the year of our Lord 563,
having made the passage in a wicker boat covered with hides. The
Druids who occupied the island endeavored to prevent his settling
there, and the savage nations on the adjoining shores incommoded
him with their hostility, and on several occasions endangered his
life by their attacks. Yet by his perseverance and zeal he
surmounted all opposition, procured from the king a gift of the
island, and established there a monastery of which he was the
abbot. He was unwearied in his labors to disseminate a knowledge
of the Scriptures throughout the Highlands and islands of
Scotland, and such was the reverence paid him that though not a
bishop, but merely a presbyter and monk, the entire province with
its bishops was subject to him and his successors. The Pictish
monarch was so impressed with a sense of his wisdom and worth that
he held him in the highest honor, and the neighboring chiefs and
princes sought his counsel and availed themselves of his judgment
in settling their disputes.

When Columba landed on lona he was attended by twelve followers
whom he had formed into a religious body of which he was the head.
To these, as occasion required, others were from time to time
added, so that the original number was always kept up. Their
institution was called a monastery and the superior an abbot, but
the system had little in common with the monastic institutions of
later times. The name by which those who submitted to the rule
were known was that of Culdees, probably from the Latin "cultores
Dei"--worshippers of God. They were a body of religious persons
associated together for the purpose of aiding each other in the
common work of preaching the gospel and teaching youth, as well as
maintaining in themselves the fervor of devotion by united
exercises of worship. On entering the order certain vows were
taken by the members, but they were not those which were usually
imposed by monastic orders, for of these, which are three,--
celibacy, poverty, and obedience.--the Culdees were bound to none
except the third. To poverty they did not bind themselves; on the
contrary they seem to have labored diligently to procure for
themselves and those dependent on them the comforts of life.
Marriage also was allowed them, and most of them seem to have
entered into that state. True, their wives were not permitted to
reside with them at the institution, but they had a residence
assigned to them in an adjacent locality. Near lona there is an
island which still bears the name of "Eilen nam ban," women's
island, where their husbands seem to have resided with them,
except when duty required their presence in the school or the
sanctuary.

Campbell, in his poem of "Reullura," alludes to the married monks
of Iona:

    "... The pure Culdees
       Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
    Ere yet an island of her seas
      By foot of Saxon monk was trod,
    Long ere her churchmen by bigotry
    Were barred from holy wedlock's tie.
    'Twas then that Aodh, famed afar,
      In lona preached the word with power,
    And Reullura, beauty's star,
      Was the partner of his bower."

In one of his "Irish Melodies," Moore gives the legend of St.
Senanus and the lady who sought shelter on the island, but was
repulsed:

    "O, haste and leave this sacred isle,
    Unholy bark, ere morning smile;
    For on thy deck, though dark it be,
        A female form I see;
    And I have sworn this sainted sod
    Shall ne'er by woman's foot be trod."

In these respects and in others the Culdees departed from the
established rules of the Romish church, and consequently were
deemed heretical. The consequence was that as the power of the
latter advanced that of the Culdees was enfeebled. It was not,
however, till the thirteenth centurv that the communities of the
Culdees were suppressed and the members dispersed. They still
continued to labor as individuals, and resisted the inroads of
Papal usurpation as they best might till the light of the
Reformation dawned on the world.

Iona, from its position in the western seas, was exposed to the
assaults of the Norwegian and Danish rovers by whom those seas
were infested, and by them it was repeatedly pillaged, its
dwellings burned, and its peaceful inhabitants put to the sword.
These unfavorable circumstances led to its gradual decline, which
was expedited by the subversion of the Culdees throughout
Scotland. Under the reign of Popery the island became the seat of
a nunnery, the ruins of which are still seen. At the Reformation,
the nuns were allowed to remain, living in community, when the
abbey was dismantled.

Iona is now chiefly resorted to by travellers on account of the
numerous ecclesiastical and sepulchral remains which are found
upon it. The principal of these are the Cathedral or Abbey Church
and the Chapel of the Nunnery. Besides these remains of
ecclesiastical antiquity, there are some of an earlier date, and
pointing to the existence on the island of forms of worship and
belief different from those of Christianity. These are the
circular Cairns which are found in various parts, and which seem
to have been of Druidical origin. It is in reference to all these
remains of ancient religion that Johnson exclaims, "That man is
little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the
plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer amid the
ruins of lona."

In the "Lord of the Isles" Scott beautifully contrasts the church
on lona with the cave of Staffa, opposite:

    "Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
    A minister to her Maker's praise!
    Not for a meaner use ascend
    Her columns, or her arches bend;
    Nor of a theme less solemn tells
    That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
    And still between each awful pause,
    From the high vault an answer draws,
    In varied tone, prolonged and high,
    That mocks the organ's melody;
    Nor doth its entrance front in vain
    To old Iona's holy fane,
    That Nature's voice might seem to say,
    Well hast thou done, frail child of clay!
    Thy humble powers that stately shrine
    Tasked high and hard--but witness mine!"





KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION


On the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after
Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost
destitute of a national government. Numerous chiefs, more or less
powerful, held local sway, as far as each could enforce his
dominion, and occasionally those chiefs would unite for a common
object; but, in ordinary times, they were much more likely to be
found in hostility to one another. In such a state of things the
rights of the humbler classes of society were at the mercy of
every assailant; and it is plain that, without some check upon the
lawless power of the chiefs, society must have relapsed into
barbarism. Such checks were found, first, in the rivalry of the
chiefs themselves, whose mutual jealousy made them restraints upon
one another; secondly, in the influence of the Church, which, by
every motive, pure or selfish, was pledged to interpose for the
protection of the weak; and lastly, in the generosity and sense of
right which, however crushed under the weight of passion and
selfishness, dwell naturally in the heart of man. From this last
source sprang Chivalry, which framed an ideal of the heroic
character, combining invincible strength and valor, justice,
modesty, loyalty to superiors, courtesy to equals, compassion to
weakness, and devotedness to the Church; an ideal which, if never
met with in real life, was acknowledged by all as the highest
model for emulation.

The word "Chivalry" is derived from the French "cheval," a horse.
The word "knight," which originally meant boy or servant, was
particularly applied to a young man after he was admitted to the
privilege of bearing arms. This privilege was conferred on youths
of family and fortune only, for the mass of the people were not
furnished with arms. The knight then was a mounted warrior, a man
of rank, or in the service and maintenance of some man of rank,
generally possessing some independent means of support, but often
relying mainly on the gratitude of those whom he served for the
supply of his wants, and often, no doubt, resorting to the means
which power confers on its possessor.

In time of war the knight was, with his followers, in the camp of
his sovereign, or commanding in the field, or holding some castle
for him. In time of peace he was often in attendance at his
sovereign's court, gracing with his presence the banquets and
tournaments with which princes cheered their leisure. Or he was
traversing the country in quest of adventure, professedly bent on
redressing wrongs and enforcing rights, sometimes in fulfilment of
some vow of religion or of love. These wandering knights were
called knights-errant; they were welcome guests in the castles of
the nobility, for their presence enlivened the dulness of those
secluded abodes, and they were received with honor at the abbeys,
which often owed the best part of their revenues to the patronage
of the knights; but if no castle or abbey or hermitage were at
hand their hardy habits made it not intolerable to them to lie
down, supperless, at the foot of some wayside cross, and pass the
night.

It is evident that the justice administered by such an
instrumentality must have been of the rudest description. The
force whose legitimate purpose was to redress wrongs might easily
be perverted to inflict them Accordingly, we find in the romances,
which, however fabulous in facts, are true as pictures of manners,
that a knightly castle was often a terror to the surrounding
country; that is, dungeons were full of oppressed knights and
ladies, waiting for some champion to appear to set them free, or
to be ransomed with money; that hosts of idle retainers were ever
at hand to enforce their lord's behests, regardless of law and
justice; and that the rights of the unarmed multitude were of no
account. This contrariety of fact and theory in regard to chivalry
will account for the opposite impressions which exist in men's
minds respecting it. While it has been the theme of the most
fervid eulogium on the one part, it has been as eagerly denounced
on the other. On a cool estimate, we cannot but see reason to
congratulate ourselves that it has given way in modern times to
the reign of law, and that the civil magistrate, if less
picturesque, has taken the place of the mailed champion.

THE TRAINING OF A KNIGHT

The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long
and arduous. At seven years of age the noble children were usually
removed from their father's house to the court or castle of their
future patron, and placed under the care of a governor, who taught
them the first articles of religion, and respect and reverence for
their lords and superiors, and initiated them in the ceremonies of
a court. They were called pages, valets, or varlets, and their
office was to carve, to wait at table, and to perform other menial
services, which were not then considered humiliating. In their
leisure hours they learned to dance and play on the harp, were
instructed in the mysteries of woods and rivers, that is, in
hunting, falconry, and fishing, and in wrestling, tilting with
spears, and performing other military exercises on horseback. At
fourteen the page became an esquire, and began a course of severer
and more laborious exercises. To vault on a horse in heavy armor;
to run, to scale walls, and spring over ditches, under the same
encumbrance; to wrestle, to wield the battle-axe for a length of
time, without raising the visor or taking breath; to perform with
grace all the evolutions of horsemanship,--were necessary
preliminaries to the reception of knighthood, which was usually
conferred at twenty-one years of age, when the young man's
education was supposed to be completed. In the meantime, the
esquires were no less assiduously engaged in acquiring all those
refinements of civility which formed what was in that age called
courtesy. The same castle in which they received their education
was usually thronged with young persons of the other sex, and the
page was encouraged, at a very early age, to select some lady of
the court as the mistress of his heart, to whom he was taught to
refer all his sentiments, words, and actions. The service of his
mistress was the glory and occupation of a knight, and her smiles,
bestowed at once by affection and gratitude, were held out as the
recompense of his well-directed valor. Religion united its
influence with those of loyalty and love, and the order of
knighthood, endowed with all the sanctity and religious awe that
attended the priesthood, became an object of ambition to the
greatest sovereigns.

The ceremonies of initiation were peculiarly solemn. After
undergoing a severe fast, and spending whole nights in prayer, the
candidate confessed, and received the sacrament. He then clothed
himself in snow-white garments, and repaired to the church, or the
hall, where the ceremony was to take place, bearing a knightly
sword suspended from his neck, which the officiating priest took
and blessed, and then returned to him. The candidate then, with
folded arms, knelt before the presiding knight, who, after some
questions about his motives and purposes in requesting admission,
administered to him the oaths, and granted his request. Some of
the knights present, sometimes even ladies and damsels, handed to
him in succession the spurs, the coat of mail, the hauberk, the
armlet and gauntlet, and lastly he girded on the sword. He then
knelt again before the president, who, rising from his seat, gave
him the "accolade," which consisted of three strokes, with the
flat of a sword, on the shoulder or neck of the candidate,
accompanied by the words: "In the name of God, of St. Michael, and
St. George, I make thee a knight; be valiant, courteous, and
loyal!" Then he received his helmet, his shield, and spear; and
thus the investiture ended.

FREEMEN, VILLAINS, SERFS, AND CLERKS

The other classes of which society was composed were, first,
FREEMEN, owners of small portions of land independent, though they
sometimes voluntarily became the vassals of their more opulent
neighbors, whose power was necessary for their protection. The
other two classes, which were much the most numerous, were either
serfs or villains, both of which were slaves.

The SERFS were in the lowest state of slavery. All the fruits of
their labor belonged to the master whose land they tilled, and by
whom they were fed and clothed.

The VILLIANS were less degraded. Their situation seems to have
resembled that of the Russian peasants at this day. Like the
serfs, they were attached to the soil, and were transferred with
it by purchase; but they paid only a fixed rent to the landlord,
and had a right to dispose of any surplus that might arise from
their industry.

The term "clerk" was of very extensive import. It comprehended,
originally, such persons only as belonged to the clergy, or
clerical order, among whom, however, might be found a multitude of
married persons, artisans or others. But in process of time a much
wider rule was established; every one that could read being
accounted a clerk or clericus, and allowed the "benefit of
clergy," that is, exemption from capital and some other forms of
punishment, in case of crime.

TOURNAMENTS

The splendid pageant of a tournament between knights, its gaudy
accessories and trappings, and its chivalrous regulations,
originated in France. Tournaments were repeatedly condemned by the
Church, probably on account of the quarrels they led to, and the
often fatal results. The "joust," or "just," was different from
the tournament. In these, knights fought with their lances, and
their object was to unhorse their antagonists; while the
tournaments were intended for a display of skill and address in
evolutions, and with various weapons, and greater courtesy was
observed in the regulations. By these it was forbidden to wound
the horse, or to use the point of the sword, or to strike a knight
after he had raised his vizor, or unlaced his helmet. The ladies
encouraged their knights in these exercises; they bestowed prizes,
and the conqueror's feats were the theme of romance and song. The
stands overlooking the ground, of course, were varied in the
shapes of towers, terraces, galleries, and pensile gardens,
magnificently decorated with tapestry, pavilions, and banners.
Every combatant proclaimed the name of the lady whose servant
d'amour he was. He was wont to look up to the stand, and
strengthen his courage by the sight of the bright eyes that were
raining their influence on him from above. The knights also
carried FAVORS, consisting of scarfs, veils, sleeves, bracelets,
clasps,--in short, some piece of female habiliment,--attached to
their helmets, shields, or armor. If, during the combat, any of
these appendages were dropped or lost the fair donor would at
times send her knight new ones, especially if pleased with his
exertions.

MAIL ARMOR

Mail armor, of which the hauberk is a species, and which derived
its name from maille, a French word for MESH, was of two kinds,
PLATE or SCALE mail, and CHAIN mail. It was originally used for
the protection of the body only, reaching no lower than the knees.
It was shaped like a carter's frock, and bound round the waist by
a girdle. Gloves and hose of mail were afterwards added, and a
hood, which, when necessary, was drawn over the head, leaving the
face alone uncovered. To protect the skin from the impression of
the iron network of the chain mail, a quilted lining was employed,
which, however, was insufficient, and the bath was used to efface
the marks of the armor.

The hauberk was a complete covering of double chain mail. Some
hauberks opened before, like a modern coat; others were closed
like a shirt.

The chain mail of which they were composed was formed by a number
of iron links, each link having others inserted into it, the whole
exhibiting a kind of network, of which (in some instances at
least) the meshes were circular, with each link separately
riveted.

The hauberk was proof against the most violent blow of a sword;
but the point of a lance might pass through the meshes, or drive
the iron into the flesh. To guard against this, a thick and well-
stuffed doublet was worn underneath, under which was commonly
added an iron breastplate. Hence the expression "to pierce both
plate and mail," so common in the earlier poets.

Mail armor continued in general use till about the year 1300, when
it was gradually supplanted by plate armor, or suits consisting of
pieces or plates of solid iron, adapted to the different parts of
the body.

Shields were generally made of wood, covered with leather, or some
similar substance. To secure them, in some sort, from being cut
through by the sword, they were surrounded with a hoop of metal.

HELMETS

The helmet was composed of two parts: the HEADPIECE, which was
strengthened within by several circles of iron, and the VISOR,
which, as the name implies, was a sort of grating to see through,
so contrived as, by sliding in a groove, or turning on a pivot, to
be raised or lowered at pleasure. Some helmets had a further
improvement called a BEVER, from the Italian bevere, to drink. The
VENTAYLE, or "air-passage," is another name for this.

To secure the helmet from the possibility of falling, or of being
struck off, it was tied by several laces to the meshes of the
hauberk; consequently, when a knight was overthrown it was
necessary to undo these laces before he could be put to death;
though this was sometimes effected by lifting up the skirt of the
hauberk, and stabbing him in the belly. The instrument of death
was a small dagger, worn on the right side.

ROMANCES

In ages when there were no books, when noblemen and princes
themselves could not read, history or tradition was monopolized by
the story-tellers. They inherited, generation after generation,
the wondrous tales of their predecessors, which they retailed to
the public with such additions of their own as their acquired
information supplied them with. Anachronisms became of course very
common, and errors of geography, of locality, of manners, equally
so. Spurious genealogies were invented, in which Arthur and his
knights, and Charlemagne and his paladins, were made to derive
their descent from Aeneas, Hector, or some other of the Trojan
heroes.

With regard to the derivation of the word "Romance," we trace it
to the fact that the dialects which were formed in Western Europe,
from the admixture of Latin with the native languages, took the
name of Langue Romaine. The French language was divided into two
dialects. The river Loire was their common boundary. In the
provinces to the south of that river the affirmative, YES, was
expressed by the word oc; in the north it was called oil (oui);
and hence Dante has named the southern language langue d'oc, and
the northern langue d'oil. The latter, which was carried into
England by the Normans, and is the origin of the present French,
may be called the French Romane; and the former the Provencal, or
Provencial Romane, because it was spoken by the people of Provence
and Languedoc, southern provinces of France.

These dialects were soon distinguished by very opposite
characters. A soft and enervating climate, a spirit of commerce
encouraged by an easy communication with other maritime nations,
the influx of wealth, and a more settled government, may have
tended to polish and soften the diction of the Provencials, whose
poets, under the name of Troubadours, were the masters of the
Italians, and particularly of Petrarch. Their favorite pieces were
Sirventes (satirical pieces), love-songs, and Tensons, which last
were a sort of dialogue in verse between two poets, who questioned
each other on some refined points of loves' casuistry. It seems
the Provencials were so completely absorbed in these delicate
questions as to neglect and despise the composition of fabulous
histories of adventure and knighthood, which they left in a great
measure to the poets of the northern part of the kingdom, called
Trouveurs.

At a time when chivalry excited universal admiration, and when all
the efforts of that chivalry were directed against the enemies of
religion, it was natural that literature should receive the same
impulse, and that history and fable should be ransacked to furnish
examples of courage and piety that might excite increased
emulation. Arthur and Charlemagne were the two heroes selected for
this purpose. Arthur's pretensions were that he was a brave,
though not always a successful warrior; he had withstood with
great resolution the arms of the infidels, that is to say of the
Saxons, and his memory was held in the highest estimation by his
countrymen, the Britons, who carried with them into Wales, and
into the kindred country of Armorica, or Brittany, the memory of
his exploits, which their national vanity insensibly exaggerated,
till the little prince of the Silures (South Wales) was magnified
into the conqueror of England, of Gaul, and of the greater part of
Europe. His genealogy was gradually carried up to an imaginary
Brutus, and to the period of the Trojan war, and a sort of
chronicle was composed in the Welsh, or Armorican language, which,
under the pompous title of the "History of the Kings of Britain,"
was translated into Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth, about the year
1150. The Welsh critics consider the material of the work to have
been an older history, written by St. Talian, Bishop of St. Asaph,
in the seventh century.

As to Charlemagne, though his real merits were sufficient to
secure his immortality, it was impossible that his HOLY WARS
against the Saracens should not become a favorite topic for
fiction. Accordingly, the fabulous history of these wars was
written, probably towards the close of the eleventh century, by a
monk, who, thinking it would add dignity to his work to embellish
it with a contemporary name, boldly ascribed it to Turpin, who was
Archbishop of Rheims about the year 773.

These fabulous chronicles were for a while imprisoned in languages
of local only or of professional access. Both Turpin and Geoffrey
might indeed be read by ecclesiastics, the sole Latin scholars of
those times, and Geoffrey's British original would contribute to
the gratification of Welshmen; but neither could become
extensively popular till translated into some language of general
and familiar use. The Anglo-Saxon was at that time used only by a
conquered and enslaved nation; the Spanish and Italian languages
were not yet formed; the Norman French alone was spoken and
understood by the nobility in the greater part of Europe, and
therefore was a proper vehicle for the new mode of composition.

That language was fashionable in England before the Conquest, and
became, after that event, the only language used at the court of
London. As the various conquests of the Normans, and the
enthusiastic valor of that extraordinary people, had familiarized
the minds of men with the most marvellous events, their poets
eagerly seized the fabulous legends of Arthur and Charlemagne,
translated them into the language of the day, and soon produced a
variety of imitations. The adventures attributed to these
monarchs, and to their distinguished warriors, together with those
of many other traditionary or imaginary heroes, composed by
degrees that formidable body of marvellous histories which, from
the dialect in which the most ancient of them were written, were
called "Romances."

METRICAL ROMANCES

The earliest form in which romances appear is that of a rude kind
of verse. In this form it is supposed they were sung or recited at
the feasts of princes and knights in their baronial halls. The
following specimen of the language and style of Robert de
Beauvais, who flourished in 1257, is from Sir Walter Scott's
"Introduction to the Romance of Sir Tristrem":

    "Ne voil pas emmi dire,
    Ici diverse la matyere,
    Entre ceus qui solent cunter,
    E de le cunte Tristran parler."

    "I will not say too much about it,
    So diverse is the matter,
    Among those who are in the habit of telling
    And relating the story of Tristran."

This is a specimen of the language which was in use among the
nobility of England, in the ages immediately after the Norman
conquest. The following is a specimen of the English that existed
at the same time, among the common people. Robert de Brunne,
speaking of his Latin and French authorities, says:

    "Als thai haf wryten and sayd
    Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd,
    In symple speche as I couthe,
    That is lightest in manne's mouthe.
    Alle for the luf of symple men,
    That strange Inglis cannot ken."

The "strange Inglis" being the language of the previous specimen.

It was not till toward the end of the thirteenth century that the
PROSE romances began to appear. These works generally began with
disowning and discrediting the sources from which in reality they
drew their sole information. As every romance was supposed to be a
real history, the compilers of those in prose would have forfeited
all credit if they had announced themselves as mere copyists of
the minstrels. On the contrary, they usually state that, as the
popular poems upon the matter in question contain many "lesings,"
they had been induced to translate the real and true history of
such or such a knight from the original Latin or Greek, or from
the ancient British or Armorican authorities, which authorities
existed only in their own assertion.

A specimen of the style of the prose romances may be found in the
following extract from one of the most celebrated and latest of
them, the "Morte d'Arthur" of Sir Thomas Mallory, of the date of
1485. From this work much of the contents of this volume has been
drawn, with as close an adherence to the original style as was
thought consistent with our plan of adapting our narrative to the
taste of modern readers.

"It is notoyrly knowen thorugh the vnyuersal world that there been
ix worthy and the best that ever were. That is to wete thre
paynyms, three Jewes, and three crysten men. As for the paynyms,
they were tofore the Incarnacyon of Cryst whiche were named, the
fyrst Hector of Troye; the second Alysaunder the grete, and the
thyrd Julyus Cezar, Emperour of Rome, of whome thystoryes ben wel
kno and had. And as for the thre Jewes whyche also were tofore
thyncarnacyon of our Lord, of whome the fyrst was Duc Josue,
whyche brought the chyldren of Israhel into the londe of beheste;
the second Dauyd, kyng of Jherusalem, and the thyrd Judas
Machabeus; of these thre the byble reherceth al theyr noble
hystoryes and actes. And sythe the sayd Incarnacyon haue ben the
noble crysten men stalled and admytted thorugh the vnyuersal world
to the nombre of the ix beste and worthy, of whome was fyrst the
noble Arthur, whose noble actes I purpose to wryte in this person
book here folowyng. The second was Charlemayn, or Charles the
grete, of whome thystorye is had in many places both in frensshe
and englysshe, and the thyrd and last was Godefray of boloyn."





CHAPTER II

THE MYTHICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND


The illustrious poet, Milton, in his "History of England," is the
author whom we chiefly follow in this chapter.

According to the earliest accounts, Albion, a giant, and son of
Neptune, a contemporary of Hercules, ruled over the island, to
which he gave his name. Presuming to oppose the progress of
Hercules in his western march, he was slain by him.

Another story is that Histion, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah,
had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alemannus, and Britto, from whom
descended the French, Roman, German, and British people.

Rejecting these and other like stories, Milton gives more regard
to the story of Brutus, the Trojan, which, he says, is supported
by "descents of ancestry long continued, laws and exploits not
plainly seeming to be borrowed or devised, which on the common
belief have wrought no small impression; defended by many, denied
utterly by few." The principal authority is Geoffrey of Monmouth,
whose history, written in the twelfth century, purports to be a
translation of a history of Britain brought over from the opposite
shore of France, which, under the name of Brittany, was chiefly
peopled by natives of Britain who, from time to time, emigrated
thither, driven from their own country by the inroads of the Picts
and Scots. According to this authority, Brutus was the son of
Silvius, and he of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, whose flight from
Troy and settlement in Italy are narrated in "Stories of Gods and
Heroes."

Brutus, at the age of fifteen, attending his father to the chase,
unfortunately killed him with an arrow. Banished therefor by his
kindred, he sought refuge in that part of Greece where Helenus,
with a band of Trojan exiles, had become established. But Helenus
was now dead and the descendants of the Trojans were oppressed by
Pandrasus, the king of the country. Brutus, being kindly received
among them, so throve in virtue and in arms as to win the regard
of all the eminent of the land above all others of his age. In
consequence of this the Trojans not only began to hope, but
secretly to persuade him to lead them the way to liberty. To
encourage them, they had the promise of help from Assaracus, a
noble Greek youth, whose mother was a Trojan. He had suffered
wrong at the hands of the king, and for that reason the more
willingly cast in his lost with the Trojan exiles.

Choosing a fit opportunity, Brutus with his countrymen withdrew to
the woods and hills, as the safest place from which to
expostulate, and sent this message to Pandrasus: "That the
Trojans, holding it unworthy of their ancestors to serve in a
foreign land, had retreated to the woods, choosing rather a savage
life than a slavish one. If that displeased him, then, with his
leave, they would depart to some other country." Pandrasus, not
expecting so bold a message from the sons of captives, went in
pursuit of them, with such forces as he could gather, and met them
on the banks of the Achelous, where Brutus got the advantage, and
took the king captive. The result was, that the terms demanded by
the Trojans were granted; the king gave his daughter Imogen in
marriage to Brutus, and furnished shipping, money, and fit
provision for them all to depart from the land.

The marriage being solemnized, and shipping from all parts got
together, the Trojans, in a fleet of no less than three hundred
and twenty sail, betook themselves to the sea. On the third day
they arrived at a certain island, which they found destitute of
inhabitants, though there were appearances of former habitation,
and among the ruins a temple of Diana. Brutus, here performing
sacrifice at the shrine of the goddess, invoked an oracle for his
guidance, in these lines:

    "Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will
    Walk'st on the rolling sphere, and through the deep;
    On thy third realm, the earth, look now, and tell
    What land, what seat of rest, thou bidd'st me seek;
    What certain seat where I may worship thee
    For aye, with temples vowed and virgin choirs."

To whom, sleeping before the altar, Diana in a vision thus
answered:

    "Brutus! far to the west, in the ocean wide,
    Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
    Seagirt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
    Now, void, it fits thy people: thither bend
    Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
    There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
    And kings be born of thee, whose dreaded might
    Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold"

Brutus, guided now, as he thought, by divine direction, sped his
course towards the west, and, arriving at a place on the Tyrrhene
sea, found there the descendants of certain Trojans who, with
Antenor, came into Italy, of whom Corineus was the chief. These
joined company, and the ships pursued their way till they arrived
at the mouth of the river Loire, in France, where the expedition
landed, with a view to a settlement, but were so rudely assaulted
by the inhabitants that they put to sea again, and arrived at a
part of the coast of Britain, now called Devonshire, where Brutus
felt convinced that he had found the promised end of his voyage,
landed his colony, and took possession.

The island, not yet Britain, but Albion, was in a manner desert
and inhospitable, occupied only by a remnant of the giant race
whose excessive force and tyranny had destroyed the others. The
Trojans encountered these and extirpated them, Corineus, in
particular, signalizing himself by his exploits against them; from
whom Cornwall takes its name, for that region fell to his lot, and
there the hugest giants dwelt, lurking in rocks and caves, till
Corineus rid the land of them.

Brutus built his capital city, and called it Trojanova (New Troy),
changed in time to Trinovantus, now London;

[Footnote:
    "For noble Britons sprong from Trojans bold,
    And Troynovant was built of old Troy's ashes cold" SPENSER,

    Book III, Canto IX., 38.]

and, having governed the isle twenty-four years, died, leaving
three sons, Locrine, Albanact and Camber. Locrine had the middle
part, Camber the west, called Cambria from him, and Albanact
Albania, now Scotland. Locrine was married to Guendolen, the
daughter of Corineus, but having seen a fair maid named Estrildis,
who had been brought captive from Germany, he became enamoured of
her, and had by her a daughter, whose name was Sabra. This matter
was kept secret while Corineus lived, but after his death Locrine
divorced Guendolen, and made Estrildis his queen. Guendolen, all
in rage, departed to Cornwall, where Madan, her son, lived, who
had been brought up by Corineus, his grandfather. Gathering an
army of her father's friends and subjects, she gave battle to her
husband's forces and Locrine was slain. Guendolen caused her
rival, Estrildis, with her daughter Sabra, to be thrown into the
river, from which cause the river thenceforth bore the maiden's
name, which by length of time is now changed into Sabrina or
Severn. Milton alludes to this in his address to the rivers,--

    "Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death";--

and in his "Comus" tells the story with a slight variation, thus:

    "There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
    That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream;
    Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure:
    Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,
    That had the sceptre from his father, Brute,
    She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
    Of her enraged step-dame, Guendolen,
    Commended her fair innocence to the flood,
    That stayed her night with his cross-flowing course
    The water-nymphs that in the bottom played,
    Held up their pearled wrists and took her in,
    Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall,
    Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,
    And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
    In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,
    And through the porch and inlet of each sense
    Dropped in ambrosial oils till she revived,
    And underwent a quick, immortal change,
    Made goddess of the river," etc.

If our readers ask when all this took place, we must answer, in
the first place, that mythology is not careful of dates; and next,
that, as Brutus was the great-grandson of Aeneas, it must have
been not far from a century subsequent to the Trojan war, or about
eleven hundred years before the invasion of the island by Julius
Caesar. This long interval is filled with the names of princes
whose chief occupation was in warring with one another. Some few,
whose names remain connected with places, or embalmed in
literature, we will mention.

BLADUD

Bladud built the city of Bath, and dedicated the medicinal waters
to Minerva. He was a man of great invention, and practised the
arts of magic, till, having made him wings to fly, he fell down
upon the temple of Apollo, in Trinovant, and so died, after twenty
years' reign.

LEIR

Leir, who next reigned, built Leicester, and called it after his
name. He had no male issue, but only three daughters. When grown
old he determined to divide his kingdom among his daughters, and
bestow them in marriage. But first, to try which of them loved him
best, he determined to ask them solemnly in order, and judge of
the warmth of their affection by their answers. Goneril, the
eldest, knowing well her father's weakness, made answer that she
loved him "above her soul." "Since thou so honorest my declining
age," said the old man, "to thee and to thy husband I give the
third part of my realm." Such good success for a few words soon
uttered was ample instruction to Regan, the second daughter, what
to say. She therefore to the same question replied that "she loved
him more than all the world beside;" and so received an equal
reward with her sister. But Cordelia, the youngest, and hitherto
the best beloved, though having before her eyes the reward of a
little easy soothing, and the loss likely to attend plain-
dealing, yet was not moved from the solid purpose of a sincere and
virtuous answer, and replied: "Father, my love towards you is as
my duty bids. They who pretend beyond this flatter." When the old
man, sorry to hear this, and wishing her to recall these words,
persisted in asking, she still restrained her expressions so as to
say rather less than more than the truth. Then Leir, all in a
passion, burst forth: "Since thou hast not reverenced thy aged
father like thy sisters, think not to have any part in my kingdom
or what else I have;"--and without delay, giving in marriage his
other daughters, Goneril to the Duke of Albany, and Regan to the
Duke of Cornwall, he divides his kingdom between them, and goes to
reside with his eldest daughter, attended only by a hundred
knights. But in a short time his attendants, being complained of
as too numerous and disorderly, are reduced to thirty. Resenting
that affront, the old king betakes him to his second daughter; but
she, instead of soothing his wounded pride, takes part with her
sister, and refuses to admit a retinue of more than five. Then
back he returns to the other, who now will not receive him with
more than one attendant. Then the remembrance of Cordeilla comes
to his thoughts, and he takes his journey into France to seek her,
with little hope of kind consideration from one whom he had so
injured, but to pay her the last recompense he can render,--
confession of his injustice. When Cordeilla is informed of his
approach, and of his sad condition, she pours forth true filial
tears. And, not willing that her own or others' eyes should see
him in that forlorn condition, she sends one of her trusted
servants to meet him, and convey him privately to some comfortable
abode, and to furnish him with such state as befitted his dignity.
After which Cordeilla, with the king her husband, went in state to
meet him, and, after an honorable reception, the king permitted
his wife, Cordeilla, to go with an army and set her father again
upon his throne. They prospered, subdued the wicked sisters and
their consorts, and Leir obtained the crown and held it three
years. Cordeilla succeeded him and reigned five years; but the
sons of her sisters, after that, rebelled against her, and she
lost both her crown and life.

Shakspeare has chosen this story as the subject of his tragedy of
"King Lear," varying its details in some respects. The madness of
Leir, and the ill success of Cordeilla's attempt to reinstate her
father, are the principal variations, and those in the names will
also be noticed. Our narrative is drawn from Milton's "History;"
and thus the reader will perceive that the story of Leir has had
the distinguished honor of being told by the two acknowledged
chiefs of British literature.

FERREX AND PORREX

Ferrex and Porrex were brothers, who held the kingdom after Leir.
They quarrelled about the supremacy, and Porrex expelled his
brother, who, obtaining aid from Suard, king of the Franks,
returned and made war upon Porrex. Ferrex was slain in battle and
his forces dispersed. When their mother came to hear of her son's
death, who was her favorite, she fell into a great rage, and
conceived a mortal hatred against the survivor. She took,
therefore, her opportunity when he was asleep, fell upon him, and,
with the assistance of her women, tore him in pieces. This horrid
story would not be worth relating, were it not for the fact that
it has furnished the plot for the first tragedy which was written
in the English language. It was entitled "Gorboduc," but in the
second edition "Ferrex and Porrex," and was the production of
Thomas Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, and Thomas Norton, a
barrister. Its date was 1561.

DUNWALLO MOLMUTIUS

This is the next name of note. Molmutius established the Molmutine
laws, which bestowed the privilege of sanctuary on temples,
cities, and the roads leading to them, and gave the same
protection to ploughs, extending a religious sanction to the
labors of the field. Shakspeare alludes to him in "Cymbeline," Act
III., Scene 1:

    "... Molmutius made our laws;
     Who was the first of Britain which did put
     His brows within a golden crown, and called
     Himself a king."

BRENNUS AND BELINUS,

The sons of Molmutius, succeeded him. They quarrelled, and Brennus
was driven out of the island, and took refuge in Gaul, where he
met with such favor from the king of the Allobroges that he gave
him his daughter in marriage, and made him his partner on the
throne. Brennus is the name which the Roman historians give to the
famous leader of the Gauls who took Rome in the time of Camillus.
Geoffrey of Monmouth claims the glory of the conquest for the
British prince, after he had become king of the Allobroges.

ELIDURE

After Belinus and Brennus there reigned several kings of little
note, and then came Elidure. Arthgallo, his brother, being king,
gave great offence to his powerful nobles, who rose against him,
deposed him, and advanced Elidure to the throne. Arthgallo fled,
and endeavored to find assistance in the neighboring kingdoms to
reinstate him, but found none. Elidure reigned prosperously and
wisely. After five years' possession of the kingdom, one day, when
hunting, he met in the forest his brother, Arthgallo, who had been
deposed. After long wandering, unable longer to bear the poverty
to which he was reduced, he had returned to Britain, with only ten
followers, designing to repair to those who had formerly been his
friends. Elidure, at the sight of his brother in distress,
forgetting all animosities, ran to him, and embraced him. He took
Arthgallo home with him, and concealed him in the palace. After
this he feigned himself sick, and, calling his nobles about him,
induced them, partly by persuasion, partly by force, to consent to
his abdicating the kingdom, and reinstating his brother on the
throne. The agreement being ratified, Elidure took the crown from
his own head, and put it on his brother's head. Arthgallo after
this reigned ten years, well and wisely, exercisng strict justice
towards all men.

He died, and left the kingdom to his sons, who reigned with
various fortunes, but were not long-lived, and left no offspring,
so that Elidure was again advanced to the throne, and finished the
course of his life in just and virtuous actions, receiving the
name of THE PIOUS, from the love and admiration of his subjects.

Wordsworth has taken the story of Artegal and Elidure for the
subject of a poem, which is No. 2 of "Poems founded on the
Affections."

LUD

After Elidure, the Chronicle names many kings, but none of special
note, till we come to Lud, who greatly enlarged Trinovant, his
capital, and surrounded it with a wall. He changed its name,
bestowing upon it his own, so that henceforth it was called Lud's
town, afterwards London. Lud was buried by the gate of the city
called after him Ludgate. He had two sons, but they were not old
enough at the time of their father's death to sustain the cares of
government, and therefore their uncle, Caswallaun, or
Cassibellaunus, succeeded to the kingdom. He was a brave and
magnificent prince, so that his fame reached to distant countries.

CASSIBELLAUNUS

About this time it happened (as is found in the Roman histories)
that Julius Caesar, having subdued Gaul, came to the shore
opposite Britain. And having resolved to add this island also to
his conquests, he prepared ships and transported his army across
the sea, to the mouth of the River Thames. Here he was met by
Cassibellaun with all his forces, and a battle ensued, in which
Nennius, the brother of Cassibellaun, engaged in single combat
with Csesar. After several furious blows given and received, the
sword of Caesar stuck so fast in the shield of Nennius that it
could not be pulled out, and the combatants being separated by the
intervention of the troops Nennius remained possessed of this
trophy. At last, after the greater part of the day was spent, the
Britons poured in so fast that Caesar was forced to retire to his
camp and fleet. And finding it useless to continue the war any
longer at that time, he returned to Gaul.

Shakspeare alludes to Cassibellaunus, in "Cymbeline":

    "The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point
     (O giglot fortune!) to master Caesar's sword,
     Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright,
     And Britons strut with courage."

KYMBELINUS, OR CYMBELINE

Caesar, on a second invasion of the island, was more fortunate,
and compelled the Britons to pay tribute. Cymbeline, the nephew of
the king, was delivered to the Romans as a hostage for the
faithful fulfilment of the treaty, and, being carried to Rome by
Caesar, he was there brought up in the Roman arts and
accomplishments. Being afterwards restored to his country, and
placed on the throne, he was attached to the Romans, and continued
through all his reign at peace with them. His sons, Guiderius and
Arviragus, who made their appearance in Shakspeare's play of
"Cymbeline," succeeded their father, and, refusing to pay tribute
to the Romans, brought on another invasion. Guiderius was slain,
but Arviragus afterward made terms with the Romans, and reigned
prosperously many years.

ARMORICA

The next event of note is the conquest and colonization of
Armorica, by Maximus, a Roman general, and Conan, lord of Miniadoc
or Denbigh-land, in Wales. The name of the country was changed to
Brittany, or Lesser Britain; and so completely was it possessed by
the British colonists, that the language became assimilated to
that spoken in Wales, and it is said that to this day the
peasantry of the two countries can understand each other when
speaking their native language.

The Romans eventually succeeded in establishing themselves in the
island, and after the lapse of several generations they became
blended with the natives so that no distinction existed between
the two races. When at length the Roman armies were withdrawn from
Britain, their departure was a matter of regret to the
inhabitants, as it left them without protection against the
barbarous tribes, Scots, Picts, and Norwegians, who harassed the
country incessantly. This was the state of things when the era of
King Arthur began.

The adventure of Albion, the giant, with Hercules is alluded to by
Spenser, "Faery Queene," Book IV., Canto xi:

   "For Albion the son of Neptune was;
    Who for the proof of his great puissance,
    Out of his Albion did on dry foot pass
    Into old Gaul that now is cleped France,
    To fight with Hercules, that did advance
    To vanquish all the world with matchless might:
    And there his mortal part by great mischance
    Was slain."





CHAPTER III

MERLIN


Merlin was the son of no mortal father, but of an Incubus, one of
a class of beings not absolutely wicked, but far from good, who
inhabit the regions of the air. Merlin's mother was a virtuous
young woman, who, on the birth of her son, intrusted him to a
priest, who hurried him to the baptismal fount, and so saved him
from sharing the lot of his father, though he retained many marks
of his unearthly origin.

At this time Vortigern reigned in Britain. He was a usurper, who
had caused the death of his sovereign, Moines, and driven the two
brothers of the late king, whose names were Uther and Pendragon,
into banishment. Vortigern, who lived in constant fear of the
return of the rightful heirs of the kingdom, began to erect a
strong tower for defence. The edifice, when brought by the workmen
to a certain height, three times fell to the ground, without any
apparent cause. The king consulted his astrologers on this
wonderful event, and learned from them that it would be necessary
to bathe the corner-stone of the foundation with the blood of a
child born without a mortal father.

In search of such an infant, Vortigern sent his messengers all
over the kingdom, and they by accident discovered Merlin, whose
lineage seemed to point him out as the individual wanted. They
took him to the king; but Merlin, young as he was, explained to
the king the absurdity of attempting to rescue the fabric by such
means, for he told him the true cause of the instability of the
tower was its being placed over the den of two immense dragons,
whose combats shook the earth above them. The king ordered his
workmen to dig beneath the tower, and when they had done so they
discovered two enormous serpents, the one white as milk the other
red as fire. The multitude looked on with amazement, till the
serpents, slowly rising from their den, and expanding their
enormous folds, began the combat, when every one fled in terror,
except Merlin, who stood by clapping his hands and cheering on the
conflict. The red dragon was slain, and the white one, gliding
through a cleft in the rock, disappeared.

These animals typified, as Merlin afterwards explained, the
invasion of Uther and Pendragon, the rightful princes, who soon
after landed with a great army. Vortigern was defeated, and
afterwards burned alive in the castle he had taken such pains to
construct. On the death of Vortigern, Pendragon ascended the
throne. Merlin became his chief adviser, and often assisted the
king by his magical arts.

   "Merlin, who knew the range of all their arts,
    Had built the King his havens, ships and halls."

    --Vivian.

Among other endowments, he had the power of transforming himself
into any shape he pleased. At one time he appeared as a dwarf, at
others as a damsel, a page, or even a greyhound or a stag. This
faculty he often employed for the service of the king, and
sometimes also for the diversion of the court and the sovereign.

Merlin continued to be a favorite counsellor through the reigns of
Pendragon, Uther, and Arthur, and at last disappeared from view,
and was no more found among men, through the treachery of his
mistress, Viviane, the Fairy, which happened in this wise.

Merlin, having become enamoured of the fair Viviane, the Lady of
the Lake, was weak enough to impart to her various important
secrets of his art, being impelled by fatal destiny, of which he
was at the same time fully aware. The lady, however, was not
content with his devotion, unbounded as it seems to have been, but
"cast about," the Romance tells us, how she might "detain him for
evermore," and one day addressed him in these terms: "Sir, I would
that we should make a fair place and a suitable, so contrived by
art and by cunning that it might never be undone, and that you and
I should be there in joy and solace." "My lady," said Merlin, "I
will do all this." "Sir," said she, "I would not have you do it,
but you shall teach me, and I will do it, and then it will be more
to my mind." "I grant you this," said Merlin. Then he began to
devise, and the damsel put it all in writing. And when he had
devised the whole, then had the damsel full great joy, and showed
him greater semblance of love than she had ever before made, and
they sojourned together a long while. At length it fell out that,
as they were going one day hand in hand through the forest of
Breceliande, they found a bush of white-thorn, which was laden
with flowers; and they seated themselves under the shade of this
white-thorn, upon the green grass, and Merlin laid his head upon
the damsel's lap, and fell asleep. Then the damsel rose, and made
a ring with her wimple round the bush, and round Merlin, and began
her enchantments, such as he himself had taught her; and nine
times she made the ring, and nine times she made the enchantment,
and then she went and sat down by him, and placed his head again
upon her lap.

                                 "And a sleep
    Fell upon Merlin more like death, so deep
    Her finger on her lips; then Vivian rose,
    And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws,
    And takes it in her hand and waves it over
    The blossomed thorn tree and her sleeping lover.
    Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round,
    And made a little plot of magic ground."

    --Matthew Arnold.

And when he awoke, and looked round him, it seemed to him that he
was enclosed in the strongest tower in the world, and laid upon a
fair bed. Then said he to the dame: "My lady, you have deceived
me, unless you abide with me, for no one hath power to unmake this
tower but you alone." She then promised she would be often there,
and in this she held her covenant with him. And Merlin never went
out of that tower where his Mistress Viviane had enclosed him; but
she entered and went out again when she listed.

After this event Merlin was never more known to hold converse with
any mortal but Viviane, except on one occasion. Arthur, having for
some time missed him from his court, sent several of his knights
in search of him, and, among the number, Sir Gawain, who met with
a very unpleasant adventure while engaged in this quest. Happening
to pass a damsel on his road, and neglecting to salute her, she
revenged herself for his incivility by transforming him into a
hideous dwarf. He was bewailing aloud his evil fortune as he went
through the forest of Breceliande, when suddenly he heard the
voice of one groaning on his right hand; and, looking that way, he
could see nothing save a kind of smoke, which seemed like air, and
through which he could not pass. Merlin then addressed him from
out the smoke, and told him by what misadventure he was imprisoned
there. "Ah, sir!" he added, "you will never see me more, and that
grieves me, but I cannot remedy it; I shall never more speak to
you, nor to any other person, save only my mistress. But do thou
hasten to King Arthur, and charge him from me to undertake,
without delay, the quest of the Sacred Graal. The knight is
already born, and has received knighthood at his hands, who is
destined to accomplish this quest." And after this he comforted
Gawain under his transformation, assuring him that he should
speedily be disenchanted; and he predicted to him that he should
find the king at Carduel, in Wales, on his return, and that all
the other knights who had been on like quest would arrive there
the same day as himself. And all this came to pass as Merlin had
said.

Merlin is frequently introduced in the tales of chivalry, but it
is chiefly on great occasions, and at a period subsequent to his
death, or magical disappearance. In the romantic poems of Italy,
and in Spenser, Merlin is chiefly represented as a magical artist.
Spenser represents him as the artificer of the impenetrable shield
and other armor of Prince Arthur ("Faery Queene," Book I., Canto
vii.), and of a mirror, in which a damsel viewed her lover's
shade. The Fountain of Love, in the "Orlando Innamorata," is
described as his work; and in the poem of "Ariosto" we are told of
a hall adorned with prophetic paintings, which demons had executed
in a single night, under the direction of Merlin.

The following legend is from Spenser's "Faery Queene," Book III.,
Canto iii.:

CAER-MERDIN, OR CAERMARTHEN (IN WALES), MERLIN'S TOWER, AND THE
IMPRISONED FIENDS.

   "Forthwith themselves disguising both, in straunge
    And base attire, that none might them bewray,
    To Maridunum, that is now by chaunge
    Of name Caer-Merdin called, they took their way:
    There the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say)
    To make his wonne, low underneath the ground
    In a deep delve, far from the view of day,
    That of no living wight he mote be found,
  Whenso he counselled with his sprights encompassed round.

   "And if thou ever happen that same way
    To travel, go to see that dreadful place;
    It is a hideous hollow cave (they say)
    Under a rock that lies a little space
    From the swift Barry, tombling down apace
    Amongst the woody hills of Dynevor;
    But dare not thou, I charge, in any case,
    To enter into that same baleful bower,
  For fear the cruel fiends should thee unwares devour.

   "But standing high aloft, low lay thine ear,
    And there such ghastly noise of iron chains
    And brazen cauldrons thou shalt rumbling hear,
    Which thousand sprites with long enduring pains
    Do toss, that it will stun thy feeble brains;
    And oftentimes great groans, and grievous stounds,
    When too huge toil and labor them constrains;
    And oftentimes loud strokes and ringing sounds
  From under that deep rock most horribly rebounds.

   "The cause some say is this. A little while
    Before that Merlin died, he did intend
    A brazen wall in compas to compile
    About Caermerdin, and did it commend
    Unto these sprites to bring to perfect end;
    During which work the Lady of the Lake,
    Whom long he loved, for him in haste did send;
    Who, thereby forced his workmen to forsake,
  Them bound till his return their labor not to slack.

   "In the mean time, through that false lady's train,
    He was surprised, and buried under beare,
    He ever to his work returned again;
    Nathless those fiends may not their work forbear,
    So greatly his commandement they fear;
    But there do toil and travail day and night,
    Until that brazen wall they up do rear.
    For Merlin had in magic more insight
  Than ever him before or after living wight."

[Footnote: Buried under beare. Buried under something which
enclosed him like a coffin or bier.]





CHAPTER IV

ARTHUR


We shall begin our history of King Arthur by giving those
particulars of his life which appear to rest on historical
evidence; and then proceed to record those legends concerning him
which form the earliest portion of British literature.

Arthur was a prince of the tribe of Britons called Silures, whose
country was South Wales, the son of Uther, named Pendragon, a
title given to an elective sovereign, paramount over the many
kings of Britain. He appears to have commenced his martial career
about the year 500, and was raised to the Pendragonship about ten
years later. He is said to have gained twelve victories over the
Saxons. The most important of them was that of Badon, by some
supposed to be Bath, by others Berkshire. This was the last of his
battles with the Saxons, and checked their progress so
effectually, that Arthur experienced no more annoyance from them,
and reigned in peace, until the revolt of his nephew Modred,
twenty years later, which led to the fatal battle of Camlan, in
Cornwall, in 542. Modred was slain, and Arthur, mortally wounded,
was conveyed by sea to Glastonbury, where he died, and was buried.
Tradition preserved the memory of the place of his interment
within the abbey, as we are told by Giraldus Cambrensis, who was
present when the grave was opened by command of Henry II. about
1150, and saw the bones and sword of the monarch, and a leaden
cross let into his tombstone, with the inscription in rude Roman
letters, "Here lies buried the famous King Arthur, in the island
Avalonia." This story has been elegantly versified by Warton. A
popular traditional belief was long entertained among the Britons,
that Arthur was not dead, but had been carried off to be healed of
his wounds in Fairy-land, and that he would reappear to avenge his
countrymen and reinstate them in the sovereignty of Britain. In
Warton's "Ode" a bard relates to King Henry the traditional story
of Arthur's death, and closes with these lines.

   "Yet in vain a paynim foe
    Armed with fate the mighty blow:
    For when he fell, the Elfin queen,
    All in secret and unseen,
    O'er the fainting hero threw
    Her mantle of ambrosial blue,
    And bade her spirits bear him far,
    In Merlin's agate-axled car,
    To her green isle's enamelled steep,
    Far in the navel of the deep.
    O'er his wounds she sprinkled dew
    From flowers that in Arabia grew.

    There he reigns a mighty king,
    Thence to Britain shall return,
    If right prophetic rolls I learn,
    Borne on victory's spreading plume,
    His ancient sceptre to resume,
    His knightly table to restore,
    And brave the tournaments of yore."

After this narration another bard came forward who recited a
different story:

   "When Arthur bowed his haughty crest,
    No princess veiled in azure vest
    Snatched him, by Merlin's powerful spell,
    In groves of golden bliss to dwell;
    But when he fell, with winged speed,
    His champions, on a milk-white steed,
    From the battle's hurricane,
    Bore him to Joseph's towered fane,
    In the fair vale of Avalon;
    There, with chanted orison
    And the long blaze of tapers clear,
    The stoled fathers met the bier;
    Through the dim aisles, in order dread
    Of martial woe, the chief they led,
    And deep entombed in holy ground,
    Before the altar's solemn bound."

[Footnote: Glastonbury Abbey, said to be founded by Joseph of
Arimathea, in a spot anciently called the island or valley of
Avalonia.

Tennyson, in his "Palace of Art," alludes to the legend of
Arthur's rescue by the Faery queen, thus:

   "Or mythic Uther's deeply wounded son,
      In some fair space of sloping greens,
    Lay dozing in the vale of Avalon,
      And watched by weeping queens."]

It must not be concealed that the very existence of Arthur has
been denied by some. Milton says of him: "As to Arthur, more
renowned in songs and romances than in true stories, who he was,
and whether ever any such reigned in Britain, hath been doubted
heretofore, and may again, with good reason." Modern critics,
however, admit that there was a prince of this name, and find
proof of it in the frequent mention of him in the writings of the
Welsh bards. But the Arthur of romance, according to Mr. Owen, a
Welsh scholar and antiquarian, is a mythological person. "Arthur,"
he says, "is the Great Bear, as the name literally implies
(Arctos, Arcturus), and perhaps this constellation, being so near
the pole, and visibly describing a circle in a small space, is the
origin of the famous Round Table."

KING ARTHUR

Constans, king of Britain, had three sons, Moines, Ambrosius,
otherwise called Uther, and Pendragon. Moines, soon after his
accession to the crown, was vanquished by the Saxons, in
consequence of the treachery of his seneschal, Vortigern, and
growing unpopular, through misfortune, he was killed by his
subjects, and the traitor Vortigern chosen in his place.

Vortigern was soon after defeated in a great battle by Uther and
Pendragon, the surviving brothers of Moines, and Pendragon
ascended the throne.

This prince had great confidence in the wisdom of Merlin, and made
him his chief adviser. About this time a dreadful war arose
between the Saxons and Britons. Merlin obliged the royal brothers
to swear fidelity to each other, but predicted that one of them
must fall in the first battle. The Saxons were routed, and
Pendragon, being slain, was succeeded by Uther, who now assumed in
addition to his own name the appellation of Pendragon.

Merlin still continued a favorite counsellor. At the request of
Uther he transported by magic art enormous stones from Ireland, to
form the sepulchre of Pendragon. These stones constitute the
monument now called Stonehenge, on Salisbury plain.

Merlin next proceeded to Carlisle to prepare the Round Table, at
which he seated an assemblage of the great nobles of the country.
The companions admitted to this high order were bound by oath to
assist each other at the hazard of their own lives, to attempt
singly the most perilous adventures, to lead, when necessary, a
life of monastic solitude, to fly to arms at the first summons,
and never to retire from battle till they had defeated the enemy,
unless night intervened and separated the combatants.

Soon after this institution, the king invited all his barons to
the celebration of a great festival, which he proposed holding
annually at Carlisle.

As the knights had obtained the sovereign's permission to bring
their ladies along with them, the beautiful Igerne accompanied her
husband, Gorlois, Duke of Tintadel, to one of these anniversaries.
The king became deeply enamoured of the duchess, and disclosed his
passion; but Igerne repelled his advances, and revealed his
solicitations to her husband. On hearing this, the duke instantly
removed from court with Igerne, and without taking leave of Uther.
The king complained to his council of this want of duty, and they
decided that the duke should be summoned to court, and, if
refractory, should be treated as a rebel. As he refused to obey
the citation, the king carried war into the estates of his vassal
and besieged him in the strong castle of Tintadel. Merlin
transformed the king into the likeness of Gorlois, and enabled him
to have many stolen interviews with Igerne. At length the duke was
killed in battle and the king espoused Igerne.

From this union sprang Arthur, who succeeded his father, Uther,
upon the throne.

ARTHUR CHOSEN KING

Arthur, though only fifteen years old at his father's death, was
elected king, at a general meeting of the nobles. It was not done
without opposition, for there were many ambitious competitors.

   "For while he linger'd there
    A doubt that ever smoulder'd in the hearts
    Of those great Lords and Barons of his realm
    Flash'd forth and into war: for most of these
    Made head against him, crying, 'Who is he
    That he should rule us? who hath proven him
    King Uther's son? for lo! we look at him,
    And find nor face nor bearing, limbs nor voice,
    Are like to those of Uther whom we knew."

    --Coming of Arthur.

But Bishop Brice, a person of great sanctity, on Christmas eve
addressed the assembly, and represented that it would well become
them, at that solemn season, to put up their prayers for some
token which should manifest the intentions of Providence
respecting their future sovereign. This was done, and with such
success, that the service was scarcely ended when a miraculous
stone was discovered before the church door, and in the stone was
firmly fixed a sword, with the following words engraven on its
hilt:

   "I am hight Escalibore,
    Unto a king fair tresore."

Bishop Brice, after exhorting the assembly to offer up their
thanksgiving for this signal miracle, proposed a law, that whoever
should be able to draw out the sword from the stone, should be
acknowledged as sovereign of the Britons; and his proposal was
decreed by general acclamation. The tributary kings of Uther, and
the most famous knights, successively put their strength to the
proof, but the miraculous sword resisted all their efforts. It
stood till Candlemas; it stood till Easter, and till Pentecost,
when the best knights in the kingdom usually assembled for the
annual tournament. Arthur, who was at that time serving in the
capacity of squire to his foster-brother, Sir Kay, attended his
master to the lists. Sir Kay fought with great valor and success,
but had the misfortune to break his sword, and sent Arthur to his
mother for a new one. Arthur hastened home, but did not find the
lady; but having observed near the church a sword, sticking in a
stone, he galloped to the place, drew out the sword with great
ease, and delivered it to his master. Sir Kay would willingly have
assumed to himself the distinction conferred by the possession of
the sword, but when, to confirm the doubters, the sword was
replaced in the stone he was utterly unable to withdraw it, and it
would yield a second time to no hand but Arthur's. Thus decisively
pointed out by Heaven as their king, Arthur was by general consent
proclaimed as such, and an early day appointed for his solemn
coronation.

Immediately after his election to the crown, Arthur found himself
opposed by eleven kings and one duke, who with a vast army were
actually encamped in the forest of Rockingham. By Merlin's advice
Arthur sent an embassy to Brittany, to solicit the aid of King Ban
and King Bohort, two of the best knights in the world. They
accepted the call, and with a powerful army crossed the sea,
landing at Portsmouth, where they were received with great
rejoicing. The rebel kings were still superior in numbers; but
Merlin, by a powerful enchantment, caused all their tents to fall
down at once, and in the confusion Arthur with his allies fell
upon them and totally routed them.

After defeating the rebels, Arthur took the field against the
Saxons. As they were too strong for him unaided, he sent an
embassy to Armorica, beseeching the assistance of Hoel, who soon
after brought over an army to his aid. The two kings joined their
forces, and sought the enemy, whom they met, and both sides
prepared for a decisive engagement. "Arthur himself," as Geoffrey
of Monmouth relates, "dressed in a breastplate worthy of so great
a king, places on his head a golden helmet engraved with the
semblance of a dragon. Over his shoulders he throws his shield
called Priwen, on which a picture of the Holy Virgin constantly
recalled her to his memory. Girt with Caliburn, a most excellent
sword, and fabricated in the isle of Avalon, he graces his right
hand with the lance named Ron. This was a long and broad spear,
well contrived for slaughter." After a severe conflict, Arthur,
calling on the name of the Virgin, rushes into the midst of his
enemies, and destroys multitudes of them with the formidable
Caliburn, and puts the rest to flight. Hoel, being detained by
sickness, took no part in this battle.

This is called the victory of Mount Badon, and, however disguised
by fable, it is regarded by historians as a real event.

The feats performed by Arthur at the battle of Badon Mount are
thus celebrated in Drayton's verse:

    "They sung how he himself at Badon bore, that day,
    When at the glorious goal his British sceptre lay;
    Two daies together how the battel stronglie stood;
    Pendragon's worthie son, who waded there in blood,
    Three hundred Saxons slew with his owne valiant hand."

    --Song IV.

GUENEVER

Merlin had planned for Arthur a marriage with the daughter of King
Laodegan of Carmalide. By his advice Arthur paid a visit to the
court of that sovereign, attended only by Merlin and by thirty-
nine knights whom the magician had selected for that service. On
their arrival they found Laodegan and his peers sitting in
council, endeavoring, but with small prospect of success, to
devise means of resisting the impending attack of Ryence, king of
Ireland, who, with fifteen tributary kings and an almost
innumerable army, had nearly surrounded the city. Merlin, who
acted as leader of the band of British knights, announced them as
strangers, who came to offer the king their services in his wars;
but under the express condition that they should be at liberty to
conceal their names and quality until they should think proper to
divulge them. These terms were thought very strange, but were
thankfully accepted, and the strangers, after taking the usual
oath to the king, retired to the lodging which Merlin had prepared
for them.

A few days after this, the enemy, regardless of a truce into which
they had entered with King Laodegan, suddenly issued from their
camp and made an attempt to surprise the city. Cleodalis, the
king's general, assembled the royal forces with all possible
despatch. Arthur and his companions also flew to arms, and Merlin
appeared at their head, bearing a standard on which was emblazoned
a terrific dragon. Merlin advanced to the gate, and commanded the
porter to open it, which the porter refused to do, without the
king's order. Merlin thereupon took up the gate, with all its
appurtenances of locks, bars, bolts, etc., and directed his troops
to pass through, after which he replaced it in perfect order. He
then set spurs to his horse and dashed, at the head of his little
troop, into a body of two thousand pagans. The disparity of
numbers being so enormous, Merlin cast a spell upon the enemy, so
as to prevent their seeing the small number of their assailants;
notwithstanding which the British knights were hard pressed. But
the people of the city, who saw from the walls this unequal
contest, were ashamed of leaving the small body of strangers to
their fate, so they opened the gate and sallied forth. The numbers
were now more nearly equal, and Merlin revoked his spell, so that
the two armies encountered on fair terms. Where Arthur, Ban,
Bohort, and the rest fought the king's army had the advantage; but
in another part of the field the king himself was surrounded and
carried off by the enemy. The sad sight was seen by Guenever, the
fair daughter of the king, who stood on the city wall and looked
at the battle. She was in dreadful distress, tore her hair, and
swooned away.

But Merlin, aware of what passed in every part of the field,
suddenly collected his knights, led them out of the battle,
intercepted the passage of the party who were carrying away the
king, charged them with irresistible impetuosity, cut in pieces or
dispersed the whole escort, and rescued the king. In the fight
Arthur encountered Caulang, a giant fifteen feet high, and the
fair Guenever, who had already began to feel a strong interest in
the handsome young stranger, trembled for the issue of the
contest. But Arthur, dealing a dreadful blow on the shoulder of
the monster, cut through his neck so that his head hung over on
one side, and in this condition his horse carried him about the
field, to the great horror and dismay of the Pagans. Guenever
could not refrain from expressing aloud her wish that the gentle
knight, who dealt with giants so dexterously, were destined to
become her husband, and the wish was echoed by her attendants. The
enemy soon turned their backs and fled with precipitation, closely
pursued by Laodegan and his allies.

After the battle Arthur was disarmed and conducted to the bath by
the princess Guenever, while his friends were attended by the
other ladies of the court. After the bath the knights were
conducted to a magnificent entertainment, at which they were
diligently served by the same fair attendants. Laodegan, more and
more anxious to know the name and quality of his generous
deliverers, and occasionally forming a secret wish that the chief
of his guests might be captivated by the charms of his daughter,
appeared silent and pensive, and was scarcely roused from his
reverie by the banters of his courtiers. Arthur, having had an
opportunity of explaining to Guenever his great esteem for her
merit, was in the joy of his heart, and was still further
delighted by hearing from Merlin the late exploits of Gawain at
London, by means of which his immediate return to his dominions
was rendered unnecessary, and he was left at liberty to protract
his stay at the court of Laodegan. Every day contributed to
increase the admiration of the whole court for the gallant
strangers, and the passion of Guenever for their chief; and when
at last Merlin announced to the king that the object of the visit
of the party was to procure a bride for their leader, Laodegan at
once presented Guenever to Arthur, telling him that, whatever
might be his rank, his merit was sufficient to entitle him to the
possession of the heiress of Carmalide.

   "And could he find a woman in her womanhood
    As great as he was in his manhood--
    The twain together might change the world."

    --Guinevere.

Arthur accepted the lady with the utmost gratitude, and Merlin
then proceeded to satisfy the king of the rank of his son-in-law;
upon which Laodegan, with all his barons, hastened to do homage to
their lawful sovereign, the successor of Uther Pendragon. The fair
Guenever was then solemnly betrothed to Arthur, and a magnificent
festival was proclaimed, which lasted seven days. At the end of
that time, the enemy appearing again with renewed force, it became
necessary to resume military operations. [Footnote: Guenever, the
name of Arthur's queen, also written Genievre and Geneura, is
familiar to all who are conversant with chivalric lore. It is to
her adventures, and those of her true knight, Sir Launcelot, that
Dante alludes in the beautiful episode of Francesca di Rimini.]

We must now relate what took place at and near London, while
Arthur was absent from his capital. At this very time a band of
young heroes were on their way to Arthur's court, for the purpose
of receiving knighthood from him. They were Gawain and his three
brothers, nephews of Arthur, sons of King Lot, and Galachin,
another nephew, son of King Nanters. King Lot had been one of the
rebel chiefs whom Arthur had defeated, but he now hoped by means
of the young men to be reconciled to his brother-in-law. He
equipped his sons and his nephew with the utmost magnificence,
giving them a splendid retinue of young men, sons of earls and
barons, all mounted on the best horses, with complete suits of
choice armor. They numbered in all seven hundred, but only nine
had yet received the order of knighthood; the rest were candidates
for that honor, and anxious to earn it by an early encounter with
the enemy. Gawain, the leader, was a knight of wonderful strength;
but what was most remarkable about him was that his strength was
greater at certain hours of the day than at others. From nine
o'clock till noon his strength was doubled, and so it was from
three to evensong; for the rest of the time it was less
remarkable, though at all times surpassing that of ordinary men.

After a march of three days they arrived in the vicinity of
London, where they expected to find Arthur and his court, and very
unexpectedly fell in with a large convoy belonging to the enemy,
consisting of numerous carts and wagons, all loaded with
provisions, and escorted by three thousand men, who had been
collecting spoil from all the country round. A single charge from
Gawain's impetuous cavalry was sufficient to disperse the escort
and recover the convoy, which was instantly despatched to London.
But before long a body of seven thousand fresh soldiers advanced
to the attack of the five princes and their little army. Gawain,
singling out a chief named Choas, of gigantic size, began the
battle by splitting him from the crown of the head to the breast.
Galachin encountered King Sanagran, who was also very huge, and
cut off his head. Agrivain and Gahariet also performed prodigies
of valor. Thus they kept the great army of assailants at bay,
though hard pressed, till of a sudden they perceived a strong body
of the citizens advancing from London, where the convoy which had
been recovered by Gawain had arrived, and informed the mayor and
citizens of the danger of their deliverer. The arrival of the
Londoners soon decided the contest. The enemy fled in all
directions, and Gawain and his friends, escorted by the grateful
citizens, entered London, and were received with acclamations.





CHAPTER V

ARTHUR (Continued)


After the great victory of Mount Badon, by which the Saxons were
for the time effectually put down, Arthur turned his arms against
the Scots and Picts, whom he routed at Lake Lomond, and compelled
to sue for mercy. He then went to York to keep his Christmas, and
employed himself in restoring the Christian churches which the
Pagans had rifled and overthrown. The following summer he
conquered Ireland, and then made a voyage with his fleet to
Iceland, which he also subdued. The kings of Gothland and of the
Orkneys came voluntarily and made their submission, promising to
pay tribute. Then he returned to Britain, where, having
established the kingdom, he dwelt twelve years in peace.

During this time he invited over to him all persons whatsoever
that were famous for valor in foreign nations, and augmented the
number of his domestics, and introduced such politeness into his
court as people of the remotest countries thought worthy of their
imitation. So that there was not a nobleman who thought himself of
any consideration unless his clothes and arms were made in the
same fashion as those of Arthur's knights.

Finding himself so powerful at home, Arthur began to form designs
for extending his power abroad. So, having prepared his fleet, he
first attempted Norway, that he might procure the crown of it for
Lot, his sister's husband. Arthur landed in Norway, fought a great
battle with the king of that country, defeated him, and pursued
the victory till he had reduced the whole country under his
dominion, and established Lot upon the throne. Then Arthur made a
voyage to Gaul and laid siege to the city of Paris. Gaul was at
that time a Roman province, and governed by Flollo, the Tribune.
When the siege of Paris had continued a month, and the people
began to suffer from famine, Flollo challenged Arthur to single
combat, proposing to decide the conquest of the province in that
way. Arthur gladly accepted the challenge, and slew his adversary
in the contest, upon which the citizens surrendered the city to
him. After the victory Arthur divided his army into two parts, one
of which he committed to the conduct of Hoel, whom he ordered to
march into Aquitaine, while he with the other part should endeavor
to subdue the other provinces. At the end of nine years, in which
time all the parts of Gaul were entirely reduced, Arthur returned
to Paris, where he kept his court, and, calling an assembly of the
clergy and people, established peace and the just administration
of the laws in that kingdom. Then he bestowed Normandy upon
Bedver, his butler, and the province of Andegavia upon Kay, his
steward, [Footnote: This name, in the French romances, is spelled
Queux, which means head cook. This would seem to imply that it was
a title, and not a name; yet the personage who bore it is never
mentioned by any other. He is the chief, if not the only, comic
character among the heroes of Arthur's court. He is the Seneschal
or Steward, his duties also embracing those of chief of the cooks.
In the romances, his general character is a compound of valor and
buffoonery, always ready to fight, and generally getting the worst
of the battle. He is also sarcastic and abusive in his remarks, by
which he often gets into trouble. Yet Arthur seems to have an
attachment to him, and often takes his advice, which is generally
wrong.] and several other provinces upon his great men that
attended him. And, having settled the peace of the cities and
countries, he returned back in the beginning of spring to Britain.

Upon the approach of the feast of Pentecost, Arthur, the better to
demonstrate his joy after such triumphant successes, and for the
more solemn observation of that festival, and reconciling the
minds of the princes that were now subject to him, resolved during
that season to hold a magnificent court, to place the crown upon
his head, and to invite all the kings and dukes under his
subjection to the solemnity. And he pitched upon Caerleon, the
City of Legions, as the proper place for his purpose. For, besides
its great wealth above the other cities, its situation upon the
river Usk, near the Severn sea, was most pleasant and fit for so
great a solemnity. For on one side it was washed by that noble
river, so that the kings and princes from the countries beyond the
seas might have the convenience of sailing up to it. On the other
side the beauty of the meadows and groves, and magnificence of the
royal palaces, with lofty gilded roofs that adorned it, made it
even rival the grandeur of Rome. It was also famous for two
churches, whereof one was adorned with a choir of virgins, who
devoted themselves wholly to the service of God, and the other
maintained a convent of priests. Besides, there was a college of
two hundred philosophers, who, being learned in astronomy and the
other arts, were diligent in observing the courses of the stars,
and gave Arthur true predictions of the events that would happen.
In this place, therefore, which afforded such delights, were
preparations made for the ensuing festival.

[Footnote: Several cities are allotted to King Arthur by the
romance-writers. The principal are Caerleon, Camelot, and
Carlisle.

Caerleon derives its name from its having been the station of one
of the legions, during the dominion of the Romans. It is called by
Latin writers Urbs Legionum, the City of Legions. The former word
being rendered into Welsh by Caer, meaning city, and the latter
contracted into lleon. The river Usk retains its name in modern
geography, and there is a town or city of Caerleon upon it, though
the city of Cardiff is thought to be the scene of Arthur's court.
Chester also bears in Welsh the name of Caerleon; for Chester,
derived from castra, Latin for camp, is the designation of
military headquarters.

Camelot is thought to be Winchester.

Shalott is Guilford.

Hamo's Port is Southampton.

Carlisle is the city still retaining that name, near the Scottish
border. But this name is also sometimes applied to other places,
which were, like itself, military stations.]

Ambassadors were then sent into several kingdoms, to invite to
court the princes both of Gaul and of the adjacent islands.
Accordingly there came Augusel, king of Albania, now Scotland,
Cadwallo, king of Venedotia, now North Wales, Sater, king of
Demetia, now South Wales; also the archbishops of the metropolitan
sees, London and York, and Dubricius, bishop of Caerleon, the City
of Legions. This prelate, who was primate of Britain, was so
eminent for his piety that he could cure any sick person by his
prayers. There were also the counts of the principal cities, and
many other worthies of no less dignity.

From the adjacent islands came Guillamurius, king of Ireland,
Gunfasius, king of the Orkneys, Malvasius, king of Iceland, Lot,
king of Norway, Bedver, the butler, Duke of Normandy, Kay, the
sewer, Duke of Andegavia; also the twelve peers of Gaul, and Hoel,
Duke of the Armorican Britons, with his nobility, who came with
such a train of mules, horses, and rich furniture as it is
difficult to describe. Besides these there remained no prince of
any consideration on this side of Spain who came not upon this
invitation. And no wonder, when Arthur's munificence, which was
celebrated over the whole world, made him beloved by all people.

When all were assembled upon the day of the solemnity the
archbishops were conducted to the palace, in order to place the
crown upon the king's head. Then Dubricius, inasmuch as the court
was held in his diocese, made himself ready to celebrate the
office. As soon as the king was invested with his royal
habiliments he was conducted in great pomp to the metropolitan
church, having four kings, viz., of Albania, Cornwall, Demetia,
and Venedotia, bearing four golden swords before him. On another
part was the queen, dressed out in her richest ornaments,
conducted by the archbishops and bishops to the Church of Virgins;
the four queens, also, of the kings last mentioned, bearing before
her four white doves, according to ancient custom. When the whole
procession was ended so transporting was the harmony of the
musical instruments and voices, whereof there was a vast variety
in both churches, that the knights who attended were in doubt
which to prefer, and therefore crowded from the one to the other
by turns, and were far from being tired of the solemnity, though
the whole day had been spent in it. At last, when divine service
was over at both churches, the king and queen put off their
crowns, and, putting on their lighter ornaments, went to the
banquet. When they had all taken their seats according to
precedence, Kay, the sewer, in rich robes of ermine, with a
thousand young noblemen all in like manner clothed in rich attire,
served up the dishes. From another part Bedver, the butler, was
followed by the same number of attendants, who waited with all
kinds of cups and drinking-vessels. And there was food and drink
in abundance, and everything was of the best kind, and served in
the best manner. For at that time Britain had arrived at such a
pitch of grandeur that in riches, luxury, and politeness it far
surpassed all other kingdoms.

As soon as the banquets were over they went into the fields
without the city to divert themselves with various sports, such as
shooting with bows and arrows, tossing the pike, casting of heavy
stones and rocks, playing at dice, and the like, and all these
inoffensively, and without quarrelling. In this manner were three
days spent, and after that they separated, and the kings and
noblemen departed to their several homes.

After this Arthur reigned five years in peace. Then came
ambassadors from Lucius Tiberius, Procurator under Leo, Emperor of
Rome, demanding tribute. But Arthur refused to pay tribute, and
prepared for war. As soon as the necessary dispositions were made
he committed the government of his kingdom to his nephew Modred
and to Queen Guenever, and marched with his army to Hamo's Port,
where the wind stood fair for him. The army crossed over in
safety, and landed at the mouth of the river Barba. And there they
pitched their tents to wait the arrival of the kings of the
islands.

As soon as all the forces were arrived Arthur marched forward to
Augustodunum, and encamped on the banks of the river Alba. Here
repeated battles were fought, in all which the Britons, under
their valiant leaders, Hoel, Duke of Armorica, and Gawain, nephew
to Arthur, had the advantage. At length Lucius Tiberius determined
to retreat, and wait for the Emperor Leo to join him with fresh
troops. But Arthur, anticipating this event, took possession of a
certain valley, and closed up the way of retreat to Lucius,
compelling him to fight a decisive battle, in which Arthur lost
some of the bravest of his knights and most faithful followers.
But on the other hand Lucius Tiberius was slain, and his army
totally defeated. The fugitives dispersed over the country, some
to the by-ways and woods, some to cities and towns, and all other
places where they could hope for safety.

Arthur stayed in those parts till the next winter was over, and
employed his time in restoring order and settling the government.
He then returned into England, and celebrated his victories with
great splendor.

Then the king stablished all his knights, and to them that were
not rich he gave lands, and charged them all never to do outrage
nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no means to be
cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asked mercy, upon pain of
forfeiture of their worship and lordship; and always to do ladies,
damosels, and gentlewomen service, upon pain of death. Also that
no man take battle in a wrongful quarrel, for no law, nor for any
world's goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of the Table
Round, both old and young. And at every year were they sworn at
the high feast of Pentecost.

KING ARTHUR SLAYS THE GIANT OF ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT

While the army was encamped in Brittany, awaiting the arrival of
the kings, there came a countryman to Arthur, and told him that a
giant, whose cave was on a neighboring mountain, called St.
Michael's Mount, had for a long time been accustomed to carry off
the children of the peasants to devour them. "And now he hath
taken the Duchess of Brittany, as she rode with her attendants,
and hath carried her away in spite of all they could do." "Now,
fellow," said King Arthur, "canst thou bring me there where this
giant haunteth?" "Yea, sure," said the good man; "lo, yonder where
thou seest two great fires, there shalt thou find him, and more
treasure than I suppose is in all France beside." Then the king
called to him Sir Bedver and Sir Kay, and commanded them to make
ready horse and harness for himself and them; for after evening he
would ride on pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount.

So they three departed, and rode forth till they came to the foot
of the mount. And there the king commanded them to tarry, for he
would himself go up into that mount. So he ascended the hill till
he came to a great fire, and there he found an aged woman sitting
by a new-made grave, making great sorrow. Then King Arthur saluted
her, and demanded of her wherefore she made such lamentation; to
whom she answered: "Sir knight, speak low, for yonder is a devil,
and if he hear thee speak, he will come and destroy thee. For ye
cannot make resistance to him, he is so fierce and so strong. He
hath murdered the Duchess, which here lieth, who was the fairest
of all the world, wife to Sir Hoel, Duke of Brittany." "Dame,"
said the king, "I come from the noble conqueror, King Arthur, to
treat with that tyrant." "Fie on such treaties," said she; "he
setteth not by the king, nor by no man else." "Well," said Arthur,
"I will accomplish my message for all your fearful words." So he
went forth by the crest of the hill, and saw where the giant sat
at supper, gnawing on the limb of a man, and baking his broad
limbs at the fire, and three fair damsels lying bound, whose lot
it was to be devoured in their turn. When King Arthur beheld that,
he had great compassion on them, so that his heart bled for
sorrow. Then he hailed the giant, saying, "He that all the world
ruleth give thee short life and shameful death. Why hast thou
murdered this Duchess? Therefore come forth, for this day thou
shalt die by my hand." Then the giant started up, and took a great
club, and smote at the king, and smote off his coronal; and then
the king struck him in the belly with his sword, and made a
fearful wound. Then the giant threw away his club, and caught the
king in his arms, so that he crushed his ribs. Then the three
maidens kneeled down and prayed for help and comfort for Arthur.
And Arthur weltered and wrenched, so that he was one while under,
and another time above. And so weltering and wallowing they rolled
down the hill, and ever as they weltered Arthur smote him with his
dagger; and it fortuned they came to the place where the two
knights were. And when they saw the king fast in the giant's arms
they came and loosed him. Then the king commanded Sir Kay to smite
off the giant's head, and to set it on the truncheon of a spear,
and fix it on the barbican, that all the people might see and
behold it. This was done, and anon it was known through all the
country, wherefor the people came and thanked the king. And he
said, "Give your thanks to God; and take ye the giant's spoil and
divide it among you." And King Arthur caused a church to be
builded on that hill, in honor of St. Michael.

KING ARTHUR GETS A SWORD FROM THE LADY OF THE LAKE

One day King Arthur rode forth, and on a sudden he was ware of
three churls chasing Merlin, to have slain him. And the king rode
unto them and bade them, "Flee, churls!" Then were they afraid
when they saw a knight, and fled. "O Merlin," said Arthur, "here
hadst thou been slain, for all thy crafts, had I not been by."
"Nay," said Merlin, "not so, for I could save myself if I would;
but thou art more near thy death than I am." So, as they went thus
talking, King Arthur perceived where sat a knight on horseback, as
if to guard the pass. "Sir knight," said Arthur, "for what cause
abidest thou here?" Then the knight said, "There may no knight
ride this way unless he just with me, for such is the custom of
the pass." "I will amend that custom," said the king. Then they
ran together, and they met so hard that their spears were
shivered. Then they drew their swords and fought a strong battle,
with many great strokes. But at length the sword of the knight
smote King Arthur's sword in two pieces. Then said the knight unto
Arthur, "Thou art in my power, whether to save thee or slay thee,
and unless thou yield thee as overcome and recreant, thou shalt
die." "As for death," said King Arthur, "welcome be it when it
cometh; but to yield me unto thee as recreant, I will not." Then
he leapt upon the knight, and took him by the middle and threw him
down; but the knight was a passing strong man, and anon he brought
Arthur under him, and would have razed off his helm to slay him.
Then said Merlin, "Knight, hold thy hand, for this knight is a man
of more worship than thou art aware of." "Why, who is he?" said
the knight. "It is King Arthur." Then would he have slain him for
dread of his wrath, and lifted up his sword to slay him; and
therewith Merlin cast an enchantment on the knight, so that he
fell to the earth in a great sleep. Then Merlin took up King
Arthur, and set him on his horse. "Alas!" said Arthur, "what hast
thou done, Merlin? hast thou slain this good knight by thy
crafts?" "Care ye not," said Merlin; "he is wholer than ye be. He
is only asleep, and will wake in three hours."

Then the king and he departed, and went till they came to a
hermit, that was a good man and a great leech. So the hermit
searched all his wounds, and applied good salves; and the king was
there three days, and then were his wounds well amended, that he
might ride and go. So they departed, and as they rode Arthur said,
"I have no sword." "No matter," said Merlin; "hereby is a sword
that shall be yours." So they rode till they came to a lake, which
was a fair water and broad. And in the midst of the lake Arthur
was aware of an arm clothed in white samite, [Footnote: Samite, a
sort of silk stuff.] that held a fair sword in the hand. "Lo!"
said Merlin, "yonder is that sword that I spake of. It belongeth
to the Lady of the Lake, and, if she will, thou mayest take it;
but if she will not, it will not be in thy power to take it."

So Sir Arthur and Merlin alighted from their horses, and went into
a boat. And when they came to the sword that the hand held Sir
Arthur took it by the handle and took it to him, and the arm and
the hand went under the water.

Then they returned unto the land and rode forth. And Sir Arthur
looked on the sword and liked it right well.

So they rode unto Caerleon, whereof his knights were passing glad.
And when they heard of his adventures they marvelled that he would
jeopard his person so alone. But all men of worship said it was a
fine thing to be under such a chieftain as would put his person in
adventure as other poor knights did.





CHAPTER VI

SIR GAWAIN


Sir Gawain was nephew to King Arthur, by his sister Morgana,
married to Lot, king of Orkney, who was by Arthur made king of
Norway. Sir Gawain was one of the most famous knights of the Round
Table, and is characterized by the romancers as the SAGE and
COURTEOUS Gawain. To this Chaucer alludes in his "Squiere's Tale,"
where the strange knight "salueth" all the court

    "With so high reverence and observance,
    As well in speeche as in countenance,
    That Gawain, with his olde curtesie,
    Though he were come agen out of faerie,
    Ne coude him not amenden with a word."

Gawain's brothers were Agrivain, Gahariet, and Gareth.

SIR GAWAIN'S MARRIAGE

Once upon a time King Arthur held his court in merry Carlisle,
when a damsel came before him and craved a boon. It was for
vengeance upon a caitiff knight, who had made her lover captive
and despoiled her of her lands. King Arthur commanded to bring him
his sword, Excalibar, and to saddle his steed, and rode forth
without delay to right the lady's wrong. Ere long he reached the
castle of the grim baron, and challenged him to the conflict. But
the castle stood on magic ground, and the spell was such that no
knight could tread thereon but straight his courage fell and his
strength decayed. King Arthur felt the charm, and before a blow
was struck, his sturdy limbs lost their strength, and his head
grew faint. He was fain to yield himself prisoner to the churlish
knight, who refused to release him except upon condition that he
should return at the end of a year, and bring a true answer to the
question, "What thing is it which women most desire?" or in
default thereof surrender himself and his lands. King Arthur
accepted the terms, and gave his oath to return at the time
appointed. During the year the king rode east, and he rode west,
and inquired of all whom he met what thing it is which all women
most desire. Some told him riches; some, pomp and state; some,
mirth; some, flattery; and some, a gallant knight. But in the
diversity of answers he could find no sure dependence. The year
was well-nigh spent, when one day, as he rode thoughtfully through
a forest, he saw sitting beneath a tree a lady of such hideous
aspect that he turned away his eyes, and when she greeted him in
seemly sort, made no answer. "What wight art thou," the lady said,
"that will not speak to me? It may chance that I may resolve thy
doubts, though I be not fair of aspect." "If thou wilt do so,"
said King Arthur, "choose what reward thou wilt, thou grim lady,
and it shall be given thee." "Swear me this upon thy faith," she
said, and Arthur swore it. Then the lady told him the secret, and
demanded her reward, which was that the king should find some fair
and courtly knight to be her husband.

King Arthur hastened to the grim baron's castle and told him one
by one all the answers which he had received from his various
advisers, except the last, and not one was admitted as the true
one. "Now yield thee, Arthur," the giant said, "for thou hast not
paid thy ransom, and thou and thy lands are forfeited to me." Then
King Arthur said:

    "Yet hold thy hand, thou proud baron,
      I pray thee hold thy hand,
    And give me leave to speak once more,
      In rescue of my land.
    This morn as I came over a moor,
      I saw a lady set,
    Between an oak and a green holly,
      All clad in red scarlett.
    She says ALL WOMEN WOULD HAVE THEIR WILL,
      This is their chief desire;
    Now yield, as thou art a baron true,
      That I have paid my hire."

"It was my sister that told thee this," the churlish baron
exclaimed. "Vengeance light on her! I will some time or other do
her as ill a turn."

King Arthur rode homeward, but not light of heart, for he
remembered the promise he was under to the loathly lady to--give
her one of his young and gallant knights for a husband. He told
his grief to Sir Gawain, his nephew, and he replied, "Be not sad,
my lord, for I will marry the loathly lady." King Arthur replied:

    "Now nay, now nay, good Sir Gawaine,
      My sister's son ye be;
    The loathly lady's all too grim,
      And all too foule for thee."

But Gawain persisted, and the king at last, with sorrow of heart,
consented that Gawain should be his ransom. So one day the king
and his knights rode to the forest, met the loathly lady, and
brought her to the court. Sir Gawain stood the scoffs and jeers of
his companions as he best might, and the marriage was solemnized,
but not with the usual festivities. Chaucer tells us:

    "... There was no joye ne feste at alle;
    There n' as but hevinesse and mochel sorwe,
    For prively he wed her on the morwe,
    And all day after hid him as an owle,
    So wo was him his wife loked so foule!"

[Footnote: N'AS is NOT WAS, contracted; in modern phrase, THERE
WAS NOT. MOCHEL SORWE is much sorrow; MORWE is MORROW.]

When night came, and they were alone together, Sir Gawain could
not conceal his aversion; and the lady asked him why he sighed so
heavily, and turned away his face. He candidly confessed it was on
account of three things, her age, her ugliness, and her low
degree. The lady, not at all offended, replied with excellent
arguments to all his objections. She showed him that with age is
discretion, with ugliness security from rivals, and that all true
gentility depends, not upon the accident of birth, but upon the
character of the individual.

Sir Gawain made no reply; but, turning his eyes on his bride, what
was his amazement to perceive that she wore no longer the unseemly
aspect that had so distressed him. She then told him that the form
she had worn was not her true form, but a disguise imposed upon
her by a wicked enchanter, and that she was condemned to wear it
until two things should happen: one, that she should obtain some
young and gallant knight to be her husband. This having been done,
one-half of the charm was removed. She was now at liberty to wear
her true form for half the time, and she bade him choose whether
he would have her fair by day, and ugly by night, or the reverse.
Sir Gawain would fain have had her look her best by night, when he
alone would see her, and show her repulsive visage, if at all, to
others. But she reminded him how much more pleasant it would be to
her to wear her best looks in the throng of knights and ladies by
day. Sir Gawain yielded, and gave up his will to hers. This alone
was wanting to dissolve the charm. The lovely lady now with joy
assured him that she should change no more, but as she now was, so
would she remain by night as well as by day.

    "Sweet blushes stayned her rud-red cheek,
      Her eyen were black as sloe,
    The ripening cherrye swelled her lippe,
      And all her neck was snow.
    Sir Gawain kist that ladye faire
      Lying upon the sheete,
    And swore, as he was a true knight,
      The spice was never so swete."

The dissolution of the charm which had held the lady also released
her brother, the "grim baron," for he too had been implicated in
it. He ceased to be a churlish oppressor, and became a gallant and
generous knight as any at Arthur's court.





CHAPTER VII

CARADOC BRIEFBRAS; OR, CARADOC WITH THE SHRUNKEN ARM


Caradoc was the son of Ysenne, the beautiful niece of Arthur. He
was ignorant who his father was, till it was discovered in the
following manner: When the youth was of proper years to receive
the honors of knighthood, King Arthur held a grand court for the
purpose of knighting him. On this occasion a strange knight
presented himself, and challenged the knights of Arthur's court to
exchange blow for blow with him. His proposal was this--to lay his
neck on a block for any knight to strike, on condition that, if he
survived the blow, the knight should submit in turn to the same
experiment. Sir Kay, who was usually ready to accept all
challenges, pronounced this wholly unreasonable, and declared that
he would not accept it for all the wealth in the world. And when
the knight offered his sword, with which the operation was to be
performed, no person ventured to accept it, till Caradoc, growing
angry at the disgrace which was thus incurred by the Round Table,
threw aside his mantle and took it. "Do you do this as one of the
best knights?" said the stranger. "No," he replied, "but as one of
the most foolish." The stranger lays his head upon the block,
receives a blow which sends it rolling from his shoulders, walks
after it, picks it up, replaces it with great success, and says he
will return when the court shall be assembled next year, and claim
his turn. When the anniversary arrived, both parties were punctual
to their engagement. Great entreaties were used by the king and
queen, and the whole court, in behalf of Caradoc, but the stranger
was inflexible. The young knight laid his head upon the block, and
more than once desired him to make an end of the business, and not
keep him longer in so disagreeable a state of expectation. At last
the stranger strikes him gently with the side of the sword, bids
him rise, and reveals to him the fact that he is his father, the
enchanter Eliaures, and that he gladly owns him for a son, having
proved his courage and fidelity to his word.

But the favor of enchanters is short-lived and uncertain. Eliaures
fell under the influence of a wicked woman, who, to satisfy her
pique against Caradoc, persuaded the enchanter to fasten on his
arm a serpent, which remained there sucking at his flesh and
blood, no human skill sufficing either to remove the reptile or
alleviate the torments which Caradoc endured.

Caradoc was betrothed to Guimier, sister to his bosom friend,
Cador, and daughter to the king of Cornwall. As soon as they were
informed of his deplorable condition, they set out for Nantes,
where Caradoc's castle was, that Guimier might attend upon him.
When Caradoc heard of their coming, his first emotion was that of
joy and love. But soon he began to fear that the sight of his
emaciated form, and of his sufferings, would disgust Guimier; and
this apprehension became so strong, that he departed secretly from
Nantes, and hid himself in a hermitage. He was sought far and near
by the knights of Arthur's court, and Cador made a vow never to
desist from the quest till he should have found him. After long
wandering, Cador discovered his friend in the hermitage, reduced
almost to a skeleton, and apparently near his death. All other
means of relief having already been tried in vain, Cador at last
prevailed on the enchanter Eliaures to disclose the only method
which could avail for his rescue. A maiden must be found, his
equal in birth and beauty, and loving him better than herself, so
that she would expose herself to the same torment to deliver him.
Two vessels were then to be provided, the one filled with sour
wine, and the other with milk. Caradoc must enter the first, so
that the wine should reach his neck, and the maiden must get into
the other, and, exposing her bosom upon the edge of the vessel,
invite the serpent to forsake the withered flesh of his victim for
this fresh and inviting food. The vessels were to be placed three
feet apart, and as the serpent crossed from one to the other. a
knight was to cut him in two. If he failed in his blow, Caradoc
would indeed be delivered, but it would be only to see his fair
champion suffering the same cruel and hopeless torment. The sequel
may be easily foreseen. Guimier willingly exposed herself to the
perilous adventure, and Cador, with a lucky blow, killed the
serpent. The arm in which Caradoc had suffered so long recovered
its strength, but not its shape, in consequence of which he was
called Caradoc Briefbras, Caradoc of the Shrunken Arm.

Caradoc and Guimier are the hero and heroine of the ballad Of the
"Boy and the Mantle," which follows:

    "THE BOY AND THE MANTLE

    "In Carlisle dwelt King Arthur,
      A prince of passing might,
    And there maintained his Table Round,
      Beset with many a knight.

    "And there he kept his Christmas,
      With mirth and princely cheer,
    When lo! a strange and cunning boy
      Before him did appear.

    "A kirtle and a mantle
      This boy had him upon,
    With brooches, rings, and ouches,
      Full daintily bedone.

    "He had a sash of silk
      About his middle meet;
    And thus with seemly curtesie
      He did King Arthur greet:

    "'God speed thee, brave King Arthur.
      Thus feasting in thy bower,
    And Guenever, thy goodly queen,
      That fair and peerless flower.

    "'Ye gallant lords and lordlings,
      I wish you all take heed,
    Lest what ye deem a blooming rose
      Should prove a cankered weed.'

    "Then straightway from his bosom
      A little wand he drew;
    And with it eke a mantle,
      Of wondrous shape and hue.

    "'Now have thou here, King Arthur,
      Have this here of me,
    And give unto thy comely queen,
      All shapen as you see.

    "'No wife it shall become,
      That once hath been to blame.'
    Then every knight in Arthur's court
      Sly glanced at his dame.

    "And first came Lady Guenever,
      The mantle she must try.
    This dame she was new-fangled, [1]
      And of a roving eye.

    "When she had taken the mantle,
      And all with it was clad,
    From top to toe it shivered down,
      As though with shears beshred.

    "One while it was too long,
      Another while too short,
    And wrinkled on her shoulders,
      In most unseemly sort.

    "Now green, now red it seemed,
      Then all of sable hue;
    'Beshrew me,' quoth King Arthur,
      'I think thou be'st not true!'

    "Down she threw the mantle,
      No longer would she stay;
    But, storming like a fury,
      To her chamber flung away.

    "She cursed the rascal weaver,
      That had the mantle wrought;
    And doubly cursed the froward imp
      Who thither had it brought.

    I had rather live in deserts,
      Beneath the greenwood tree,
    Than here, base king, among thy grooms
      The sport of them and thee.'

    "Sir Kay called forth his lady,
      And bade her to come near:
    'Yet dame, if thou be guilty,
      I pray thee now forbear.'

    "This lady, pertly giggling,
      With forward step came on,
    And boldly to the little boy
      With fearless face is gone.

    "When she had taken the mantle,
      With purpose for to wear,
    It shrunk up to her shoulder,
      And left her back all bare.

    "Then every merry knight,
      That was in Arthur's court,
    Gibed and laughed and flouted,
      To see that pleasant sport.

    "Down she threw the mantle,
      No longer bold or gay,
    But, with a face all pale and wan
      To her chamber slunk away.

    "Then forth came an old knight
      A pattering o'er his creed,
    And proffered to the little boy
       Five nobles to his meed:

    "'And all the time of Christmas
      Plum-porridge shall be thine,
    If thou wilt let my lady fair
      Within the mantle shine.'

    "A saint his lady seemed,
      With step demure and slow,
    And gravely to the mantle
      With mincing face doth go.

    "When she the same had taken
      That was so fine and thin,
    It shrivelled all about her,
      And showed her dainty skin.

    "Ah! little did her mincing,
      Or his long prayers bestead;
     She had no more hung on her
      Than a tassel and a thread.

    "Down she threw the mantle,
      With terror and dismay,
    And with a face of scarlet
      To her chamber hied away.

    "Sir Cradock called his lady,
      And bade her to come near:
    'Come win this mantle, lady,
       And do me credit here:

    "'Come win this mantle, lady,
      For now it shall be thine,
    If thou hast never done amiss,
      Since first I made thee mine.'

    "The lady, gently blushing,
      With modest grace came on;
    And now to try the wondrous charm
      Courageously is gone.

    "When she had ta'en the mantle,
      And put it on her back,
    About the hem it seemed
      To wrinkle and to crack.

    "'Lie still,' she cried, 'O mantle!
      And shame me not for naught;
    I'll freely own whate'er amiss
      Or blameful I have wrought.

    "'Once I kissed Sir Cradock
      Beneath the greenwood tree;
    Once I kissed Sir Cradock's mouth,
      Before he married me.'

    "When she had thus her shriven,
      And her worst fault had told,
    The mantle soon became her,
      Right comely as it should.

    "Most rich and fair of color,
      Like gold it glittering shone,
    And much the knights in Arthur's court
      Admired her every one."

[Footnote 1: New-fangled--fond of novelty.]

The ballad goes on to tell of two more trials of a similar kind,
made by means of a boar's head and a drinking horn, in both of
which the result was equally favorable with the first to Sir
Cradock and his lady. It then concludes as follows:

    "Thus boar's head, horn, and mantle
      Were this fair couple's meed;
    And all such constant lovers,
      God send them well to speed"

    --Percy's Reliques.





CHAPTER VIII

LAUNCELOT OF THE LAKE


King Ban, of Brittany, the faithful ally of Arthur was attacked by
his enemy Claudas, and after a long war saw himself reduced to the
possession of a single fortress, where he was besieged by his
enemy. In this extremity he determined to solicit the assistance
of Arthur, and escaped in a dark night, with his wife Helen and
his infant son Launcelot, leaving his castle in the hands of his
seneschal, who immediately surrendered the place to Claudas. The
flames of his burning citadel reached the eyes of the unfortunate
monarch during his flight and he expired with grief. The wretched
Helen, leaving her child on the brink of a lake, flew to receive
the last sighs of her husband, and on returning perceived the
little Launcelot in the arms of a nymph, who, on the approach of
the queen, threw herself into the lake with the child. This nymph
was Viviane, mistress of the enchanter Merlin, better known by the
name of the Lady of the Lake. Launcelot received his appellation
from having been educated at the court of this enchantress, whose
palace was situated in the midst, not of a real, but, like the
appearance which deceives the African traveller, of an imaginary
lake, whose deluding resemblance served as a barrier to her
residence. Here she dwelt not alone, but in the midst of a
numerous retinue, and a splendid court of knights and damsels.

The queen, after her double loss, retired to a convent, where she
was joined by the widow of Bohort, for this good king had died of
grief on hearing of the death of his brother Ban. His two sons,
Lionel and Bohort, were rescued by a faithful knight, and arrived
in the shape of greyhounds at the palace of the lake, where,
having resumed their natural form, they were educated along with
their cousin Launcelot.

The fairy, when her pupil had attained the age of eighteen,
conveyed him to the court of Arthur for the purpose of demanding
his admission to the honor of knighthood; and at the first
appearance of the youthful candidate the graces of his person,
which were not inferior to his courage and skill in arms, made an
instantaneous and indelible impression on the heart of Guenever,
while her charms inspired him with an equally ardent and constant
passion. The mutual attachment of these lovers exerted, from that
time forth, an influence over the whole history of Arthur. For the
sake of Guenever, Launcelot achieved the conquest of
Northumberland, defeated Gallehaut, King of the Marches, who
afterwards became his most faithful friend and ally, exposed
himself in numberless encounters, and brought hosts of prisoners
to the feet of his sovereign.

SIR LAUNCELOT

After King Arthur was come from Rome into England all the knights
of the Table Round resorted unto him and made him many justs and
tournaments. And in especial Sir Launcelot of the Lake in all
tournaments and justs and deeds of arms, both for life and death,
passed all other knights, and was never overcome, except it were
by treason or enchantment; and he increased marvellously in
worship, wherefore Queen Guenever had him in great favor, above
all other knights. And for certain he loved the queen again above
all other ladies; and for her he did many deeds of arms, and saved
her from peril, through his noble chivalry. Thus Sir Launcelot
rested him long with play and game, and then he thought to prove
himself in strange adventures; so he bade his nephew, Sir Lionel,
to make him ready,-- "for we two will seek adventures." So they
mounted on their horses, armed at all sights, and rode into a
forest, and so into a deep plain. And the weather was hot about
noon, and Sir Launcelot had great desire to sleep. Then Sir Lionel
espied a great apple-tree that stood by a hedge, and he said:
"Brother, yonder is a fair shadow--there may we rest us and our
horses." "It is well said," replied Sir Launcelot. So they there
alighted, and Sir Launcelot laid him down, and his helm under his
head, and soon was asleep passing fast. And Sir Lionel waked while
he slept. And presently there came three knights riding as fast as
ever they might ride, and there followed them but one knight. And
Sir Lionel thought he never saw so great a knight before. So
within a while this great knight overtook one of those knights,
and smote him so that he fell to the earth. Then he rode to the
second knight and smote him, and so he did to the third knight.
Then he alighted down and bound all the three knights fast with
their own bridles. When Sir Lionel saw him do thus, he thought to
assay him, and made him ready silently, not to awake Sir
Launcelot, and rode after the strong knight, and bade him turn.
And the other smote Sir Lionel so hard that horse and man fell to
the earth; and then he alighted down and bound Sir Lionel, and
threw him across his own horse; and so he served them all four,
and rode with them away to his own castle. And when he came there
he put them in a deep prison, in which were many more knights in
great distress.

Now while Sir Launcelot lay under the apple-tree sleeping, there
came by him four queens of great estate. And that the heat should
not grieve them, there rode four knights about them, and bare a
cloth of green silk on four spears, betwixt them and the sun. And
the queens rode on four white mules.

Thus as they rode they heard by them a great horse grimly neigh.
Then they were aware of a sleeping knight, that lay all armed
under an apple-tree; and as the queens looked on his face, they
knew it was Sir Launcelot. Then they began to strive for that
knight, and each one said she would have him for her love. "We
will not strive," said Morgane le Fay, that was King Arthur's
sister, "for I will put an enchantment upon him, that he shall not
wake for six hours, and we will take him away to my castle; and
then when he is surely within my hold, I will take the enchantment
from him, and then let him choose which of us he will have for his
love." So the enchantment was cast upon Sir Launcelot. And then
they laid him upon his shield, and bare him so on horseback
between two knights, and brought him unto the castle and laid him
in a chamber, and at night they sent him his supper. And on the
morning came early those four queens, richly dight, and bade him
good morning, and he them again. "Sir knight," they said, "thou
must understand thou art our prisoner; and we know thee well, that
thou art Sir Launcelot of the Lake, King Ban's son, and that thou
art the noblest knight living. And we know well that there can no
lady have thy love but one, and that is Queen Guenever; and now
thou shalt lose her for ever, and she thee; and therefore it
behooveth thee now to choose one of us. I am the Queen Morgane le
Fay, and here is the Queen of North Wales, and the Queen of
Eastland, and the Queen of the Isles. Now choose one of us which
thou wilt have, for if thou choose not, in this prison thou shalt
die." "This is a hard case," said Sir Launcelot, "that either I
must die, or else choose one of you; yet had I liever to die in
this prison with worship, than to have one of you for my paramour,
for ye be false enchantresses." "Well," said the queens, "is this
your answer, that ye will refuse us." "Yea, on my life it is,"
said Sir Launcelot. Then they departed, making great sorrow.

Then at noon came a damsel unto him with his dinner, and asked
him, "What cheer?" "Truly, fair damsel," said Sir Launcelot,
"never so ill." "Sir," said she, "if you will be ruled by me, I
will help you out of this distress. If ye will promise me to help
my father on Tuesday next, who hath made a tournament betwixt him
and the king of North Wales; for last Tuesday my father lost the
field." "Fair maiden," said Sir Launcelot, "tell me what is your
father's name, and then will I give you an answer." "Sir knight,"
she said, "my father is King Bagdemagus." "I know him well," said
Sir Launcelot, "for a noble king and a good knight; and, by the
faith of my body, I will be ready to do your father and you
service at that day."

So she departed, and came on the next morning early and found him
ready, and brought him out of twelve locks, and brought him to his
own horse, and lightly he saddled him, and so rode forth.

And on the Tuesday next he came to a little wood where the
tournament should be. And there were scaffolds and holds, that
lords and ladies might look on, and give the prize. Then came into
the field the king of North Wales, with eightscore helms, and King
Badgemagus came with fourscore helms. And then they couched their
spears, and came together with a great dash, and there were
overthrown at the first encounter twelve of King Bagdemagus's
party and six of the king of North Wales's party, and King
Bagdemagus's party had the worse.

With that came Sir Launcelot of the Lake, and thrust in with his
spear in the thickest of the press; and he smote down five knights
ere he held his hand; and he smote down the king of North Wales,
and he brake his thigh in that fall. And then the knights of the
king of North Wales would just no more; and so the gree was given
to King Bagdemagus.

And Sir Launcelot rode forth with King Bagdemagus unto his castle;
and there he had passing good cheer, both with the king and with
his daughter. And on the morn he took his leave, and told the king
he would go and seek his brother, Sir Lionel, that went from him
when he slept. So he departed, and by adventure he came to the
same forest where he was taken sleeping. And in the highway he met
a damsel riding on a white palfrey, and they saluted each other.
"Fair damsel," said Sir Launcelot, "know ye in this country any
adventures?" "Sir knight," said the damsel, "here are adventures
near at hand, if thou durst pursue them." "Why should I not prove
adventures?" said Sir Launcelot, "since for that cause came I
hither." "Sir," said she, "hereby dwelleth a knight that will not
be overmatched for any man I know, except thou overmatch him. His
name is Sir Turquine, and, as I understand, he is a deadly enemy
of King Arthur, and he has in his prison good knights of Arthur's
court, threescore and more, that he hath won with his own hands."
"Damsel," said Launcelot, "I pray you bring me unto this knight."
So she told him, "Hereby, within this mile, is his castle, and by
it on the left hand is a ford for horses to drink of, and over
that ford there groweth a fair tree, and on that tree hang many
shields that good knights wielded aforetime, that are now
prisoners; and on the tree hangeth a basin of copper and latten,
and if thou strike upon that basin thou shalt hear tidings." And
Sir Launcelot departed, and rode as the damsel had shown him, and
shortly he came to the ford, and the tree where hung the shields
and the basin. And among the shields he saw Sir Lionel's and Sir
Hector's shields, besides many others of knights that he knew.

Then Sir Launcelot struck on the basin with the butt of his spear;
and long he did so, but he saw no man. And at length he was ware
of a great knight that drove a horse before him, and across the
horse there lay an armed knight bounden. And as they came near,
Sir Launcelot thought he should know the captive knight. Then Sir
Launcelot saw that it was Sir Gaheris, Sir Gawain's brother, a
knight of the Table Round. "Now, fair knight," said Sir Launcelot,
"put that wounded knight off the horse, and let him rest awhile,
and let us two prove our strength. For, as it is told me, thou
hast done great despite and shame unto knights of the Round Table,
therefore now defend thee." "If thou be of the Table Round," said
Sir Turquine, "I defy thee and all thy fellowship." "That is
overmuch said," said Sir Launcelot.

Then they put their spears in the rests, and came together with
their horses as fast as they might run. And each smote the other
in the middle of their shields, so that their horses fell under
them, and the knights were both staggered; and as soon as they
could clear their horses they drew out their swords and came
together eagerly, and each gave the other many strong strokes, for
neither shield nor harness might withstand their strokes. So
within a while both had grimly wounds, and bled grievously. Then
at the last they were breathless both, and stood leaning upon
their swords. "Now, fellow," said Sir Turquine, "thou art the
stoutest man that ever I met with, and best breathed; and so be it
thou be not the knight that I hate above all other knights, the
knight that slew my brother, Sir Carados, I will gladly accord
with thee; and for thy love I will deliver all the prisoners that
I have."

"What knight is he that thou hatest so above others?" "Truly,"
said Sir Turquine, "his name is Sir Launcelot of the Lake." "I am
Sir Launcelot of the Lake, King Ban's son of Benwick, and very
knight of the Table Round; and now I defy thee do thy best." "Ah!"
said Sir Turquine, "Launcelot, thou art to me the most welcome
that ever was knight; for we shall never part till the one of us
be dead." And then they hurtled together like two wild bulls,
rashing and lashing with their swords and shields, so that
sometimes they fell, as it were, headlong. Thus they fought two
hours and more, till the ground where they fought was all
bepurpled with blood.

Then at the last Sir Turquine waxed sore faint, and gave somewhat
aback, and bare his shield full low for weariness. That spied Sir
Launcelot, and leapt then upon him fiercely as a lion, and took
him by the beaver of his helmet, and drew him down on his knees.
And he raised off his helm, and smote his neck in sunder.

And Sir Gaheris, when he saw Sir Turquine slain, said, "Fair lord,
I pray you tell me your name, for this day I say ye are the best
knight in the world, for ye have slain this day in my sight the
mightiest man and the best knight except you that ever I saw."
"Sir, my name is Sir Launcelot du Lac, that ought to help you of
right for King Arthur's sake, and in especial for Sir Gawain's
sake, your own dear brother. Now I pray you, that ye go into
yonder castle, and set free all the prisoners ye find there, for I
am sure ye shall find there many knights of the Table Round, and
especially my brother Sir Lionel. I pray you greet them all from
me, and tell them I bid them take there such stuff as they find;
and tell my brother to go unto the court and abide me there, for
by the feast of Pentecost I think to be there; but at this time I
may not stop, for I have adventures on hand." So he departed, and
Sir Gaheris rode into the castle, and took the keys from the
porter, and hastily opened the prison door and let out all the
prisoners. There was Sir Kay, Sir Brandeles, and Sir Galynde, Sir
Bryan, and Sir Alyduke, Sir Hector de Marys, and Sir Lionel, and
many more. And when they saw Sir Gaheris they all thanked him, for
they thought, because he was wounded, that he had slain Sir
Turquine. "Not so," said Sir Gaheris; "it was Sir Launcelot that
slew him, right worshipfully; I saw it with mine eyes."

Sir Launcelot rode till at nightfall he came to a fair castle, and
therein he found an old gentlewoman, who lodged him with good-
will, and there he had good cheer for him and his horse. And when
time was, his host brought him to a fair chamber over the gate to
his bed. Then Sir Launcelot unarmed him, and set his harness by
him, and went to bed, and anon he fell asleep. And soon after,
there came one on horseback and knocked at the gate in great
haste; and when Sir Launcelot heard this, he arose and looked out
of the window, and saw by the moonlight three knights riding after
that one man, and all three lashed on him with their swords, and
that one knight turned on them knightly again and defended
himself. "Truly," said Sir Launcelot, "yonder one knight will I
help, for it is shame to see three knights on one." Then he took
his harness and went out at the window by a sheet down to the four
knights; and he said aloud, "Turn you knights unto me, and leave
your fighting with that knight." Then the knights left Sir Kay,
for it was he they were upon, and turned unto Sir Launcelot, and
struck many great strokes at Sir Launcelot, and assailed him on
every side. Then Sir Kay addressed him to help Sir Launcelot, but
he said, "Nay, sir, I will none of your help; let me alone with
them." So Sir Kay suffered him to do his will, and stood one side.
And within six strokes Sir Launcelot had stricken them down.

Then they all cried, "Sir knight, we yield us unto you." "As to
that," said Sir Launcelot, "I will not take your yielding unto me.
If so be ye will yield you unto Sir Kay the Seneschal, I will save
your lives, but else not." "Fair knight," then they said, "we will
do as thou commandest us." "Then shall ye," said Sir Launcelot,
"on Whitsunday next, go unto the court of King Arthur, and there
shall ye yield you unto Queen Guenever, and say that Sir Kay sent
you thither to be her prisoners." "Sir," they said, "it shall be
done, by the faith of our bodies;" and then they swore, every
knight upon his sword. And so Sir Launcelot suffered them to
depart.

On the morn Sir Launcelot rose early and left Sir Kay sleeping;
and Sir Launcelot took Sir Kay's armor, and his shield, and armed
him, and went to the stable and took his horse, and so he
departed. Then soon after arose Sir Kay, and missed Sir Launcelot.
And then he espied that he had taken his armor and his horse.
"Now, by my faith, I know well," said Sir Kay, "that he will
grieve some of King Arthur's knights, for they will deem that it
is I, and will be bold to meet him. But by cause of his armor I am
sure I shall ride in peace." Then Sir Kay thanked his host and
departed.

Sir Launcelot rode in a deep forest, and there he saw four
knights, under an oak, and they were of Arthur's court. There was
Sir Sagramour le Desirus, and Hector de Marys, and Sir Gawain, and
Sir Uwaine. As they spied Sir Launcelot they judged by his arms it
had been Sir Kay. "Now, by my faith," said Sir Sagramour, "I will
prove Sir Kay's might;" and got his spear in his hand, and came
towards Sir Launcelot. Therewith Sir Launcelot couched his spear
against him, and smote Sir Sagramour so sore that horse and man
fell both to the earth. Then said Sir Hector, "Now shall ye see
what I may do with him." But he fared worse than Sir Sagramour,
for Sir Launcelot's spear went through his shoulder and bare him
from his horse to the ground. "By my faith," said Sir Uwaine,
"yonder is a strong knight, and I fear he hath slain Sir Kay, and
taken his armor." And therewith Sir Uwaine took his spear in hand,
and rode toward Sir Launcelot; and Sir Launcelot met him on the
plain and gave him such a buffet that he was staggered, and wist
not where he was. "Now see I well," said Sir Gawain, "that I must
encounter with that knight." Then he adjusted his shield, and took
a good spear in his hand, and Sir Launcelot knew him well. Then
they let run their horses with all their mights, and each knight
smote the other in the middle of his shield. But Sir Gawain's
spear broke, and Sir Launcelot charged so sore upon him that his
horse fell over backward. Then Sir Launcelot passed by smiling
with himself, and he said, "Good luck be with him that made this
spear, for never came a better into my hand." Then the four
knights went each to the other and comforted one another. "What
say ye to this adventure," said Sir Gawain, "that one spear hath
felled us all four?" "I dare lay my head it is Sir Launcelot,"
said Sir Hector; "I know it by his riding."

And Sir Launcelot rode through many strange countries, till by
fortune he came to a fair castle; and as he passed beyond the
castle he thought he heard two bells ring. And then he perceived
how a falcon came flying over his head, toward a high elm; and she
had long lunys [Footnote: LUNYS, the string with which the falcon
is held.] about her feet, and she flew unto the elm to take her
perch, and the lunys got entangled in the bough; and when she
would have taken her flight, she hung by the legs fast, and Sir
Launcelot saw how she hung, and beheld the fair falcon entangled,
and he was sorry for her. Then came a lady out of the castle and
cried aloud, "O Launcelot, Launcelot, as thou art the flower of
all knights, help me to get my hawk; for if my hawk be lost, my
lord will slay me, he is so hasty." "What is your lord's name?"
said Sir Launcelot. "His name is Sir Phelot, a knight that
belongeth to the king of North Wales." "Well, fair lady, since ye
know my name, and require me of knighthood to help you, I will do
what I may to get your hawk; and yet in truth I am an ill climber,
and the tree is passing high, and few boughs to help me." And
therewith Sir Launcelot alighted and tied his horse to the tree,
and prayed the lady to unarm him. And when he was unarmed, he put
off his jerkin, and with might and force he clomb up to the
falcon, and tied the lunys to a rotten bough, and threw the hawk
down with it; and the lady got the hawk in her hand. Then suddenly
there came out of the castle her husband, all armed, and with his
naked sword in his hand, and said, "O Knight Launcelot, now have I
got thee as I would," and stood at the boll of the tree to slay
him. "Ah, lady!" said Sir Launcelot, "why have ye betrayed me?"
"She hath done," said Sir Phelot, "but as I commanded her; and
therefore there is none other way but thine hour is come, and thou
must die." "That were shame unto thee," said Sir Launcelot; "thou
an armed knight to slay a naked man by treason." "Thou gettest
none other grace," said Sir Phelot, "and therefore help thyself if
thou canst." "Alas!" said Sir Launcelot, "that ever a knight
should die weaponless!" And therewith he turned his eyes upward
and downward; and over his head he saw a big bough leafless, and
he brake it off from the trunk. And then he came lower, and
watched how his own horse stood; and suddenly he leapt on the
further side of his horse from the knight. Then Sir Phelot lashed
at him eagerly, meaning to have slain him. But Sir Launcelot put
away the stroke, with the big bough, and smote Sir Phelot
therewith on the side of the head, so that he fell down in a swoon
to the ground. Then Sir Launcelot took his sword out of his hand
and struck his head from the body. Then said the lady, "Alas! why
hast thou slain my husband?" "I am not the cause," said Sir
Launcelot, "for with falsehood ye would have slain me, and now it
is fallen on yourselves." Thereupon Sir Launcelot got all his
armor, and put it upon him hastily, for fear of more resort, for
the knight's castle was so nigh. And as soon as he might, he took
his horse and departed, and thanked God he had escaped that
adventure.

And two days before the feast of Pentecost, Sir Launcelot came
home; and the king and all the court were passing glad of his
coming. And when Sir Gawain, Sir Uwaine, Sir Sagramour, and Sir
Hector de Marys saw Sir Launcelot in Sir Kay's armor then they
wist well it was he that smote them down, all with one spear. Then
there was laughing and merriment among them; and from time to time
came all the knights that Sir Turquine had prisoners, and they all
honored and worshipped Sir Launcelot. Then Sir Gaheris said, "I
saw all the battle from the beginning to the end," and he told
King Arthur all how it was. Then Sir Kay told the king how Sir
Launcelot had rescued him, and how he "made the knights yield to
me, and not to him." And there they were, all three, and confirmed
it all "And, by my faith," said Sir Kay, "because Sir Launcelot
took my harness and left me his, I rode in peace, and no man would
have to do with me."

And so at that time Sir Launcelot had the greatest name of any
knight of the world, and most was he honored of high and low.





CHAPTER IX

THE ADVENTURE OF THE CART


It befell in the month of May, Queen Guenever called to her
knights of the Table Round, and gave them warning that early upon
the morrow she would ride a-maying into the woods and fields
beside Westminster; "and I warn you that there be none of you but
he be well horsed, and that ye all be clothed in green, either
silk or cloth; and I shall bring with me ten ladies, and every
knight shall have a lady behind him, and every knight shall have a
squire and two yeoman, and all well horsed."

    "For thus it chanced one morn when all the court,
     Green-suited, but with plumes that mock'd the May,
     Had been, their wont, a-maying"

    --Guinevere.

So they made them ready; and these were the names of the knights:
Sir Kay the Seneschal, Sir Agrivaine, Sir Brandiles, Sir Sagramour
le Desirus, Sir Dodynas le Sauvage, Sir Ozanna, Sir Ladynas, Sir
Persant of Inde, Sir Ironside, and Sir Pelleas; and these ten
knights made them ready, in the freshest manner, to ride with the
queen. So upon the morn they took their horses with the queen, and
rode a-maying in woods and meadows, as it pleased them, in great
joy and delight. Now there was a knight named Maleagans, son to
King Brademagus, who loved Queen Guenever passing well, and so had
he done long and many years. Now this knight, Sir Maleagans,
learned the queen's purpose, and that she had no men of arms with
her but the ten noble knights all arrayed in green for maying; so
he prepared him twenty men of arms, and a hundred archers, to take
captive the queen and her knights.

    "In the merry month of May,
     In a morn at break of day,
     With a troop of damsels playing,
     The Queen, forsooth, went forth a-maying."

    --Old Song.

So when the queen had mayed, and all were bedecked with herbs,
mosses, and flowers in the best manner and freshest, right then
came out of a wood Sir Maleagans with eightscore men well
harnessed, and bade the queen and her knights yield them
prisoners. "Traitor knight," said Queen Guenever, "what wilt thou
do? Wilt thou shame thyself? Bethink thee how thou art a king's
son, and a knight of the Table Round, and how thou art about to
dishonor all knighthood and thyself?" "Be it as it may," said Sir
Maleagans, "know you well, madam, I have loved you many a year and
never till now could I get you to such advantage as I do now; and
therefore I will take you as I find you." Then the ten knights of
the Round Table drew their swords, and the other party run at them
with their spears, and the ten knights manfully abode them, and
smote away their spears. Then they lashed together with swords
till several were smitten to the earth. So when the queen saw her
knights thus dolefully oppressed, and needs must be slain at the
last, then for pity and sorrow she cried, "Sir Maleagans, slay not
my noble knights and I will go with you, upon this covenant, that
they be led with me wheresoever thou leadest me." "Madame," said
Maleagans, "for your sake they shall be led with you into my own
castle, if that ye will be ruled, and ride with me." Then Sir
Maleagans charged them all that none should depart from the queen,
for he dreaded lest Sir Launcelot should have knowledge of what
had been done.

Then the queen privily called unto her a page of her chamber that
was swiftly horsed, to whom she said, "Go thou when thou seest thy
time, and bear this ring unto Sir Launcelot, and pray him as he
loveth me, that he will see me and rescue me. And spare not thy
horse," said the queen, "neither for water nor for land." So the
child espied his time, and lightly he took his horse with the
spurs and departed as fast as he might. And when Sir Maleagans saw
him so flee, he understood that it was by the queen's commandment
for to warn Sir Launcelot. Then they that were best horsed chased
him, and shot at him, but the child went from them all. Then Sir
Maleagans said to the queen, "Madam, ye are about to betray me,
but I shall arrange for Sir Launcelot that he shall not come
lightly at you." Then he rode with her and them all to his castle,
in all the haste that they might. And by the way Sir Maleagans
laid in ambush the best archers that he had to wait for Sir
Launcelot. And the child came to Westminster and found Sir
Launcelot and told his message and delivered him the queen's ring.
"Alas!" said Sir Launcelot, "now am I shamed for ever, unless I
may rescue that noble lady." Then eagerly he asked his armor and
put it on him, and mounted his horse and rode as fast as he might;
and men say he took the water at Westminster Bridge, and made his
horse swim over Thames unto Lambeth. Then within a while he came
to a wood where was a narrow way; and there the archers were laid
in ambush. And they shot at him and smote his horse so that he
fell. Then Sir Launcelot left his horse and went on foot, but
there lay so many ditches and hedges betwixt the archers and him
that he might not meddle with them. "Alas! for shame," said Sir
Launcelot, "that ever one knight should betray another! but it is
an old saw, a good man is never in danger, but when he is in
danger of a coward." Then Sir Launcelot went awhile and he was
exceedingly cumbered by his armor, his shield, and his spear, and
all that belonged to him. Then by chance there came by him a cart
that came thither to fetch wood.

Now at this time carts were little used except for carrying offal
and for conveying criminals to execution. But Sir Launcelot took
no thought of anything but the necessity of haste for the purpose
of rescuing the queen; so he demanded of the carter that he should
take him in and convey him as speedily as possible for a liberal
reward. The carter consented, and Sir Launcelot placed himself in
the cart and only lamented that with much jolting he made but
little progress. Then it happened Sir Gawain passed by and seeing
an armed knight travelling in that unusual way he drew near to see
who it might be. Then Sir Launcelot told him how the queen had
been carried off, and how, in hastening to her rescue, his horse
had been disabled and he had been compelled to avail himself of
the cart rather than give up his enterprise. Then Sir Gawain said,
"Surely it is unworthy of a knight to travel in such sort;" but
Sir Launcelot heeded him not.

At nightfall they arrived at a castle and the lady thereof came
out at the head of her damsels to welcome Sir Gawain. But to admit
his companion, whom she supposed to be a criminal, or at least a
prisoner, it pleased her not; however, to oblige Sir Gawain, she
consented. At supper Sir Launcelot came near being consigned to
the kitchen and was only admitted to the lady's table at the
earnest solicitation of Sir Gawain. Neither would the damsels
prepare a bed for him. He seized the first he found unoccupied and
was left undisturbed.

Next morning he saw from the turrets of the castle a train
accompanying a lady, whom he imagined to be the queen. Sir Gawain
thought it might be so, and became equally eager to depart. The
lady of the castle supplied Sir Launcelot with a horse and they
traversed the plain at full speed. They learned from some
travellers whom they met, that there were two roads which led to
the castle of Sir Maleagans. Here therefore the friends separated.
Sir Launcelot found his way beset with obstacles, which he
encountered successfully, but not without much loss of time. As
evening approached he was met by a young and sportive damsel, who
gayly proposed to him a supper at her castle. The knight, who was
hungry and weary, accepted the offer, though with no very good
grace. He followed the lady to her castle and ate voraciously of
her supper, but was quite impenetrable to all her amorous
advances. Suddenly the scene changed and he was assailed by six
furious ruffians, whom he dealt with so vigorously that most of
them were speedily disabled, when again there was a change and he
found himself alone with his fair hostess, who informed him that
she was none other than his guardian fairy, who had but subjected
him to tests of his courage and fidelity. The next day the fairy
brought him on his road, and before parting gave him a ring, which
she told him would by its changes of color disclose to him all
enchantments, and enable him to subdue them.

Sir Launcelot pursued his journey, without being much incommoded
except by the taunts of travellers, who all seemed to have
learned, by some means, his disgraceful drive in the cart. One,
more insolent than the rest, had the audacity to interrupt him
during dinner, and even to risk a battle in support of his
pleasantry. Launcelot, after an easy victory, only doomed him to
be carted in his turn.

At night he was received at another castle, with great apparent
hospitality, but found himself in the morning in a dungeon, and
loaded with chains. Consulting his ring, and finding that this was
an enchantment, he burst his chains, seized his armor in spite of
the visionary monsters who attempted to defend it, broke open the
gates of the tower, and continued his journey. At length his
progress was checked by a wide and rapid torrent, which could only
be passed on a narrow bridge, on which a false step would prove
his destruction. Launcelot, leading his horse by the bridle, and
making him swim by his side, passed over the bridge, and was
attacked as soon as he reached the bank by a lion and a leopard,
both of which he slew, and then, exhausted and bleeding, seated
himself on the grass, and endeavored to bind up his wounds, when
he was accosted by Brademagus, the father of Maleagans, whose
castle was then in sight, and at no great distance. This king, no
less courteous than his son was haughty and insolent, after
complimenting Sir Launcelot on the valor and skill he had
displayed in the perils of the bridge and the wild beasts, offered
him his assistance, and informed him that the queen was safe in
his castle, but could only be rescued by encountering Maleagans.
Launcelot demanded the battle for the next day, and accordingly it
took place, at the foot of the tower, and under the eyes of the
fair captive. Launcelot was enfeebled by his wounds, and fought
not with his usual spirit, and the contest for a time was
doubtful; till Guenever exclaimed, "Ah, Launcelot! my knight,
truly have I been told that thou art no longer worthy of me!"
These words instantly revived the drooping knight; he resumed at
once his usual superiority, and soon laid at his feet his haughty
adversary.

He was on the point of sacrificing him to his resentment, when
Guenever, moved by the entreaties of Brademagus, ordered him to
withhold the blow, and he obeyed. The castle and its prisoners
were now at his disposal. Launcelot hastened to the apartment of
the queen, threw himself at her feet, and was about to kiss her
hand, when she exclaimed, "Ah, Launcelot! why do I see thee again,
yet feel thee to be no longer worthy of me, after having been
disgracefully drawn about the country in a--" She had not time to
finish the phrase, for her lover suddenly started from her, and,
bitterly lamenting that he had incurred the displeasure of his
sovereign lady, rushed out of the castle, threw his sword and his
shield to the right and left, ran furiously into the woods, and
disappeared.

It seems that the story of the abominable cart, which haunted
Launcelot at every step, had reached the ears of Sir Kay, who had
told it to the queen, as a proof that her knight must have been
dishonored. But Guenever had full leisure to repent the haste with
which she had given credit to the tale. Three days elapsed, during
which Launcelot wandered without knowing where he went, till at
last he began to reflect that his mistress had doubtless been
deceived by misrepresentation, and that it was his duty to set her
right. He therefore returned, compelled Maleagans to release his
prisoners, and, taking the road by which they expected the arrival
of Sir Gawain, had the satisfaction of meeting him the next day;
after which the whole company proceeded gayly towards Camelot.





CHAPTER X

THE LADY OF SHALOTT


King Arthur proclaimed a solemn tournament to be held at
Winchester. The king, not less impatient than his knights for this
festival, set off some days before to superintend the
preparations, leaving the queen with her court at Camelot. Sir
Launcelot, under pretence of indisposition, remained behind also.
His intention was to attend the tournament--in disguise; and
having communicated his project to Guenever, he mounted his horse,
set off without any attendant, and, counterfeiting the feebleness
of age, took the most unfrequented road to Winchester, and passed
unnoticed as an old knight who was going to be a spectator of the
sports. Even Arthur and Gawain, who happened to behold him from
the windows of a castle under which he passed, were the dupes of
his disguise. But an accident betrayed him. His horse happened to
stumble, and the hero, forgetting for a moment his assumed
character, recovered the animal with a strength and agility so
peculiar to himself, that they instantly recognized the inimitable
Launcelot. They suffered him, however, to proceed on his journey
without interruption, convinced that his extraordinary feats of
arms must discover him at the approaching festival.

In the evening Launcelot was magnificently entertained as a
stranger knight at the neighboring castle of Shalott. The lord of
this castle had a daughter of exquisite beauty, and two sons
lately received into the order of knighthood, one of whom was at
that time ill in bed, and thereby prevented from attending the
tournament, for which both brothers had long made preparation.
Launcelot offered to attend the other, if he were permitted to
borrow the armor of the invalid, and the lord of Shalott, without
knowing the name of his guest, being satisfied from his appearance
that his son could not have a better assistant in arms, most
thankfully accepted the offer. In the meantime the young lady, who
had been much struck by the first appearance of the stranger
knight, continued to survey him with increased attention, and,
before the conclusion of supper, became so deeply enamoured of
him, that after frequent changes of color, and other symptoms
which Sir Launcelot could not possibly mistake, she was obliged to
retire to her chamber, and seek relief in tears. Sir Launcelot
hastened to convey to her, by means of her brother, the
information that his heart was already disposed of, but that it
would be his pride and pleasure to act as her knight at the
approaching tournament. The lady, obliged to be satisfied with
that courtesy, presented him her scarf to be worn at the
tournament.

Launcelot set off in the morning with the young knight, who, on
their approaching Winchester, carried him to the castle of a lady,
sister to the lord of Shalott, by whom they were hospitably
entertained. The next day they put on their armor, which was
perfectly plain and without any device, as was usual to youths
during the first year of knighthood, their shields being only
painted red, as some color was necessary to enable them to be
recognized by their attendants. Launcelot wore on his crest the
scarf of the maid of Shalott, and, thus equipped, proceeded to the
tournament, where the knights were divided into two companies, the
one commanded by Sir Galehaut, the other by King Arthur. Having
surveyed the combat for a short time from without the lists, and
observed that Sir Galehaut's party began to give way, they joined
the press and attacked the royal knights, the young man choosing
such adversaries as were suited to his strength, while his
companion selected the principal champions of the Round Table, and
successively overthrew Gawain, Bohort, and Lionel. The
astonishment of the spectators was extreme, for it was thought
that no one but Launcelot could possess such invincible force; yet
the favor on his crest seemed to preclude the possibility of his
being thus disguised, for Launcelot had never been known to wear
the badge of any but his sovereign lady. At length Sir Hector,
Launcelot's brother, engaged him, and, after a dreadful combat,
wounded him dangerously in the head, but was himself completely
stunned by a blow on the helmet, and felled to the ground; after
which the conqueror rode off at full speed, attended by his
companion.

They returned to the castle of Shalott, where Launcelot was
attended with the greatest care by the good earl, by his two sons,
and, above all, by his fair daughter, whose medical skill probably
much hastened the period of his recovery. His health was almost
completely restored, when Sir Hector, Sir Bohort, and Sir Lionel,
who, after the return of the court to Camelot, had undertaken the
quest of their relation, discovered him walking on the walls of
the castle. Their meeting was very joyful; they passed three days
in the castle amidst constant festivities, and bantered each other
on the events of the tournament. Launcelot, though he began by
vowing vengeance against the author of his wound, yet ended by
declaring that he felt rewarded for the pain by the pride he took
in witnessing his brother's extraordinary prowess. He then
dismissed them with a message to the queen, promising to follow
immediately, it being necessary that he should first take a formal
leave of his kind hosts, as well as of the fair maid of Shalott.

The young lady, after vainly attempting to detain him by her tears
and solicitations, saw him depart without leaving her any ground
for hope.

It was early summer when the tournament took place; but some
months had passed since Launcelot's departure, and winter was now
near at hand. The health and strength of the Lady of Shalott had
gradually sunk, and she felt that she could not live apart from
the object of her affections. She left the castle, and descending
to the river's brink placed herself in a boat, which she loosed
from its moorings, and suffered to bear her down the current
toward Camelot.

One morning, as Arthur and Sir Lionel looked from the window of
the tower, the walls of which were washed by a river, they
descried a boat richly ornamented, and covered with an awning of
cloth of gold, which appeared to be floating down the stream
without any human guidance. It struck the shore while they watched
it, and they hastened down to examine it. Beneath the awning they
discovered the dead body of a beautiful woman, in whose features
Sir Lionel easily recognized the lovely maid of Shalott. Pursuing
their search, they discovered a purse richly embroidered with gold
and jewels, and within the purse a letter, which Arthur opened,
and found addressed to himself and all the knights of the Round
Table, stating that Launcelot of the Lake, the most accomplished
of knights and most beautiful of men, but at the same time the
most cruel and inflexible, had by his rigor produced the death of
the wretched maiden, whose love was no less invincible than his
cruelty. The king immediately gave orders for the interment of the
lady with all the honors suited to her rank, at the same time
explaining to the knights the history of her affection for
Launcelot, which moved the compassion and regret of all.

Tennyson has chosen the story of the "Lady of Shalott" for the
subject of a poem. The catastrophe is told thus:

      "Under tower and balcony,
      By garden-wall and gallery,
      A gleaming shape she floated by,
      A corse between the houses high,
          Silent into Camelot.
      Out upon the wharfs they came,
      Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
      And round the prow they read her name,
          'The Lady of Shalott'

      "Who is this? and what is here?
      And in the lighted palace near
      Died the sound of royal cheer;
      And they crossed themselves for fear,

      All the knights at Camelot.
      But Launcelot mused a little space;
      He said, 'She has a lovely face;
      God in his mercy lend her grace,
          The Lady of Shalott.'"





CHAPTER XI

QUEEN GUENEVER'S PERIL


It happened at this time that Queen Guenever was thrown into great
peril of her life. A certain squire who was in her immediate
service, having some cause of animosity to Sir Gawain, determined
to destroy him by poison, at a public entertainment. For this
purpose he concealed the poison in an apple of fine appearance,
which he placed on the top of several others, and put the dish
before the queen, hoping that, as Sir Gawain was the knight of
greatest dignity, she would present the apple to him. But it
happened that a Scottish knight of high distinction, who arrived
on that day, was seated next to the queen, and to him as a
stranger she presented the apple, which he had no sooner eaten
than he was seized with dreadful pain, and fell senseless. The
whole court was, of course, thrown into confusion; the knights
rose from table, darting looks of indignation at the wretched
queen, whose tears and protestations were unable to remove their
suspicions. In spite of all that could be done the knight died,
and nothing remained but to order a magnificent funeral and
monument for him, which was done.

Some time after Sir Mador, brother of the murdered knight, arrived
at Arthur's court in quest of him. While hunting in the forest he
by chance came to the spot where the monument was erected, read
the inscription, and returned to court determined on immediate and
signal vengeance. He rode into the hall, loudly accused the queen
of treason, and insisted on her being given up for punishment,
unless she should find by a certain day a knight hardy enough to
risk his life in support of her innocence. Arthur, powerful as he
was, did not dare to deny the appeal, but was compelled with a
heavy heart to accept it, and Mador sternly took his departure,
leaving the royal couple plunged in terror and anxiety.

During all this time Launcelot was absent, and no one knew where
he was. He fled in anger from his fair mistress, upon being
reproached by her with his passion for the Lady of Shalott, which
she had hastily inferred from his wearing her scarf at the
tournament. He took up his abode with a hermit in the forest, and
resolved to think no more of the cruel beauty, whose conduct he
thought must flow from a wish to get rid of him. Yet calm
reflection had somewhat cooled his indignation, and he had begun
to wish, though hardly able to hope, for a reconciliation when the
news of Sir Mador's challenge fortunately reached his ears. The
intelligence revived his spirits, and he began to prepare with the
utmost cheerfulness for a contest which, if successful, would
insure him at once the affection of his mistress and the gratitude
of his sovereign.

The sad fate of the Lady of Shalott had ere this completely
acquitted Launcelot in the queen's mind of all suspicion of his
fidelity, and she lamented most grievously her foolish quarrel
with him, which now, at her time of need, deprived her of her most
efficient champion.

As the day appointed by Sir Mador was fast approaching, it became
necessary that she should procure a champion for her defence; and
she successively adjured Sir Hector, Sir Lionel, Sir Bohort, and
Sir Gawain to undertake the battle. She fell on her knees before
them, called heaven to witness her innocence of the crime alleged
against her, but was sternly answered by all that they could not
fight to maintain the innocence of one whose act, and the fatal
consequence of it, they had seen with their own eyes. She retired,
therefore, dejected and disconsolate; but the sight of the fatal
pile on which, if guilty, she was doomed to be burned, exciting
her to fresh effort, she again repaired to Sir Bohort, threw
herself at his feet, and piteously calling on him for mercy, fell
into a swoon. The brave knight was not proof against this. He
raised her up, and hastily promised that he would undertake her
cause, if no other or better champion should present himself. He
then summoned his friends, and told them his resolution; and as a
mortal combat with Sir Mador was a most fearful enterprise, they
agreed to accompany him in the morning to the hermitage in the
forest, where he proposed to receive absolution from the hermit,
and to make his peace with Heaven before he entered the lists. As
they approached the hermitage, they espied a knight riding in the
forest, whom they at once recognized as Sir Launcelot. Overjoyed
at the meeting, they quickly, in answer to his questions,
confirmed the news of the queen's imminent danger, and received
his instructions to return to court, to comfort her as well as
they could, but to say nothing of his intention of undertaking her
defence, which he meant to do in tne character of an unknown
adventurer.

On their return to the castle they found that mass was finished,
and had scarcely time to speak to the queen before they were
summoned into the hall to dinner. A general gloom was spread over
the countenances of all the guests. Arthur himself was unable to
conceal his dejection, and the wretched Guenever, motionless and
bathed in tears, sat in trembling expectation of Sir Mador's
appearance. Nor was it long ere he stalked into the hall, and with
a voice of thunder, rendered more impressive by the general
silence, demanded instant justice on the guilty party. Arthur
replied with dignity, that little of the day was yet spent, and
that perhaps a champion might yet be found capable of satisfying
his thirst for battle. Sir Bohort now rose from table, and shortly
returning in complete armor, resumed his place, after receiving
the embraces and thanks of the king, who now began to resume some
degree of confidence. Sir Mador, growing impatient, again repeated
his denunciations of vengeance, and insisted that the combat
should no longer be postponed.

In the height of the debate there came riding into the hall a
knight mounted on a black steed, and clad in black armor, with his
visor down, and lance in hand. "Sir," said the king, "is it your
will to alight and partake of our cheer?" "Nay, sir," he replied;
"I come to save a lady's life. The queen hath ill bestowed her
favors, and honored many a knight, that in her hour of need she
should have none to take her part. Thou that darest accuse her of
treachery, stand forth, for to-day shalt thou need all thy might."

Sir Mador, though surprised, was not appalled by the stern
challenge and formidable appearance of his antagonist, but
prepared for the encounter. At the first shock both were unhorsed.
They then drew their swords, and commenced a combat which lasted
from noon till evening, when Sir Mador, whose strength began to
fail, was felled to the ground by Launcelot, and compelled to sue
for mercy. The victor, whose arm was already raised to terminate
the life of his opponent, instantly dropped his sword, courteously
lifted up the fainting Sir Mador, frankly confessing that he had
never before encountered so formidable an enemy. The other, with
similar courtesy, solemnly renounced all further projects of
vengeance for his brother's death; and the two knights, now become
fast friends, embraced each other with the greatest cordiality. In
the meantime Arthur, having recognized Sir Launcelot, whose helmet
was now unlaced, rushed down into the lists, followed by all his
knights, to welcome and thank his deliverer. Guenever swooned with
joy, and the place of combat suddenly exhibited a scene of the
most tumultuous delight.

The general satisfaction was still further increased by the
discovery of the real culprit. Having accidentally incurred some
suspicion, he confessed his crime, and was publicly punished in
the presence of Sir Mador.

The court now returned to the castle, which, with the title of "La
Joyeuse Garde" bestowed upon it in memory of the happy event, was
conferred on Sir Launcelot by Arthur, as a memorial of his
gratitude.





CHAPTER XII

TRISTRAM AND ISOUDE


Meliadus was king of Leonois, or Lionesse, a country famous in the
annals of romance, which adjoined the kingdom of Cornwall, but has
now disappeared from the map, having been, it is said, overwhelmed
by the ocean. Meliadus was married to Isabella, sister of Mark,
king of Cornwall. A fairy fell in love with him, and drew him away
by enchantment while he was engaged in hunting. His queen set out
in quest of him, but was taken ill on her journey, and died,
leaving an infant son, whom, from the melancholy circumstances of
his birth, she called Tristram.

Gouvernail, the queen's squire, who had accompanied her, took
charge of the child, and restored him to his father, who had at
length burst the enchantments of the fairy, and returned home.

Meliadus after seven years married again, and the new queen, being
jealous of the influence of Tristram with his father, laid plots
for his life, which were discovered by Gouvernail, who in
consequence fled with the boy to the court of the king of France,
where Tristram was kindly received, and grew up improving in every
gallant and knightly accomplishment, adding to his skill in arms
the arts of music and of chess. In particular, he devoted himself
to the chase and to all woodland sports, so that he became
distinguished above all other chevaliers of the court for his
knowledge of all that relates to hunting. No wonder that Belinda,
the king's daughter, fell in love with him; but as he did not
return her passion, she, in a sudden impulse of anger, excited her
father against him, and he was banished the kingdom. The princess
soon repented of her act, and in despair destroyed herself, having
first written a most tender letter to Tristram, sending him at the
same time a beautiful and sagacious dog, of which she was very
fond, desiring him to keep it as a memorial of her. Meliadus was
now dead, and as his queen, Tristram's stepmother, held the
throne, Gouvernail was afraid to carry his pupil to his native
country, and took him to Cornwall, to his uncle Mark, who gave him
a kind reception.

King Mark resided at the castle of Tintadel, already mentioned in
the history of Uther and Igerne. In this court Tristram became
distinguished in all the exercises incumbent on a knight; nor was
it long before he had an opportunity of practically employing his
valor and skill. Moraunt, a celebrated champion, brother to the
queen of Ireland, arrived at the court, to demand tribute of King
Mark. The knights of Cornwall are in ill repute in romance for
their cowardice, and they exhibited it on this occasion. King Mark
could find no champion who dared to encounter the Irish knight,
till his nephew Tristram, who had not yet received the honors of
knighthood, craved to be admitted to the order, offering at the
same time to fight the battle of Cornwall against the Irish
champion. King Mark assented with reluctance; Tristram received
the accolade, which conferred knighthood upon him, and the place
and time were assigned for the encounter.

Without attempting to give the details of this famous combat, the
first and one of the most glorious of Tristram's exploits, we
shall only say that the young knight, though severely wounded,
cleft the head of Moraunt, leaving a portion of his sword in the
wound. Moraunt, half dead with his wound and the disgrace of his
defeat, hastened to hide himself in his ship, sailed away with all
speed for Ireland, and died soon after arriving in his own
country.

The kingdom of Cornwall was thus delivered from its tribute.
Tristram, weakened by loss of blood, fell senseless. His friends
flew to his assistance. They dressed his wounds, which in general
healed readily; but the lance of Moraunt was poisoned, and one
wound which it made yielded to no remedies, but grew worse day by
day. The surgeons could do no more. Tristram asked permission of
his uncle to depart, and seek for aid in the kingdom of Loegria
(England). With his consent he embarked, and after tossing for
many days on the sea, was driven by the winds to the coast of
Ireland. He landed, full of joy and gratitude that he had escaped
the peril of the sea; took his rote,[Footnote: A musical
instrument.] and began to play. It was a summer evening, and the
king of Ireland and his daughter, the beautiful Isoude, were at a
window which overlooked the sea. The strange harper was sent for,
and conveyed to the palace, where, finding that he was in Ireland,
whose champion he had lately slain, he concealed his name, and
called himself Tramtris. The queen undertook his cure, and by a
medicated bath gradually restored him to health. His skill in
music and in games occasioned his being frequently called to
court, and he became the instructor of the princess Isoude in
minstrelsy and poetry, who profited so well under his care, that
she soon had no equal in the kingdom, except her instructor.

At this time a tournament was held, at which many knights of the
Round Table, and others, were present. On the first day a Saracen
prince, named Palamedes, obtained the advantage over all. They
brought him to the court, and gave him a feast, at which Tristram,
just recovering from his wound, was present. The fair Isoude
appeared on this occasion in all her charms. Palamedes could not
behold them without emotion, and made no effort to conceal his
love. Tristram perceived it, and the pain he felt from jealousy
taught him how dear the fair Isoude had already become to him.

Next day the tournament was renewed. Tristram, still feeble from
his wound, rose during the night, took his arms, and concealed
them in a forest near the place of the contest, and, after it had
begun, mingled with the combatants. He overthrew all that
encountered him, in particular Palamedes, whom he brought to the
ground with a stroke of his lance, and then fought him hand to
hand, bearing off the prize of the tourney. But his exertions
caused his wound to reopen; he bled fast, and in this sad state,
yet in triumph, they bore him to the palace. The fair Isoude
devoted herself to his relief with an interest which grew more
vivid day by day; and her skilful care soon restored him to
health.

It happened one day that a damsel of the court, entering the
closet where Tristram's arms were deposited, perceived that a part
of the sword had been broken off. It occurred to her that the
missing portion was like that which was left in the skull of
Moraunt, the Irish champion. She imparted her thought to the
queen, who compared the fragment taken from her brother's wound
with the sword of Tristram, and was satisfied that it was part of
the same, and that the weapon of Tristram was that which reft her
brother's life. She laid her griefs and resentment before the
king, who satisfied himself with his own eyes of the truth of her
suspicions. Tristram was cited before the whole court, and
reproached with having dared to present himself before them after
having slain their kinsman. He acknowledged that he had fought
with Moraunt to settle the claim for tribute, and said that it was
by force of winds and waves alone that he was thrown on their
coast. The queen demanded vengeance for the death of her brother;
the fair Isoude trembled and grew pale, but a murmur rose from all
the assembly that the life of one so handsome and so brave should
not be taken for such a cause, and generosity finally triumphed
over resentment in the mind of the king. Tristram was dismissed in
safety, but commanded to leave the kingdom without delay, and
never to return thither under pain of death Tristram went back,
with restored health, to Cornwall.

King Mark made his nephew give him a minute recital of his
adventures. Tristram told him all minutely; but when he came to
speak of the fair Isoude he described her charms with a warmth and
energy such as none but a lover could display. King Mark was
fascinated with the description, and, choosing a favorable time,
demanded a boon[Footnote: "Good faith was the very corner-stone of
chivalry. Whenever a knight's word was pledged (it mattered not
how rashly) it was to be redeemed at any price. Hence the sacred
obligation of the boon granted by a knight to his suppliant.
Instances without number occur in romance, in which a knight, by
rashly granting an indefinite boon, was obliged to do or suffer
something extremely to his prejudice. But it is not in romance
alone that we find such singular instances of adherence to an
indefinite promise. The history of the times presents authentic
transactions equally embarrassing and absurd"--SCOTT, note to Sir
Tristram.] of his nephew, who readily granted it. The king made
him swear upon the holy reliques that he would fulfil his
commands. Then Mark directed him to go to Ireland, and obtain for
him the fair Isoude to be queen of Cornwall.

Tristram believed it was certain death for him to return to
Ireland; and how could he act as ambassador for his uncle in such
a cause? Yet, bound by his oath, he hesitated not for an instant.
He only took the precaution to change his armor. He embarked for
Ireland; but a tempest drove him to the coast of England, near
Camelot, where King Arthur was holding his court, attended by the
knights of the Round Table, and many others, the most illustrious
in the world.

Tristram kept himself unknown. He took part in many justs; he
fought many combats, in which he covered himself with glory. One
day he saw among those recently arrived the king of Ireland,
father of the fair Isoude. This prince, accused of treason against
his liege sovereign, Arthur, came to Camelot to free himself from
the charge. Blaanor, one of the most redoubtable warriors of the
Round Table, was his accuser, and Argius, the king, had neither
youthful vigor nor strength to encounter him. He must therefore
seek a champion to sustain his innocence. But the knights of the
Round Table were not at liberty to fight against one another,
unless in a quarrel of their own. Argius heard of the great renown
of the unknown knight; he also was witness of his exploits. He
sought him, and conjured him to adopt his defence, and on his oath
declared that he was innocent of the crime of which he was
accused. Tristram readily consented, and made himself known to the
king, who on his part promised to reward his exertions, if
successful, with whatever gift he might ask.

Tristram fought with Blaanor, and overthrew him, and held his life
in his power. The fallen warrior called on him to use his right of
conquest, and strike the fatal blow. "God forbid," said Tristram,
"that I should take the life of so brave a knight!" He raised him
up and restored him to his friends. The judges of the field
decided that the king of Ireland was acquitted of the charge
against him, and they led Tristram in triumph to his tent. King
Argius, full of gratitude, conjured Tristram to accompany him to
his kingdom. They departed together, and arrived in Ireland; and
the queen, forgetting her resentment for her brother's death,
exhibited to the preserver of her husband's life nothing but
gratitude and good-will.

How happy a moment for Isoude, who knew that her father had
promised his deliverer whatever boon he might ask! But the unhappy
Tristram gazed on her with despair, at the thought of the cruel
oath which bound him. His magnanimous soul subdued the force of
his love. He revealed the oath which he had taken, and with
trembling voice demanded the fair Isoude for his uncle.

Argius consented, and soon all was prepared for the departure of
Isoude. Brengwain, her favorite maid of honor, was to accompany
her. On the day of departure the queen took aside this devoted
attendant, and told her that she had observed that her daughter
and Tristram were attached to one another, and that to avert the
bad effects of this inclination she had procured from a powerful
fairy a potent philter (love-draught), which she directed
Brengwain to administer to Isoude and to King Mark on the evening
of their marriage.

Isoude and Tristram embarked together. A favorable wind filled the
sails, and promised them a fortunate voyage. The lovers gazed upon
one another, and could not repress their sighs. Love seemed to
light up all his fires on their lips, as in their hearts. The day
was warm; they suffered from thirst. Isoude first complained.
Tristram descried the bottle containing the love-draught, which
Brengwain had been so imprudent as to leave in sight. He took it,
gave some of it to the charming Isoude, and drank the remainder
himself. The dog Houdain licked the cup. The ship arrived in
Cornwall, and Isoude was married to King Mark, The old monarch was
delighted with his bride, and his gratitude to Tristram was
unbounded. He loaded him with honors, and made him chamberlain of
his palace, thus giving him access to the queen at all times.

In the midst of the festivities of the court which followed the
royal marriage, an unknown minstrel one day presented himself,
bearing a harp of peculiar construction. He excited the curiosity
of King Mark by refusing to play upon it till he should grant him
a boon. The king having promised to grant his request, the
minstrel, who was none other than the Saracen knight, Sir
Palamedes, the lover of the fair Isoude, sung to the harp a lay,
in which he demanded Isoude as the promised gift. King Mark could
not by the laws of knighthood withhold the boon. The lady was
mounted on her horse, and led away by her triumphant lover.
Tristram, it is needless to say, was absent at the time, and did
not return until their departure. When he heard what had taken
place he seized his rote, and hastened to the shore, where Isoude
and her new master had already embarked. Tristram played upon his
rote, and the sound reached the ears of Isoude, who became so
deeply affected, that Sir Palamedes was induced to return with her
to land, that they might see the unknown musician. Tristram
watched his opportunity, seized the lady's horse by the bridle,
and plunged with her into the forest, tauntingly informing his
rival that "what he had got by the harp he had lost by the rote."
Palamedes pursued, and a combat was about to commence, the result
of which must have been fatal to one or other of these gallant
knights; but Isoude stepped between them, and, addressing
Palamedes, said, "You tell me that you love me; you will not then
deny me the request I am about to make?" "Lady," he replied, "I
will perform your bidding." "Leave, then," said she, "this
contest, and repair to King Arthur's court, and salute Queen
Guenever from me; tell her that there are in the world but two
ladies, herself and I, and two lovers, hers and mine; and come
thou not in future in any place where I am." Palamedes burst into
tears. "Ah, lady," said he, "I will obey you; but I beseech you
that you will not for ever steel your heart against me."
"Palamedes," she replied, "may I never taste of joy again if I
ever quit my first love." Palamedes then went his way. The lovers
remained a week in concealment, after which Tristram restored
Isoude to her husband, advising him in future to reward minstrels
in some other way.

The king showed much gratitude to Tristram, but in the bottom of
his heart he cherished bitter jealousy of him. One day Tristram
and Isoude were alone together in her private chamber. A base and
cowardly knight of the court, named Andret, spied them through a
keyhole. They sat at a table of chess, but were not attending to
the game. Andret brought the king, having first raised his
suspicions, and placed him so as to watch their motions. The king
saw enough to confirm his suspicions, and he burst into the
apartment with his sword drawn, and had nearly slain Tristram
before he was put on his guard. But Tristram avoided the blow,
drew his sword, and drove before him the cowardly monarch, chasing
him through all the apartments of the palace, giving him frequent
blows with the flat of his sword, while he cried in vain to his
knights to save him. They were not inclined, or did not dare, to
interpose in his behalf.

A proof of the great popularity of the tale of Sir Tristram is the
fact that the Italian poets, Boiardo and Ariosto, have founded
upon it the idea of the two enchanted fountains, which produced
the opposite effects of love and hatred. Boiardo thus describes
the fountain of hatred:

   "Fair was that fountain, sculptured all of gold,
    With alabaster sculptured, rich and rare;
    And in its basin clear thou might'st behold
    The flowery marge reflected fresh and fair.
    Sage Merlin framed the font,--so legends bear,--
    When on fair Isoude doated Tristram brave,
    That the good errant knight, arriving there,
    Might quaff oblivion in the enchanted wave,
  And leave his luckless love, and 'scape his timeless grave.

   'But ne'er the warrior's evil fate allowed
    His steps that fountain's charmed verge to gain.
    Though restless, roving on adventure proud,
    He traversed oft the land and oft the main."





CHAPTER XIII

TRISTRAM AND ISOUDE (Continued)


After this affair Tristram was banished from the kingdom, and
Isoude shut up in a tower, which stood on the bank of a river.
Tristram could not resolve to depart without some further
communication with his beloved; so he concealed himself in the
forest, till at last he contrived to attract her attention, by
means of twigs which he curiously peeled, and sent down the stream
under her window. By this means many secret interviews were
obtained. Tristram dwelt in the forest, sustaining himself by
game, which the dog Houdain ran down for him; for this faithful
animal was unequalled in the chase, and knew so well his master's
wish for concealment, that, in the pursuit of his game, he never
barked. At length Tristram departed, but left Houdain with Isoude,
as a remembrancer of him.

Sir Tristram wandered through various countries, achieving the
most perilous enterprises, and covering himself with glory, yet
unhappy at the separation from his beloved Isoude. At length King
Mark's territory was invaded by a neighboring chieftain, and he
was forced to summon his nephew to his aid. Tristram obeyed the
call, put himself at the head of his uncle's vassals, and drove
the enemy out of the country. Mark was full of gratitude, and
Tristram, restored to favor and to the society of his beloved
Isoude, seemed at the summit of happiness. But a sad reverse was
at hand.

Tristram had brought with him a friend named Pheredin, son of the
king of Brittany. This young knight saw Queen Isoude, and could
not resist her charms. Knowing the love of his friend for the
queen, and that that love was returned, Pheredin concealed his
own, until his health failed, and he feared he was drawing near
his end. He then wrote to the beautiful queen that he was dying
for love of her.

The gentle Isoude, in a moment of pity for the friend of Tristram,
returned him an answer so kind and compassionate that it restored
him to life. A few days afterwards Tristram found this letter. The
most terrible jealousy took possession of his soul; he would have
slain Pheredin, who with difficulty made his escape. Then Tristram
mounted his horse, and rode to the forest, where for ten days he
took no rest nor food. At length he was found by a damsel lying
almost dead by the brink of a fountain. She recognized him, and
tried in vain to rouse his attention. At last recollecting his
love for music she went and got her harp, and played thereon.
Tristram was roused from his reverie; tears flowed; he breathed
more freely; he took the harp from the maiden, and sung this lay,
with a voice broken with sobs:

    "Sweet I sang in former days,
     Kind love perfected my lays:
     Now my art alone displays
     The woe that on my being preys.

    "Charming love, delicious power,
     Worshipped from my earliest hour,
     Thou who life on all dost shower,
     Love! my life thou dost devour.

    "In death's hour I beg of thee,
     Isoude, dearest enemy,
     Thou who erst couldst kinder be,
     When I'm gone, forget not me.

    "On my gravestone passers-by
     Oft will read, as low I lie,
     'Never wight in love could vie
     With Tristram, yet she let him die.'"

Tristram, having finished his lay, wrote it off and gave it to the
damsel, conjuring her to present it to the queen.

Meanwhile Queen Isoude was inconsolable at the absence of
Tristram. She discovered that it was caused by the fatal letter
which she had written to Pheredin. Innocent, but in despair at the
sad effects of her letter, she wrote another to Pheredin, charging
him never to see her again. The unhappy lover obeyed this cruel
decree. He plunged into the forest, and died of grief and love in
a hermit's cell.

Isoude passed her days in lamenting the absence and unknown fate
of Tristram. One day her jealous husband, having entered her
chamber unperceived, overheard her singing the following lay:

    "My voice to piteous wail is bent,
     My harp to notes of languishment;
     Ah, love! delightsome days be meant
     For happier wights, with hearts content.

    "Ah, Tristram' far away from me,
     Art thou from restless anguish free?
     Ah! couldst thou so one moment be,
     From her who so much loveth thee?"

The king hearing these words burst forth in a rage; but Isoude was
too wretched to fear his violence. "You have heard me," she said;
"I confess it all. I love Tristram, and always shall love him.
Without doubt he is dead, and died for me. I no longer wish to
live. The blow that shall finish my misery will be most welcome."

The king was moved at the distress of the fair Isoude, and perhaps
the idea of Tristram's death tended to allay his wrath. He left
the queen in charge of her women, commanding them to take especial
care lest her despair should lead her to do harm to herself.

Tristram meanwhile, distracted as he was, rendered a most
important service to the shepherds by slaying a gigantic robber
named Taullas, who was in the habit of plundering their flocks and
rifling their cottages. The shepherds, in their gratitude to
Tristram, bore him in triumph to King Mark to have him bestow on
him a suitable reward. No wonder Mark failed to recognize in the
half-clad, wild man, before him his nephew Tristram; but grateful
for the service the unknown had rendered he ordered him to be well
taken care of, and gave him in charge to the queen and her women.
Under such care Tristram rapidly recovered his serenity and his
health, so that the romancer tells us he became handsomer than
ever. King Mark's jealousy revived with Tristram's health and good
looks, and, in spite of his debt of gratitude so lately increased,
he again banished him from the court.

Sir Tristram left Cornwall, and proceeded into the land of Loegria
(England) in quest of adventures. One day he entered a wide
forest. The sound of a little bell showed him that some inhabitant
was near. He followed the sound, and found a hermit, who informed
him that he was in the forest of Arnantes, belonging to the fairy
Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, who, smitten with love for King
Arthur, had found means to entice him to this forest, where by
enchantments she held him a prisoner, having deprived him of all
memory of who and what he was. The hermit informed him that all
the knights of the Round Table were out in search of the king, and
that he (Tristram) was now in the scene of the most grand and
important adventures.

This was enough to animate Tristram in the search. He had not
wandered far before he encountered a knight of Arthur's court, who
proved to be Sir Kay the Seneschal, who demanded of him whence he
came. Tristram answering, "From Cornwall," Sir Kay did not let
slip the opportunity of a joke at the expense of the Cornish
knight. Tristram chose to leave him in his error, and even
confirmed him in it; for meeting some other knights Tristram
declined to just with them. They spent the night together at an
abbey, where Tristram submitted patiently to all their jokes. The
Seneschal gave the word to his companions that they should set out
early next day, and intercept the Cornish knight on his way, and
enjoy the amusement of seeing his fright when they should insist
on running a tilt with him. Tristram next morning found himself
alone; he put on his armor, and set out to continue his quest. He
soon saw before him the Seneschal and the three knights, who
barred the way, and insisted on a just. Tristram excused himself a
long time; at last he reluctantly took his stand. He encountered
them, one after the other, and overthrew them all four, man and
horse, and then rode off, bidding them not to forget their friend
the knight of Cornwall.

Tristram had not ridden far when he met a damsel, who cried out,
"Ah, my lord! hasten forward, and prevent a horrid treason!"
Tristram flew to her assistance, and soon reached a spot where he
beheld a knight, whom three others had borne to the ground, and
were unlacing his helmet in order to cut off his head.

Tristram flew to the rescue, and slew with one stroke of his lance
one of the assailants. The knight, recovering his feet, sacrificed
another to his vengeance, and the third made his escape. The
rescued knight then raised the visor of his helmet, and a long
white beard fell down upon his breast. The majesty and venerable
air of this knight made Tristram suspect that it was none other
than Arthur himself, and the prince confirmed his conjecture.
Tristram would have knelt before him, but Arthur received him in
his arms, and inquired his name and country; but Tristram declined
to disclose them, on the plea that he was now on a quest requiring
secrecy. At this moment the damsel who had brought Tristram to the
rescue darted forward, and, seizing the king's hand, drew from his
finger a ring, the gift of the fairy, and by that act dissolved
the enchantment. Arthur, having recovered his reason and his
memory, offered to Tristram to attach him to his court, and to
confer honors and dignities upon him; but Tristram declined all,
and only consented to accompany him till he should see him safe in
the hands of his knights. Soon after, Hector de Marys rode up, and
saluted the king, who on his part introduced him to Tristram as
one of the bravest of his knights. Tristram took leave of the king
and his faithful follower, and continued his quest.

We cannot follow Tristram through all the adventures which filled
this epoch of his history. Suffice it to say, he fulfilled on all
occasions the duty of a true knight, rescuing the oppressed,
redressing wrongs, abolishing evil customs, and suppressing
injustice, thus by constant action endeavoring to lighten the
pains of absence from her he loved. In the meantime Isoude,
separated from her dear Tristram, passed her days in languor and
regret. At length she could no longer resist the desire to hear
some news of her lover. She wrote a letter, and sent it by one of
her damsels, niece of her faithful Brengwain. One day Tristram,
weary with his exertions, had dismounted and laid himself down by
the side of a fountain and fallen asleep. The damsel of Queen
Isoude arrived at the same fountain, and recognized Passebreul,
the horse of Tristram, and presently perceived his master asleep.
He was thin and pale, showing evident marks of the pain he
suffered in separation from his beloved. She awakened him, and
gave him the letter which she bore, and Tristram enjoyed the
pleasure, so sweet to a lover, of hearing from and talking about
the object of his affections. He prayed the damsel to postpone her
return till after the magnificent tournament which Arthur had
proclaimed should have taken place, and conducted her to the
castle of Persides, a brave and loyal knight, who received her
with great consideration.

Tristram conducted the damsel of Queen Isoude to the tournament,
and had her placed in the balcony among the ladies of the queen.

    "He glanced and saw the stately galleries,
    Dame, damsel, each through worship of their Queen
    White-robed in honor of the stainless child,
    And some with scatter'd jewels, like a bank
    Of maiden snow mingled with sparks of fire.
    He looked but once, and veiled his eyes again."

    --The Last Tournament.

He then joined the tourney. Nothing could exceed his strength and
valor. Launcelot admired him, and by a secret presentiment
declined to dispute the honor of the day with a knight so gallant
and so skilful. Arthur descended from the balcony to greet the
conqueror; but the modest and devoted Tristram, content with
having borne off the prize in the sight of the messenger of
Isoude, made his escape with her, and disappeared.

The next day the tourney recommenced. Tristram assumed different
armor, that he might not be known; but he was soon detected by the
terrible blows that he gave, Arthur and Guenever had no doubt that
it was the same knight who had borne off the prize of the day
before. Arthur's gallant spirit was roused. After Launcelot of the
Lake and Sir Gawain he was accounted the best knight of the Round
Table. He went privately and armed himself, and came into the
tourney in undistinguished armor. He ran a just with Tristram,
whom he shook in his seat; but Tristram, who did not know him,
threw him out of the saddle. Arthur recovered himself, and content
with having made proof of the stranger knight bade Launcelot
finish the adventure, and vindicate the honor of the Round Table.
Sir Launcelot, at the bidding of the monarch, assailed Tristram,
whose lance was already broken in former encounters. But the law
of this sort of combat was that the knight after having broken his
lance must fight with his sword, and must not refuse to meet with
his shield the lance of his antagonist. Tristram met Launcelot's
charge upon his shield, which that terrible lance could not fail
to pierce. It inflicted a wound upon Tristram's side, and,
breaking, left the iron in the wound. But Tristram also with his
sword smote so vigorously on Launcelot's casque that he cleft it,
and wounded his head. The wound was not deep, but the blood flowed
into his eyes, and blinded him for a moment, and Tristram, who
thought himself mortally wounded, retired from the field.
Launcelot declared to the king that he had never received such a
blow in his life before.

Tristram hastened to Gouvernail, his squire, who drew forth the
iron, bound up the wound, and gave him immediate ease. Tristram
after the tournament kept retired in his tent, but Arthur, with
the consent of all the knights of the Round Table, decreed him the
honors of the second day. But it was no longer a secret that the
victor of the two days was the same individual, and Gouvernail,
being questioned, confirmed the suspicions of Launcelot and Arthur
that it was no other than Sir Tristram of Leonais, the nephew of
the king of Cornwall.

King Arthur, who desired to reward his distinguished valor, and
knew that his Uncle Mark had ungratefully banished him, would have
eagerly availed himself of the opportunity to attach Tristram to
his court,--all the knights of the Round Table declaring with
acclamation that it would be impossible to find a more worthy
companion. But Tristram had already departed in search of
adventures, and the damsel of Queen Isoude returned to her
mistress.





CHAPTER XIV

SIR TRISTRAM'S BATTLE WITH SIR LAUNCELOT


Sir Tristram rode through a forest and saw ten men fighting, and
one man did battle against nine. So he rode to the knights and
cried to them, bidding them cease their battle, for they did
themselves great shame, so many knights to fight against one. Then
answered the master of the knights (his name was Sir Breuse sans
Pitie, who was at that time the most villanous knight living):
"Sir knight, what have ye to do to meddle with us? If ye be wise
depart on your way as you came, for this knight shall not escape
us." "That were pity," said Sir Tristram, "that so good a knight
should be slain so cowardly; therefore I warn you I will succor
him with all my puissance."

Then Sir Tristram alighted off his horse, because they were on
foot, that they should not slay his horse. And he smote on the
right hand and on the left so vigorously that well-nigh at every
stroke he struck down a knight. At last they fled, with Breuse
sans Pitie, into the tower, and shut Sir Tristram without the
gate. Then Sir Tristram returned back to the rescued knight, and
found him sitting under a tree, sore wounded. "Fair knight," said
he, "how is it with you?" "Sir knight," said Sir Palamedes, for he
it was, "I thank you of your great goodness, for ye have rescued
me from death." "What is your name?" said Sir Tristram. He said,
"My name is Sir Palamedes." "Say ye so?" said Sir Tristram; "now
know that thou art the man in the world that I most hate;
therefore make thee ready, for I will do battle with thee." "What
is your name?" said Sir Palamedes. "My name is Sir Tristram, your
mortal enemy." "It may be so," said Sir Palamedes; "but you have
done overmuch for me this day, that I should fight with you.
Moreover, it will be no honor for you to have to do with me, for
you are fresh and I am wounded. Therefore, if you will needs have
to do with me, assign me a day, and I shall meet you without
fail." "You say well, "said Sir Tristram; "now I assign you to
meet me in the meadow by the river of Camelot, where Merlin set
the monument." So they were agreed. Then they departed and took
their ways diverse. Sir Tristram passed through a great forest
into a plain, till he came to a priory, and there he reposed him
with a good man six days.

Then departed Sir Tristram, and rode straight into Camelot to the
monument of Merlin, and there he looked about him for Sir
Palamedes. And he perceived a seemly knight, who came riding
against him all in white, with a covered shield. When he came nigh
Sir Tristram said aloud, "Welcome, sir knight, and well and truly
have you kept your promise." Then they made ready their shields
and spears, and came together with all the might of their horses,
so fiercely, that both the horses and the knights fell to the
earth. And as soon as they might they quitted their horses, and
struck together with bright swords as men of might, and each
wounded the other wonderfully sore, so that the blood ran out upon
the grass. Thus they fought for the space of four hours and never
one would speak to the other one word. Then at last spake the
white knight, and said, "Sir, thou fightest wonderful well, as
ever I saw knight; therefore, if it please you, tell me your
name." "Why dost thou ask my name?" said Sir Tristram; "art thou
not Sir Palamedes?" "No, fair knight," said he, "I am Sir
Launcelot of the Lake." "Alas!" said Sir Tristram, "what have I
done? for you are the man of the world that I love best." "Fair
knight," said Sir Launcelot, "tell me your name." "Truly," said
he, "my name is Sir Tristram de Lionesse." "Alas! alas!" said Sir
Launcelot, "what adventure has befallen me!" And therewith Sir
Launcelot kneeled down and yielded him up his sword; and Sir
Tristram kneeled down and yielded him up his sword; and so either
gave other the degree. And then they both went to the stone, and
sat them down upon it and took off their helms and each kissed the
other a hundred times. And then anon they rode toward Camelot, and
on the way they met with Sir Gawain and Sir Gaheris, that had made
promise to Arthur never to come again to the court till they had
brought Sir Tristram with them.

"Return again," said Sir Launcelot, "for your quest is done; for I
have met with Sir Tristram. Lo, here he is in his own person."
Then was Sir Gawain glad, and said to Sir Tristram, "Ye are
welcome." With this came King Arthur, and when he wist there was
Sir Tristram, he ran unto him, and took him by the hand, and said,
"Sir Tristram, ye are as welcome as any knight that ever came to
this court." Then Sir Tristram told the king how he came thither
for to have had to do with Sir Palamedes, and how he had rescued
him from Sir Breuse sans Pitie and the nine knights. Then King
Arthur took Sir Tristram by the hand, and went to the Table Round,
and Queen Guenever came, and many ladies with her, and all the
ladies said with one voice, "Welcome, Sir Tristram." "Welcome,"
said the knights. "Welcome," said Arthur, "for one of the best of
knights, and the gentlest of the world, and the man of most
worship; for of all manner of hunting thou bearest the prize, and
of all measures of blowing thou art the beginning, and of all the
terms of hunting and hawking ye are the inventor, and of all
instruments of music ye are the best skilled; therefore, gentle
knight," said Arthur, "ye are welcome to this court." And then
King Arthur made Sir Tristram knight of the Table Round with great
nobley and feasting as can be thought.

SIR TRISTRAM AS A SPORTSMAN

Tristram is often alluded to by the Romancers as the great
authority and model in all matters relating to the chase. In the
"Faery Queene," Tristram, in answer to the inquiries of Sir
Calidore, informs him of his name and parentage, and concludes:

    "All which my days I have not lewdly spent,
    Nor spilt the blossom of my tender years
    In idlesse; but, as was convenient,
    Have trained been with many noble feres
    In gentle thewes, and such like seemly leers;
    'Mongst which my most delight hath always been
    To hunt the salvage chace, amongst my peers,
    Of all that rangeth in the forest green,
    Of which none is to me unknown that yet was seen.

    "Ne is there hawk which mantleth on her perch,
    Whether high towering or accosting low,
    But I the measure of her flight do search,
    And all her prey, and all her diet know.
    Such be our joys, which in these forests grow."

[Footnote: Feres, companions; thewes, labors; leers, learning.]





CHAPTER XV

THE ROUND TABLE


The famous enchanter, Merlin, had exerted all his skill in
fabricating the Round Table. Of the seats which surrounded it he
had constructed thirteen, in memory of the thirteen Apostles.
Twelve of these seats only could be occupied, and they only by
knights of the highest fame; the thirteenth represented the seat
of the traitor Judas. It remained always empty. It was called the
PERILOUS SEAT, ever since a rash and haughty Saracen knight had
dared to place himself in it, when the earth opened and swallowed
him up.

    "In our great hall there stood a vacant chair,
    Fashion'd by Merlin ere he past away,
    And carven with strange figures; and in and out
    The figures, like a serpent, ran a scroll
    Of letters in a tongue no man could read
    And Merlin call'd it 'The Siege perilous,'
    Perilous for good and ill; 'for there,' he said,
    'No man could sit but he should lose himself.'"

    --The Holy Grail.

A magic power wrote upon each seat the name of the knight who was
entitled to sit in it. No one could succeed to a vacant seat
unless he surpassed in valor and glorious deeds the knight who had
occupied it before him; without this qualification he would be
violently repelled by a hidden force. Thus proof was made of all
those who presented themselves to replace any companions of the
order who had fallen.

One of the principal seats, that of Moraunt of Ireland, had been
vacant ten years, and his name still remained over it ever since
the time when that distinguished champion fell beneath the sword
of Sir Tristram. Arthur now took Tristram by the hand and led him
to that seat. Immediately the most melodious sounds were heard,
and exquisite perfumes filled the place; the name of Moraunt
disappeared, and that of Tristram blazed forth in light. The rare
modesty of Tristram had now to be subjected to a severe task; for
the clerks charged with the duty of preserving the annals of the
Round Table attended, and he was required by the law of his order
to declare what feats of arms he had accomplished to entitle him
to take that seat. This ceremony being ended, Tristram received
the congratulations of all his companions. Sir Launcelot and
Guenever took the occasion to speak to him of the fair Isoude, and
to express their wish that some happy chance might bring her to
the kingdom of Loegria.

While Tristram was thus honored and caressed at the court of King
Arthur, the most gloomy and malignant jealousy harassed the soul
of Mark. He could not look upon Isoude without remembering that
she loved Tristram, and the good fortune of his nephew goaded him
to thoughts of vengeance. He at last resolved to go disguised into
the kingdom of Loegria, attack Tristram by stealth, and put him to
death. He took with him two knights, brought up in his court, who
he thought were devoted to him; and, not willing to leave Isoude
behind, named two of her maidens to attend her, together with her
faithful Brengwain, and made them accompany him.

Having arrived in the neighborhood of Camelot, Mark imparted his
plan to his two knights, but they rejected it with horror; nay,
more, they declared that they would no longer remain in his
service; and left him, giving him reason to suppose that they
should repair to the court to accuse him before Arthur. It was
necessary for Mark to meet and rebut their accusation; so, leaving
Isoude in an abbey, he pursued his way alone to Camelot.

Mark had not ridden far when he encountered a party of knights of
Arthur's court, and would have avoided them, for he knew their
habit of challenging to a just every stranger knight whom they
met. But it was too late. They had seen his armor, and recognized
him as a Cornish knight, and at once resolved to have some sport
with him. It happened they had with them Daguenet, King Arthur's
fool, who, though deformed and weak of body, was not wanting in
courage. The knights as Mark approached laid their plan that
Daguenet should personate Sir Launcelot of the Lake, and challenge
the Cornish knight. They equipped him in armor belonging to one of
their number who was ill, and sent him forward to the cross-road
to defy the strange knight. Mark, who saw that his antagonist was
by no means formidable in appearance, was not disinclined to the
combat; but when the dwarf rode towards him, calling out that he
was Sir Launcelot of the Lake, his fears prevailed, he put spurs
to his horse, and rode away at full speed, pursued by the shouts
and laughter of the party.

Meanwhile Isoude, remaining at the abbey with her faithful
Brengwain, found her only amusement in walking occasionally in a
forest adjoining the abbey. There, on the brink of a fountain
girdled with trees, she thought of her love, and sometimes joined
her voice and her harp in lays reviving the memory of its pains or
pleasures. One day the caitiff knight, Breuse the Pitiless, heard
her voice, concealed himself, and drew near. She sang:

    "Sweet silence, shadowy bower, and verdant lair,
       Ye court my troubled spirit to repose,
     Whilst I, such dear remembrance rises there,
       Awaken every echo with my woes

    "Within these woods, by nature's hand arrayed,
       A fountain springs, and feeds a thousand flowers;
    Ah! how my groans do all its murmurs aid!
       How my sad eyes do swell it with their showers!

    "What doth my knight the while? to him is given
       A double meed; in love and arms' emprise,
    Him the Round Table elevates to heaven!
       Tristram! ah me! he hears not Isoude's cries."

Breuse the Pitiless, who like most other caitiffs had felt the
weight of Tristram's arm, and hated him accordingly, at hearing
his name breathed forth by the beautiful songstress, impelled by a
double impulse, rushed forth from his concealment and laid hands
on his victim. Isoude fainted, and Brengwain filled the air with
her shrieks. Breuse carried Isoude to the place where he had left
his horse; but the animal had got away from his bridle, and was at
some distance. He was obliged to lay down his fair burden, and go
in pursuit of his horse. Just then a knight came up, drawn by the
cries of Brengwain, and demanded the cause of her distress. She
could not speak, but pointed to her mistress lying insensible on
the ground.

Breuse had by this time returned, and the cries of Brengwain,
renewed at seeing him, sufficiently showed the stranger the cause
of the distress. Tristram spurred his horse towards Breuse, who,
not unprepared, ran to the encounter. Breuse was unhorsed, and lay
motionless, pretending to be dead; but when the stranger knight
left him to attend to the distressed damsels, he mounted his
horse, and made his escape.

The knight now approached Isoude, gently raised her head, drew
aside the golden hair which covered her countenance, gazed thereon
for an instant, uttered a cry, and fell back insensible. Brengwain
came; her cares soon restored her mistress to life, and they then
turned their attention to the fallen warrior. They raised his
visor, and discovered the countenance of Sir Tristram. Isoude
threw herself on the body of her lover, and bedewed his face with
her tears. Their warmth revived the knight, and Tristram on
awaking found himself in the arms of his dear Isoude.

It was the law of the Round Table that each knight after his
admission should pass the next ten days in quest of adventures,
during which time his companions might meet him in disguised armor
and try their strength with him. Tristram had now been out seven
days, and in that time had encountered many of the best knights of
the Round Table, and acquitted himself with honor. During the
remaining three days, Isoude remained at the abbey, under his
protection, and then set out with her maidens, escorted by Sir
Tristram, to rejoin King Mark at the court of Camelot.

This happy journey was one of the brightest epochs in the lives of
Tristram and Isoude. He celebrated it by a lay upon the harp in a
peculiar measure, to which the French give the name of Triolet.

    "With fair Isoude, and with love,
     Ah! how sweet the life I lead!
     How blest for ever thus to rove,
     With fair Isoude, and with love!
     As she wills, I live and move,
     And cloudless days to days succeed:
     With fair Isoude, and with love,
     Ah! how sweet the life I lead!

    "Journeying on from break of day,
     Feel you not fatigued, my fair?
     Yon green turf invites to play;
     Journeying on from day to day,
     Ah! let us to that shade away,
     Were it but to slumber there!
     Journeying on from break of day,
     Feel you not fatigued, my fair?"

They arrived at Camelot, where Sir Launcelot received them most
cordially. Isoude was introduced to King Arthur and Queen
Guenever, who welcomed her as a sister. As King Mark was held in
arrest under the accusation of the two Cornish knights, Queen
Isoude could not rejoin her husband, and Sir Launcelot placed his
castle of La Joyeuse Garde at the disposal of his friends, who
there took up their abode.

King Mark, who found himself obliged to confess the truth of the
charge against him, or to clear himself by combat with his
accusers, preferred the former, and King Arthur, as his crime had
not been perpetrated, remitted the penalty, only enjoining upon
him, under pain of his signal displeasure, to lay aside all
thoughts of vengeance against his nephew. In the presence of the
king and his court all parties were formally reconciled; Mark and
his queen departed for their home, and Tristram remained at
Arthur's court.





CHAPTER XVI

SIR PALAMEDES


While Sir Tristram and the fair Isoude abode yet at La Joyeuse
Garde, Sir Tristram rode forth one day, without armor, having no
weapon but his spear and his sword. And as he rode he came to a
place where he saw two knights in battle, and one of them had
gotten the better and the other lay overthrown. The knight who had
the better was Sir Palamedes. When Sir Palamedes knew Sir
Tristram, he cried out, "Sir Tristram, now we be met, and ere we
depart we will redress our old wrongs." "As for that," said Sir
Tristram, "there never yet was Christian man that might make his
boast that I ever fled from him, and thou that art a Saracen shalt
never say that of me." And therewith Sir Tristram made his horse
to run, and with all his might came straight upon Sir Palamedes,
and broke his spear upon him. Then he drew his sword and struck at
Sir Palamedes six great strokes, upon his helm. Sir Palamedes saw
that Sir Tristram had not his armor on, and he marvelled at his
rashness and his great folly; and said to himself, "If I meet and
slay him, I am shamed wheresoever I go." Then Sir Tristram cried
out and said, "Thou coward knight, why wilt thou not do battle
with me? for have thou no doubt I shall endure all thy malice."
"Ah, Sir Tristram!" said Sir Palamedes, "thou knowest I may not
fight with thee for shame; for thou art here naked, and I am
armed; now I require that thou answer me a question that I shall
ask you." "Tell me what it is," said Sir Tristram. "I put the
case," said Palamedes, "that you were well armed, and I naked as
ye be; what would you do to me now, by your true knighthood?"
"Ah!" said Sir Tristram, "now I understand thee well, Sir
Palamedes; and, as God bless me, what I shall say shall not be
said for fear that I have of thee. But if it were so, thou
shouldest depart from me, for I would not have to do with thee."
"No more will I with thee," said Sir Palamedes, "and therefore
ride forth on thy way." "As for that, I may choose," said Sir
Tristram, "either to ride or to abide. But, Sir Palamedes, I
marvel at one thing,--that thou art so good a knight, yet that
thou wilt not be christened." "As for that," said Sir Palamedes,
"I may not yet be christened, for a vow which I made many years
ago; yet in my heart I believe in our Saviour and his mild mother,
Mary; but I have yet one battle to do, and when that is done I
will be christened, with a good will." "By my head," said Sir
Tristram, "as for that one battle, thou shalt seek it no longer;
for yonder is a knight, whom you have smitten down. Now help me to
be clothed in his armor, and I will soon fulfil thy vow." "As ye
will," said Sir Palamedes, "so shall it be." So they rode both
unto that knight that sat on a bank; and Sir Tristram saluted him,
and he full weary saluted him again. "Sir," said Sir Tristram, "I
pray you to lend me your whole armor; for I am unarmed, and I must
do battle with this knight." "Sir," said the hurt knight, "you
shall have it, with a right good will," Then Sir Tristram unarmed
Sir Galleron, for that was the name of the hurt knight, and he as
well as he could helped to arm Sir Tristram. Then Sir Tristram
mounted upon his own horse, and in his hand he took Sir Galleron's
spear. Thereupon Sir Palamedes was ready, and so they came hurling
together, and each smote the other in the midst of their shields.
Sir Palamedes' spear broke, and Sir Tristram smote down the horse.
Then Sir Palamedes leapt from his horse, and drew out his sword.
That saw Sir Tristram, and therewith he alighted and tied his
horse to a tree. Then they came together as two wild beasts,
lashing the one on the other, and so fought more than two hours;
and often Sir Tristram smote such strokes at Sir Palamedes that he
made him to kneel, and Sir Palamedes broke away Sir Tristram's
shield, and wounded him. Then Sir Tristram was wroth out of
measure, and he rushed to Sir Palamedes and wounded him passing
sore through the shoulder, and by fortune smote Sir Palamedes'
sword out of his hand And if Sir Palamedes had stooped for his
sword Sir Tristram had slain him. Then Sir Palamedes stood and
beheld his sword with a full sorrowful heart. "Now," said Sir
Tristram, "I have thee at a vantage, as thou hadst me to-day; but
it shall never be said, in court, or among good knights, that Sir
Tristram did slay any knight that was weaponless; therefore take
thou thy sword, and let us fight this battle to the end." Then
spoke Sir Palamedes to Sir Tristram: "I have no wish to fight this
battle any more. The offence that I have done unto you is not so
great but that, if it please you, we may be friends. All that I
have offended is for the love of the queen, La Belle Isoude, and I
dare maintain that she is peerless among ladies; and for that
offence ye have given me many grievous and sad strokes, and some I
have given you again. Wherefore I require you, my lord Sir
Tristram, forgive me all that I have offended you, and this day
have me unto the next church; and first I will be clean confessed,
and after that see you that I be truly baptized, and then we will
ride together unto the court of my lord, King Arthur, so that we
may be there at the feast of Pentecost." "Now take your horse,"
said Sir Tristram, "and as you have said, so shall it be done." So
they took their horses, and Sir Galleron rode with them. When they
came to the church of Carlisle, the bishop commanded to fill a
great vessel with water; and when he had hallowed it, he then
confessed Sir Palamedes clean, and christened him, and Sir
Tristram and Sir Galleron were his godfathers. Then soon after
they departed, and rode towards Camelot, where the noble King
Arthur and Queen Guenever were keeping a court royal. And the king
and all the court were glad that Sir Palamedes was christened.
Then Sir Tristram returned again to La Joyeuse Garde, and Sir
Palamedes went his way.

Not long after these events Sir Gawain returned from Brittany, and
related to King Arthur the adventure which befell him in the
forest of Breciliande, how Merlin had there spoken to him, and
enjoined him to charge the king to go without delay upon the quest
of the Holy Greal. While King Arthur deliberated Tristram
determined to enter upon the quest, and the more readily, as it
was well known to him that this holy adventure would, if achieved,
procure him the pardon of all his sins. He immediately departed
for the kingdom of Brittany, hoping there to obtain from Merlin
counsel as to the proper course to pursue to insure success.





CHAPTER XVII

SIR TRISTRAM


On arriving in Brittany Tristram found King Hoel engaged in a war
with a rebellious vassal, and hard pressed by his enemy. His best
knights had fallen in a late battle, and he knew not where to turn
for assistance. Tristram volunteered his aid. It was accepted; and
the army of Hoel, led by Tristram, and inspired by his example,
gained a complete victory. The king, penetrated by the most lively
sentiments of gratitude, and having informed himself of Tristram's
birth, offered him his daughter in marriage. The princess was
beautiful and accomplished, and bore the same name with the Queen
of Cornwall; but this one is designated by the Romancers as Isoude
of the White Hands, to distinguish her from Isoude the Fair.

How can we describe the conflict that agitated the heart of
Tristram? He adored the first Isoude, but his love for her was
hopeless, and not unaccompanied by remorse. Moreover, the sacred
quest on which he had now entered demanded of him perfect purity
of life. It seemed as if a happy destiny had provided for him in
the charming princess Isoude of the White Hands the best security
for all his good resolutions. This last reflection determined him.
They were married, and passed some months in tranquil happiness at
the court of King Hoel. The pleasure which Tristram felt in his
wife's society increased day by day. An inward grace seemed to
stir within him from the moment when he took the oath to go on the
quest of the Holy Greal; it seemed even to triumph over the power
of the magic love-potion.

The war, which had been quelled for a time, now burst out anew.
Tristram as usual was foremost in every danger. The enemy was
worsted in successive conflicts, and at last shut himself up in
his principal city. Tristram led on the attack of the city. As he
mounted a ladder to scale the walls he was struck on the head by a
fragment of rock, which the besieged threw down upon him. It bore
him to the ground, where he lay insensible.

As soon as he recovered consciousness he demanded to be carried to
his wife. The princess, skilled in the art of surgery, would not
suffer any one but herself to touch her beloved husband. Her fair
hands bound up his wounds; Tristram kissed them with gratitude,
which began to grow into love. At first the devoted cares of
Isoude seemed to meet with great success; but after a while these
flattering appearances vanished, and, in spite of all her care,
the malady grew more serious day by day.

In this perplexity, an old squire of Tristram's reminded his
master that the princess of Ireland, afterwards queen of Cornwall,
had once cured him under circumstances quite as discouraging. He
called Isoude of the White Hands to him, told her of his former
cure, added that he believed that the Queen Isoude could heal him,
and that he felt sure that she would come to his relief, if sent
for.

Isoude of the White Hands consented that Gesnes, a trusty man and
skilful navigator, should be sent to Cornwall. Tristram called
him, and, giving him a ring, "Take this," he said, "to the Queen
of Cornwall. Tell her that Tristram, near to death, demands her
aid. If you succeed in bringing her with you, place white sails to
your vessel on your return, that we may know of your success when
the vessel first heaves in sight. But if Queen Isoude refuses, put
on black sails; they will be the presage of my impending death."

Gesnes performed his mission successfully. King Mark happened to
be absent from his capital, and the queen readily consented to
return with the bark to Brittany. Gesnes clothed his vessel in the
whitest of sails, and sped his way back to Brittany.

Meantime the wound of Tristram grew more desperate day by day. His
strength, quite prostrated, no longer permitted him to be carried
to the seaside daily, as had been his custom from the first moment
when it was possible for the bark to be on the way homeward. He
called a young damsel, and gave her in charge to keep watch in the
direction of Cornwall, and to come and tell him the color of the
sails of the first vessel she should see approaching.

When Isoude of the White Hands consented that the queen of
Cornwall should be sent for, she had not known all the reasons
which she had for fearing the influence which renewed intercourse
with that princess might have on her own happiness. She had now
learned more, and felt the danger more keenly. She thought, if she
could only keep the knowledge of the queen's arrival from her
husband, she might employ in his service any resources which her
skill could supply, and still avert the dangers which she
apprehended. When the vessel was seen approaching, with its white
sails sparkling in the sun, the damsel, by command of her
mistress, carried word to Tristram that the sails were black.

Tristram, penetrated with inexpressible grief, breathed a profound
sigh, turned away his face, and said, "Alas, my beloved! we shall
never see one another again!" Then he commended himself to God,
and breathed his last.

The death of Tristram was the first intelligence which the queen
of Cornwall heard on landing. She was conducted almost senseless
into the chamber of Tristram, and expired holding him in her arms.

Tristram, before his death, had requested that his body should be
sent to Cornwall, and that his sword, with a letter he had
written, should be delivered to King Mark. The remains of Tristram
and Isoude were embarked in a vessel, along with the sword, which
was presented to the king of Cornwall. He was melted with
tenderness when he saw the weapon which slew Moraunt of Ireland,--
which had so often saved his life, and redeemed the honor of his
kingdom. In the letter Tristram begged pardon of his uncle, and
related the story of the amorous draught.

Mark ordered the lovers to be buried in his own chapel. From the
tomb of Tristram there sprung a vine, which went along the walls,
and descended into the grave of the queen. It was cut down three
times, but each time sprung up again more vigorous than before,
and this wonderful plant has ever since shaded the tombs of
Tristram and Isoude.

Spenser introduces Sir Tristram in his "Faery Queene." In Book
VI., Canto ii., Sir Calidore encounters in the forest a young
hunter, whom he thus describes:

    "Him steadfastly he marked, and saw to be
    A goodly youth of amiable grace,
    Yet but a slender slip, that scarce did see
    Yet seventeen yeares; but tall and faire of face,
    That sure he deemed him borne of noble race.
    All in a woodman's jacket he was clad
    Of Lincoln greene, belayed with silver lace;
    And on his head an hood with aglets sprad,
    And by his side his hunter's horne he hanging had.

[Footnote: Aglets, points or tags]

    "Buskins he wore of costliest cordawayne,
    Pinckt upon gold, and paled part per part,
    As then the guize was for each gentle swayne.
    In his right hand he held a trembling dart,
    Whose fellow he before had sent apart;
    And in his left he held a sharp bore-speare,
    With which he wont to launch the salvage heart
    Of many a lyon, and of many a beare,
  That first unto his hand in chase did happen neare."

[Footnote: PINCKT UPON GOLD, ETC., adorned with golden points, or
eyelets, and regularly intersected with stripes. PALED (in
heraldry), striped]





CHAPTER XVIII

PERCEVAL


The father and two elder brothers of Perceval had fallen in battle
or tournaments, and hence, as the last hope of his family, his
mother retired with him into a solitary region, where he was
brought up in total ignorance of arms and chivalry. He was allowed
no weapon but "a lyttel Scots spere," which was the only thing of
all "her lordes faire gere" that his mother carried to the wood
with her. In the use of this he became so skilful, that he could
kill with it not only the animals of the chase for the table, but
even birds on the wing. At length, however, Perceval was roused to
a desire of military renown by seeing in the forest five knights
who were in complete armor. He said to his mother, "Mother, what
are those yonder?" "They are angels, my son," said she. "By my
faith, I will go and become an angel with them." And Perceval went
to the road and met them. "Tell me, good lad," said one of them,
"sawest thou a knight pass this way either today or yesterday?" "I
know not," said he, "what a knight is." "Such an one as I am,"
said the knight. "If thou wilt tell me what I ask thee, I will
tell thee what thou askest me." "Gladly will I do so," said Sir
Owain, for that was the knight's name. "What is this?" demanded
Perceval, touching the saddle. "It is a saddle," said Owain. Then
he asked about all the accoutrements which he saw upon the men and
the horses, and about the arms, and what they were for, and how
they were used. And Sir Owain showed him all those things fully.
And Perceval in return gave him such information as he had

Then Perceval returned to his mother, and said to her, "Mother,
those were not angels, but honorable knights." Then his mother
swooned away. And Perceval went to the place where they kept the
horses that carried firewood and provisions for the castle, and he
took a bony, piebald horse, which seemed to him the strongest of
them. And he pressed a pack into the form of a saddle, and with
twisted twigs he imitated the trappings which he had seen upon the
horses. When he came again to his mother, the countess had
recovered from her swoon. "My son," said she, "desirest thou to
ride forth?" "Yes, with thy leave," said he. "Go forward, then,"
she said, "to the court of Arthur, where there are the best and
the noblest and the most bountiful of men, and tell him thou art
Perceval, the son of Pelenore, and ask of him to bestow knighthood
on thee. And whenever thou seest a church, repeat there thy pater-
noster; and if thou see meat and drink, and hast need of them,
thou mayest take them. If thou hear an outcry of one in distress,
proceed toward it, especially if it be the cry of a woman, and
render her what service thou canst. If thou see a fair jewel, win
it, for thus shalt thou acquire fame; yet freely give it to
another, for thus thou shalt obtain praise. If thou see a fair
woman, pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love."

After this discourse Perceval mounted the horse and taking a
number of sharp-pointed sticks in his hand he rode forth. And he
rode far in the woody wilderness without food or drink. At last he
came to an opening in the wood where he saw a tent, and as he
thought it might be a church he said his pater-noster to it. And
he went towards it; and the door of the tent was open. And
Perceval dismounted and entered the tent. In the tent he found a
maiden sitting, with a golden frontlet on her forehead and a gold
ring on her hand. And Perceval said, "Maiden, I salute you, for my
mother told me whenever I met a lady I must respectfully salute
her." Perceiving in one corner of the tent some food, two flasks
full of wine, and some boar's flesh roasted, he said, "My mother
told me, whenever I saw meat and drink to take it." And he ate
greedily, for he was very hungry. The maiden said, "Sir, thou
hadst best go quickly from here, for fear that my friends should
come, and evil should befall you." But Perceval said, "My mother
told me wheresoever I saw a fair jewel to take it," and he took
the gold ring from her finger, and put it on his own; and he gave
the maiden his own ring in exchange for hers; then he mounted his
horse and rode away.

Perceval journeyed on till he arrived at Arthur's court. And it so
happened that just at that time an uncourteous knight had offered
Queen Guenever a gross insult. For when her page was serving the
queen with a golden goblet, this knight struck the arm of the page
and dashed the wine in the queen's face and over her stomacher.
Then he said, "If any have boldness to avenge this insult to
Guenever, let him follow me to the meadow." So the knight took his
horse and rode to the meadow, carrying away the golden goblet. And
all the household hung down their heads and no one offered to
follow the knight to take vengeance upon him. For it seemed to
them that no one would have ventured on so daring an outrage
unless he possessed such powers, through magic or charms, that
none could be able to punish him. Just then, behold, Perceval
entered the hall upon the bony, piebald horse, with his uncouth
trappings. In the centre of the hall stood Kay the Seneschal.
"Tell me, tall man," said Perceval, "is that Arthur yonder?" "What
wouldst thou with Arthur?" asked Kay. "My mother told me to go to
Arthur and receive knighthood from him." "By my faith," said he,
"thou art all too meanly equipped with horse and with arms." Then
all the household began to jeer and laugh at him. But there was a
certain damsel who had been a whole year at Arthur's court, and
had never been known to smile. And the king's fool [Footnote: A
fool was a common appendage of the courts of those days when this
romance was written. A fool was the ornament held in next
estimation to a dwarf. He wore a white dress with a yellow bonnet,
and carried a bell or bawble in his hand. Though called a fool,
his words were often weighed and remembered as if there were a
sort of oracular meaning in them.] had said that this damsel would
not smile till she had seen him who would be the flower of
chivalry. Now this damsel came up to Perceval and told him,
smiling, that if he lived he would be one of the bravest and best
of knights. "Truly," said Kay, "thou art ill taught to remain a
year at Arthur's court, with choice of society, and smile on no
one, and now before the face of Arthur and all his knights to call
such a man as this the flower of knighthood;" and he gave her a
box on the ear, that she fell senseless to the ground. Then said
Kay to Perceval, "Go after the knight who went hence to the
meadow, overthrow him and recover the golden goblet, and possess
thyself of his horse and arms, and thou shalt have knighthood." "I
will do so, tall man," said Perceval. So he turned his horse's
head toward the meadow. And when he came there, the knight was
riding up and down, proud of his strength and valor and noble
mien. "Tell me," said the knight, "didst thou see any one coming
after me from the court?" "The tall man that was there," said
Perceval, "told me to come and overthrow thee, and to take from
thee the goblet and thy horse and armor for myself." "Silence!"
said the knight; "go back to the court, and tell Arthur either to
come himself, or to send some other to fight with me; and unless
he do so quickly, I will not wait for him." "By my faith," said
Perceval, "choose thou whether it shall be willingly or
unwillingly, for I will have the horse and the arms and the
goblet." Upon this the knight ran at him furiously, and struck him
a violent blow with the shaft of his spear, between the neck and
the shoulder. "Ha, ha, lad!" said Perceval, "my mother's servants
were not used to play with me in this wise; so thus will I play
with thee." And he threw at him one of his sharp-pointed sticks,
and it struck him in the eye, and came out at the back of his
head, so that he fell down lifeless.

"Verily," said Sir Owain, the son of Urien, to Kay the Seneschal,
"thou wast ill-advised to send that madman after the knight, for
he must either be overthrown or flee, and either way it will be a
disgrace to Arthur and his warriors; therefore will I go to see
what has befallen him." So Sir Owain went to the meadow, and he
found Perceval trying in vain to get the dead knight's armor off,
in order to clothe himself with it. Sir Owain unfastened the
armor, and helped Perceval to put it on, and taught him how to put
his foot in the stirrup, and use the spur; for Perceval had never
used stirrup nor spur, but rode without saddle, and urged on his
horse with a stick. Then Owain would have had him return to the
court to receive the praise that was his due; but Perceval said,
"I will not come to the court till I have encountered the tall man
that is there, to revenge the injury he did to the maiden. But
take thou the goblet to Queen Guenever, and tell King Arthur that,
wherever I am, I will be his vassal, and will do him what profit
and service I can." And Sir Owain went back to the court, and
related all these things to Arthur and Guenever, and to all the
household.

And Perceval rode forward. And he came to a lake on the side of
which was a fair castle, and on the border of the lake he saw a
hoary-headed man sitting upon a velvet cushion, and his attendants
were fishing in the lake. When the hoary-headed man beheld
Perceval approaching, he arose and went into the castle. Perceval
rode to the castle, and the door was open, and he entered the
hall. And the hoary-headed man received Perceval courteously, and
asked him to sit by him on the cushion. When it was time the
tables were set, and they went to meat. And when they had finished
their meat the hoary-headed man asked Perceval if he knew how to
fight with the sword "I know not," said Perceval, "but were I to
be taught, doubtless I should." And the hoary-headed man said to
him, "I am thy uncle, thy mother's brother; I am called King
Pecheur.[Footnote: The word means both FISHER and SINNER.] Thou
shalt remain with me a space, in order to learn the manners and
customs of different countries, and courtesy and noble bearing.
And this do thou remember, if thou seest aught to cause thy
wonder, ask not the meaning of it; if no one has the courtesy to
inform thee, the reproach will not fall upon thee, but upon me
that am thy teacher." While Perceval and his uncle discoursed
together, Perceval beheld two youths enter the hall bearing a
golden cup and a spear of mighty size, with blood dropping from
its point to the ground. And when all the company saw this they
began to weep and lament. But for all that, the man did not break
off his discourse with Perceval. And as he did not tell him the
meaning of what he saw, he forebore to ask him concerning it. Now
the cup that Perceval saw was the Sangreal, and the spear the
sacred spear; and afterwards King Pecheur removed with those
sacred relics into a far country.

One evening Perceval entered a valley, and came to a hermit's
cell; and the hermit welcomed him gladly, and there he spent the
night. And in the morning he arose, and when he went forth,
behold! a shower of snow had fallen in the night, and a hawk had
killed a wild-fowl in front of the cell. And the noise of the
horse had scared the hawk away, and a raven alighted on the bird.
And Perceval stood and compared the blackness of the raven and the
whiteness of the snow and the redness of the blood to the hair of
the lady that best he loved, which was blacker than jet, and to
her skin, which was whiter than the snow, and to the two red spots
upon her cheeks, which were redder than the blood upon the snow.

Now Arthur and his household were in search of Perceval, and by
chance they came that way. "Know ye," said Arthur, "who is the
knight with the long spear that stands by the brook up yonder?"
"Lord," said one of them, "I will go and learn who he is." So the
youth came to the place where Perceval was, and asked him what he
did thus, and who he was. But Perceval was so intent upon his
thought that he gave him no answer. Then the youth thrust at
Perceval with his lance; and Perceval turned upon him, and struck
him to the ground. And when the youth returned to the king, and
told how rudely he had been treated, Sir Kay said, "I will go
myself." And when he greeted Perceval, and got no answer, he spoke
to him rudely and angrily. And Perceval thrust at him with his
lance, and cast him down so that he broke his arm and his
shoulder-blade. And while he lay thus stunned his horse returned
back at a wild and prancing pace.

Then said Sir Gawain, surnamed the Golden-Tongued, because he was
the most courteous knight in Arthur's court: "It is not fitting
that any should disturb an honorable knight from his thought
unadvisedly; for either he is pondering some damage that he has
sustained, or he is thinking of the lady whom best he loves. If it
seem well to thee, lord, I will go and see if this knight has
changed from his thought, and if he has, I will ask him
courteously to come and visit thee."

And Perceval was resting on the shaft of his spear, pondering the
same thought, and Sir Gawain came to him, and said: "If I thought
it would be as agreeable to thee as it would be to me, I would
converse with thee. I have also a message from Arthur unto thee,
to pray thee to come and visit him. And two men have been before
on this errand." "That is true," said Perceval; "and uncourteously
they came. They attacked me, and I was annoyed thereat" Then he
told him the thought that occupied his mind, and Gawain said,
"This was not an ungentle thought, and I should marvel if it were
pleasant for thee to be drawn from it." Then said Perceval, "Tell
me, is Sir Kay in Arthur's court?" "He is," said Gawain; "and
truly he is the knight who fought with thee last." "Verily," said
Perceval, "I am not sorry to have thus avenged the insult to the
smiling maiden. "Then Perceval told him his name, and said, "Who
art thou?" And he replied, "I am Gawain." "I am right glad to meet
thee," said Perceval, "for I have everywhere heard of thy prowess
and uprightness; and I solicit thy fellowship." "Thou shalt have
it, by my faith; and grant me thine," said he. "Gladly will I do
so," answered Perceval.

So they went together to Arthur, and saluted him.

"Behold, lord," said Gawain, "him whom thou hast sought so long."
"Welcome unto thee, chieftain," said Arthur. And hereupon there
came the queen and her handmaidens, and Perceval saluted them. And
they were rejoiced to see him, and bade him welcome. And Arthur
did him great honor and respect and they returned towards
Caerleon.





CHAPTER XIX

THE SANGREAL, OR HOLY GRAAL


The Sangreal was the cup from which our Saviour drank at his last
supper. He was supposed to have given it to Joseph of Arimathea,
who carried it to Europe, together with the spear with which the
soldier pierced the Saviour's side. From generation to generation,
one of the descendants of Joseph of Arimathea had been devoted to
the guardianship of these precious relics; but on the sole
condition of leading a life of purity in thought, word, and deed.
For a long time the Sangreal was visible to all pilgrims, and its
presence conferred blessings upon the land in which it was
preserved. But at length one of those holy men to whom its
guardianship had descended so far forgot the obligation of his
sacred office as to look with unhallowed eye upon a young female
pilgrim whose robe was accidentally loosened as she knelt before
him. The sacred lance instantly punished his frailty,
spontaneously falling upon him, and inflicting a deep wound. The
marvellous wound could by no means be healed, and the guardian of
the Sangreal was ever after called "Le Roi Pescheur,"--The Sinner
King. The Sangreal withdrew its visible presence from the crowds
who came to worship, and an iron age succeeded to the happiness
which its presence had diffused among the tribes of Britain.

       "But then the times
    Grew to such evil that the Holy cup
    Was caught away to heaven and disappear'd."
                             --The Holy Grail.

We have told in the history of Merlin how that great prophet and
enchanter sent a message to King Arthur by Sir Gawain, directing
him to undertake the recovery of the Sangreal, informing him at
the same time that the knight who should accomplish that sacred
quest was already born, and of a suitable age to enter upon it.
Sir Gawain delivered his message, and the king was anxiously
revolving in his mind how best to achieve the enterprise, when, at
the vigil of Pentecost, all the fellowship of the Round Table
being met together at Camelot, as they sat at meat, suddenly there
was heard a clap of thunder, and then a bright light burst forth,
and every knight, as he looked on his fellow, saw him, in seeming,
fairer than ever before. All the hall was filled with sweet odors,
and every knight had such meat and drink as he best loved. Then
there entered into the hall the Holy Graal, covered with white
samite, so that none could see it, and it passed through the hall
suddenly, and disappeared. During this time no one spoke a word,
but when they had recovered breath to speak King Arthur said,
"Certainly we ought greatly to thank the Lord for what he hath
showed us this day." Then Sir Gawain rose up, and made a vow that
for twelve months and a day he would seek the Sangreal, and not
return till he had seen it, if so he might speed. When they of the
Round Table heard Sir Gawain say so, they arose, the most part of
them, and vowed the same. When King Arthur heard this, he was
greatly displeased, for he knew well that they might not gainsay
their vows. "Alas!" said he to Sir Gawain, "you have nigh slain me
with the vow and promise that ye have made, for ye have bereft me
of the fairest fellowship that ever were seen together in any
realm of the world; for when they shall depart hence, I am sure
that all shall never meet more in this world."

SIR GALAHAD

At that time there entered the hall a good old man, and with him
he brought a young knight, and these words he said: "Peace be with
you, fair lords." Then the old man said unto King Arthur, "Sir, I
bring you here a young knight that is of kings' lineage, and of
the kindred of Joseph of Arimathea, being the son of Dame Elaine,
the daughter of King Pelles, king of the foreign country." Now the
name of the young knight was Sir Galahad, and he was the son of
Sir Launcelot du Lac; but he had dwelt with his mother, at the
court of King Pelles, his grandfather, till now he was old enough
to bear arms, and his mother had sent him in the charge of a holy
hermit to King Arthur's court. Then Sir Launcelot beheld his son,
and had great joy of him. And Sir Bohort told his fellows, "Upon
my life, this young knight shall come to great worship." The noise
was great in all the court, so that it came to the queen. And she
said, "I would fain see him, for he must needs be a noble knight,
for so is his father." And the queen and her ladies all said that
he resembled much unto his father; and he was seemly and demure as
a dove, with all manner of good features, that in the whole world
men might not find his match. And King Arthur said, "God make him
a good man, for beauty faileth him not, as any that liveth."

Then the hermit led the young knight to the Siege Perilous; and he
lifted up the cloth, and found there letters that said, "This is
the seat of Sir Galahad, the good knight;" and he made him sit in
that seat. And all the knights of the Round Table marvelled
greatly at Sir Galahad, seeing him sit securely in that seat, and
said, "This is he by whom the Sangreal shall be achieved, for
there never sat one before in that seat without being mischieved."

On the next day the king said, "Now, at this quest of the Sangreal
shall all ye of the Round Table depart, and never shall I see you
again altogether; therefore I will that ye all repair to the
meadow of Camelot, for to just and tourney yet once more before ye
depart." But all the meaning of the king was to see Sir Galahad
proved. So then were they all assembled in the meadow. Then Sir
Galahad, by request of the king and queen, put on his harness and
his helm, but shield would he take none for any prayer of the
king. And the queen was in a tower, with all her ladies, to behold
that tournament. Then Sir Galahad rode into the midst of the
meadow; and there he began to break spears marvellously, so that
all men had wonder of him, for he surmounted all knights that
encountered with him, except two, Sir Launcelot and Sir Perceval.

    "So many knights, that all the people cried,
    And almost burst the barriers in their heat,
    Shouting 'Sir Galahad and Sir Perceval!'"

    --Sir Galahad

Then the king, at the queen's request, made him to alight, and
presented him to the queen; and she said, "Never two men resembled
one another more than he and Sir Launcelot, and therefore it is no
marvel that he is like him in prowess."

Then the king and the queen went to the minster, and the knights
followed them. And after the service was done they put on their
helms and departed, and there was great sorrow. They rode through
the streets of Camelot, and there was weeping of the rich and
poor; and the king turned away, and might not speak for weeping.
And so they departed, and every knight took the way that him best
liked.

Sir Galahad rode forth without shield, and rode four days, and
found no adventure. And on the fourth day he came to a white
abbey; and there he was received with great reverence, and led to
a chamber. He met there two knights, King Bagdemagus and Sir
Uwaine, and they made of him great solace. "Sirs," said Sir
Galahad, "what adventure brought you hither?" "Sir," said they,
"it is told us that within this place is a shield, which no man
may bear unless he be worthy; and if one unworthy should attempt
to bear it, it shall surely do him a mischief." Then King
Bagdemagus said, "I fear not to bear it, and that shall ye see to-
morrow."

So on the morrow they arose, and heard mass; then King Bagdemagus
asked where the adventurous shield was. Anon a monk led him behind
an altar, where the shield hung, as white as snow; but in the
midst there was a red cross. Then King Bagdemagus took the shield,
and bare it out of the minster; and he said to Sir Galahad, "If it
please you, abide here till ye know how I shall speed."

Then King Bagdemagus and his squire rode forth: and when they had
ridden a mile or two, they saw a goodly knight come towards them,
in white armor, horse and all; and he came as fast as his horse
might run, with his spear in the rest; and King Bagdemagus
directed his spear against him, and broke it upon the white
knight, but the other struck him so hard that he broke the mails,
and thrust him through the right shoulder, for the shield covered
him not, and so he bare him from his horse. Then the white knight
turned his horse and rode away.

Then the squire went to King Bagdemagus, and asked him whether he
were sore wounded or not. "I am sore wounded," said he, "and full
hardly shall I escape death." Then the squire set him on his
horse, and brought him to an abbey; and there he was taken down
softly, and unarmed, and laid in a bed, and his wound was looked
to, for he lay there long, and hardly escaped with his life. And
the squire brought the shield back to the abbey.

The next day Sir Galahad took the shield, and within a while he
came to the hermitage, where he met the white knight, and each
saluted the other courteously. "Sir," said Sir Galahad, "can you
tell me the marvel of the shield?" "Sir," said the white knight,
"that shield belonged of old to the gentle knight, Joseph of
Arimathea; and when he came to die he said, 'Never shall man bear
this shield about his neck but he shall repent it, unto the time
that Sir Galahad the good knight bear it, the last of my lineage,
the which shall do many marvellous deeds.'" And then the white
knight vanished away.

SIR GAWAIN

After Sir Gawain departed, he rode many days, both toward and
forward, and at last he came to the abbey where Sir Galahad took
the white shield. And they told Sir Gawain of the marvellous
adventure that Sir Galahad had done. "Truly," said Sir Gawain, "I
am not happy that I took not the way that he went, for, if I may
meet with him, I will not part from him lightly, that I may
partake with him all the marvellous adventures which he shall
achieve." "Sir," said one of the monks, "he will not be of your
fellowship." "Why?" said Sir Gawain. "Sir," said he, "because ye
be sinful, and he is blissful." Then said the monk, "Sir Gawain,
thou must do penance for thy sins." "Sir, what penance shall I
do?" "Such as I will show," said the good man. "Nay," said Sir
Gawain, "I will do no penance, for we knights adventurous often
suffer great woe and pain." "Well," said the good man; and he held
his peace. And Sir Gawain departed.

Now it happened, not long after this, that Sir Gawain and Sir
Hector rode together, and they came to a castle where was a great
tournament. And Sir Gawain and Sir Hector joined themselves to the
party that seemed the weaker, and they drove before them the other
party. Then suddenly came into the lists a knight, bearing a white
shield with a red cross, and by adventure he came by Sir Gawain,
and he smote him so hard that he clave his helm and wounded his
head, so that Sir Gawain fell to the earth. When Sir Hector saw
that, he knew that the knight with the white shield was Sir
Galahad, and he thought it no wisdom to abide him, and also for
natural love, that he was his uncle. Then Sir Galahad retired
privily, so that none knew where he had gone. And Sir Hector
raised up Sir Gawain, and said, "Sir, me seemeth your quest is
done." "It is done," said Sir Gawain; "I shall seek no further."
Then Gawain was borne into the castle, and unarmed, and laid in a
rich bed, and a leech found to search his wound. And Sir Gawain
and Sir Hector abode together, for Sir Hector would not away till
Sir Gawain were whole.





CHAPTER XX

THE SANGREAL (Continued)

SIR LAUNCELOT


Sir Launcelot rode overthwart and endlong in a wide forest, and
held no path but as wild adventure lee him.

    "My golden spurs now bring to me,
       And bring to me my richest mail,
     For to-morrow I go over land and sea
       In search of the Holy, Holy Grail

    Shall never a bed for me be spread,
    Nor shall a pillow be under my head,
    Till I begin my vow to keep.
    Here on the rushes will I sleep,
    And perchance there may come a vision true
    Ere day create the world anew"

                             --Lowell's Holy Grail.

And at last he came to a stone cross. Then Sir Launcelot looked
round him, and saw an old chapel. So he tied his horse to a tree,
and put off his shield, and hung it upon a tree; and then he went
into the chapel, and looked through a place where the wall was
broken. And within he saw a fair altar, full richly arrayed with
cloth of silk; and there stood a fair candlestick, which bare six
great candles, and the candlestick was of silver. When Sir
Launcelot saw this sight, he had a great wish to enter the chapel,
but he could find no place where he might enter. Then was he
passing heavy and dismayed. And he returned and came again to his
horse, and took off his saddle and his bridle, and let him
pasture; and unlaced his helm, and ungirded his sword, and laid
him down to sleep upon his shield before the cross.

And as he lay, half waking and half sleeping, he saw come by him
two palfreys, both fair and white, which bare a litter, on which
lay a sick knight. And when he was nigh the cross, he there abode
still. And Sir Launcelot heard him say, "O sweet Lord, when shall
this sorrow leave me, and when shall the holy vessel come by me
whereby I shall be healed?" And thus a great while complained the
knight, and Sir Launcelot heard it. Then Sir Launcelot saw the
candlestick, with the lighted tapers, come before the cross, but
he could see nobody that brought it. Also there came a salver of
silver and the holy vessel of the Sangreal; and therewithal the
sick knight sat him upright, and held up both his hands, and said,
"Fair, sweet Lord, which is here within the holy vessel, take heed
to me, that I may be whole of this great malady." And therewith,
upon his hands and upon his knees, he went so nigh that he touched
the holy vessel and kissed it. And anon he was whole. Then the
holy vessel went into the chapel again, with the candlestick and
the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not what became of it.

Then the sick knight rose up and kissed the cross; and anon his
squire brought him his arms and asked his lord how he did. "I
thank God right heartily," said he, "for, through the holy vessel,
I am healed. But I have great marvel of this sleeping knight, who
hath had neither grace nor power to awake during the time that the
holy vessel hath been here present." "I dare it right well say,"
said the squire, "that this same knight is stained with some
manner of deadly sin, whereof he was never confessed." So they
departed.

Then anon Sir Launcelot waked, and set himself upright, and
bethought him of what he had seen and whether it were dreams or
not. And he was passing heavy, and wist not what to do. And he
said: "My sin and my wretchedness hath brought me into great
dishonor. For when I sought worldly adventures and worldly
desires, I ever achieved them, and had the better in every place,
and never was I discomfited in any quarrel, were it right or
wrong. And now I take upon me the adventure of holy things, I see
and understand that mine old sin hindereth me, so that I had no
power to stir nor to speak when the holy blood appeared before
me." So thus he sorrowed till it was day, and heard the fowls of
the air sing. Then was he somewhat comforted.

Then he departed from the cross into the forest. And there he
found a hermitage, and a hermit therein, who was going to mass. So
when mass was done Sir Launcelot called the hermit to him, and
prayed him for charity to hear his confession. "With a good will,"
said the good man. And then he told that good man all his life,
and how he had loved a queen unmeasurably many years. "And all my
great deeds of arms that I have done I did the most part for the
queen's sake, and for her sake would I do battle, were it right or
wrong, and never did I battle all only for God's sake, but for to
win worship, and to cause me to be better beloved; and little or
naught I thanked God for it. I pray you counsel me."

"I will counsel you," said the hermit, "if ye will insure me that
ye will never come in that queen's fellowship as much as ye may
forbear." And then Sir Launcelot promised the hermit, by his
faith, that he would no more come in her company. "Look that your
heart and your mouth accord," said the good man, "and I shall
insure you that ye shall have more worship than ever ye had."

Then the good man enjoined Sir Launcelot such penance as he might
do, and he assailed Sir Launcelot and made him abide with him all
that day. And Sir Launcelot repented him greatly.

SIR PERCEVAL

Sir Perceval departed and rode till the hour of noon; and he met
in a valley about twenty men of arms. And when they saw Sir
Perceval, they asked him whence he was; and he answered: "Of the
court of King Arthur." Then they cried all at once, "Slay him."
But Sir Perceval smote the first to the earth, and his horse upon
him. Then seven of the knights smote upon his shield all at once,
and the remnant slew his horse, so that he fell to the earth. So
had they slain him or taken him, had not the good knight Sir
Galahad, with the red cross, come there by adventure. And when he
saw all the knights upon one, he cried out, "Save me that knight's
life." Then he rode toward the twenty men of arms as fast as his
horse might drive, with his spear in the rest, and smote the
foremost horse and man to the earth. And when his spear was
broken, he set his hand to his sword, and smote on the right hand
and on the left, that it was marvel to see; and at every stroke he
smote down one, or put him to rebuke, so that they would fight no
more, but fled to a thick forest, and Sir Galahad followed them.
And when Sir Perceval saw him chase them so, he made great sorrow
that his horse was slain. And he wist well it was Sir Galahad.
Then he cried aloud, "Ah, fair knight, abide, and suffer me to do
thanks unto thee; for right well have ye done for me." But Sir
Galahad rode so fast that at last he passed out of his sight. When
Sir Perceval saw that he would not turn, he said, "Now am I a very
wretch, and most unhappy above all other knights." So in his
sorrow he abode all that day till it was night; and then he was
faint, and laid him down and slept till midnight; and then he
awaked and saw before him a woman, who said unto him, "Sir
Perceval, what dost thou here?" He answered, "I do neither good,
nor great ill." "If thou wilt promise me," said she, "that thou
wilt fulfil my will when I summon thee, I will lend thee my own
horse, which shall bear thee whither thou wilt." Sir Perceval was
glad of her proffer, and insured her to fulfil all her desire.
"Then abide me here, and I will go fetch you a horse." And so she
soon came again, and brought a horse with her that was inky black.
When Perceval beheld that horse he marvelled, it was so great and
so well apparelled. And he leapt upon him and took no heed of
himself. And he thrust him with his spurs, and within an hour and
less he bare him four days' journey thence, until he came to a
rough water, which roared, and his horse would have borne him into
it. And when Sir Perceval came nigh the brim and saw the water so
boisterous he doubted to overpass it. And then he made the sign of
the cross on his forehead. When the fiend felt him so charged, he
shook off Sir Perceval, and went into the water crying and
roaring; and it seemed unto him that the water burned. Then Sir
Perceval perceived it was a fiend that would have brought him unto
his perdition. Then he commended himself unto God, and prayed our
Lord to keep him from all such temptations; and so he prayed all
that night till it was day. Then he saw that he was in a wild
place, that was closed with the sea nigh all about. And Sir
Perceval looked forth over the sea, and saw a ship come sailing
towards him; and it came and stood still under the rock. And when
Sir Perceval saw this, he hied him thither, and found the ship
covered with silk; and therein was a lady of great beauty, and
clothed so richly that none might be better.

And when she saw Sir Perceval, she saluted him, and Sir Perceval
returned her salutation. Then he asked her of her country and her
lineage. And she said, "I am a gentlewoman that am disinherited,
and was once the richest woman of the world." "Damsel," said Sir
Perceval, "who hath disinherited you? for I have great pity of
you." "Sir," said she, "my enemy is a great and powerful lord, and
aforetime he made much of me, so that of his favor and of my
beauty I had a little pride more than I ought to have had. Also I
said a word that pleased him not. So he drove me from his company
and from mine heritage. Therefore I know no good knight nor good
man, but I get him on my side if I may. And for that I know that
thou art a good knight, I beseech thee to help me."

Then Sir Perceval promised her all the help that he might, and she
thanked him.

And at that time the weather was hot, and she called to her a
gentlewoman, and bade her bring forth a pavilion. And she did so,
and pitched it upon the gravel. "Sir," said she, "now may ye rest
you in this heat of the day." Then he thanked her, and she put off
his helm and his shield, and there he slept a great while. Then he
awoke, and asked her if she had any meat, and she said yea, and so
there was set upon the table all manner of meats that he could
think on. Also he drank there the strongest wine that ever he
drank, and therewith he was a little chafed more than he ought to
be. With that he beheld the lady, and he thought she was the
fairest creature that ever he saw. And then Sir Perceval proffered
her love, and prayed her that she would be his. Then she refused
him in a manner, for the cause he should be the more ardent on
her, and ever he ceased not to pray her of love. And when she saw
him well enchafed, then she said, "Sir Perceval, wit you well I
shall not give ye my love, unless you swear from henceforth you
will be my true servant, and do no thing but that I shall command
you. Will you insure me this, as ye be a true knight?" "Yea," said
he, "fair lady, by the faith of my body." And as he said this, by
adventure and grace, he saw his sword lie on the ground naked, in
whose pommel was a red cross, and the sign of the crucifix
thereon. Then he made the sign of the cross on his forehead, and
therewith the pavilion shrivelled up, and changed into a smoke and
a black cloud. And the damsel cried aloud, and hasted into the
ship, and so she went with the wind roaring and yelling that it
seemed all the water burned after her. Then Sir Perceval made
great sorrow, and called himself a wretch, saying, "How nigh was I
lost!" Then he took his arms, and departed thence.





CHAPTER XXI

THE SANGREAL (Continued)

SIR BOHORT


When Sir Boliort departed from Camelot he met with a religious
man, riding upon an ass; and Sir Bohort saluted him. "What are
ye?" said the good man. "Sir," said Sir Bohort, "I am a knight
that fain would be counselled in the quest of the Sangreal." So
rode they both together till they came to a hermitage; and there
he prayed Sir Bohort to dwell that night with him. So he alighted,
and put away his armor, and prayed him that he might be confessed.
And they went both into the chapel, and there he was clean
confessed. And they ate bread and drank water together. "Now,"
said the good man, "I pray thee that thou eat none other till thou
sit at the table where the Sangreal shall be." "Sir," said Sir
Bohort, "but how know ye that I shall sit there?" "Yea," said the
good man, "that I know well; but there shall be few of your
fellows with you." Then said Sir Bohort, "I agree me thereto" And
the good man when he had heard his confession found him in so pure
a life and so stable that he marvelled thereof.

On the morrow, as soon as the day appeared, Sir Bohort departed
thence, and rode into a forest unto the hour of midday. And there
befell him a marvellous adventure. For he met, at the parting of
two ways, two knights that led Sir Lionel, his brother, all naked,
bound upon a strong hackney, and his hands bound before his
breast; and each of them held in his hand thorns wherewith they
went beating him, so that he was all bloody before and behind; but
he said never a word, but, as he was great of heart, he suffered
all that they did to him as though he had felt none anguish. Sir
Bohort prepared to rescue his brother. But he looked on the other
side of him, and saw a knight dragging along a fair gentlewoman,
who cried out, "Saint Mary! succor your maid!" And when she saw
Sir Bohort, she called to him, and said, "By the faith that ye owe
to knighthood, help me!" When Sir Bohort heard her say thus he had
such sorrow that he wist not what to do. "For if I let my brother
be he must be slain, and that would I not for all the earth; and
if I help not the maid I am shamed for ever." Then lift he up his
eyes and said, weeping, "Fair Lord, whose liegeman I am, keep Sir
Lionel, my brother, that none of these knights slay him, and for
pity of you, and our Lady's sake, I shall succor this maid."

Then he cried out to the knight, "Sir knight, lay your hand off
that maid, or else ye be but dead." Then the knight set down the
maid, and took his shield, and drew out his sword. And Sir Bohort
smote him so hard that it went through his shield and habergeon,
on the left shoulder, and he fell down to the earth. Then came Sir
Bohort to the maid, "Ye be delivered of this knight this time."
"Now," said she, "I pray you lead me there where this knight took
me." "I shall gladly do it," said Sir Bohort. So he took the horse
of the wounded knight, and set the gentlewoman upon it, and
brought her there where she desired to be. And there he found
twelve knights seeking after her; and when she told them how Sir
Bohort had delivered her, they made great joy, and besought him to
come to her father, a great lord, and he should be right welcomed.
"Truly," said Sir Bohort, "that may not be; for I have a great
adventure to do." So he commended them to God and departed.

Then Sir Bohort rode after Sir Lionel, his brother, by the trace
of their horses. Thus he rode seeking, a great while. Then he
overtook a man clothed in a religious clothing, who said, "Sir
Knight, what seek ye?" "Sir," said Sir Bohort, "I seek my brother,
that I saw within a little space beaten of two knights." "Ah, Sir
Bohort, tiouble not thyself to seek for him, for truly he is
dead." Then he showed him a new-slain body, lying in a thick bush;
and it seemed him that it was the body of Sir Lionel. And then he
made such sorrow that he fell to the ground in a swoon, and lay
there long. And when he came to himself again, he said, "Fair
brother, since the fellowship of you and me is sundered, shall I
never have joy again; and now He that I have taken for my Master,
He be my help!" And when he had said thus he took up the body in
his arms, and put it upon the horse. And then he said to the man,
"Canst thou tell me the way to some chapel, where I may bury this
body?" "Come on," said the man, "here is one fast by." And so they
rode till they saw a fair tower, and beside it a chapel. Then they
alighted both, and put the body into a tomb of marble.

Then Sir Bohort commended the good man unto God, and departed. And
he rode all that day, and harbored with an old lady. And on the
morrow he rode unto the castle in a valley, and there he met with
a yeoman. "Tell me," said Sir Bohort, "knowest thou of any
adventure?" "Sir," said he, "here shall be, under this castle, a
great and marvellous tournament." Then Sir Bohort thought to be
there, if he might meet with any of the fellowship that were in
quest of the Sangreal; so he turned to a hermitage that was on the
border of the forest. And when he was come hither, he found there
Sir Lionel his brother, who sat all armed at the entry of the
chapel door. And when Sir Bohort saw him, he had great joy, and he
alighted off his horse, and said. "Fair brother, when came ye
hither?" As soon as Sir Lionel saw him he said, "Ah, Sir Bohort,
make ye no false show, for, as for you, I might have been slain,
for ye left me in peril of death to go succor a gentlewoman; and
for that misdeed I now assure you but death, for ye have right
well deserved it." When Sir Bohort perceived his brother's wrath
he kneeled down to the earth and cried him mercy, holding up both
his hands, and prayed him to forgive him. "Nay," said Sir Lionel,
"thou shalt have but death for it, if I have the upper hand;
therefore leap upon thy horse and keep thyself, and if thou do not
I will run upon thee there as thou standest on foot, and so the
shame shall be mine, and the harm thine, but of that I reck not."
When Sir Bohort saw that he must fight with his brother or else
die, he wist not what to do. Then his heart counselled him not so
to do, inasmuch as Sir Lionel was his elder brother, wherefore he
ought to bear him reverence. Yet kneeled he down before Sir
Lionel's horse's feet, and said, "Fair brother, have mercy upon me
and slay me not." But Sir Lionel cared not, for the fiend had
brought him in such a will that he should slay him. When he saw
that Sir Bohort would not rise to give him battle, he rushed over
him, so that he smote him with his horse's feet to the earth, and
hurt him sore, that he swooned of distress. When Sir Lionel saw
this he alighted from his horse for to have smitten off his head;
and so he took him by the helm, and would have rent it from his
head. But it happened that Sir Colgrevance, a knight of the Round
Table, came at that time thither, as it was our Lord's will; and
then he beheld how Sir Lionel would have slain his brother, and he
knew Sir Bohort, whom he loved right well.

Then leapt he down from his horse and took Sir Lionel by the
shoulders, and drew him strongly back from Sir Bohort, and said,
"Sir Lionel, will ye slay your brother?" "Why," said Sir Lionel,
"will ye stay me? If ye interfere in this I will slay you, and him
after." Then he ran upon Sir Bohort, and would have smitten him;
but Sir Colgrevance ran between them, and said, "If ye persist to
do so any more, we two shall meddle together." Then Sir Lionel
defied him, and gave him a great stroke through the helm. Then he
drew his sword, for he was a passing good knight, and defended
himself right manfully. So long endured the battle, that Sir
Bohort rose up all anguishly, and beheld Sir Colgrevance, the good
knight, fight with his brother for his quarrel. Then was he full
sorry and heavy, and thought that if Sir Colgrevance slew him that
was his brother he should never have joy, and if his brother slew
Sir Colgrevance the shame should ever be his.

Then would he have risen for to have parted them, but he had not
so much strength to stand on his feet; so he staid so long that
Sir Colgrevance had the worse; for Sir Lionel was of great
chivalry and right hardy. Then cried Sir Colgrevance, "Ah, Sir
Bohort, why come ye not to bring me out of peril of death, wherein
I have put me to succor you?" With that, Sir Lionel smote off his
helm and bore him to the earth. And when he had slain Sir
Colgrevance he ran upon his brother as a fiendly man, and gave him
such a stroke that he made him stoop. And he that was full of
humility prayed him, "for God's sake leave this battle, for if it
befell, fair brother, that I slew you, or ye me, we should be dead
of that sin." "Pray ye not me for mercy," said Sir Lionel. Then
Sir Bohort, all weeping, drew his sword, and said, "Now God have
mercy upon me, though I defend my life against my brother." With
that Sir Bohort lifted up his sword, and would have smitten his
brother. Then he heard a voice that said, "Flee, Sir Bohort, and
touch him not." Right so alighted a cloud between them, in the
likeness of a fire and a marvellous flame, so that they both fell
to the earth, and lay there a great while in a swoon. And when
they came to themselves, Sir Bohort saw that his brother had no
harm; and he was right glad, for he dread sore that God had taken
vengeance upon him. Then Sir Lionel said to his brother, "Brother,
forgive me, for God's sake, all that I have trespassed against
you." And Sir Bohort answered, "God forgive it thee, and I do."

With that Sir Bohort heard a voice say, "Sir Bohort, take thy way
anon, right to the sea, for Sir Perceval abideth thee there." So
Sir Bohort departed, and rode the nearest way to the sea. And at
last he came to an abbey that was nigh the sea. That night he
rested him there, and in his sleep there came a voice unto him and
bade him go to the sea-shore. He started up, and made a sign of
the cross on his forehead, and armed himself, and made ready his
horse and mounted him, and at a broken wall he rode out, and came
to the sea-shore. And there he found a ship, covered all with
white samite. And he entered into the ship; but it was anon so
dark that he might see no man, and he laid him down and slept till
it was day. Then he awaked, and saw in the middle of the ship a
knight all armed, save his helm. And then he knew it was Sir
Perceval de Galis, and each made of other right great joy. Then
said Sir Perceval, "We lack nothing now but the good knight Sir
Galahad."

SIR LAUNCELOT (Resumed)

It befell upon a night Sir Launcelot arrived before a castle,
which was rich and fair. And there was a postern that was opened
toward the sea, and was open without any keeping, save two lions
kept the entry; and the moon shined clear. Anon Sir Launcelot
heard a voice that said, "Launcelot, enter into the castle, where
thou shalt see a great part of thy desire." So he went unto the
gate, and saw the two lions; then he set hands to his sword, and
drew it. Then there came suddenly as it were a stroke upon the
arm, so sore that the sword fell out of his hand, and he heard a
voice that said, "O man of evil faith, wherefore believest thou
more in thy armor than in thy Maker?" Then said Sir Launcelot,
"Fair Lord, I thank thee of thy great mercy, that thou reprovest
me of my misdeed; now see I well that thou holdest me for thy
servant." Then he made a cross on his forehead, and came to the
lions; and they made semblance to do him harm, but he passed them
without hurt, and entered into the castle, and he found no gate
nor door but it was open. But at the last he found a chamber
whereof the door was shut; and he set his hand thereto, to have
opened it, but he might not. Then he listened, and heard a voice
which sung so sweetly that it seemed none earthly thing; and the
voice said, "Joy and honor be to the Father of heaven." Then Sir
Launcelot kneeled down before the chamber, for well he wist that
there was the Sangreal in that chamber. Then said he, "Fair, sweet
Lord, if ever I did anything that pleased thee, for thy pity show
me something of that which I seek." And with that he saw the
chamber door open, and there came out a great clearness, that the
house was as bright as though all the torches of the world had
been there. So he came to the chamber door, and would have
entered; and anon a voice said unto him, "Stay, Sir Launcelot, and
enter not." And he withdrew him back, and was right heavy in his
mind. Then looked he in the midst of the chamber, and saw a table
of silver, and the holy vessel, covered with red samite, and many
angels about it; whereof one held a candle of wax burning, and
another held a cross, and the ornaments of the altar.

    "O, yet methought I saw the Holy Grail,
    All pall'd in crimson samite, and around
    Great angels, awful shapes, and wings and eyes"

                                      --The Holy Grail.

Then for very wonder and thankfulness Sir Launcelot forgot himself
and he stepped forward and entered the chamber. And suddenly a
breath that seemed intermixed with fire smote him so sore in the
visage that therewith he fell to the ground, and had no power to
rise. Then felt he many hands about him, which took him up and
bare him out of the chamber, without any amending of his swoon,
and left him there, seeming dead to all the people. So on the
morrow, when it was fair daylight, and they within were arisen,
they found Sir Launcelot lying before the chamber door. And they
looked upon him and felt his pulse, to know if there were any life
in him. And they found life in him, but he might neither stand nor
stir any member that he had. So they took him and bare him into a
chamber, and laid him upon a bed, far from all folk, and there he
lay many days. Then the one said he was alive, and the others said
nay. But said an old man, "He is as full of life as the mightiest
of you all, and therefore I counsel you that he be well kept till
God bring him back again." And after twenty-four days he opened
his eyes; and when he saw folk he made great sorrow, and said,
"Why have ye wakened me? for I was better at ease than I am now."
"What have ye seen?" said they about him. "I have seen," said he,
"great marvels that no tongue can tell, and more than any heart
can think." Then they said, "Sir, the quest of the Sangreal is
achieved right now in you, and never shall ye see more of it than
ye have seen." "I thank God," said Sir Launcelot, "of his great
mercy, for that I have seen, for it sufficeth me." Then he rose up
and clothed himself; and when he was so arrayed they marvelled
all, for they knew it was Sir Launcelot the good knight. And after
four days he took his leave of the lord of the castle, and of all
the fellowship that were there, and thanked them for their great
labor and care of him. Then he departed, and turned to Camelot,
where he found King Arthur and Queen Guenever; but many of the
knights of the Round Table were slain and destroyed, more than
half. Then all the court was passing glad of Sir Launcelot; and he
told the king all his adventures that had befallen him since he
departed.

SIR GALAHAD

Now, when Sir Galahad had rescued Perceval from the twenty
knights, he rode into a vast forest, wherein he abode many days.
Then he took his way to the sea, and it befell him that he was
benighted in a hermitage. And the good man was glad when he saw he
was a knight-errant. And when they were at rest, there came a
gentlewoman knocking at the door; and the good man came to the
door to wit what she would. Then she said, "I would speak with the
knight which is with you." Then Galahad went to her, and asked her
what she would. "Sir Galahad," said she, "I will that ye arm you,
and mount upon your horse, and follow me; for I will show you the
highest adventure that ever knight saw." Then Galahad armed
himself and commended himself to God, and bade the damsel go
before, and he would follow where she led.

So she rode as fast as her palfrey might bear her, till she came
to the sea; and there they found the ship where Sir Bohort and Sir
Perceval were, who cried from the ship, "Sir Galahad, you are
welcome; we have waited you long." And when he heard them, he
asked the damsel who they were. "Sir," said she, "leave your horse
here, and I shall leave mine, and we will join ourselves to their
company." So they entered into the ship, and the two knights
received them both with great joy. For they knew the damsel, that
she was Sir Perceval's sister. Then the wind arose and drove them
through the sea all that day and the next, till the ship arrived
between two rocks, passing great and marvellous; but there they
might not land, for there was a whirlpool; but there was another
ship, and upon it they might go without danger. "Go we thither,"
said the gentlewoman, "and there we shall see adventures, for such
is our Lord's will." Then Sir Galahad blessed him, and entered
therein, and then next the gentlewoman, and then Sir Bohort and
Sir Perceval. And when they came on board they found there the
table of silver, and the Sangreal, which was covered with red
samite. And they made great reverence thereto, and Sir Galahad
prayed a long time to our Lord, that at what time he should ask to
pass out of this world he should do so; and a voice said to him,
"Galahad, thou shalt have thy request; and when thou askest the
death of thy body, thou shalt have it, and then shalt thou find
the life of thy soul."

And anon the wind drove them across the sea, till they came to the
city of Sarras. Then took they out of the ship the table of
silver, and Sir Perceval and Sir Bohort took it before, and Sir
Galahad came behind, and right so they went to the city. And at
the gate of the city they saw an old man, a cripple.

    "And Sir Launfal said, 'I behold in thee
    An image of Him who died on the tree
    Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,
    Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns;
    And to thy life were not denied
    The wounds in thy hands and feet and side
    Mild Mary's son, acknowledge me;
    Behold, through Him I give to thee!'"

                                 --Lowell's Holy Grail.

Then Galahad called him, and bade him help to bear this heavy
thing. "Truly," said the old man, "it is ten years since I could
not go but with crutches." "Care thou not," said Sir Galahad, "but
arise up, and show thy good will." Then the old man rose up, and
assayed, and found himself as whole as ever he was; and he ran to
the table, and took one part with Sir Galahad.

When they came to the city it chanced that the king was just dead,
and all the city was dismayed, and wist not who might be their
king. Right so, as they were in counsel, there came a voice among
them, and bade them choose the youngest knight of those three to
be their king. So they made Sir Galahad king, by all the assent of
the city. And when he was made king, he commanded to make a chest
of gold and of precious stones to hold the holy vessel. And every
day the three companions would come before it and make their
prayers.

Now at the year's end, and the same day of the year that Sir
Galahad received the crown, he got up early, and, with his
fellows, came to where the holy vessel was; and they saw one
kneeling before it that had about him a great fellowship of
angels; and he called Sir Galahad, and said, "Come, thou servant
of the Lord, and thou shalt see what thou hast much desired to
see." And Sir Galahad's mortal flesh trembled right hard when he
began to behold the spiritual things. Then said the good man, "Now
wottest thou who I am?" "Nay," said Sir Galahad. "I am Joseph of
Arimathea, whom our Lord hath sent here to thee, to bear thee
fellowship." Then Sir Galahad held up his hands toward heaven, and
said, "Now, blessed Lord, would I not longer live, if it might
please thee." And when he had said these words, Sir Galahad went
to Sir Perceval and to Sir Bohort and kissed them, and commended
them to God. And then he kneeled down before the table, and made
his prayers, and suddenly his soul departed, and a great multitude
of angels bare his soul up to heaven, so as the two fellows could
well behold it. Also they saw come from heaven a hand, but they
saw not the body; and the hand came right to the vessel and bare
it up to heaven. Since then was there never one so hardy as to say
that he had seen the Sangreal on earth any more.





CHAPTER XXII

SIR AGRIVAIN'S TREASON


When Sir Perceval and Sir Bohort saw Sir Galahad dead they made as
much sorrow as ever did two men. And if they had not been good men
they might have fallen into despair. As soon as Sir Galahad was
buried Sir Perceval retired to a hermitage out of the city, and
took a religious clothing; and Sir Bohort was always with him, but
did not change his secular clothing, because he purposed to return
to the realm of Loegria. Thus a year and two months lived Sir
Perceval in the hermitage a full holy life, and then passed out of
this world, and Sir Bohort buried him by his sister and Sir
Galahad. Then Sir Bohort armed himself and departed from Sarras,
and entered into a ship, and sailed to the kingdom of Loegria, and
in due time arrived safe at Camelot, where the king was. Then was
there great joy made of him in the whole court, for they feared he
had been dead. Then the king made great clerks to come before him,
that they should chronicle of the high adventures of the good
knights. And Sir Bohort told him of the adventures that had
befallen him, and his two fellows, Sir Perceval and Sir Galahad.
And Sir Launcelot told the adventures of the Sangreal that he had
seen. All this was made in great books, and put up in the church
at Salisbury.

So King Arthur and Queen Guenever made great joy of the remnant
that were come home, and chiefly of Sir Launcelot and Sir Bohort.
Then Sir Launcelot began to resort unto Queen Guenever again, and
forgot the promise that he made in the quest: so that many in the
court spoke of it, and in especial Sir Agrivain, Sir Gawain's
brother, for he was ever open-mouthed. So it happened Sir Gawain
and all his brothers were in King Arthur's chamber, and then Sir
Agrivain said thus openly, "I marvel that we all are not ashamed
to see and to know so noble a knight as King Arthur so to be
shamed by the conduct of Sir Launcelot and the queen. "Then spoke
Sir Gawain, and said, "Brother, Sir Agrivain, I pray you and
charge you move not such matters any more before me, for be ye
assured I will not be of your counsel." "Neither will we," said
Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth. "Then will I," said Sir Modred. "I
doubt you not," said Sir Gawain, "for to all mischief ever were ye
prone; yet I would that ye left all this, for I know what will
come of it."

            "Modred's narrow foxy face,
    Heart-hiding smile, and gray persistent eye:
    Henceforward, too, the Powers that tend the soul
    To help it from the death that cannot die,
    And save it even in extremes, began
    To vex and plague."

                                --Guinevere.

"Fall of it what fall may," said Sir Agrivain, "I will disclose it
to the king." With that came to them King Arthur. "Now, brothers,
hold your peace," said Sir Gawain. "We will not," said Sir
Agrivain. Then said Sir Gawain, "I will not hear your tales nor be
of your counsel." "No more will I," said Sir Gareth and Sir
Gaheris, and therewith they departed, making great sorrow.

Then Sir Agrivain told the king all that was said in the court of
the conduct of Sir Launcelot and the queen, and it grieved the
king very much. But he would not believe it to be true without
proof. So Sir Agrivain laid a plot to entrap Sir Launcelot and the
queen, intending to take them together unawares. Sir Agrivain and
Sir Modred led a party for this purpose, but Sir Launcelot escaped
from them, having slain Sir Agrivain and wounded Sir Modred. Then
Sir Launcelot hastened to his friends, and told them what had
happened, and withdrew with them to the forest; but he left spies
to bring him tidings of whatever might be done.

So Sir Launcelot escaped, but the queen remained in the king's
power, and Arthur could no longer doubt of her guilt. And the law
was such in those days that they who committed such crimes, of
what estate or condition soever they were, must be burned to
death, and so it was ordained for Queen Guenever. Then said King
Arthur to Sir Gawain, "I pray you make you ready, in your best
armor, with your brethren, Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth, to bring my
queen to the fire, there to receive her death." "Nay, my most
noble lord," said Sir Gawain, "that will I never do; for know thou
well, my heart will never serve me to see her die, and it shall
never be said that I was of your counsel in her death." Then the
king commanded Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth to be there, and they
said, "We will be there, as ye command us, sire, but in peaceable
wise, and bear no armor upon us."

So the queen was led forth, and her ghostly father was brought to
her to shrive her, and there was weeping and wailing of many lords
and ladies. And one went and told Sir Launcelot that the queen was
led forth to her death. Then Sir Launcelot and the knights that
were with him fell upon the troop that guarded the queen, and
dispersed them, and slew all who withstood them. And in the
confusion Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris were slain, for they were
unarmed and defenceless. And Sir Launcelot carried away the queen
to his castle of La Joyeuse Garde.

Then there came one to Sir Gawain and told him how that Sir
Launcelot had slain the knights and carried away the queen. "O
Lord, defend my brethren!" said Sir Gawain. "Truly," said the man,
"Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris are slain." "Alas!" said Sir Gawain,
"now is my joy gone." And then he fell down and swooned, and long
he lay there as he had been dead.

When he arose out of his swoon Sir Gawain ran to the king, crying,
"O King Arthur, mine uncle, my brothers are slain." Then the king
wept and he both. "My king, my lord, and mine uncle," said Sir
Gawain, "bear witness now that I make you a promise that I shall
hold by my knighthood, and from this day I will never fail Sir
Launcelot until the one of us have slain the other. I will seek
Sir Launcelot throughout seven kings' realms, but I shall slay him
or he shall slay me." "Ye shall not need to seek him," said the
king, "for as I hear, Sir Launcelot will abide me and you in the
Joyeuse Garde; and much people draweth unto him, as I hear say."
"That may I believe," said Sir Gawain; "but, my lord, summon your
friends, and I will summon mine." "It shall be done," said the
king. So then the king sent letters and writs throughout all
England, both in the length and breadth, to summon all his
knights. And unto Arthur drew many knights, dukes, and earls, so
that he had a great host. Thereof heard Sir Launcelot, and
collected all whom he could; and many good knights held with him,
both for his sake and for the queen's sake. But King Arthur's host
was too great for Sir Launcelot to abide him in the field; and he
was full loath to do battle against the king. So Sir Launcelot
drew him to his strong castle, with all manner of provisions. Then
came King Arthur with Sir Gawain, and laid siege all about La
Joyeuse Garde, both the town and the castle; but in no wise would
Sir Launcelot ride out of his castle, neither suffer any of his
knights to issue out, until many weeks were past.

Then it befell upon a day in harvest-time, Sir Launcelot looked
over the wall, and spoke aloud to King Arthur and Sir Gawain, "My
lords both, all is in vain that ye do at this siege, for here ye
shall win no worship, but only dishonor; for if I list to come
out, and my good knights, I shall soon make an end of this war."
"Come forth," said Arthur, "if thou darest, and I promise thee I
shall meet thee in the midst of the field." "God forbid me," said
Sir Launcelot, "that I should encounter with the most noble king
that made me knight." "Fie upon thy fair language," said the king,
"for know thou well I am thy mortal foe, and ever will be to my
dying day." And Sir Gawain said, "What cause hadst thou to slay my
brother, Sir Gaheris, who bore no arms against thee, and Sir
Gareth, whom thou madest knight, and who loved thee more than all
my kin? Therefore know thou well I shall make war to thee all the
while that I may live."

When Sir Bohort, and Sir Hector de Marys, and Sir Lionel heard
this outcry, they called to them Sir Palamedes, and Sir Saffire
his brother, and Sir Lawayn, with many more, and all went to Sir
Launcelot. And they said, "My lord, Sir Launcelot, we pray you, if
you will have our service keep us no longer within these walls,
for know well all your fair speech and forbearance will not avail
you." "Alas!" said Sir Launcelot, "to ride forth and to do battle
I am full loath." Then he spake again unto the king and Sir
Gawain, and willed them to keep out of the battle; but they
despised his words. So then Sir Launcelot's fellowship came out of
the castle in full good array. And always Sir Launcelot charged
all his knights, in any wise, to save King Arthur and Sir Gawain.

Then came forth Sir Gawain from the king's host and offered
combat, and Sir Lionel encountered with him, and there Sir Gawain
smote Sir Lionel through the body, that he fell to the earth as if
dead. Then there began a great conflict, and much people were
slain; but ever Sir Launcelot did what he might to save the people
on King Arthur's party, and ever King Arthur followed Sir
Launcelot to slay him; but Sir Launcelot suffered him, and would
not strike again. Then Sir Bohort encountered with King Arthur,
and smote him down; and he alighted and drew his sword, and said
to Sir Launcelot, "Shall I make an end of this war?" for he meant
to have slain King Arthur. "Not so," said Sir Launcelot, "touch
him no more, for I will never see that most noble king that made
me knight either slain or shamed;" and therewith Sir Launcelot
alighted off his horse, and took up the king, and horsed him
again, and said thus: "My lord Arthur, for God's love, cease this
strife." And King Arthur looked upon Sir Launcelot, and the tears
burst from his eyes, thinking on the great courtesy that was in
Sir Launcelot more than in any other man; and therewith the king
rode his way. Then anon both parties withdrew to repose them, and
buried the dead.

But the war continued, and it was noised abroad through all
Christendom, and at last it was told afore the pope; and he,
considering the great goodness of King Arthur, and of Sir
Launcelot, called unto him a noble clerk, which was the Bishop of
Rochester, who was then in his dominions, and sent him to King
Arthur, charging him that he take his queen, dame Guenever, unto
him again, and make peace with Sir Launcelot.

So, by means of this bishop, peace was made for the space of one
year; and King Arthur received back the queen, and Sir Launcelot
departed from the kingdom with all his knights, and went to his
own country. So they shipped at Cardiff, and sailed unto Benwick,
which some men call Bayonne. And all the people of those lands
came to Sir Launcelot, and received him home right joyfully. And
Sir Launcelot stablished and garnished all his towns and castles,
and he greatly advanced all his noble knights, Sir Lionel and Sir
Bohort, and Sir Hector de Marys, Sir Blamor, Sir Lawayne, and many
others, and made them lords of lands and castles; till he left
himself no more than any one of them.

      "Then Arthur made vast banquets, and strange knights
    From the four winds came in: and each one sat,
    Tho' served with choice from air, land, stream and sea,
    Oft in mid-banquet measuring with his eyes
    His neighbor's make and might."

                                    --Pelleas and Ettarre.

But when the year was passed, King Arthur and Sir Gawain came with
a great host, and landed upon Sir Launcelot's lands, and burned
and wasted all that they might overrun. Then spake Sir Bohort and
said, "My lord, Sir Launcelot, give us leave to meet them in the
field, and we shall make them rue the time that ever they came to
this country." Then said Sir Launcelot, "I am full loath to ride
out with my knights for shedding of Christian blood; so we will
yet a while keep our walls, and I will send a messenger unto my
lord Arthur, to propose a treaty; for better is peace than always
war." So Sir Launcelot sent forth a damsel, and a dwarf with her,
requiring King Arthur to leave his warring upon his lands; and so
she started on a palfrey, and the dwarf ran by her side. And when
she came to the pavilion of King Arthur, she alighted, and there
met her a gentle knight, Sir Lucan, the butler, and said, "Fair
damsel, come ye from Sir Launcelot du Lac?" "Yea, sir," she said,
"I come hither to speak with the king." "Alas!" said Sir Lucan,
"my lord Arthur would be reconciled to Sir Launcelot, but Sir
Gawain will not suffer him." And with this Sir Lucan led the
damsel to the king, where he sat with Sir Gawain, to hear what she
would say. So when she had told her tale, the tears ran out of the
king's eyes; and all the lords were forward to advise the king to
be accorded with Sir Launcelot, save only Sir Gawain; and he said,
"My lord, mine uncle, what will ye do? Will you now turn back, now
you are so far advanced upon your journey? If ye do all the world
will speak shame of you." "Nay," said King Arthur, "I will do as
ye advise me; but do thou give the damsel her answer, for I may
not speak to her for pity."

Then said Sir Gawain, "Damsel, say ye to Sir Launcelot, that it is
waste labor to sue to mine uncle for peace, and say that I, Sir
Gawain, send him word that I promise him, by the faith I owe unto
God and to knighthood, I shall never leave him till he have slain
me or I him." So the damsel returned; and when Sir Launcelot had
heard this answer the tears ran down his cheeks.

Then it befell on a day Sir Gawain came before the gates, armed at
all points, and cried with a loud voice, "Where art thou now, thou
false traitor, Sir Launcelot? Why hidest thou thyself within holes
and walls like a coward? Look out now, thou traitor knight, and I
will avenge upon thy body the death of my three brethren." All
this language heard Sir Launcelot, and the knights which were
about him; and they said to him, "Sir Launcelot, now must ye
defend you like a knight, or else be shamed for ever, for you have
slept overlong and suffered overmuch." Then Sir Launcelot spake on
high unto King Arthur, and said, "My lord Arthur, now I have
forborne long, and suffered you and Sir Gawain to do what ye
would, and now must I needs defend myself, inasmuch as Sir Gawain
hath appealed me of treason." Then Sir Launcelot armed him and
mounted upon his horse, and the noble knights came out of the
city, and the host without stood all apart; and so the covenant
was made that no man should come near the two knights, nor deal
with them, till one were dead or yielded.

Then Sir Launcelot and Sir Gawain departed a great way asunder,
and then they came together with all their horses' might, and each
smote the other in the middle of their shields, but neither of
them was unhorsed, but their horses fell to the earth. And then
they leapt from their horses, and drew their swords, and gave many
sad strokes, so that the blood burst out in many places. Now Sir
Gawain had this gift from a holy man, that every day in the year,
from morning to noon, his strength was increased threefold, and
then it fell again to its natural measure. Sir Launcelot was aware
of this, and therefore, during the three hours that Sir Gawain's
strength was at the height, Sir Launcelot covered himself with his
shield, and kept his might in reserve. And during that time Sir
Gawain gave him many sad brunts, that all the knights that looked
on marvelled how Sir Launcelot might endure them. Then, when it
was past noon, Sir Gawain had only his own might; and when Sir
Launcelot felt him so brought down he stretched himself up, and
doubled his strokes, and gave Sir Gawain such a buffet that he
fell down on his side; and Sir Launcelot drew back and would
strike no more. "Why withdrawest thou, false traitor?" then said
Sir Gawain; "now turn again and slay me, for if thou leave me thus
when I am whole again, I shall do battle with thee again." "I
shall endure you, sir, by God's grace," said Sir Launcelot, "but
know thou well Sir Gawain, I will never smite a felled knight."
And so Sir Launcelot went into the city, and Sir Gawain was borne
into King Arthur's pavilion, and his wounds were looked to.

Thus the siege endured, and Sir Gawain lay helpless near a month;
and when he was near recovered came tidings unto King Arthur that
made him return with all his host to England.





CHAPTER XXIII

MORTE D'ARTHUR


Sir Modred was left ruler of all England, and he caused letters to
be written, as if from beyond sea, that King Arthur was slain in
battle. So he called a Parliament, and made himself be crowned
king; and he took the queen Guenever, and said plainly that he
would wed her, but she escaped from him and took refuge in the
Tower of London. And Sir Modred went and laid siege about the
Tower of London, and made great assaults thereat, but all might
not avail him. Then came word to Sir Modred that King Arthur had
raised the siege of Sir Launcelot, and was coming home. Then Sir
Modred summoned all the barony of the land; and much people drew
unto Sir Modred, and said they would abide with him for better and
for worse; and he drew a great host to Dover, for there he heard
say that King Arthur would arrive.

    "I hear the steps of Modred in the west,
    And with him many of thy people, and knights
    Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but grosser grown
    Than heathen, spitting at their vows and thee"

                                 --The Passing of Arthur.

And as Sir Modred was at Dover with his host, came King Arthur,
with a great number of ships and galleys, and there was Sir Modred
awaiting upon the landing. Then was there launching of great boats
and small, full of noble men of arms, and there was much slaughter
of gentle knights on both parts. But King Arthur was so
courageous, there might no manner of knights prevent him to land,
and his knights fiercely followed him; and so they landed, and put
Sir Modred aback so that he fled, and all his people. And when the
battle was done, King Arthur commanded to bury his people that
were dead. And then was noble Sir Gawain found, in a great boat,
lying more than half dead. And King Arthur went to him, and made
sorrow out of measure. "Mine uncle," said Sir Gawain, "know thou
well my death-day is come, and all is through mine own hastiness
and wilfulness, for I am smitten upon the old wound which Sir
Launcelot gave me, of which I feel I must die. And had Sir
Launcelot been with you as of old, this war had never begun, and
of all this I am the cause." Then Sir Gawain prayed the king to
send for Sir Launcelot, and to cherish him above all other
knights. And so at the hour of noon Sir Gawain yielded up his
spirit, and then the king bade inter him in a chapel within Dover
Castle; and there all men may see the skull of him, and the same
wound is seen that Sir Launcelot gave him in battle.

Then was it told the king that Sir Modred had pitched his camp
upon Barrendown; and the king rode thither, and there was a great
battle betwixt them, and King Arthur's party stood best, and Sir
Modred and his party fled unto Canterbury.

And there was a day assigned betwixt King Arthur and Sir Modred
that they should meet upon a down beside Salisbury, and not far
from the sea-side, to do battle yet again. And at night, as the
king slept, he dreamed a wonderful dream. It seemed him verily
that there came Sir Gawain unto him, with a number of fair ladies
with him. And when King Arthur saw him, he said, "Welcome, my
sister's son; I weened thou hadst been dead; and now I see thee
alive great is my joy. But, O fair nephew, what be these ladies
that hither be come with you?" "Sir," said Sir Gawain, "all these
be ladies for whom I have fought when I was a living man; and
because I did battle for them in righteous quarrel they have given
me grace to bring me hither unto you to warn you of your death, if
ye fight to-morrow with Sir Modred. Therefore take ye treaty, and
proffer you largely for a month's delay; for within a month shall
come Sir Launcelot and all his noble knights, and rescue you
worshipfully, and slay Sir Modred and all that hold with him." And
then Sir Gawain and all the ladies vanished. And anon the king
called to fetch his noble lords and wise bishops unto him. And
when they were come, the king told them his vision, and what Sir
Gawain had told him. Then the king sent Sir Lucan, the butler, and
Sir Bedivere, with two bishops, and charged them in any wise to
take a treaty for a month and a day with Sir Modred. So they
departed, and came to Sir Modred; and so, at the last, Sir Modred
was agreed to have Cornwall and Kent during Arthur's life, and all
England after his death.

    "Sir Modred; he the nearest to the king,
    His nephew, ever like a subtle beast
    Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne,
    Ready to spring, waiting a chance."

                                     --Guinevere

Then was it agreed that King Arthur and Sir Modred should meet
betwixt both their hosts, and each of them should bring fourteen
persons, and then and there they should sign the treaty. And when
King Arthur and his knights were prepared to go forth, he warned
all his host, "If so be ye see any sword drawn, look ye come on
fiercely, and slay whomsoever withstandeth, for I in no wise trust
that traitor, Sir Modred." In like wise Sir Modred warned his
host. So they met, and were agreed and accorded thoroughly. And
wine was brought, and they drank. Right then came an adder out of
a little heath-bush, and stung a knight on the foot. And when the
knight felt him sting, he looked down and saw the adder, and then
he drew his sword to slay the adder, and thought of no other harm.
And when the host on both sides saw that sword drawn, they blew
trumpets and horns, and shouted greatly. And King Arthur took his
horse, and rode to his party, saying, "Alas, this unhappy day!"
And Sir Modred did in like wise. And never was there a more
doleful battle in Christian land. And ever King Arthur rode
throughout the battle, and did full nobly, as a worthy king
should, and Sir Modred that day did his devoir, and put himself in
great peril. And thus they fought all the long day, till the most
of all the noble knights lay dead upon the ground. Then the king
looked about him, and saw of all his host were left alive but two
knights, Sir Lucan, the butler, and Sir Bedivere, his brother, and
they were full sore wounded. Then King Arthur saw where Sir Modred
leaned upon his sword among a great heap of dead men. "Now give me
my spear," said Arthur unto Sir Lucan; "for yonder I espy the
traitor that hast wrought all this woe." "Sir, let him be," said
Sir Lucan; "for if ye pass this unhappy day, ye shall be right
well revenged upon him. Remember what the sprite of Sir Gawain
told you, and leave off now, for ye have won the field; and if ye
leave off now this evil day of destiny is past." "Betide me life,
betide me death," said King Arthur, "he shall not now escape my
hands." Then the king took his spear in both hands, and ran toward
Sir Modred, crying, "Traitor, now is thy death-day come." And
there King Arthur smote Sir Modred under the shield, with a thrust
of his spear through the body. And when Sir Modred felt that he
had his death-wound, with the might that he had he smote King
Arthur, with his sword holden in both his hands, on the side of
the head, that the sword pierced the helmet and the brain-pan; and
then Sir Modred fell stark dead upon the earth. And the noble
Arthur fell in a swoon to the earth. And Sir Lucan, the butler,
and Sir Bedivere raised him up, and gently led him betwixt them
both to a little chapel not far from the sea-side. And when the
king was there he thought him well eased. Then heard they people
cry in the field. And Sir Lucan went to see what that cry
betokened; and he saw by the moonlight that pillers and robbers
were come to rob the dead. And he returned, and said to the king,
"By my rede, it is best that we bring you to some town." "I would
it were so," said the king. And when the king tried to go he
fainted. Then Sir Lucan took up the king on the one part, and Sir
Bedivere on the other part; and in the lifting, Sir Lucan fell in
a swoon to the earth, for he was grievously wounded. And then the
noble knight's heart burst. And when the king awoke he beheld Sir
Lucan how he lay foaming at the mouth, and speechless. "Alas!"
said the king, "this is to me a full heavy sight, to see this
noble duke so die for my sake; for he would have holpen me that
had more need of help than I, and he would not complain, his heart
was so set to help me." Then Sir Bedivere wept for his brother.
"Leave this mourning and weeping," said the king, "for wilt thou
well, if I might live myself, the death of Sir Lucan would grieve
me evermore; but my time hieth fast. Therefore," said Arthur unto
Sir Bedivere, "take thou Excalibar, my good sword, and go with it
to yonder water-side; and when thou comest there I charge thee
throw my sword in that water, and come again and tell me what thou
there seest." "My lord," said Sir Bedivere, "your commandment
shall be done." So Sir Bedivere departed, and by the way he beheld
that noble sword, that the pommel and the haft were all of
precious stones; and then he said to himself, "If I throw this
rich sword into the water no good shall come thereof, but only
harm and loss." And then Sir Bedivere hid Excalibar under a tree.
And so, as soon as he might, he came again to the king. "What
sawest thou there?" said the king. "Sir," he said, "I saw
nothing." "Alas! thou hast deceived me," said the king. "Go thou
lightly again, and as thou love me, spare not to throw it in."
Then Sir Bedivere went again, and took the sword in his hand to
throw it; but again it beseemed him but sin and shame to throw
away that noble sword, and he hid it away again, and returned, and
told the king he had done his commandment. "What sawest thou
there?" said the king. "Sir," he said, "I saw nothing but waters
deep and waves wan." "Ah, traitor untrue!" said King Arthur, "now
hast thou betrayed me twice. And yet thou art named a noble
knight, and hast been lief and dear to me. But now go again, and
do as I bid thee, for thy long tarrying putteth me in jeopardy of
my life." Then Sir Bedivere went to the sword, and lightly took it
up, and went to the water-side, and he bound the girdle about the
hilt, and then he threw the sword as far into the water as he
might. And there came an arm and a hand out of the water, and met
it, and caught it, and shook it thrice and brandished it, and then
vanished away the hand with the sword in the water.

Then Sir Bedivere came again to the king, and told him what he
saw. "Help me hence," said the king, "for I fear I have tarried
too long." Then Sir Bedivere took the king on his back, and so
went with him to that water-side; and when they came there, even
fast by the bank there rode a little barge with many fair ladies
in it, and among them was a queen; and all had black hoods, and
they wept and shrieked when they saw King Arthur.

"Now put me in the barge," said the king. And there received him
three queens with great mourning, and in one of their laps King
Arthur laid his head. And the queen said, "Ah, dear brother, why
have ye tarried so long? Alas! this wound on your head hath caught
over-much cold." And then they rowed from the land, and Sir
Bedivere beheld them go from him. Then he cried: "Ah, my lord
Arthur, will ye leave me here alone among mine enemies?" "Comfort
thyself," said the king, "for in me is no further help; for I will
to the Isle of Avalon, to heal me of my grievous wound." And as
soon as Sir Bedivere had lost sight of the barge, he wept and
wailed; then he took the forest, and went all that night, and in
the morning he was ware of a chapel and a hermitage.

Then went Sir Bedivere thither; and when he came into the chapel,
he saw where lay an hermit on the ground, near a tomb that was
newly graven. "Sir," said Sir Bedivere, "what man is there buried
that ye pray so near unto?" "Fair son," said the hermit, "I know
not verily. But this night there came a number of ladies, and
brought hither one dead, and prayed me to bury him." "Alas!" said
Sir Bedivere, "that was my lord, King Arthur." Then Sir Bedivere
swooned; and when he awoke he prayed the hermit he might abide
with him, to live with fasting and prayers. "Ye are welcome," said
the hermit. So there bode Sir Bedivere with the hermit; and he put
on poor clothes, and served the hermit full lowly in fasting and
in prayers.

Thus of Arthur I find never more written in books that be
authorized, nor more of the very certainty of his death; but thus
was he led away in a ship, wherein were three queens; the one was
King Arthur's sister, Queen Morgane le Fay; the other was Viviane,
the Lady of the Lake; and the third was the queen of North Galis.
And this tale Sir Bedivere, knight of the Table Round, made to be
written.

Yet some men say that King Arthur is not dead, but hid away into
another place, and men say that he shall come again and reign over
England. But many say that there is written on his tomb this
verse:

    "Hie facet Arthurus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus."
        Here Arthur lies, King once and King to be.

And when Queen Guenever understood that King Arthur was slain, and
all the noble knights with him, she stole away, and five ladies
with her; and so she went to Almesbury, and made herself a nun,
and ware white clothes and black, and took great penance as ever
did sinful lady, and lived in fasting, prayers, and alms-deeds.
And there she was abbess and ruler of the nuns.

     "And when she came to Almesbury she spake
    There to the nuns, and said, 'Mine enemies
    Pursue me, but, O peaceful Sisterhood,
    Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask
    Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time
    To tell you;' and her beauty, grace and power
    Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared
    To ask it."

                                        --Guinevere.

Now turn we from her, and speak of Sir Launcelot of the Lake.

When Sir Launcelot heard in his country that Sir Modred was
crowned king of England, and made war against his own uncle, King
Arthur, then was Sir Launcelot wroth out of measure, and said to
his kinsmen: "Alas, that double traitor, Sir Modred! now it
repenteth me that ever he escaped out of my hands." Then Sir
Launcelot and his fellows made ready in all haste, with ships and
galleys, to pass into England; and so he passed over till he came
to Dover, and there he landed with a great army. Then Sir
Launcelot was told that King Arthur was slain. "Alas!" said Sir
Launcelot, "this is the heaviest tidings that ever came to me."
Then he called the kings, dukes, barons, and knights, and said
thus: "My fair lords, I thank you all for coming into this country
with me, but we came too late, and that shall repent me while I
live. But since it is so," said Sir Launcelot, "I will myself ride
and seek my lady, Queen Guenever, for I have heard say she hath
fled into the west; therefore ye shall abide me here fifteen days,
and if I come not within that time, then take your ships and your
host, and depart into your country."

So Sir Launcelot departed and rode westerly, and there he sought
many days; and at last he came to a nunnery, and was seen of Queen
Guenever as he walked in the cloister; and when she saw him she
swooned away. And when she might speak she bade him to be called
to her. And when Sir Launcelot was brought to her she said: "Sir
Launcelot, I require thee and beseech thee, for all the love that
ever was betwixt us, that thou never see me more, but return to
thy kingdom and take thee a wife, and live with her with joy and
bliss; and pray for me to my Lord, that I may get my soul's
health." "Nay, madam," said Sir Launcelot, "wit you well that I
shall never do; but the same destiny that ye have taken you to
will I take me unto, for to please and serve God." And so they
parted, with tears and much lamentation; and the ladies bare the
queen to her chamber, and Sir Launcelot took his horse and rode
away, weeping.

And at last Sir Launcelot was ware of a hermitage and a chapel,
and then he heard a little bell ring to mass; and thither he rode
and alighted, and tied his horse to the gate, and heard mass. And
he that sang the mass was the hermit with whom Sir Bedivere had
taken up his abode; and Sir Bedivere knew Sir Launcelot, and they
spake together after mass. But when Sir Bedivere had told his
tale, Sir Launcelot's heart almost burst for sorrow. Then he
kneeled down, and prayed the hermit to shrive him, and besought
that he might be his brother. Then the hermit said, "I will
gladly;" and then he put a habit upon Sir Launcelot, and there he
served God day and night, with prayers and fastings.

And the great host abode at Dover till the end of the fifteen days
set by Sir Launcelot, and then Sir Bohort made them to go home
again to their own country; and Sir Bohort, Sir Hector de Marys,
Sir Blamor, and many others, took on them to ride through all
England to seek Sir Launcelot. So Sir Bohort by fortune rode until
he came to the same chapel where Sir Launcelot was; and when he
saw Sir Launcelot in that manner of clothing he, prayed the hermit
that he might be in that same. And so there was an habit put upon
him, and there he lived in prayers and fasting. And within half a
year came others of the knights, their fellows, and took such a
habit as Sir Launcelot and Sir Bohort had. Thus they endured in
great penance six years.

And upon a night there came a vision to Sir Launcelot, and charged
him to haste toward Almesbury, and "by the time thou come there,
thou shalt find Queen Guenever dead." Then Sir Launcelot rose up
early and told the hermit thereof. Then said the hermit, "It were
well that ye disobey not this vision." And Sir Launcelot took his
seven companions with him, and on foot they went from Glastonbury
to Almesbury, which is more than thirty miles. And when they were
come to Almesbury, they found that Queen Guenever died but half an
hour before. Then Sir Launcelot saw her visage, but he wept not
greatly, but sighed. And so he did all the observance of the
service himself, both the "dirige" at night, and at morn he sang
mass. And there was prepared an horse-bier, and Sir Launcelot and
his fellows followed the bier on foot from Almesbury until they
came to Glastonbury; and she was wrapped in cered clothes, and
laid in a coffin of marble. And when she was put in the earth Sir
Launcelot swooned, and lay long as one dead.

And Sir Launcelot never after ate but little meat, nor drank; but
continually mourned. And within six weeks Sir Launcelot fell sick;
and he sent for the hermit and all his true fellows, and said,
"Sir hermit, I pray you give me all my rights that a Christian man
ought to have." "It shall not need," said the hermit and all his
fellows; "it is but heaviness of your blood, and to-morrow morn
you shall be well" "My fair lords," said Sir Launcelot, "my
careful body will into the earth; I have warning more than now I
will say; therefore give me my rights." So when he was houseled
and aneled, and had all that a Christian man ought to have, he
prayed the hermit that his fellows might bear his body to Joyous
Garde. (Some men say it was Alnwick, and some say it was
Bamborough.) "It repenteth me sore," said Sir Launcelot, "but I
made a vow aforetime that in Joyous Garde I would be buried." Then
there was weeping and wringing of hands among his fellows. And
that night Sir Launcelot died; and when Sir Bohort and his fellows
came to his bedside the next morning they found him stark dead;
and he lay as if he had smiled, and the sweetest savor all about
him that ever they knew.

And they put Sir Launcelot into the same horse-bier that Queen
Guenever was laid in, and the hermit and they altogether went with
the body till they came to Joyous Garde. And there they laid his
corpse in the body of the quire, and sang and read many psalms and
prayers over him. And ever his visage was laid open and naked,
that all folks might behold him. And right thus, as they were at
their service, there came Sir Hector de Maris, that had seven
years sought Sir Launcelot, his brother, through all England,
Scotland and Wales. And when Sir Hector heard such sounds in the
chapel of Joyous Garde he alighted and came into the quire. And
all they knew Sir Hector. Then went Sir Bohort, and told him how
there lay Sir Launcelot, his brother, dead. Then Sir Hector threw
his shield, his sword, and helm from him. And when he beheld Sir
Launcelot's visage it were hard for any tongue to tell the doleful
complaints he made for his brother. "Ah, Sir Launcelot!" he said,
"there thou liest. And now I dare to say thou wert never matched
of none earthly knight's hand. And thou wert the courteousest
knight that ever bare shield; and thou wert the truest friend to
thy lover that ever bestrode horse; and thou wert the truest
lover, of a sinful man, that ever loved woman; and thou wert the
kindest man that ever struck with sword. And thou wert the
goodliest person that ever came among press of knights. And thou
wert the meekest man, and the gentlest, that ever ate in hall
among ladies. And thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe
that ever put spear in the rest." Then there was weeping and dolor
out of measure. Thus they kept Sir Launcelot's corpse fifteen
days, and then they buried it with great devotion.

Then they went back with the hermit to his hermitage. And Sir
Bedivere was there ever still hermit to his life's end. And Sir
Bohort, Sir Hector, Sir Blamor, and Sir Bleoberis went into the
Holy Land. And these four knights did many battles upon the
miscreants, the Turks; and there they died upon a Good Friday, as
it pleased God.

Thus endeth this noble and joyous book, entitled "La Morte
d'Arthur;" notwithstanding it treateth of the birth, life, and
acts of the said King Arthur, and of his noble Knights of the
Round Table, their marvellous enquests and adventures, the
achieving of the Sangreal, and, in the end, le Morte d'Arthur,
with the dolorous death and departing out of this world of them
all. Which book was reduced into English by Sir Thomas Mallory,
Knight, and divided into twenty-one books, chaptered and imprinted
and finished in the Abbey Westmestre, the last day of July, the
year of our Lord MCCCCLXXXV.

Caxton me fieri fecit.





THE MABINOGEON





INTRODUCTORY NOTE


It has been well known to the literati and antiquarians of Europe
that there exist in the great public libraries voluminous
manuscripts of romances and tales once popular, but which on the
invention of printing had already become antiquated, and fallen
into neglect. They were therefore never printed, and seldom
perused even by the learned, until about half a century ago, when
attention was again directed to them, and they were found very
curious monuments of ancient manners, habits, and modes of
thinking. Several have since been edited, some by individuals, as
Sir Walter Scott and the poet Southey, others by antiquarian
societies. The class of readers which could be counted on for such
publications was so small that no inducement of profit could be
found to tempt editors and publishers to give them to the world.
It was therefore only a few, and those the most accessible, which
were put in print. There was a class of manuscripts of this kind
which were known, or rather suspected, to be both curious and
valuable, but which it seemed almost hopeless to expect ever to
see in fair printed English. These were the Welsh popular tales
called Mabinogeon, a plural word, the singular being Mabinogi, a
tale. Manuscripts of these were contained in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford and elsewhere, but the difficulty was to find
translators and editors. The Welsh is a spoken language among the
peasantry of Wales, but is entirely neglected by the learned,
unless they are natives of the principality. Of the few Welsh
scholars none were found who took sufficient interest in this
branch of learning to give these productions to the English
public. Southey and Scott, and others, who like them, loved the
old romantic legends of their country, often urged upon the Welsh
literati the duty of reproducing the Mabinogeon. Southey, in the
preface of his edition of "Moted'Arthur," says: "The specimens
which I have seen are exceedingly curious; nor is there a greater
desideratum in British literature than an edition of these tales,
with a literal version, and such comments as Mr. Davies of all men
is best qualified to give. Certain it is that many of the round
table fictions originated in Wales, or in Bretagne, and probably
might still be traced there."

Again, in a letter to Sir Charles W. W. Wynn, dated 1819, he says:

"I begin almost to despair of ever seeing more of the Mabinogeon;
and yet if some competent Welshman could be found to edit it
carefully, with as literal a version as possible, I am sure it
might be made worth his while by a subscription, printing a small
edition at a high price, perhaps two hundred at five guineas. I
myself would gladly subscribe at that price per volume for such an
edition of the whole of your genuine remains in prose and verse.
Till some such collection is made, the 'gentlemen of Wales' ought
to be prohibited from wearing a leek; ay, and interdicted from
toasted cheese also. Your bards would have met with better usage
if they had been Scotchmen."

Sharon Turner and Sir Walter Scott also expressed a similar wish
for the publication of the Welsh manuscripts. The former took part
in an attempt to effect it, through the instrumentality of a Mr.
Owen, a Welshman, but, we judge, by what Southey says of him,
imperfectly acquainted with English. Southey's language is
"William Owen lent me three parts of the Mabinogeon, delightfully
translated into so Welsh an idiom and syntax that such a
translation is as instructive as an original." In another letter
he adds, "Let Sharon make his language grammatical, but not alter
their idiom in the slightest point."

It is probable Mr. Owen did not proceed far in an undertaking
which, so executed, could expect but little popular patronage. It
was not till an individual should appear possessed of the
requisite knowledge of the two languages, of enthusiasm sufficient
for the task, and of pecuniary resources sufficient to be
independent of the booksellers and of the reading public, that
such a work could be confidently expected. Such an individual has,
since Southey's day and Scott's, appeared in the person of Lady
Charlotte Guest, an English lady united to a gentleman of property
in Wales, who, having acquired the language of the principality,
and become enthusiastically fond of its literary treasures, has
given them to the English reader, in a dress which the printer's
and the engraver's arts have done their best to adorn. In four
royal octavo volumes containing the Welsh originals, the
translation, and ample illustrations from French, German, and
other contemporary and affiliated literature, the Mabinogeon is
spread before us. To the antiquarian and the student of language
and ethnology an invaluable treasure, it yet can hardly in such a
form win its way to popular acquaintance. We claim no other merit
than that of bringing it to the knowledge of our readers, of
abridging its details, of selecting its most attractive portions,
and of faithfully preserving throughout the style in which Lady
Guest has clothed her legends. For this service we hope that our
readers will confess we have laid them under no light obligation.





CHAPTER I

THE BRITONS


The earliest inhabitants of Britain are supposed to have been a
branch of that great family known in history by the designation of
Celts. Cambria, which is a frequent name for Wales, is thought to
be derived from Cymri, the name which the Welsh traditions apply
to an immigrant people who entered the island from the adjacent
continent. This name is thought to be identical with those of
Cimmerians and Cimbri, under which the Greek and Roman historians
describe a barbarous people, who spread themselves from the north
of the Euxine over the whole of Northwestern Europe.

The origin of the names Wales and Welsh has been much canvassed.
Some writers make them a derivation from Gael or Gaul, which names
are said to signify "woodlanders;" others observe that Walsh, in
the northern languages, signifies a stranger, and that the
aboriginal Britons were so called by those who at a later era
invaded the island and possessed the greater part of it, the
Saxons and Angles.

The Romans held Britain from the invasion of Julius Caesar till
their voluntary withdrawal from the island, A.D. 420,--that is,
about five hundred years. In that time there must have been a wide
diffusion of their arts and institutions among the natives. The
remains of roads, cities, and fortifications show that they did
much to develop and improve the country, while those of their
villas and castles prove that many of the settlers possessed
wealth and taste for the ornamental arts. Yet the Roman sway was
sustained chiefly by force, and never extended over the entire
island. The northern portion, now Scotland, remained independent,
and the western portion, constituting Wales and Cornwall, was only
nominally subjected.

Neither did the later invading hordes succeed in subduing the
remoter sections of the island. For ages after the arrival of the
Saxons under Hengist and Horsa, A.D. 449, the whole western coast
of Britain was possessed by the aboriginal inhabitants, engaged in
constant warfare with the invaders.

It has, therefore, been a favorite boast of the people of Wales
and Cornwall that the original British stock flourishes in its
unmixed purity only among them. We see this notion flashing out in
poetry occasionally, as when Gray, in "The Bard," prophetically
describing Queen Elizabeth, who was of the Tudor, a Welsh race,
says:

    "Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line;"

and, contrasting the princes of the Tudor with those of the Norman
race, he exclaims:

    "All hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail!"

THE WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The Welsh language is one of the oldest in Europe. It possesses
poems the origin of which is referred with probability to the
sixth century. The language of some of these is so antiquated that
the best scholars differ about the interpretation of many
passages; but, generally speaking, the body of poetry which the
Welsh possess, from the year 1000 downwards, is intelligible to
those who are acquainted with the modern language.

Till within the last half-century these compositions remained
buried in the libraries of colleges or of individuals, and so
difficult of access that no successful attempt was made to give
them to the world. This reproach was removed after ineffectual
appeals to the patriotism of the gentry of Wales, by Owen Jones, a
furrier of London, who at his own expense collected and published
the chief productions of Welsh literature, under the title of the
Myvyrian Archaeology of Wales. In this task he was assisted by Dr.
Owen and other Welsh scholars.

After the cessation of Jones' exertions the old apathy returned,
and continued till within a few years. Dr. Owen exerted himself to
obtain support for the publication of the Mabinogeon or Prose
Tales of the Welsh, but died without accomplishing his purpose,
which has since been carried into execution by Lady Charlotte
Guest. The legends which fill the remainder of this volume are
taken from this work, of which we have already spoken more fully
in the introductory chapter to the First Part.

THE WELSH BARDS

The authors to whom the oldest Welsh poems are attributed are
Aneurin, who is supposed to have lived A.D. 500 to 550, and
Taliesin, Llywarch Hen (Llywarch the Aged), and Myrddin or Merlin,
who were a few years later. The authenticity of the poems which
bear their names has been assailed, and it is still an open
question how many and which of them are authentic, though it is
hardly to be doubted that some are so. The poem of Aneurin
entitled the "Gododin" bears very strong marks of authenticity.
Aneurin was one of the Northern Britons of Strath-Clyde, who have
left to that part of the district they inhabited the name of
Cumberland, or Land of the Cymri. In this poem he laments the
defeat of his countrymen by the Saxons at the battle of Cattraeth,
in consequence of having partaken too freely of the mead before
joining in combat. The bard himself and two of his fellow-warriors
were all who escaped from the field. A portion of this poem has
been translated by Gray, of which the following is an extract:

    "To Cattraeth's vale, in glittering row,
    Twice two hundred warriors go;
    Every warrior's manly neck
    Chains of regal honor deck,
    Wreathed in many a golden link;
    From the golden cup they drink
    Nectar that the bees produce,
    Or the grape's exalted juice.
    Flushed with mirth and hope they burn,
    But none to Cattraeth's vale return,
    Save Aeron brave, and Conan strong,
    Bursting through the bloody throng,
    And I, the meanest of them all,
    That live to weep, and sing their fall."

The works of Taliesin are of much more questionable authenticity.
There is a story of the adventures of Taliesin so strongly marked
with mythical traits as to cast suspicion on the writings
attributed to him. This story will be found in the subsequent
pages.

THE TRIADS

The Triads are a peculiar species of poetical composition, of
which the Welsh bards have left numerous examples. They are
enumerations of a triad of persons, or events, or observations,
strung together in one short sentence. This form of composition,
originally invented, in all likelihood, to assist the memory, has
been raised by the Welsh to a degree of elegance of which it
hardly at first sight appears susceptible. The Triads are of all
ages, some of them probably as old as anything in the language.
Short as they are individually, the collection in the Myvyrian
Archaeology occupies more than one hundred and seventy pages of
double columns. We will give some specimens, beginning with
personal triads, and giving the first place to one of King
Arthur's own composition:

   "I have three heroes in battle:
    Mael the tall, and Llyr, with his army,
    And Caradoc, the pillar of Wales."

"The three principal bards of the island of Britain:--
  Merlin Ambrose
  Merlin the son of Mprfyn, called also Merlin the Wild,
  And Taliesin, the chief of the bards."

"The three golden-tongued knights of the court of Arthur:--
  Gawain, son of Gwyar,
  Drydvas, son of Tryphin,
  And Ehwlod, son of Madag, ap Uther."

"The three honorable feasts of the island of Britain:--
The feast of Caswallaun, after repelling Julius Caesar from this
    isle;
The feast of Aurelius Ambrosius, after he had conquered the
    Saxons;
And the feast of King Arthur, at Carleon upon Usk."

    "Guenever, the daughter of Laodegan the giant,
     Bad when little, worse when great."

Next follow some moral triads:

    "Hast thou heard what Dremhidydd sung,
     An ancient watchman on the castle walls?
     A refusal is better than a promise unperformed."

    "Hast thou heard what Llenleawg sung,
     The noble chief wearing the golden torques?
     The grave is better than a life of want."

    "Hast thou heard what Garselit sung,
     The Irishman whom it is safe to follow?
     Sin is bad, if long pursued."

    "Hast thou heard what Avaon sung,
     The son of Taliesin, of the recording verse?
     The cheek will not conceal the anguish of the heart."

    "Didst thou hear what Llywarch sung,
     The intrepid and brave old man?
     Greet kindly, though there be no acquaintance."





CHAPTER II

THE LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN

KYNON'S ADVENTURE


King Arthur was at Caerleon upon Usk; and one day he sat in his
chamber, and with him were Owain, the son of Urien, and Kynon, the
son of Clydno, and Kay, the son of Kyner, and Guenever and her
handmaidens at needlework by the window. In the centre of the
chamher King Arthur sat, upon a seat of green rushes, [Footnote:
The use of green rushes in apartments was by no means peculiar to
the court of Carleon upon Usk. Our ancestors had a great
predilection for them, and they seem to have constituted an
essential article, not only of comfort, but of luxury. The custom
of strewing the floor with rushes is well known to have existed in
England during the Middle Ages, and also in France.] over which
was spread a covering of flame-covered satin, and a cushion of red
satin was under his elbow.

Then Arthur spoke. "If I thought you would not disparage me," said
he, "I would sleep while I wait for my repast; and you can
entertain one another with relating tales, and can obtain a flagon
of mead and some meat from Kay." And the king went to sleep. And
Kynon the son of Clydno asked Kay for that which Arthur had
promised them. "I too will have the good tale which he promised
me," said Kay. "Nay," answered Kynon; "fairer will it be for thee
to fulfil Arthur's behest in the first place, and then we will
tell thee the best tale that we know." So Kay went to the kitchen
and to the mead-cellar, and returned, bearing a flagon of mead,
and a golden goblet, and a handful of skewers, upon which were
broiled collops of meat. Then they ate the collops, and began to
drink the mead. "Now," said Kay, "it is time for you to give me my
story." "Kynon," said Owain, "do thou pay to Kay the tale that is
his due." "I will do so," answered Kynon.

"I was the only son of my mother and father, and I was exceedingly
aspiring, and my daring was very great. I thought there was no
enterprise in the world too mighty for me: and after I had
achieved all the adventures that were in my own country, I
equipped myself, and set forth to journey through deserts and
distant regions. And at length it chanced that I came to the
fairest valley in the world, wherein were trees all of equal
growth; and a river ran through the valley, and a path was by the
side of the river. And I followed the path until midday, and
continued my journey along the remainder of the valley until the
evening; and at the extremity of the plain I came to a large and
lustrous castle, at the foot of which was a torrent. And I
approached the castle, and there I beheld two youths with yellow
curling hair, each with a frontlet of gold upon his head, and clad
in a garment of yellow satin; and they had gold clasps upon their
insteps. In the hand of each of them was an ivory bow, strung with
the sinews of the stag, and their arrows and their shafts were of
the bone of the whale, and were winged with peacock's feathers.
The shafts also had golden heads. And they had daggers with blades
of gold, and with hilts of the bone of the whale. And they were
shooting at a mark.

"And a little away from them I saw a man in the prime of life,
with his beard newly shorn, clad in a robe and mantle of yellow
satin, and round the top of his mantle was a band of gold lace. On
his feet were shoes of variegated leather, [Footnote: Cordwal is
the word in the original, and from the manner in which it is used
it is evidently intended for the French Cordouan or Cordovan
leather, which derived its name from Cordova, where it was
manufactured. From this comes also our English word cordwainer.]
fastened by two bosses of gold. When I saw him I went towards him
and saluted him; and such was his courtesy, that he no sooner
received my greeting than he returned it. And he went with me
towards the castle. Now there were no dwellers in the castle,
except those who were in one hall. And there I saw four and twenty
damsels, embroidering satin at a window. And this I tell thee,
Kay, that the least fair of them was fairer than the fairest maid
thou didst ever behold in the island of Britain; and the least
lovely of them was more lovely than Guenever, the wife of Arthur,
when she appeared loveliest, at the feast of Easter. They rose up
at my coming, and six of them took my horse, and divested me of my
armor, and six others took my arms and washed them in a vessel
till they were perfectly bright. And the third six spread cloths
upon the tables and prepared meat. And the fourth six took off my
soiled garments and placed others upon me, namely, an under vest
and a doublet of fine linen, and a robe and a surcoat, and a
mantle of yellow satin, with a broad gold band upon the mantle.
And they placed cushions both beneath and around me, with
coverings of red linen, and I sat down. Now the six maidens who
had taken my horse unharnessed him as well as if they had been the
best squires in the island of Britain.

"Then behold they brought bowls of silver, wherein was water to
wash and towels of linen, some green and some white; and I washed.
And in a little while the man sat down at the table. And I sat
next to him, and below me sat all the maidens, except those who
waited on us. And the table was of silver, and the cloths upon the
table were of linen. And no vessel was served upon the table that
was not either of gold or of silver or of buffalo horn. And our
meat was brought to us. And verily, Kay, I saw there every sort of
meat, and every sort of liquor that I ever saw elsewhere; but the
meat and the liquor were better served there than I ever saw them
in any other place.

"Until the repast was half over, neither the man nor any one of
the damsels spoke a single word to me; but when the man perceived
that it would be more agreeable for me to converse than to eat any
more, he began to inquire of me who I was. Then I told the man who
I was and what was the cause of my journey, and said that I was
seeking whether any one was superior to me, or whether I could
gain mastery over all. The man looked upon me, and he smiled and
said, 'If I did not fear to do thee a mischief, I would show thee
that which thou seekest.' Then I desired him to speak freely. And
he said: 'Sleep here to-night, and in the morning arise early, and
take the road upwards through the valley, until thou readiest the
wood. A little way within the wood thou wilt come to a large
sheltered glade, with a mound in the centre. And thou wilt see a
black man of great stature on the top of the mound. He has but one
foot, and one eye in the middle of his forehead. He is the wood-
ward of that wood. And thou wilt see a thousand wild animals
grazing around him. Inquire of him the way out of the glade, and
he will reply to thee briefly, and will point out the road by
which thou shalt find that which thou art in quest of.'

"And long seemed that night to me. And the next morning I arose
and equipped myself, and mounted my horse, and proceeded straight
through the valley to the wood, and at length I arrived at the
glade. And the black man was there, sitting upon the top of the
mound; and I was three times more astonished at the number of wild
animals that I beheld than the man had said I should be. Then I
inquired of him the way and he asked me roughly whither I would
go. And when I had told him who I was and what I sought, 'Take,'
said he, 'that path that leads toward the head of the glade, and
there thou wilt find an open space like to a large valley, and in
the midst of it a tall tree. Under this tree is a fountain, and by
the side of the fountain a marble slab, and on the marble slab a
silver bowl, attached by a chain of silver, that it may not be
carried away. Take, the bowl and throw a bowlful of water on the
slab. And if thou dost not find trouble in that adventure, thou
needest not seek it during the rest of thy life.'

"So I journeyed on until I reached the summit of the steep. And
there I found everything as the black man had described it to me.
And I went up to the tree, and beneath it I saw the fountain, and
by its side the marble slab, and the silver bowl fastened by the
chain. Then I took the bowl, and cast a bowlful of water upon the
slab, and immediately I heard a mighty peal of thunder, so that
heaven and earth seemed to tremble with its fury. And after the
thunder came a, shower; and of a truth I tell thee, Kay, that it
was such a shower as neither man nor beast could endure and live.
I turned my horse's flank toward the shower, and placed the beak
of my shield over his head and neck, while I held the upper part
of it over my own neck. And thus I withstood the shower. And
presently the sky became clear, and with that, behold, the birds
lighted upon the tree, and sang. And truly, Kay, I never heard any
melody equal to that, either before or since. And when I was most
charmed with listening to the birds, lo! a chiding voice was heard
of one approaching me and saying: 'O knight, what has brought thee
hither? What evil have I done to thee that thou shouldst act
towards me and my possessions as thou hast this day? Dost thou not
know that the shower to-day has left in my dominions neither man
nor beast alive that was exposed to it?' And thereupon, behold, a
knight on a black horse appeared, clothed in jet-black velvet, and
with a tabard of black linen about him. And we charged each other,
and, as the onset was furious, it was not long before I was
overthrown. Then the knight passed the shaft of his lance through
the bridle-rein of my horse, and rode off with the two horses,
leaving me where I was. And he did not even bestow so much notice
upon me as to imprison me, nor did he despoil me of my arms. So I
returned along the road by which I had come. And when I reached
the glade where the black man was, I confess to thee, Kay, it is a
marvel that I did not melt down into a liquid pool, through the
shame that I felt at the black man's derision. And that night I
came to the same castle where I had spent the night preceding. And
I was more agreeably entertained that night than I had been the
night before. And I conversed freely with the inmates of the
castle; and none of them alluded to my expedition to the fountain,
neither did I mention it to any. And I remained there that night.
When I arose on the morrow I found ready saddled a dark bay
palfrey, with nostrils as red as scarlet. And after putting on my
armor, and leaving there my blessing, I returned to my own court.
And that horse I still possess, and he is in the stable yonder.
And I declare that I would not part with him for the best palfrey
in the island of Britain.

"Now, of a truth, Kay, no man ever before confessed to an
adventure so much to his own discredit; and verily it seems
strange to me that neither before nor since have I heard of any
person who knew of this adventure, and that the subject of it
should exist within King Arthur's dominions without any other
person lighting upon it."





CHAPTER III

THE LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN (Continued)

OWAIN'S ADVENTURE


[Footnote: Amongst all the characters of early British history
none is the more interesting, or occupies more conspicuous place,
than the hero of this tale. Urien, his father, was prince of
Rheged, a district comprising the present Cumberland and part of
the adjacent country. His valor, and the consideration in which he
was held, are a frequent theme of Bardic song, and form the
subject of several very spirited odes by Taliesin. Among the
Triads there is one relating to him; it is thus translated:

"Three Knights of Battle were in court of Arthur Cadwr, the Earl
of Cornwall, Launcelot du Lac, and Owain, the son of Urien. And
this was their characteristic--that they would not retreat from
battle, neither for spear, nor for arrow, nor for sword. And
Arthur never had shame in battle the day he saw their faces there.
And they were called the Knights of Battle."]

"Now," quoth Owain, "would it not be well to go and endeavor to
discover that place?"

"By the hand of my friend," said Kay, "often dost thou utter that
with thy tongue which thou wouldest not make good with thy deeds."

"In very truth," said Guenever, "it were better thou wert hanged,
Kay, than to use such uncourteous speech towards a man like
Owain."

"By the hand of my friend, good lady," said Kay, "thy praise of
Owain is not greater than mine."

With that Arthur awoke, and asked if he had not been sleeping a
little.

"Yes, lord," answered Owain, "thou hast slept awhile."

"Is it time for us to go to meat?"

"It is, lord," said Owain.

Then the horn for washing was sounded, and the king and all his
household sat down to eat. And when the meal was ended Owain
withdrew to his lodging, and made ready his horse and his arms.

On the morrow with the dawn of day he put on his armor, and
mounted his charger, and travelled through distant lands, and over
desert mountains. And at length he arrived at the valley which
Kynon had described to him, and he was certain that it was the
same that he sought. And journeying along the valley, by the side
of the river, he followed its course till he came to the plain,
and within sight of the castle. When he approached the castle he
saw the youths shooting with their bows, in the place where Kynon
had seen them, and the yellow man, to whom the castle belonged,
standing hard by. And no sooner had Owain saluted the yellow man,
than he was saluted by him in return.

And he went forward towards the castle, and there he saw the
chamber; and when he had entered the chamber, he beheld the
maidens working at satin embroidery, in chains of gold. And their
beauty and their comeliness seemed to Owain far greater than Kynon
had represented to him. And they arose to wait upon Owain, as they
had done to Kynon. And the meal which they set before him gave
even more satisfaction to Owain than it had done to Kynon.

About the middle of the repast the yellow man asked Owain the
object of his journey. And Owain made it known to him, and said,
"I am in quest of the knight who guards the fountain." Upon this
the yellow man smiled, and said that he was as loth to point out
that adventure to him as he had been to Kynon. However, he
described the whole to Owain, and they retired to rest.

The next morning Owain found his horse made ready for him by the
damsels, and he set forward and came to the glade where the black
man was. And the stature of the black man seemed more wonderful to
Owain than it had done to Kynon; and Owain asked of him his road,
and he showed it to him. And Owain followed the road till he came
to the green tree; and he beheld the fountain, and the slab beside
the fountain, with the bowl upon it. And Owain took the bowl and
threw a bowlful of water upon the slab. And, lo! the thunder was
heard, and after the thunder came the shower, more violent than
Kynon had described, and after the shower the sky became bright.
And immediately the birds came and settled upon the tree and sang.
And when their song was most pleasing to Owain he beheld a knight
coming towards him through the valley; and he prepared to receive
him, and encountered him violently. Having broken both their
lances, they drew their swords and fought blade to blade. Then
Owain struck the knight a blow through his helmet, head-piece, and
visor, and through the skin, and the flesh, and the bone, until it
wounded the very brain. Then the black knight felt that he had
received a mortal wound, upon which he turned his horse's head and
fled. And Owain pursued him and followed close upon him, although
he was not near enough to strike him with his sword. Then Owain
descried a vast and resplendent castle; and they came to the
castle gate. And the black knight was allowed to enter, and the
portcullis was let fall upon Owain; and it struck his horse behind
the saddle, and cut him in two, and carried away the rowels of the
spurs that were upon Owains' heels. And the portcullis descended
to the floor. And the rowels of the spurs and part of the horse
were without, and Owain with the other part of the horse remained
between the two gates, and the inner gate was closed, so that
Owain could not go thence; and Owain was in a perplexing
situation. And while he was in this state, he could see through an
aperture in the gate a street facing him, with a row of houses on
each side. And he beheld a maiden, with yellow, curling hair, and
a frontlet of gold upon her head; and she was clad in a dress of
yellow satin, and on her feet were shoes of variegated leather.
And she approached the gate, and desired that it should be opened.
"Heaven knows, lady," said Owain, "it is no more possible for me
to open to thee from hence, than it is for thee to set me free."
And he told her his name, and who he was. "Truly," said the
damsel, "it is very sad that thou canst not be released; and every
woman ought to succor thee, for I know there is no one more
faithful in the service of ladies than thou. Therefore," quoth
she, "whatever is in my power to do for thy release, I will do it.
Take this ring and put it on thy finger, with the stone inside thy
hand, and close thy hand upon the stone. And as long as thou
concealest it, it will conceal thee. When they come forth to fetch
thee, they will be much grieved that they cannot find thee. And I
will await thee on the horseblock yonder, and thou wilt be able to
see me, though I cannot see thee. Therefore come and place thy
hand upon my shoulder, that I may know that thou art near me. And
by the way that I go hence do thou accompany me."

Then the maiden went away from Owain, and he did all that she had
told him. And the people of the castle came to seek Owain to put
him to death; and when they found nothing but the half of his
horse, they were sorely grieved.

And Owain vanished from among them, and went to the maiden, and
placed his hand upon her shoulder; whereupon she set off, and
Owain followed her, until they came to the door of a large and
beautiful chamber, and the maiden opened it, and they went in. And
Owain looked around the chamber, and behold there was not a single
nail in it that was not painted with gorgeous colors, and there
was not a single panel that had not sundry images in gold
portrayed upon it.

The maiden kindled a fire, and took water in a silver bowl, and
gave Owain water to wash. Then she placed before him a silver
table, inlaid with gold; upon which was a cloth of yellow linen,
and she brought him food. And, of a truth, Owain never saw any
kind of meat that was not there in abundance, but it was better
cooked there than he had ever found it in any other place. And
there was not one vessel from which he was served that was not of
gold or of silver. And Owain eat and drank until late in the
afternoon, when lo! they heard a mighty clamor in the castle, and
Owain asked the maiden what it was. "They are administering
extreme unction," said she, "to the nobleman who owns the castle."
And she prepared a couch for Owain which was meet for Arthur
himself, and Owain went to sleep.

And a little after daybreak he heard an exceeding loud clamor and
wailing, and he asked the maiden what was the cause of it. "They
are bearing to the church the body of the nobleman who owned the
castle."

And Owain rose up, and clothed himself, and opened a window of the
chamber, and looked towards the castle; and he could see neither
the bounds nor the extent of the hosts that filled the streets.
And they were fully armed; and a vast number of women were with
them, both on horseback and on foot, and all the ecclesiastics in
the city singing. In the midst of the throng he beheld the bier,
over which was a veil of white linen; and wax tapers were burning
beside and around it; and none that supported the bier was lower
in rank than a powerful baron.

Never did Owain see an assemblage so gorgeous with silk [Footnote:
Before the sixth century all the silk used by Europeans had been
brought to them by the Seres, the ancestors of the present
Boukharians, whence it derived its Latin name of Serica. In 551
the silkworm was brought by two monks to Constantinople, but the
manufacture of silk was confined to the Greek empire till the year
1130, when Roger, king of Sicily, returning from a crusade,
collected some manufacturers from Athens and Corinth, and
established them at Palermo, whence the trade was gradually
disseminated over Italy. The varieties of silk stuffs known at
this time were velvet, satin (which was called samite), and
taffety (called cendal or sendall), all of which were occasionally
stitched with gold and silver.] and satin. And, following the
train, he beheld a lady with yellow hair falling over her
shoulders, and stained with blood; and about her a dress of yellow
satin, which was torn. Upon her feet were shoes of variegated
leather. And it was a marvel that the ends of her fingers were not
bruised from the violence with which she smote her hands together.
Truly she would have been the fairest lady Owain ever saw, had she
been in her usual guise. And her cry was louder than the shout of
the men or the clamor of the trumpets. No sooner had he beheld the
lady than he became inflamed with her love, so that it took entire
possession of him.

Then he inquired of the maiden who the lady was. "Heaven knows,"
replied the maiden, "she is the fairest and the most chaste, and
the most liberal, and the most noble of women. She is my mistress,
and she is called the Countess of the Fountain, the wife of him
whom thou didst slay yesterday." "Verily," said Owain, "she is the
woman that I love best." "Verily," said the maiden, "she shall
also love thee, not a little."

Then the maiden prepared a repast for Owain, and truly he thought
he had never before so good a meal, nor was he ever so well
served. Then she left him, and went towards the castle. When she
came there, she found nothing but mourning and sorrow; and the
Countess in her chamber could not bear the sight of any one
through grief. Luned, for that was the name of the maiden, saluted
her, but the Countess answered her not. And the maiden bent down
towards her, and said, "What aileth thee, that thou answereth no
one to-day?" "Luned," said the Countess, "what change hath
befallen thee, that thou hast not come to visit me in my grief. It
was wrong in thee, and I so sorely afflicted." "Truly," said
Luned, "I thought thy good sense was greater than I find it to be.
Is it well for thee to mourn after that good man, or for anything
else that thou canst not have?" "I declare to Heaven," said the
Countess, "that in the whole world there is not a man equal to
him." "Not so," said Luned, "for an ugly man would be as good as
or better than he." "I declare to Heaven," said the Countess,
"that were it not repugnant to me to put to death one whom I have
brought up, I would have thee executed for making such a
comparison to me. As it is, I will banish thee." "I am glad," said
Luned, "that thou hast no other cause to do so than that I would
have been of service to thee, where thou didst not know what was
to thine advantage. Henceforth, evil betide whichever of us shall
make the first advance towards reconciliation to the other,
whether I should seek an invitation from thee, or thou of thine
own accord should send to invite."

With that Luned went forth; and the Countess arose and followed
her to the door of the chamber, and began coughing loudly. And
when Luned looked back, the Countess beckoned to her, and she
returned to the Countess. "In truth," said the Countess, "evil is
thy disposition; but if thou knowest what is to my advantage,
declare it to me." "I will do so," said she.

"Thou knowest that, except by warfare and arms, it is impossible
for thee to preserve thy possessions; delay not, therefore, to
seek some one who can defend them." "And how can I do that?" said
the Countess. "I will tell thee," said Luned; "unless thou canst
defend the fountain, thou canst not maintain thy dominions; and no
one can defend the fountain except it be a knight of Arthur's
household. I will go to Arthur's court, and ill betide me if I
return not thence with a warrior who can guard the fountain as
well as, or even better than, he who defended it formerly." "That
will be hard to perform," said the Countess. "Go, however, and
make proof of that which thou hast promised,"

Luned set out under the pretence of going to Arthur's court; but
she went back to the mansion where she had left Owain, and she
tarried there as long as it might have taken her to travel to the
court of King Arthur and back. And at the end of that time she
apparelled herself, and went to visit the Countess. And the
Countess was much rejoiced when she saw her, and inquired what
news she brought from the court. "I bring thee the best of news,"
said Luned, "for I have compassed the object of my mission. When
wilt thou that I should present to thee the chieftain who has come
with me hither?" "Bring him here to visit me to-morrow," said the
Countess, "and I will cause the town to be assembled by that
time."

And Luned returned home. And the next day at noon, Owain arrayed
himself in a coat and a surcoat, and a mantle of yellow satin,
upon which was a broad band of gold lace; and on his feet were
high shoes of variegated leather, which were fastened by golden
clasps, in the form of lions. And they proceeded to the chamber of
the Countess.

Right glad was the Countess of their coming. And she gazed
steadfastly upon Owain, and said, "Luned, this knight has not the
look of a traveller." "What harm is there in that, lady?" said
Luned. "I am certain," said the Countess, "that no other man than
this chased the soul from the body of my lord." "So much the
better for thee, lady," said Luned, "for had he not been stronger
than thy lord, he could not have deprived him of life. There is no
remedy for that which is past, be it as it may." "Go back to thine
abode," said the Countess, "and I will take counsel."

The next day the Countess caused all her subjects to assemble, and
showed them that her earldom was left defenceless, and that it
could not be protected but with horse and arms, and military
skill. "Therefore," said she, "this is what I offer for your
choice: either let one of you take me, or give your consent for me
to take a husband from elsewhere, to defend my dominions."

So they came to the determination that it was better that she
should have permission to marry some one from elsewhere; and
thereupon she sent for the bishops and archbishops, to celebrate
her nuptials with Owain. And the men of the earldom did Owain
homage.

And Owain defended the fountain with lance and sword. And this is
the manner in which he defended it. Whensoever a knight came
there, he overthrew him, and sold him for his full worth. And what
he thus gained he divided among his barons and his knights, and no
man in the whole world could be more beloved than he was by his
subjects. And it was thus for the space of three years.

[Footnote: There exists an ancient poem, printed among those of
Taliesin, called the "Elegy of Owain ap Urien," and containing
several very beautiful and spirited passages It commences

   "The soul of Owain ap Urien,
   May its Lord consider its exigencies'
   Reged's chief the green turf covers."

In the course of this Elegy the bard, alluding to the incessant
warfare with which this chieftain harassed his Saxon foes,
exclaims,

"Could England sleep with the light upon her eyes'"]





CHAPTER IV

THE LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN (Continued)

GAWAIN'S ADVENTURE


It befell that, as Gawain went forth one day with King Arthur, he
perceived him to be very sad and sorrowful. And Gawain was much
grieved to see Arthur in his state, and he questioned him, saying,
"O my lord, what has befallen thee?" "In sooth, Gawain," said
Arthur, "I am grieved concerning Owain, whom I have lost these
three years; and I shall certainly die if the fourth year pass
without my seeing him. Now I am sure that it is through the tale
which Kynon, the son of Clydno, related, that I have lost Owain."
"There is no need for thee," said Gawain, "to summon to arms thy
whole dominions on this account, for thou thyself, and the men of
thy household, will be able to avenge Owain if he be slain or to
set him free if he be in prison; and, if alive, to bring him back
with thee." And it was settled according to what Gawain had said.

Then Arthur and the men of his household prepared to go and seek
Owain. And Kynon, the son of Clydno, acted as their guide. And
Arthur came to the castle where Kynon had been before. And when he
came there, the youths were shooting in the same place, and the
yellow man was standing hard by. When the yellow man saw Arthur,
he greeted him, and invited him to the castle. And Arthur accepted
his invitation, and they entered the castle together. And great as
was the number of his retinue, their presence was scarcely
observed in the castle, so vast was its extent. And the maidens
rose up to wait on them. And the service of the maidens appeared
to them all to excel any attendance they had ever met with; and
even the pages, who had charge of the horses, were no worse served
that night than Arthur himself would have been in his own palace.

The next morning Arthur set out thence, with Kynon for his guide,
and came to the place where the black man was. And the stature of
the black man was more surprising to Arthur than it had been
represented to him. And they came to the top of the wooded steep,
and traversed the valley, till they reached the green tree, where
they saw the fountain and the bowl and the slab. And upon that Kay
came to Arthur, and spoke to him. "My lord," said he, "I know the
meaning of all this, and my request is that thou wilt permit me to
throw the water on the slab, and to receive the first adventure
that may befall." And Arthur gave him leave.

Then Kay threw a bowlful of water upon the slab, and immediately
there came the thunder, and after the thunder the shower. And such
a thunder-storm they had never known before. After the shower had
ceased, the sky became clear, and on looking at the tree, they
beheld it completely leafless. Then the birds descended upon the
tree. And the song of the birds was far sweeter than any strain
they had ever heard before. Then they beheld a knight, on a coal-
black horse, clothed in black satin, coming rapidly towards them.
And Kay met him and encountered him, and it was not long before
Kay was overthrown. And the knight withdrew. And Arthur and his
host encamped for the night.

And when they arose in the morning, they perceived the signal of
combat upon the lance of the knight. Then, one by one, all the
household of Arthur went forth to combat the knight, until there
was not one that was not overthrown by him, except Arthur and
Gawain. And Arthur armed himself to encounter the knight. "O my
lord," said Gawain, "permit me to fight with him first." And
Arthur permitted him. And he went forth to meet the knight, having
over himself and his horse a satin robe of honor, which had been
sent him by the daughter of the Earl of Rhangyr, and in this dress
he was not known by any of the host. And they charged each other,
and fought all that day until the evening. And neither of them was
able to unhorse the other. And so it was the next day; they broke
their lances in the shock, but neither of them could obtain the
mastery.

And the third day they fought with exceeding strong lances. And
they were incensed with rage, and fought furiously, even until
noon. And they gave each other such a shock that the girths of
their horses were broken, so that they fell over their horses'
cruppers to the ground. And they rose up speedily and drew their
swords, and resumed the combat. And all they that witnessed their
encounter felt assured that they had never before seen two men so
valiant or so powerful. And had it been midnight, it would have
been light, from the fire that flashed from their weapons. And the
knight gave Gawain a blow that turned his helmet from off his
face, so that the knight saw that it was Gawain. Then Owain said,
"My lord Gawain, I did not know thee for my cousin, owing to the
robe of honor that enveloped thee; take my sword and my arms."
Said Gawain, "Thou, Owain, art the victor; take thou my sword."
And with that Arthur saw that they were conversing, and advanced
toward them. "My lord Arthur," said Gawam, "here is Owain who has
vanquished me, and will not take my arms." "My lord," said Owain,
"it is he that has vanquished me, and he will not take my sword."
"Give me your swords," said Arthur, "and then neither of you has
vanquished the other." Then Owain put his arms around Arthur's
neck, and they embraced. And all the host hurried forward to see
Owain, and to embrace him. And there was nigh being a loss of
life, so great was the press.

And they retired that night, and the next day Arthur prepared to
depart. "My lord," said Owain, "this is not well of thee. For I
have been absent from thee these three years, and during all that
time, up to this very day, I have been preparing a banquet for
thee, knowing that thou wouldst come to seek me. Tarry with me,
therefore, until thou and thy attendants have recovered the
fatigues of the journey, and have been anointed."

And they all proceeded to the castle of the Countess of the
Fountain, and the banquet which had been three years preparing was
consumed in three months. Never had they a more delicious or
agreeable banquet. And Arthur prepared to depart. Then he sent an
embassy to the Countess to beseech her to permit Owain to go with
him, for the space of three months, that he might show him to the
nobles and the fair dames of the island of Britain. And the
Countess gave her consent, although it was very painful to her. So
Owain came with Arthur to the island of Britain. And when he was
once more amongst his kindred and friends, he remained three
years, instead of three months, with them.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE LION

And as Owain one day sat at meat, in the city of Caerleon upon
Usk, behold a damsel entered the hall, upon a bay horse, with a
curling mane, and covered with foam; and the bridle, and as much
as was seen of the saddle, were of gold. And the damsel was
arrayed in a dress of yellow satin. And she came up to Owain, and
took the ring from off his hand. "Thus," said she, "shall be
treated the deceiver, the traitor, the faithless, the disgraced,
and the beardless." And she turned her horse's head and departed.

[Footnote: The custom of riding into a hall while the lord and his
guests sat at meat might be illustrated by numerous passages of
ancient romance and history. But a quotation from Chaucer's
beautiful and half-told tale of "Cambuscan" is sufficient:

    "And so befell that after the thridde cours,
    While that this king sat thus in his nobley,
    Herking his minstralles thir thinges play,
    Beforne him at his bord deliciously,
    In at the halle door all sodenly
    Ther came a knight upon a stede of bras,
    And in his hond a brod mirrour of glas;
    Upon his thombe he had of gold a ring,
    And by his side a naked sword hanging;
    And up he rideth to the highe bord.
    In all the halle ne was ther spoke a word,
    For meryaille of this knight; him to behold
    Full besily they waiten, young and old."]

Then his adventure came to Owain's remembrance, and he was
sorrowful. And having finished eating, he went to his own abode,
and made preparations that night. And the next day he arose, but
did not go to the court, nor did he return to the Countess of the
Fountain, but wandered to the distant parts of the earth and to
uncultivated mountains. And he remained there until all his
apparel was worn out, and his body was wasted away, and his hair
was grown long. And he went about with the wild beasts, and fed
with them, until they became familiar with him. But at length he
became so weak that he could no longer bear them company. Then he
descended from the mountains to the valley, and came to a park,
that was the fairest in the world, and belonged to a charitable
lady.

One day the lady and her attendants went forth to walk by a lake
that was in the middle of the park. And they saw the form of a
man, lying as if dead. And they were terrified. Nevertheless they
went near him, and touched him, and they saw that there was life
in him. And the lady returned to the castle, and took a flask full
of precious ointment and gave it to one of her maidens. "Go with
this," said she, "and take with thee yonder horse, and clothing,
and place them near the man we saw just now; and anoint him with
this balsam near his heart; and if there is life in him, he will
revive, through the efficiency of this balsam. Then watch what he
will do."

And the maiden departed from her, and went and poured of the
balsam upon Owain, and left the horse and the garments hard by,
and went a little way off and hid herself to watch him. In a short
time, she saw him begin to move; and he rose up, and looked at his
person, and became ashamed of the unseemliness of his appearance.
Then he perceived the horse and the garments that were near him.
And he clothed himself, and with difficulty mounted the horse.
Then the damsel discovered herself to him, and saluted him. And he
and the maiden proceeded to the castle, and the maiden conducted
him to a pleasant chamber, and kindled a fire, and left him.

And he stayed at the castle three months, till he was restored to
his former guise, and became even more comely than he had ever
been before. And Owain rendered signal service to the lady, in a
controversy with a powerful neighbor, so that he made ample
requital to her for her hospitality; and he took his departure.

And as he journeyed he heard a loud yelling in a wood. And it was
repeated a second and a third time. And Owain went towards the
spot, and beheld a huge craggy mound, in the middle of the wood,
on the side of which was a gray rock. And there was a cleft in the
rock, and a serpent was within the cleft. And near the rock stood
a black lion, and every time the lion sought to go thence the
serpent darted towards him to attack him. And Owain unsheathed his
sword, and drew near to the rock; and as the serpent sprung out he
struck him with his sword and cut him in two. And he dried his
sword, and went on his way as before. But behold the lion followed
him, and played about him, as though it had been a greyhound that
he had reared.

They proceeded thus throughout the day, until the evening. And
when it was time for Owain to take his rest he dismounted, and
turned his horse loose in a flat and wooded meadow. And he struck
fire, and when the fire was kindled, the lion brought him fuel
enough to last for three nights. And the lion disappeared. And
presently the lion returned, bearing a fine large roebuck. And he
threw it down before Owain, who went towards the fire with it.

And Owain took the roebuck, and skinned it, and placed collops of
its flesh upon skewers round the fire. The rest of the buck he
gave to the lion to devour. While he was so employed, he heard a
deep groan near him, and a second, and a third. And the place
whence the groans proceeded was a cave in the rock; and Owain went
near, and called out to know who it was that groaned so piteously.
And a voice answered, "I am Luned, the hand-maiden of the Countess
of the Fountain." "And what dost thou here?" said he. "I am
imprisoned," said she, "on account of the knight who came from
Arthur's court, and married the Countess. And he staid a short
time with her, but he afterwards departed for the court of Arthur,
and has not returned since. And two of the Countess's pages
traduced him, and called him a deceiver. And because I said I
would vouch for it he would come before long and maintain his
cause against both of them, they imprisoned me in this cave, and
said that I should be put to death, unless he came to deliver me,
by a certain day; and that is no further off than to-morrow, and I
have no one to send to seek him for me. His name is Owain, the son
of Urien." "And art thou certain that if that knight knew all
this, he would come to thy rescue?" "I am most certain of it,"
said she.

When the collops were cooked, Owain divided them into two parts,
between himself and the maiden, and then Owain laid himself down
to sleep; and never did sentinel keep stricter watch over his lord
than the lion that night over Owain.

And the next day there came the two pages with a great troop of
attendants to take Luned from her cell, and put her to death. And
Owain asked them what charge they had against her. And they told
him of the compact that was between them; as the maiden had done
the night before. "And," said they, "Owain has failed her,
therefore we are taking her to be burnt." "Truly," said Owain, "he
is a good knight; and if he knew that the maiden was in such
peril, I marvel that he came not to her rescue. But if you will
accept me in his stead, I will do battle with you." "We will,"
said the youth.

And they attacked Owain, and he was hard beset by them. And with
that, the lion came to Owain's assistance, and they two got the
better of the young men And they said to him, "Chieftain, it was
not agreed that we should fight save with thyself alone, and it is
harder for us to contend with yonder animal than with thee." And
Owain put the lion in the place where Luned had been imprisoned,
and blocked up the door with stones. And he went to fight with the
young men as before. But Owain had not his usual strength, and the
two youths pressed hard upon him. And the lion roared incessantly
at seeing Owain in trouble. And he brust through the wall, until
he found a way out, and rushed upon the young men and instantly
slew them. So Luned was saved from being burned.

Then Owain returned with Luned to the castle of the Lady of the
Fountain. And when he went thence, he took the Countess with him
to Arthur's court, and she was his wife as long as she lived.





CHAPTER V

GERAINT, THE SON OF ERBIN


Arthur was accustomed to hold his court at Caerleon upon Usk. And
there he held it seven Easters and five Christmases. And once upon
a time he held his court there at Whitsuntide. For Caerleon was
the place most easy of access in his dominions, both by sea and by
land. And there were assembled nine crowned kings, who were his
tributaries, and likewise earls and barons. For they were his
invited guests at all the high festivals, unless they were
prevented by any great hinderatice. And when he was at Caerleon
holding his court, thirteen churches were set apart for mass. And
thus they were appointed: one church for Arthur and his kings, and
his guests; and the second for Guenever and her ladies; and the
third for the steward of the household and the suitors; and the
fourth for the Franks and the other officers; and the other nine
churches were for the nine masters of the household, and chiefly
for Gawain, for he, from the eminence of his warlike fame, and
from the nobleness of his birth, was the most exalted of the nine.
And there was no other arrangement respecting the churches than
that which we have here mentioned.

And on Whit-Tuesday, as the king sat at the banquet, lo, there
entered a tall, fair-headed youth, clad in a coat and surcoat of
satin, and a golden-hilted sword about his neck, and low shoes of
leather upon his feet. And he came and stood before Arthur. "Hail
to thee, lord," said he. "Heaven prosper thee," he answered, "and
be thou welcome. Dost thou bring any new tidings?" "I do, lord,"
he said. "I am one of thy foresters, lord, in the forest of Dean,
and my name is Madoc, son of Turgadarn. In the forest I saw a
stag, the like of which beheld I never yet." "What is there about
him," asked Arthur, "that thou never yet didst see his like?" "He
is of pure white, lord, and he does not herd with any other
animal, through stateliness and pride, so royal is his bearing.
And I come to seek thy counsel, lord, and to know thy will
concerning him." "It seems best to me," said Arthur, "to go and
hunt him to-morrow at break of day, and to cause general notice
thereof to be given to-night, in all quarters of the court."

   "For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before
   Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk.
   There on a day, he sitting high in hall,
   Before him came a forester of Dean,
   Wet from the woods, with notice of a hart

   Taller than all his fellows, milky-white,
   First seen that day: these things he told the king.
   Then the good king gave order to let blow
   His horns for hunting on the morrow morn."

    --Enid.

And Arryfuerys was Arthur's chief huntsman, and Arelivri his chief
page. And all received notice; and thus it was arranged.

Then Guenever said to Arthur, "Wilt thou permit me, lord, to go
to-morrow to see and hear the hunt of the stag of which the young
man spoke?" "I will gladly," said Arthur. And Gawain said to
Arthur, "Lord, if it seem well to thee, permit that into whose
hunt soever the stag shall come, that one, be he a knight or one
on foot, may cut off his head, and give it to whom he pleases,
whether to his own lady-love, or to the lady of his friend." "I
grant it gladly," said Arthur, "and let the steward of the
household be chastised, if all things are not ready to-morrow for
the chase."

And they passed the night with songs, and diversions, and
discourse, and ample entertainment. And when it was time for them
all to go to sleep, they went. And when the next day came, they
arose. And Arthur called the attendants who guarded his couch. And
there were four pages whose names were Cadyrnerth, the son of
Gandwy, and Ambreu, the son of Bedwor and Amhar, the son of Arthur
and Goreu, the son of Custennin. And these men came to Arthur and
saluted him, and arrayed him in his garments. And Arthur wondered
that Guenever did not awake, and the attendants wished to awaken
her. "Disturb her not," said Arthur, "for she had rather sleep
than go to see the hunting."

Then Arthur went forth, and he heard two horns sounding, one from
near the lodging of the chief huntsman, and the other from near
that of the chief page. And the whole assembly of the multitudes
came to Arthur, and they took the road to the forest.

And after Arthur had gone forth from the palace, Guenever awoke,
and called to her maidens, and apparalled herself. "Maidens," said
she, "I had leave last night to go and see the hunt. Go one of you
to the stable, and order hither a horse such as a woman may ride."
And one of them went, and she found but two horses in the stable;
and Guenever and one of her maidens mounted them, and went through
the Usk, and followed the track of the men and the horses. And as
they rode thus, they heard a loud and rushing sound; and they
looked behind them, and beheld a knight upon a hunter foal of
mighty size. And the rider was a fairhaired youth, bare-legged,
and of princely mien; and a golden-hilted sword was at his side,
and a robe and a surcoat of satin were upon him, and two low shoes
of leather upon his feet; and around him was a scarf of blue
purple, at each corner of which was a golden apple.

      "For Prince Geraint,
   Late also, wearing neither hunting-dress
   Nor weapon, save a golden-hilted brand,
   Came quickly flashing through the shallow ford."
         --Enid.

And his horse stepped stately, and swift, and proud; and he
overtook Guenever, and saluted her. "Heaven prosper thee,
Geraint," said she; "and why didst thou not go with thy lord to
hunt?" "Because I knew not when he went," said he. "I marvel too,"
said she, "how he could go, unknown to me. But thou, O young man,
art the most agreeable companion I could have in the whole
kingdom; and it may be I shall be more amused with the hunting
than they; for we shall hear the horns when they sound and we
shall hear the dogs when they are let loose and begin to cry."

So they went to the edge of the forest, and there they stood.
"From this place," said she, "we shall hear when the dogs are let
loose." And thereupon they heard a loud noise; and they looked
towards the spot whence it came, and they beheld a dwarf riding
upon a horse, stately and foaming and prancing and strong and
spirited. And in the hand of the dwarf was a whip. And near the
dwarf they saw a lady upon a beautiful white horse, of steady and
stately pace; and she was clothed in a garment of gold brocade.
And near her was a knight upon a war-horse of large size, with
heavy and bright armor both upon himself and upon his horse. And
truly they never before saw a knight, or a horse, or armor, of
such remarkable size.

"Geraint," said Guenever, "knowest thou the name of that tall
knight yonder?" "I know him not," said he, "and the strange armor
that he wears prevents my either seeing his face or his features."
"Go, maiden," said Guenever, "and ask the dwarf who that knight
is." Then the maiden went up to the dwarf; and she inquired of the
dwarf who the knight was. "I will not tell thee," he answered.
"Since thou art so churlish," said she, "I will ask him, himself."
"Thou shalt not ask him, by my faith," said he. "Wherefore not?"
said she. "Because thou art not of honor sufficient to befit thee
to speak to my lord." Then the maiden turned her horse's head
towards the knight, upon which the dwarf struck her with the whip
that was in his hand across the face and the eyes, so that the
blood flowed forth. And the maiden returned to Guenever,
complaining of the hurt she had received. "Very rudely has the
dwarf treated thee," said Geraint, and he put his hand upon the
hilt of his sword. But he took counsel with himself, and
considered that it would be no vengeance for him to slay the
dwarf, and to be attacked unarmed by the armed knight; so he
refrained.

"Lady," said he, "I will follow him, with thy permission, and at
last he will come to some inhabited place, where I may have arms,
either as a loan or for a pledge, so that I may encounter the
knight." "Go," said she, "and do not attack him until thou hast
good arms; and I shall be very anxious concerning thee, until I
hear tidings of thee." "If I am alive," said he, "thou shalt hear
tidings of me by to-morrow afternoon;" and with that he departed.

And the road they took was below the palace of Caerleon, and
across the ford of the Usk; and they went along a fair and even
and lofty ridge of ground, until they came to a town, and at the
extremity of the town they saw a fortress and a castle. And as the
knight passed through the town all the people arose and saluted
him, and bade him welcome. And when Geraint came into the town, he
looked at every house to see if he knew any of those whom he saw.
But he knew none, and none knew him, to do him the kindness to let
him have arms, either as a loan or for a pledge. And every house
he saw was full of men, and arms, and horses. And they were
polishing shields, and burnishing swords, and washing armor, and
shoeing horses. And the knight and the lady and the dwarf rode up
to the castle, that was in the town, and every one was glad in the
castle. And from the battlements and the gates they risked their
necks, through their eagerness to greet them, and to show their
joy.

Geraint stood there to see whether the knight would remain in the
castle; and when he was certain that he would do so, he looked
around him. And at a little distance from the town he saw an old
palace in ruins, wherein was a hall that was falling to decay.

   "And high above a piece of turret-stair,
   Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound
   Bare to the sun"

    --Enid.

And as he knew not any one in the town, he went towards the old
palace. And when he came near to the palace, he saw a hoary-headed
man, standing by it, in tattered garments. And Geraint gazed
steadfastly upon him. Then the hoary-headed man said to him,
"Young man, wherefore art thou thoughtful?" "I am thoughtful,"
said he, "because I know not where to pass the night." "Wilt thou
come forward this way, chieftain," said he, "and thou shalt have
of the best that can be procured for thee." So Geraint went
forward. And the hoary-headed man led the way into the hall. And
in the hall he dismounted, and he left there his horse. Then he
went on to the upper chamber with the hoary-headed man. And in the
chamber he beheld an old woman, sitting on a cushion, with old,
worn-out garments upon her; yet it seemed to him that she must
have been comely when in the bloom of youth. And beside her was a
maiden, upon whom were a vest and a veil that were old and
beginning to be worn out. And truly he never saw a maiden more
full of comeliness and grace and beauty than she. And the hoary-
headed man said to the maiden, "There is no attendant for the
horse of this youth but thyself." "I will render the best service
I am able," said she, "both to him and to his horse." And the
maiden disarrayed the youth, and then she furnished his horse with
straw and corn; and then she returned to the chamber. And the
hoary-headed man said to the maiden, "Go to the town and bring
hither the best that thou canst find, both of food and of liquor."
"I will gladly, lord," said she. And to the town went the maiden.
And they conversed together while the maiden was at the town. And,
behold, the maiden came back, and a youth with her, bearing on his
back a costrel full of good purchased mead, and a quarter of a
young bullock. And in the hands of the maiden was a quantity of
white bread, and she had some manchet bread in her veil, and she
came into the chamber. "I would not obtain better than this," said
she, "nor with better should I have been trusted." "It is good
enough," said Geraint. And they caused the meat to be boiled; and
when their food was ready, they sat down. And it was in this wise.
Geraint sat between the hoary-headed man and his wife, and the
maiden served them. And they ate and drank.

And when they had finished eating, Geraint talked with the hoary-
headed man, and he asked him in the first place to whom belonged
the palace that he was in. "Truly," said he, "it was I that built
it, and to me also belonged the city and the castle which thou
sawest." "Alas!" said Geraint, "how is it that thou hast lost them
now?" "I lost a great earldom as well as these," said he, "and
this is how I lost them. I had a nephew, the son of my brother,
and I took care of his possessions; but he was impatient to enter
upon them, so he made war upon me, and wrested from me not only
his own, but also my estates, except this castle." "Good sir,"
said Geraint, "wilt thou tell me wherefore came the knight and the
lady and the dwarf just now into the town, and what is the
preparation which I saw, and the putting of arms in order?" "I
will do so," said he. "The preparations are for the game that is
to be held to-morrow by the young earl, which will be on this
wise. In the midst of a meadow which is here, two forks will be
set up, and upon the two forks a silver rod, and upon the silver
rod a sparrow-hawk, and for the sparrow-hawk there will be a
tournament. And to the tournament will go all the array thou didst
see in the city, of men and of horses and of arms. And with each
man will go the lady he loves best; and no man can joust for the
sparrow-hawk, except the lady he loves best be with him. And the
knight that thou sawest has gained the sparrow-hawk these two
years; and if he gains it the third year, he will be called the
Knight of the Sparrow-hawk from that time forth." "Sir," said
Geraint, "what is thy counsel to me concerning this knight, on
account of the insult which the maiden of Guenever received from
the dwarf?" And Geraint told the hoary-headed man what the insult
was that the maiden had received. "It is not easy to counsel thee,
inasmuch as thou hast neither dame nor maiden belonging to thee,
for whom thou canst joust. Yet I have arms here, which thou
couldst have, and there is my horse also, if he seem to thee
better than thine own." "Ah, sir," said he, "Heaven reward thee!
But my own horse to which I am accustomed, together with thine
arms, will suffice me. And if, when the appointed time shall come
to-morrow thou wilt permit me, sir, to challenge for yonder maiden
that is thy daughter, I will engage, if I escape from the
tournament, to love the maiden as long as I live." "Gladly will I
permit thee," said the hoary-headed man; "and since thou dost thus
resolve, it is necessary that thy horse and arms should be ready
to-morrow at break of day. For then the Knight of the Sparrow-hawk
will make proclamation, and ask the lady he loves best to take the
sparrow-hawk; and if any deny it to her, by force will he defend
her claim. And therefore," said the hoary-headed man, "it is
needful for thee to be there at daybreak, and we three will be
with thee." And thus was it settled.

And at night they went to sleep. And before the dawn they arose
and arrayed themselves; and by the time that it was day, they were
all four in the meadow. And there was the Knight of the Sparrow-
hawk making the proclamation, and asking his lady-love to take the
sparrow-hawk. "Take it not," said Geraint, "for here is a maiden
who is fairer, and more noble, and more comely, and who has a
better claim to it than thou." Then said the knight, "If thou
maintainest the sparrow-hawk to be due to her, come forward and do
battle with me." And Geraint went forward to the top of the
meadow, having upon himself and upon his horse armor which was
heavy and rusty, and of uncouth shape. Then they encountered each
other, and they broke a set of lances; and they broke a second
set, and a third. And when the earl and his company saw the Knight
of the Sparrow-hawk gaining the mastery, there was shouting and
joy and mirth amongst them; and the hoary-headed man and his wife
and his daughter were sorrowful. And the hoary-headed man served
Geraint with lances as often as he broke them, and the dwarf
served the Knight of the Sparrow-hawk. Then the hoary-headed man
said to Geraint, "O chieftain, since no other will hold with thee,
behold, here is the lance which was in my hand on the day when I
received the honor of knighthood, and from that time to this I
never broke it, and it has an excellent point." Then Geraint took
the lance, thanking the hoary-headed man. And thereupon the dwarf
also brought a lance to his lord. "Behold, here is a lance for
thee, not less good than his," said the dwarf. "And bethink thee
that no knight ever withstood thee so long as this one has done."
"I declare to Heaven," said Geraint, "that unless death takes me
quickly hence, he shall fare never the better for thy service."
And Geraint pricked his horse towards him from afar, and, warning
him, he rushed upon him, and gave him a blow so severe, and
furious, and fierce, upon the face of his shield, that he cleft it
in two, and broke his armor, and burst his girths, so that both he
and his saddle were borne to the ground over the horse's crupper.
And Geraint dismounted quickly. And he was wroth, and he drew his
sword, and rushed fiercely upon him. Then the knight also arose,
and drew his sword against Geraint. And they fought on foot with
their swords until their arms struck sparks of fire like stars
from one another; and thus they continued fighting until the blood
and sweat obscured the light from their eyes. At length Geraint
called to him all his strength, and struck the knight upon the
crown of his head, so that he broke all his head-armor, and cut
through all the flesh and the skin, even to the skull, until he
wounded the bone.

Then the knight fell upon his knees, and cast his sword from his
hand, and besought mercy from Geraint. "Of a truth," said he, "I
relinquish my overdaring and my pride, and crave thy mercy; and
unless I have time to commit myself to Heaven for my sins, and to
talk with a priest, thy mercy will avail me little." "I will grant
thee grace upon this condition," said Geraint, "that thou go to
Guenever, the wife of Arthur, to do her satisfaction for the
insult which her maiden received from thy dwarf. Dismount not from
the time thou goest hence until thou comest into the presence of
Guenever, to make her what atonement shall be adjudged at the
court of Arthur." "This will I do gladly; and who art thou?" "I am
Geraint, the son of Erbin; and declare thou also who thou art." "I
am Edeym, the son of Nudd." Then he threw himself upon his horse,
and went forward to Arthur's court; and the lady he loved best
went before him, and the dwarf, with much lamentation.

Then came the young earl and his hosts to Geraint, and saluted
him, and bade him to his castle. "I may not go," said Geraint;
"but where I was last night, there will I be to-night also."
"Since thou wilt none of my inviting, thou shalt have abundance of
all that I can command for thee; and I will order ointment for
thee, to recover thee from thy fatigues, and from the weariness
that is upon thee." "Heaven reward thee," said Geraint, "and I
will go to my lodging." And thus went Geraint and Earl Ynywl, and
his wife and his daughter. And when they reached the old mansion,
the household servants and attendants of the young earl had
arrived, and had arranged all the apartments, dressing them with
straw and with fire; and in a short time the ointment was ready,
and Geraint came there, and they washed his head. Then came the
young earl, with forty honorable knights from among his
attendants, and those who were bidden to the tournament. And
Geraint came from the anointing. And the earl asked him to go to
the hall to eat. "Where is the Earl Ynywl," said Geraint, "and his
wife and his daughter?" "They are in the chamber yonder," said the
earl's chamberlain, "arraying themselves in garments which the
earl has caused to be brought for them." "Let not the damsel array
herself," said he, "except in her vest and her veil, until she
come to the court of Arthur, to be clad by Guenever in such
garments as she may choose." So the maiden did not array herself.

Then they all entered the hall, and they washed, and sat down to
meat. And thus were they seated. On one side of Geraint sat the
young earl, and Earl Ynywl beyond him, and on the other side of
Geraint was the maiden and her mother. And after these all sat
according to their precedence in honor. And they ate. And they
were served abundantly, and they received a profusion of divers
kinds of gifts. Then they conversed together. And the young earl
invited Geraint to visit him next day. "I will not, by Heaven,"
said Geraint. "To the court of Arthur will I go with this maiden
to-morrow. And it is enough for me, as long as Earl Ynywl is in
poverty and trouble; and I go chiefly to seek to add to his
maintenance." "Ah, chieftain," said the young earl, "it is not by
my fault that Earl Ynywl is without his possessions." "By my
faith," said Geraint, "he shall not remain without them, unless
death quickly takes me hence." "O chieftain," said he, "with
regard to the disagreement between me and Ynywl, I will gladly
abide by thy counsel, and agree to what thou mayest judge right
between us." "I but ask thee," said Geraint, "to restore to him
what is his, and what he should have received from the time he
lost his possessions even until this day." "That will I do,
gladly, for thee," answered he. "Then," said Geraint, "whosoever
is here who owes homage to Ynywl, let him come forward, and
perform it on the spot." And all the men did so; and by that
treaty they abided. And his castle and his town, and all his
possessions, were restored to Ynywl. And he received back all that
he had lost, even to the smallest jewel.

Then spoke Earl Ynywl to Geraint. "Chieftain," said he, "behold
the maiden for whom thou didst challenge at the tournament; I
bestow her upon thee." "She shall go with me," said Geraint, "to
the court of Arthur, and Arthur and Guenever, they shall dispose
of her as they will." And the next day they proceeded to Arthur's
court. So far concerning Geraint.





CHAPTER VI

GERAINT, THE SON OF ERBIN (Continued)


Now this is how Arthur hunted the stag. The men and the dogs were
divided into hunting-parties, and the dogs were let loose upon the
stag. And the last dog that was let loose was the favorite dog of
Arthur; Cavall was his name. And he left all the other dogs behind
him and turned the stag. And at the second turn the stag came
toward the hunting-party of Arthur. And Arthur set upon him; and
before he could be slain by any other, Arthur cut off his head.
Then they sounded the death-horn for slaying and they all gathered
round.

They came Kadyriath to Arthur and spoke to him. "Lord," said he,
"behold, yonder is Guenever, and none with her save only one
maiden." "Command Gildas, the son of Caw, and all the scholars of
the court," said Arthur, "to attend Guenever to the palace." And
they did so.

Then they all set forth, holding converse together concerning the
head of the stag, to whom it should be given. One wished that it
should be given to the lady best beloved by him, and another to
the lady whom he loved best. And so they came to the palace. And
when Arthur and Guenever heard them disputing about the head of
the stag, Guenever said to Arthur: "My lord, this is my counsel
concerning the stag's head; let it not be given away until
Geraint, the son of Erbin, shall return from the errand he is
upon." And Guenever told Arthur what that errand was. "Right
gladly shall it be so," said Arthur. And Guenever caused a watch
to be set upon the ramparts for Geraint's coming. And after midday
they beheld an unshapely little man upon a horse, and after him a
dame or a damsel, also on horseback, and after her a knight of
large stature, bowed down, and hanging his head low and
sorrowfully, and clad in broken and worthless armor.

And before they came near to the gate one of the watch went to
Guenever, and told her what kind of people they saw, and what
aspect they bore. "I know not who they are," said he, "But I
know," said Guenever; "this is the knight whom Geraint pursued,
and methinks that he comes not here by his own free will. But
Geraint has overtaken him, and avenged the insult to the maiden to
the uttermost." And thereupon, behold, a porter came to the spot
where Guenever was. "Lady," said he, "at the gate there is a
knight, and I saw never a man of so pitiful an aspect to look upon
as he. Miserable and broken is the armor that he wears, and the
hue of blood is more conspicuous upon it than its own color."
"Knowest thou his name?" said she. "I do," said he; "he tells me
that he is Edeyrn, the son of Nudd." Then she replied, "I know him
not."

So Guenever went to the gate to meet him and he entered. And
Guenever was sorry when she saw the condition he was in, even
though he was accompanied by the churlish dwarf. Then Edeyrn
saluted Guenever. "Heaven protect thee," said she. "Lady," said
he, "Geraint, the son of Erbin, thy best and most valiant servant,
greets thee." "Did he meet with thee?" she asked. "Yes," said he,
"and it was not to my advantage; and that was not his fault, but
mine, lady. And Geraint greets thee well; and in greeting thee he
compelled me to come hither to do thy pleasure for the insult
which thy maiden received from the dwarf." "Now where did he
overtake thee?" "At the place where we were jousting and
contending for the sparrow-hawk, in the town which is now called
Cardiff. And it was for the avouchment of the love of the maiden,
the daughter of Earl Ynywl, that Geraint jousted at the
tournament. And thereupon we encountered each other, and he left
me, lady, as thou seest." "Sir," said she, "when thinkest thou
that Geraint will be here?" "To-morrow, lady, I think he will be
here with the maiden."

Then Arthur came to them. And he saluted Arthur, and Arthur gazed
a long time upon him and was amazed to see him thus. And thinking
that he knew him, he inquired of him, "Art thou Edeyrn, the son of
Nudd?" "I am, lord," said he, "and I have met with much trouble
and received wounds unsupportable." Then he told Arthur all his
adventure. "Well," said Arthur, "from what I hear it behooves
Guenever to be merciful towards thee." "The mercy which thou
desirest, lord," said she. "will I grant to him, since it is as
insulting to thee that an insult should be offered to me as to
thyself." "Thus will it be best to do," said Arthur; "let this man
have medical care until it be known whether he may live. And if he
live, he shall do such satisfaction as shall be judged best by the
men of the court. And if he die, too much will be the death of
such a youth as Edeyrn for an insult to a maiden." "This pleases
me," said Guenever. And Arthur caused Morgan Tud to be called to
him. He was the chief physician. "Take with thee Edeyrn, the son
of Nudd, and cause a chamber to be prepared for him, and let him
have the aid of medicine as thou wouldst do unto myself, if I were
wounded, and let none into his chamber to molest him, but thyself
and thy disciples, to administer to him remedies." "I will do so,
gladly, lord," said Morgan Tud. Then said the steward of the
household, "Whither is it right, lord, to order the maiden?" "To
Guenever and her handmaidens," said he. And the steward of the
household so ordered her.

    "And rising up, he rode to Arthur's court,
    And there the queen forgave him easily.
    And being young, he changed himself, and grew
    To hate the sin that seem'd so like his own
    Of Modred, Arthur's nephew, and fell at last
    In the great battle fighting for the king."

    --Enid.

The next day came Geraint towards the court; and there was a watch
set on the ramparts by Guenever, lest he should arrive unawares.
And one of the watch came to Guenever. "Lady," said he, "methinks
that I see Geraint, and a maiden with him. He is on horseback, but
he has his walking gear upon him, and the maiden appears to be in
white, seeming to be clad in a garment of linen." "Assemble all
the women," said Guenever, "and come to meet Geraint, to welcome
him, and wish him joy." And Guenever went to meet Geraint and the
maiden. And when Geraint came to the place where Guenever was, he
saluted her. "Heaven prosper thee," said she, "and welcome to
thee." "Lady," said he, "I earnestly desired to obtain thee
satisfaction, according to thy will; and, behold, here is the
maiden through whom thou hadst thy revenge." "Verily," said
Guenever, "the welcome of Heaven be unto her; and it is fitting
that we should receive her joyfully." Then they went in and
dismounted. And Geraint came to where Arthur was, and saluted him.
"Heaven protect thee," said Arthur, "and the welcome of Heaven be
unto thee. And inasmuch as thou hast vanquished Edeyrn, the son of
Nudd, thou hast had a prosperous career." "Not upon me be the
blame," said Geraint; "it was through the arrogance of Edeyrn, the
son of Nudd, himself, that we were not friends." "Now," said
Arthur, "where is the maiden for whom I heard thou didst give
challenge?" "She is gone with Guenever to her chamber." Then went
Arthur to see the maiden. And Arthur, and all his companions, and
his whole court, were glad concerning the maiden. And certain were
they all, that, had her array been suitable to her beauty, they
had never seen a maid fairer than she. And Arthur gave away the
maiden to Geraint. And the usual bond made between two persons was
made between Geraint and the maiden, and the choicest of all
Guenever's apparel was given to the maiden; and thus arrayed, she
appeared comely and graceful to all who beheld her. And that day
and the night were spent in abundance of minstrelsy, and ample
gifts of liquor, and a multiude of games. And when it was time for
them to go to sleep they went. And in the chamber where the couch
of Arthur and Guenever was, the couch of Geraint and Enid was
prepared. And from that time she became his wife. And the next day
Arthur satisfied all the claimants upon Geraint with bountiful
gifts. And the maiden took up her abode in the palace, and she had
many companions, both men and women, and there was no maiden more
esteemed than she in the island of Britain.

Then spake Guenever. "Rightly did I judge," said she, "concerning
the head of the stag, that it should not be given to any until
Geraint's return; and behold, here is a fit occasion for bestowing
it. Let it be given to Enid, the daughter of Ynywl, the most
illustrious maiden. And I do not believe that any will begrudge it
her, for between her and every one here there exists nothing but
love and friendship." Much applauded was this by them all, and by
Arthur also. And the head of the stag was given to Enid. And
thereupon her fame increased, and her friends became more in
number than before. And Geraint from that time forth loved the
hunt, and the tournament, and hard encounters; and he came
victorious from them all. And a year, and a second, and a third,
he proceeded thus, until his fame had flown over the face of the
kingdom.

And, once upon a time, Arthur was holding his court at Caerleon
upon Usk; and behold, there came to him ambassadors, wise and
prudent, full of knowledge and eloquent of speech, and they
saluted Arthur. "Heaven prosper you!" said Arthur; "and whence do
you come?" "We come, lord," said they, "from Cornwall; and we are
ambassadors from Erbin, the son of Custennin, thy uncle, and our
mission is unto thee. And he greets thee well, as an uncle should
greet his nephew, and as a vassal should greet his lord. And he
represents unto thee that he waxes heavy and feeble, and is
advancing in years. And the neighboring chiefs, knowing this, grow
insolent towards him, and covet his land and possessions. And he
earnestly beseeches thee, lord, to permit Geraint, his son, to
return to him, to protect his possessions, and to become
acquainted with his boundaries. And unto him he represents that it
were better for him to spend the flower of his youth and the prime
of his age in preserving his own boundaries, than in tournaments
which are productive of no profit, although he obtains glory in
them."

"Well," said Arthur, "go and divest yourselves of your
accoutrements, and take food, and refresh yourselves after your
fatigues; and before you go from hence you shall have an answer."
And they went to eat. And Arthur considered that it would go hard
with him to let Geraint depart from him, and from his court;
neither did he think it fair that his cousin should be restrained
from going to protect his dominions and his boundaries, seeing
that his father was unable to do so. No less was the grief and
regret of Guenever, and all her women, and all her damsels,
through fear that the maiden would leave them. And that day and
that night were spent in abundance of feasting. And Arthur told
Geraint the cause of the mission, and of the coming of the
ambassadors to him out of Cornwall. "Truly," said Geraint, "be it
to my advantage or disadvantage, lord, I will do according to thy
will concerning this embassy." "Behold," said Arthur, "though it
grieves me to part with thee, it is my counsel that thou go to
dwell in thine own dominions, and to defend thy boundaries, and
take with thee to accompany thee as many as thou wilt of those
thou lovest best among my faithful ones, and among thy friends,
and among thy companions in arms." "Heaven reward thee! and this
will I do," said Geraint. "What discourse," said Guenever, "do I
hear between you? Is it of those who are to conduct Geraint to his
country?" "It is," said Arthur. "Then is it needful for me to
consider," said she, "concerning companions and a provision for
the lady that is with me." "Thou wilt do well," said Arthur.

And that night they went to sleep. And the next day the
ambassadors were permitted to depart, and they were told that
Geraint should follow them. And on the third day Geraint set
forth, and many went with him--Gawain, the son of Gwyar, and
Riogoned, the son of the king of Ireland, and Ondyaw, the son of
the Duke of Burgundy, Gwilim, the son of the ruler of the Franks,
Howel, the son of the Earl of Brittany, Perceval, the son of
Evrawk, Gwyr, a judge in the court of Arthur, Bedwyr, the son of
Bedrawd, Kai, the son of Kyner, Odyar, the Frank, and Ederyn, the
son of Nudd. Said Geraint, "I think I shall have enough of
knighthood with me." And they set forth. And never was there seen
a fairer host journeying towards the Severn. And on the other side
of the Severn were the nobles of Erbin, the son of Custennin, and
his foster-father at their head, to welcome Geraint with gladness;
and many of the women of the court, with his mother, came to
receive Enid, the daughter of Ynywl, his wife. And there was great
rejoicing and gladness throughout the whole court, and through all
the country, concerning Geraint, because of the greatness of their
love to him, and of the greatness of the fame which he had gained
since he went from amongst them, and because he was come to take
possession of his dominions, and to preserve his boundaries. And
they came to the court. And in the court they had ample
entertainment, and a multitude of gifts, and abundance of liquor,
and a sufficiency of service, and a variety of games. And to do
honor to Geraint, all the chief men of the country were invited
that night to visit him. And they passed that day and that night
in the utmost enjoyment. And at dawn next day Erbin arose and
summoned to him Geraint, and the noble persons who had borne him
company. And he said to Geraint: "I am a feeble and an aged man,
and whilst I was able to maintain the dominion for thee and for
myself, I did so. But thou art young, and in the flower of thy
vigor and of thy youth. Henceforth do thou preserve thy
possessions." "Truly," said Geraint, "with my consent thou shalt
not give the power over thy dominions at this time into my hands,
and thou shalt not take me from Arthur's court." "Into thy hands
will I give them," said Erbin, "and this day also shalt thou
receive the homage of thy subjects."

Then said Gawain, "It were better for thee to satisfy those who
have boons to ask, to-day, and to-morrow thou canst receive the
homage of thy dominions." So all that had boons to ask were
summoned into one place. And Kadyriath came to them to know what
were their requests. And every one asked that which he desired.
And the followers of Arthur began to make gifts, and immediately
the men of Cornwall came, and gave also. And they were not long in
giving, so eager was every one to bestow gifts, and of those who
came to ask gifts, none departed unsatisfied. And that day and
that night were spent in the utmost enjoyment.

And the next day at dawn, Erbin desired Geraint to send messengers
to the men to ask them whether it was displeasing to them that he
should come to receive their homage, and whether they had anything
to object to him. Then Geraint sent ambassadors to the men of
Cornwall to ask them this. And they all said that it would be the
fulness of joy and honor to them for Geraint to come and receive
their homage. So he received the homage of such as were there. And
the day after the followers of Arthur intended to go away. "It is
too soon for you to go away yet," said he; "stay with me until I
have finished receiving the homage of my chief men, who have
agreed to come to me." And they remained with him until he had
done so. Then they set forth towards the court of Arthur. And
Geraint went to bear them company, and Enid also, as far as
Diganwy; there they parted. And Ondyaw, the son of the Duke of
Burgundy, said to Geraint, "Go, now, and visit the uttermost parts
of thy dominions, and see well to the boundaries of thy
territories; and if thou hast any trouble respecting them, send
unto thy companions." "Heaven reward thee!" said Geraint; "and
this will I do." And Geraint journeyed to the uttermost parts of
his dominions. And experienced guides, and the chief men of his
country, went with him. And the furthermost point that they showed
him he kept possession of.





CHAPTER VII

GERAINT, THE SON OF ERBIN (Continued)


Geraint, as he had been used to do when he was at Arthur's court,
frequented tournaments. And he became acquainted with valiant and
mighty men, until he had gained as much fame there as he had
formerly done elsewhere. And he enriched his court, and his
companions, and his nobles, with the best horses and the best
arms, and with the best and most valuable jewels, and he ceased
not until his fame had flown over the face of the whole kingdom.

   "Before Geraint, the scourge of the enemy,
    I saw steeds white with foam,
    And after the shout of battle a fearful torrent."

    --Hen.

When he knew that it was thus, he began to love ease and pleasure,
for there was no one who was worth his opposing. And he loved his
wife, and liked to continue in the palace with minstrelsy and
diversions. So he began to shut himself up in the chamber of his
wife, and he took no delight in anything besides, insomuch that he
gave up the friendship of his nobles, together with his hunting
and his amusements, and lost the hearts of all the host in his
court. And there was murmuring and scoffing concerning him among
the inhabitants of the palace, on account of his relinquishing so
completely their companionship for the love of his wife.

                                     "They
    Began to scoff and jeer and babble of him
    As of a prince whose manhood was all gone,
    And molten down in mere uxoriousness."

These tidings came to Erbin. And when Erbin had heard these
things, he spoke unto Enid, and inquired of her whether it was she
that had caused Geraint to act thus, and to forsake his people and
his hosts. "Not I, by my confession unto Heaven," said she; "there
is nothing more hateful unto me than this." And she knew not what
she should do, for, although it was hard for her to own this to
Geraint, yet was it not more easy for her to listen to what she
heard, without warning Geraint concerning it. And she was very
sorrowful.

One morning in the summer-time they were upon their couch, and
Geraint lay upon the edge of it. And Enid was without sleep in the
apartment, which had windows of glass; [Footnote: The terms of
admiration in which the older writers invariably speak of GLASS
WINDOWS would be sufficient proof, if other evidence were wanting,
how rare an article of luxury they were in the houses of our
ancestors. They were first introduced in ecclesiastical
architecture, to which they were for a long time confined. Glass
is said not to have been employed in domestic architecture before
the fourteenth century.] and the sun shone upon the couch. And the
clothes had slipped from off his arms and his breast, and he was
asleep. Then she gazed upon the marvellous beauty of his
appearance, and she said, "Alas! and am I the cause that these
arms and this breast have lost their glory, and the warlike fame
which they once so richly enjoyed!" As she said this the tears
dropped from her eyes, and they fell upon his breast. And the
tears she shed and the words she had spoken, awoke him. And
another thing contributed to awaken him, and that was the idea
that it was not in thinking of him that she spoke thus, but that
it was because she loved some other man more than him, and that
she wished for other society. Thereupon Geraint was troubled in
his mind, and he called his squire; and when he came to him, "Go
quickly," said he, "and prepare my horse and my arms, and make
them ready. And do thou rise," said he to Enid, "and apparel
thyself; and cause thy horse to be accoutred, and clothe thee in
the worst riding-dress that thou hast in thy possession. And evil
betide me," said he, "if thou returnest here until thou knowest
whether I have lost my strength so completely as thou didst say.
And if it be so, it will then be easy for thee to seek the society
thou didst wish for of him of whom thou wast thinking." So she
arose, and clothed herself in her meanest garments. "I know
nothing, lord," said she, "of thy meaning." "Neither wilt thou
know at this time," said he.

Then Geraint went to see Erbin. "Sir," said he, "I am going upon a
quest, and I am not certain when I may come back. Take heed,
therefore, unto thy possessions until my return." "I will do so,"
said he; "but it is strange to me that thou shouldst go so
suddenly. And who will proceed with thee, since thou art not
strong enough to traverse the land of Loegyr alone?" "But one
person only will go with me." "Heaven counsel thee, my son," said
Erbin, "and may many attach themselves to thee in Loegyr." Then
went Geraint to the place where his horse was, and it was equipped
with foreign armor, heavy and shining. And he desired Enid to
mount her horse, and to ride forward, and to keep a long way
before him. "And whatever thou mayst see, and whatever thou mayst
hear concerning me," said he, "do thou not turn back. And unless I
speak unto thee, say not thou one word, either." So they set
forward. And he did not choose the pleasantest and most frequented
road, but that which was the wildest and most beset by thieves and
robbers and venomous animals.

And they came to a high road, which they followed till they saw a
vast forest; and they saw four armed horsemen come forth from the
forest. When the armed men saw them, they said one to another.
"Here is a good occasion for us to capture two horses and armor,
and a lady likewise; for this we shall have no difficulty in doing
against yonder single knight who hangs his head so pensively and
heavily." Enid heard this discourse, and she knew not what she
should do through fear of Geraint, who had told her to be silent.
"The vengeance of Heaven be upon me," said she, "if I would not
rather receive my death from his hand than from the hand of any
other; and though he should slay me, yet will I speak to him, lest
I should have the misery to witness his death." So she waited for
Geraint until he came near to her. "Lord," said she, "didst thou
hear the words of those men concerning thee?" Then he lifted up
his eyes, and looked at her angrily. "Thou hadst only," said he,
"to hold thy peace as I bade thee. I wish but for silence, and not
for warning. And though thou shouldst desire to see my defeat and
my death by the hands of those men, yet do I feel no dread." Then
the foremost of them couched his lance, and rushed upon Geraint.
And he received him, and that not feebly. But he let the thrust go
by him, while he struck the horseman upon the centre of his
shield, in such a manner that his shield was split, and his armor
broken, so that a cubit's length of the shaft of Geraint's lance
passed through his body, and sent him to the earth, the length of
the lance over his horse's crupper. Then the second horseman
attacked him furiously, being wroth at the death of his companion.
But with one thrust Geraint overthrew him also, and killed him as
he had done the other. Then the third set upon him, and he killed
him in like manner. And thus also he slew the fourth. Sad and
sorrowful was the maiden as she saw all this. Geraint dismounted
his horse, and took the arms of the men he had slain, and placed
them upon their saddles, and tied together the reins of their
horses; and he mounted his horse again. "Behold what thou must
do," said he; "take the four horses and drive them before thee,
and proceed forward as I bade thee just now. And say not one word
unto me, unless I speak first unto thee. And I declare unto
Heaven," said he, "if thou doest not thus, it will be to thy
cost." "I will do as far as I can, lord," said she, "according to
thy desire."

So the maiden went forward, keeping in advance of Geraint, as he
had desired her; and it grieved him as much as his wrath would
permit, to see a maiden so illustrious as she having so much
trouble with the care of the horses. Then they reached a wood, and
it was both deep and vast, and in the wood night overtook them.
"Ah, maiden," said he, "it is vain to attempt proceeding forward."
"Well, lord," said she, "whatever thou wishest, we will do." "It
will be best for us," he answered, "to rest and wait for the day,
in order to pursue our journey." "That we will, gladly," said she.
And they did so. Having dismounted himself, he took her down from
her horse. "I cannot by any means refrain from sleep, through
weariness," said he; "do thou therefore watch the horses, and
sleep not." "I will, lord," said she. Then he went to sleep in his
armor, and thus passed the night, which was not long at that
season. And when she saw the dawn of day appear, she looked around
her to see if he were waking, and thereupon he woke. Then he
arose, and said unto her, "Take the horses and ride on, and keep
straight on as thou didst yesterday." And they left the wood, and
they came to an open country, with meadows on one hand, and mowers
mowing the meadows. And there was a river before them, and the
horses bent down and drank of the water. And they went up out of
the river by a lofty steep; and there they met a slender stripling
with a satchel about his neck, and they saw that there was
something in the satchel, but they knew not what it was. And he
had a small blue pitcher in his hand, and a bowl on the mouth of
the pitcher. And the youth saluted Geraint. "Heaven prosper thee!"
said Geraint; "and whence dost thou come?" "I come," said he,
"from the city that lies before thee. My lord," he added, "will it
be displeasing to thee if I ask whence thou comest also?" "By no
means; through yonder wood did I come." "Thou camest not through
the wood to-day." "No," he replied, "we were in the wood last
night." "I warrant," said the youth, "that thy condition there
last night was not the most pleasant, and that thou hadst neither
meat nor drink." "No, by my faith," said he. "Wilt thou follow my
counsel," said the youth, "and take thy meal from me?" "What sort
of meal?" he inquired. "The breakfast which is sent for yonder
mowers, nothing less than bread and meat and wine, and if thou
wilt, sir, they shall have none of it." "I will," said he, "and
Heaven reward thee for it."

So Geraint alighted, and the youth took the maiden from off her
horse. Then they washed, and took their repast. And the youth cut
the bread in slices, and gave them drink, and served them withal.
And when they had finished, the youth arose and said to Geraint,
"My lord, with thy permission, I will now go and fetch some food
for the mowers." "Go first to the town," said Geraint, "and take a
lodging for me in the best place that thou knowest, and the most
commodious one for the horses; and take thou whichever horse and
arms thou choosest, in payment for thy service and thy gift."
"Heaven reward thee, lord!" said the youth; "and this would be
ample to repay services much greater than those I have rendered
unto thee." And to the town went the youth, and he took the best
and the most pleasant lodgings that he knew; and after that he
went to the palace, having the horse and armor with him, and
proceeded to the place where the earl was, and told him all his
adventure. "I go now, lord," said he, "to meet the knight, and to
conduct him to his lodging." "Go, gladly," said the earl; "and
right joyfully shall he be received here, if he so come." And the
youth went to meet Geraint, and told him that he would be received
gladly by the earl in his own palace; but he would go only to his
lodgings. And he had a goodly chamber, in which was plenty of
straw and drapery, and a spacious and commodious place he had for
the horses; and the youth prepared for them plenty of provender.
After they had disarrayed themselves, Geraint spoke thus to Enid:
"Go," said he, "to the other side of the chamber, and come not to
this side of the house; and thou mayst call to thee the woman of
the house, if thou wilt." "I will do, lord," said she, "as thou
sayest." Thereupon the man of the house came to Geraint and
welcomed him. And after they had eaten and drank, Geraint went to
sleep, and so did Enid also.

In the evening, behold, the earl came to visit Geraint, and his
twelve honorable knights with him. And Geraint rose up and
welcomed him. Then they all sat down according to their precedence
in honor. And the earl conversed with Geraint, and inquired of him
the object of his journey. "I have none," he replied, "but to seek
adventures and to follow mine own inclination." Then the earl cast
his eye upon Enid, and he looked at her steadfastly. And he
thought he had never seen a maiden fairer or more comely than she.
And he set all his thoughts and his affections upon her. Then he
asked of Geraint, "Have I thy permission to go and converse with
yonder maiden, for I see that she is apart from thee?" "Thou hast
it gladly," said he. So the earl went to the place where the
maiden was, and spake with her. "Ah! maiden," said he, "it cannot
be pleasant to thee to journey with yonder man." "It is not
unpleasant to me," said she. "Thou hast neither youths nor maidens
to serve thee," said he. "Truly," she replied, "it is more
pleasant for me to follow yonder man, than to be served by youths
and maidens." "I will give thee good counsel," said he: "all my
earldom will I place in thy possession, if thou wilt dwell with
me."

   "Enid, the pilot star of my lone life,
    Enid, my early and my only love."

    --Enid.

"That will I not, by Heaven," she said; "yonder man was the first
to whom my faith was ever pledged; and shall I prove inconstant to
him?" "Thou art in the wrong," said the earl; "if I slay the man
yonder, I can keep thee with me as long as I choose; and when thou
no longer pleasest me, I can turn thee away. But if thou goest
with me by thy own good-will, I protest that our union shall
continue as long as I remain alive." Then she pondered those words
of his, and she considered that it was advisable to encourage him
in his request. "Behold then, chieftain, this is most expedient
for thee to do to save me from all reproach; come here to-morrow
and take me away as though I knew nothing thereof." "I will do
so," said he. So he arose and took his leave, and went forth with
his attendants. And she told not then to Geraint any of the
conversation which she had had with the earl, lest it should rouse
his anger, and cause him uneasiness and care.

And at the usual hour they went to sleep. And at the beginning of
the night Enid slept a little; and at midnight she arose, and
placed all Geraint's armor together so that it might be ready to
put on. And although fearful of her errand, she came to the side
of Geraint's bed; and she spoke to him softly and gently, saying,
"My lord, arise, and clothe thyself, for these were the words of
the earl to me and his intention concerning me." So she told
Geraint all that had passed. And although he was wroth with her,
he took warning, and clothed himself. And she lighted a candle,
that he might have light to do so. "Leave there the candle," said
he, "and desire the man of the house to come here." Then she went,
and the man of the house came to him. "Dost thou know how much I
owe thee?" asked Geraint. "I think thou owest but little." "Take
the three horses and the three suits of armor." "Heaven reward
thee, lord," said he, "but I spent not the value of one suit of
armor upon thee." "For that reason," said he, "thou wilt be the
richer. And now, wilt thou come to guide me out of the town?" "I
will gladly," said he; "and in which direction dost thou intend to
go?" "I wish to leave the town by a different way from that by
which I entered it." So the man of the lodgings accompanied him as
far as he desired. Then he bade the maiden to go on before him,
and she did so, and went straight forward, and his host returned
home.

And Geraint and the maiden went forward along the high-road. And
as they journeyed thus, they heard an exceeding loud wailing near
to them. "Stay thou here," said he, "and I will go and see what is
the cause of this wailing." "I will," said she. Then he went
forward into an open glade that was near the road. And in the
glade he saw two horses, one having a man's saddle, and the other
a woman's saddle upon it. And behold there was a knight lying dead
in his armor, and a young damsel in a riding-dress standing over
him lamenting. "Ah, lady," said Geraint, "what hath befallen
thee?" "Behold," she answered, "I journeyed here with my beloved
husband, when lo! three giants came upon us, and without any cause
in the world, they slew him." "Which way went they hence?" said
Geraint. "Yonder by the high-road," she replied. So he returned to
Enid. "Go," said he, "to the lady that is below yonder, and await
me there till I come." She was sad when he ordered her to do thus,
but nevertheless she went to the damsel, whom it was ruth to hear,
and she felt certain that Geraint would never return.

Meanwhile Geraint followed the giants, and overtook them. And each
of them was greater in stature than three other men, and a huge
club was on the shoulder of each. Then he rushed upon one of them,
and thrust his lance through his body. And having drawn it forth
again, he pierced another of them through likewise. But the third
turned upon him and struck him with his club so that he split his
shield and crushed his shoulder. But Geraint drew his sword and
gave the giant a blow on the crown of his head, so severe, and
fierce, and violent, that his head and his neck were split down to
his shoulders, and he fell dead. So Geraint left him thus and
returned to Enid. And when he reached the place where she was he
fell down lifeless from his horse. Piercing and loud and thrilling
was the cry that Enid uttered. And she came and stood over him
where he had fallen. And at the sound of her cries came the Earl
of Limours, and they who journeyed with him, whom her lamentations
brought out of their road. And the earl said to Enid, "Alas, lady,
what hath befallen thee?" "Ah, good sir," said she, "the only man
I have loved, or ever shall love, is slain." Then he said to the
other, "And what is the cause of thy grief?" "They have slain my
beloved husband also," said she. "And who was it that slew them?"
"Some giants," she answered, "slew my best-beloved, and the other
knight went in pursuit of them, and came back in the state thou
seest." The earl caused the knight that was dead to be buried, but
he thought that there still remained some life in Geraint; and to
see if he yet would live, he had him carried with him in the
hollow of his shield, and upon a bier. And the two damsels went to
the court; and when they arrived there, Geraint was placed upon a
little couch in front of the table that was in the hall. Then they
all took off their traveling-gear, and the earl besought Enid to
do the same, and to clothe herself in other garments. "I will not,
by Heaven," said she. "Ah, lady," said he, "be not so sorrowful
for this matter." "It were hard to persuade me to be otherwise,"
said she. "I will act towards thee in such wise that thou needest
not be sorrowful, whether yonder knight live or die. Behold, a
good earldom, together with myself, will I bestow upon thee; be
therefore happy and joyful." "I declare to Heaven," said she,
"that henceforth I shall never be joyful while I live." "Come,"
said he, "and eat." "No, by Heaven, I will not." "But, by Heaven,
thou shalt," said he. So he took her with him to the table against
her will, and many times desired her to eat. "I call Heaven to
witness," said she, "that I will not until the man that is upon
yonder bier shall eat likewise." "Thou canst not fulfil that,"
said the earl, "yonder man is dead already." "I will prove that I
can," said she. Then he offered her a goblet of liquor. "Drink
this goblet," he said, "and it will cause thee to change thy
mind." "Evil betide me," she answered, "if I drink aught until he
drink also." "Truly," said the earl, "it is of no more avail for
me to be gentle with thee than ungentle." And he gave her a box in
the ear. Thereupon she raised a loud and piercing shriek, and her
lamentations were much greater than they had been before; for she
considered in her mind, that, had Geraint been alive, he durst not
have struck her thus. But, behold, at the sound of her cry,
Geraint revived from his swoon, and he sat upon the bier; and
finding his sword in the hollow of his shield, he rushed to the
place where the earl was, and struck him a fiercely-wounding,
severely-venomous, and sternly-smiting blow upon the crown of his
head, so that he clove him in twain, until his sword was staid by
the table. Then all left the board and fled away. And this was not
so much through fear of the living, as through the dread they felt
at seeing the dead man rise up to slay them. And Geraint looked
upon Enid, and he was grieved for two causes; one was to see that
Enid had lost her color and her wonted aspect; and the other, to
know that she was in the right. "Lady," said he, "knowest thou
where our horses are?" "I know, lord, where thy horse is," she
replied, "but I know not where is the other. Thy horse is in the
house yonder." So he went to the house, and brought forth his
horse, and mounted him, and took up Enid, and placed her upon the
horse with him. And he rode forward. And their road lay between
two hedges; and the night was gaining on the day. And lo! they saw
behind them the shafts of spears betwixt them and the sky, and
they heard the tramping of horses, and the noise of a host
approaching. "I hear something following us," said he, "and I will
put thee on the other side of the hedge." And thus he did. And
thereupon, behold a knight pricked towards him, and couched his
lance. When Enid saw this, she cried out, saying, "O chieftain,
whoever thou art, what renown wilt thou gain by slaying a dead
man?" "O Heaven!" said he, "is it Geraint?" "Yes, in truth," said
she; "and who art thou?" "I am Gwiffert Petit," said he, "thy
husband's ally, coming to thy assistance, for I heard that thou
wast in trouble. Come with me to the court of a son-in-law of my
sister, which is near here, and thou shalt have the best medical
assistance in the kingdom." "I will do so gladly," said Geraint.
And Enid was placed upon the horse of one of Gwiffert's squires,
and they went forward to the baron's palace. And they were
received there with gladness, and they met with hospitality and
attention. The next morning they went to seek physicians; and it
was not long before they came, and they attended Geraint until he
was perfectly well. And while Geraint was under medical care
Gwiffert caused his armor to be repaired, until it was as good as
it had ever been. And they remained there a month and a fortnight.
Then they separated, and Geraint went towards his own dominions,
and thenceforth he reigned prosperously, and his warlike fame and
splendor lasted with renown and honor, both to him and to Enid,
from that time forward.

[Footnote: Throughout the broad and varied region of romance it
would be difficult to find a character of greater simplicity and
truth than that of Enid, the daughter of Earl Ynywl. Conspicuous
for her beauty and noble bearing, we are at a loss whether more to
admire the patience with which she bore all the hardships she was
destined to undergo or the constancy and affection which finally
achieved the truimph she so richly deserved.

The character of Enid is admirably sustained through the whole
tale; and as it is more natural, because less overstrained, so
perhaps it is even more touching than that of Griselda, over
which, however, Chaucer has thrown a charm that leads us to forget
the improbability of her story.]





CHAPTER VIII

PWYLL, PRINCE OF DYVED


Once upon a time Pwyll was at Narberth, his chief palace, where a
feast had been prepared for him, and with him was a great host of
men. And after the first meal Pwyll arose to walk; and he went to
the top of a mound that was above the palace, and was called
Gorsedd Arberth. "Lord," said one of the court, "it is peculiar to
the mound that whosoever sits upon it cannot go thence without
either receiving wounds or blows, or else seeing a wonder." "I
fear not to receive wounds or blows," said Pwyll; "but as to the
wonder, gladly would I see it. I will therefore go and sit upon
the mound."

And upon the mound he sat. And while he sat there, they saw a
lady, on a pure white horse of large size, with a garment of
shining gold around her, coming along the highway that led from
the mound. "My men," said Pwyll, "is there any among you who knows
yonder lady?" "There is not, lord," said they. "Go one of you and
meet her, that we may know who she is." And one of them arose, and
as he came upon the road to meet her, she passed by; and he
followed as fast as he could, being on foot, and the greater was
his speed, the further was she from him. And when he saw that it
profited him nothing to follow her, he returned to Pwyll, and said
unto him, "Lord, it is idle for any one in the world to follow her
on foot." "Verily," said Pwyll, "go unto the palace, and take the
fleetest horse that thou seest, and go after her."

And he took a horse and went forward. And he came to an open,
level plain, and put spurs to his horse; and the more he urged his
horse, the further was she from him. And he returned to the place
where Pwyll was, and said, "Lord, it will avail nothing for any
one to follow yonder lady. I know of no horse in these realms
swifter than this, and it availed me not to pursue her." "Of a
truth," said Pwyll, "there must be some illusion here; let us go
towards the palace." So to the palace they went, and spent the
day.

And the next day they amused themselves until it was time to go to
meat. And when meat was ended, Pwyll said, "Where are the hosts
that went yesterday to the top of the mound?" "Behold, lord, we
are here," said they. "Let us go," said he, "to the mound, and sit
there. And do thou," said he to the page who tended his horse,
"saddle my horse well, and hasten with him to the road, and bring
also my spurs with thee." And the youth did thus. And they went
and sat upon the mound; and ere they had been there but a short
time, they beheld the lady coming by the same road, and in the
same manner, and at the same pace. "Young man," said Pwyll, "I see
the lady coming; give me my horse." And before he had mounted his
horse she passed him. And he turned after her and followed her.
And he let his horse go bounding playfully, and thought that he
should soon come up with her. But he came no nearer to her than at
first. Then he urged his horse to his utmost speed, yet he found
that it availed not. Then said Pwyll, "O maiden, for the sake of
him whom thou best lovest, stay for me." "I will stay gladly,"
said she; "and it were better for thy horse hadst thou asked it
long since." So the maiden stopped; and she threw back that part
of her head-dress which covered her face. Then he thought that the
beauty of all the maidens and all the ladies that he had ever seen
was as nothing compared to her beauty. "Lady," he said, "wilt thou
tell me aught concerning thy purpose?" "I will tell thee," said
she; "my chief quest was to see thee." "Truly," said Pwyll, "this
is to me the most pleasing quest on which thou couldst have come;
and wilt thou tell me who thou art?" "I will tell thee, lord,"
said she. "I am Rhiannon, the daughter of Heveydd, and they sought
to give me a husband against my will. But no husband would I have,
and that because of my love for thee; neither will I yet have one,
unless thou reject me; and hither have I come to hear thy answer."
"By Heaven," said Pwyll, "behold this is my answer. If I might
choose among all the ladies and damsels in the world, thee would I
choose." "Verily," said she, "if thou art thus minded, make a
pledge to meet me ere I am given to another." "The sooner I may do
so, the more pleasing will it be to me," said Pwyll; "and
wheresoever thou wilt, there will I meet with thee." "I will that
thou meet me this day twelvemonth at the palace of Heveydd."
"Gladly," said he, "will I keep this tryst." So they parted, and
he went back to his hosts, and to them of his household. And
whatsoever questions they asked him respecting the damsel, he
always turned the discourse upon other matters.

And when a year from that time was gone, he caused a hundred
knights to equip themselves, and to go with him to the palace of
Heveydd. And he came to the palace, and there was great joy
concerning him, with much concourse of people, and great
rejoicing, and vast preparations for his coming. And the whole
court was placed under his orders.

And the hall was garnished, and they went to meat, and thus did
they sit: Heveydd was on one side of Pwyll, and Rhiannon on the
other; and all the rest according to their rank. And they ate and
feasted, and talked one with another. And at the beginning of the
carousal after the meat, there entered a tall, auburn-haired
youth, of royal bearing, clothed in a garment of satin. And when
he came into the hall, he saluted Pwyll and his companions. "The
greeting of Heaven be unto thee," said Pwyll; "come thou and sit
down." "Nay," said he, "a suitor am I, and I will do my errand."
"Do so willingly," said Pwyll. "Lord," said he, "my errand is unto
thee, and it is to crave a boon of thee that I come." "What boon
soever thou mayest ask of me, so far as I am able, thou shalt
have." "Ah!" said Rhiannon, "wherefore didst thou give that
answer?" "Has he not given it before the presence of these
nobles?" asked the youth. "My soul," said Pwyll, "what is the boon
thou askest?" "The lady whom best I love is to be thy bride this
night; I come to ask her of thee, with the feast and the banquet
that are in this place." And Pwyll was silent, because of the
promise which he had given. "Be silent as long as thou wilt," said
Rhiannon, "never did man make worse use of his wits than thou hast
done." "Lady," said he, "I knew not who he was." "Behold, this is
the man to whom they would have given me against my will," said
she; "and he is Gawl, the son of Clud, a man of great power and
wealth, and because of the word thou hast spoken, bestow me upon
him, lest shame befall thee." "Lady," said he, "I understand not
thy answer; never can I do as thou sayest." "Bestow me upon him,"
said she, "and I will cause that I shall never be his." "By what
means will that be?" asked Pwyll. Then she told him the thought
that was in her mind. And they talked long together. Then Gawl
said, "Lord, it is meet that I have an answer to my request." "As
much of that thou hast asked as it is in my power to give, thou
shalt have," replied Pwyll. "My soul," said Rhiannon unto Gawl,
"as for the feast and the banquet that are here, I have bestowed
them upon the men of Dyved, and the household and the warriors
that are with us. These can I not suffer to be given to any. In a
year from to-night, a banquet shall be prepared for thee in this
palace, that I may become thy bride."

So Gawl went forth to his possessions, and Pwyll went also back to
Dyved. And they both spent that year until it was the time for the
feast at the palace of Heveydd. Then Gawl, the son of Clud, set
out to the feast that was prepared for him; and he came to the
palace, and was received there with rejoicing. Pwyll, also, the
chief of Dyved, came to the orchard with a hundred knights, as
Rhiannon had commanded him. And Pwyll was clad in coarse and
ragged garments, and wore large, clumsy old shoes upon his feet.
And when he knew that the carousal after the meat had begun, he
went toward the hall; and when he came into the hall he saluted
Gawl, the son of Clud, and his company, both men and women.
"Heaven prosper thee," said Gawl, "and friendly greeting be unto
thee!" "Lord," said he, "may Heaven reward thee! I have an errand
unto thee." "Welcome be thine errand, and if thou ask of me that
which is right, thou shalt have it gladly." "It is fitting,"
answered he; "I crave but from want, and the boon I ask is to have
this small bag that thou seest filled with meat." "A request
within reason is this," said he, "and gladly shalt thou have it.
Bring him food." A great number of attendants arose and began to
fill the bag; but for all they put into it, it was no fuller than
at first. "My soul," said Gawl, "will thy bag ever be full?" "It
will not, I declare to Heaven," said he, "for all that may be put
into it, unless one possessed of lands, and domains, and treasure,
shall arise and tread down with both his feet the food that is
within the bag, and shall say, 'Enough has been put therein.'"
Then said Rhiannon unto Gawl, the son of Clud, "Rise up quickly."
"I will willingly arise," said he. So he rose up, and put his two
feet into the bag. And Pwyll turned up the sides of the bag, so
that Gawl was over his head in it. And he shut it up quickly, and
slipped a knot upon the thongs, and blew his horn. And thereupon,
behold, his knights came down upon the palace. And they seized all
the host that had come with Gawl, and cast them into his own
prison. And Pwyll threw off his rags, and his old shoes, and his
tattered array. And as they came in, every one of Pwyll's knights
struck a blow upon the bag, and asked, "What is here?" "A badger,"
said they. And in this manner they played, each of them striking
the bag, either with his foot or with a staff. And thus played
they with the bag. And then was the game of Badger in the Bag
first played.

"Lord," said the man in the bag, "if thou wouldst but hear me, I
merit not to be slain in a bag." Said Heveydd, "Lord, he speaks
truth; it were fitting that thou listen to him, for he deserves
not this." "Verily," said Pwyll, "I will do thy counsel concerning
him." "Behold, this is my counsel then," said Rhiannon. "Thou art
now in a position in which it behooves thee to satisfy suitors and
minstrels. Let him give unto them in thy stead, and take a pledge
from him that he will never seek to revenge that which has been
done to him. And this will be punishment enough." "I will do this
gladly," said the man in the bag. "And gladly will I accept it,"
said Pwyll, "since it is the counsel of Heveydd and Rhiannon. Seek
thyself sureties." "We will be for him," said Heveydd, "until his
men be free to answer for him." And upon this he was let out of
the bag, and his liegemen were liberated. "Verily, lord," said
Gawl, "I am greatly hurt, and I have many bruises. With thy leave,
I will go forth. I will leave nobles in my stead to answer for me
in all that thou shalt require." "Willingly," said Pwyll, "mayest
thou do this." So Gawl went to his own possessions.

And the hall was set in order for Pwyll and the men of his host,
and for them also of the palace, and they went to the tables and
sat down. And as they had sat that time twelvemonth, so sat they
that night. And they ate and feasted, and spent the night in mirth
and tranquility. And the time came that they should sleep, and
Pwyll and Rhiannon went to their chamber.

And next morning at break of day, "My lord," said Rhiannon, "arise
and begin to give thy gifts unto the minstrels. Refuse no one to-
day that may claim thy bounty." "Thus shall it be gladly," said
Pwyll, "both to-day and every day while the feast shall last." So
Pwyll arose, and he caused silence to be proclaimed, and desired
all the suitors and minstrels to show and to point out what gifts
they desired. And this being done, the feast went on, and he
denied no one while it lasted. And when the feast was ended, Pwyll
said unto Heveydd, "My lord, with thy permission, I will set out
for Dyved to-morrow." "Certainly," said Heveydd; "may Heaven
prosper thee! Fix also a time when Rhiannon shall follow thee."
"By Heaven," said Pwyll, "we will go hence together." "Willest
thou this, lord?" said Heveydd. "Yes, lord," answered Pwyll.

And the next, day they set forward towards Dyved, and journeyed to
the palace of Narberth, where a feast was made ready for them. And
there came to them great numbers of the chief men and the most
noble ladies of the land, and of these there were none to whom
Rhiannon did not give some rich gift, either a bracelet, or a
ring, or a precious stone. And they ruled the land prosperously
that year and the next.





CHAPTER IX

BRANWEN, THE DAUGHTER OF LLYR


Bendigeid Vran, the son of Llyr, was the crowned king of this
island, and he was exalted from the crown of London. And one
afternoon he was at Harlech, in Ardudwy, at his court; and he sat
upon the rock of Harlech, looking over the sea. And with him were
his brother, Manawyddan, the son of Llyr, and his brothers by the
mother's side, Nissyen and Evnissyen, and many nobles likewise, as
was fitting to see around a king. His two brothers by the mother's
side were the sons of Euroswydd, and one of these youths was a
good youth, and of gentle nature, and would make peace between his
kindred, and cause his family to be friends when their wrath was
at the highest, and this one was Nissyen; but the other would
cause strife between his two brothers when they were most at
peace. And as they sat thus they beheld thirteen ships coming from
the south of Ireland, and making towards them; and they came with
a swift motion, the wind being behind them; and they neared them
rapidly. "I see ships afar," said the king, "coming swiftly
towards the land. Command the men of the court that they equip
themselves, and go and learn their intent." So the men equipped
themselves, and went down towards them. And when they saw the
ships near, certain were they that they had never seen ships
better furnished. Beautiful flags of satin were upon them. And,
behold, one of the ships outstripped the others, and they saw a
shield lifted up above the side of the ship, and the point of the
shield was upwards, in token of peace. And the men drew near, that
they might hold converse. Then they put out boats, and came toward
the land. And they saluted the king. Now the king could hear them
from the place where he was upon the rock above their heads.
"Heaven prosper you." said he, "and be ye welcome! To whom do
these ships belong, and who is the chief amongst you?" "Lord,"
said they, "Matholch, king of Ireland, is here, and these ships
belong to him." "Wherefore comes he?" asked the king, "and will he
come to the land?" "He is a suitor unto thee, lord," said they,
"and he will not land unless he have his boon." "And what may that
be?" inquired the king. "He desires to ally himself, lord, with
thee," said they, "and he comes to ask Branwen, the daughter of
Llyr, that, if it seem well to thee, the Island of the Mighty
[Footnote: The Island of the Mighty is one of the many names
bestowed upon Britain by the Welsh.] may be leagued with Ireland,
and both become more powerful." "Verily," said he, "let him come
to land, and we will take counsel thereupon." And this answer was
brought to Matholch. "I will go willingly," said he. So he landed,
and they received him joyfully; and great was the throng in the
palace that night, between his hosts and those of the court; and
next day they took counsel, and they resolved to bestow Branwen
upon Matholch. Now she was one of the three chief ladies of this
island, and she was the fairest damsel in the world.

And they fixed upon Aberfraw as the place where she should become
his bride. And they went thence, and towards Aberfraw the hosts
proceeded, Matholch and his host in their ships, Bendigeid Vran
and his host by land, until they came to Aberfraw. And at Aberfraw
they began the feast, and sat down. And thus sat they: the king of
the Island of the Mighty and Manawyddan, the son of Llyr, on one
side, and Matholch on the other side, and Branwen, the daughter of
Llyr, beside him. And they were not within a house, but under
tents. No house could ever contain Bendigeid Vran. And they began
the banquet, and caroused and discoursed. And when it was more
pleasing to them to sleep than to carouse, they went to rest, and
Branwen became Matholch's bride.

And next day they arose, and all they of the court, and the
officers began to equip, and to range the horses and the
attendants, and they ranged them in order as far as the sea.

And, behold, one day Evnissyen, the quarrelsome man, of whom it is
spoken above, came by chance into the place where the horses of
Matholch were, and asked whose horses they might be. "They are the
horses of Matholch, king of Ireland, who is married to Branwen,
thy sister; his horses are they." "And is it thus they have done
with a maiden such as she, and moreover my sister, bestowing her
without my consent? They could have offered no greater insult to
me than this," said he. And thereupon he rushed under the horses,
and cut off their lips at the teeth, and their ears close to their
heads, and their tails close to their backs; and he disfigured the
horses, and rendered them useless.

And they came with these tidings unto Matholch, saying that the
horses were disfigured and injured, so that not one of them could
ever be of any use again. "Verily, lord," said one, "it was an
insult unto thee, and as such was it meant." "Of a truth, it is a
marvel to me that, if they desire to insult me, they should have
given me a maiden of such high rank, and so much beloved of her
kindred, as they have done." "Lord," said another, "thou seest
that thus it is, and there is nothing for thee to do but to go to
thy ships." And thereupon towards his ships he set out.

And tidings came to Bendigeid Vran that Matholch was quitting the
court without asking leave, and messengers were sent to inquire of
him wherefore he did so. And the messengers that went were Iddic,
the son of Anarawd, and Heveyd Hir. And these overtook him, and
asked of him what he designed to do, and wherefore he went forth.
"Of a truth," said he, "if I had known, I had not come hither. I
have been altogether insulted; no one had ever worse treatment
than I have had here." "Truly, lord, it was not the will of any
that are of the court," said they, "nor of any that are of the
council, that thou shouldst have received this insult; and as thou
hast been insulted, the dishonor is greater unto Bendigeid Vran
than unto thee." "Verily," said he, "I think so. Nevertheless, he
cannot recall the insult." These men returned with that answer to
the place where Bendigeid Vran was, and they told him what reply
Matholch had given them. "Truly," said he, "there are no means by
which we may prevent his going away at enmity with us that we will
not take." "Well, lord," said they, "send after him another
embassy." "I will do so," said he. "Arise, Manawyddan, son of
Llyr, and Heveyd Hir, and go after him, and tell him that he shall
have a sound horse for every one that has been injured. And beside
that, as an atonement for the insult, he shall have a staff of
silver as large and as tall as himself, and a plate of gold of the
breadth of his face. And show unto him who it was that did this,
and that it was done against my will; but that he who did it is my
brother, and therefore it would be hard for me to put him to
death. And let him come and meet me," said he, "and we will make
peace in any way he may desire."

The embassy went after Matholch, and told him all these sayings in
a friendly manner; and he listened thereunto. "Men," said he, "I
will take counsel." So to the council he went. And in the council
they considered that, if they should refuse this, they were likely
to have more shame rather than to obtain so great an atonement.
They resolved, therefore, to accept it, and they returned to the
court in peace.

Then the pavilions and the tents were set in order, after the
fashion of a hall; and they went to meat, and as they had sat at
the beginning of the feast so sat they there. And Matholch and
Bendigeid Vran began to discourse; and, behold, it seemed to
Bendigeid Vran, while they talked, that Matholch was not so
cheerful as he had been before. And he thought that the chieftain
might be sad because of the smallness of the atonement which he
had for the wrong that had been done him. "O man," said Bendigeid
Vran, "thou dost not discourse to-night so cheerfully as thou wast
wont. And if it be because of the smallness of the atonement, thou
shalt add thereunto whatsoever thou mayest choose, and to-morrow I
will pay thee for the horses." "Lord," said he, "Heaven reward
thee!" "And I will enhance the atonement," said Bendigeid Vran,
"for I will give unto thee a caldron, the property of which is,
that if one of thy men be slain to-day, and be cast therein, to-
morrow he will be as well as ever he was at the best, except that
he will not regain his speech." And thereupon he gave him great
thanks, and very joyful was he for that cause.

That night they continued to discourse as much as they would, and
had minstrelsy and carousing; and when it was more pleasant to
them to sleep than to sit longer, they went to rest. And thus was
the banquet carried on with joyousness; and when it was finished,
Matholch journeyed towards Ireland, and Branwen with him; and they
went from Aber Menei with thirteen ships, and came to Ireland. And
in Ireland was there great joy because of their coming. And not
one great man nor noble lady visited Branwen unto whom she gave
not either a clasp or a ring, or a royal jewel to keep, such as it
was honorable to be seen departing with. And in these things she
spent that year in much renown, and she passed her time
pleasantly, enjoying honor and friendship. And in due time a son
was born unto her, and the name that they gave him was Gwern, the
son of Matholch, and they put the boy out to be nursed in a place
where were the best men of Ireland.

And, behold, in the second year a tumult arose in Ireland, on
account of the insult which Matholch had received in Wales, and
the payment made him for his horses. And his foster-brothers, and
such as were nearest to him, blamed him openly for that matter.
And he might have no peace by reason of the tumult, until they
should revenge upon him this disgrace. And the vengeance which
they took was to drive away Branwen from the same chamber with
him, and to make her cook for the court; and they caused the
butcher, after he had cut up the meat, to come to her and give her
every day a blow on the ear; and such they made her punishment.

"Verily, lord," said his men to Matholch, "forbid now the ships
and the ferry-boats, and the coracles, that they go not into
Wales, and such as come over from Wales hither, imprison them,
that they go not back for this thing to be known there." And he
did so; and it was thus for no less than three years.

And Branwen reared a starling in the cover of the kneading-trough,
and she taught it to speak, and she taught the bird what manner of
man her brother was. And she wrote a letter of her woes, and the
despite with which she was treated, and she bound the letter to
the root of the bird's wing, and sent it toward Wales. And the
bird came to that island; and one day it found Bendigeid Vran at
Caer Seiont in Arvon, conferring there, and it alighted upon his
shoulder, and ruffled its feathers, so that the letter was seen,
and they knew that the bird had been reared in a domestic manner.

Then Bendigeid Vran took the letter and looked upon it. And when
he had read the letter, he grieved exceedingly at the tidings of
Branwen's woes. And immediately he began sending messengers to
summon the island together. And he caused seven-score and four of
his chief men to come unto him, and he complained to them of the
grief that his sister endured. So they took counsel. And in the
counsel they resolved to go to Ireland, and to leave seven men as
princes at home, and Caradoc, [Footnote: Caractacus.] the son of
Bran, as the chief of them.

Bendigeid Vran, with the host of which we spoke, sailed towards
Ireland; and it was not far across the sea, and he came to shoal
water. Now the swine-herds of Matholch were upon the sea-shore,
and they came to Matholch. "Lord," said they, "greeting be unto
thee." "Heaven protect you!" said he; "have you any news?" "Lord,"
said they, "we have marvellous news. A wood have we seen upon the
sea, in a place where we never yet saw a single tree." "This is
indeed a marvel," said he; "saw you aught else?" "We saw, lord,"
said they, "a vast mountain beside the wood, which moved, and
there was a lofty ridge on the top of the mountain, and a lake on
each side of the ridge. And the wood and the mountain, and all
these things, moved." "Verily," said he, "there is none who can
know aught concerning this unless it be Branwen."

Messengers then went unto Branwen. "Lady," said they, "what
thinkest thou that this is?" "The men of the Island of the Mighty,
who have come hither on hearing of my ill-treatment and of my
woes." "What is the forest that is seen upon the sea?" asked they.
"The yards and the masts of ships," she answered. "Alas!" said
they; "what is the mountain that is seen by the side of the
ships?" "Bendigeid Vran, my brother," she replied, "coming to
shoal water, and he is wading to the land." "What is the lofty
ridge, with the lake on each side thereof?" "On looking towards
this island he is wroth, and his two eyes on each side of his nose
are the two lakes on each side of the ridge."

The warriors and chief men of Ireland were brought together in
haste, and they took counsel. "Lord," said the neighbors unto
Matholch, "there is no other counsel than this alone. Thou shalt
give the kingdom to Gwern, the son of Branwen his sister, as a
compensation for the wrong and despite that have been done unto
Branwen. And he will make peace with thee." And in the council it
was resolved that this message should be sent to Bendigeid Vran,
lest the country should be destroyed. And this peace was made. And
Matholch caused a great house to be built for Bendigeid Vran, and
his host. Thereupon came the hosts into the house. The men of the
island of Ireland entered the house on the one side, and the men
of the Island of the Mighty on the other. And as soon as they had
sat down, there was concord between them; and the sovereignty was
conferred upon the boy. When the peace was concluded, Bendigeid
Vran called the boy unto him, and from Bendigeid Vran the boy went
unto Manawyddan; and he was beloved by all that beheld him. And
from Manawyddan the boy was called by Nissyen, the son of
Euroswydd, and the boy went unto him lovingly. "Wherefore," said
Evnissyen, "comes not my nephew, the son of my sister, unto me?
Though he were not king of Ireland, yet willingly would I fondle
the boy." "Cheerfully let him go to thee," said Bendigeid Vran;
and the boy went unto him cheerfully. "By my confession to
Heaven," said Evnissyen in his heart, "unthought of is the
slaughter that I will this instant commit."

Then he arose and took up the boy, and before any one in the house
could seize hold of him he thrust the boy headlong into the
blazing fire. And when Branwen saw her son burning in the fire,
she strove to leap into the fire also, from the place where she
sat between her two brothers. But Bendigeid Vran grasped her with
one hand, and his shield with the other. Then they all hurried
about the house, and never was there made so great a tumult by any
host in one house as was made by them, as each man armed himself.
And while they all sought their arms Bendigeid Vran supported
Branwen between his shield and his shoulder. And they fought.

Then the Irish kindled a fire under the caldron of renovation, and
they cast the dead bodies into the caldron until it was full; and
the next day they came forth fighting men, as good as before,
except that they were not able to speak. Then when Evnissyen saw
the dead bodies of the men of the Island of the Mighty nowhere
resuscitated, he said in his heart, "Alas! woe is me, that I
should have been the cause of bringing the men of the Island of
the Mighty into so great a strait. Evil betide me if I find not a
deliverance therefrom." And he cast himself among the dead bodies
of the Irish; and two unshod Irishmen came to him, and, taking him
to be one of the Irish, flung him into the caldron. And he
stretched himself out in the caldron, so that he rent the caldron
into four pieces, and burst his own heart also.

In consequence of this, the men of the Island of the Mighty
obtained such success as they had; but they were not victorious,
for only seven men of them all escaped, and Bendigeid Vran himself
was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart. Now the men that
escaped were Pryderi, Manawyddan, Taliesin, and four others.

And Bendigeid Vran commanded them that they should cut off his
head. "And take you my head," said he, "and bear it even unto the
White Mount in London, and bury it there with the face towards
France. And so long as it lies there, no enemy shall ever land on
the island." So they cut off his head, and these seven went
forward therewith. And Branwen was the eighth with them. And they
came to land on Aber Alaw, and they sat down to rest. And Branwen
looked towards Ireland, and towards the Island of the Mighty, to
see if she could descry them. "Alas!" said she, "woe is me that I
was ever born; two islands have been destroyed because of me."
Then she uttered a groan, and there broke her heart. And they made
her a four-sided grave, and buried her upon the banks of the Alaw.

Then the seven men journeyed forward, bearing the head with them;
and as they went, behold there met them a multitude of men and
women. "Have you any tidings?" said Manawyddan. "We have none,"
said they, "save that Caswallawn, [Footnote: Cassivellaunus.] the
son of Beli, has conquered the Island of the Mighty, and is
crowned king in London." "What has become," said they, "of
Caradoc, the son of Bran, and the seven men who were left with him
in this island?" "Caswallawn came upon them, and slew six of the
men, and Caradoc's heart broke for grief thereof." And the seven
men journeyed on towards London, and they buried the head in the
White Mount, as Bendigeid Vran had directed them. [Footnote: There
is a Triad upon the story of the head buried under the White Tower
of London, as a charm against invasion. Arthur, it seems, proudly
disinterred the head, preferring to hold the island by his own
strength alone.]





CHAPTER X

MANAWYDDAN


Pwyll and Rhiannon had a son, whom they named Pryderi. And when he
was grown up, Pwyll, his father, died. And Pryderi married Kicva,
the daughter of Gwynn Gloy.

Now Manawyddan returned from the war in Ireland, and he found that
his cousin had seized all his possessions, and much grief and
heaviness came upon him. "Alas! woe is me!" he exclaimed; "there
is none save myself without a home and a resting-place." "Lord,"
said Pryderi, "be not so sorrowful. Thy cousin is king of the
Island of the Mighty, and though he has done thee wrong, thou hast
never been a claimant of land or possessions." "Yea," answered he,
"but although this man is my cousin, it grieveth me to see any one
in the place of my brother, Bendigeid Vran; neither can I be happy
in the same dwelling with him." "Wilt thou follow the counsel of
another?" said Pryderi. "I stand in need of counsel," he answered,
"and what may that counsel be?" "Seven cantrevs belong unto me,"
said Pryderi, "wherein Rhiannon, my mother, dwells. I will bestow
her upon thee, and the seven cantrevs with her; and though thou
hadst no possessions but those cantrevs only, thou couldst not
have any fairer than they. Do thou and Rhiannon enjoy them, and if
thou desire any possessions thou wilt not despise these." "I do
not, chieftain," said he. "Heaven reward thee for the friendship!
I will go with thee to seek Rhiannon, and to look at thy
possessions." "Thou wilt do well," he answered; "and I believe
that thou didst never hear a lady discourse better than she, and
when she was in her prime, none was ever fairer. Even now her
aspect is not uncomely."

They set forth, and, however long the journey, they came at last
to Dyved; and a feast was prepared for them by Rhiannon and Kicva.
Then began Manawyddan and Rhiannon to sit and to talk together;
and his mind and his thoughts became warmed towards her, and he
thought in his heart he had never beheld any lady more fulfilled
of grace and beauty than she. "Pryderi," said he, "I will that it
be as thou didst say." "What saying was that?" asked Rhiannon.
"Lady," said Pryderi, "I did offer thee as a wife to Manawyddan,
the son of Llyr." "By that will I gladly abide," said Rhiannon.
"Right glad am I also," said Manawyddan, "may Heaven reward him
who hath shown unto me friendship so perfect as this!"

And before the feast was over she became his bride. Said Pryderi,
"Tarry ye here the rest of the feast, and I will go into England
to tender my homage unto Caswallawn, the son of Beli." "Lord,"
said Rhiannon, "Caswallawn is in Kent; thou mayest therefore tarry
at the feast, and wait until he shall be nearer." "We will wait,"
he answered. So they finished the feast. And they began to make
the circuit of Dyved, and to hunt, and to take their pleasure. And
as they went through the country, they had never seen lands more
pleasant to live in, nor better hunting grounds, nor greater
plenty of honey and fish. And such was the friendship between
these four, that they would not be parted from each other by night
nor by day.

And in the midst of all this he went to Caswallawn at Oxford, and
tendered his homage; and honorable was his reception there, and
highly was he praised for offering his homage.

And after his return Pryderi and Manawyddan feasted and took their
ease and pleasure. And they began a feast at Narberth, for it was
the chief palace. And when they had ended the first meal, while
those who served them ate, they arose and went forth, and
proceeded to the Gorsedd, that is, the Mount of Narberth, and
their retinue with them. And as they sat thus, behold a peal of
thunder, and with the violence of the thunder-storm, lo! there
came a fall of mist, so thick that not one of them could see the
other. And after the mist it became light all around. And when
they looked towards the place where they were wont to see the
cattle and herds and dwellings, they saw nothing now, neither
house, nor beast, nor smoke, nor fire, nor man, nor dwelling, but
the buildings of the court empty, and desert, and uninhabited,
without either man or beast within them. And truly all their
companions were lost to them, without their knowing aught of what
had befallen them, save those four only.

"In the name of Heaven," said Manawyddan, "where are they of the
court, and all my host beside? Let us go and see."

So they came to the castle, and saw no man, and into the hall, and
to the sleeping-place, and there was none; and in the mead-cellar
and in the kitchen there was naught but desolation. Then they
began to go through the land, and all the possessions that they
had; and they visited the houses and dwellings, and found nothing
but wild beasts. And when they had consumed their feast and all
their provisions, they fed upon the prey they killed in hunting,
and the honey of the wild swans.

And one morning Pryderi and Manawyddan rose up to hunt, and they
ranged their dogs and went forth. And some of the dogs ran before
them, and came to a bush which was near at hand; but as soon as
they were come to the bush, they hastily drew back, and returned
to the men, their hair bristling up greatly. "Let us go near to
the bush," said Pryderi, "and see what is in it." And as they came
near, behold, a wild boar of a pure white color rose up from the
bush. Then the dogs, being set on by the men, rushed towards him;
but he left the bush, and fell back a little way from the men, and
made a stand against the dogs, without retreating from them, until
the men had come near. And when the men came up, he fell back a
second time, and betook him to flight. Then they pursued the boar
until they beheld a vast and lofty castle, all newly built, in a
place where they had never before seen either stone or building.
And the boar ran swiftly into the castle, and the dogs after him.
Now when the boar and the dogs had gone into the castle, the men
began to wonder at finding a castle in a place where they had
never before seen any building whatsoever. And from the top of the
Gorsedd they looked and listened for the dogs. But so long as they
were there, they heard not one of the dogs, nor aught concerning
them.

"Lord," said Pryderi, "I will go into the castle to get tidings of
the dogs." "Truly," he replied, "thou wouldst be unwise to go into
this castle, which thou hast never seen till now. If thou wouldst
follow my counsel, thou wouldst not enter therein. Whosoever has
cast a spell over this land, has caused this castle to be here."
"Of a truth," answered Pryderi, "I cannot thus give up my dogs."
And for all the counsel that Manawyddan gave him, yet to the
castle he went.

When he came within the castle, neither man nor beast, nor boar,
nor dogs, nor house, nor dwelling, saw he within it. But in the
centre of the castle-floor he beheld a fountain with marble-work
around it, and on the margin of the fountain a golden bowl upon a
marble slab, and chains hanging from the air, to which he saw no
end.

And he was greatly pleased with the beauty of the gold, and with
the rich workmanship of the bowl; and he went up to the bowl, and
laid hold of it. And when he had taken hold of its his hands stuck
to the bowl, and his feet to the slab on which the bowl was
placed; and all his joyousness forsook him, so that he could not
utter a word. And thus he stood.

And Manawyddan waited for him till near the close of the day. And
late in the evening, being certain that he should have no tidings
of Pryderi or the dogs, he went back to the palace. And as he
entered, Rhiannon looked at him. "Where," said she, "are thy
companion and thy dogs?" "Behold," he answered, "the adventure
that has befallen me." And he related it all unto her. "An evil
companion hast thou been," said Rhiannon, "and a good companion
hast thou lost." And with that word she went out, and proceeded
towards the castle, according to the direction which he gave her.
The gate of the castle she found open. She was nothing daunted,
and she went in. And as she went in, she perceived Pryderi laying
hold of the bowl, and she went towards him. "O my lord," said she,
"what dost thou here?" And she took hold of the bowl with him; and
as she did so, her hands also became fast to the bowl, and her
feet to the slab, and she was not able to utter a word. And with
that, as it became night, lo! there came thunder upon them, and a
fall of mist; and thereupon the castle vanished, and they with it.

When Kicva, the daughter of Gwynn Gloy, saw that there was no one
in the palace but herself and Manawyddan, she sorrowed so that she
cared not whether she lived or died. And Manawyddan saw this.
"Thou art in the wrong," said he, "if through fear of me thou
grievest thus. I call Heaven to witness that thou hast never seen
friendship more pure than that which I will bear thee as long as
Heaven will that thou shouldst be thus. I declare to thee, that,
were I in the dawn of youth, I would keep my faith unto Pryderi,
and unto thee also will I keep it. Be there no fear upon thee,
therefore." "Heaven reward thee!" she said; "and that is what I
deemed of thee." And the damsel thereupon took courage, and was
glad.

"Truly, lady," said Manawyddan, "it is not fitting for us to stay
here; we have lost our dogs, and cannot get food. Let us go into
England; it is easiest for us to find support there." "Gladly,
lord," said she, "we will do so." And they set forth together to
England.

"Lord," said she, "what craft wilt thou follow? Take up one that
is seemly." "None other will I take," answered he, "but that of
making shoes." "Lord," said she, "such a craft becomes not a man
so nobly born as thou." "By that however will I abide," said he.
"I know nothing thereof," said Kicva. "But I know," answered
Manawyddan, "and I will teach thee to stitch. We will not attempt
to dress the leather, but we will buy it ready dressed, and will
make the shoes from it."

So they went into England, and went as far as Hereford; and they
betook themselves to making shoes. And he began by buying the best
cordwain that could be had in the town, and none other would buy.
And he associated himself with the best goldsmith in the town, and
caused him to make clasps for the shoes, and to gild the clasps;
and he marked how it was done until he learned the method. And
therefore is he called one of the three makers of gold shoes. And
when they could be had from him, not a shoe nor hose was bought of
any of the cordwainers in the town. But when the cordwainers
perceived that their gains were failing (for as Manawyddan shaped
the work, so Kicva stitched it), they came together and took
counsel, and agreed that they would slay them. And he had warning
thereof, and it was told him how the cordwainers had agreed
together to slay him.

"Lord," said Kicva, "wherefore should this be borne from these
boors?" "Nay," said he, "we will go back unto Dyved." So towards
Dyved they set forth.

Now Manawyddan, when he set out to return to Dyved, took with him
a burden of wheat. And he proceeded towards Narberth, and there he
dwelt. And never was he better pleased than when he saw Narberth
again, and the lands where he had been wont to hunt with Pryderi
and with Rhiannon. And he accustomed himself to fish, and to hunt
the deer in their covert. And then he began to prepare some
ground, and he sowed a croft, and a second, and a third. And no
wheat in the world ever sprung up better. And the three crofts
prospered with perfect growth, and no man ever saw fairer wheat
than it.

And thus passed the seasons of the year until the harvest came.
And he went to look at one of his crofts, and, behold, it was
ripe. "I will reap this to-morrow," said he. And that night he
went back to Narberth, and on the morrow, in the gray dawn, he
went to reap the croft; and when he came there, he found nothing
but the bare straw. Every one of the ears of the wheat was cut off
from the stalk, and all the ears carried entirely away, and
nothing but the straw left. And at this he marvelled greatly.

Then he went to look at another croft, and, behold, that also was
ripe. "Verily," said he, "this will I reap to-morrow." And on the
morrow he came with the intent to reap it; and when he came there,
he found nothing but the bare straw. "O gracious Heaven!" he
exclaimed. "I know that whosoever has begun my ruin is completing
it, and has also destroyed the country with me."

Then he went to look at the third croft; and when he came there,
finer wheat had there never been seen, and this also was ripe.
"Evil betide me," said he, "if I watch not here to-night. Whoever
carried off the other corn will come in like manner to take this,
and I will know who it is." And he told Kicva all that had
befallen. "Verily," said she, "what thinkest thou to do?" "I will
watch the croft to-night," said he. And he went to watch the
croft.

And at midnight he heard something stirring among the wheat; and
he looked, and behold, the mightiest host of mice in the world,
which could neither be numbered nor measured. And he knew not what
it was until the mice had made their way into the croft, and each
of them, climbing up the straw, and bending it down with its
weight, had cut off one of the ears of wheat, and had carried it
away, leaving there the stalk; and he saw not a single straw there
that had not a mouse to it. And they all took their way, carrying
the ears with them.

In wrath and anger did he rush upon the mice; but he could no more
come up with them than if they had been gnats or birds of the air,
except one only, which, though it was but sluggish, went so fast
that a man on foot could scarce overtake it. And after this one he
went, and he caught it, and put it in his glove, and tied up the
opening of the glove with a string, and kept it with him, and
returned to the palace. Then he came to the hall where Kicva was,
and he lighted a fire, and hung the glove by the string upon a
peg. "What hast thou there, lord?" said Kicva. "A thief," said he,
"that I found robbing me." "What kind of a thief may it be, lord,
that thou couldst put into thy glove?" said she. Then he told her
how the mice came to the last of the fields in his sight. "And one
of them was less nimble than the rest, and is now in my glove; to-
morrow I will hang it." "My lord," said she, "this is marvellous;
but yet it would be unseemly for a man of dignity like thee to be
hanging such a reptile as this." "Woe betide me," said he, "if I
would not hang them all, could I catch them, and such as I have I
will hang." "Verily, lord," said she, "there is no reason that I
should succor this reptile, except to prevent discredit unto thee.
Do therefore, lord, as thou wilt."

Then he went to the Mound of Narberth, taking the mouse with him.
And he set up two forks on the highest part of the mound. And
while he was doing this, behold, he saw a scholar coming towards
him, in old and poor and tattered garments. And it was now seven
years since he had seen in that place either man or beast, except
those four persons who had remained together until two of them
were lost.

"My lord," said the scholar, "good-day to thee." "Heaven prosper
thee, and my greeting be unto thee! And whence dost thou come,
scholar?" asked he. "I come, lord, from singing in England; and
wherefore dost thou inquire?" "Because for the last seven years,"
answered he, "I have seen no man here save four secluded persons,
and thyself this moment." "Truly, lord," said he, "I go through
this land unto mine own. And what work art thou upon, lord?" "I am
hanging a thief that I caught robbing me," said he. "What manner
of thief is that?" asked the scholar. "I see a creature in thy
hand like unto a mouse, and ill does it become a man of rank equal
to thine to touch a reptile such as this. Let it go forth free."
"I will not let it go free, by Heaven," said he; "I caught it
robbing me, and the doom of a thief will I inflict upon it, and I
will hang it." "Lord," said he, "rather than see a man of rank
equal to thine at such a work as this, I would give thee a pound,
which I have received as alms, to let the reptile go forth free."
"I will not let it go free," said he, "neither will I sell it."
"As thou wilt, lord," he answered; "I care naught." And the
scholar went his way.

And as he was placing the cross-beam upon the two forks, behold, a
priest came towards him, upon a horse covered with trappings.
"Good day to thee, lord," said he. "Heaven prosper thee!" said
Manawyddan; "thy blessing." "The blessing of Heaven be upon thee!
And what, lord, art thou doing?" "I am hanging a thief that I
caught robbing me," said he. "What manner of thief, lord?" asked
he. "A creature," he answered, "in form of a mouse. It has been
robbing me, and I am inflicting upon it the doom of a thief."
"Lord," said he, "rather than see thee touch this reptile, I would
purchase its freedom." "By my confession to Heaven, neither will I
sell it nor set it free." "It is true, lord, that it is worth
nothing to buy; but rather than see thee defile thyself by
touching such a reptile as this, I will give thee three pounds to
let it go." "I will not, by Heaven," said he, "take any price for
it. As it ought, so shall it be hanged." And the priest went his
way.

Then he noosed the string around the mouse's neck, and as he was
about to draw it up, behold, he saw a bishop's retinue, with his
sumpter-horses and his attendants. And the bishop himself came
towards him. And he stayed his work. "Lord Bishop," said he, "thy
blessing." "Heaven's blessing be unto thee!" said he. "What work
art thou upon?" "Hanging a thief that I caught robbing me," said
he. "Is not that a mouse that I see in thy hand?" "Yes," answered
he, "and she has robbed me." "Ay," said he, "since I have come at
the doom of this reptile I will ransom it of thee. I will give
thee seven pounds for it, and that rather than see a man of rank
equal to thine destroying so vile a reptile as this. Let it loose,
and thou shalt have the money." "I declare to Heaven that I will
not let it loose." "If thou wilt not loose it for this, I will
give thee four and twenty pounds of ready money to set it free."
"I will not set it free, by Heaven, for as much again," said he.
"If thou wilt not set it free for this, I will give thee all the
horses that thou seest in this plain, and the seven loads of
baggage, and the seven horses that they are upon." "By Heaven, I
will not," he replied. "Since for this thou wilt not set it free,
do so at what price soever thou wilt." "I will that Rhiannon and
Pryderi be free," said he. "That thou shalt have," he answered.
"Not yet will I loose the mouse, by Heaven." "What then wouldst
thou?" "That the charm and the illusion be removed from the seven
cantrevs of Dyved." "This shalt thou have also; set therefore the
mouse free." "I will not set it free, by Heaven," said he, "till I
know who the mouse may be." "She is my wife." "Wherefore came she
to me?" "To despoil thee," he answered. "I am Lloyd, the son of
Kilwed, and I cast the charm over the seven cantrevs of Dyved. And
it was to avenge Gawl, the son of Clud, from the friendship I had
towards him, that I cast the charm. And upon Pryderi did I avenge
Gawl, the son of Clud, for the game of Badger in the Bag, that
Pwyll, the son of Auwyn, played upon him. And when it was known
that thou wast come to dwell in the land, my household came and
besought me to transform them into mice, that they might destroy
thy corn. And they went the first and the second night, and
destroyed thy two crops. And the third night came unto me my wife
and the ladies of the court, and besought me to transform them.
And I transformed them. Now she is not in her usual health. And
had she been in her usual health, thou wouldst not have been able
to overtake her; but since this has taken place, and she has been
caught, I will restore to thee Pryderi and Rhiannon, and I will
take the charm and illusion from off Dyved. Set her therefore
free." "I will not set her free yet." "What wilt thou more?" he
asked. "I will that there be no more charm upon the seven cantrevs
of Dyved, and that none shall be put upon it henceforth; moreover,
that vengeance be never taken for this, either upon Pryderi or
Rhiannon, or upon me." "All this shalt thou have. And truly thou
hast done wisely in asking this. Upon thy head would have lit all
this trouble." "Yea," said he, "for fear thereof was it that I
required this." "Set now my wife at liberty." "I will not," said
he, "until I see Pryderi and Rhiannon with me free." "Behold, here
they come," he answered.

And thereupon behold Pryderi and Rhiannon. And he rose up to meet
them, and greeted them, and sat down beside them. "Ah, chieftain,
set now my wife at liberty," said the bishop. "Hast thou not
received all thou didst ask?" "I will release her, gladly," said
he. And thereupon he set her free.

Then he struck her with a magic wand, and she was changed back
into a young woman, the fairest ever seen. "Look round upon thy
land," said he, "and thou wilt see it all tilled and peopled as it
was in its best estate." And he rose up and looked forth. And when
he looked he saw all the lands tilled, and full of herds and
dwellings.

And thus ends this portion of the Mabinogi.

The following allusions to the preceding story are found in a
letter of the poet Southey to John Rickman, Esq., dated June 6th,
1802:

"You will read the Mabinogeon, concerning which I ought to have
talked to you. In the last, that most odd and Arabian-like story
of the mouse, mention is made of a begging scholar, that helps to
the date; but where did the Cymri get the imagination that could
produce such a tale? That enchantment of the basin hanging by the
chain from heaven is in the wildest spirit of the Arabian Nights.
I am perfectly astonished that such fictions should exist in
Welsh. They throw no light on the origin of romance, everything
being utterly dissimilar to what we mean by that term, but they do
open a new world of fiction; and if the date of their language be
fixed about the twelfth or thirteenth century, I cannot but think
the mythological substance is of far earlier date; very probably
brought from the East by some of the first settlers or
conquerors."





CHAPTER XI

KILWICH AND OLWEN


Kilydd, a son of Prince Kelyddon, desired a wife as a helpmate,
and the wife that he chose was Goleudid, the daughter of Prince
Anlawd. And after their union the people put up prayers that they
might have an heir. And they had a son through the prayers of the
people; and called his name Kilwich.

After this the boy's mother, Goleudid, the daughter of Prince
Anlawd, fell sick. Then she called her husband to her, and said to
him, "Of this sickness I shall die, and thou wilt take another
wife. Now wives are the gift of the Lord, but it would be wrong
for thee to harm thy son. Therefore I charge thee that thou take
not a wife until thou see a briar with two blossoms upon my
grave." And this he promised her. Then she besought him to dress
her grave every year, that no weeds might grow thereon. So the
queen died. Now the king sent an attendant every morning to see if
anything were growing upon the grave. And at the end of the
seventh year they neglected that which they had promised to the
queen.

One day the king went to hunt; and he rode to the place of burial,
to see the grave, and to know if it were time that he should take
a wife: and the King saw the briar. And when he saw it, the king
took counsel where he should find a wife. Said one of his
counsellors, "I know a wife that will suit thee well; and she is
the wife of King Doged." And they resolved to go to seek her; and
they slew the king, and brought away his wife. And they conquered
the kings' lands. And he married the widow of King Doged, the
sister of Yspadaden Penkawr.

And one day his stepmother said to Kilwich, "It were well for thee
to have a wife." "I am not yet of an age to wed," answered the
youth. Then said she unto him, "I declare to thee that it is thy
destiny not to be suited with a wife until thou obtain Olwen, the
daughter of Yspadaden Penkawr." And the youth blushed, and the
love of the maiden diffused itself through all his frame, although
he had never seen her. And his father inquired of him, "What has
come over thee, my son, and what aileth thee?" "My stepmother has
declared to me that I shall never have a wife until I obtain
Olwen, the daughter of Yspadaden Penkawr." "That will be easy for
thee," answered his father. "Arthur is thy cousin. Go, therefore,
unto Arthur, to cut thy hair, and ask this of him as a boon."

And the youth pricked forth upon a steed with head dappled gray,
four winters old, firm of limb, with shell-formed hoofs, having a
bridle of linked gold on his head, and upon him a saddle of costly
gold. And in the youth's hand were two spears of silver, sharp,
well-tempered, headed with steel, three ells in length, of an
edge to wound the wind, and cause blood to flow, and swifter than
the fall of the dew-drop from the blade of reed-grass, when the
dew of June is at the heaviest. A gold-hilted sword was upon his
thigh, the blade of which was gilded, bearing a cross of inlaid
gold of the hue of the lightning of heaven. His war-horn was of
ivory. Before him were two brindled, white-breasted greyhounds,
having strong collars of rubies about their necks, reaching from
the shoulder to the ear. And the one that was upon the left side
bounded across to the right side, and the one on the right to the
left, and, like two sea-swallows, sported around him. And his
courser cast up four sods, with his four hoofs, like four swallows
in the air, about his head, now above, now below. About him was a
four-cornered cloth of purple, and an apple of gold was at each
corner, and every one of the apples was of the value of an hundred
kine. And there was precious gold of the value of three hundred
kine upon his shoes, and upon his stirrups, from his knee to the
tip of his toe. And the blade of grass bent not beneath him, so
light was his courser's tread, as he journeyed toward the gate of
Arthur's palace.

Spoke the youth: "Is there a porter?" "There is; and if thou
holdest not thy peace, small will be thy welcome. I am Arthur's
porter every first day of January." "Open the portal." "I will not
open it." "Wherefore not?" "The knife is in the meat, and the
drink is in the horn, and there is revelry in Arthur's hall; and
none may enter therein but the son of a king of a privileged
country, or a craftsman bringing his craft. But there will be
refreshment for thy dogs and for thy horse; and for thee there
will be collops cooked and peppered, and luscious wine, and
mirthful songs; and food for fifty men shall be brought unto thee
in the guest-chamber, where the stranger and the sons of other
countries eat, who come not into the precincts of the palace of
Arthur. Thou wilt fare no worse there than thou wouldst with
Arthur in the court. A lady shall smooth thy couch, and shall lull
thee with songs; and early to-morrow morning, when the gate is
open for the multitude that came hither to-day, for thee shall it
be opened first, and thou mayest sit in the place that thou shalt
choose in Arthur's hall, from the upper end to the lower." Said
the youth: "That will I not do. If thou openest the gate, it is
well. If thou dost not open it, I will bring disgrace upon thy
lord, and evil report upon thee. And I will set up three shouts at
this very gate, than which none were ever heard more deadly."
"What clamor soever thou mayest make," said Glewlwyd, the porter,
"against the laws of Arthur's palace, shalt thou not enter
therein, until I first go and speak with Arthur."

Then Glewlwyd went into the hall. And Arthur said to him, "Hast
thou news from the gate?" "Half of my life is passed," said
Glewlwyd, "and half of thine. I was heretofore in Kaer Se and
Asse, in Sach and Salach, in Lotor and Fotor, and I have been in
India the Great and India the Lesser, and I have also been in
Europe and Africa, and in the islands of Corsica, and I was
present when thou didst conquer Greece in the East. Nine supreme
sovereigns, handsome men, saw we there, but never did I behold a
man of equal dignity with him who is now at the door of the
portal." Then said Arthur: "If walking thou didst enter here,
return thou running. It is unbecoming to keep such a man as thou
sayest he is in the wind and the rain." Said Kay: "By the hand of
my friend, if thou wouldst follow my counsel, thou wouldst not
break through the laws of the court because of him." "Not so,
blessed Kay," said Arthur; "it is an honor to us to be resorted
to, and the greater our courtesy, the greater will be our renown
and our fame and our glory."

And Glewlwyd came to the gate, and opened the gate before Kilwich:
and although all dismounted upon the horse-block at the gate, yet
did he not dismount, but he rode in upon his charger. Then said
he, "Greeting be unto thee, sovereign ruler of this island, and be
this greeting no less unto the lowest than unto the highest, and
be it equally unto thy guests, and thy warriors, and thy
chieftains; let all partake of it as completely as thyself. And
complete be thy favor, and thy fame, and thy glory, throughout all
this island." "Greeting unto thee also," said Arthur; "sit thou
between two of my warriors, and thou shalt have minstrels before
thee, and thou shalt enjoy the privileges of a king born to a
throne, as long as thou remainest here. And when I disperse my
presents to the visitors and strangers in this court, they shall
be in thy hand at my commencing." Said the youth, "I came not here
to consume meat and drink; but if I obtain the boon that I seek, I
will requite it thee, and extol thee; but if I have it not, I will
bear forth thy dispraise to the four quarters of the world, as far
as thy renown has extended." Then said Arthur, "Since thou wilt
not remain here, chieftain, thou shalt receive the boon,
whatsoever thy tongue may name, as far as the wind dries, and the
rain moistens, and the sun revolves, and the sea encircles, and
the earth extends; save only my ship Prydwen, and my mantle, and
Caliburn, my sword, and Rhongomyant, my lance, and Guenever, my
wife. By the truth of Heaven, thou shalt have it cheerfuly, name
what thou wilt." "I would that thou bless my hair," said he. "That
shall be granted thee."

And Arthur took a golden comb, and scissors whereof the loops were
of silver, and he combed his hair. And Arthur inquired of him who
he was; "for my heart warms unto thee, and I know that thou art
come of my blood. Tell me, therefore, who thou art." "I will tell
thee," said the youth. "I am Kilwich, the son of Kilydd, the son
of Prince Kelyddon, by Goleudyd, my mother, the daughter of Prince
Anlawd." "That is true," said Arthur; "thou art my cousin.
Whatsoever boon thou mayest ask, thou shalt receive, be it what it
may that thy tongue shall name." "Pledge the truth of Heaven and
the faith of thy kingdom thereof." "I pledge it thee gladly." "I
crave of thee, then, that thou obtain for me Olwen, the daughter
of Yspadaden Penkawr, to wife; and this boon I likewise seek at
the hands of thy warriors. I seek it from Kay and from Bedwyr; and
from Gwynn, the son of Nudd, and Gadwy, the son of Geraint, and
Prince Flewddur Flam and Iona, king of France, and Sel, the son of
Selgi, and Taliesin, the chief of the bards, and Geraint, the son
of Erbin, Garanwyn, the son of Kay, and Amren, the son of Bedwyr,
Ol, the son of Olwyd, Bedwin, the bishop, Guenever, the chief
lady, and Guenhywach, her sister, Morved, the daughter of Urien,
and Gwenlian Deg, the majestic maiden, Creiddylad, [Footnote:
Creiddylad is no other than Shakspeare's Cordelia, whose father,
King Lear, is by the Welsh authorities called indiscriminately
Llyr or Lludd. All the old chronicles give the story of her
devotion to her aged parent, but none of them seem to have been
aware that she is destined to remain with him till the day of
doom, whilst Gwyn ap Nudd, the king of the fairies, and Gwythyr op
Greidiol, fight for her every first of May, and whichever of them
may be fortunate enough to be the conqueror at that time will
obtain her as a bride.] the daughter of Lludd, the constant
maiden, and Ewaedah, the daughter of Kynvelyn, [Footnote: The
Welsh have a fable on the subject of the half man, taken to be
illustrative of the force of habit. In this allegory Arthur is
supposed to be met by a sprite, who appears at first in a small
and indistinct form, but who, on approaching nearer, increases in
size, and, assuming the semblance of half a man, endeavors to
provoke the king to wrestle. Despising his weakness, and
considering that he should gain no credit by the encounter, Arthur
refuses to do so, and delays the contest until at length the half
man (Habit) becomes so strong that it requires his utmost efforts
to overcome him.] the half-man." All these did Kilwich, the son of
Kilydd, adjure to obtain his boon.

Then said Arthur, "O chieftain, I have never heard of the maiden
of whom thou speakest, nor of her kindred, but I will gladly send
messengers in search of her. Give me time to seek her." And the
youth said, "I will willingly grant from this night to that at the
end of the year to do so." Then Arthur sent messengers to every
land within his dominions to seek for the maiden, and at the end
of the year Arthur's messengers returned without having gained any
knowledge or intelligence concerning Olwen, more than on the first
day. Then said Kilwich, "Every one has received his boon, and I
yet lack mine. I will depart, and bear away thy honor with me."
Then said Kay, "Rash chieftain! dost thou reproach Arthur? Go with
us, and we will not part until thou dost either confess that the
maiden exists not in the world, or until we obtain her." Thereupon
Kay rose up. And Arthur called Bedwyr, who never shrank from any
enterprise upon which Kay was bound. None were equal to him in
swiftness throughout this island except Arthur alone; and although
he was one handed; three warriors could not shed blood faster than
he on the field of battle.

And Arthur called to Kyndelig, the guide, "Go thou upon this
expedition with the chieftain." For as good a guide was he in a
land which he had never seen as he was in his own.

He called Gurhyr Gwalstat, because he knew all tongues.

He called Gawain, the son of Gwyar, because he never returned home
without achieving the adventure of which he went in quest.

And Arthur called Meneu, the son of Teirgwed, in order that, if
they went into a savage country, he might cast a charm and an
illusion over them, so that none might see them, whilst they could
see every one.

They journeyed until they came to a vast open plain, wherein they
saw a great castle, which was the fairest of the castles of the
world. And when they came before the castle, they beheld a vast
flock of sheep. And upon the top of a mound there was a herdsman
keeping the sheep. And a rug made of skins was upon him, and by
his side was a shaggy mastiff, larger than a steed nine winters
old.

Then said Kay, "Gurhyr Gwalstat, go thou and salute yonder man."
"Kay," said he, "I engaged not to go further than thou thyself."
"Let us go then together." answered Kay. Said Meneu, "Fear not to
go thither, for I will cast a spell upon the dog, so that he shall
injure no one." And they went up to the mound whereon the herdsman
was, and they said to him, "How dost thou fare, herdsman?" "Not
less fair be it to you than to me." "Whose are the sheep that thou
dost keep, and to whom does yonder castle belong?" "Stupid are ye,
truly! not to know that this is the castle of Yspadaden Penkawr.
And ye also, who are ye?" "We are an embassy from Arthur, come to
seek Olwen, the daughter of Yspadaden Penkawr." "O men! the mercy
of Heaven be upon you; do not that for all the world. None who
ever came hither on this quest has returned alive." And the
herdsman rose up. And as he rose Kilwich gave unto him a ring of
gold. And he went home and gave the ring to his spouse to keep.
And she took the ring when it was given her, and she said, "Whence
came this ring, for thou art not wont to have good fortune." "O
wife, him to whom this ring belonged thou shalt see here this
evening." "And who is he?" asked the woman. "Kilwich, the son of
Kilydd, by Goleudid, the daughter of Prince Anlawd, who is come to
seek Olwen as his wife." And when she heard that, she had joy that
her nephew, the son of her sister, was coming to her, and sorrow,
because she had never known any one depart alive who had come on
that quest.

And the men went forward to the gate of the herdsman's dwelling.
And when she heard their footsteps approaching, she ran out with
joy to meet them. And Kay snatched a billet out of the pile. And
when she met them, she sought to throw her arms about their necks.
And Kay placed the log between her two hands, and she squeezed it
so that it became a twisted coil. "O woman," said Kay, "if thou
hadst squeezed me thus, none could ever again have set their
affections on me. Evil love were this." They entered into the
house and were served; and soon after, they all went forth to
amuse themselves. Then the woman opened a stone chest that was
before the chimney-corner, and out of it arose a youth with
yellow, curling hair. Said Gurhyr, "It is a pity to hide this
youth. I know that it is not his own crime that is thus visited
upon him." "This is but a remnant," said the woman. "Three and
twenty of my sons has Yspadaden Penkawr slain, and I have no more
hope of this one than of the others." Then said Kay, "Let him come
and be a companion with me, and he shall not be slain unless I
also am slain with him." And they ate. And the woman asked them,
"Upon what errand come you here?" "We come to seek Olwen for this
youth." Then said the woman, "In the name of Heaven, since no one
from the castle hath yet seen you, return again whence you came."
"Heaven is our witness, that we will not return until we have seen
the maiden. Does she ever come hither, so that she may be seen?"
"She comes here every Saturday to wash her head, and in the vessel
where she washes she leaves all her rings, and she never either
comes herself or sends any messengers to fetch them." "Will she
come here if she is sent to?" "Heaven knows that I will not
destroy my soul, nor will I betray those that trust me; unless you
will pledge me your faith that you will not harm her, I will not
send to her." "We pledge it," said they. So a message was sent,
and she came.

The maiden was clothed in a robe of flame-colored silk, and about
her neck was a collar of ruddy gold, on which were precious
emeralds and rubies. More yellow was her head than the flower of
the broom, [Footnote: The romancers dwell with great complacency
on the fair hair and delicate complexion of their heroines. This
taste continued for a long time, and to render the hair light was
an object of education. Even when wigs came into fashion they were
all flaxen. Such was the color of the hair of the Gauls and of
their German conquerors. It required some centuries to reconcile
their eyes to the swarthy beauties of their Spanish and Italian
neighbors.] and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and
fairer were her hands and her fingers than the blossoms of the
wood-anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain. The eye of
the trained hawk was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more
snowy than the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than
the reddest roses. Whoso beheld her was filled with her love. Four
white trefoils sprung up wherever she trod. And therefore was she
called Olwen.

She entered the house and sat beside Kilwich upon the foremost
bench; and as soon as he saw her, he knew her. And Kilwich said
unto her, "Ah! maiden, thou art she whom I have loved; come away
with me, lest they speak evil of thee and of me. Many a day have I
loved thee." "I cannot do this, for I have pledged my faith to my
father not to go without his counsel, for his life will last only
until the time of my espousals. Whatever is to be, must be. But I
will give thee advice, if thou wilt take it. Go, ask me of my
father, and that which he shall require of thee, grant it, and
thou wilt obtain me; but if thou deny him anything, thou wilt not
obtain me, and it will be well for thee if thou escape with thy
life." "I promise all this, if occasion offer," said he.

She returned to her chamber, and they all rose up, and followed
her to the castle. And they slew the nine porters, that were at
the nine gates, in silence. And they slew the nine watch-dogs
without one of them barking. And they went forward to the hall.

"The greeting of Heaven and of man be unto thee, Yspadaden
Penkawr," said they. "And you, wherefore come you?" "We come to
ask thy daughter Olwen for Kilwich, the son of Kilydd, the son of
Prince Kelyddon." "Where are my pages and my servants? Raise up
the forks beneath my two eyebrows, which have fallen over my eyes,
that I may see the fashion of my son-in-law." And they did so.
"Come hither to-morrow, and you shall have an answer."

They rose to go forth, and Yspadaden Penkawr seized one of the
three poisoned darts that lay beside him, and threw it after them.
And Bedwyr caught it, and flung it, and pierced Yspadaden Penkawr
grievously with it through the knee. Then he said, "A cursed
ungentle son-in-law, truly! I shall ever walk the worse for his
rudeness, and shall ever be without a cure. This poisoned iron
pains me like the bite of a gad-fly. Cursed be the smith who
forged it, and the anvil on which it was wrought! So sharp is it!"

That night also they took up their abode in the house of the
herdsman. The next day, with the dawn, they arrayed themselves and
proceeded to the castle, and entered the hall; and they said,
"Yspadaden Penkawr, give us thy daughter in consideration of her
dower and her maiden fee, which we will pay to thee, and to her
two kinswomen likewise." Then he said, "Her four great-
grandmothers and her four great-grandsires are yet alive; it is
needful that I take counsel of them." "Be it so," they answered,
"we will go to meat." As they rose up he took the second dart that
was beside him, and cast it after them. And Meneu, the son of
Gawedd, caught it, and flung it back at him, and wounded him in
the centre of the breast. "A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly!"
said he; "the hard iron pains me like the bite of a horse-leech.
Cursed be the hearth whereon it was heated, and the smith who
formed it! So sharp is it! Henceforth, whenever I go up hill, I
shall have a scant in my breath, and a pain in my chest, and I
shall often loathe my food." And they went to meat.

And the third day they returned to the palace. And Yspadaden
Penkawr said to them, "Shoot not at me again unless you desire
death. Where are my attendants? Lift up the forks of my eyebrows,
which have fallen over my eyeballs, that I may see the fashion of
my son-in-law." Then they arose, and, as they did so, Yspadaden
Penkawr took the third poisoned dart and cast it at them. And
Kilwich caught it, and threw it vigorously, and wounded him
through the eyeball. "A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly! As long
as I remain alive, my eyesight will be the worse. Whenever I go
against the wind, my eyes will water; and peradventure my head
will burn, and I shall have a giddiness every new moon. Like the
bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned iron. Cursed be
the fire in which it was forged!" And they went to meat.

And the next day they came again to the palace, and they said,
"Shoot not at us any more, unless thou desirest such hurt and harm
and torture as thou now hast, and even more." Said Kilwich, "Give
me thy daughter; and if thou wilt not give her, thou shalt receive
thy death because of her." "Where is he that seeks my daughter?
Come hither where I may see thee." And they placed him a chair
face to face with him.

Said Yspadaden Penkawr, "Is it thou that seekest my daughter?"

"It is I," answered Kilwich.

"I must have thy pledge that thou wilt not do toward me otherwise
than is just; and when I have gotten that which I shall name, my
daughter thou shalt have."

"I promise thee that willingly," said Kilwich; "name what thou
wilt."

"I will do so," said he. "Seest thou yonder red tilled ground?"

"I see it."

"When first I met the mother of this maiden, nine bushels of flax
were sown therein, and none has yet sprung up, white nor black. I
require to have the flax to sow in the new land yonder, that when
it grows up it may make a white wimple for my daughter's head on
the day of thy wedding."

"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest
think it will not be easy."

"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get--
the harp of Teirtu, to play to us that night. When a man desires
that it should play, it does so of itself; and when he desires
that it should cease, it ceases. And this he will not give of his
own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him."

"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest
think it will not be easy."

"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
I require thee to get me for my huntsman Mabon, the son of Modron.
He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not
known where he now is, nor whether he is living or dead."

"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest
think it will not be easy."

"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get--
the two cubs of the wolf Gast Rhymhi; no leash in the world will
hold them, but a leash made from the beard of Dillus Varwawc, the
robber. And the leash will be of no avail unless it be plucked
from his beard while he is alive. While he lives he will not
suffer this to be done to him, and the leash will be of no use
should he be dead, because it will be brittle."

"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest
think it will not be easy."

"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get--
the sword of Gwernach the Giant; of his own free will he will not
give it, and thou wilt never be able to compel him."

"It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest
think it will not be easy."

"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
Difficulties shalt thou meet with, and nights without sleep, in
seeking this, and if thou obtain it not, neither shalt thou obtain
my daughter."

"Horses shall I have, and chivalry; and my lord and kinsman,
Arthur, will obtain for me all these things. And I shall gain thy
daughter, and thou shalt lose thy life."

"Go forward. And thou shalt not be chargeable for food or raiment
for my daughter while thou art seeking these things; and when thou
hast compassed all these marvels, thou shalt have my daughter for
thy wife."





CHAPTER XII

KILWICH AND OLWEN (Continued)


All that day they journeyed until the evening, and then they
beheld a vast castle, which was the largest in the world. And lo!
a black man, larger than three of the men of this world, came out
from the castle. And they spoke unto him, and said, "O man, whose
castle is that?" "Stupid are ye, truly, O men! There is no one in
the world that does not know that this is the castle of Gwernach
the Giant." "What treatment is there for guests and strangers that
alight in that castle?" "O chieftain, Heaven protect thee! No
guests ever returned thence alive, and no one may enter therein
unless he brings with him his craft."

Then they proceeded towards the gate. Said Gurhyr Gwalstat, "Is
there a porter?" "There is; wherefore dost thou call?" "Open the
gate." "I will not open it." "Wherefore wilt thou not?" "The knife
is in the meat, and the drink is in the horn, and there is revelry
in the hall of Gwernach the Giant; and except for a craftsman who
brings his craft, the gate will not be opened to-night." "Verily,
porter," then said Kay, "my craft bring I with me." "What is thy
craft?" "The best burnisher of swords am I in the world." "I will
go and tell this unto Gwernach the Giant, and I will bring thee an
answer."

So the porter went in, and Gwernach said to him, "Hast thou news
from the gate?" "I have. There is a party at the door of the gate
who desire to come in." "Didst thou inquire of them if they
possessed any art?" "I did inquire," said he, "and one told me
that he was well skilled in the burnishing of swords." "We have
need of him then. For some time have I sought for some one to
polish my sword, and could find no one. Let this man enter, since
he brings with him his craft."

The porter thereupon returned and opened the gate. And Kay went in
by himself, and he saluted Gwernach the Giant. And a chair was
placed for him opposite to Gwernach. And Gwernach said to him, "O
man, is it true that is reported of thee, that thou knowest how to
burnish swords?" "I know full well how to do so," answered Kay.
Then was the sword of Gwernach brought to him. And Kay took a blue
whetstone from under his arm, and asked whether he would have it
burnished white or blue. "Do with it as it seems good to thee, or
as thou wouldst if it were thine own." Then Kay polished one half
of the blade, and put it in his hand. "Will this please thee?"
asked he. "I would rather than all that is in my dominions that
the whole of it were like this. It is a marvel to me that such a
man as thou should be without a companion." "O noble sir, I have a
companion, albeit he is not skilled in this art." "Who may he be?"
"Let the porter go forth, and I will tell him whereby he may know
him. The head of his lance will leave its shaft, and draw blood
from the wind, and will descend upon its shaft again." Then the
gate was opened, and Bedwyr entered. And Kay said, "Bedwyr is very
skilful, though he knows not this art."

And there was much discourse among those who were without, because
that Kay and Bedwyr had gone in. And a young man who was with
them, the only son of the herdsman, got in also; and he contrived
to admit all the rest, but they kept themselves concealed.

The sword was now polished, and Kay gave it unto the hand of
Gwernach the Giant, to see if he were pleased with his work. And
the giant said, "The work is good; I am content therewith." Said
Kay, "It is thy scabbard that hath rusted thy sword; give it to
me, that I may take out the wooden sides of it, and put in new
ones." And he took the scabbard from him, and the sword in the
other hand. And he came and stood over against the giant, as if he
would have put the sword into the scabbard; and with it he struck
at the head of the giant, and cut off his head at one blow. Then
they despoiled the castle, and took from it what goods and jewels
they would. And they returned to Arthur's court, bearing with them
the sword of Gwernach the Giant.

And when they told Arthur how they had sped, Arthur said, "It is a
good beginning." Then they took counsel, and said, "Which of these
marvels will it be best for us to seek next?" "It will be best,"
said one, "to seek Mabon, the son of Modron; and he will not be
found unless we first find Eidoel, the son of Aer, his kinsman."
Then Arthur rose up, and the warriors of the island of Britain
with him, to seek for Eidoel; and they proceeded until they came
to the castle of Glivi, where Eidoel was imprisoned. Glivi stood
on the summit of his castle, and he said, "Arthur, what requirest
thou of me, since nothing remains to me in this fortress, and I
have neither joy nor pleasure in it, neither wheat nor oats? Seek
not, therefore, to do me harm." Said Arthur, "Not to injure thee
came I hither, but to seek for the prisoner that is with thee." "I
will give thee my prisoner, though I had not thought to give him
up to any one, and therewith shalt thou have my support and my
aid."

His followers said unto Arthur, "Lord, go thou home, thou canst
not proceed with thy host in quest of such small adventures as
these." Then said Arthur, "It were well for thee, Gurhyr Gwalstat,
to go upon this quest, for thou knowest all languages, and art
familiar with those of the birds and the beasts. Thou, Eidoel,
oughtest likewise to go with thy men in search of thy cousin. And
as for you, Kay and Bedwyr, I have hope of whatever adventure ye
are in quest of, that ye will achieve it. Achieve ye this
adventure for me."

They went forward until they came to the Ousel of Cilgwri. And
Gurhyr adjured her, saying, "Tell me if thou knowest aught of
Mabon, the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old from
between his mother and the wall?" And the Ousel answered, "When I
first came here, there was a smith's anvil in this place, and I
was then a young bird; and from that time no work has been done
upon it, save the pecking of my beak every evening; and now there
is not so much as the size of a nut remaining thereof; yet during
all that time I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire.
Nevertheless, I will do that which it is fitting that I should for
an embassy from Arthur. There is a race of animals who were formed
before me, and I will be your guide to them."

So they proceeded to the place where was the Stag of Redynvre.
"Stag of Redynvre, behold, we are come to thee, an embassy from
Arthur, for we have not heard of any animal older than thou. Say,
knowest thou aught of Mabon, the son of Modron, who was taken from
his mother when three nights old?" The Stag said, "When first I
came hither there was a plain all around me, without any trees
save one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with an hundred
branches; and that oak has since perished, so that now nothing
remains of it but the withered stump; and from that day to this I
have been here, yet have I never heard of the man for whom you
inquire. Nevertheless, being an embassy from Arthur, I will be
your guide to the place where there is an animal which was formed
before I was, and the oldest animal in the world, and the one that
has travelled most, the Eagle of Gwern Abwy."

Gurhyr said, "Eagle of Gwern Abwy, we have come to thee, an
embassy from Arthur, to ask thee if thou knowest aught of Mabon,
the son of Modron, who was taken from his mother when he was three
nights old?" The Eagle said, "I have been here for a great space
of time, and when I first came hither, there was a rock here from
the top of which I pecked at the stars every evening; and it has
crumbled away, and now it is not so much as a span high. All that
time I have been here, and I have never heard of the man for whom
you inquire, except once when I went in search of food as far as
Llyn Llyw. And when I came there, I struck my talons into a
salmon, thinking he would serve me as food for a long time. But he
drew me into the water, and I was scarcely able to escape from
him. After that I made peace with him. And I drew fifty fish-
spears out of his back, and relieved him. Unless he know something
of him whom you seek, I cannot tell who may. However, I will guide
you to the place where he is."

So they went thither; and the Eagle said, "Salmon of Llyn Llyw, I
have come to thee with an embassy from Arthur, to ask thee if thou
knowest aught of Mabon, the son of Modron, who was taken away at
three nights old from his mother." "As much as I know I will tell
thee. With every tide I go along the river upward, until I come
near to the walls of Gloucester, and there have I found such wrong
as I never found elsewhere; and to the end that ye may give
credence thereto, let one of you go thither upon each of my two
shoulders." So Kay and Gurhyr Gwalstat went upon the two shoulders
of the Salmon, and they proceeded until they came unto the wall of
the prison; and they heard a great wailing and lamenting from the
dungeon. Said Gurhyr, "Who is it that laments in this house of
stone?" "Alas! it is Mabon, the son of Modron, who is here
imprisoned; and no imprisonment was ever so grievous as mine."
"Hast thou hope of being released for gold or for silver, or for
any gifts of wealth, or through battle and fighting?" "By fighting
will what ever I may gain be obtained."

Then they went thence, and returned to Arthur, and they told him
where Mabon, the son of Modron, was imprisoned. And Arthur
summoned the warriors of the island, and they journeyed as far as
Gloucester, to the place where Mabon was in prison. Kay and Bedwyr
went upon the shoulders of the fish, whilst the warriors of Arthur
attacked the castle. And Kay broke through the wall into the
dungeon, and brought away the prisoner upon his back, whilst the
fight was going on between the warriors. And Arthur returned home,
and Mabon with him at liberty.

On a certain day as Gurhyr Gwalstat was walking over a mountain,
he heard a wailing and a grievous cry. And when he heard it, he
sprang forward and went towards it. And when he came there, he saw
a fire burning among the turf, and an ant-hill nearly surrounded
with the fire. And he drew his sword, and smote off the ant-hill
close to the earth, so that it escaped being burned in the fire.
And the ants said to him, "Receive from us the blessing of Heaven,
and that which no man can give, we give thee." Then they fetched
the nine bushels of flax-seed which Yspadaden Penkawr had required
of Kilwich, and they brought the full measure, without lacking
any, except one flax-seed, and that the lame pismire brought in
before night.

Then said Arthur, "Which of the marvels will it be best for us to
seek next?" "It will be best to seek for the two cubs of the wolf
Gast Rhymhi."

"Is it known," said Arthur, "where she is?" "She is in Aber
Cleddyf," said one. Then Arthur went to the house of Tringad, in
Aber Cleddyf, and he inquired of him whether he had heard of her
there. "She has often slain my herds, and she is there below in a
cave in Aber Cleddyf."

Ther Arthur went in his ship Prydwen by sea, and the others went
by land to hunt her. And they surrounded her and her two cubs, and
took them and carried them away.

As Kay and Bedwyr sat on a beacon-cairn on the summit of
Plinlimmon, in the highest wind that ever was, they looked around
them and saw a great smoke, afar off. Then said Kay, "By the hand
of my friend, yonder is the fire of a robber." Then they hastened
towards the smoke, and they came so near to it that they could see
Dillus Varwawc scorching a wild boar. "Behold, yonder is the
greatest robber that ever fled from Arthur," said Bedwyr to Kay.
"Dost thou know him?" "I do know him," answered Kay; "he is Dillus
Varwarc, and no leash in the world will be able to hold the cubs
of Gast Rhymi, save a leash made from the beard of him thou seest
yonder. And even that will be useless unless his beard be plucked
out alive, with wooden tweezers; for if dead it will be brittle."
"What thinkest thou that we should do concerning this?" said
Bedwyr. "Let us suffer him." said Kay, "to eat as much as he will
of the meat, and after that he will fall asleep." And during that
time they employed themselves in making the wooden tweezers. And
when Kay knew certainly that he was asleep, he made a pit under
his feet, and he struck him a violent blow, and squeezed him into
the pit. And there they twitched out his beard completely with the
wooden tweezers, and after that they slew him altogether. And from
thence they went, and took the leash made of Dillus Varwawc's
beard, and they gave it into Arthur's hand.

Thus they got all the marvels that Yspadaden Penkawr had required
of Kilwich; and they set forward, and took the marvels to his
court. And Kilwich said to Yspadaden Penkawr, "Is thy daughter
mine now?" "She is thine," said he, "but therefore needest thou
not thank me, but Arthur, who hath accomplished this for thee."
Then Goreu, the son of Custennin, the herdsman, whose brothers
Yspadaden Penkawr had slain, seized him by the hair of his head,
and dragged him after him to the keep, and cut off his head, and
placed it on a stake on the citadel. Then they took possession of
his castle, and of his treasures. And that night Olwen became
Kilwich's bride, and she continued to be his wife as long as she
lived.





CHAPTER XIII

TALIESIN


Gwyddno Garanhir was sovereign of Gwaelod, a territory bordering
on the sea. And he possessed a weir upon the strand between Dyvi
and Aberystwyth, near to his own castle, and the value of an
hundred pounds was taken in that weir every May eve. And Gwyddno
had an only son named Elphin, the most hapless of youths, and the
most needy. And it grieved his father sore, for he thought that he
was born in an evil hour. By the advice of his council, his father
had granted him the drawing of the weir that year, to see if good
luck would ever befall him, and to give him something wherewith to
begin the world. And this was on the twenty-ninth of April.

The next day, when Elphin went to look, there was nothing in the
weir but a leathern bag upon a pole of the weir. Then said the
weir-ward unto Elphin, "All thy ill-luck aforetime was nothing to
this; and now thou hast destroyed the virtues of the weir, which
always yielded the value of an hundred pounds every May eve; and
to-night there is nothing but this leathern skin within it." "How
now," said Elphin, "there may be therein the value of a hundred
pounds." Well! they took up the leathern bag, and he who opened it
saw the forehead of an infant, the fairest that ever was seen; and
he said, "Behold a radiant brow?" (In the Welsh language,
taliesin.) "Taliesin be he called," said Elphin. And he lifted the
bag in his arms, and, lamenting his bad luck, placed the boy
sorrowfully behind him. And he made his horse amble gently, that
before had been trotting, and he carried him as softly as if he
had been sitting in the easiest chair in the world. And presently
the boy made a Consolation, and praise to Elphin; and the
Consolation was as you may here see:

   "Fair Elphin, cease to lament!
    Never in Gwyddno's weir
    Was there such good luck as this night.
    Being sad will not avail;
    Better to trust in God than to forbode ill;
    Weak and small as I am,
    On the foaming beach of the ocean,
    In the day of trouble I shall be
    Of more service to thee than three hundred salmon."

This was the first poem that Taliesin ever sung, being to console
Elphin in his grief for that the produce of the weir was lost, and
what was worse, that all the world would consider that it was
through his fault and ill-luck. Then Elphin asked him what he
was, whether man or spirit. And he sung thus:

   "I have been formed a comely person;
    Although I am but little, I am highly gifted;
    Into a dark leathern bag I was thrown,
    And on a boundless sea I was sent adrift.
    From seas and from mountains
    God brings wealth to the fortunate man."

Then came Elphin to the house of Gwyddno, his father, and Taliesin
with him. Gwyddno asked him if he had had a good haul at the weir,
and he told him that he had got that which was better than fish.
"What was that?" said Gwyddno. "A bard," said Elphin. Then said
Gwyddno, "Alas! what will he profit thee?" And Taliesin himself
replied and said, "He will profit him more than the weir ever
profited thee." Asked Gwyddno, "Art thou able to speak, and thou
so little?" And Taliesin answered him, "I am better able to speak
than thou to question me." "Let me hear what thou canst say,"
quoth Gwyddno. Then Taliesin sang:

   "Three times have I been born, I know by meditation;
   All the sciences of the world are collected in my breast,
   For I know what has been, and what hereafter will occur."

Elphin gave his haul to his wife, and she nursed him tenderly and
lovingly. Thenceforward Elphin increased in riches more and more,
day after day, and in love and favor with the king; and there
abode Taliesin until he was thirteen years old, when Elphin, son
of Gwyddno, went by a Christmas invitation to his uncle, Maelgan
Gwynedd, who held open court at Christmas-tide in the castle of
Dyganwy, for all the number of his lords of both degrees, both
spiritual and temporal, with a vast and thronged host of knights
and squires. And one arose and said, "Is there in the whole world
a king so great as Maelgan, or one on whom Heaven has bestowed so
many gifts as upon him;--form, and beauty, and meekness, and
strength, besides all the powers of the soul?" And together with
these they said that Heaven had given one gift that exceeded all
the others, which was the beauty, and grace, and wisdom, and
modesty of his queen, whose virtues surpassed those of all the
ladies and noble maidens throughout the whole kingdom. And with
this they put questions one to another, Who had braver men? Who
had fairer or swifter horses or greyhounds? Who had more skilful
or wiser bards than Maelgan?

When they had all made an end of their praising the king and his
gifts, it befell that Elphin spoke on this wise. "Of a truth, none
but a king may vie with a king; but were he not a king, I would
say that my wife was as virtuous as any lady in the kingdom, and
also that I have a bard who is more skilful than all the king's
bards." In a short space some of his fellows told the king all the
boastings of Elphin; and the king ordered him to be thrown into a
strong prison, until he might show the truth as to the virtues of
his wife, and the wisdom of his bard.

Now when Elphin had been put in a tower of the castle, with a
thick chain about his feet (it is said that it was a silver chain,
because he was of royal blood), the king, as the story relates,
sent his son Rhun to inquire into the demeanor of Elphin's wife.
Now Rhun was the most graceless man in the world, and there was
neither wife nor maiden with whom he held converse but was evil
spoken of. While Rhun went in haste towards Elphin's dwelling,
being fully minded to bring disgrace upon his wife, Taliesin told
his mistress how that the king had placed his master in durance in
prison, and how that Rhun was coming in haste to strive to bring
disgrace upon her. Wherefore he caused his mistress to array one
of the maids of her kitchen in her apparel; which the noble lady
gladly did, and she loaded her hands with the best rings that she
and her husband possessed.

In this guise Taliesin caused his mistress to put the maiden to
sit at the board in her room at supper; and he made her to seem as
her mistress, and the mistress to seem as the maid. And when they
were in due time seated at their supper, in the manner that has
been said, Rhun suddenly arrived at Elphin's dwelling, and was
received with joy, for the servants knew him; and they brought him
to the room of their mistress, in the semblance of whom the maid
rose up from supper and welcomed him gladly. And afterwards she
sat down to supper again, and Rhun with her. Then Rhun began
jesting with the maid, who still kept the semblance of her
mistress. And verily this story shows that the maiden became so
intoxicated that she fell asleep; and the story relates that it
was a powder that Rhun put into the drink, that made her sleep so
soundly that she never felt it when he cut off from her hand her
little finger, whereon was the signet ring of Elphin, which he had
sent to his wife as a token a short time before. And Rhun returned
to the king with the finger and the ring as a proof, to show that
he had cut it off from her hand without her awaking from her sleep
of intemperance.

The king rejoiced greatly at these tidings, and he sent for his
councillors, to whom he told the whole story from the beginning.
And he caused Elphin to be brought out of prison, and he chided
him because of his boast. And he spake on this wise: "Elphin, be
it known to thee beyond a doubt, that it is but folly for a man to
trust in the virtues of his wife further than he can see her; and
that thou mayest be certain of thy wife's vileness, behold her
finger, with thy signet ring upon it, which was cut from her hand
last night, while she slept the sleep of intoxication." Then thus
spake Elphin: "With thy leave, mighty king, I cannot deny my ring,
for it is known of many; but verily I assert that the finger
around which it is was never attached to the hand of my wife; for
in truth and certainty there are three notable things pertaining
to it, none of which ever belonged to any of my wife's fingers.
The first of the three is, that it is certainly known to me that
this ring would never remain upon her thumb, whereas you can
plainly see that it is hard to draw it over the joint of the
little finger of the hand whence this was cut. The second thing
is, that my wife has never let pass one Saturday since I have
known her, without paring her nails before going to bed, and you
can see fully that the nail of this little finger has not been
pared for a month. The third is, truly, that the hand whence this
finger came was kneading rye dough within three days before the
finger was cut therefrom, and I can assure your highness that my
wife has never kneaded rye dough since my wife she has been."

The king was mightily wroth with Elphin for so stoutly
withstanding him, respecting the goodness of his wife; wherefore
he ordered him to his prison a second time, saying that he should
not be loosed thence until he had proved the truth of his boast,
as well concerning the wisdom of his bard as the virtues of his
wife.

In the meantime his wife and Taliesin remained joyful at Elphin's
dwelling. And Taliesin showed his mistress how that Elphin was in
prison because of them; but he bade her be glad, for that he would
go to Maelgan's court to free his master. So he took leave of his
mistress, and came to the court of Maelgan, who was going to sit
in his hall, and dine in his royal state, as it was the custom in
those days for kings and princes to do at every chief feast. As
soon as Taliesin entered the hall he placed himself in a quiet
corner, near the place where the bards and the minstrels were wont
to come, in doing their service and duty to the king, as is the
custom at the high festivals, when the bounty is proclaimed. So,
when the bards and the heralds came to cry largess, and to
proclaim the power of the king, and his strength, at the moment
when they passed by the corner wherein he was crouching, Taliesin
pouted out his lips after them, and played "Blerwm, blerwm!" with
his finger upon his lips. Neither took they much notice of him as
they went by but proceeded forward till they came before the king,
unto whom they made their obeisance with their bodies, as they
were wont, without speaking a single word, but pouting out their
lips, and making mouths at the king, playing, "Blerwm, blerwm!"
upon their lips with their fingers, as they had seen the boy do.
This sight caused the king to wonder, and to deem within himself
that they were drunk with many liquors. Wherefore he commanded one
of his lords, who served at the board, to go to them and desire
them to collect their wits, and to consider where they stood, and
what it was fitting for them to do. And this lord did so gladly.
But they ceased not from their folly any more than before.
Whereupon he sent to them a second time, and a third, desiring
them to go forth from the hall. At the last the king ordered one
of his squires to give a blow to the chief of them, named Heinin
Vardd; and the squire took a broom and struck him on the head, so
that he fell back in his seat. Then he arose, and went on his
knees, and besought leave of the king's grace to show that this
their fault was not through want of knowledge, neither through
drunkenness, but by the influence of some spirit that was in the
hall. And he spoke on this wise: "O honorable king, be it known to
your grace that not from the strength of drink, or of too much
liquor, are we dumb, but through the influence of a spirit that
sits in the corner yonder, in the form of a child." Forthwith the
king commanded the squire to fetch him; and he went to the nook
where Taliesin sat, and brought him before the king, who asked him
what he was, and whence he came. And he answered the king in
verse:

    "Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,
     And my native country is the region of the summer stars;
     I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,
     I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
     I was in India when Rome was built,
     I have now come here to the remnant of Troia."

When the king and his nobles had heard the song, they wondered
much, for they had never heard the like from a boy so young as he.
And when the king knew that he was the bard of Elphin he bade
Heinin, his first and wisest bard, to answer Taliesin, and to
strive with him. But when he came he could do no other than play
"Blerwm!" on his lips; and when he sent for the others of the four
and twenty bards, they all did likewise, and could do no other.
And Maelgan asked the boy Taliesin what was his errand, and he
answered him in song:

    "Elphin, the son of Gwyddno,
    Is in the land of Artro,
    Secured by thirteen locks,
    For praising his instructor.
    Therefore I, Taliesin,
    Chief of the bards of the west,
    Will loosen Elphin
    Out of a golden fetter."

Then he sang to them a riddle:

    "Discover thou what is
     The strong creature from before the flood,
     Without flesh, without bone,
     Without vein, without blood,
     Without head, without feet;
     It will neither be older nor younger
    Than at the beginning.
    Behold how the sea whitens
    When first it comes,
    When it comes from the south,
    When it strikes on coasts
    It is in the field, it is in the wood,
    But the eye cannot perceive it.
    One Being has prepared it,
    By a tremendous blast,
    To wreak vengeance
    On Maelgan Gwynedd."

While he was thus singing his verse, there arose a mighty storm of
wind, so that the king and all his nobles thought that the castle
would fall upon their heads. And the king caused them to fetch
Elphin in haste from his dungeon, and placed him before Taliesin.
And it is said that immediately he sung a verse, so that the
chains opened from about his feet.

After that Taliesin brought Elphin's wife before them, and showed
that she had not one finger wanting. And in this manner did he set
his master free from prison, and protect the innocence of his
mistress, and silence the bards so that not one of them dared to
say a word. Right glad was Elphin, right glad was Taliesin.





HERO MYTHS OF THE BRITISH RACE





BEOWULF


Notable among the names of heroes of the British race is that of
Beowulf, which appeals to all English-speaking people in a very
special way, since he is the one hero in whose story we may see
the ideals of our English forefathers before they left their
Continental home to cross to the islands of Britain.

Although this hero had distinguished himself by numerous feats of
strength during his boyhood and early youth, it was as the
deliverer of Hrothgar, king of Denmark, from the monster Grendel
that he first gained wide renown. Grendel was half monster and
half man, and had his abode in the fen-fastnesses in the vicinity
of Hrothgar's residence. Night after night he would steal into the
king's great palace called Heorot and slay sometimes as many as
thirty at one time of the knights sleeping there.

Beowulf put himself at the head of a selected band of warriors,
went against the monster, and after a terrible fight slew it. The
following night Grendel's mother, a fiend scarcely less terrible
than her son, carried off one of Hrothgar's boldest thanes. Once
more Beowulf went to the help of the Danish king, followed the
she-monster to her lair at the bottom of a muddy lake in the midst
of the swamp, and with his good sword Hrunting and his own
muscular arms broke the sea-woman's neck.

Upon his return to his own country of the Geats, loaded with
honors bestowed upon him by Hrothgar, Beowulf served the king of
Geatland as the latter's most trusted counsellor and champion.
When, after many years, the king fell before an enemy, the Geats
unanimously chose Beowulf for their new king. His fame as a
warrior kept his country free from invasion, and his wisdom as a
statesman increased its prosperity and happiness.

In the fiftieth year of Beowulf's reign, however, a great terror
fell upon the land in the way of a monstrous fire-dragon, which
flew forth by night from its den in the rocks, lighting up the
blackness with its blazing breath, and burning houses and
homesteads, men and cattle, with the flames from its mouth. When
the news came to Beowulf that his people were suffering and dying,
and that no warrior dared to risk his life in an effort to deliver
the country from this deadly devastation, the aged king took up
his shield and sword and went forth to his last fight. At the
entrance of the dragon's cave Beowulf raised his voice and shouted
a furious defiance to the awesome guardian of the den. Roaring
hideously and napping his glowing wings together, the dragon
rushed forth and half flew, half sprang, on Beowulf. Then began a
fearful combat, which ended in Beowulf's piercing the dragon's
scaly armor and inflicting a mortal wound, but alas! in himself
being given a gash in the neck by his opponent's poisoned fangs
which resulted in his death. As he lay stretched on the ground,
his head supported by Wiglaf, an honored warrior who had helped in
the fight with the dragon, Beowulf roused himself to say, as he
grasped Wiglaf's hand:

   "Thou must now look to the needs of the nation;
    Here dwell I no longer, for Destiny calleth me!
    Bid thou my warriors after my funeral pyre
    Build me a burial-cairn high on the sea-cliff's head;
    So that the seafarers Beowulf's Barrow
    Henceforth shall name it, they who drive far and wide
    Over the mighty flood their foamy keels.
    Thou art the last of all the kindred of Wagmund!
    Wyrd has swept all my kin, all the brave chiefs away!
    Now must I follow them!"

These last words spoken, the king of the Geats, brave to seek
danger and brave to look on death and Fate undaunted, fell back
dead. According to his last desires, his followers gathered wood
and piled it on the cliff-head. Upon this funeral pyre was laid
Beowulf's body and consumed to ashes. Then, upon the same cliff of
Hronesness, was erected a huge burial cairn, wide-spread and
lofty, to be known thereafter as Beowulf's Barrow.





CUCHULAIN, CHAMPION OF IRELAND


Among all the early literatures of Europe, there are two which, at
exactly opposite corners of the continent, display most strikingly
similar characteristics. These are the Greek and the Irish, and
the legend of the Irish champion Cuchulain, which well illustrates
the similarity of the literatures, bears so close a resemblance to
the story of Achilles as to win for this hero the title of "the
Irish Achilles." Certainly in reckless courage, power of inspiring
dread, sense of personal merit, and frankness of speech the Irish
hero is fully equal to the mighty Greek.

Cuchulain was the nephew of King Conor of Ulster, son of his
sister Dechtire, and it is said that his father was no mortal man,
but the great god Lugh of the Long Hand. Cuchulain was brought up
by King Conor himself, and even while he was still a boy his fame
spread all over Ireland. His warlike deeds were those of a proved
warrior, not of a child of nursery age; and by the time Cuchulain
was seventeen he was without peer among the champions of Ulster.

Upon Cuchulain's marriage to Emer, daughter of Forgall the Wily, a
Druid of great power, the couple took up their residence at
Armagh, the capital of Ulster, under the protection of King Conor.
Here there was one chief, Bricriu of the Bitter Tongue, who, like
Thersites among the Grecian leaders, delighted in making mischief.
Soon he had on foot plans for stirring up strife among the heroes
of Ulster, leaders among whom were the mighty Laegaire, Conall
Cearnach, cousin of Cuchulain, and Cuchulain himself. Inviting the
members of King Conor's court to dinner, Bricriu arranged that a
contest should arise over who should have the "champion's
portion," and so successful was he that, to avoid a bloody fight,
the three heroes mentioned decided to submit their claims to the
championship of Ireland to King Ailill of Connaught.

Ailill put the heroes to an unexpected test. Their dinner was
served them in a separate room, into which three magic beasts, in
the shape of monstrous cats, were sent by the king. When they saw
them Laegire and Conall rose from their meal, climbed among the
rafters, and stayed there all night. Cuchulain waited until one
cat attacked him, and then, drawing his sword, struck the monster.
It showed no further sign of fight, and at daybreak the magic
beasts disappeared.

As Laegire and Conall claimed that this test was an unfair one,
Ailill sent the three rivals to Curoi of Kerry, a just and wise
man, who set out to discover by wizardry and enchantments the best
among the heroes. In turn they stood watch outside Curoi's castle,
where Laegire and Conall were overcome by a huge giant, who hurled
spears of mighty oak trees, and ended by throwing them over the
wall into the courtyard. Cuchulain alone withstood the giant,
whereupon he was attacked by other magic foes. Among these was a
dragon, which flew on horrible wings from a neighboring lake, and
seemed ready to devour everything in its way. Cuchulain sprang up,
giving his wonderful hero-leap, thrust his arm into the dragon's
mouth and down its throat, and tore out its heart. After the
monster fell dead, he cut off its scaly head.

As even yet Cuchulain's opponents would not admit his
championship, they were all three directed to return to Armagh, to
await Curoi's judgment. Here it happened that all the Ulster
heroes were in the great hall one night, except Cuchulain and his
cousin Conall. As they sat in order of rank, a terrible stranger,
gigantic in stature, hideous of aspect, with ravening yellow eyes,
entered. In his hand he bore an enormous axe, with keen and
shining edge. Upon King Conor's inquiring his business there, the
stranger replied:

"Behold my axe! The man who will grasp it to-day may cut my head
off with it, provided that I may, in like manner, cut off his head
to-morrow. If you have no champion who dare face me, I will say
that Ulster has lost her courage and is dishonored."

At once Laegire accepted the challenge. The giant laid his head on
a block, and at a blow the hero severed it from the body.
Thereupon the giant arose, took the head and the axe, and thus,
headless, strode from the hall. But the following night, when he
returned, sound as ever, to claim the fulfilment of Laegire's
promise, the latter's heart failed him and he did not come
forward. The stranger then jeered at the men of Ulster because
their great champion durst not keep his agreement, nor face the
blow he should receive in return for the one he gave.

The men of Ulster were utterly ashamed, but Conall Cearnach, who
was present that night, made a new agreement with the stranger. He
gave a blow which beheaded the giant, but again, when the latter
returned whole and sound on the following evening, the champion
was not to be found.

Now it was the turn of Cuchulain, who, as the others had done, cut
off the giant's head at one stroke. The next day the members of
Conor's court watched Cuchulain to see what he would do. They
would not have been surprised if he had failed like the others,
who now were present. The champion, however, showed no signs of
failing or retreat. He sat sorrowfully in his place, and with a
sigh said to King Conor as they waited: "Do not leave this place
till all is over. Death is coming to me very surely, but I must
fulfil my agreement, for I would rather die than break my word."

Towards the close of day the stranger strode into the hall
exultant.

"Where is Cuchulain?" he cried.

"Here I am," was the reply.

"Ah, poor boy! your speech is sad to-night, and the fear of death
lies heavy on you; but at least you have redeemed your word and
have not failed me."

The youth rose from his seat and went towards him, as he stood
with the great axe ready, and knelt to receive the blow.

The hero of Ulster laid his head on the block; but the giant was
not satisfied. "Stretch out your neck better," said he.

"You are playing with me, to torment me," said Cuchulain. "Slay me
now speedily, for I did not keep you waiting last night."

However, he stretched out his neck as ordered, and the stranger
raised his axe till it crashed upwards through the rafters of the
hall, like the crash of trees falling in a storm. When the axe
came down with a terrific sound all men looked fearfully at
Cuchulain. The descending axe had not even touched him; it had
come down with the blunt side on the ground, and the youth knelt
there unharmed. Smiling at him, and leaning on his axe, stood no
terrible and hideous stranger, but Curoi of Kerry, come to give
his decision at last.

"Rise up, Cuchulain," said Curoi. "There is none among all the
heroes of Ulster to equal you in courage and loyalty and truth.
The Championship of the Heroes of Ireland is yours from this day
forth, and the Champion's Portion at all feasts; and to your wife
I adjudge the first place among all the women of Ulster. Woe to
him who dares to dispute this decision!" Thereupon Curoi vanished,
and the warriors gathered around Cuchulain, and all with one voice
acclaimed him the Champion of the Heroes of all Ireland--a title
which has clung to him until this day.

This is one of many stories told of the Irish champion, whose
deeds of bravery would fill many pages. Cuchulain finally came to
his end on the field of battle, after a fight in which he
displayed all his usual gallantry but in which unfair means were
used to overcome him.

For Wales and for England during centuries Arthur has been the
representative "very gentle perfect knight." In a similar way, in
England's sister isle, Cuchulain stands ever for the highest
ideals of the Irish Gaels.





HEREWARD THE WAKE


In Hereward the Wake (or "Watchful") is found one of those heroes
whose date can be ascertained with a fair amount of exactness and
yet in whose story occur mythological elements which seem to
belong to all ages. The folklore of primitive races is a great
storehouse whence a people can choose tales and heroic deeds to
glorify its own national hero, careless that the same tales and
deeds have done duty for other peoples and other heroes. Hence it
happens that Hereward the Saxon, a patriot hero as real and actual
as Nelson or George Washington, whose deeds were recorded in prose
and verse within forty years of his death, was even then
surrounded by a cloud of romance and mystery, which hid in
vagueness his family, his marriage, and even his death.

Briefly it may be stated that Hereward was a native of
Lincolnshire, and was in his prime about 1070. In that year he
joined a party of Danes who appeared in England, attacked
Peterborough and sacked the abbey there, and afterward took refuge
in the Isle of Ely. Here he was besieged by William the Conqueror,
and was finally forced to yield to the Norman. He thus came to
stand for the defeated Saxon race, and his name has been passed
down as that of the darling hero of the Saxons. For his splendid
defence of Ely they forgave his final surrender to Duke William;
they attributed to him all the virtues supposed to be inherent in
the free-born, and all the glorious valor on which the English
prided themselves; and, lastly, they surrounded his death with a
halo of desperate fighting, and made his last conflict as
wonderful as that of Roland at Roncesvalles. If Roland is the
ideal of Norman feudal chivalry, Hereward is equally the ideal of
Anglo-Saxon sturdy manliness and knighthood.

An account of one of Hereward's adventures as a youth will serve
as illustration of the stories told of his prowess. On an enforced
visit to Cornwall, he found that King Alef, a petty British chief,
had betrothed his fair daughter to a terrible Pictish giant,
breaking off, in order to do it, her troth-plight with Prince
Sigtryg of Waterford, son of a Danish king in Ireland. Hereward,
ever chivalrous, picked a quarrel with the giant and killed him in
fair fight, whereupon the king threw him into prison. In the
following night, however, the released princess arranged that the
gallant Saxon should be freed and sent hot-foot for her lover,
Prince Sigtryg. After many adventures Hereward reached the prince,
who hastened to return to Cornwall with the young hero. But to the
grief of both, they learned upon their arrival that the princess
had just been betrothed to a wild Cornish hero, Haco, and the
wedding feast was to be held that very day. Sigtryg at once sent a
troop of forty Danes to King Alef demanding the fulfilment of the
troth-plight between himself and his daughter, and threatening
vengeance if it were broken. To this threat the king returned no
answer, and no Dane came back to tell of their reception.

Sigtryg would have waited till morning, trusting in the honor of
the king, but Hereward disguised himself as a minstrel and
obtained admission to the bridal feast, where he soon won applause
by his beautiful singing. The bridegroom, Haco, in a rapture
offered him any boon he liked to ask, but he demanded only a cup
of wine from the hands of the bride. When she brought it to him he
flung into the empty cup the betrothal ring, the token she had
sent to Sigtryg, and said: "I thank thee, lady, and would reward
thee for thy gentleness to a wandering minstrel; I give back the
cup, richer than before by the kind thoughts of which it bears the
token." The princess looked at him, gazed into the goblet, and saw
her ring; then, looking again, she recognized her deliverer and
knew that rescue was at hand.

While men feasted Hereward listened and talked, and found out that
the forty Danes were prisoners, to be released on the morrow when
Haco was sure of his bride, but released useless and miserable,
since they would be turned adrift blinded. Haco was taking his
lovely bride back to his own land, and Hereward saw that any
rescue, to be successful, must be attempted on the march.

Returning to Sigtryg, the young Saxon told all that he had
learned, and the Danes planned an ambush in the ravine where Haco
had decided to blind and set free his captives. The whole was
carried out exactly as Hereward arranged it. The Cornishmen, with
the Danish captives, passed first without attack; next came Haco,
riding grim and ferocious beside his silent bride, he exulting in
his success, she looking eagerly for any signs of rescue. As they
passed Hereward sprang from his shelter, crying, "Upon them,
Danes, and set your brethren free!" and himself struck down Haco
and smote off his head. There was a short struggle, but soon the
rescued Danes were able to aid their deliverers, and the Cornish
guards were all slain; the men of King Alef, never very zealous
for the cause of Haco, fled, and the Danes were left masters of
the field.

Sigtryg had in the meantime seen to the safety of the princess,
and now, placing her between himself and Hereward, he escorted her
to the ship, which soon brought them to Waterford and a happy
bridal. The Prince and Princess of Waterford always recognized in
Hereward their deliverer and best friend, and in their gratitude
wished him to dwell with them always; but the hero's roving and
daring temper forbade his settling down, but rather urged him on
to deeds of arms in other lands, where he quickly won a renown
second to none.





ROBIN HOOD


Among the earliest heirlooms of the Anglo-Saxon tongue are the
songs and legends of Robin Hood and his merry outlaws, which have
charmed readers young and old for more than six hundred years.
These entertaining stories date back to the time when Chaucer
wrote his "Canterbury Tales," when the minstrel and scribe stood
in the place of the more prim and precise modern printed book.

The question of whether or not Robin Hood was a real person has
been asked for many years, just as a similar question has been
asked about William Tell and others whom everyone would much
rather accept on faith. It cannot be answered by a brief "yes" or
"no," even though learned men have pored over ancient records and
have written books on the subject. According to the general belief
Robin was an outlaw in the reign of Richard I, when in the depths
of Sherwood Forest he entertained one hundred tall men, all good
archers, with the spoil he took; but "he suffered no woman to be
oppressed or otherwise molested; poore men's goods he spared,
abundantlie relieving them with that which by theft he got from
abbeys and houses of rich carles." Consequently Robin was an
immense favorite with the common people.

This popularity extended from the leader to all the members of his
hardy band. "God save Robin Hood and all his good yeomanry" is the
ending of many old ballads. The clever archer who could outshoot
his fellows, the brave yeoman inured to blows, and the man who
could be true to his friends through thick and thin were favorites
for all time; and they have been idealized in the persons of Robin
Hood and his merry outlaws.

One of the best-known stories of this picturesque figure of early
English times is that given by Sir Walter Scott in "Ivanhoe,"
concerning the archery contest during the rule or misrule of
Prince John, in the absence of Richard from the kingdom. Robin
Hood, under the assumed name of Locksley, boldly presents himself
at a royal tournament at Ashby, as competitor for the prize in
shooting with the long-bow. From the eight or ten archers who
enter the contest, the number finally narrows down to two,--
Hubert, a forester in the service of one of the king's nobles, and
Locksley or Robin Hood. Hubert takes the first shot in the final
trial of skill, and lands his arrow within the inner ring of the
target, but not exactly in the centre.

"'You have not allowed for the wind, Hubert,' said Locksley, 'or
that had been a better shot.'

"So saying, and without showing the least anxiety to pause upon
his aim, Locksley stepped to the appointed station, and shot his
arrow as carelessly in appearance as if he had not even looked at
the mark. He was speaking almost at the instant that the shaft
left the bow-string, yet it alighted in the target two inches
nearer to the white spot which marked the centre than that of
Hubert.

"'By the light of Heaven!' said Prince John to Hubert, 'an thou
suffer that runagate knave to overcome thee, thou art worthy of
the gallows!'

"Hubert had but one set speech for all occasions. 'An your
highness were to hang me,' he said, 'a man can but do his best.
Nevertheless, my grandsire drew a good bow--'

"'The foul fiend on thy grandsire and all his generation!'
interrupted John; 'shoot, knave, and shoot thy best, or it shall
be worse for thee!'

"Thus exhorted, Hubert resumed his place, and not neglecting the
caution which he had received from his adversary, he made the
necessary allowance for a very light air of wind, which had just
risen, and shot so successfully that his arrow alighted in the
very centre of the target.

"'A Hubert! a Hubert!' shouted the populace, more interested in a
known person than in a stranger. 'In the clout!--in the clout!--a
Hubert forever!'

"'Thou canst not mend that shot, Locksley,' said the Prince, with
an insulting smile.

"'I will notch his shaft for him, however,' replied Locksley.

"And letting fly his arrow with a little more precaution than
before, it lighted right upon that of his competitor, which it
split to shivers. The people who stood around were so astonished
at his wonderful dexterity, that they could not even give vent to
their surprise in their usual clamor. 'This must be the devil, and
no man of flesh and blood,' whispered the yeomen to each other;
'such archery was never seen since a bow was first bent in
Britain.'

"'And now,' said Locksley, 'I will crave your Grace's permission
to plant such a mark as is used in the North Country; and welcome
every brave yeoman who shall try a shot at it to win a smile from
the bonny lass he loves best.'"

Locksley thereupon sets up a willow wand, six feet long and as
thick as a man's thumb. Hubert is forced to decline the honor of
taking part in such a trial of archery skill, but his rival easily
splits the wand at a distance of three hundred feet and carries
off the prize.

"Even Prince John, in admiration of Locksley's skill, lost for an
instant his dislike to his person. 'These twenty nobles,' he said,
'which, with the bugle, thou hast fairly won, are thine own; we
will make them fifty, if thou wilt take livery and service with us
as a yeoman of our bodyguard, and be near to our person. For never
did so strong a hand bend a bow, or so true an eye direct a
shaft.'" [Footnote: Ivanhoe, Vol. 1, chap. XIII.]

Locksley, however, declares that it is impossible for him to enter
the Prince's service, generously shares his prize with the worthy
Hubert, and retires once more to his beloved haunts among the
lights and shadows of the good greenwood.





LEGENDS OF CHARLEMAGNE





INTRODUCTION


Those who have investigated the origin of the romantic fables
relating to Charlemagne and his peers are of opinion that the
deeds of Charles Martel, and perhaps of other Charleses, have been
blended in popular tradition with those properly belonging to
Charlemagne. It was indeed a most momentous era; and if our
readers will have patience, before entering on the perusal of the
fabulous annals which we are about to lay before them, to take a
rapid survey of the real history of the times, they will find it
hardly less romantic than the tales of the poets.

In the century beginning from the year 600, the countries
bordering upon the native land of our Saviour, to the east and
south, had not yet received his religion. Arabia was the seat of
an idolatrous religion resembling that of the ancient Persians,
who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. In Mecca, in the year
571, Mahomet was born, and here, at the age of forty, he
proclaimed himself the prophet of God, in dignity as superior to
Christ as Christ had been to Moses. Having obtained by slow
degrees a considerable number of disciples, he resorted to arms to
diffuse his religion. The energy and zeal of his followers, aided
by the weakness of the neighboring nations, enabled him and his
successors to spread the sway of Arabia and the religion of
Mahomet over the countries to the east as far as the Indus,
northward over Persia and Asia Minor, westward over Egypt and the
southern shores of the Mediterranean, and thence over the
principal portion of Spain. All this was done within one hundred
years from the Hegira, or flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina,
which happened in the year 622, and is the era from which
Mahometans reckon time, as we do from the birth of Christ.

From Spain the way was open for the Saracens (so the followers of
Mahomet were called) into France, the conquest of which, if
achieved, would have been followed very probably by that of all
the rest of Europe, and would have resulted in the banishment of
Christianity from the earth. For Christianity was not at that day
universally professed, even by those nations which we now regard
as foremost in civilization. Great part of Germany, Britain,
Denmark, and Russia were still pagan or barbarous.

At that time there ruled in France, though without the title of
king, the first of those illustrious Charleses of whom we have
spoken, Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne. The
Saracens of Spain had made incursions into France in 712 and 718,
and had retired, carrying with them a vast booty. In 725, Anbessa,
who was then the Saracen governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees
with a numerous army, and took by storm the strong town of
Carcassone. So great was the terror excited by this invasion, that
the country for a wide extent submitted to the conqueror, and a
Mahometan governor for the province was appointed and installed at
Narbonne. Anbessa, however, received a fatal wound in one of his
engagements, and the Saracens, being thus checked from further
advance, retired to Narbonne.

In 732 the Saracens again invaded France under Abdalrahman,
advanced rapidly to the banks of the Garonne, and laid siege to
Bordeaux. The city was taken by assault and delivered up to the
soldiery. The invaders still pressed forward, and spread over the
territories of Orleans, Auxerre and Sens. Their advanced parties
were suddenly called in by their chief, who had received
information of the rich abbey of St. Martin of Tours, and resolved
to plunder and destroy it.

Charles during all this time had done nothing to oppose the
Saracens, for the reason that the portion of France over which
their incursions had been made was not at that time under his
dominion, but constituted an independent kingdom, under the name
of Aquitaine, of which Eude was king. But now Charles became
convinced of the danger, and prepared to encounter it. Abdalrahman
was advancing toward Tours, when intelligence of the approach of
Charles, at the head of an army of Franks, compelled him to fall
back upon Poitiers, in order to seize an advantageous field of
battle.

Charles Martel had called together his warriors from every part of
his dominions, and, at the head of such an army as had hardly ever
been seen in France, crossed the Loire, probably at Orleans, and,
being joined by the remains of the army of Aquitaine, came in
sight of the Arabs in the month of October, 732. The Saracens seem
to have been aware of the terrible enemy they were now to
encounter, and for the first time these formidable conquerors
hesitated. The two armies remained in presence during seven days
before either ventured to begin the attack; but at length the
signal for battle was given by Abdalrahman, and the immense mass
of the Saracen army rushed with fury on the Franks. But the heavy
line of the Northern warriors remained like a rock, and the
Saracens, during nearly the whole day, expended their strength in
vain attempts to make any impression upon them. At length, about
four o'clock in the afternoon, when Abdalrahman was preparing for
a new and desperate attempt to break the line of the Franks, a
terrible clamor was heard in the rear of the Saracens. It was King
Eude, who, with his Aquitanians, had attacked their camp, and a
great part of the Saracen army rushed tumultuously from the field
to protect their plunder. In this moment of confusion the line of
the Franks advanced, and, sweeping the field before it, carried
fearful slaughter amongst the enemy. Abdalrahman made desperate
efforts to rally his troops, but when he himself, with the bravest
of his officers, fell beneath the swords of the Christians, all
order disappeared, and the remains of his army sought refuge in
their immense camp, from which Eude and his Aquitanians had been
repulsed. It was now late, and Charles, unwilling to risk an
attack on the camp in the dark, withdrew his army, and passed the
night in the plain, expecting to renew the battle in the morning.

Accordingly, when daylight came, the Franks drew up in order of
battle, but no enemy appeared; and when at last they ventured to
approach the Saracen camp they found it empty. The invaders had
taken advantage of the night to begin their retreat, and were
already on their way back to Spain, leaving their immense plunder
behind to fall into the hands of the Franks.

This was the celebrated battle of Tours, in which vast numbers of
the Saracens were slain, and only fifteen hundred of the Franks.
Charles received the surname of Martel (the Hammer) in consequence
of this victory.

The Saracens, notwithstanding this severe blow, continued to hold
their ground in the south of France; but Pepin, the son of Charles
Martel, who succeeded to his father's power, and assumed the title
of king, successively took from them the strong places they held;
and in 759, by the capture of Narbonne, their capital,
extinguished the remains of their power in France.

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, succeeded his father, Pepin, on
the throne in the year 768. This prince, though the hero of
numerous romantic legends, appears greater in history than in
fiction. Whether we regard him as a warrior or as a legislator, as
a patron of learning or as the civilizer of a barbarous nation, he
is entitled to our warmest admiration. Such he is in history; but
the romancers represent him as often weak and passionate, the
victim of treacherous counsellors, and at the mercy of turbulent
barons, on whose prowess he depends for the maintenance of his
throne. The historical representation is doubtless the true one,
for it is handed down in trustworthy records, and is confirmed by
the events of the age. At the height of his power, the French
empire extended over what we now call France, Germany,
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and great part of Italy.

In the year 800 Charlemagne, being in Rome, whither he had gone
with a numerous army to protect the Pope, was crowned by the
Pontiff Emperor of the West. On Christmas day Charles entered the
Church of St. Peter, as if merely to take his part in the
celebration of the mass with the rest of the congregation. When he
approached the altar and stooped in the act of prayer the Pope
stepped forward and placed a crown of gold upon his head; and
immediately the Roman people shouted, "Life and victory to Charles
the August, crowned by God the great and pacific Emperor of the
Romans." The Pope then prostrated himself before him, and paid him
reverence, according to the custom established in the times of the
ancient Emperors, and concluded the ceremony by anointing him with
consecrated oil.

Charlemagne's wars were chiefly against the pagan and barbarous
people, who, under the name of Saxons, inhabited the countries now
called Hanover and Holland. He also led expeditions against the
Saracens of Spain; but his wars with the Saracens were not carried
on, as the romances assert, in France, but on the soil of Spain.
He entered Spain by the Eastern Pyrenees, and made an easy
conquest of Barcelona and Pampeluna. But Saragossa refused to open
her gates to him, and Charles ended by negotiating and accepting a
vast sum of gold as the price of his return over the Pyrenees.

On his way back, he marched with his whole army through the gorges
of the mountains by way of the valleys of Engui, Eno, and
Roncesvalles. The chief of this region had waited upon
Charlemagne, on his advance, as a faithful vassal of the monarchy;
but now, on the return of the Franks, he had called together all
the wild mountaineers who acknowledged him as their chief, and
they occupied the heights of the mountains under which the army
had to pass. The main body of the troops met with no obstruction,
and received no intimation of danger; but the rear-guard, which
was considerably behind, and encumbered with its plunder, was
overwhelmed by the mountaineers in the pass of Roncesvalles, and
slain to a man. Some of the bravest of the Prankish chiefs
perished on this occasion, among whom is mentioned Roland or
Orlando, governor of the marches or frontier of Brittany. His name
became famous in after times, and the disaster of Roncesvalles and
death of Roland became eventually the most celebrated episode in
the vast cycle of romance.

Though after this there were hostile encounters between the armies
of Charlemagne and the Saracens, they were of small account, and
generally on the soil of Spain. Thus the historical foundation for
the stories of the romancers is but scanty, unless we suppose the
events of an earlier and of a later age to be incorporated with
those of Charlemagne's own time.

There is, however, a pretended history, which for a long time was
admitted as authentic, and attributed to Turpin, Archbishop of
Rheims, a real personage of the time of Charlemagne. Its title is
"History of Charles the Great and Orlando." It is now
unhesitatingly considered as a collection of popular traditions,
produced by some credulous and unscrupulous monk, who thought to
give dignity to his romance by ascribing its authorship to a well-
known and eminent individual. It introduces its pretended author,
Bishop Turpin, in this manner:

"Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, the friend and secretary of Charles
the Great, excellently skilled in sacred and profane literature,
of a genius equally adapted to prose and verse, the advocate of
the poor, beloved of God in his life and conversation, who often
fought the Saracens, hand to hand, by the Emperor's side, he
relates the acts of Charles the Great in one book, and flourished
under Charles and his son Louis, to the year of our Lord eight
hundred and thirty."

The titles of some of Archbishop Turpin's chapters will show the
nature of his history. They are these: "Of the Walls of Pampeluna,
that fell of themselves." "Of the War of the holy Facundus, where
the Spears grew." (Certain of the Christians fixed their spears in
the evening, erect in the ground, before the castle; and found
them, in the morning, covered with bark and branches.) "How the
Sun stood still for Three Days, and of the Slaughter of Four
Thousand Saracens."

Turpin's history has perhaps been the source of the marvellous
adventures which succeeding poets and romancers have accumulated
around the names of Charlemagne and his Paladins, or Peers. But
Ariosto and the other Italian poets have drawn from different
sources, and doubtless often from their own invention, numberless
other stories which they attribute to the same heroes, not
hesitating to quote as their authority "the good Turpin," though
his history contains no trace of them; and the more outrageous the
improbability, or rather the impossibility, of their narrations,
the more attentive are they to cite "the Archbishop," generally
adding their testimonial to his unquestionable veracity.

The principal Italian poets who have sung the adventures of the
peers of Charlemagne are Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto. The
characters of Orlando, Rinaldo, Astolpho, Gano, and others, are
the same in all, though the adventures attributed to them are
different. Boiardo tells us of the loves of Orlando, Ariosto of
his disappointment and consequent madness, Pulci of his death.

Ogier, the Dane, is a real personage. History agrees with romance
in representing him as a powerful lord who, originally from
Denmark and a Pagan, embraced Christianity, and took service under
Charlemagne. He revolted from the Emperor, and was driven into
exile. He afterwards led one of those bands of piratical Northmen
which ravaged France under the reigns of Charlemagne's degenerate
successors. The description which an ancient chronicler gives of
Charlemagne, as described by Ogier, is so picturesque, that we are
tempted to transcribe it. Charlemagne was advancing to the siege
of Pavia. Didier, King of the Lombards, was in the city with
Ogier, to whom he had given refuge. When they learned that the
king was approaching they mounted a high tower, whence they could
see far and wide over the country. "They first saw advancing the
engines of war, fit for the armies of Darius or Julius Caesar.
'There is Charlemagne,' said Didier. 'No,' said Ogier. The Lombard
next saw a vast body of soldiers, who filled all the plain.
'Certainly Charles advanced with that host,' said the king. 'Not
yet,' replied Ogier. 'What hope for us,' resumed the king, 'if he
brings with him a greater host than that?' At last Charles
appeared, his head covered with an iron helmet, his hands with
iron gloves, his breast and shoulders with a cuirass of iron, his
left hand holding an iron lance, while his right hand grasped his
sword. Those who went before the monarch, those who marched at his
side, and those who followed him, all had similar arms. Iron
covered the fields and the roads; iron points reflected the rays
of the sun. This iron, so hard, was borne by a people whose hearts
were harder still. The blaze of the weapons flashed terror into
the streets of the city."

This picture of Charlemagne in his military aspect would be
incomplete without a corresponding one of his "mood of peace." One
of the greatest of modern historians, M. Guizot, has compared the
glory of Charlemagne to a brilliant meteor, rising suddenly out of
the darkness of barbarism to disappear no less suddenly in the
darkness of feudalism. But the light of this meteor was not
extinguished, and reviving civilization owed much that was
permanently beneficial to the great Emperor of the Franks. His
ruling hand is seen in the legislation of his time, as well as in
the administration of the laws. He encouraged learning; he upheld
the clergy, who were the only peaceful and intellectual class,
against the encroaching and turbulent barons; he was an
affectionate father, and watched carefully over the education of
his children, both sons and daughters. Of his encouragement of
learning we will give some particulars.

He caused learned men to be brought from Italy and from other
foreign countries to revive the public schools of France, which
had been prostrated by the disorders of preceding times. He
recompensed these learned men liberally, and kept some of them
near himself, honoring them with his friendship. Of these the most
celebrated is Alcuin, an Englishman, whose writings still remain,
and prove him to have been both a learned and a wise man. With the
assistance of Alcuin, and others like him, he founded an academy
or royal school, which should have the direction of the studies of
all the schools of the kingdom. Charlemagne himself was a member
of this academy on equal terms with the rest. He attended its
meetings, and fulfilled all the duties of an academician. Each
member took the name of some famous man of antiquity. Alcuin
called himself Horace, another took the name of Augustin, a third
of Pindar. Charlemagne, who knew the Psalms by heart, and who had
an ambition to be, according to his conception, A KING AFTER GOD'S
OWN HEART, received from his brother academicians the name of
David.

Of the respect entertained for him by foreign nations an
interesting proof is afforded in the embassy sent to him by the
Caliph of the Arabians, the celebrated Haroun al Raschid, a prince
in character and conduct not unlike to Charlemagne. The
ambassadors brought with them, besides other rich presents, a
clock, the first that was seen in Europe, which excited universal
admiration. It had the form of a twelve-sided edifice with twelve
doors. These doors formed niches, in each of which was a little
statue representing one of the hours. At the striking of the hour
the doors, one for each stroke, was seen to open, and from the
doors to issue as many of the little statues, which, following one
another, marched gravely round the tower. The motion of the clock
was caused by water, and the striking was effected by balls of
brass equal to the number of the hours, which fell upon a cymbal
of the same metal, the number falling being determined by the
discharge of the water, which, as it sunk in the vessel, allowed
their escape.

Charlemagne was succeeded by his son Louis, a well-intentioned but
feeble prince, in whose reign the fabric reared by Charles began
rapidly to crumble. Louis was followed successively by two
Charleses, incapable princes, whose weak and often tyrannical
conduct is no doubt the source of incidents of that character
ascribed in the romances to Charlemagne.

The lawless and disobedient deportment of Charles's paladins,
instances of which are so frequent in the romantic legends, was
also a trait of the declining empire, but not of that of
Charlemagne.

THE PEERS, OR PALADINS

The twelve most illustrious knights of Charlemagne were called
Peers, for the equality that reigned among them; while the name of
Paladins, also conferred on them, implies that they were inmates
of the palace and companions of the king. Their names are always
given alike by the romancers, yet we may enumerate the most
distinguished of them as follows: Orlando or Roland (the former
the Italian, the latter the French form of the name), favorite
nephew of Charlemagne; Rinaldo of Montalban, cousin of Orlando;
Namo, Duke of Bavaria; Salomon, king of Brittany; Turpin, the
Archbishop; Astolpho, of England; Ogier, the Dane; Malagigi, the
Enchanter; and Florismart, the friend of Orlando. There were
others who are sometimes named as paladins, and the number cannot
be strictly limited to twelve. Charlemagne himself must be counted
one, and Ganelon, or Gano, of Mayence, the treacherous enemy of
all the rest, was rated high on the list by his deluded sovereign,
who was completely the victim of his arts.

We shall introduce more particularly to our readers a few of the
principal peers, leaving the others to make their own introduction
as they appear in the course of our narrative. We begin with
Orlando.

ORLANDO

Milon, or Milone, a knight of great family, and distantly related
to Charlemagne, having secretly married Bertha, the Emperor's
sister, was banished from France, and excommunicated by the Pope.
After a long and miserable wandering on foot as mendicants Milon
and his wife arrived at Sutri, in Italy, where they took refuge in
a cave, and in that cave Orlando was born. There his mother
continued, deriving a scanty support from the compassion of the
neighboring peasants; while Milon, in quest of honor and fortune,
went into foreign lands. Orlando grew up among the children of the
peasantry, surpassing them all in strength and manly graces. Among
his companions in age, though in station far more elevated, was
Oliver, son of the governor of the town. Between the two boys a
feud arose that led to a fight, in which Orlando thrashed his
rival; but this did not prevent a friendship springing up between
the two, which lasted through life.

Orlando was so poor that he was sometimes half naked. As he was a
favorite of the boys, one day four of them brought some cloth to
make him clothes. Two brought white and two red; and from this
circumstance Orlando took his coat-of-arms, or quarterings.

When Charlemagne was on his way to Rome to receive the imperial
crown he dined in public in Sutri. Orlando and his mother that day
had nothing to eat, and Orlando coming suddenly upon the royal
party, and seeing abundance of provisions, seized from the
attendants as much as he could carry off, and made good his
retreat in spite of their resistance. The Emperor, being told of
this incident, was reminded of an intimation he had received in a
dream, and ordered the boy to be followed. This was done by three
of the knights, whom Orlando would have encountered with a cudgel
on their entering the grotto, had not his mother restrained him.
When they heard from her who she was they threw themselves at her
feet, and promised to obtain her pardon from the Emperor. This was
easily effected. Orlando was received into favor by the Emperor,
returned with him to France, and so distinguished himself that he
became the most powerful support of the throne and of
Christianity. [Footnote: It is plain that Shakspeare borrowed from
this source the similar incident in his "As you Like it." The
names of characters in the play, Orlando, Oliver, Rowland indicate
the same thing.]

ROLAND AND FERRAGUS

Orlando, or Roland, particularly distinguished himself by his
combat with Ferragus. Ferragus was a giant, and moreover his skin
was of such impenetrable stuff that no sword could make any
impression upon it. The giant's mode of fighting was to seize his
adversary in his arms and carry him off, in spite of all the
struggles he could make. Roland's utmost skill only availed to
keep him out of the giant's clutches, but all his efforts to wound
him with the sword were useless. After long fighting Ferragus was
so weary that he proposed a truce, and when it was agreed upon he
lay down and immediately fell asleep. He slept in perfect
security, for it was against all the laws of chivalry to take
advantage of an adversary under such circumstances. But Ferragus
lay so uncomfortably for the want of a pillow that Orlando took
pity upon him, and brought a smooth stone and placed it under his
head. When the giant woke up, after a refreshing nap, and
perceived what Orlando had done, he seemed quite grateful, became
sociable, and talked freely in the usual boastful style of such
characters. Among other things he told Orlando that he need not
attempt to kill him with a sword, for that every part of his body
was invulnerable, except this; and as he spoke, he put his hand to
the vital part, just in the middle of his breast. Aided by this
information Orlando succeeded, when the fight was renewed, in
piercing the giant in the very spot he had pointed out, and giving
him a death-wound. Great was the rejoicing in the Christian camp,
and many the praises showered upon the victorious paladin by the
Emperor and all his host.

On another occasion Orlando encountered a puissant Saracen
warrior, and took from him, as the prize of victory, the sword
Durindana. This famous weapon had once belonged to the illustrious
prince Hector of Troy. It was of the finest workmanship, and of
such strength and temper that no armor in the world could stand
against it.

A ROLAND FOR AN OLIVER

Guerin de Montglave held the lordship of Vienne, subject to
Charlemagne. He had quarrelled with his sovereign, and Charles
laid siege to his city, having ravaged the neighboring country.
Guerin was an aged warrior, but relied for his defence upon his
four sons and two grandsons, who were among the bravest knights of
the age. After the siege had continued two months Charlemagne
received tidings that Marsilius, king of Spain, had invaded
France, and, finding himself unopposed, was advancing rapidly in
the Southern provinces. At this intelligence Charles listened to
the counsel of his peers, and consented to put the quarrel with
Guerin to the decision of Heaven, by single combat between two
knights, one of each party, selected by lot. The proposal was
acceptable to Guerin and his sons. The names of the four, together
with Guerin's own, who would not be excused, and of the two
grandsons, who claimed their lot, being put into a helmet,
Oliver's was drawn forth, and to him, the youngest of the
grandsons, was assigned the honor and the peril of the combat. He
accepted the award with delight, exulting in being thought worthy
to maintain the cause of his family. On Charlemagne's side Roland
was the designated champion, and neither he nor Oliver knew who
his antagonist was to be.

They met on an island in the Rhone, and the warriors of both camps
were ranged on either shore, spectators of the battle. At the
first encounter both lances were shivered, but both riders kept
their seats, immovable. They dismounted, and drew their swords.
Then ensued a combat which seemed so equal, that the spectators
could not form an opinion as to the probable issue. Two hours and
more the knights continued to strike and parry, to thrust and
ward, neither showing any sign of weariness, nor ever being taken
at unawares. At length Orlando struck furiously upon Oliver's
shield, burying Durindana in its edge so deeply that he could not
draw it back, and Oliver, almost at the same moment, thrust so
vigorously upon Orlando's breastplate that his sword snapped off
at the handle. Thus were the two warriors left weaponless.
Scarcely pausing a moment, they rushed upon one another, each
striving to throw his adversary to the ground, and failing in
that, each snatched at the other's helmet to tear it away. Both
succeeded, and at the same moment they stood bare-headed face to
face, and Roland recognized Oliver, and Oliver Roland. For a
moment they stood still; and the next, with open arms, rushed into
one another's embrace. "I am conquered," said Orlando. "I yield
me." said Oliver.

The people on the shore knew not what to make of all this.
Presently they saw the two late antagonists standing hand in hand,
and it was evident the battle was at an end. The knights crowded
round them, and with one voice hailed them as equals in glory. If
there were any who felt disposed to murmur that the battle was
left undecided they were silenced by the voice of Ogier the Dane,
who proclaimed aloud that all had been done that honor required,
and declared that he would maintain that award against all
gainsayers.

The quarrel with Guerin and his sons being left undecided, a truce
was made for four days, and in that time, by the efforts of Duke
Namo on the one side, and of Oliver on the other, a reconciliation
was effected. Charlemagne, accompanied by Guerin and his valiant
family, marched to meet Marsilius, who hastened to retreat across
the frontier.

RINALDO

Rinaldo was one of the four sons of Aymon, who married Aya, the
sister of Charlemagne. Thus Rinaldo was nephew to Charlemagne and
cousin of Orlando.

When Rinaldo had grown old enough to assume arms Orlando had won
for himself an illustrious name by his exploits against the
Saracens, whom Charlemagne and his brave knights had driven out of
France. Orlando's fame excited a noble emulation in Rinaldo. Eager
to go in pursuit of glory, he wandered in the country near Paris,
and one day saw at the foot of a tree a superb horse, fully
equipped and loaded with a complete suit of armor. Rinaldo clothed
himself in the armor and mounted the horse, but took not the
sword. On the day when, with his brothers, he had received the
honor of knighthood from the Emperor he had sworn never to bind a
sword to his side till he had wrested one from some famous knight.

Rinaldo took his way to the forest of Arden, celebrated for so
many adventures. Hardly had he entered it when he met an old man,
bending under the weight of years, and learned from him that the
forest was infested with a wild horse, untamable, that broke and
overturned everything that opposed his career. To attack him, he
said, or even to meet him, was certain death. Rinaldo, far from
being alarmed, showed the most eager desire to combat the animal.
This was the horse Bayard, afterward so famous. He had formerly
belonged to Amadis of Gaul. After the death of that hero he had
been held under enchantment by the power of a magician, who
predicted that, when the time came to break the spell, he should
be subdued by a knight of the lineage of Amadis, and not less
brave than he.

To win this wonderful horse it was necessary to conquer him by
force or skill; for from the moment when he should be thrown down
he would become docile and manageable. His habitual resort was a
cave on the borders of the forest; but woe be to any one who
should approach him, unless gifted with strength and courage more
than mortal. Having told this, the old man departed. He was not,
in fact, an old man, but Malagigi, the enchanter, cousin of
Rinaldo, who, to favor the enterprises of the young knight, had
procured for him the horse and armor which he so opportunely
found, and now put him in the way to acquire a horse unequalled in
the world.

Rinaldo plunged into the forest, and spent many days in seeking
Bayard, but found no traces of him. One day he encountered a
Saracen knight, with whom he made acquaintance, as often happened
to knights, by first meeting him in combat. This knight, whose
name was Isolier, was also in quest of Bayard. Rinaldo succeeded
in the encounter, and so severe was the shock that Isolier was a
long time insensible. When he revived, and was about to resume the
contest, a peasant who passed by (it was Malagigi) interrupted
them with the news that the terrible horse was near at hand,
advising them to unite their powers to subdue him, for it would
require all their ability.

Rinaldo and Isolier, now become friends, proceeded together to the
attack of the horse. They found Bayard, and stood a long time,
concealed by the wood, admiring his strength and beauty.

A bright bay in color (whence he was called Bayard), with a silver
star in his forehead, and his hind feet white, his body slender,
his head delicate, his ample chest filled out with swelling
muscles, his shoulders broad and full, his legs straight and
sinewy, his thick mane falling over his arching neck,--he came
rushing through the forest, regardless of rocks, bushes, or trees,
rending everything that opposed his way, and neighing defiance.

He first descried Isolier, and rushed upon him. The knight
received him with lance in rest, but the fierce animal broke the
spear, and his course was not delayed by it for an instant. The
Spaniard adroitly stepped aside, and gave way to the rushing
tempest. Bayard checked his career, and turned again upon the
knight, who had already drawn his sword. He drew his sword, for he
had no hope of taming the horse; that, he was satisfied, was
impossible.

Bayard rushed upon him; fiercely rearing, now on this side, now on
that. The knight struck him with his sword, where the white star
adorned his forehead, but struck in vain, and felt ashamed,
thinking that he had struck feebly, for he did not know that the
skin of that horse was so tough that the keenest sword could make
no impression upon it.

Whistling fell the sword once more, and struck with greater force,
and the fierce horse felt it, and drooped his head under the blow,
but the next moment turned upon his foe with such a buffet that
the Pagan fell stunned and lifeless to the earth.

Rinaldo, who saw Isolier fall, and thought that his life was reft,
darted towards the horse, and, with his fist gave him such a blow
on the jaws that the blood tinged his mouth with vermilion.
Quicker than an arrow leaves the bow the horse turned upon him,
and tried to seize his arm with his teeth.

The knight stepped back, and then, repeating his blow, struck him
on the forehead. Bayard turned, and kicked with both his feet with
a force that would have shattered a mountain. Rinaldo was on his
guard, and evaded his attacks, whether made with head or heels. He
kept at his side avoiding both; but, making a false step, he at
last received a terrible blow from the horse's foot, and at the
shock almost fainted away. A second such blow would have killed
him, but the horse kicked at random, and a second blow did not
reach Rinaldo, who in a moment recovered himself. Thus the contest
continued until by chance Bayard's foot got caught between the
branches of an oak. Rinaldo seized it and putting forth all his
strength and address, threw him on the ground.

No sooner had Bayard touched the ground than all his rage
subsided. No longer an object of terror, he became gentle and
quiet, yet with dignity in his mildness.

The paladin patted his neck, stroked his breast, and smoothed his
mane, while the animal neighed and showed delight to be caressed
by his master. Rinaldo, seeing him now completely subdued, took
the saddle and trappings from the other horse, and adorned Bayard
with the spoils.

Rinaldo became one of the most illustrious knights of
Charlemagne's court,--indeed, the most illustrious, if we except
Orlando. Yet he was not always so obedient to the Emperor's
commands as he should have been, and every fault he committed was
sure to be aggravated by the malice of Gan, Duke of Maganza, the
treacherous enemy of Rinaldo and all his house.

At one time Rinaldo had incurred the severe displeasure of
Charlemagne, and been banished from court. Seeing no chance of
being ever restored to favor, he went to Spain, and entered into
the service of the Saracen king, Ivo. His brothers, Alardo,
Ricardo, and Ricciardetto, accompanied him, and all four served
the king so faithfully that they rose to high favor with him. The
king gave them land in the mountains on the frontiers of France
and Spain, and subjected all the country round to Rinaldo's
authority. There was plenty of marble in the mountains, the king
furnished workmen, and they built a castle for Rinaldo, surrounded
with high walls, so as to be almost impregnable. Built of white
stone, and placed on the brow of a marble promontory, the castle
shone like a star, and Rinaldo gave it the name of Montalban. Here
he assembled his friends, many of whom were banished men like
himself, and the country people furnished them with provisions in
return for the protection the castle afforded. Yet some of
Rinaldo's men were lawless, and sometimes the supplies were not
furnished in sufficient abundance, so that Rinaldo and his
garrison got a bad name for taking by force what they could not
obtain by gift; and we sometimes find Montalban spoken of as a
nest of freebooters, and its defenders called a beggarly garrison.

Charlemagne's displeasure did not last long, and, at the time our
history commences, Rinaldo and his brothers were completely
restored to the favor of the Emperor, and none of his cavaliers
served him with greater zeal and fidelity than they, throughout
all his wars with the Saracens and Pagans.

THE TOURNAMENT

It was the month of May, and the feast of Pentecost. Charlemagne
had ordered magnificent festivities, and summoned to them, besides
his paladins and vassals of the crown, all strangers, Christian or
Saracen, then sojourning at Paris. Among the guests were King
Grandonio, from Spain; and Ferrau, the Saracen, with eyes like an
eagle; Orlando and Rinaldo, the Emperor's nephews; Duke Namo;
Astolpho, of England, the handsomest man living; Malagigi, the
Enchanter; and Gano, of Maganza, that wily traitor, who had the
art to make the Emperor think he loved him, while he plotted
against him.

High sat Charlemagne at the head of his vassals and his paladins,
rejoicing in the thought of their number and their might, while
all were sitting and hearing music, and feasting, when suddenly
there came into the hall four enormous giants, having between them
a lady of incomparable beauty, attended by a single knight. There
were many ladies present who had seemed beautiful till she made
her appearance, but after that they all seemed nothing. Every
Christian knight turned his eyes to her, and every Pagan crowded
round her, while she, with a sweetness that might have touched a
heart of stone, thus addressed the Emperor:

"High-minded lord, the renown of your worthiness, and of the valor
of these your knights, which echoes from sea to sea, encourages me
to hope that two pilgrims, who have come from the ends of the
world to behold you, will not have encountered their fatigue in
vain. And, before I show the motive which has brought us hither,
learn that this knight is my brother Uberto, and that I am his
sister Angelica. Fame has told us of the jousting this day
appointed, and so the prince my brother has come to prove his
valor, and to say that, if any of the knights here assembled
choose to meet him in the joust, he will encounter them, one by
one, at the stair of Merlin, by the Fountain of the Pine. And his
conditions are these: No knight who chances to be thrown shall be
allowed to renew the combat, but shall remain prisoner to my
brother; but if my brother be overthrown he shall depart out of
the country, leaving me as the prize of the conqueror."

Now it must be stated that this Angelica and her brother, who
called himself Uberto, but whose real name was Argalia, were the
children of Galafron, king of Cathay, who had sent them to be the
destruction of the Christian host; for Argalia was armed with an
enchanted lance, which unfailingly overthrew everything it
touched, and he was mounted on a horse, a creature of magic, whose
swiftness outstripped the wind. Angelica possessed also a ring
which was a defence against all enchantments, and when put into
the mouth rendered the bearer invisible. Thus Argalia was expected
to subdue and take prisoners whatever knights should dare to
encounter him; and the charms of Angelica were relied on to entice
the paladins to make the fatal venture, while her ring would
afford her easy means of escape.

When Angelica ceased sneaking she knelt before the king and
awaited his answer, and everybody gazed on her with admiration.
Orlando especially felt irresistibly drawn towards her, so that he
trembled and changed countenance. Every knight in the hall was
infected with the same feeling, not excepting old white-headed
Duke Namo and Charlemagne himself.

All stood for a while in silence, lost in the delight of looking
at her. The fiery youth Ferrau could hardly restrain himself from
seizing her from the giants and carrying her away; Rinaldo turned
as red as fire, while Malagigi, who had discovered by his art that
the stranger was not speaking truth, muttered softly, as he looked
at her, "Exquisite false creature! I will play thee such a trick
for this, as will leave thee no cause to boast of thy visit."

Charlemagne, to detain her as long as possible before him, delayed
his assent till he had asked her a number of questions, all which
she answered discreetly, and then the challenge was accepted.

As soon as she was gone Malagigi consulted his book, and found out
the whole plot of the vile, infidel king, Galafron, as we have
explained it, so he determined to seek the damsel and frustrate
her designs. He hastened to the appointed spot, and there found
the prince and his sister in a beautiful pavilion, where they lay
asleep, while the four giants kept watch. Malagigi took his book
and cast a spell out of it, and immediately the four giants fell
into a deep sleep. Drawing his sword (for he was a belted knight),
he softly approached the young lady, intending to despatch her at
once; but, seeing her look so lovely, he paused for a moment,
thinking there was no need of hurry, as he believed his spell was
upon her, and she could not wake. But the ring which she wore
secured her from the effect of the spell, and some slight noise,
or whatever else it was, caused her at that moment to awake. She
uttered a great cry, and flew to her brother, and waked him. By
the help of her knowledge of enchantment, they took and bound fast
the magician, and, seizing his book, turned his arts against
himself. Then they summoned a crowd of demons, and bade them seize
their prisoner and bear him to King Galafron, at his great city of
Albracca, which they did, and, on his arrival, he was locked up in
a rock under the sea.

While these things were going on all was uproar at Paris, since
Orlando insisted upon being the first to try the adventure at the
stair of Merlin. This was resented by the other pretenders to
Angelica, and all contested his right to the precedence. The
tumult was stilled by the usual expedient of drawing lots, and the
first prize was drawn by Astolpho. Ferrau, the Saracen, had the
second, and Grandonio the third. Next came Berlinghieri, and Otho;
then Charles himself, and, as his ill-fortune would have it, after
thirty more, the indignant Orlando.

Astolpho, who drew the first lot, was handsome, brave, and rich.
But, whether from heedlessness or want of skill, he was an unlucky
jouster, and very apt to be thrown, an accident which he bore with
perfect good-humor, always ready to mount again and try to mend
his fortune, generally with no better success.

Astolpho went forth upon his adventure with great gayety of dress
and manner, encountered Argalia, and was immediately tilted out of
the saddle. He railed at fortune, to whom he laid all the fault;
but his painful feelings were somewhat relieved by the kindness of
Angelica, who, touched by his youth and good looks, granted him
the liberty of the pavilion, and caused him to be treated with all
kindness and respect.

The violent Ferrau had the next chance in the encounter, and was
thrown no less speedily than Astolpho; but he did not so easily
put up with his mischance. Crying out, "What are the emperor's
engagements to me?" he rushed with his sword against Argalia, who,
being forced to defend himself, dismounted and drew his sword, but
got so much the worse of the fight that he made a signal of
surrender, and, after some words, listened to a proposal of
marriage from Ferrau to his sister. The beauty, however, feeling
no inclination to match with such a rough and savage-looking
person, was so dismayed at the offer, that, hastily bidding her
brother to meet her in the forest of Arden, she vanished from the
sight of both by means of the enchanted ring. Argalia, seeing
this, took to his horse of swiftness, and dashed away in the same
direction. Ferrau pursued him, and Astolpho, thus left to himself,
took possession of the enchanted lance in place of his own, which
was broken, not knowing the treasure he possessed in it, and
returned to the tournament. Charlemagne, finding the lady and her
brother gone, ordered the jousting to proceed as at first
intended, in which Astolpho, by aid of the enchanted lance,
unhorsed all comers against him, equally to their astonishment and
his own.

The paladin Rinaldo, on learning the issue of the combat of Ferrau
and the stranger, galloped after the fair fugitive in an agony of
love and impatience. Orlando, perceiving his disappearance, pushed
forth in like manner; and, at length, all three are in the forest
of Arden, hunting about for her who is invisible.

Now in this forest there were two fountains, the one constructed
by the sage Merlin, who designed it for Tristram and the fair
Isoude; [Footnote: See their story in "King Arthur and His
Knights."] for such was the virtue of this fountain, that a
draught of its waters produced on oblivion of the love which the
drinker might feel, and even produced aversion for the object
formerly beloved. The other fountain was endowed with exactly
opposite qualities, and a draught of it inspired love for the
first living object that was seen after tasting it. Rinaldo
happened to come to the first mentioned fountain, and, being
flushed with heat, dismounted, and quenched in one draught both
his thirst and his passion. So far from loving Angelica as before
he hated her from the bottom of his heart, became disgusted with
the search he was upon, and, feeling fatigued with his ride,
finding a sheltered and flowery nook, laid himself down and fell
asleep.

Shortly after came Angelica, but, approaching in a different
direction, she espied the other fountain, and there quenched her
thirst. Then resuming her way, she came upon the sleeping Rinaldo.
Love instantly seized her, and she stood rooted to the spot.

The meadow round was all full of lilies of the valley and wild
roses. Angelica, not knowing what to do, at length plucked a
handful of these, and dropped them, one by one, on the face of the
sleeper. He woke up, and, seeing who it was, received her
salutations with averted countenance, remounted his horse, and
galloped away. In vain the beautiful creature followed and called
after him, in vain asked him what she had done to be so despised.
Rinaldo disappeared, leaving her in despair, and she returned in
tears to the spot where she had found him sleeping. There, in her
turn, she herself lay down, pressing the spot of earth on which he
had lain, and, out of fatigue and sorrow, fell asleep.

As Angelica thus lay, fortune conducted Orlando to the same place.
The attitude in which she was sleeping was so lovely that it is
not to be conceived, much less expressed. Orlando stood gazing
like a man who had been transported to another sphere. "Am I on
earth," he exclaimed, "or am I in Paradise? Surely it is I that
sleep, and this is my dream."

But his dream was proved to be none in a manner which he little
desired. Ferrau, who had slain Argalia, came up, raging with
jealousy, and a combat ensued which awoke the sleeper.

Terrified at what she beheld, she rushed to her palfrey, and,
while the fighters were occupied with one another, fled away
through the forest. The champions continued their fight till they
were interrupted by a messenger, who brought word to Ferrau that
king Marsilius, his sovereign, was in pressing need of his
assistance, and conjured him to return to Spain. Ferrau, upon
this, proposed to suspend the combat, to which Orlando, eager to
pursue Angelica, agreed. Ferrau, on the other hand, departed with
the messenger to Spain.

Orlando's quest for the fair fugitive was all in vain. Aided by
the powers of magic, she made a speedy return to her own country.

But the thought of Rinaldo could not be banished from her mind,
and she determined to set Malagigi at liberty, and to employ him
to win Rinaldo, if possible, to make her a return of affection.
She accordingly freed him from his dungeon, unlocking his fetters
with her own hands, and restored him his book, promising him ample
honors and rewards on condition of his bringing Rinaldo to her
feet.

Malagigi accordingly, with the aid of his book, called up a demon,
mounted him, and departed. Arrived at his destination, he
inveigled Rinaldo into an enchanted bark, which conveyed him,
without any visible pilot, to an island where stood an edifice
called Joyous Castle. The whole island was a garden. On the
western side, close to the sea, was the palace, built of marble,
so clear and polished that it reflected the landscape about it.
Rinaldo leapt ashore, and soon met a lady, who invited him to
enter. The house was as beautiful within as without, full of rooms
adorned with azure and gold, and with noble paintings. The lady
led the knight into an apartment painted with stories, and opening
to the garden, through pillars of crystal, with golden capitals.
Here he found a bevy of ladies, three of whom were singing in
concert, while another played on an instrument of exquisite
accord, and the rest danced round about them. When the ladies
beheld him coming they turned the dance into a circuit round him,
and then one of them, in the sweetest manner, said, "Sir knight,
the tables are set, and the hour for the banquet is come;" and,
with these words, still dancing, they drew him across the lawn in
front of the apartment, to a table that was spread with cloth of
gold and fine linen, under a bower of damask roses by the side of
a fountain.

Four ladies were already seated there, who rose, and placed
Rinaldo at their head, in a chair set with pearls. And truly
indeed was he astonished. A repast ensued, consisting of viands
the most delicate, and wines as fragrant as they were fine, drunk
out of jewelled cups; and, when it drew towards its conclusion,
harps and lutes were heard in the distance, and one of the ladies
said in the knight's ear: "This house and all that you see in it
are yours; for you alone was it built, and the builder is a queen.
Happy indeed must you think yourself, for she loves you, and she
is the greatest beauty in the world! Her name is Angelica."

The moment Rinaldo heard the name he so detested he started up,
with a changed countenance, and, in spite of all that the lady
could say, broke off across the garden, and never ceased hastening
till he reached the place where he landed. The bark was still on
the shore. He sprang into it, and pushed off, though he saw nobody
in it but himself. It was in vain for him to try to control its
movements, for it dashed on as if in fury, till it reached a
distant shore covered with a gloomy forest. Here Rinaldo,
surrounded by enchantments of a very different sort from those
which he had lately resisted, was entrapped into a pit.

The pit belonged to a castle called Altaripa, which was hung with
human heads, and painted red with blood. As the paladin was
viewing the scene with amazement a hideous old woman made her
appearance at the edge of the pit, and told him that he was
destined to be thrown to a monster, who was only kept from
devastating the whole country by being supplied with living human
flesh. Rinaldo said, "Be it so; let me but remain armed as I am,
and I fear nothing." The old woman laughed in derision. Rinaldo
remained in the pit all night, and the next morning was taken to
the place where the monster had his den. It was a court surrounded
by a high wall. Rinaldo was shut in with the beast, and a terrible
combat ensued. Rinaldo was unable to make any impression on the
scales of the monster, while he, on the contrary, with his
dreadful claws, tore away plate and mail from the paladin. Rinaldo
began to think his last hour was come, and cast his eyes around
and above to see if there was any means of escape. He perceived a
beam projecting from the wall at the height of some ten feet, and,
taking a leap almost miraculous, he succeeded in reaching it, and
in flinging himself up across it. Here he sat for hours, the
hideous brute continually trying to reach him. All at once he
heard the sound of something coming through the air like a bird,
and suddenly Angelica herself alighted on the end of the beam. She
held something in her hand towards him, and spoke to him in a
loving voice. But the moment Rinaldo saw her he commanded her to
go away, refused all her offers of assistance, and at length
declared that, if she did not leave him, he would cast himself
down to the monster, and meet his fate.

Angelica, saying she would lose her life rather than displease
him, departed; but first she threw to the monster a cake of wax
she had prepared, and spread around him a rope knotted with
nooses. The beast took the bait, and, finding his teeth glued
together by the wax, vented his fury in bounds and leaps, and,
soon getting entangled in the nooses, drew them tight by his
struggles, so that he could scarcely move a limb.

Rinaldo, watching his chance, leapt down upon his back, seized him
round the neck, and throttled him, not relaxing his gripe till the
beast fell dead.

Another difficulty remained to be overcome. The walls were of
immense height, and the only opening in them was a grated window
of such strength that he could not break the bars. In his distress
Rinaldo found a file, which Angelica had left on the ground, and,
with the help of this, effected his deliverance.

What further adventures he met with will be told in another
chapter.

THE SIEGE OF ALBRACCA

At the very time when Charlemagne was holding his plenary court
and his great tournament his kingdom was invaded by a mighty
monarch, who was moreover so valiant and strong in battle that no
one could stand against him. He was named Gradasso, and his
kingdom was called Sericane. Now, as it often happens to the
greatest and the richest to long for what they cannot have, and
thus to lose what they already possess, this king could not rest
content without Durindana, the sword of Orlando, and Bayard, the
horse of Rinaldo. To obtain these he determined to war upon
France, and for this purpose put in array a mighty army.

He took his way through Spain, and, after defeating Marsilius, the
king of that country, in several battles, was rapidly advancing on
France. Charlemagne, though Marsilius was a Saracen, and had been
his enemy, yet felt it needful to succor him in this extremity
from a consideration of common danger, and, with the consent of
his peers, despatched Rinaldo with a strong body of soldiers
against Gradasso.

There was much fighting, with doubtful results, and Gradasso was
steadily advancing into France. But, impatient to achieve his
objects, he challenged Rinaldo to single combat, to be fought on
foot, and upon these conditions: If Rinaldo conquered, Gradasso
agreed to give up all his prisoners and return to his own country;
but if Gradasso won the day, he was to have Bayard.

The challenge was accepted, and would have been fought had it not
been for the arts of Malagigi, who just then returned from
Angelica's kingdom with set purpose to win Rinaldo to look with
favor upon the fair princess who was dying for love of him.
Malagigi drew Rinaldo away from the army by putting on the
semblance of Gradasso, and, after a short contest, pretending to
fly before him, by which means Rinaldo was induced to follow him
into a boat, in which he was borne away, and entangled in various
adventures, as we have already related.

The army, left under the command of Ricciardetto, Rinaldo's
brother, was soon joined by Charlemagne and all his peerage, but
experienced a disastrous rout, and the Emperor and many of his
paladins were taken prisoners. Gradasso, however, did not abuse
his victory; he took Charles by the hand, seated him by his side,
and told him he warred only for honor. He renounced all conquests,
on condition that the Emperor should deliver to him Bayard and
Durindana, both of them the property of his vassals, the former of
which, as he maintained, was already forfeited to him by Rinaldo's
failure to meet him as agreed. To these terms Charlemagne readily
acceded.

Bayard, after the departure of his master, had been taken in
charge by Ricciardetto, and sent back to Paris, where Astolpho was
in command, in the absence of Charlemagne. Astolpho received with
great indignation the message despatched for Bayard, and replied
by a herald that "he would not surrender the horse of his kinsman
Rinaldo without a contest. If Gradasso wanted the steed he might
come and take him, and that he, Astolpho, was ready to meet him in
the field."

Gradasso was only amused at this answer, for Astolpho's fame as a
successful warrior was not high, and Gradasso willingly renewed
with him the bargain which he had made with Rinaldo. On these
conditions the battle was fought. The enchanted lance, in the
hands of Astolpho, performed a new wonder; and Gradasso, the
terrible Gradasso, was unhorsed.

He kept his word, set free his prisoners, and put his army on the
march to return to his own country, renewing his oath, however,
not to rest till he had taken from Rinaldo his horse, and from
Orlando his sword, or lost his life in the attempt.

Charlemagne, full of gratitude to Astolpho, would have kept him
near his person and loaded him with honors, but Astolpho preferred
to seek Rinaldo, with the view of restoring to him his horse, and
departed from Paris with that design.

Our story now returns to Orlando, whom we left fascinated with
the sight of the sleeping beauty, who, however, escaped him while
engaged in the combat with Ferrau. Having long sought her in vain
through the recesses of the wood, he resolved to follow her to her
father's court. Leaving, therefore, the camp of Charlemagne, he
travelled long in the direction of the East, making inquiry
everywhere, if, perchance, he might get tidings of the fugitive.
After many adventures, he arrived one day at a place where many
roads crossed, and meeting there a courier, he asked him for news.
The courier replied that he had been despatched by Angelica to
solicit the aid of Sacripant, king of Circassia, in favor of her
father Galafron, who was besieged in his city, Albracca, by
Agrican, king of Tartary. This Agrican had been an unsuccessful
suitor to the damsel, whom he now pursued with arms. Orlando thus
learned that he was within a day's journey of Albracca; and,
feeling now secure of Angelica, he proceeded with all speed to her
city.

Thus journeying he arrived at a bridge, under which flowed a
foaming river. Here a damsel met him with a goblet, and informed
him that it was the usage of this bridge to present the traveller
with a cup. Orlando accepted the offered cup and drank its
contents. He had no sooner done so than his brain reeled, and he
became unconscious of the object of his journey, and of everything
else. Under the influence of this fascination he followed the
damsel into a magnificent and marvellous palace. Here he found
himself in company with many knights, unknown to him and to each
other, though if it had not been for the Cup of Oblivion of which
they all had partaken they would have found themselves brothers in
arms.

Astolpho, proceeding on his way to seek Rinaldo, splendidly
dressed and equipped, as was his wont, arrived in Circassia, and
found there a great army encamped under the command of Sacripant,
the king of that country, who was leading it to the defence of
Galafron, the father of Angelica. Sacripant, much struck by the
appearance of Astolpho and his horse, accosted him courteously,
and tried to enlist him in his service; but Astolpho, proud of his
late victories, scornfully declined his offers, and pursued his
way. King Sacripant was too much attracted by his appearance to
part with him so easily, and having laid aside his kingly
ornaments, set out in pursuit of him.

Astolpho next day encountered on his way a stranger knight, named
Sir Florismart, Lord of the Sylvan Tower, one of the bravest and
best of knights, having as his guide a damsel, young, fair, and
virtuous, to whom he was tenderly attached, whose name was
Flordelis. Astolpho, as he approached, defied the knight, bidding
him yield the lady, or prepare to maintain his right by arms.
Florismart accepted the contest, and the knights encountered.
Florismart was unhorsed and his steed fell dead, while Bayard
sustained no injury by the shock.

Florismart was so overwhelmed with despair at his own disgrace and
the sight of the damsel's distress, that he drew his sword, and
was about to plunge it into his own bosom. But Astolpho held his
hand, told him that he contended only for glory, and was contented
to leave him the lady.

While Florismart and Flordelis were vowing eternal gratitude King
Sacripant arrived, and coveting the damsel of the one champion as
much as the horse and arms of the other, defied them to the joust.
Astolpho met the challenger, whom he instantly overthrew, and
presented his courser to Florismart, leaving the king to return to
his army on foot.

The friends pursued their route, and ere long Flordelis
discovered, by signs which were known to her, that they were
approaching the waters of Oblivion, and advised them to turn back,
or to change their course. This the knights would not hear of,
and, continuing their march, they soon arrived at the bridge where
Orlando had been taken prisoner.

The damsel of the bridge appeared as before with the enchanted
cup, but Astolpho, forewarned, rejected it with scorn. She dashed
it to the ground, and a fire blazed up which rendered the bridge
unapproachable. At the same moment the two knights were assailed
by sundry warriors, known and unknown, who, having no recollection
of anything, joined blindly in defence of their prison-house.
Among these was Orlando, at sight of whom Astolpho, with all his
confidence not daring to encounter him, turned and fled, owing his
escape to the strength and fleetness of Bayard.

Florismart, meanwhile, overlaid by fearful odds, was compelled to
yield to necessity, and comply with the usage of the fairy. He
drank of the cup and remained prisoner with the rest. Flordelis,
deprived of her two friends, retired from the scene, and devoted
herself to untiring efforts to effect her lover's deliverance.
Astolpho pursued his way to Albracca, which Agrican was about to
besiege. He was kindly welcomed by Angelica, and enrolled among
her defenders. Impatient to distinguish himself, he one night
sallied forth alone, arrived in Agrican's camp, and unhorsed his
warriors right and left by means of the enchanted lance. But he
was soon surrounded and overmatched, and made prisoner to Agrican.

Relief was, however, at hand; for as the citizens and soldiers
were one day leaning over their walls they descried a cloud of
dust, from which horsemen were seen to prick forth, as it rolled
on towards the camp of the besiegers. This turned out to be the
army of Sacripant, which immediately attacked that of Agrican,
with the view of cutting a passage through his camp to the
besieged city. But Agrican, mounted upon Bayard, taken from
Astolpho, but not armed with the lance of gold, the virtues of
which were unknown to him, performed wonders, and rallied his
scattered troops, which had given way to the sudden and unexpected
assault. Sacripant, on the other hand, encouraged his men by the
most desperate acts of valor, having as an additional incentive to
his courage the sight of Angelica, who showed herself upon the
city walls.

There she witnessed a single combat between the two leaders,
Agrican and Sacripant. In this, at length, her defender appeared
to be overmatched, when the Circassians broke the ring, and
separated the combatants, who were borne asunder in the rush.
Sacripant, severely wounded, profited by the confusion, and
escaped into Albracca, where he was kindly received and carefully
tended by Angelica.

The battle continuing, the Circassians were at last put to flight,
and, being intercepted between the enemy's lines and the town,
sought for refuge under the walls. Angelica ordered the drawbridge
to be let down, and the gates thrown open to the fugitives. With
these Agrican, not distinguished in the crowd, entered the place,
driving both Circassians and Cathayans before him, and the
portcullis being dropped, he was shut in.

For a time the terror which he inspired put to flight all
opposers, but when at last it came to be known that few or none of
his followers had effected an entrance with him, the fugitives
rallied and surrounded him on all sides. While he was thus
apparently reduced to the last extremities, he was saved by the
very circumstance which threatened him with destruction. The
soldiers of Angelica, closing upon him from all sides, deserted
their defences; and his own besieging army entered the city in a
part where the wall was broken down.

In this way was Agrican rescued, the city taken, and the
inhabitants put to the sword. Angelica, however, with some of the
knights who were her defenders, among whom was Sacripant, saved
herself in the citadel, which was planted upon a rock.

The fortress was impregnable, but it was scantily victualled, and
ill provided with other necessaries. Under these circumstances
Angelica announced to those blockaded with her in the citadel her
intention to go in quest of assistance, and, having plighted her
promise of a speedy return, she set out, with the enchanted ring
upon her finger. Mounted upon her palfrey, the damsel passed
through the enemy's lines, and by sunrise was many miles clear of
their encampment.

It so happened that her road led her near the fatal bridge of
Oblivion, and as she approached it she met a damsel weeping
bitterly. It was Flordelis, whose lover, Florismart, as we have
related, had met the fate of Orlando and many more, and fallen a
victim to the enchantress of the cup. She related her adventures
to Angelica, and conjured her to lend what aid she might to rescue
her lord and his companions. Angelica, accordingly, watching her
opportunity and aided by her ring, slipped into the castle unseen,
when the door was opened to admit a new victim. Here she speedily
disenchanted Orlando and the rest by a touch of her talisman. But
Florismart was not there. He had been given up to Falerina, a more
powerful enchantress, and was still in durance. Angelica conjured
the rescued captives to assist her in the recovery of her kingdom,
and all departed together for Albracca.

The arrival of Orlando, with his companions, nine in all, and
among the bravest knights of France, changed at once the fortunes
of the war. Wherever the great paladin came, pennon and standard
fell before him. Agrican in vain attempted to rally his troops.
Orlando kept constantly in his front, forcing him to attend to
nobody else. The Tartar king at length bethought him of a
stratagem. He turned his horse, and made a show of flying in
despair. Orlando dashed after him as he desired, and Agrican fled
till he reached a green place in a wood, where there was a
fountain.

The place was beautiful, and the Tartar dismounted to refresh
himself at the fountain, but without taking off his helmet, or
laying aside any of his armor. Orlando was quickly at his back,
crying out, "So bold, and yet a fugitive! How could you fly from a
single arm and think to escape?"

The Tartar king had leaped on his saddle the moment he saw his
enemy, and when the paladin had done speaking, he said in a mild
voice, "Without doubt you are the best knight I ever encountered,
and fain would I leave you untouched for your own sake, if you
would cease to hinder me from rallying my people. I pretended to
fly, in order to bring you out of the field. If you insist upon
fighting I must needs fight and slay you, but I call the sun in
the heavens to witness I would rather not. I should be very sorry
for your death."

The Count Orlando felt pity for so much gallantry, and he said,
"The nobler you show yourself the more it grieves me to think that
in dying without a knowledge of the true faith you will be lost in
the other world. Let me advise you to save body and soul at once.
Receive baptism, and go your way in peace."

Agrican replied: "I suspect you to be the paladin Orlando. If you
are I would not lose this opportunity of fighting with you to be
king of Paradise. Talk to me no more about your things of another
world, for you will preach in vain. Each of us for himself, and
let the sword be umpire."

The Saracen drew his sword, boldly advancing upon Orlando, and a
combat began, so obstinate and so long, each warrior being a
miracle of prowess, that the story says it lasted from noon till
night. Orlando then seeing the stars come out was the first to
propose a respite.

"What are we to do," said he, "now that daylight has left us?"

Agrican answered readily enough, "Let us repose in this meadow,
and renew the combat at dawn."

The repose was taken accordingly. Each tied up his horse, and
reclined himself on the grass, not far from the other, just as if
they had been friends, Orlando by the fountain, Agrican beneath a
pine. It was a beautiful clear night, and, as they talked together
before addressing themselves to sleep, the champion of
Christendom, looking up at the firmament, said, "That is a fine
piece of workmanship, that starry spectacle; God made it all, that
moon of silver, and those stars of gold, and the light of day, and
the sun,--all for the sake of human kind."

"You wish, I see, to talk of matters of faith," said the Tartar.
"Now I may as well tell you at once that I have no sort of skill
in such matters, nor learning of any kind. I never could learn
anything when I was a boy. I hated it so that I broke the man's
head who was commissioned to teach me; and it produced such an
effect on others that nobody ever afterwards dared so much as show
me a book. My boyhood was therefore passed, as it should be, in
horsemanship and hunting, and learning to fight. What is the good
of a gentleman's poring all day over a book? Prowess to the
knight, and preaching to the clergyman, that is my motto."

"I acknowledge," returned Orlando, "that arms are the first
consideration of a gentleman; but not at all that he does himself
dishonor by knowledge. On the contrary, knowledge is as great an
embellishment of the rest of his attainments, as the flowers are
to the meadow before us; and as to the knowledge of his Maker, the
man that is without it is no better than a stock or a stone or a
brute beast. Neither without study can he reach anything of a due
sense of the depth and divineness of the contemplation."

"Learned or not learned," said Agrican, "you might show yourself
better bred than by endeavoring to make me talk on a subject on
which you have me at a disadvantage. If you choose to sleep I wish
you good night; but if you prefer talking I recommend you to talk
of fighting or of fair ladies. And, by the way, pray tell me, are
you not that Orlando who makes such a noise in the world? And what
is it, pray, that brings you into these parts? Were you ever in
love? I suppose you must have been; for to be a knight, and never
to have been in love, would be like being a man without a heart in
his breast."

The count replied: "Orlando I am, and in love I am. Love has made
me abandon everything, and brought me into these distant regions,
and, to tell you all in one word, my heart is in the hands of the
daughter of King Galafron. You have come against him with fire and
sword, to get possession of his castles and his dominions; and I
have come to help him, for no object in the world but to please
his daughter and win her beautiful hand. I care for nothing else
in existence."

Now when the Tartar king, Agrican, heard his antagonist speak in
this manner, and knew him to be indeed Orlando, and to be in love
with Angelica, his face changed color for grief and jealousy,
though it could not be seen for the darkness. His heart began
beating with such violence that he felt as if he should have died.
"Well," said he to Orlando, "we are to fight when it is daylight,
and one or other is to be left here, dead on the ground. I have a
proposal to make to you--nay, an entreaty. My love is so
excessive for the same lady that I beg you to leave her to me. I
will owe you my thanks, and give up the siege and put an end to
the war. I cannot bear that any one should love her, and that I
should live to see it. Why, therefore, should either of us perish?
Give her up. Not a soul shall know it."

"I never yet," answered Orlando, "made a promise which I did not
keep, and nevertheless I own to you that, were I to make a promise
like that, and even swear to keep it, I should not. You might as
well ask me to tear away the limbs from my body, and the eyes out
of my head. I could as well live without breath itself as cease
loving Angelica."

Agrican had hardly patience to let him finish speaking, ere he
leapt furiously on horseback, though it was midnight. "Quit her,"
said he, "or die!"

Orlando seeing the infidel getting up, and not being sure that he
would not add treachery to fierceness, had been hardly less quick
in mounting for the combat. "Never," exclaimed he; "I never could
have quitted her if I would, and now I would not if I could. You
must seek her by other means than these."

Fiercely dashed their horses together, in the nighttime, on the
green mead. Despiteful and terrible were the blows they gave and
took by the moonlight. Agrican fought in a rage, Orlando was
cooler. And now the struggle had lasted more than five hours, and
day began to dawn, when the Tartar king, furious to find so much
trouble given him, dealt his enemy a blow sharp and violent beyond
conception. It cut the shield in two as if it had been made of
wood, and, though blood could not be drawn from Orlando, because
he was fated, it shook and bruised him as if it had started every
joint in his body.

His body only, however, not a particle of his soul. So dreadful
was the blow which the paladin gave in return, that not only
shield, but every bit of mail on the body of Agrican was broken in
pieces, and three of his ribs cut asunder.

The Tartar, roaring like a lion, raised his sword with still
greater vehemence than before, and dealt a blow on the paladin's
helmet, such as he had never yet received from mortal man. For a
moment it took away his senses. His sight failed, his ears
tingled, his frightened horse turned about to fly; and he was
falling from the saddle, when the very action of falling threw his
head upwards, and thus recalled his recollection.

"What a shame is this!" thought he; "how shall I ever again dare
to face Angelica! I have been fighting hour after hour with this
man, and he is but one, and I call myself Orlando! If the combat
last any longer I will bury myself in a monastery, and never look
on sword again."

Orlando muttered with his lips closed and his teeth ground
together; and you might have thought that fire instead of breath
came out of his nose and mouth. He raised his sword Durindana with
both his hands, and sent it down so tremendously on Agrican's
shoulder that it cut through breastplate down to the very haunch,
nay, crushed the saddle-bow, though it was made of bone and iron,
and felled man and horse to the earth. Agrican turned as white as
ashes, and felt death upon him. He called Orlando to come close to
him, with a gentle voice, and said, as well as he could: "I
believe on Him who died on the cross. Baptize me, I pray thee,
with the fountain, before my senses are gone. I have lived an evil
life, but need not be rebellious to God in death also. May He who
came to save all the rest of the world save me!" And he shed
tears, that great king, though he had been so lofty and fierce.

Orlando dismounted quickly, with his own face in tears. He
gathered the king tenderly in his arms, and took and laid him by
the fountain, on a marble rim that it had, and then he wept in
concert with him heartily, and asked his pardon, and so baptized
him in the water of the fountain, and knelt and prayed to God for
him with joined hands.

He then paused and looked at him; and when he perceived his
countenance changed, and that his whole person was cold, he left
him there on the marble rim of the fountain, all armed as he was,
with the sword by his side, and the crown upon his head.

ADVENTURES OF RINALDO AND ORLANDO

We left Rinaldo when, having overcome the monster, he quitted the
castle of Altaripa, and pursued his way on foot. He soon met with
a weeping damsel, who, being questioned as to the cause of her
sorrow, told him she was in search of one to do battle to rescue
her lover, who had been made prisoner by a vile enchantress,
together with Orlando and many more. The damsel was Flordelis, the
lady-love of Florismart, and Rinaldo promised his assistance,
trusting to accomplish the adventure either by valor or skill.
Flordelis insisted upon Rinaldo's taking her horse, which he
consented to do, on condition of her mounting behind him.

As they rode on through a wood, they heard strange noises, and
Rinaldo, reassuring the damsel, pressed forward towards the
quarter from which they proceeded. He soon perceived a giant
standing under a vaulted cavern, with a huge club in his hand, and
of an appearance to strike the boldest spirit with dread. By the
side of the cavern was chained a griffin, which, together with the
giant, was stationed there to guard a wonderful horse, the same
which was once Argalia's. This horse was a creature of
enchantment, matchless in vigor, speed, and form, which disdained
to share the diet of his fellow-steeds,--corn or grass,--and fed
only on air. His name was Rabican.

This marvellous horse, after his master Argalia had been slain by
Ferrau, finding himself at liberty, returned to his native cavern,
and was here stabled under the protection of the giant and the
griffin. As Rinaldo approached, the giant assailed him with his
club. Rinaldo defended himself from the giant's blows, and gave
him one in return, which, if his skin had not been of the
toughest, would have finished the combat. But the giant, though
wounded, escaped, and let loose the griffin. This monstrous bird
towered in air, and thence pounced down upon Rinaldo, who,
watching his opportunity, dealt her a desperate wound. She had,
however, strength for another flight, and kept repeating her
attacks, which Rinaldo parried as he could, while the damsel stood
trembling by, witnessing the contest.

The battle continued, rendered more terrible by the approach of
night, when Rinaldo determined upon a desperate expedient to bring
it to a conclusion. He fell, as if fainting from his wounds, and,
on the close approach of the griffin, dealt her a blow which
sheared away one of her wings. The beast, though sinking, griped
him fast with her talons, digging through plate and mail; but
Rinaldo plied his sword in utter desperation, and at last
accomplished her destruction.

Rinaldo then entered the cavern, and found there the wonderful
horse, all caparisoned. He was coal-black, except for a star of
white on his forehead, and one white foot behind. For speed he was
unrivalled, though in strength he yielded to Bayard. Rinaldo
mounted upon Rabican, and issued from the cavern.

As he pursued his way he met a fugitive from Agrican's army, who
gave such an account of the prowess of a champion who fought on
the side of Angelica, that Rinaldo was persuaded this must be
Orlando, though at a loss to imagine how he could have been freed
from captivity. He determined to repair to the scene of the
contest to satisfy his curiosity, and Flordelis, hoping to find
Florismart with Orlando, consented to accompany him.

While these things were doing, all was rout and dismay in the
Tartarian army, from the death of Agrican. King Galafron, arriving
at this juncture with an army for the relief of his capital,
Albracca, assaulted the enemy's camp, and carried all before him.
Rinaldo had now reached the scene of action, and was looking on as
an unconcerned spectator, when he was espied by Galafron. The king
instantly recognized the horse Rabican, which he had given to
Argalia when he sent him forth on his ill-omened mission to Paris.
Possessed with the idea that the rider of the horse was the
murderer of Argalia, Galafron rode at Rinaldo, and smote him with
all his force. Rinaldo was not slow to avenge the blow, and it
would have gone hard with the king had not his followers instantly
closed round him and separated the combatants.

Rinaldo thus found himself, almost without his own choice,
enlisted on the side of the enemies of Angelica, which gave him no
concern, so completely had his draught from the fountain of hate
steeled his mind against her.

For several successive days the struggle continued, without any
important results, Rinaldo meeting the bravest knights of
Angelica's party, and defeating them one after the other. At
length he encountered Orlando, and the two knights bitterly
reproached one another for the cause they had each adopted, and
engaged in a furious combat. Orlando was mounted upon Bayard,
Rinaldo's horse, which Agrican had by chance become possessed of,
and Orlando had taken from him as the prize of victory. Bayard
would not fight against his master, and Orlando was getting the
worse of the encounter, when suddenly Rinaldo, seeing Astolpho,
who for love of him had arrayed himself on his side, hard beset by
numbers, left Orlando to rush to the defence of his friend. Night
prevented the combat from being renewed; but a challenge was given
and accepted for their next meeting.

But Angelica, sighing in her heart for Rinaldo, was not willing
that he should be again exposed to so terrible a venture. She
begged a boon of Orlando, promising she would be his if he would
do her bidding. On receiving his promise, she enjoined him to set
out without delay to destroy the garden of the enchantress
Falerina, in which many valiant knights had been entrapped, and
were imprisoned.

Orlando departed on his horse Brigliadoro, leaving Bayard in
disgrace for his bad deportment the day before. Angelica, to
conciliate Rinaldo, sent Bayard to him; but Rinaldo remained
unmoved by this as by all her former acts of kindness.

When Rinaldo learned Orlando's departure, he yielded to the
entreaties of the lady of Florismart, and prepared to fulfil his
promise, and rescue her lover from the power of the enchantress.
Thus both Rinaldo and Orlando were bound upon the same adventure,
but unknown to one another.

The castle of Falerina was protected by a river, which was crossed
by a bridge, kept by a ruffian, who challenged all comers to the
combat; and such was his strength that he had thus far prevailed
in every encounter, as appeared by the arms of various knights
which he had taken from them, and piled up as a trophy on the
shore. Rinaldo attacked him, but with as bad success as the rest,
for the bridge-ward struck him so violent a blow with an iron mace
that he fell to the ground. But when the villain approached to
strip him of his armor, Rinaldo seized him, and the bridge-ward,
being unable to free himself, leapt with Rinaldo into the lake,
where they both disappeared.

Orlando, meanwhile, in discharge of his promise to Angelica,
pursued his way in quest of the same adventure. In passing through
a wood he saw a cavalier armed at all points, and mounted, keeping
guard over a lady who was bound to a tree, weeping bitterly.
Orlando hastened to her relief, but was exhorted by the knight not
to interfere, for she had deserved her fate by her wickedness. In
proof of which he made certain charges against her. The lady
denied them all, and Orlando believed her, defied the knight,
overthrew him, and, releasing the lady, departed with her seated
on his horse's croup.

While they rode another damsel approached on a white palfrey, who
warned Orlando of impending danger, and informed him that he was
near the garden of the enchantress. Orlando was delighted with the
intelligence, and entreated her to inform him how he was to gain
admittance. She replied that the garden could only be entered at
sunrise and gave him such instructions as would enable him to gain
admittance. She gave him also a book in which was painted the
garden and all that it contained, together with the palace of the
false enchantress, where she had secluded herself for the purpose
of executing a magic work in which she was engaged. This was the
manufacture of a sword capable of cutting even through enchanted
substances The object of this labor, the damsel told him, was the
destruction of a knight of the west, by name Orlando, who she had
read in the book of Fate was coming to demolish her garden. Having
thus instructed him, the damsel departed.

Orlando, finding he must delay his enterprise till the next
morning, now lay down and was soon asleep. Seeing this, the base
woman whom he had rescued, and who was intent on making her escape
to rejoin her paramour, mounted Brigliadoro, and rode off,
carrying away Durindana.

When Orlando awoke, his indignation, as may be supposed, was great
on the discovery of the theft; but, like a good knight and true,
he was not to be diverted from his enterprise. He tore off a huge
branch of an elm to supply the place of his sword; and, as the sun
rose, took his way towards the gate of the garden, where a dragon
was on his watch. This he slew by repeated blows, and entered the
garden, the gate of which closed behind him, barring retreat.
Looking round him, he saw a fair fountain, which overflowed into a
river, and in the centre of the fountain a figure, on whose
forehead was written:

    "The stream which waters violet and rose,
     From hence to the enchanted palace goes."

Following the banks of this flowing stream, and rapt in the
delights of the charming garden, Orlando arrived at the palace,
and entering it, found the mistress, clad in white, with a crown
of gold upon her head, in the act of viewing herself in the
surface of the magic sword. Orlando surprised her before she could
escape, deprived her of the weapon, and holding her fast by her
long hair, which floated behind, threatened her with immediate
death if she did not yield up her prisoners, and afford him the
means of egress. She, however, was firm of purpose, making no
reply, and Orlando, unable to move her either by threats or
entreaties, was under the necessity of binding her to a beech, and
pursuing his quest as he best might.

He then bethought him of his book, and, consulting it, found that
there was an outlet to the south, but that to reach it a lake was
to be passed, inhabited by a siren, whose song was so entrancing
as to be quite irresistible to whoever heard it; but his book
instructed him how to protect himself against this danger.
According to its directions, while pursuing his path, he gathered
abundance of flowers, which sprung all around, and filled his
helmet and his ears with them; then listened if he heard the birds
sing. Finding that, though he saw the gaping beak, the swelling
throat, and ruffled plumes, he could not catch a note, he felt
satisfied with his defence, and advanced toward the lake. It was
small but deep, and so clear and tranquil that the eye could
penetrate to the bottom.

He had no, sooner arrived upon the banks than the waters were seen
to gurgle, and the siren, rising midway out of the pool, sung so
sweetly that birds and beasts came trooping to the water-side to
listen. Of this Orlando heard nothing, but, feigning to yield to
the charm, sank down upon the bank. The siren issued from the
water with the intent to accomplish his destruction. Orlando
seized her by the hair, and while she sang yet louder (song being
her only defence) cut off her head. Then, following the directions
of the book, he stained himself all over with her blood.

Guarded by this talisman, he met successively all the monsters set
for defence of the enchantress and her garden, and at length found
himself again at the spot where he had made captive the
enchantress, who still continued fastened to the beech. But the
scene was changed. The garden had disappeared, and Falerina,
before so haughty, now begged for mercy, assuring him that many
lives depended upon the preservation of hers. Orlando promised her
life upon her pledging herself for the deliverance of her
captives.

This, however, was no easy task. They were not in her possession,
but in that of a much more powerful enchantress, Morgana, the Lady
of the Lake, the very idea of opposing whom made Falerina turn
pale with fear. Representing to him the hazards of the enterprise,
she led him towards the dwelling of Morgana. To approach it he had
to encounter the same uncourteous bridge-ward who had already
defeated and made captive so many knights, and last of all,
Rinaldo. He was a churl of the most ferocious character, named
Arridano. Morgana had provided him with impenetrable armor, and
endowed him in such a manner that his strength always increased in
proportion to that of the adversary with whom he was matched. No
one had ever yet escaped from the contest, since, such was his
power of endurance, he could breathe freely under water. Hence,
having grappled with a knight, and sunk with him to the bottom of
the lake, he returned, bearing his enemy's arms in triumph to the
surface.

While Falerina was repeating her cautions and her counsels Orlando
saw Rinaldo's arms erected in form of a trophy, among other spoils
made by the villain, and, forgetting their late quarrel,
determined upon revenging his friend. Arriving at the pass, the
churl presuming to bar the way, a desperate contest ensued, during
which Falerina escaped. The churl finding himself overmatched at a
contest of arms, resorted to his peculiar art, grappled his
antagonist, and plunged with him into the lake. When he reached
the bottom Orlando found himself in another world, upon a dry
meadow, with the lake overhead, through which shone the beams of
our sun, while the water stood on all sides like a crystal wall.
Here the battle was renewed, and Orlando had in his magic sword an
advantage which none had hitherto possessed. It had been tempered
by Falerina so that no spells could avail against it. Thus armed,
and countervailing the strength of his adversary by his superior
skill and activity, it was not long before he laid him dead upon
the field.

Orlando then made all haste to return to the upper air, and,
passing through the water, which opened a way before him (such was
the power of the magic sword), he soon regained the shore, and
found himself in a field as thickly covered with precious stones
as the sky is with stars.

Orlando crossed the field, not tempted to delay his enterprise by
gathering any of the brilliant gems spread all around him. He next
passed into a flowery meadow planted with trees, covered with
fruit and flowers, and full of all imaginable delights.

In the middle of this meadow was a fountain, and fast by it lay
Morgana asleep; a lady of a lovely aspect, dressed in white and
vermilion garments, her forehead well furnished with hair, while
she had scarcely any behind.

While Orlando stood in silence contemplating her beauty he heard a
voice exclaim: "Seize the fairy by the forelock, if thou hopest
fair success." But his attention was arrested by another object,
and he heeded not the warning. He saw on a sudden an array of
towers, pinnacles and columns, palaces with balconies and windows,
extended alleys with trees, in short a scene of architectural
magnificence surpassing all he had ever beheld. While he stood
gazing in silent astonishment the scene slowly melted away and
disappeared. [Footnote: This is a poetical description of a
phenomenon which is said to be really exhibited in the strait of
Messina, between Sicily and Calabria. It is called Fata Morgana,
or Mirage.]

When he had recovered from his amazement he looked again toward
the fountain. The fairy had awaked and risen, and was dancing
round its border with the lightness of a leaf, timing her
footsteps to this song:

    "Who in this world would wealth and treasure share,
     Honor, delight, and state, and what is best,
     Quick let him catch me by the lock of hair
     Which flutters from my forehead; and be blest.

    "But let him not the proffered good forbear,
     Nor till he seize the fleeting blessing rest;
     For present loss is sought in vain to-morrow,
     And the deluded wretch is left in sorrow."

The fairy, having sung thus, bounded off, and fled from the
flowery meadow over a high and inaccessible mountain. Orlando
pursued her through thorns and rocks, while the sky gradually
became overcast, and at last he was assailed by tempest,
lightning, and hail.

While he thus pursued, a pale and meagre woman issued from a cave,
armed with a whip, and, treading close upon his steps, scourged
him with vigorous strokes. Her name was Repentance, and she told
him it was her office to punish those who neglected to obey the
voice of Prudence, and seize the fairy Fortune when he might.

Orlando, furious at this chastisement, turned upon his tormentor,
but might as well have stricken the wind. Finding it useless to
resist, he resumed his chase of the fairy, gained upon her, and
made frequent snatches at her white and vermilion garments, which
still eluded his grasp. At last, on her turning her head for an
instant, he profited by the chance, and seized her by the
forelock. In an instant the tempest ceased, the sky became serene,
and Repentance retreated to her cave.

Orlando now demanded of Morgana the keys of her prison, and the
fairy, feigning a complacent aspect, delivered up a key of silver,
bidding him to be cautious in the use of it, since to break the
lock would be to involve himself and all in inevitable
destruction; a caution which gave the Count room for long
meditation, and led him to consider

    How few amid the suitors who importune
    The dame, know how to turn the keys of Fortune.

Keeping the fairy still fast by the forelock, Orlando proceeded
toward the prison, turned the key, without occasioning the
mischiefs apprehended, and delivered the prisoners.

Among these were Florismart, Rinaldo, and many others of the
bravest knights of France. Morgana had disappeared, and the
knights, under the guidance of Orlando, retraced the path by which
he had come. They soon reached the field of treasure. Rinaldo,
finding himself amidst this mass of wealth, remembered his needy
garrison of Montalban, and could not resist the temptation of
seizing part of the booty. In particular a golden chain, studded
with diamonds, was too much for his self-denial, and he took it
and was bearing it off, notwithstanding the remonstrances of
Orlando, when a violent wind caught him and whirled him back, as
he approached the gate. This happened a second and a third time,
and Rinaldo at length yielded to necessity, rather than to the
entreaties of his friends, and cast away his prize.

They soon reached the bridge and passed over without hindrance to
the other side, where they found the trophy decorated with their
arms. Here each knight resumed his own, and all, except the
paladins and their friends, separated as their inclinations or
duty prompted. Dudon, the Dane, one of the rescued knights,
informed the cousins that he had been made prisoner by Morgana
while in the discharge of an embassy to them from Charlemagne, who
called upon them to return to the defence of Christendom. Orlando
was too much fascinated by Angelica to obey this summons, and,
followed by the faithful Florismart, who would not leave him,
returned towards Albracca. Rinaldo, Dudon, Iroldo, Prasildo, and
the others took their way toward the west.

THE INVASION OF FRANCE

Agramant, King of Africa, convoked the kings, his vassals, to
deliberate in council. He reminded them of the injuries he had
sustained from France, that his father had fallen in battle with
Charlemagne, and that his early years had hitherto not allowed him
to wipe out the stain of former defeats. He now proposed to them
to carry war into France.

Sobrino, his wisest councillor, opposed the project, representing
the rashness of it; but Rodomont, the young and fiery king of
Algiers, denounced Sobrino's counsel as base and cowardly,
declaring himself impatient for the enterprise. The king of the
Garamantes, venerable for his age and renowned for his prophetic
lore, interposed, and assured the King that such an attempt would
be sure to fail, unless he could first get on his side a youth
marked out by destiny as the fitting compeer of the most puissant
knights of France, the young Rogero, descended in direct line from
Hector of Troy. This prince was now a dweller upon the mountain
Carena, where Atlantes, his foster-father, a powerful magician,
kept him in retirement, having discovered by his art that his
pupil would be lost to him if allowed to mingle with the world. To
break the spells of Atlantes, and draw Rogero from his retirement,
one only means was to be found. It was a ring possessed by
Angelica, Princess of Cathay, which was a talisman against all
enchantments. If this ring could be procured all would go well;
without it the enterprise was desperate.

Rodomont treated this declaration of the old prophet with scorn,
and it would probably have been held of little weight by the
council, had not the aged king, oppressed by the weight of years,
expired in the very act of reaffirming his prediction. This made
so deep an impression on the council that it was unanimously
resolved to postpone the war until an effort should be made to win
Rogero to the camp.

King Agramant thereupon proclaimed that the sovereignty of a
kingdom should be the reward of whoever should succeed in
obtaining the ring of Angelica. Brunello the dwarf, the subtlest
thief in all Africa, undertook to procure it.

In prosecution of this design, he made the best of his way to
Angelica's kingdom, and arrived beneath the walls of Albracca
while the besieging army was encamped before the fortress. While
the attention of the garrison was absorbed by the battle that
raged below he scaled the walls, approached the Princess
unnoticed, slipped the ring from her finger, and escaped
unobserved. He hastened to the seaside, and, finding a vessel
ready to sail, embarked, and arrived at Biserta, in Africa. Here
he found Agramant impatient for the talisman which was to foil the
enchantments of Atlantes and to put Rogero into his hands. The
dwarf, kneeling before the king, presented him with the ring, and
Agramant, delighted at the success of his mission, crowned him in
recompense King of Tingitana.

All were now anxious to go in quest of Rogero. The cavalcade
accordingly departed, and in due time arrived at the mountain of
Carena.

At the bottom of this was a fruitful and well-wooded plain,
watered by a large river, and from this plain was descried a
beautiful garden on the mountain-top, which contained the mansion
of Atlantes; but the ring, which discovered what was before
invisible, could not, though it revealed this paradise, enable
Agramant or his followers to enter it. So steep and smooth was the
rock by nature, that even Brunello failed in every attempt to
scale it. He did not, for this, despair of accomplishing the
object; but, having obtained Agramant's consent, caused the
assembled courtiers and knights to celebrate a tournament upon the
plain below. This was done with the view of seducing Rogero from
his fastness, and the stratagem was attended with success.

Rogero joined the tourney, and was presented by Agramant with a
splendid horse, Frontino, and a magnificent sword. Having learned
from Agramant his intended invasion of France, he gladly consented
to join the expedition.

Rodomont, meanwhile, was too impatient to wait for Agramant's
arrangements, and embarked with all the forces he could raise,
made good his landing on the coast of France, and routed the
Christians in several encounters. Previously to this, however,
Gano, or Ganelon (as he is sometimes called), the traitor, enemy
of Orlando and the other nephews of Charlemagne, had entered into
a traitorous correspondence with Marsilius, the Saracen king of
Spain, whom he invited into France. Marsilius, thus encouraged,
led an army across the frontiers, and joined Rodomont. This was
the situation of things when Rinaldo and the other knights who had
obeyed the summons of Dudon set forward on their return to France.

When they arrived at Buda in Hungary they found the king of that
country about despatching his son, Ottachiero, with an army to the
succor of Charlemagne. Delighted with the arrival of Rinaldo, he
placed his son and troops under his command. In due time the army
arrived on the frontiers of France, and, united with the troops of
Desiderius, king of Lombardy, poured down into Provence. The
confederate armies had not marched many days through this gay
tract before they heard a crash of drums and trumpets behind the
hills, which spoke the conflict between the paynims, led by
Rodomont, and the Christian forces. Rinaldo, witnessing from a
mountain the prowess of Rodomont, left his troops in charge of his
friends, and galloped towards him with his lance in rest. The
impulse was irresistible, and Rodomont was unhorsed. But Rinaldo,
unwilling to avail himself of his advantage, galloped back to the
hill, and having secured Bayard among the baggage, returned to
finish the combat on foot.

During this interval the battle had become general, the Hungarians
were routed, and Rinaldo, on his return, had the mortification to
find that Ottachiero was wounded, and Dudon taken prisoner. While
he sought Rodomont in order to renew the combat a new sound of
drums and trumpets was heard, and Charlemagne, with the main body
of his army, was descried advancing in battle array.

Rodomont, seeing this, mounted the horse of Dudon, left Rinaldo,
who was on foot, and galloped off to encounter this new enemy.

Agramant, accompanied by Rogero, had by this time made good his
landing, and joined Rodomont with all his forces. Rogero eagerly
embraced this first opportunity of distinguishing himself, and
spread terror wherever he went, encountering in turn and
overthrowing many of the bravest knights of France. At length he
found himself opposite to Rinaldo, who, being interrupted, as we
have said, in his combat with Rodomont, and unable to follow him,
being on foot, was shouting to his late foe to return and finish
their combat. Rogero also was on foot, and seeing the Christian
knight so eager for a contest, proffered himself to supply the
place of his late antagonist. Rinaldo saw at a glance that the
Moorish prince was a champion worthy of his arm, and gladly
accepted the defiance. The combat was stoutly maintained for a
time; but now fortune declared decisively in favor of the infidel
army, and Charlemagne's forces gave way at all points in
irreparable confusion. The two combatants were separated by the
crowd of fugitives and pursuers, and Rinaldo hastened to recover
possession of his horse. But Bayard, in the confusion, had got
loose, and Rinaldo followed him into a thick wood, thus becoming
effectually separated from Rogero.

Rogero, also seeking his horse in the medley, came where two
warriors were engaged in mortal combat. Though he knew not who
they were, he could distinguish that one was a paynim and the
other a Christian; and moved by the spirit of courtesy he
approached them and exclaimed, "Let him of the two who worships
Christ pause, and hear what I have to say. The army of Charles is
routed and in flight, so that if he wishes to follow his leader he
has no time for delay." The Christian knight, who was none other
than Bradamante, a female warrior, in prowess equal to the best of
knights, was thunderstruck with the tidings, and would gladly
leave the contest undecided, and retire from the field; but
Rodomont, her antagonist, would by no means consent. Rogero,
indignant at his discourtesy, insisted upon her departure, while
he took up her quarrel with Rodomont.

The combat, obstinately maintained on both sides, was interrupted
by the return of Bradamante. Finding herself unable to overtake
the fugitives, and reluctant to leave to another the burden and
risk of a contest which belonged to herself, she had returned to
reclaim the combat. She arrived, however, when her champion had
dealt his enemy such a blow as obliged him to drop both his sword
and bridle. Rogero, disdaining to profit by his adversary's
defenceless situation, sat apart upon his horse, while that of
Rodomont bore his rider, stunned and stupefied, about the field.

Bradamante approached Rogero, conceiving a yet higher opinion of
his valor on beholding such an instance of forbearance. She
addressed him, excusing herself for leaving him exposed to an
enemy from his interference in her cause; pleading her duty to her
sovereign as the motive. While she spoke Rodomont, recovered from
his confusion, rode up to them. His bearing was, however, changed;
and he disclaimed all thoughts of further contest with one who, he
said, "had already conquered him by his courtesy." So saying, he
quitted his antagonist, picked up his sword, and spurred out of
sight.

Bradamante was now again desirous of retiring from the field, and
Rogero insisted on accompanying her, though yet unaware of her
sex.

As they pursued their way, she inquired the name and quality of
her new associate; and Rogero informed her of his nation and
family. He told her that Astyanax, the son of Hector of Troy,
established the kingdom of Messina in Sicily. From him were
derived two branches, which gave origin to two families of renown.
From one sprang the royal race of Pepin and Charlemagne, and from
the other, that of Reggio, in Italy. "From that of Reggio am I
derived," he continued. "My mother, driven from her home by the
chance of war, died in giving me life, and I was taken in charge
by a sage enchanter, who trained me to feats of arms amidst the
dangers of the desert and the chase."

Having thus ended his tale, Rogero entreated a similar return of
courtesy from his companion, who replied, without disguise, that
she was of the race of Clermont, and sister to Rinaldo, whose fame
was perhaps known to him. Rogero, much moved by this intelligence,
entreated her to take off her helmet, and at the discovery of her
face remained transported with delight.

While absorbed in this contemplation, an unexpected danger
assailed them. A party which was placed in a wood, in order to
intercept the retreating Christians, broke from its ambush upon
the pair, and Bradamante, who was uncasqued, was wounded in the
head. Rogero was in a fury at this attack; and Bradamante,
replacing her helmet, joined him in taking speedy vengeance on
their enemies. They cleared the field of them, but became
separated in the pursuit, and Rogero, quitting the chase, wandered
by hill and vale in search of her whom he had no sooner found than
lost.

While pursuing this quest he fell in with two knights, whom he
joined, and engaged them to assist him in the search of his
companion, describing her arms, but concealing, from a certain
feeling of jealousy, her quality and sex.

It was evening when they joined company, and having ridden
together through the night the morning was beginning to break,
when one of the strangers, fixing his eyes upon Rogero's shield,
demanded of him by what right he bore the Trojan arms. Rogero
declared his origin and race, and then, in his turn, interrogated
the inquirer as to his pretensions to the cognizance of Hector,
which he bore. The stranger replied, "My name is Mandricardo, son
of Agrican, the Tartar king, whom Orlando treacherously slew. I
say treacherously, for in fair fight he could not have done it. It
is in search of him that I have come to France, to take vengeance
for my father, and to wrest from him Durindana, that famous sword,
which belongs to me, and not to him." When the knights demanded to
know by what right he claimed Durindana, Mandricardo thus related
his history:

"I had been, before the death of my father, a wild and reckless
youth. That event awakened my energies, and drove me forth to seek
for vengeance. Determined to owe success to nothing but my own
exertions, I departed without attendants or horse or arms.
Travelling thus alone, and on foot, I espied one day a pavilion,
pitched near a fountain, and entered it, intent on adventure. I
found therein a damsel of gracious aspect, who replied to my
inquiries that the fountain was the work of a fairy, whose castle
stood beyond a neighboring hill, where she kept watch over a
treasure which many knights had tried to win, but fruitlessly,
having lost their life or liberty in the attempt. This treasure
was the armor of Hector, prince of Troy, whom Achilles
treacherously slew. Nothing was wanting but his sword, Durindana,
and this had fallen into the possession of a queen named
Penthesilea, from whom it passed through her descendants to
Almontes, whom Orlando slew, and thus became possessed of the
sword. The rest of Hector's arms were saved and carried off by
Aeneas, from whom this fairy received them in recompense of
service rendered. 'If you have the courage to attempt their
acquisition,' said the damsel, 'I will be your guide.'"

Mandricardo went on to say that he eagerly embraced the proposal,
and being provided with horse and armor by the damsel, set forth
on his enterprise, the lady accompanying him.

As they rode she explained the dangers of the quest. The armor was
defended by a champion, one of the numerous unsuccessful
adventurers for the prize, all of whom had been made prisoners by
the fairy, and compelled to take their turn, day by day, in
defending the arms against all comers. Thus speaking they arrived
at the castle, which was of alabaster, overlaid with gold. Before
it, on a lawn, sat an armed knight on horseback, who was none
other than Gradasso, king of Sericane, who, in his return home
from his unsuccessful inroad into France, had fallen into the
power of the fairy, and was held to do her bidding. Mandricardo,
upon seeing him, dropt his visor, and laid his lance in rest. The
champion of the castle was equally ready, and each spurred towards
his opponent. They met one another with equal force, splintered
their spears, and, returning to the charge, encountered with their
swords. The contest was long and doubtful, when Mandricardo,
determined to bring it to an end, threw his arms about Gradasso,
grappled with him, and both fell to the ground. Mandricardo,
however, fell uppermost, and, preserving his advantage, compelled
Gradasso to yield himself conquered. The damsel now interfered,
congratulating the victor, and consoling the vanquished as well as
she might.

Mandricardo and the damsel proceeded to the gate of the castle,
which they found undefended. As they entered they beheld a shield
suspended from a pilaster of gold. The device was a white eagle on
an azure field, in memory of the bird of Jove, which bore away
Ganymede, the flower of the Phrygian race. Beneath was engraved
the following couplet:

    "Let none with hand profane my buckler wrong
     Unless he be himself as Hector strong."

The damsel, alighting from her palfrey, made obeisance to the
arms, bending herself to the ground. The Tartar king bowed his
head with equal reverence; then advancing towards the shield,
touched it with his sword. Thereupon an earthquake shook the
ground, and the way by which he had entered closed. Another and an
opposite gate opened, and displayed a field bristling with stalks
and grain of gold. The damsel, upon this, told him that he had no
means of retreat but by cutting down the harvest which was before
him, and by uprooting a tree which grew in the middle of the
field. Mandricardo, without replying, began to mow the harvest
with his sword, but had scarce smitten thrice when he perceived
that every stalk that fell was instantly transformed into some
poisonous or ravenous animal, which prepared to assail him.
Instructed by the damsel, he snatched up a stone and cast it among
the pack. A strange wonder followed; for no sooner had the stone
fallen among the beasts, than they turned their rage against one
another, and rent each other to pieces. Mandricardo did not stop
to marvel at the miracle, but proceeded to fulfil his task, and
uproot the tree. He clasped it round the trunk, and made vigorous
efforts to tear it up by the roots. At each effort fell a shower
of leaves, that were instantly changed into birds of prey, which
attacked the knight, flapping their wings in his face, with horrid
screeching. But undismayed by this new annoyance, he continued to
tug at the trunk till it yielded to his efforts. A burst of wind
and thunder followed, and the hawks and vultures flew screaming
away.

But these only gave place to a new foe; for from the hole made by
tearing up the tree issued a furious serpent, and, darting at
Mandricardo, wound herself about his limbs with a strain that
almost crushed him. Fortune, however, again stood his friend, for,
writhing under the folds of the monster, he fell backwards into
the hole, and his enemy was crushed beneath his weight.

Mandricardo, when he was somewhat recovered, and assured himself
of the destruction of the serpent, began to contemplate the place
into which he had fallen, and saw that he was in a vault,
incrusted with costly metals, and illuminated by a live coal. In
the middle was a sort of ivory bier, and upon this was extended
what appeared to be a knight in armor, but was in truth an empty
trophy, composed of the rich and precious arms once Hector's, to
which nothing was wanting but the sword. While Mandricardo stood
contemplating the prize a door opened behind him, and a bevy of
fair damsels entered, dancing, who, taking up the armor piece by
piece, led him away to the place where the shield was suspended;
where he found the fairy of the castle seated in state. By her he
was invested with the arms he had won, first pledging his solemn
oath to wear no other blade but Durindana, which he was to wrest
from Orlando, and thus complete the conquest of Hector's arms.

THE INVASION OF FRANCE (Continued)

Mandricardo, having completed his story, now turned to Rogero, and
proposed that arms should decide which of the two was most worthy
to bear the symbol of the Trojan knight.

Rogero felt no other objection to this proposal than the scruple
which arose on observing that his antagonist was without a sword.
Mandricardo insisted that this need be no impediment, since his
oath prevented him from using a sword until he should have
achieved the conquest of Durindana.

This was no sooner said than a new antagonist started up in
Gradasso, who now accompanied Mandricardo. Gradasso vindicated his
prior right to Durindana, to obtain which he had embarked (as was
related in the beginning) in that bold inroad upon France. A
quarrel was thus kindled between the kings of Tartary and
Sericane. While the dispute was raging a knight arrived upon the
ground, accompanied by a damsel, to whom Rogero related the cause
of the strife. The knight was Florismart, and his companion
Flordelis. Florismart succeeded in bringing the two champions to
accord, by informing them that he could bring them to the presence
of Orlando, the master of Durindana.

Gradasso and Mandricardo readily made truce, in order to accompany
Florismart, nor would Rogero be left behind.

As they proceeded on their quest they were met by a dwarf, who
entreated their assistance in behalf of his lady, who had been
carried off by an enchanter, mounted on a winged horse. However
unwilling to leave the question of the sword undecided, it was not
possible for the knights to resist this appeal. Two of their
number, Gradasso and Rogero, therefore accompanied the dwarf.
Mandricardo persisted in his search for Orlando, and Florismart,
with Flordelis, pursued their way to the camp of Charlemagne.

Atlantes, the enchanter, who had brought up Rogero, and cherished
for him the warmest affection, knew by his art that his pupil was
destined to be severed from him, and converted to the Christian
faith through the influence of Bradamante, that royal maiden with
whom chance had brought him acquainted. Thinking to thwart the
will of Heaven in this respect, he now put forth all his arts to
entrap Rogero into his power. By the aid of his subservient demons
he reared a castle on an inaccessible height, in the Pyrenean
mountains, and to make it a pleasant abode to his pupil, contrived
to entrap and convey thither knights and damsels many a one, whom
chance had brought into the vicinity of his castle. Here, in a
sort of sensual paradise, they were but too willing to forget
glory and duty, and to pass their time in indolent enjoyment

It was by the enchanter that the dwarf had now been sent to tempt
the knights into his power.

But we must now return to Rinaldo, whom we left interrupted in his
combat with Rodomont. In search of his late antagonist and intent
on bringing their combat to a decision he entered the forest of
Arden, whither he suspected Rodomont had gone. While engaged on
this quest he was surprised by the vision of a beautiful child
dancing naked, with three damsels as beautiful as himself. While
he was lost in admiration at the sight the child approached him,
and, throwing at him handfuls of roses and lilies, struck him from
his horse. He was no sooner down than he was seized by the
dancers, by whom he was dragged about and scourged with flowers
till he fell into a swoon. When he began to revive one of the
group approached him, and told him that his punishment was the
consequence of his rebellion against that power before whom all
things bend; that there was but one remedy to heal the wounds that
had been inflicted, and that was to drink of the waters of Love.
Then they left him.

Rinaldo, sore and faint, dragged himself toward a fountain which
flowed near by, and, being parched with thirst, drank greedily and
almost unconsciously of the water, which was sweet to the taste,
but bitter to the heart. After repeated draughts he recovered his
strength and recollection, and found himself in the same place
where Angelica had formerly awakened him with a rain of flowers,
and whence he had fled in contempt of her courtesy.

This remembrance of the scene was followed by the recognition of
his crime; and, repenting bitterly his ingratitude, he leaped upon
Bayard, with the intention of hastening to Angelica's country, and
soliciting his pardon at her feet.

Let us now retrace our steps, and revert to the time when the
paladins having learned from Dudon the summons of Charlemagne to
return to France to repel the invaders, had all obeyed the command
with the exception of Orlando, whose passion for Angelica still
held him in attendance on her. Orlando, arriving before Albracca,
found it closely beleaguered. He, however, made his way into the
citadel, and related his adventures to Angelica, from the time of
his departure up to his separation from Rinaldo and the rest, when
they departed to the assistance of Charlemagne. Angelica, in
return, described the distresses of the garrison, and the force of
the besiegers; and in conclusion prayed Orlando to favor her
escape from the pressing danger, and escort her into France.
Orlando, who did not suspect that love for Rinaldo was her secret
motive, joyfully agreed to the proposal, and the sally was
resolved upon.

Leaving lights burning in the fortress, they departed at
nightfall, and passed in safety through the enemy's camp. After
encountering numerous adventures they reached the sea-side, and
embarked on board a pinnace for France. The vessel arrived safely,
and the travellers, disembarking in Provence, pursued their way by
land. One day, heated and weary, they sought shelter from the sun
in the forest of Arden, and chance directed Angelica to the
fountain of Disdain, of whose waters she eagerly drank.

Issuing thence, the Count and damsel encountered a stranger-
knight. It was no other than Rinaldo, who was just on the point of
setting off on a pilgrimage in search of Angelica, to implore her
pardon for his insensibility, and urge his new found passion.
Surprise and delight at first deprived him of utterance, but soon
recovering himself, he joyfully saluted her, claiming her as his,
and exhorting her to put herself under his protection. His
presumption was repelled by Angelica with disdain, and Orlando,
enraged at the invasion of his rights, challenged him to decide
their claims by arms.

Terrified at the combat which ensued, Angelica fled amain through
the forest, and came out upon a plain covered with tents. This was
the camp of Charlemagne, who led the army of reserve destined to
support the troops which had advanced to oppose Marsilius. Charles
having heard the damsel's tale, with difficulty separated the two
cousins, and then consigned Angelica, as the cause of quarrel, to
the care of Namo, Duke of Bavaria, promising that she should be
his who should best deserve her in the impending battle.

But these plans and hopes were frustrated. The Christian army,
beaten at all points, fled from the Saracens; and Angelica,
indifferent to both her lovers, mounted a swift palfrey and
plunged into the forest, rejoicing, in spite of her terror, at
having regained her liberty. She stopped at last in a tufted
grove, where a gentle zephyr blew, and whose young trees were
watered by two clear runnels, which came and mingled their waters,
making a pleasing murmur. Believing herself far from Rinaldo, and
overcome by fatigue and the summer heat, she saw with delight a
bank covered with flowers so thick that they almost hid the green
turf, inviting her to alight and rest. She dismounted from her
palfrey, and turned him loose to recruit his strength with the
tender grass which bordered the streamlets. Then, in a sheltered
nook tapestried with moss and fenced in with roses and hawthorn-
flowers, she yielded herself to grateful repose.

She had not slept long when she was awakened by the noise made by
the approach of a horse. Starting up, she saw an armed knight who
had arrived at the bank of the stream. Not knowing whether he was
to be feared or not, her heart beat with anxiety. She pressed
aside the leaves to allow her to see who it was, but scarce dared
to breathe for fear of betraying herself. Soon the knight threw
himself on the flowery bank, and leaning his head on his hand fell
into a profound reverie. Then arousing himself from his silence he
began to pour forth complaints, mingled with deep sighs. Rivers of
tears flowed down his cheeks, and his breast seemed to labor with
a hidden flame. "Ah, vain regrets!" he exclaimed; "cruel fortune!
others triumph, while I endure hopeless misery! Better a thousand
times to lose life, than wear a chain so disgraceful and so
oppressive!"

Angelica by this time had recognized the stranger, and perceived
that it was Sacripant, king of Circassia, one of the worthiest of
her suitors. This prince had followed Angelica from his country,
at the very gates of the day, to France, where he heard with
dismay that she was under the guardianship of the Paladin Orlando,
and that the Emperor had announced his decree to award her as the
prize of valor to that one of his nephews who should best deserve
her.

As Sacripant continued to lament, Angelica, who had always opposed
the hardness of marble to his sighs, thought with herself that
nothing forbade her employing his good offices in this unhappy
crisis. Though firmly resolved never to accept him as a spouse,
she yet felt the necessity of giving him a gleam of hope in reward
for the service she required of him. All at once, like Diana, she
stepped forth from the arbor. "May the gods preserve thee," she
said, "and put far from thee all hard thoughts of me!" Then she
told him all that had befallen her since she parted with him at
her father's court, and how she had availed herself of Orlando's
protection to escape from the beleaguered city. At that moment the
noise of horse and armor was heard as of one approaching; and
Sacripant, furious at the interruption, resumed his helmet,
mounted his horse, and placed his lance in rest. He saw a knight
advancing, with scarf and plume of snowy whiteness. Sacripant
regarded him with angry eyes, and, while he was yet some distance
off, defied him to the combat. The other, not moved by his angry
tone to make reply, put himself on his defence. Their horses,
struck at the same moment with the spur, rushed upon one another
with the impetuosity of a tempest. Their shields were pierced each
with the other's lance, and only the temper of their breastplates
saved their lives. Both the horses recoiled with the violence of
the shock; but the unknown knight's recovered itself at the touch
of the spur; the Saracen king's fell dead, and bore down his
master with him. The white knight, seeing his enemy in this
condition, cared not to renew the combat, but, thinking he had
done enough for glory, pursued his way through the forest, and was
a mile off before Sacripant had got free from his horse.

As a ploughman, stunned by a thunder-clap which has stricken dead
the oxen at his plough, stands motionless, sadly contemplating his
loss, so Sacripant stood confounded and overwhelmed with
mortification at having Angelica a witness of his defeat. He
groaned, he sighed, less from the pain of his bruises than for the
shame of being reduced to such a state before her. The princess
took pity on him, and consoled him as well as she could. "Banish
your regrets, my lord," she said, "this accident has happened
solely in consequence of the feebleness of your horse, which had
more need of rest and food than of such an encounter as this. Nor
can your adversary gain any credit by it, since he has hurried
away, not venturing a second trial." While she thus consoled
Sacripant they perceived a person approach, who seemed a courier,
with bag and horn. As soon as he came up, he accosted Sacripant,
and inquired if he had seen a knight pass that way, bearing a
white shield and with a white plume to his helmet. "I have,
indeed, seen too much of him," said Sacripant, "it is he who has
brought me to the ground; but at least I hope to learn from you
who that knight is." "That I can easily inform you," said the man;
"know then that, if you have been overthrown, you owe your fate to
the high prowess of a lady as beautiful as she is brave. It is the
fair and illustrious Bradamante who has won from you the honors of
victory."

At these words the courier rode on his way, leaving Sacripant more
confounded and mortified than ever. In silence he mounted the
horse of Angelica, taking the lady behind him on the croup, and
rode away in search of a more secure asylum. Hardly had they
ridden two miles when a new sound was heard in the forest, and
they perceived a gallant and powerful horse, which, leaping the
ravines and dashing aside the branches that opposed his passage,
appeared before them, accoutred with a rich harness adorned with
gold.

"If I may believe my eyes, which penetrate with difficulty the
underwood," said Angelica, "that horse that dashes so stoutly
through the bushes is Bayard, and I marvel how he seems to know
the need we have of him, mounted as we are both on one feeble
animal." Sacripant, dismounting from the palfrey, approached the
fiery courser, and attempted to seize his bridle, but the
disdainful animal, turning from him, launched at him a volley of
kicks enough to have shattered a wall of marble. Bayard then
approached Angelica with an air as gentle and loving as a faithful
dog could his master after a long separation. For he remembered
how she had caressed him, and even fed him, in Albracca. She took
his bridle in her left hand, while with her right she patted his
neck. The beautiful animal, gifted with wonderful intelligence,
seemed to submit entirely. Sacripant, seizing the moment to vault
upon him, controlled his curvetings, and Angelica, quitting the
croup of the palfrey, regained her seat.

But, turning his eyes toward a place where was heard a noise of
arms, Sacripant beheld Rinaldo. That hero now loves Angelica more
than his life, and she flies him as the timid crane the falcon.

The fountain of which Angelica had drunk produced such an effect
on the beautiful queen that, with distressed countenance and
trembling voice, she conjured Sacripant not to wait the approach
of Rinaldo, but to join her in flight.

"Am I, then," said Sacripant, "of so little esteem with you that
you doubt my power to defend you? Do you forget the battle of
Albracca, and how, in your defence, I fought single-handed against
Agrican and all his knights?"

Angelica made no reply, uncertain what to do; but already Rinaldo
was too near to be escaped. He advanced menacingly to the
Circassian king, for he recognized his horse.

"Vile thief," he cried, "dismount from that horse, and prevent the
punishment that is your due for daring to rob me of my property.
Leave, also, the princess in my hands; for it would indeed be a
sin to suffer so charming a lady and so gallant a charger to
remain in such keeping."

The king of Circassia, furious at being thus insulted, cried out,
"Thou liest, villain, in giving me the name of thief, which better
belongs to thyself than to me. It is true, the beauty of this lady
and the perfection of this horse are unequalled; come on, then,
and let us try which of us is most worthy to possess them."

At these words the king of Circassia and Rinaldo attacked one
another with all their force, one fighting on foot, the other on
horseback. You need not, however, suppose that the Saracen king
found any advantage in this; for a young page, unused to
horsemanship, could not have failed more completely to manage
Bayard than did this accomplished knight. The faithful animal
loved his master too well to injure him, and refused his aid as
well as his obedience to the hand of Sacripant, who could strike
but ineffectual blows, the horse backing when he wished him to go
forward, and dropping his head and arching his back, throwing out
with his legs, so as almost to shake the knight out of the saddle.
Sacripant, seeing that he could not manage him, watched his
opportunity, rose on his saddle, and leapt lightly to the earth;
then, relieved from the embarrassment of the horse, renewed the
combat on more equal terms. Their skill to thrust and parry were
equal; one rises, the other stoops; with one foot set firm they
turn and wind, to lay on strokes or to dodge them. At last
Rinaldo, throwing himself on the Circassian, dealt him a blow so
terrible that Fusberta, his good sword, cut in two the buckler of
Sacripant, although it was made of bone, and covered with a thick
plate of steel well tempered. The arm of the Saracen was deprived
of its defence, and almost palsied with the stroke. Angelica,
perceiving how victory was likely to incline, and shuddering at
the thought of becoming the prize of Rinaldo, hesitated no longer.
Turning her horse's head, she fled with the utmost speed; and, in
spite of the round pebbles which covered a steep descent, she
plunged into a deep valley, trembling with the fear that Rinaldo
was in pursuit. At the bottom of this valley she encountered an
aged hermit, whose white beard flowed to his middle, and whose
venerable appearance seemed to assure his piety.

This hermit, who appeared shrunk by age and fasting, travelled
slowly, mounted upon a wretched ass. The princess, overcome with
fear, conjured him to save her life; and to conduct her to some
port of the sea, whence she might embark and quit France, never
more to hear the odious name of Rinaldo.

The old hermit was something of a wizard. He comforted Angelica,
and promised to protect her from all peril. Then he opened his
scrip, and took from thence a book, and had read but a single page
when a goblin, obedient to his incantations, appeared, under the
form of a laboring man, and demanded his orders. He received them,
transported himself to the place where the knights still
maintained their conflict, and boldly stepped between the two.

"Tell me, I pray you," he said, "what benefit will accrue to him
who shall get the better in this contest? The object you are
contending for is already disposed of; for the Paladin Orlando,
without effort and without opposition, is now carrying away the
princess Angelica to Paris. You had better pursue them promptly;
for if they reach Paris you will never see her again."

At these words you might have seen those rival warriors
confounded, stupefied, silently agreeing that they were affording
their rival a fair opportunity to triumph over them. Rinaldo,
approaching Bayard, breathes a sigh of shame and rage, and swears
a terrible oath that, if he overtakes Orlando, he will tear his
heart out. Then mounting Bayard and pressing his flanks with his
spurs, he leaves the king of Circassia on foot in the forest.

Let it not appear strange that Rinaldo found Bayard obedient at
last, after having so long prevented any one from even touching
his bridle; for that fine animal had an intelligence almost human;
he had fled from his master only to draw him on the track of
Angelica, and enable him to recover her. He saw when the princess
fled from the battle, and Rinaldo being then engaged in a fight on
foot, Bayard found himself free to follow the traces of Angelica.
Thus he had drawn his master after him, not permitting him to
approach, and had brought him to the sight of the princess. But
Bayard now, deceived like his master with the false intelligence
of the goblin, submits to be mounted and to serve his master as
usual, and Rinaldo, animated with rage, makes him fly toward
Paris, more slowly than his wishes, though the speed of Bayard
outstripped the winds. Full of impatience to encounter Orlando, he
gave but a few hours that night to sleep. Early the next day he
saw before him the great city, under the walls of which the
Emperor Charles had collected the scattered remains of his army.
Foreseeing that he would soon be attacked on all sides, the
Emperor had caused the ancient fortifications to be repaired, and
new ones to be built, surrounded by wide and deep ditches. The
desire to hold the field against the enemy made him seize every
means of procuring new allies. He hoped to receive from England
aid sufficient to enable him to form a new camp, and as soon as
Rinaldo rejoined him he selected him to go as his ambassador into
England, to plead for auxiliaries. Rinaldo was far from pleased
with his commission, but he obeyed the Emperor's commands, without
giving himself time to devote a single day to the object nearest
his heart. He hastened to Calais, and lost not a moment in
embarking for England, ardently desiring a hasty despatch of his
commission, and a speedy return to France.

BRADAMANTE AND ROGERO

Bradamante, the knight of the white plume and shield, whose
sudden appearance and encounter with Sacripant we have already
told, was in quest of Rogero, from whom chance had separated her,
almost at the beginning of their acquaintance. After her encounter
with Sacripant Bradamante pursued her way through the forest, in
hopes of rejoining Rogero, and arrived at last on the brink of a
fair fountain.

This fountain flowed through a broad meadow. Ancient trees
overshadowed it, and travellers, attracted by the sweet murmur of
its waters, stopped there to cool themselves. Bradamante, casting
her eyes on all sides to enjoy the beauties of the spot,
perceived, under the shade of a tree, a knight reclining, who
seemed to be oppressed with the deepest grief

Bradamante accosted him, and asked to be informed of the cause of
his distress. "Alas! my lord," said he, "I lament a young and
charming friend, my affianced wife, who has been torn from me by a
villain,--let me rather call him a demon,--who, on a winged horse,
descended from the air, seized her, and bore her screaming to his
den. I have pursued them over rocks and through ravines till my
horse is no longer able to bear me, and I now wait only for
death." He added that already a vain attempt on his behalf had
been made by two knights, whom chance had brought to the spot.
Their names were Gradasso, king of Sericane, and Rogero, the Moor.
Both had been overcome by the wiles of the enchanter, and were
added to the number of the captives, whom he held in an
impregnable castle, situated on the height of the mountain. At the
mention of Rogero's name Bradamante started with delight, which
was soon changed to an opposite sentiment when she heard that her
lover was a prisoner in the toils of the enchanter. "Sir Knight,"
she said, "do not surrender yourself to despair; this day may be
more happy for you than you think, if you will only lead me to the
castle which enfolds her whom you deplore."

The knight responded, "After having lost all that made life dear
to me I have no motive to avoid the dangers of the enterprise, and
I will do as you request; but I forewarn you of the perils you
will have to encounter. If you fall impute it not to me."

Having thus spoken, they took their way to the castle, but were
overtaken by a messenger from the camp, who had been sent in quest
of Bradamante to summon her back to the army, where her presence
was needed to reassure her disheartened forces, and withstand the
advance of the Moors.

The mournful knight, whose name was Pinabel, thus became aware
that Bradamante was a scion of the house of Clermont, between
which and his own of Mayence there existed an ancient feud. From
this moment the traitor sought only how he might be rid of the
company of Bradamante, from whom he feared no good would come to
him, but rather mortal injury, if his name and lineage became
known to her. For he judged her by his own base model, and,
knowing his ill deserts, he feared to receive his due.

Bradamante, in spite of the summons to return to the army, could
not resolve to leave her lover in captivity, and determined first
to finish the adventure on which she was engaged. Pinabel leading
the way, they at length arrived at a wood, in the centre of which
rose a steep, rocky mountain. Pinabel, who now thought of nothing
else but how he might escape from Bradamante, proposed to ascend
the mountain to extend his view, in order to discover a shelter
for the night, if any there might be within sight. Under this
pretence he left Bradamante, and advanced up the side of the
mountain till he came to a cleft in the rock, down which he
looked, and perceived that it widened below into a spacious
cavern. Meanwhile Bradamante, fearful of losing her guide, had
followed close on his footsteps, and rejoined him at the mouth of
the cavern. Then the traitor, seeing the impossibility of escaping
her, conceived another design. He told her that before her
approach he had seen in the cavern a young and beautiful damsel,
whose rich dress announced her high birth, who with tears and
lamentations implored assistance; that before he could descend to
relieve her a ruffian had seized her, and hurried her away into
the recesses of the cavern.

Bradamante, full of truth and courage, readily believed this lie
of the Mayencian traitor. Eager to succor the damsel, she looked
round for the means of facilitating the descent, and seeing a
large elm with spreading branches she lopped off with her sword
one of the largest, and thrust it into the opening. She told
Pinabel to hold fast to the larger end, while, grasping the
branches with her hands, she let herself down into the cavern.

The traitor smiled at seeing her thus suspended, and, asking her
in mockery, "Are you a good leaper?" he let go the branch with
perfidious glee, and saw Bradamante precipitated to the bottom of
the cave. "I wish your whole race were there with you," he
muttered, "that you might all perish together."

But Pinabel's atrocious design was not accomplished. The twigs and
foliage of the branch broke its descent, and Bradamante, not
seriously injured, though stunned with her fall, was reserved for
other adventures.

As soon as she recovered from the shock Bradamante cast her eyes
around and perceived a door, through which she passed into a
second cavern, larger and loftier than the first. It had the
appearance of a subterranean temple. Columns of the purest
alabaster adorned it, and supported the roof; a simple altar rose
in the middle; a lamp, whose radiance was reflected by the
alabaster walls, cast a mild light around.

Bradamante, inspired by a sense of religious awe, approached the
altar, and, falling on her knees, poured forth her prayers and
thanks to the Preserver of her life, invoking the protection of
his power. At that moment a small door opened, and a female issued
from it with naked feet, and flowing robe and hair, who called her
by her name, and thus addressed her: "Brave and generous
Bradamante, know that it is a power from above that has brought
you hither. The spirit of Merlin, whose last earthly abode was in
this place, has warned me of your arrival, and of the fate that
awaits you. This famous grotto," she continued, "was the work of
the enchanter Merlin; here his ashes repose. You have no doubt
heard how this sage and virtuous enchanter ceased to be. Victim of
the artful fairy of the lake, Merlin, by a fatal compliance with
her request, laid himself down living in his tomb, without power
to resist the spell laid upon him by that ingrate, who retained
him there as long as he lived. His spirit hovers about this spot,
and will not leave it, until the last trumpet shall summon the
dead to judgment. He answers the questions of those who approach
his tomb, where perhaps you may be privileged to hear his voice."

Bradamante, astonished at these words, and the objects which met
her view, knew not whether she was awake or asleep. Confused, but
modest, she cast down her eyes, and a blush overspread her face.
"Ah, what am I," said she, "that so great a prophet should deign
to speak to me!" Still, with a secret satisfaction, she followed
the priestess, who led her to the tomb of Merlin. This tomb was
constructed of a species of stone hard and resplendent like fire.
The rays which beamed from the stone sufficed to light up that
terrible place, where the sun's rays never penetrated; but I know
not whether that light was the effect of a certain phosphorescence
of the stone itself, or of the many talismans and charms with
which it was wrought over.

Bradamante had hardly passed the threshold of this sacred place
when the spirit of the enchanter saluted her with a voice firm and
distinct: "May thy designs be prosperous, O chaste and noble
maiden, the future mother of heroes, the glory of Italy, and
destined to fill the whole world with their fame. Great captains,
renowned knights, shall be numbered among your descendants, who
shall defend the Church and restore their country to its ancient
splendor. Princes, wise as Augustus and the sage Numa, shall bring
back the age of gold. [Footnote: This prophecy is introduced by
Ariosto in this place to compliment the noble house of Este, the
princes of his native state, the dukedom of Ferrara.] To
accomplish these grand destinies it is ordained that you shall wed
the illustrious Rogero. Fly then to his deliverance, and lay
prostrate in the dust the traitor who has snatched him from you,
and now holds him in chains!"

Merlin ceased with these words, and left to Melissa, the
priestess, the charge of more fully instructing the maiden in her
future course. "To-morrow," said she, "I will conduct you to the
castle on the rock where Rogero is held captive. I will not leave
you till I have guided you through this wild wood, and I will
direct you on your way so that you shall be in no danger of
mistaking it."

The next morning Melissa conducted Bradamante between rocks and
precipices, crossing rapid torrents, and traversing intricate
passes, employing the time in imparting to her such information as
was necessary to enable her to bring her design to a successful
issue.

"Not only would the castle, impenetrable by force, and that winged
horse of his baffle your efforts, but know that he possesses also
a buckler whence flashes a light so brilliant that the eyes of all
who look upon it are blinded. Think not to avoid it by shutting
your eyes, for how then will you be able to avoid his blows, and
make him feel your own? But I will teach you the proper course to
pursue.

"Agramant, the Moorish prince, possesses a ring stolen from a
queen of India, which has power to render of no avail all
enchantments. Agramant, knowing that Rogero is of more importance
to him than any one of his warriors, is desirous of rescuing him
from the power of the enchanter, and has sent for that purpose
Brunello, the most crafty and sagacious of his servants, provided
with his wonderful ring, and he is even now at hand, bent on this
enterprise. But, beautiful Bradamante, as I desire that no one but
yourself shall have the glory of delivering from thraldom your
future spouse, listen while I disclose the means of success.
Following this path which leads by the seashore, you will come ere
long to a hostelry, where the Saracen Brunello will arrive shortly
before you. You will readily know him by his stature, under four
feet, his great disproportioned head, his squint eyes, his livid
hue, his thick eyebrows joining his tufted beard. His dress,
moreover, that of a courier, will point him out to you.

"It will be easy for you to enter into conversation with him,
announcing yourself as a knight seeking combat with the enchanter,
but let not the knave suspect that you know anything about the
ring. I doubt not that he will be your guide to the castle of the
enchanter. Accept his offer, but take care to keep behind him till
you come in sight of the brilliant dome of the castle. Then
hesitate not to strike him dead, for the wretch deserves no pity,
and take from him the ring. But let him not suspect your
intention, for by putting the ring into his mouth he will
instantly become invisible, and disappear from your eyes."

Saying thus, the sage Melissa and the fair Bradamante arrived near
the city of Bordeaux, where the rich and wide river Garonne pours
the tribute of its waves into the sea. They parted with tender
embraces. Bradamante, intent wholly on her purpose, hastened to
arrive at the hostelry, where Brunello had preceded her a few
moments only. The young heroine knew him without difficulty. She
accosted him, and put to him some slight questions, to which he
replied with adroit falsehoods. Bradamante, on her part, concealed
from him her sex, her religion, her country, and the blood from
whence she sprung. While they talk together, sudden cries are
heard from all parts of the hostelry. "O queen of heaven!"
exclaimed Bradamante, "what can be the cause of this sudden
alarm?" She soon learned the cause. Host, children, domestics,
all, with upturned eyes, as if they saw a comet or a great
eclipse, were gazing on a prodigy which seemed to pass the bounds
of possibility. She beheld distinctly a winged horse, mounted with
a cavalier in rich armor, cleaving the air with rapid flight. The
wings of this strange courser were wide extended, and covered with
feathers of various colors. The polished armor of the knight made
them shine with rainbow tints. In a short time the horse and rider
disappeared behind the summits of the mountains.

"It is an enchanter," said the host, "a magician who often is seen
traversing the air in that way. Sometimes he flies aloft as if
among the stars, and at others skims along the land. He possesses
a wonderful castle on the top of the Pyrenees. Many knights have
shown their courage by going to attack him, but none have ever
returned, from which it is to be feared they have lost either
their life or their liberty."

Bradamante, addressing the host, said, "Could you furnish me a
guide to conduct me to the castle of this enchanter?" "By my
faith," said Brunello, interrupting, "that you shall not seek in
vain; I have it all in writing, and I will myself conduct you."
Bradamante, with thanks, accepted him for her guide.

The host had a tolerable horse to dispose of, which Bradamante
bargained for, and the next day, at the first dawn of morning, she
took her route by a narrow valley, taking care to have the Saracen
Brunello lead the way.

They reached the summit of the Pyrenees, whence one may look down
on France, Spain, and the two seas. From this height they
descended again by a fatiguing road into a deep valley. From the
middle of this valley an isolated mountain rose, composed of rough
and perpendicular rock, on whose summit was the castle, surrounded
with a wall of brass. Brunello said, "Yonder is the stronghold
where the enchanter keeps his prisoners; one must have wings to
mount thither; it is easy to see that the aid of a flying horse
must be necessary for the master of this castle, which he uses for
his prison and for his abode."

Bradamante, sufficiently instructed, saw that the time had now
come to possess herself of the ring; but she could not resolve to
slay a defenceless man. She seized Brunello before he was aware,
bound him to a tree, and took from him the ring which he wore on
one of his fingers. The cries and entreaties of the perfidious
Saracen moved her not. She advanced to the foot of the rock
whereon the castle stood, and, to draw the magician to the combat,
sounded her horn, adding to it cries of defiance.

The enchanter delayed not to present himself, mounted on his
winged horse. Bradamante was struck with surprise mixed with joy
when she saw that this person, described as so formidable, bore no
lance nor club, nor any other deadly weapon. He had only on his
arm a buckler, covered with a cloth, and in his hand an open book.
As to the winged horse, there was no enchantment about him. He was
a natural animal, of a species which exists in the Riphaean
mountains. Like a griffin, he had the head of an eagle, claws
armed with talons, and wings covered with feathers, the rest of
his body being that of a horse. This strange animal is called a
Hippogriff.

The heroine attacked the enchanter on his approach, striking on
this side and on that, with all the energy of a violent combat,
but wounding only the wind; and after this pretended attack had
lasted some time dismounted from her horse, as if hoping to do
battle more effectually on foot. The enchanter now prepares to
employ his sole weapon, by uncovering the magic buckler which
never failed to subdue an enemy by depriving him of his senses.
Bradamante, confiding in her ring, observed all the motions of her
adversary, and, at the unveiling of the shield, cast herself on
the ground, pretending that the splendor of the shield had
overcome her, but in reality to induce the enchanter to dismount
and approach her.

It happened according to her wish. When the enchanter saw her
prostrate he made his horse alight on the ground, and,
dismounting, fixed the shield on the pommel of his saddle, and
approached in order to secure the fallen warrior. Bradamante, who
watched him intently, as soon as she saw him near at hand, sprang
up, seized him vigorously, threw him down, and, with the same
chain which the enchanter had prepared for herself, bound him
fast, without his being able to make any effectual resistance.

The enchanter, with the accents of despair, exclaimed, "Take my
life, young man!" but Bradamante was far from complying with such
a wish. Desirous of knowing the name of the enchanter, and for
what purpose he had formed with so much art this impregnable
fortress, she commanded him to inform her.

"Alas!" replied the magician, while tears flowed down his cheeks,
"it is not to conceal booty, nor for any culpable design that I
have built this castle; it was only to guard the life of a young
knight, the object of my tenderest affection, my art having taught
me that he is destined to become a Christian, and to perish,
shortly after, by the blackest of treasons.

"This youth, named Rogero, is the most beautiful and most
accomplished of knights. It is I, the unhappy Atlantes, who have
reared him from his childhood. The call of honor and the desire of
glory led him from me to follow Agramant, his prince, in his
invasion of France, and I, more devoted to Rogero than the
tenderest of parents, have sought the means of bringing him back
to this abode, in the hope of saving him from the cruel fate that
menaces him.

"For this purpose I have got him in my possession by the same
means as I attempted to employ against you; and by which I have
succeeded in collecting a great many knights and ladies in my
castle. My purpose was to render my beloved pupil's captivity
light, by affording him society to amuse him, and keep his
thoughts from running on subjects of war and glory. Alas! my cares
have been in vain! Yet, take, I beseech you, whatever else I have,
but spare me my beloved pupil. Take this shield, take this winged
courser, deliver such of your friends as you may find among my
prisoners, deliver them all if you will, but leave me my beloved
Rogero; or if you will snatch him too from me, take also my life,
which will cease then to be to me worth preserving."

Bradamante replied: "Old man, hope not to move me by your vain
entreaties. It is precisely the liberty of Rogero that I require.
You would keep him here in bondage and in slothful pleasure, to
save him from a fate which you foresee. Vain old man! how can you
foresee his fate when you could not foresee your own? You desire
me to take your life. No, my aim and my soul refuse the request."
This said, she required the magician to go before, and guide her
to the castle. The prisoners were set at liberty, though some, in
their secret hearts, regretted the voluptuous life which was thus
brought to an end. Bradamante and Rogero met one another with
transports of joy.

They descended from the mountain to the spot where the encounter
had taken place. There they found the Hippogriff, with the magic
buckler in its wrapper, hanging to his saddle-bow. Bradamante
advanced to seize the bridle; the Hippogriff seemed to wait her
approach, but before she reached him he spread his wings and flew
away to a neighboring hill, and in the same manner, a second time,
eluded her efforts. Rogero and the other liberated knights
dispersed over the plain and hilltops to secure him, and at last
the animal allowed Rogero to seize his rein. The fearless Rogero
hesitated not to vault upon his back, and let him feel his spurs,
which so roused his mettle that, after galloping a short distance,
he suddenly spread his wings, and soared into the air. Bradamante
had the grief to see her lover snatched away from her at the very
moment of reunion. Rogero, who knew not the art of directing the
horse, was unable to control his flight. He found himself carried
over the tops of the mountains, so far above them that he could
hardly distinguish what was land and what water. The Hippogriff
directed his flight to the west, and cleaved the air as swiftly as
a new-rigged vessel cuts the waves, impelled by the freshest and
most favorable gales.

ASTOLPHO AND THE ENCHANTRESS

In the long flight which Rogero took on the back of the Hippogriff
he was carried over land and sea, unknowing whither. As soon as he
had gained some control over the animal he made him alight on the
nearest land. When he came near enough to earth Rogero leapt
lightly from his back, and tied the animal to a myrtle-tree. Near
the spot flowed the pure waters of a fountain, surrounded by
cedars and palm-trees. Rogero laid aside his shield, and, removing
his helmet, breathed with delight the fresh air, and cooled his
lips with the waters of the fountain. For we cannot wonder that he
was excessively fatigued, considering the ride he had taken. He
was preparing to taste the sweets of repose when he perceived that
the Hippogriff, which he had tied by the bridle to a myrtle-tree,
frightened at something, was making violent efforts to disengage
himself. His struggle shook the myrtle-tree so that many of its
beautiful leaves were torn off, and strewed the ground.

A sound like that which issues from burning wood seemed to come
from the myrtle-tree, at first faint and indistinct, but growing
stronger by degrees, and at length was audible as a voice which
spoke in this manner: "O knight, if the tenderness of your heart
corresponds to the beauty of your person, relieve me, I pray you,
from this tormenting animal. I suffer enough inwardly without
having outward evils added to my lot."

Rogero, at the first accents of this voice, turned his eyes
promptly on the myrtle, hastened to it, and stood fixed in
astonishment when he perceived that the voice issued from the tree
itself. He immediately untied his horse, and, flushed with
surprise and regret, exclaimed, "Whoever thou art, whether mortal
or the goddess of these woods, forgive me, I beseech you, my
involuntary fault. Had I imagined that this hard bark covered a
being possessed of feeling, could I have exposed such a beautiful
myrtle to the insults of this steed? May the sweet influences of
the sky and air speedily repair the injury I have done! For my
part, I promise by the sovereign lady of my heart to do everything
you wish in order to merit your forgiveness."

At these words the myrtle seemed to tremble from root to stem, and
Rogero remarked that a moisture as of tears trickled down its
bark, like that which exudes from a log placed on the fire. It
then spoke:

"The kindness which inspires your words compels me to disclose to
you who I once was, and by what fatality I have been changed into
this shape. My name was Astolpho, cousin of Orlando and Rinaldo,
whose fame has filled the earth. I was myself reckoned among the
bravest paladins of France, and was by birth entitled to reign
over England, after Otho, my father. Returning from the distant
East, with Rinaldo and many other brave knights, called home to
aid with our arms the great Emperor of France, we reached a spot
where the powerful enchantress Alcina possessed a castle on the
borders of the sea. She had gone to the water-side to amuse
herself with fishing, and we paused to see how, by her art,
without hook or line, she drew from the water whatever she would.

"Not far from the shore an enormous whale showed a back so broad
and motionless that it looked like an island. Alcina had fixed her
eyes on me, and planned to get me into her power. Addressing us,
she said: 'This is the hour when the prettiest mermaid in the sea
comes regularly every day to the shore of yonder island. She sings
so sweetly that the very waves flow smoother at the sound. If you
wish to hear her come with me to her resort.' So saying, Alcina
pointed to the fish, which we all supposed to be an island. I, who
was rash, did not hesitate to follow her; but swam my horse over,
and mounted on the back of the fish. In vain Rinaldo and Dudon
made signs to me to beware; Alcina, smiling, took me in charge,
and led the way. No sooner were we mounted upon him than the whale
moved off, spreading his great fins, and cleft rapidly the waters.
I then saw my folly, but it was too late to repent. Alcina soothed
my anger, and professed that what she had done was for love of me.
Ere long we arrived at this island, where at first everything was
done to reconcile me to my lot, and to make my days pass happily
away. But soon Alcina, sated with her conquest, grew indifferent,
then weary of me, and at last, to get rid of me, changed me into
this form, as she had done to many lovers before me, making some
of them olives, some palms, some cedars, changing others into
fountains, rocks, or even into wild beasts. And thou, courteous
knight, whom accident has brought to this enchanted isle, beware
that she get not the power over thee, or thou shalt haply be made
like us, a tree, a fountain, or a rock."

Rogero expressed his astonishment at this recital. Astolpho added
that the island was in great part subject to the sway of Alcina.
By the aid of her sister Morgana, she had succeeded in
dispossessing a third sister, Logestilla, of nearly the whole of
her patrimony, for the whole isle was hers originally by her
father's bequest. But Logestilla was temperate and sage, while the
other sisters were false and voluptuous. Her empire was divided
from theirs by a gulf and chain of mountains, which alone had thus
far prevented her sister from usurping it.

Astolpho here ended his tale, and Rogero, who knew that he was the
cousin of Bradamante, would gladly have devised some way for his
relief; but, as that was out of his power, he consoled him as well
as he could, and then begged to be told the way to the palace of
Logestilla, and how to avoid that of Alcina. Astolpho directed him
to take the road to the left, though rough and full of rocks. He
warned him that this road would present serious obstacles; that
troops of monsters would oppose his passage, employed by the art
of Alcina to prevent her subjects from escaping from her dominion.
Rogero thanked the myrtle, and prepared to set out on his way.

He at first thought he would mount the winged horse, and scale the
mountain on his back; but he was too uncertain of his power to
control him to wish to encounter the hazard of another flight
through the air, besides that he was almost famished for the want
of food. So he led the horse after him, and took the road on foot,
which for some distance led equally to the dominions of both the
sisters.

He had not advanced more than two miles when he saw before him the
superb city of Alcina. It was surrounded with a wall of gold,
which seemed to reach the skies. I know that some think that this
wall was not of real gold, but only the work of alchemy; it
matters not; I prefer to think it gold, for it certainly shone
like gold.

A broad and level road led to the gates of the city, and from this
another branched off, narrow and rough, which led to the mountain
region. Rogero took without hesitation the narrow road; but he had
no sooner entered upon it than he was assailed by a numerous troop
which opposed his passage.

You never have seen anything so ridiculous, so extraordinary, as
this host of hobgoblins were. Some of them bore the human form
from the neck to the feet, but had the head of a monkey or a cat;
others had the legs and the ears of a horse; old men and women,
bald and hideous, ran hither and thither as if out of their
senses, half clad in the shaggy skins of beasts; one rode full
speed on a horse without a bridle, another jogged along mounted on
an ass or a cow; others, full of agility, skipped about, and clung
to the tails and manes of the animals which their companions rode.
Some blew horns, others brandished drinking-cups; some were armed
with spits, and some with pitchforks. One, who appeared to be the
captain, had an enormous belly and a gross fat head; he was
mounted on a tortoise, that waddled, now this way, now that,
without keeping any one direction.

One of these monsters, who had something approaching the human
form, though he had the neck, ears, and muzzle of a dog, set
himself to bark furiously at Rogero, to make him turn off to the
right, and reenter upon the road to the gay city; but the brave
chevalier exclaimed, "That will I not, so long as I can use this
sword,"--and he thrust the point directly at his face. The monster
tried to strike him with a lance, but Rogero was too quick for
him, and thrust his sword through his body, so that it appeared a
hand's breadth behind his back. The paladin, now giving full vent
to his rage, laid about him vigorously among the rabble, cleaving
one to the teeth, another to the girdle; but the troop were so
numerous, and in spite of his blows pressed around him so close,
that, to clear his way, he must have had as many arms as Briareus.

If Rogero had uncovered the shield of the enchanter, which hung at
his saddle-bow, he might easily have vanquished this monstrous
rout; but perhaps he did not think of it, and perhaps he preferred
to seek his defence nowhere but in his good sword. At that moment,
when his perplexity was at its height, he saw issue from the city
gate two young beauties, whose air and dress proclaimed their rank
and gentle nurture. Each of them was mounted on a unicorn, whose
whiteness surpassed that of ermine. They advanced to the meadow
where Rogero was contending so valiantly against the hobgoblins,
who all retired at their approach. They drew near, they extended
their hands to the young warrior, whose cheeks glowed with the
flush of exercise and modesty. Grateful for their assistance, he
expressed his thanks, and, having no heart to refuse them,
followed their guidance to the gate of the city.

This grand and beautiful entrance was adorned by a portico of four
vast columns, all of diamond. Whether they were real diamond or
artificial I cannot say. What matter is it, so long as they
appeared to the eye like diamond, and nothing could be more gay
and splendid.

On the threshold, and between the columns, was seen a bevy of
charming young women, who played and frolicked together. They all
ran to receive Rogero, and conducted him into the palace, which
appeared like a paradise.

We might well call by that name this abode, where the hours flew
by, without account, in ever-new delights. The bare idea of
satiety, want, and, above all, of age, never entered the minds of
the inhabitants. They experienced no sensations except those of
luxury and gayety; the cup of happiness seemed for them ever-
flowing and exhaustless. The two young damsels to whom Rogero owed
his deliverance from the hobgoblins conducted him to the apartment
of their mistress. The beautiful Alcina advanced, and greeted him
with an air at once dignified and courteous. All her court
surrounded the paladin, and rendered him the most flattering
attentions. The castle was less admirable for its magnificence
than for the charms of those who inhabited it. They were of either
sex, well matched in beauty, youth, and grace; but among this
charming group the brilliant Alcina shone, as the sun outshines
the stars. The young warrior was fascinated. All that he had heard
from the myrtle-tree appeared to him but a vile calumny. How could
he suspect that falsehood and treason veiled themselves under
smiles and the ingenuous air of truth? He doubted not that
Astolpho had deserved his fate, and perhaps a punishment more
severe; he regarded all his stories as dictated by a disappointed
spirit, and a thirst for revenge. But we must not condemn Rogero
too harshly, for he was the victim of magic power.

They seated themselves at table, and immediately harmonious lyres
and harps waked the air with the most ravishing notes. The charms
of poetry were added in entertaining recitals; the magnificence of
the feast would have done credit to a royal board. The traitress
forgot nothing which might charm the paladin, and attach him to
the spot, meaning, when she should grow tired of him, to
metamorphose him as she had done others. In the same manner passed
each succeeding day. Games of pleasant exercise, the chase, the
dance, or rural sports, made the hours pass quickly; while they
gave zest to the refreshment of the bath, or sleep.

Thus Rogero led a life of ease and luxury, while Charlemagne and
Agramant were struggling for empire. But I cannot linger with him
while the amiable and courageous Bradamante is night and day
directing her uncertain steps to every spot where the slightest
chance invites her, in the hope of recovering Rogero.

I will therefore say that, having sought him in vain in fields and
in cities, she knew not whither next to direct her steps. She did
not apprehend the death of Rogero. The fall of such a hero would
have reechoed from the Hydaspes to the farthest river of the West;
but, not knowing whether he was on the earth or in the air, she
concluded, as a last resource, to return to the cavern which
contained the tomb of Merlin, to ask of him some sure direction to
the object of her search.

While this thought occupied her mind, Melissa, the sage
enchantress, suddenly appeared before her. This virtuous and
beneficent magician had discovered by her spells that Rogero was
passing his time in pleasure and idleness, forgetful of his honor
and his sovereign. Not able to endure the thought that one who was
born to be a hero should waste his years in base repose, and leave
a sullied reputation in the memory of survivors, she saw that
vigorous measures must be employed to draw him forth into the
paths of virtue. Melissa was not blinded by her affection for the
amiable paladin, like Atlantes, who, intent only on preserving
Rogero's life, cared nothing for his fame. It was that old
enchanter whose arts had guided the Hippogriff to the isle of the
too charming Alcina, where he hoped his favorite would learn to
forget honor, and lose the love of glory.

At the sight of Melissa joy lighted up the countenance of
Bradamante, and hope animated her breast. Melissa concealed
nothing from her, but told her how Rogero was in the toils of
Alcina. Bradamante was plunged in grief and terror; but the kind
enchantress calmed her, dispelled her fears, and promised that
before many days she would lead back the paladin to her feet.

"My daughter," she said, "give me the ring which you wear, and
which possesses the power to overcome enchantments. By means of it
I doubt not but that I may enter the stronghold where the false
Alcina holds Rogero in durance, and may succeed in vanquishing her
and liberating him." Bradamante unhesitatingly delivered her the
ring, recommending Rogero to her best efforts. Melissa then
summoned by her art a huge palfrey, black as jet, excepting one
foot, which was bay. Mounted upon this animal, she rode with such
speed that by the next morning she had reached the abode of
Alcina.

She here transformed herself into the perfect resemblance of the
old magician Atlantes, adding a palm-breadth to her height, and
enlarging her whole figure. Her chin she covered with a long
beard, and seamed her whole visage well with wrinkles. She assumed
also his voice and manner, and watched her chance to find Rogero
alone. At last she found him, dressed in a rich tunic of silk and
gold, a collar of precious stones about his neck, and his arms,
once so rough with exercise, decorated with bracelets. His air and
his every motion indicated effeminacy, and he seemed to retain
nothing of Rogero but the name; such power had the enchantress
obtained over him.

Melissa, under the form of his old instructor, presented herself
before him, wearing a stern and serious visage. "Is this, then,"
she said, "the fruit of all my labors? Is it for this that I fed
you on the marrow of bears and lions, that I taught you to subdue
dragons, and, like Hercules, strangle serpents in your youthful
grasp, only to make you, by all my cares, a feeble Adonis? My
nightly watchings of the stars, of the yet warm fibres of animals,
the lots I have cast, the points of nativity that I have
calculated, have they all falsely indicated that you were born for
greatness? Who could have believed that you would become the slave
of a base enchantress? O Rogero, learn to know this Alcina, learn
to understand her arts and to countervail them. Take this ring,
place it on your finger, return to her presence, and see for
yourself what are her real charms."

At these words, Rogero, confused, abashed, cast his eyes upon the
ground, and knew not what to answer. Melissa seized the moment,
slipped the ring on his finger, and the paladin was himself again.
What a thunderclap to him! Overcome by shame, he dared not to
encounter the looks of his instructor. When at last he raised his
eyes he beheld not that venerable form, but the priestess Melissa,
who in virtue of the ring now appeared in her true person. She
told him of the motives which had led her to come to his rescue,
of the griefs and regrets of Bradamante, and of her unwearied
search for him. "That charming Amazon," she said, "sends you this
ring, which is a sovereign antidote to all enchantments. She would
have sent you her heart in my hands, if it would have had greater
power to serve you."

It was needless for Melissa to say more. Rogero's love for Alcina,
being but the work of enchantment, vanished as soon as the
enchantment was withdrawn, and he now hated her with an equal
intensity, seeing no longer anything in her but her vices, and
feeling only resentment for the shame that she had put upon him.

His surprise when he again beheld Alcina was no less than his
indignation. Fortified by his ring from her enchantments, he saw
her as she was, a monster of ugliness. All her charms were
artificial, and, truly viewed, were rather deformities. She was,
in fact, older than Hecuba or the Sibyl of Cumae; but an art,
which it is to be regretted our times have lost, enabled her to
appear charming, and to clothe herself in all the attractions of
youth. Rogero now saw all this, but, governed by the counsels of
Melissa, he concealed his surprise, assumed under some pretext his
armor, long neglected, and bound to his side Belisarda, his trusty
sword, taking also the buckler of Atlantes, covered with its veil.

He then selected a horse from the stables of Alcina, without
exciting her suspicions; but he left the Hippogriff, by the advice
of Melissa, who promised to take him in charge, and train him to a
more manageable state. The horse he took was Rabican, which
belonged to Astolpho. He restored the ring to Melissa.

Rogero had not ridden far when he met one of the huntsmen of
Alcina, bearing a falcon on his wrist, and followed by a dog. The
huntsman was mounted on a powerful horse, and came boldly up to
the paladin, demanding, in a somewhat imperious manner, whither he
was going so rapidly. Rogero disdained to stop or to reply;
whereupon the huntsman, not doubting that he was about making his
escape, said, "What if I, with my falcon, stop your ride?" So
saying, he threw off the bird, which even Rabican could not equal
in speed. The huntsman then leapt from his horse, and the animal,
open-mouthed, darted after Rogero with the swiftness of an arrow.
The huntsman also ran as if the wind or fire bore him, and the dog
was equal to Rabican in swiftness. Rogero, finding flight
impossible, stopped and faced his pursuers; but his sword was
useless against such foes. The insolent huntsman assailed him with
words, and struck him with his whip, the only weapon he had; the
dog bit his feet, and the horse drove at him with his hoofs. At
the same time the falcon flew over his head and over Rabican's and
attacked them with claws and wings, so that the horse in his
fright began to be unmanageable. At that moment the sound of
trumpets and cymbals was heard in the valley, and it was evident
that Alcina had ordered out all her array to go in pursuit. Rogero
felt that there was no time to be lost, and luckily remembered the
shield of Atlantes, which he bore suspended from his neck. He
unveiled it, and the charm worked wonderfully. The huntsman, the
dog, the horse, fell flat; the trembling wings of the falcon could
no longer sustain her, and she fell senseless to the ground.
Rogero, rid of their annoyances, left them in their trance, and
rode away.

Meanwhile Alcina, with all the force she could muster, sallied
forth from her palace in pursuit. Melissa, left behind, took
advantage of the opportunity to ransack all the rooms, protected
by the ring. She undid one by one all the talismans and spells
which she found, broke the seals, burned the images, and untied
the hagknots. Thence, hurrying through the fields, she
disenchanted the victims changed into trees, fountains, stones, or
brutes; all of whom recovered their liberty, and vowed eternal
gratitude to their deliverer. They made their escape, with all
possible despatch, to the realms of the good Logestilla, whence
they departed to their several homes.

Astolpho was the first whom Melissa liberated, for Rogero had
particularly recommended him to her care. She aided him to recover
his arms, and particularly that precious golden-headed lance which
once was Argalia's. The enchantress mounted with him upon the
winged horse, and in a short time arrived through the air at the
castle of Logestilla, where Rogero joined them soon after.

In this abode the friends passed a short period of delightful and
improving intercourse with the sage Logestilla and her virtuous
court; and then each departed, Rogero with the Hippogriff, ring,
and buckler; Astolpho with his golden lance, and mounted on
Rabican, the fleetest of steeds. To Rogero Logestilla gave a bit
and bridle suited to govern the Hippogriff; and to Astolpho a horn
of marvellous powers, to be sounded only when all other weapons
were unavailing.

THE ORC

We left the charming Angelica at the moment when, in her flight
from her contending lovers, Sacripant and Rinaldo, she met an aged
hermit. We have seen that her request to the hermit was to furnish
her the means of gaining the sea-coast, eager to avoid Rinaldo,
whom she hated, by leaving France and Europe itself. The pretended
hermit, who was no other than a vile magician, knowing well that
it would not be agreeable to his false gods to aid Angelica in
this undertaking, feigned to comply with her desire. He supplied
her a horse, into which he had by his arts caused a subtle devil
to enter, and, having mounted Angelica on the animal, directed her
what course to take to reach the sea.

Angelica rode on her way without suspicion, but when arrived at
the shore, the demon urged the animal headlong into the water.
Angelica in vain attempted to turn him back to the land; he
continued his course till, as night approached, he landed with his
burden on a sandy headland.

Angelica, finding herself alone, abandoned in this frightful
solitude, remained without movement, as if stupefied, with hands
joined and eyes turned towards heaven, till at last, pouring forth
a torrent of tears, she exclaimed: "Cruel fortune, have you not
yet exhausted your rage against me? To what new miseries do you
doom me? Alas! then finish your work! Deliver me a prey to some
ferocious beast, or by whatever fate you choose bring me to an
end. I will be thankful to you for terminating my life and my
misery." At last, exhausted by her sorrows, she fell asleep, and
sunk prostrate on the sand.

Before recounting what next befell, we must declare what place it
was upon which the unhappy lady was now thrown. In the sea that
washes the coast of Ireland there is an island called Ebuda, whose
inhabitants, once numerous, had been wasted by the anger of
Proteus till there were now but few left. This deity was incensed
by some neglect of the usual honors which he had in old times
received from the inhabitants of the land, and, to execute his
vengeance, had sent a horrid sea-monster, called an Orc, to devour
them. Such were the terrors of his ravages that the whole people
of the isle had shut themselves up in the principal town, and
relied on their walls alone to protect them. In this distress they
applied to the Oracle for advice, and were directed to appease the
wrath of the sea-monster by offering to him the fairest virgin
that the country could produce.

Now it so happened that the very day when this dreadful oracle was
announced, and when the fatal mandate had gone forth to seek among
the fairest maidens of the land one to be offered to the monster,
some sailors, landing on the beach where Angelica was, beheld that
beauty as she lay asleep.

O blind Chance! whose power in human affairs is but too great,
canst thou then abandon to the teeth of a horrible monster those
charms which different sovereigns took arms against one another to
possess? Alas! the lovely Angelica is destined to be the victim of
those cruel islanders.

Still asleep, she was bound by the Ebudians, and it was not until
she was carried on board the vessel that she came to a knowledge
of her situation. The wind filled the sails and wafted the ship
swiftly to the port, where all that beheld her agreed that she was
unquestionably the victim selected by Proteus himself to be his
prey. Who can tell the screams, the mortal anguish of this unhappy
maiden, the reproaches she addressed even to the heavens
themselves, when the dreadful information of her cruel fate was
made known to her? I cannot; let me rather turn to a happier part
of my story.

Rogero left the palace of Logestilla, careering on his flying
courser far above the tops of the mountains, and borne westward by
the Hippogriff, which he guided with ease, by means of the bridle
that Melissa had given him. Anxious as he was to recover
Bradamante, he could not fail to be delighted at the view his
rapid flight presented of so many vast regions and populous
countries as he passed over in his career. At last he approached
the shores of England, and perceived an immense army in all the
splendor of military pomp, as if about to go forth flushed with
hopes of victory. He caused the Hippogriff to alight not far from
the scene, and found himself immediately surrounded by admiring
spectators, knights and soldiers, who could not enough indulge
their curiosity and wonder. Rogero learned, in reply to his
questions, that the fine array of troops before him was the army
destined to go to the aid of the French Emperor, in compliance
with the request presented by the illustrious Rinaldo, as
ambassador of King Charles, his uncle.

By this time the curiosity of the English chevaliers was partly
gratified in beholding the Hippogriff at rest, and Rogero, to
renew their surprise and delight, remounted the animal, and,
slapping spurs to his sides, made him launch into the air with the
rapidity of a meteor, and directed his flight still westwardly,
till he came within sight of the coasts of Ireland. Here he
descried what seemed to be a fair damsel, alone, fast chained to a
rock which projected into the sea. What was his astonishment when,
drawing nigh, he beheld the beautiful princess Angelica! That day
she had been led forth and bound to the rock, there to wait till
the sea-monster should come to devour her. Rogero exclaimed as he
came near, "What cruel hands, what barbarous soul, what fatal
chance can have loaded thee with those chains?" Angelica replied
by a torrent of tears, at first her only response; then, in a
trembling voice, she disclosed to him the horrible destiny for
which she was there exposed. While she spoke, a terrible roaring
was heard far off on the sea. The huge monster soon came in sight,
part of his body appearing above the waves and part concealed.
Angelica, half dead with fear, abandoned herself to despair.

Rogero, lance in rest, spurred his Hippogriff toward the Orc, and
gave him a thrust. The horrible monster was like nothing that
nature produces. It was but one mass of tossing and twisting body,
with nothing of the animal but head, eyes, and mouth, the last
furnished with tusks like those of the wild boar. Rogero's lance
had struck him between the eyes; but rock and iron are not more
impenetrable than were his scales. The knight, seeing the
fruitlessness of the first blow, prepared to give a second. The
animal, beholding upon the water the shadow of the great wings of
the Hippogriff, abandoned his prey, and turned to seize what
seemed nearer. Rogero took the opportunity, and dealt him furious
blows on various parts of his body, taking care to keep clear of
his murderous teeth; but the scales resisted every attack. The Orc
beat the water with his tail till he raised a foam which enveloped
Rogero and his steed, so that the knight hardly knew whether he
was in the water or the air. He began to fear that the wings of
the Hippogriff would be so drenched with water that they would
cease to sustain him. At that moment Rogero bethought him of the
magic shield which hung at his saddle-bow; but the fear that
Angelica would also be blinded by its glare discouraged him from
employing it. Then he remembered the ring which Melissa had given
him, the power of which he had so lately proved. He hastened to
Angelica and placed it on her finger. Then, uncovering the
buckler, he turned its bright disk full in the face of the
detestable Orc. The effect was instantaneous. The monster,
deprived of sense and motion, rolled over on the sea, and lay
floating on his back. Rogero would fain have tried the effect of
his lance on the now exposed parts, but Angelica implored him to
lose no time in delivering her from her chains before the monster
should revive. Rogero, moved with her entreaties, hastened to do
so, and, having unbound her, made her mount behind him on the
Hippogriff. The animal, spurning the earth, shot up into the air,
and rapidly sped his way through it. Rogero, to give time to the
princess to rest after her cruel agitations, soon sought the earth
again, alighting on the shore of Brittany. Near the shore a thick
wood presented itself, which resounded with the songs of birds. In
the midst, a fountain of transparent water bathed the turf of a
little meadow. A gentle hill rose near by. Rogero, making the
Hippogriff alight in the meadow, dismounted, and took Angelica
from the horse.

When the first tumults of emotion had subsided Angelica, casting
her eyes downward, beheld the precious ring upon her finger, whose
virtues she was well acquainted with, for it was the very ring
which the Saracen Brunello had robbed her of. She drew it from her
finger and placed it in her mouth, and, quicker than we can tell
it, disappeared from the sight of the paladin.

Rogero looked around him on all sides, like one frantic, but soon
remembered the ring which he had so lately placed on her finger.
Struck with the ingratitude which could thus recompense his
services, he exclaimed: "Thankless beauty, is this then the reward
you make me? Do you prefer to rob me of my ring rather than
receive it as a gift? Willingly would I have given it to you, had
you but asked it." Thus he said, searching on all sides with arms
extended like a blind man, hoping to recover by the touch what was
lost to sight; but he sought in vain. The cruel beauty was already
far away.

Though sensible of her obligations to her deliverer, her first
necessity was for clothing, food, and repose. She soon reached a
shepherd's hut, where, entering unseen, she found what sufficed
for her present relief. An old herdsman inhabited the hut, whose
charges consisted of a drove of mares. When recruited by repose
Angelica selected one of the mares from the flock, and, mounting
the animal, felt the desire revive in her mind of returning to her
home in the East, and for that purpose would gladly have accepted
the protection of Orlando or of Sacripant across those wide
regions which divided her from her own country. In hopes of
meeting with one or the other of them she pursued her way.

Meanwhile Rogero, despairing of seeing Angelica again, returned to
the tree where he had left his winged horse, but had the
mortification to find that the animal had broken his bridle and
escaped. This loss, added to his previous disappointment,
overwhelmed him with vexation. Sadly he gathered up his arms,
threw his buckler over his shoulders, and, taking the first path
that offered, soon found himself within the verge of a dense and
widespread forest.

He had proceeded for some distance when he heard a noise on his
right, and, listening attentively, distinguished the clash of
arms. He made his way toward the place whence the sound proceeded,
and found two warriors engaged in mortal combat. One of them was a
knight of a noble and manly bearing, the other a fierce giant. The
knight appeared to exert consummate address in defending herself
against the massive club of the giant, evading his strokes, or
parrying them with sword or shield. Rogero stood spectator of the
combat, for he did not allow himself to interfere in it, though a
secret sentiment inclined him strongly to take part with the
knight. At length he saw with grief the massive club fall directly
on the head of the knight, who yielded to the blow, and fell
prostrate. The giant sprang forward to despatch him, and for that
purpose unlaced his helmet, when Rogero, with dismay, recognized
the face of Bradamante. He cried aloud, "Hold, miscreant!" and
sprang forward with drawn sword. Whereupon the giant, as if he
cared not to enter upon another combat, lifted Bradamante on his
shoulders, and ran with her into the forest.

Rogero plunged after him, but the long legs of the giant carried
him forward so fast that the paladin could hardly keep him in
sight. At length they issued from the wood, and Rogero perceived
before him a rich palace, built of marble, and adorned with
sculptures executed by a master hand. Into this edifice, through a
golden door, the giant passed, and Rogero followed; but, on
looking round, saw nowhere either the giant or Bradamante. He ran
from room to room, calling aloud on his cowardly foe to turn and
meet him; but got no response, nor caught another glimpse of the
giant or his prey. In his vain pursuit he met, without knowing
them, Ferrau, Florismart, King Gradasso, Orlando, and many others,
all of whom had been entrapped like himself into this enchanted
castle. It was a new stratagem of the magician Atlantes to draw
Rogero into his power, and to secure also those who might by any
chance endanger his safety. What Rogero had taken for Bradamante
was a mere phantom. That charming lady was far away, full of
anxiety for her Rogero, whose coming she had long expected.

The Emperor had committed to her charge the city and garrison of
Marseilles, and she held the post against the infidels with valor
and discretion. One day Melissa suddenly presented herself before
her. Anticipating her questions, she said, "Fear not for Rogero;
he lives, and is as ever true to you; but he has lost his liberty.
The fell enchanter has again succeeded in making him a prisoner.
If you would deliver him, mount your horse and follow me." She
told her in what manner Atlantes had deceived Rogero, in deluding
his eyes with the phantom of herself in peril. "Such," she
continued, "will be his arts in your own case, if you penetrate
the forest and approach that castle. You will think you behold
Rogero, when, in fact, you see only the enchanter himself. Be not
deceived, plunge your sword into his body, and trust me when I
tell you that, in slaying him, you will restore not only Rogero,
but with him many of the bravest knights of France, whom the
wizard's arts have withdrawn from the camp of their sovereign."

Bradamante promptly armed herself, and mounted her horse. Melissa
led her by forced journeys, by field and forest, beguiling the way
with conversation on the theme which interested her hearer most.
When at last they reached the forest, she repeated once more her
instructions, and then took her leave, for fear the enchanter
might espy her, and be put on his guard.

Bradamante rode on about two miles when suddenly she beheld
Rogero, as it appeared to her, hard pressed by two fierce giants.
While she hesitated she heard his voice calling on her for help.
At once the cautions of Melissa lost their weight. A sudden doubt
of the faith and truth of her kind monitress flashed across her
mind. "Shall I not believe my own eyes and ears?" she said, and
rushed forward to his defence. Rogero fled, pursued by the giants,
and Bradamante followed, passing with them through the castle
gate. When there, Bradamante was undeceived, for neither giant nor
knight was to be seen. She found herself a prisoner, but had not
the consolation of knowing that she shared the imprisonment of her
beloved. She saw various forms of men and women, but could
recognize none of them; and their lot was the same with respect to
her. Each viewed the others under some illusion of the fancy,
wearing the semblance of giants, dwarfs, or even four-footed
animals, so that there was no companionship or communication
between them.

ASTOLPHO'S ADVENTURES CONTINUED, AND ISABELLA'S BEGUN

When Astolpho escaped from the cruel Alcina, after a short abode
in the realm of the virtuous Logestilla, he desired to return to
his native country. Logestilla lent him the best vessel of her
fleet to convey him to the mainland. She gave him at parting a
wonderful book, which taught the secret of overcoming all manners
of enchantments, and begged him to carry it always with him, out
of regard for her. She also gave him another gift, which surpassed
everything of the kind that mortal workmanship can frame; yet it
was nothing in appearance but a simple horn.

Astolpho, protected by these gifts, thanked the good fairy, took
leave of her, and set out on his return to France. His voyage was
prosperous, and on reaching the desired port he took leave of the
faithful mariners, and continued his journey by land. As he
proceeded over mountains and through valleys he often met with
bands of robbers, wild beasts, and venomous serpents, but he had
only to sound his horn to put them all to flight.

Having landed in France, and traversed many provinces on his way
to the army, he one day, in crossing a forest, arrived beside a
fountain, and alighted to drink. While he stooped at the fountain
a young rustic sprang from the copse, mounted Rabican, and rode
away. It was a new trick of the enchanter Atlantes. Astolpho,
hearing the noise, turned his head just in time to see his loss;
and, starting up, pursued the thief, who, on his part, did not
press the horse to his full speed, but just kept in sight of his
pursuer till they both issued from the forest; and then Rabican
and his rider took shelter in a castle which stood near. Astolpho
followed, and penetrated without difficulty within the court-yard
of the castle, where he looked around for the rider and his horse,
but could see no trace of either, nor any person of whom he could
make inquiry. Suspecting that enchantment was employed to
embarrass him, he bethought him of his book, and on consulting it
discovered that his suspicions were well founded. He also learned
what course to pursue. He was directed to raise the stone which
served as a threshold, under which a spirit lay pent, who would
willingly escape, and leave the castle free of access. Astolpho
applied his strength to lift aside the stone. Thereupon the
magician put his arts in force. The castle was full of prisoners,
and the magician caused that to all of them Astolpho should appear
in some false guise--to some a wild beast, to others a giant, to
others a bird of prey. Thus all assailed him, and would quickly
have made an end of him, if he had not bethought him of his horn.
No sooner had he blown a blast than, at the horrid larum, fled the
cavaliers and the necromancer with them, like a flock of pigeons
at the sound of the fowler's gun. Astolpho then renewed his
efforts on the stone, and turned it over. The under face was all
inscribed with magical characters, which the knight defaced, as
directed by his book; and no sooner had he done so, than the
castle, with its walls and turrets, vanished into smoke.

The knights and ladies set at liberty were, besides Rogero and
Bradamante, Orlando, Gradasso, Florismart, and many more. At the
sound of the horn they fled, one and all, men and steeds, except
Rabican, which Astolpho secured, in spite of his terror. As soon
as the sound had ceased Rogero recognized Bradamante, whom he had
daily met during their imprisonment, but had been prevented from
knowing by the enchanter's arts. No words can tell the delight
with which they recognized each other, and recounted mutually all
that had happened to each since they were parted. Rogero took
advantage of the opportunity to press his suit, and found
Bradamante as propitious as he could wish, were it not for a
single obstacle, the difference of their faiths. "If he would
obtain her in marriage," she said, "he must in due form demand her
of her father, Duke Aymon, and must abandon his false prophet, and
become a Christian." The latter step was one which Rogero had for
some time intended taking, for reasons of his own. He therefore
gladly accepted the terms, and proposed that they should at once
repair to the abbey of Vallombrosa, whose towers were visible at
no great distance. Thither they turned their horses' heads, and we
will leave them to find their way without our company.

I know not if my readers recollect that at the moment when Rogero
had just delivered Angelica from the voracious Orc that scornful
beauty placed her ring in her mouth, and vanished out of sight. At
the same time the Hippogriff shook off his bridle, soared away,
and flew to rejoin his former master, very naturally returning to
his accustomed stable. Here Astolpho found him, to his very great
delight. He knew the animal's powers, having seen Rogero ride him,
and he longed to fly abroad over all the earth, and see various
nations and peoples from his airy course. He had heard
Logestilla's directions how to guide the animal, and saw her fit a
bridle to his head. He therefore was able, out of all the bridles
he found in the stable, to select one suitable, and, placing
Rabican's saddle on the Hippogriff's back, nothing seemed to
prevent his immediate departure. Yet before he went he bethought
him of placing Rabican in hands where he would be safe, and whence
he might recover him in time of need. While he stood deliberating
where he should find a messenger, he saw Bradamante approach. That
fair warrior had been parted from Rogero on their way to the abbey
of Vallombrosa, by an inopportune adventure which had called the
knight away. She was now returning to Montalban, having arranged
with Rogero to join her there. To Bradamante, therefore, his fair
cousin, Astolpho committed Rabican, and also the lance of gold,
which would only be an incumbrance in his aerial excursion.
Bradamante took charge of both; and Astolpho, bidding her
farewell, soared in air.

Among those delivered by Astolpho from the magician's castle was
Orlando. Following the guide of chance, the paladin found himself
at the close of day in a forest, and stopped at the foot of a
mountain. Surprised to discern a light which came from a cleft in
the rock, he approached, guided by the ray, and discovered a
narrow passage in the mountain-side, which led into a deep grotto.

Orlando fastened his horse, and then, putting aside the bushes
that resisted his passage, stepped down from rock to rock till he
reached a sort of cavern. Entering it, he perceived a lady, young
and handsome, as well as he could discover through the signs of
distress which agitated her countenance. Her only companion was an
old woman, who seemed to be regarded by her young partner with
terror and indignation. The courteous paladin saluted the women
respectfully, and begged to know by whose barbarity they had been
subjected to such imprisonment.

The younger lady replied, in a voice often broken with sobs:

"Though I know well that my recital will subject me to worse
treatment by the barbarous man who keeps me here, to whom this
woman will not fail to report it, yet I will not hide from you the
facts. Ah! why should I fear his rage? If he should take my life,
I know not what better boon than death I can ask.

"My name is Isabella. I am the daughter of the king of Galicia, or
rather I should say misfortune and grief are my parents. Young,
rich, modest, and of tranquil temper, all things appeared to
combine to render my lot happy. Alas! I see myself to-day poor,
humbled, miserable, and destined perhaps to yet further
afflictions. It is a year since, my father having given notice
that he would open the lists for a tournament at Bayonne, a great
number of chevaliers from all quarters came together at our court.
Among these Zerbino, son of the king of Scotland, victorious in
all combats, eclipsed by his beauty and his valor all the rest.
Before departing from the court of Galicia he testified the wish
to espouse me, and I consented that he should demand my hand of
the king, my father. But I was a Mahometan, and Zerbino a
Christian, and my father refused his consent. The prince, called
home by his father to take command of the forces destined to the
assistance of the French Emperor, prevailed on me to be married to
him secretly, and to follow him to Scotland. He caused a galley to
be prepared to receive me, and placed in command of it the
chevalier Oderic, a Biscayan, famous for his exploits both by land
and sea. On the day appointed, Oderic brought his vessel to a
seaside resort of my father's, where I embarked. Some of my
domestics accompanied me, and thus I departed from my native land.

"Sailing with a fair wind, after some hours we were assailed by a
violent tempest. It was to no purpose that we took in all sail; we
were driven before the wind directly upon the rocky shore. Seeing
no other hopes of safety, Oderic placed me in a boat, followed
himself with a few of his men, and made for land. We reached it
through infinite peril, and I no sooner felt the firm land beneath
my feet, than I knelt down and poured out heartfelt thanks to the
Providence that had preserved me.

"The shore where we landed appeared to be uninhabited. We saw no
dwelling to shelter us, no road to lead us to a more hospitable
spot. A high mountain rose before us, whose base stretched into
the sea. It was here the infamous Oderic, in spite of my tears and
entreaties, sold me to a band of pirates, who fancied I might be
an acceptable present to their prince, the Sultan of Morocco. This
cavern is their den, and here they keep me under the guard of this
woman, until it shall suit their convenience to carry me away."

Isabella had hardly finished her recital when a troop of armed men
began to enter the cavern. Seeing the prince Orlando, one said to
the rest, "What bird is this we have caught, without even setting
a snare for him?" Then addressing Orlando, "It was truly civil in
you, friend, to come hither with that handsome coat of armor and
vest, the very things I want." "You shall pay for them, then,"
said Orlando; and seizing a half-burnt brand from the fire, he
hurled it at him, striking his head, and stretching him lifeless
on the floor.

There was a massy table in the middle of the cavern, used for the
pirates' repasts. Orlando lifted it and hurled it at the robbers
as they stood clustered in a group toward the entrance. Half the
gang were laid prostrate, with broken heads and limbs; the rest
got away as nimbly as they could.

Leaving the den and its inmates to their fate, Orlando, taking
Isabella under his protection, pursued his way for some days,
without meeting with any adventure.

One day they saw a band of men advancing, who seemed to be
guarding a prisoner, bound hand and foot, as if being carried to
execution. The prisoner was a youthful cavalier, of a noble and
ingenuous appearance. The band bore the ensigns of Count Anselm,
head of the treacherous house of Maganza. Orlando desired Isabella
to wait, while he rode forward to inquire the meaning of this
array. Approaching, he demanded of the leader who his prisoner
was, and of what crime he had been guilty. The man replied that
the prisoner was a murderer, by whose hand Pinabel, the son of
Count Anselm, had been treacherously slain. At these words the
prisoner exclaimed, "I am no murderer, nor have I been in any way
the cause of the young man's death." Orlando, knowing the cruel
and ferocious character of the chiefs of the house of Maganza,
needed no more to satisfy him that the youth was the victim of
injustice. He commanded the leader of the troop to release his
victim, and, receiving an insolent reply, dashed him to the earth
with a stroke of his lance; then by a few vigorous blows dispersed
the band, leaving deadly marks on those who were slowest to quit
the field.

Orlando then hastened to unbind the prisoner, and to assist him to
reclothe himself in his armor, which the false Magencian had dared
to assume. He then led him to Isabella, who now approached the
scene of action. How can we picture the joy, the astonishment,
with which Isabella recognized in him Zerbino, her husband, and
the prince discovered her whom he had believed overwhelmed in the
waves! They embraced one another, and wept for joy. Orlando,
sharing in their happiness, congratulated himself in having been
the instrument of it. The princess recounted to Zerbino what the
illustrious paladin had done for her, and the prince threw himself
at Orlando's feet, and thanked him as having twice preserved his
life.

While these exchanges of congratulation and thankfulness were
going on, a sound in the underwood attracted their attention, and
caused the two knights to brace their helmets and stand on their
guard. What the cause of the interruption was we shall record in
another chapter.

MEDORO

France was at this time the theatre of dreadful events. The
Saracens and the Christians, in numerous encounters, slew one
another. On one occasion Rinaldo led an attack on the infidel
columns, broke and scattered them, till he found himself opposite
to a knight whose armor (whether by accident or by choice, it
matters not) bore the blazon of Orlando. It was Dardinel, the
young and brave prince of Zumara, and Rinaldo remarked him by the
slaughter he spread all around. "Ah," said he to himself, "let us
pluck up this dangerous plant before it has grown to its full
height."

As Rinaldo advanced, the crowd opened before him, the Christians
to let his sword have free course, the Pagans to escape its sweep.
Dardinel and he stood face to face. Rinaldo exclaimed, fiercely,
"Young man, whoever gave you that noble buckler to bear made you a
dangerous gift; I should like to see how you are able to defend
those quarterings, red and white. If you cannot defend them
against me, how pray will you do so when Orlando challenges them?"
Dardinel replied: "Thou shalt learn that I can defend the arms I
bear, and shed new glory upon them. No one shall rend them from me
but with life." Saying these words, Dardinel rushed upon Rinaldo
with sword uplifted. The chill of mortal terror filled the souls
of the Saracens when they beheld Rinaldo advance to attack the
prince, like a lion against a young bull. The first blow came from
the hand of Dardinel, and the weapon rebounded from Mambrino's
helmet without effect. Rinaldo smiled, and said, "I will now show
you if my strokes are more effectual." At these words he thrust
the unfortunate Dardinel in the middle of his breast. The blow was
so violent that the cruel weapon pierced the body, and came out a
palm-breadth behind his back. Through this wound the life of
Dardinel issued with his blood, and his body fell helpless to the
ground.

As a flower which the passing plough has uprooted languishes, and
droops its head, so Dardinel, his visage covered with the paleness
of death, expires, and the hopes of an illustrious race perish
with him.

Like waters kept back by a dike, which, when the dike is broken,
spread abroad through all the country, so the Moors, no longer
kept in column by the example of Dardinel, fled in all directions.
Rinaldo despised too much such easy victories to pursue them; he
wished for no combats but with brave men. At the same time, the
other paladins made terrible slaughter of the Moors. Charles
himself, Oliver, Guido, and Ogier the Dane, carried death into
their ranks on all sides.

The infidels seemed doomed to perish to a man on that dreadful
day; but the wise king, Marsilius, at last put some slight degree
of method into the general rout. He collected the remnant of the
troops, formed them into a battalion, and retreated in tolerable
order to his camp. That camp was well fortified by intrenchments
and a broad ditch. Thither the fugitives hastened, and by degrees
all that remained of the Moorish army was brought together there.

The Emperor might perhaps that night have crushed his enemy
entirely; but not thinking it prudent to expose his troops,
fatigued as they were, to an attack upon a camp so well fortified,
he contented himself with encompassing the enemy with his troops,
prepared to make a regular siege. During the night the Moors had
time to see the extent of their loss. Their tents resounded with
lamentations. This warrior had to mourn a brother, that a friend;
many suffered with grievous wounds, all trembled at the fate in
store for them.

There were two young Moors, both of humble rank, who gave proof at
that time of attachment and fidelity rare in the history of man.
Cloridan and Medoro had followed their prince, Dardinel, to the
wars of France. Cloridan, a bold huntsman, combined strength with
activity. Medoro was a mere youth, his cheeks yet fair and
blooming. Of all the Saracens, no one united so much grace and
beauty. His light hair was set off by his black and sparkling
eyes. The two friends were together on guard at the rampart. About
midnight they gazed on the scene in deep dejection. Medoro, with
tears in his eyes, spoke of the good prince Dardinel, and could
not endure the thought that his body should be cast out on the
plain, deprived of funeral honors. "O my friend," said he, "must
then the body of our prince be the prey of wolves and ravens?
Alas! when I remember how he loved me, I feel that if I should
sacrifice my life to do him honor, I should not do more than my
duty. I wish, dear friend, to seek out his body on the
battlefield, and give it burial, and I hope to be able to pass
through King Charles's camp without discovery, as they are
probably all asleep. You, Cloridan, will be able to say for me, if
I should die in the adventure, that gratitude and fidelity to my
prince were my inducements."

Cloridan was both surprised and touched with this proof of the
young man's devotion. He loved him tenderly, and tried for a long
time every effort to dissuade him from his design; but he found
Medoro determined to accomplish his object or die in the endeavor.

Cloridan, unable to change his purpose, said, "I will go with you,
Medoro, and help you in this generous enterprise. I value not life
compared with honor, and if I did, do you suppose, dear friend,
that I could live without you? I would rather fall by the arms of
our enemies than die of grief for the loss of you."

When the two friends were relieved from their guard duty they went
without any followers into the camp of the Christians. All there
was still; the fires were dying out; there was no fear of any
attempt on the part of the Saracens, and the soldiers, overcome by
fatigue or wine, slept secure, lying upon the ground in the midst
of their arms and equipage. Cloridan stopped, and said, "Medoro, I
am not going to quit this camp without taking vengeance for the
death of our prince. Keep watch, be on your guard that no one
shall surprise us; I mean to mark a road with my sword through the
ranks of our enemies." So saying, he entered the tent where
Alpheus slept, who a year before had joined the camp of Charles,
and pretended to be a great physician and astrologer. But his
science had deceived him, if it gave him hope of dying peacefully
in his bed at a good old age; his lot was to die with little
warning. Cloridan ran his sword through his heart. A Greek and a
German followed, who had been playing late at dice: fortunate if
they had continued their game a little longer; but they never
reckoned a throw like this among their chances. Cloridan next came
to the unlucky Grillon, whose head lay softly on his pillow. He
dreamed probably of the feast from which he had but just retired;
for when Cloridan cut off his head wine flowed forth with the
blood.

The two young Moors might have penetrated even to the tent of
Charlemagne; but knowing that the paladins encamped around him
kept watch by turns, and judging that it was impossible they
should all be asleep, they were afraid to go too near. They might
also have obtained rich booty; but, intent only on their object,
they crossed the camp, and arrived at length at the bloody field,
where bucklers, lances, and swords lay scattered in the midst of
corpses of poor and rich, common soldier and prince, horses and
pools of blood. This terrible scene of carnage would have
destroyed all hope of finding what they were in search of until
dawn of day, were it not that the moon lent the aid of her
uncertain rays.

Medoro raised his eyes to the planet, and exclaimed, "O holy
goddess, whom our fathers have adored under three different
forms,--thou who displayest thy power in heaven, on earth, and in
the underworld,--thou who art seen foremost among the nymphs
chasing the beasts of the forest,--cause me to see, I implore
thee, the spot where my dear master lies, and make me all my life
long follow the example which thou dost exhibit of works of
charity and love."

Either by accident, or that the moon was sensible of the prayer of
Medoro, the cloud broke away, and the moonlight burst forth as
bright as day. The rays seemed especially to gild the spot where
lay the body of Prince Dardinel; and Medoro, bathed in tears and
with bleeding heart, recognized him by the quarterings of red and
white on his shield.

With groans stifled by his tears, and lamentations in accents
suppressed, not from any fear for himself, for he cared not for
life, but lest any one should be roused to interrupt their pious
duty while yet incomplete, he proposed to his companion that they
should together bear Dardinel on their shoulders, sharing the
burden of the beloved remains.

Marching with rapid strides under their precious load, they
perceived that the stars began to grow pale, and that the shades
of night would soon be dispersed by the dawn. Just then Zerbino,
whose extreme valor had urged him far from the camp in pursuit of
the fugitives, returning, entered the wood in which they were.
Some knights in his train perceived at a distance the two
brothers-in-arms. Cloridan saw the troop, and, observing that they
dispersed themselves over the plain as if in search of booty, told
Medoro to lay down the body, and let each save himself by flight.
He dropped his part, thinking that Medoro would do the same; but
the good youth loved his prince too well to abandon him, and
continued to carry his load singly as well as he might, while
Cloridan made his escape. Near by there was a part of the wood
tufted as if nothing but wild animals had ever penetrated it. The
unfortunate youth, loaded with the weight of his dead master,
plunged into its recesses.

Cloridan, when he perceived that he had evaded his foes,
discovered that Medoro was not with him. "Ah!" exclaimed he, "how
could I, dear Medoro, so forget myself as to consult my own safety
without heeding yours?" So saying, he retraced the tangled passes
of the wood toward the place from whence he had fled. As he
approached he heard the noise of horses, and the menacing voices
of armed men. Soon he perceived Medoro, on foot, with the
cavaliers surrounding him. Zerbino, their commander, bade them
seize him. The unhappy Medoro turned now this way, now that,
trying to conceal himself behind an oak or a rock, still bearing
the body, which he would by no means leave. Cloridan not knowing
how to help him, but resolved to perish with him, if he must
perish, takes an arrow, fits it to his bow, discharges it, and
pierces the breast of a Christian knight, who falls helpless from
his horse. The others look this way and that, to discover whence
the fatal bolt was sped. One, while demanding of his comrades in
what direction the arrow came, received a second in his throat,
which stopped his words, and soon closed his eyes to the scene.

Zerbino, furious at the death of his two comrades, ran upon
Medoro, seized his golden hair, and dragged him forward to slay
him. But the sight of so much youth and beauty commanded pity. He
stayed his arm. The young man spoke in suppliant tones. "Ah!
signor," said he, "I conjure you by the God whom you serve,
deprive me not of life until I shall have buried the body of the
prince, my master. Fear not that I will ask you any other favor;
life is not dear to me; I desire death as soon as I shall have
performed this sacred duty. Do with me then as you please. Give my
limbs a prey to the birds and beasts; only let me first bury my
prince." Medoro pronounced these words with an air so sweet and
tender that a heart of stone would have been moved by them.
Zerbino was so to the bottom of his soul. He was on the point of
uttering words of mercy, when a cruel subaltern, forgetting all
respect to his commander, plunged his lance into the breast of the
young Moor. Zerbino, enraged at his brutality, turned upon the
wretch to take vengeance, but he saved himself by a precipitate
flight.

Cloridan, who saw Medoro fall, could contain himself no longer. He
rushed from his concealment, threw down his bow, and, sword in
hand, seemed only desirous of vengeance for Medoro, and to die
with him. In a moment, pierced through and through with many
wounds, he exerts the last remnant of his strength in dragging
himself to Medoro, to die embracing him. The cavaliers left them
thus to rejoin Zerbino, whose rage against the murderer of Medoro
had drawn him away from the spot.

Cloridan died; and Medoro, bleeding copiously, was drawing near
his end when help arrived.

A young maiden approached the fallen knights at this critical
moment. Her dress was that of a peasant-girl, but her air was
noble, and her beauty celestial; sweetness and goodness reigned in
her lovely countenance. It was no other than Angelica, the
Princess of Cathay.

When she had recovered that precious ring, as we have before
related, Angelica, knowing its value, felt proud in the power it
conferred, travelled alone without fear, not without a secret
shame that she had ever been obliged to seek protection in her
wanderings of the Count Orlando and of Sacripant. She reproached
herself too as with a weakness that she had ever thought of
marrying Rinaldo; in fine, her pride grew so high as to persuade
her that no man living was worthy to aspire to her hand.

Moved with pity at the sight of the young man wounded, and melted
to tears at hearing the cause, she quickly recalled to remembrance
the knowledge she had acquired in India, where the virtues of
plants and the art of healing formed part of the education even of
princesses. The beautiful queen ran into the adjoining meadow to
gather plants of virtue to staunch the flow of blood. Meeting on
her way a countryman on horseback seeking a strayed heifer, she
begged him to come to her assistance, and endeavor to remove the
wounded man to a more secure asylum.

Angelica, having prepared the plants by bruising them between two
stones, laid them with her fair hand on Medoro's wound. The remedy
soon restored in some degree the strength of the wounded man, who,
before he would quit the spot, made them cover with earth and turf
the bodies of his friend and of the prince. Then surrendering
himself to the pity of his deliverers, he allowed them to place
him on the horse of the shepherd, and conduct him to his cottage.
It was a pleasant farmhouse on the borders of the wood, bearing
marks of comfort and competency. There the shepherd lived with his
wife and children. There Angelica tended Medoro, and there, by the
devoted care of the beautiful queen, his sad wound closed over,
and he recovered his perfect health.

O Count Rinaldo, O King Sacripant! what availed it you to possess
so many virtues and such fame? What advantage have you derived
from all your high deserts? O hapless king, great Agrican! if you
could return to life, how would you endure to see yourself
rejected by one who will bow to the yoke of Hymen in favor of a
young soldier of humble birth? And thou, Ferrau, and ye numerous
others who a hundred times have put your lives at hazard for this
cruel beauty, how bitter will it be to you to see her sacrifice
you all to the claims of the humble Medoro!

There, under the low roof of a shepherd, the flame of Hymen was
lighted for this haughty queen. She takes the shepherd's wife to
serve in place of mother, the shepherd and his children for
witnesses, and marries the happy Medoro.

Angelica, after her marriage, wishing to endow Medoro with the
sovereignty of the countries which yet remained to her, took with
him the road to the East. She had preserved through all her
adventures a bracelet of gold enriched with precious stones, the
present of the Count Orlando. Having nothing else wherewith to
reward the good shepherd and his wife, who had served her with so
much care and fidelity, she took the bracelet from her arm and
gave it to them, and then the newly-married couple directed their
steps toward those mountains which separate France and Spain,
intending to wait at Barcelona a vessel which should take them on
their way to the East.

ORLANDO MAD

Orlando, on the loss of Angelica, laid aside his crest and arms,
and arrayed himself in a suit of black armor expressive of his
despair. In this guise he carried such slaughter among the ranks
of the infidels that both armies were astonished at the
achievements of the stranger knight. Mandricardo, who had been
absent from the battle, heard the report of these achievements and
determined to test for himself the valor of the knight so
extolled. He it was who broke in upon the conference of Zerbino
and Isabella, and their benefactor Orlando, as they stood occupied
in mutual felicitations, after the happy reunion of the lovers by
the prowess of the paladin.

Mandricardo, after contemplating the group for a moment, addressed
himself to Orlando in these words: "Thou must be the man I seek.
For ten days and more I have been on thy track. The fame of thy
exploits has brought me hither, that I may measure my strength
with thine. Thy crest and shield prove thee the same who spread
such slaughter among our troops. But these marks are superfluous,
and if I saw thee among a hundred I should know thee by thy
martial bearing to be the man I seek."

"I respect thy courage," said Orlando; "such a design could not
have sprung up in any but a brave and generous soul. If the desire
to see me has brought thee hither, I would, if it were possible,
show thee my inmost soul. I will remove my visor, that you may
satisfy your curiosity; but when you have done so I hope that you
will also try and see if my valor corresponds to my appearance."
"Come on," said the Saracen, "my first wish was to see and know
thee; I will not gratify my second."

Orlando, observing Mandricardo was surprised to see no sword at
his side, nor mace at his saddle-bow. "And what weapon hast thou,"
said he, "if thy lance fail thee?"

"Do not concern yourself about that," said Mandricardo; "I have
made many good knights give ground with no other weapon than you
see. Know that I have sworn an oath never to bear a sword until I
win back that famous Durindana that Orlando, the paladin, carries.
That sword belongs to the suit of armor which I wear; that only is
wanting. Without doubt it was stolen, but how it got into the
hands of Orlando I know not. But I will make him pay dearly for it
when I find him I seek him the more anxiously that I may avenge
with his blood the death of King Agrican, my father, whom he
treacherously slew. I am sure he must have done it by treachery,
for it was not in his power to subdue in fair fight such a warrior
as my father."

"Thou liest," cried Orlando; "and all who say so lie. I am
Orlando, whom you seek; yes, I am he who slew your father
honorably. Hold, here is the sword: you shall have it if your
courage avails to merit it. Though it belongs to me by right, I
will not use it in this dispute. See, I hang it on this tree; you
shall be master of it, if you bereave me of life; not else."

At these words Orlando drew Durindana, and hung it on one of the
branches of a tree near by.

Both knights, boiling with equal ardor, rode off in a semicircle;
then rushed together with reins thrown loose, and struck one
another with their lances. Both kept their seats, immovable. The
splinters of their lances flew into the air, and no weapon
remained for either but the fragment which he held in his hand.
Then those two knights, covered with iron mail, were reduced to
the necessity of fighting with staves, in the manner of two
rustics, who dispute the boundary of a meadow, or the possession
of a spring.

These clubs could not long keep whole in the hands of such sturdy
smiters, who were soon reduced to fight with naked fists. Such
warfare was more painful to him that gave than to him that
received the blows. They next clasped, and strained each his
adversary, as Hercules did Antaeus. Mandricardo, more enraged than
Orlando, made violent efforts to unseat the paladin, and dropped
the rein of his horse. Orlando, more calm, perceived it. With one
hand he resisted Mandricardo, with the other he twitched the
horse's bridle over the ears of the animal. The Saracen dragged
Orlando with all his might, but Orlando's thighs held the saddle
like a vise. At last the efforts of the Saracen broke the girths
of Orlando's horse; the saddle slipped; the knight, firm in his
stirrups, slipped with it, and came to the ground hardly conscious
of his fall. The noise of his armor in falling startled
Mandricardo's horse, now without a bridle. He started off in full
career, heeding neither trees nor rocks nor broken ground. Urged
by fright, he ran with furious speed, carrying his master, who,
almost distracted with rage, shouted and beat the animal with his
fists, and thereby impelled his flight. After running thus three
miles or more, a deep ditch opposed their progress. The horse and
rider fell headlong into it, and did not find the bottom covered
with feather-beds or roses. They got sadly bruised; but were lucky
enough to escape without any broken limbs.

Mandricardo, as soon as he gained his feet, seized the horse by
his mane with fury; but, having no bridle, could not hold him. He
looked round in hopes of finding something that would do for a
rein. Just then fortune, who seemed willing to help him at last,
brought that way a peasant with a bridle in his hand, who was in
search of his farm horse that had strayed away.

Orlando, having speedily repaired his horse's girths, remounted,
and waited a good hour for the Saracen to return. Not seeing him,
he concluded to go in search of him. He took an affectionate leave
of Zerbino and Isabella, who would willingly have followed him;
but this the brave paladin would by no means permit. He held it
unknightly to go in search of an enemy accompanied by a friend,
who might act as a defender. Therefore, desiring them to say to
Mandricardo, if they should meet him, that his purpose was to
tarry in the neighborhood three days, and then repair to the camp
of Charlemagne, he took down Durindana from the tree, and
proceeded in the direction which the Saracen's horse had taken.
But the animal, having no guide but its terror, had so doubled and
confused its traces that Orlando, after two days spent in the
search, gave up the attempt.

It was about the middle of the third day when the paladin arrived
on the pleasant bank of a stream which wound through a meadow
enamelled with flowers. High trees, whose tops met and formed an
arbor, over-shadowed the fountain; and the breeze which blew
through their foliage tempered the heat. Hither the shepherds used
to resort to quench their thirst, and to enjoy the shelter from
the midday sun. The air, perfumed with the flowers, seemed to
breathe fresh strength into their veins. Orlando felt the
influence, though covered with his armor. He stopped in this
delicious arbor, where everything seemed to invite to repose. But
he could not have chosen a more fatal asylum. He there spent the
most miserable moments of his life.

He looked around, and noted with pleasure all the charms of the
spot. He saw that some of the trees were carved with inscriptions
--he drew near, and read them, and what was his surprise to find
that they composed the name of Angelica! Farther on he found the
name of Medoro mixed with hers. The paladin thought he dreamed. He
stood like one amazed--like a bird that, rising to fly, finds its
feet caught in a net.

Orlando followed the course of the stream, and came to one of its
turns where the rocks of the mountain bent in such a way as to
form a sort of grotto. The twisted stems of ivy and the wild vine
draped the entrance of this recess, scooped by the hand of nature.

The unhappy paladin, on entering the grotto, saw letters which
appeared to have been lately carved. They were verses which Medoro
had written in honor of his happy nuptials with the beautiful
queen. Orlando tried to persuade himself it must be some other
Angelica whom those verses celebrated, and as for Medoro, he had
never heard his name. The sun was now declining, and Orlando
remounted his horse, and went on his way. He soon saw the roof of
a cottage whence the smoke ascended; he heard the barking of dogs
and the lowing of cattle, and arrived at a humble dwelling which
seemed to offer an asylum for the night. The inmates, as soon as
they saw him, hastened to tender him service. One took his horse,
another his shield and cuirass, another his golden spurs. This
cottage was the very same where Medoro had been carried, deeply
wounded,--where Angelica had tended him, and afterwards married
him. The shepherd who lived in it loved to tell everybody the
story of this marriage, and soon related it, with all its details,
to the miserable Orlando.

Having finished it, he went away, and returned with the precious
bracelet which Angelica, grateful for his services, had given him
as a memorial. It was the one which Orlando had himself given her.

This last touch was the finishing stroke to the excited paladin.
Frantic, exasperated, he exclaimed against the ungrateful and
cruel princess who had disdained him, the most renowned, the most
indomitable of all the paladins of France,--him, who had rescued
her from the most alarming perils,--him, who had fought the most
terrible battles for her sake,--she to prefer to him a young
Saracen! The pride of the noble Count was deeply wounded.
Indignant, frantic, a victim to ungovernable rage, he rushed into
the forest, uttering the most frightful shrieks.

"No, no!" cried he, "I am not the man they take me for! Orlando is
dead! I am only the wandering ghost of that unhappy Count, who is
now suffering the torments of hell!"

Orlando wandered all night, as chance directed, through the wood,
and at sunrise his destiny led him to the fountain where Medoro
had engraved the fatal inscription. The frantic paladin saw it a
second time with fury, drew his sword, and hacked it from the
rock.

Unlucky grotto! you shall no more attract by your shade and
coolness, you shall no more shelter with your arch either shepherd
or flock. And you, fresh and pure fountain, you may not escape the
rage of the furious Orlando! He cast into the fountain branches,
trunks of trees which he tore up, pieces of rocks which he broke
off, plants uprooted, with the earth adhering, and turf and
brushes, so as to choke the fountain, and destroy the purity of
its waters. At length, exhausted by his violent exertions, bathed
in sweat, breathless, Orlando sunk panting upon the earth, and lay
there insensible three days and three nights.

The fourth day he started up and seized his arms. His helmet, his
buckler, he cast far from him; his hauberk and his clothes he rent
asunder; the fragments were scattered through the wood. In fine,
he became a furious madman. His insanity was such that he cared
not to retain even his sword. But he had no need of Durindana, nor
of other arms, to do wonderful things. His prodigious strength
sufficed. At the first wrench of his mighty arm he tore up a pine-
tree by the roots. Oaks, beeches, maples, whatever he met in his
path, yielded in like manner. The ancient forest soon became as
bare as the borders of a morass, where the fowler has cleared away
the bushes to spread his nets. The shepherds, hearing the horrible
crashing in the forest, abandoned their flocks to run and see the
cause of this unwonted uproar. By their evil star, or for their
sins, they were led thither. When they saw the furious state the
Count was in, and his incredible force, they would fain have fled
out of his reach, but in their fears lost their presence of mind.
The madman pursued them, seized one and rent him limb from limb,
as easily as one would pull ripe apples from a tree. He took
another by the feet, and used him as a club to knock down a third.
The shepherds fled; but it would have been hard for any to escape,
if he had not at that moment left them to throw himself with the
same fury upon their flocks. The peasants, abandoning their
ploughs and harrows, mounted on the roofs of buildings and
pinnacles of the rocks, afraid to trust themselves even to the
oaks and pines. From such heights they looked on, trembling at the
raging fury of the unhappy Orlando. His fists, his teeth, his
nails, his feet, seize, break, and tear cattle, sheep, and swine;
the most swift in flight alone being able to escape him.

When at last terror had scattered everything before him, he
entered a cottage which was abandoned by its inhabitants, and
there found that which served for food. His long fast had caused
him to feel the most ravenous hunger. Seizing whatever he found
that was eatable, whether roots, acorns, or bread, raw meat or
cooked, he gorged it indiscriminately.

Issuing thence again, the frantic Orlando gave chase to whatever
living thing he saw, whether men or animals. Sometimes he pursued
the deer and hind, sometimes he attacked bears and wolves, and
with his naked hands killed and tore them, and devoured their
flesh.

Thus he wandered, from place to place, through France, imperilling
his life a thousand ways, yet always preserved by some mysterious
providence from a fatal result. But here we leave Orlando for a
time, that we may record what befell Zerbino and Isabella after
their parting with him.

The prince and his fair bride waited, by Orlando's request, near
the scene of the battle for three days, that, if Mandricardo
should return, they might inform him where Orlando would give him
another meeting. At the end of that time their anxiety to know the
issue led them to follow Orlando's traces, which led them at last
to the wood where the trees were inscribed with the names of
Angelica and Medoro. They remarked how all these inscriptions were
defaced, and how the grotto was disordered, and the fountain
clogged with rubbish. But that which surprised them and distressed
them most of all was to find on the grass the cuirass of Orlando,
and not far from it his helmet, the same which the renowned
Almontes once wore.

Hearing a horse neigh in the forest, Zerbino turned his eyes in
that direction, and saw Brigliadoro, with the bridle yet hanging
at the saddle-bow. He looked round for Durindana, and found that
famous sword, without the scabbard, lying on the grass. He saw
also the fragments of Orlando's other arms and clothing scattered
on all sides over the plain.

Zerbino and Isabella stood in astonishment and grief, not knowing
what to think, but little imagining the true cause. If they had
found any marks of blood on the arms or on the fragments of the
clothing, they would have supposed him slain, but there were none.
While they were in this painful uncertainty they saw a young
peasant approach. He, not yet recovered from the terror of the
scene, which he had witnessed from the top of a rock, told them
the whole of the sad events.

Zerbino, with his eyes full of tears, carefully collected all the
scattered arms. Isabella also dismounted to aid him in the sad
duty. When they had collected all the pieces of that rich armor
they hung them like a trophy on a pine; and to prevent their being
violated by any passers-by, Zerbino inscribed on the bark this
caution: "These are the arms of the Paladin Orlando."

Having finished this pious work, he remounted his horse, and just
then a knight rode up, and requested Zerbino to tell him the
meaning of the trophy. The prince related the facts as they had
happened; and Mandricardo, for it was that Saracen knight, full of
joy, rushed forward, and seized the sword, saying, "No one can
censure me for what I do; this sword is mine; I can take my own
wherever I find it. It is plain that Orlando, not daring to defend
it against me, has counterfeited madness to excuse him in
surrendering it."

Zerbino vehemently exclaimed, "Touch not that sword. Think not to
possess it without a contest. If it be true that the arms you wear
are those of Hector, you must have got them by theft, and not by
prowess."

Immediately they attacked one another with the utmost fury. The
air resounded with thick-falling blows. Zerbino, skilful and
alert, evaded for a time with good success the strokes of
Durindana; but at length a terrible blow struck him on the neck.
He fell from his horse, and the Tartar king, possessed of the
spoils of his victory, rode away.

ZERBINO AND ISABELLA

Zerbino's pain at seeing the Tartar prince go off with the sword
surpassed the anguish of his wound; but now the loss of blood so
reduced his strength that he could not move from where he fell.
Isabella, not knowing whither to resort for help, could only
bemoan him, and chide her cruel fate. Zerbino said, "If I could
but leave thee, my best beloved, in some secure abode, it would
not distress me to die; but to abandon thee so, without
protection, is sad indeed." She replied, "Think not to leave me,
dearest; our souls shall not be parted; this sword will give me
the means to follow thee." Zerbino's last words implored her to
banish such a thought, but live, and be true to his memory.
Isabella promised, with many tears, to be faithful to him so long
as life should last.

When he ceased to breathe, Isabella's cries resounded through the
forest, and reached the ears of a reverend hermit, who hastened to
the spot. He soothed and calmed her, urging those consolations
which the word of God supplies; and at last brought her to wish
for nothing else but to devote herself for the rest of life wholly
to religion.

As she could not bear the thoughts of leaving her dead lord
abandoned, the body was, by the good hermit's aid, placed upon the
horse, and taken to the nearest inhabited place, where a chest was
made for it, suitable to be carried with them on their way. The
hermit's plan was to escort his charge to a monastery, not many
days' journey distant, where Isabella resolved to spend the
remainder of her days. Thus they travelled day after day, choosing
the most retired ways, for the country was full of armed men. One
day a cavalier met them, and barred their way. It was no other
than Rodomont, king of Algiers, who had just left the camp of
Agramant, full of indignation at the treatment he had received
from Doralice. At sight of the lovely lady and her reverend
attendant, with their horse laden with a burden draped with black,
he asked the meaning of their journey. Isabella told him her
affliction, and her resolution to renounce the world and devote
herself to religion, and to the memory of the friend she had lost.
Rodomont laughed scornfully at this, and told her that her project
was absurd; that charms like hers were meant to be enjoyed, not
buried, and that he himself would more than make amends for her
dead lover. The monk, who promptly interposed to rebuke this
impious talk, was commanded to hold his peace; and still
persisting was seized by the knight and hurled over the edge of
the cliff, where he fell into the sea, and was drowned.

Rodomont, when he had got rid of the hermit, again applied to the
sad lady, heartless with affright, and, in the language used by
lovers, said, "she was his very heart, his life, his light."
Having laid aside all violence, he humbly sued that she would
accompany him to his retreat, near by. It was a ruined chapel from
which the monks had been driven by the disorders of the time, and
which Rodomont had taken possession of. Isabella, who had no
choice but to obey, followed him, meditating as she went what
resource she could find to escape out of his power, and keep her
vow to her dead husband, to be faithful to his memory as long as
life should last. At length she said, "If, my lord, you will let
me go and fulfil my vow, and my intention, as I have already
declared it, I will bestow upon you what will be to you of more
value than a hundred women's hearts. I know an herb, and I have
seen it on our way, which, rightly prepared, affords a juice of
such power, that the flesh, if laved with it, becomes impenetrable
to sword or fire. This liquor I can make, and will, to-day, if you
will accept my offer; and when you have seen its virtue you will
value it more than if all Europe were made your own."

Rodomont, at hearing this, readily promised all that was asked, so
eager was he to learn a secret that would make him as Achilles was
of yore. Isabella, having collected such herbs as she thought
proper, and boiled them, with certain mysterious signs and words,
at length declared her labor done, and, as a test, offered to try
its virtue on herself. She bathed her neck and bosom with the
liquor, and then called on Rodomont to smite with all his force,
and see whether his sword had power to harm. The pagan, who during
the preparations had taken frequent draughts of wine, and scarce
knew what he did, drew his sword at the word, and struck across
her neck with all his might, and the fair head leapt sundered from
the snowy neck and breast.

Rude and unfeeling as he was, the pagan knight lamented bitterly
this sad result. To honor her memory he resolved to do a work as
unparalleled as her devotion. From all parts round he caused
laborers to be brought, and had a tower built to enclose the
chapel, within which the remains of Zerbino and Isabella were
entombed. Across the stream which flowed near by he built a
bridge, scarce two yards wide, and added neither parapet nor rail.
On the top of the tower a sentry was placed, who, when any
traveller approached the bridge, gave notice to his master.
Rodomont thereupon sallied out, and defied the approaching knight
to fight him upon the bridge, where any chance step a little aside
would plunge the rider headlong in the stream. This bridge he
vowed to keep until a thousand suits of armor should be won from
conquered knights, wherewith to build a trophy to his victim and
her lord.

Within ten days the bridge was built, and the tower was in
progress. In a short time many knights, either seeking the
shortest route, or tempted by a desire of adventure, had made the
attempt to pass the bridge. All, without exception, had lost
either arms or life, or both; some falling before Rodomont's
lance, others precipitated into the river. One day, as Rodomont
stood urging his workmen, it chanced that Orlando in his furious
mood came thither, and approached the bridge. Rodomont halloed to
him, "Halt, churl; presume not to set foot upon that bridge; it
was not made for such as you!" Orlando took no notice, but pressed
on. Just then a gentle damsel rode up. It was Flordelis, who was
seeking her Florismart. She saw Orlando, and, in spite of his
strange appearance, recognized him. Rodomont, not used to have his
commands disobeyed, laid hands on the madman, and would have
thrown him into the river, but to his astonishment found himself
in the gripe of one not so easily disposed of. "How can a fool
have such strength?" he growled between his teeth. Flordelis
stopped to see the issue, where each of these two puissant
warriors strove to throw the other from the bridge. Orlando at
last had strength enough to lift his foe with all his armor, and
fling him over the side, but had not wit to clear himself from
him, so both fell together. High flashed the wave as they together
smote its surface. Here Orlando had the advantage; he was naked,
and could swim like a fish. He soon reached the bank, and,
careless of praise or blame, stopped not to see what came of the
adventure. Rodomont, entangled with his armor, escaped with
difficulty to the bank. Meantime, Flordelis passed the bridge
unchallenged.

After long wandering without success she returned to Paris, and
there found the object of her search; for Florismart, after the
fall of Albracca, had repaired thither. The joy of meeting was
clouded to Florismart by the news which Flordelis brought of
Orlando's wretched plight. The last she had seen of him was when
he fell with Rodomont into the stream. Florismart, who loved
Orlando like a brother, resolved to set out immediately, under the
guidance of the lady, to find him, and bring him where he might
receive the treatment suited to his case. A few days brought them
to the place where they found the Tartar king still guarding the
bridge. The usual challenge and defiance was made, and the knights
rode to encounter one another on the bridge. At the first
encounter both horses were overthrown; and, having no space to
regain their footing, fell with their riders into the water.
Rodomont, who knew the soundings of the stream, soon recovered the
land; but Florismart was carried downward by the current, and
landed at last on a bank of mud where his horse could hardly find
footing. Flordelis, who watched the battle from the bridge, seeing
her lover in this piteous case, exclaimed aloud, "Ah! Rodomont,
for love of her whom dead you honor, have pity on me, who love
this knight, and slay him not. Let it suffice he yields his armor
to the pile, and none more glorious will it bear than his." Her
prayer, so well directed, touched the pagan's heart, though hard
to move, and he lent his aid to help the knight to land. He kept
him a prisoner, however, and added his armor to the pile.
Flordelis, with a heavy heart, went her way.

We must now return to Rogero, who, when we parted with him, was
engaged in an adventure which arrested his progress to the
monastery whither he was bound with the intention of receiving
baptism, and thus qualifying himself to demand Bradamante as his
bride. On his way he met with Mandricardo, and the quarrel was
revived respecting the right to wear the badge of Hector. After a
warm discussion both parties agreed to submit the question to King
Agramant, and for that purpose took their way to the Saracen camp.
Here they met Gradasso, who had his controversy also with
Mandricardo. This warrior claimed the sword of Orlando, denying
the right of Mandricardo to possess it in virtue of his having
found it abandoned by its owner. King Agramant strove in vain to
reconcile these quarrels, and was forced at last to consent that
the points in dispute should be settled by one combat, in which
Mandricardo should meet one of the other champions, to whom should
be committed the cause of both. Rogero was chosen by lot to
maintain Gradasso's cause and his own. Great preparations were
made for this signal contest. On the appointed day it was fought
in the presence of Agramant, and of the whole army. Rogero won it;
and Mandricardo, the conqueror of Hector's arms, the challenger of
Orlando, and the slayer of Zerbino, lost his life. Gradasso
received Durindana as his prize, which lost half its value in his
eyes, since it was won by another's prowess, not his own.

Rogero, though victorious, was severely wounded, and lay helpless
many weeks in the camp of Agramant, while Bradamante, ignorant of
the cause of his delay, expected him at Montalban. Thither he had
promised to repair in fifteen days, or twenty at furthest, hoping
to have obtained by that time an honorable discharge from his
obligations to the Saracen commander. The twenty days were passed,
and a month more, and still Rogero came not, nor did any tidings
reach Bradamante accounting for his absence. At the end of that
time, a wandering knight brought news of the famous combat, and of
Rogero's wound. He added, what alarmed Bradamante still more, that
Marphisa, a female warrior, young and fair, was in attendance on
the wounded knight. He added that the whole army expected that, as
soon as Rogero's wounds were healed, the pair would be united in
marriage.

Bradamante, distressed by this news, though she believed it but in
part, resolved to go immediately and see for herself. She mounted
Rabican, the horse of Astolpho, which he had committed to her
care, and took with her the lance of gold, though unaware of its
wonderful powers. Thus accoutred, she left the castle, and took
the road toward Paris and the camp of the Saracens.

Marphisa, whose devotion to Rogero in his illness had so excited
the jealousy of Bradamante, was the twin sister of Rogero. She,
with him, had been taken in charge when an infant by Atlantes, the
magician, but while yet a child she had been stolen away by an
Arab tribe. Adopted by their chief, she had early learned
horsemanship and skill in arms, and at this time had come to the
camp of Agramant with no other view than to see and test for
herself the prowess of the warriors of either camp, whose fame
rang through the world. Arriving at the very moment of the late
encounter, the name of Rogero, and some few facts of his story
which she learned, were enough to suggest the idea that it was her
brother whom she saw victorious in the single combat. Inquiry
satisfied the two of their near kindred, and from that moment
Marphisa devoted herself to the care of her new-found and much-
loved brother.

In those moments of seclusion Rogero informed his sister of what
he had learned of their parentage from old Atlantes. Rogero, their
father, a Christian knight, had won the heart of Galaciella,
daughter of the Sultan of Africa, and sister of King Agramant,
converted her to the Christian faith, and secretly married her.
The Sultan, enraged at his daughter's marriage, drove her husband
into exile, and caused her with her infant children, Rogero and
Marphisa, to be placed in a boat and committed to the winds and
waves, to perish; from which fate they were saved by Atlantes. On
hearing this, Marphisa exclaimed, "How can you, brother, leave our
parents unavenged so long, and even submit to serve the son of the
tyrant who so wronged them?" Rogero replied that it was but lately
he had learned the full truth; that when he learned it he was
already embarked with Agramant, from whom he had received
knighthood, and that he only waited for a suitable opportunity
when he might with honor desert his standard, and at the same time
return to the faith of his fathers. Marphisa hailed this
resolution with joy, and declared her intention to join with him
in embracing the Christian faith.

We left Bradamante when, mounted on Rabican and armed with
Astolpho's lance, she rode forth, determined to learn the cause of
Rogero's long absence. One day, as she rode, she met a damsel, of
visage and of manners fair, but overcome with grief. It was
Flordelis, who was seeking far and near a champion capable of
liberating and avenging her lord. Flordelis marked the approaching
warrior, and, judging from appearances, thought she had found the
champion she sought. "Are you, Sir Knight," she said, "so daring
and so kind as to take up my cause against a fierce and cruel
warrior who has made prisoner of my lord, and forced me thus to be
a wanderer and a suppliant?" Then she related the events which had
happened at the bridge. Bradamante, to whom noble enterprises were
always welcome, readily embraced this, and the rather as in her
gloomy forebodings she felt as if Rogero was forever lost to her.

Next day the two arrived at the bridge. The sentry descried them
approaching, and gave notice to his lord, who thereupon donned his
armor and went forth to meet them. Here, as usual, he called on
the advancing warrior to yield his horse and arms an oblation to
the tomb. Bradamante replied, asking by what right he called on
the innocent to do penance for his crime. "Your life and your
armor," she added, "are the fittest offering to her tomb, and I, a
woman, the fittest champion to take them." With that she couched
her spear, spurred her horse, and ran to the encounter. King
Rodomont came on with speed. The trampling sounded on the bridge
like thunder. It took but a moment to decide the contest. The
golden lance did its office, and that fierce Moor, so renowned in
tourney, lay extended on the bridge. "Who is the loser now?" said
Bradamante; but Rodomont, amazed that a woman's hand should have
laid him low, could not or would not answer. Silent and sad, he
raised himself, unbound his helm and mail, and flung them against
the tomb; then, sullen and on foot, left the ground; but first
gave orders to one of his squires to release all his prisoners.
They had been sent off to Africa. Besides Florismart, there were
Sansonnet and Oliver, who had ridden that way in quest of Orlando,
and had both in turn been overthrown in the encounter.

Bradamante after her victory resumed her route, and in due time
reached the Christian camp, where she readily learned an
explanation of the mystery which had caused her so much anxiety.
Rogero and his fair and brave sister, Marphisa, were too
illustrious by their station and exploits not to be the frequent
topic of discourse even among their adversaries, and all that
Bradamante was anxious to know reached her ear, almost without
inquiry.

We now return to Gradasso, who by Rogero's victory had been made
possessor of Durindana. There now only remained to him to seek the
horse of Rinaldo; and the challenge, given and accepted, was yet
to be fought with that warrior, for it had been interrupted by the
arts of Malagigi. Gradasso now sought another meeting with
Rinaldo, and met with no reluctance on his part. As the combat was
for the possession of Bayard, the knights dismounted and fought on
foot. Long time the battle lasted. Rinaldo, knowing well the
deadly stroke of Durindana, used all his art to parry or avoid its
blow. Gradasso struck with might and main, but wellnigh all his
strokes were spent in air, or if they smote they fell obliquely
and did little harm.

Thus had they fought long, glancing at one another's eyes, and
seeing naught else, when their attention was arrested perforce by
a strange noise. They turned, and beheld the good Bayard attacked
by a monstrous bird. Perhaps it was a bird, for such it seemed;
but when or where such a bird was ever seen I have nowhere read,
except in Turpin; and I am inclined to believe that it was not a
bird, but a fiend, evoked from underground by Malagigi, and
thither sent on purpose to interrupt the fight. Whether a fiend or
a fowl, the monster flew right at Bayard, and clapped his wings in
his face. Thereat the steed broke loose, and ran madly across the
plain, pursued by the bird, till Bayard plunged into the wood, and
was lost to sight.

Rinaldo and Gradasso, seeing Bayard's escape, agreed to suspend
their battle till they could recover the horse, the object of
contention. Gradasso mounted his steed, and followed the foot-
marks of Bayard into the forest. Rinaldo, never more vexed in
spirit, remained at the spot, Gradasso having promised to return
thither with the horse, if he found him. He did find him, after
long search, for he had the good fortune to hear him neigh. Thus
he became possessed of both the objects for which he had led an
army from his own country, and invaded France. He did not forget
his promise to bring Bayard back to the place where he had left
Rinaldo, but only muttering, "Now I have got him, he little knows
me who expects me to give him up; if Rinaldo wants the horse let
him seek him in India, as I have sought him in France,"--he made
the best of his way to Arles, where his vessels lay; and in
possession of the two objects of his ambition, the horse and the
sword, sailed away to his own country.

ASTOLPHO IN ABYSSINIA

When we last parted with the adventurous paladin Astolpho, he was
just commencing that flight over the countries of the world from
which he promised himself so much gratification. Our readers are
aware that the eagle and the falcon have not so swift a flight as
the Hippogriff on which Astolpho rode. It was not long, therefore,
before the paladin, directing his course toward the southeast,
arrived over that part of Africa where the great river Nile has
its source. Here he alighted, and found himself in the
neighborhood of the capital of Abyssinia, ruled by Senapus, whose
riches and power were immense. His palace was of surpassing
splendor; the bars of the gates, the hinges and locks, were all of
pure gold; in fact, this metal, in that country, is put to all
those uses for which we employ iron. It is so common that they
prefer for ornamental purposes rock crystal, of which all the
columns were made. Precious stones of different kinds, rubies,
emeralds, sapphires, and topazes were set in ornamental designs,
and the walls and ceilings were adorned with pearls.

It is in this country those famous balms grow of which there are
some few plants in that part of Judaea called Gilead. Musk,
ambergris, and numerous gums, so precious in Europe, are here in
their native climate. It is said the Sultan of Egypt pays a vast
tribute to the monarch of this country to hire him not to cut off
the source of the Nile, which he might easily do, and cause the
river to flow in some other direction, thus depriving Egypt of the
source of its fertility.

At the time of Astolpho's arrival in his dominions, this monarch
was in great affliction. In spite of his riches and the precious
productions of his country, he was in danger of dying of hunger.
He was a prey to a flock of obscene birds called Harpies, which
attacked him whenever he sat at meat, and with their claws
snatched, tore, and scattered everything, overturning the vessels,
devouring the food, and infecting what they left with their filthy
touch. It was said this punishment was inflicted upon the king
because when young, and filled with pride and presumption, he had
attempted to invade with an army the terrestrial paradise, which
is situated on the top of a mountain whence the Nile draws its
source. Nor was this his only punishment. He was struck blind.

Astolpho, on arriving in the dominions of this monarch, hastened
to pay him his respects. King Senapus received him graciously, and
ordered a splendid repast to be prepared in honor of his arrival.
While the guests were seated at table, Astolpho filling the place
of dignity at the king's right hand, the horrid scream of the
Harpies was heard in the air, and soon they approached, hovering
over the tables, seizing the food from the dishes, and overturning
everything with the flapping of their broad wings. In vain the
guests struck at them with knives and any weapons which they had,
and Astolpho drew his sword and gave them repeated blows, which
seemed to have no more effect upon them than if their bodies had
been made of tow.

At last Astolpho thought of his horn. He first gave warning to the
king and his guests to stop their ears; then blew a blast. The
Harpies, terrified at the sound, flew away as fast as their wings
could carry them. The paladin mounted his Hippogriff, and pursued
them, blowing his horn as often as he came near them. They
stretched their flight towards the great mountain, at the foot of
which there is a cavern, which is thought to be the mouth of the
infernal abodes. Hither those horrid birds flew, as if to their
home. Having seen them all disappear in the recess, Astolpho cared
not to pursue them farther, but alighting, rolled huge stones into
the mouth of the cave, and piled branches of trees therein, so
that he effectually barred their passage out, and we have no
evidence of their ever having been seen since in the outer air.

After this labor Astolpho refreshed himself by bathing in a
fountain whose pure waters bubbled from a cleft of the rock.
Having rested awhile, an earnest desire seized him of ascending
the mountain which towered above him. The Hippogriff bore him
swiftly upwards, and landed him on the top of the mountain, which
he found to be an extensive plain.

A splendid palace rose in the middle of this plain, whose walls
shone with such brilliancy that mortal eyes could hardly bear the
sight. Astolpho guided the winged horse towards this edifice, and
made him poise himself in the air while he took a leisurely survey
of this favored spot and its environs. It seemed as if nature and
art had striven with one another to see which could do the most
for its embellishment.

Astolpho, on approaching the edifice, saw a venerable man advance
to meet him. This personage was clothed in a long vesture as white
as snow, while a mantle of purple covered his shoulders, and hung
down to the ground. A white beard descended to his middle, and his
hair, of the same color, overshadowed his shoulders. His eyes were
so brilliant that Astolpho felt persuaded that he was a blessed
inhabitant of the heavenly mansions.

The sage, smiling benignantly upon the paladin, who from respect
had dismounted from his horse, said to him: "Noble chevalier, know
that it is by the Divine will you have been brought to the
terrestrial paradise. Your mortal nature could not have borne to
scale these heights and reach these seats of bliss if it were not
the will of Heaven that you should be instructed in the means to
succor Charles, and to sustain the glory of our holy faith. I am
prepared to impart the needed counsels; but before I begin let me
welcome you to our sojourn. I doubt not your long fast and distant
journey have given you a good appetite."

The aspect of the venerable man filled the prince with admiration;
but his surprise ceased when he learned from him that he was that
one of the Apostles of our Lord to whom he said, "I will that thou
tarry till I come."

St. John, conducting Astolpho, rejoined his companions. These were
the patriarch Enoch and the prophet Elijah; neither of whom had
yet seen his dying day, but, taken from our lower world, were
dwelling in a region of peace and joy, in a climate of eternal
spring, till the last trumpet shall sound.

The three holy inhabitants of the terrestrial paradise received
Astolpho with the greatest kindness, carried him to a pleasant
apartment, and took great care of the Hippogriff, to whom they
gave such food as suited him, while to the prince they presented
fruits so delicious that he felt inclined to excuse our first
parents for their sin in eating them without permission.

Astolpho, having recruited his strength, not only by these
excellent fruits, but also by sweet sleep, roused himself at the
first blush of dawn, and as soon as he left his chamber met the
beloved Apostle coming to seek him. St. John took him by the hand,
and told him many things relating to the past and the future.
Among others, he said, "Son, let me tell you what is now going on
in France. Orlando, the illustrious prince who received at his
birth the endowment of strength and courage more than mortal,
raised up as was Samson of old to be the champion of the true
faith, has been guilty of the basest ingratitude in leaving the
Christian camp when it most needed the support of his arm, to run
after a Saracen princess, whom he would fain marry, though she
scorns him. To punish him his reason has been taken away, so that
he runs naked through the land, over mountains and through
valleys, without a ray of intelligence. The duration of his
punishment has been fixed at three months, and that time having
nearly expired, you have been brought hither to learn from us the
means by which the reason of Orlando may be restored. True, you
will be obliged to make a journey with me, and we must even leave
the earth, and ascend to the moon, for it is in that planet we are
to seek the remedy for the madness of the paladin. I propose to
make our journey this evening, as soon as the moon appears over
our head."

As soon as the sun sunk beneath the seas, and the moon presented
its luminous disk, the holy man had the chariot brought out in
which he was accustomed to make excursions among the stars, the
same which was employed long ago to convey Elijah up from earth.
The saint made Astolpho seat himself beside him, took the reins,
and giving the word to the coursers, they bore them upward with
astonishing celerity.

At length they reached the great continent of the Moon. Its
surface appeared to be of polished steel, with here and there a
spot which, like rust, obscured its brightness. The paladin was
astonished to see that the earth, with all its seas and rivers,
seemed but an insignificant spot in the distance.

The prince discovered in this region so new to him rivers, lakes,
plains, hills, and valleys. Many beautiful cities and castles
enriched the landscape. He saw also vast forests, and heard in
them the sound of horns and the barking of dogs, which led him to
conclude that the nymphs were following the chase.

The knight, filled with wonder at all he saw, was conducted by the
saint to a valley, where he stood amazed at the riches strewed all
around him. Well he might be so, for that valley was the
receptacle of things lost on earth, either by men's fault, or by
the effect of time and chance. Let no one suppose we speak here of
kingdoms or of treasures; they are the toys of Fortune, which she
dispenses in turning her wheel; we speak of things which she can
neither give nor take away. Such are reputations, which appear at
one time so brilliant, and a short time after are heard of no
more. Here, also, are countless vows and prayers for unattainable
objects, lovers' sighs and tears, time spent in gaming, dressing,
and doing nothing, the leisure of the dull and the intentions of
the lazy, baseless projects, intrigues, and plots; these and such
like things fill all the valley.

Astolpho had a great desire to understand all that he saw, and
which appeared to him so extraordinary. Among the rest, he
observed a great mountain of blown bladders, from which issued
indistinct noises. The saint told him these were the dynasties of
Assyrian and Persian kings, once the wonder of the earth, of which
now scarce the name remains.

Astolpho could not help laughing when the saint said to him, "All
these hooks of silver and gold that you see are the gifts of
courtiers to princes, made in the hope of getting something better
in return." He also showed him garlands of flowers in which snares
were concealed; these were flatteries and adulations, meant to
deceive. But nothing was so comical as the sight of numerous
grasshoppers which had burst their lungs with chirping. These, he
told him, were sonnets, odes, and dedications, addressed by venal
poets to great people.

The paladin beheld with wonder what seemed a lake of spilled milk.
"It is," said the saint, "the charity done by frightened misers on
their death-beds." It would take too long to tell all that the
valley contained: meanness, affectations, pretended virtues, and
concealed vices were there in abundance.

Among the rest Astolpho perceived many days of his own lost, and
many imprudent sallies which he had made, and would have been glad
not to have been reminded of. But he also saw among so many lost
things a great abundance of one thing which men are apt to think
they all possess, and do not think it necessary to pray for,--
good sense. This commodity appeared under the form of a liquor,
most light and apt to evaporate. It was therefore kept in vials,
firmly sealed. One of these was labelled, "The sense of the
Paladin Orlando."

All the bottles were ticketed, and the sage placed one in
Astolpho's hand, which he found was his own. It was more than half
full. He was surprised to find there many other vials which
contained almost the whole of the wits of many persons who passed
among men for wise. Ah, how easy it is to lose one's reason! Some
lose theirs by yielding to the sway of the passions; some in
braving tempests and shoals in search of wealth; some by trusting
too much to the promises of the great; some by setting their
hearts on trifles. As might have been expected, the bottles which
held the wits of astrologers, inventors, metaphysicians, and above
all, of poets, were in general the best filled of all.

Astolpho took his bottle, put it to his nose, and inhaled it all;
and Turpin assures us that he was for a long time afterwards as
sage as one could wish; but the Archbishop adds that there was
reason to fear that some of the precious fluid afterwards found
its way back into the bottle. The paladin took also the bottle
which belonged to Orlando. It was a large one, and quite full.

Before quitting the planetary region Astolpho was conducted to an
edifice on the borders of a river. He was shown an immense hall
full of bundles of silk, linen, cotton, and wool. A thousand
different colors, brilliant or dull, some quite black, were among
these skeins. In one part of the hall an old woman was busy
winding off yarns from all these different bundles. When she had
finished a skein another ancient dame took it and placed it with
others; a third selected from the fleeces spun, and mingled them
in due proportions. The paladin inquired what all this might be.
"These old women," said the saint, "are the Fates, who spin,
measure, and terminate the lives of mortals. As long as the thread
stretches in one of those skeins, so long does the mortal enjoy
the light of day; but nature and death are on the alert to shut
the eyes of those whose thread is spun."

Each one of the skeins had a label of gold, silver, or iron,
bearing the name of the individual to whom it belonged. An old
man, who, in spite of the burden of years, seemed brisk and
active, ran without ceasing to fill his apron with these labels,
and carried them away to throw them into the river, whose name was
Lethe. When he reached the shore of the river the old man shook
out his apron, and the labels sunk to the bottom. A small number
only floated for a time, hardly one in a thousand. Numberless
birds, hawks, crows, and vultures hovered over the stream, with
clamorous cries, and strove to snatch from the water some of these
names; but they were too heavy for them, and after a while the
birds were forced to let them drop into the river of oblivion. But
two beautiful swans, of snowy whiteness, gathered some few of the
names, and returned with them to the shore, where a lovely nymph
received them from their beaks, and carried them to a temple
placed upon a hill, and suspended them for all time upon a sacred
column, on which stood the statue of Immortality.

Astolpho was amazed at all this, and asked his guide to explain
it. He replied, "The old man is Time. All the names upon the
tickets would be immortal if the old man did not plunge them into
the river of oblivion. Those clamorous birds which make vain
efforts to save certain of the names are flatterers, pensioners,
venal rhymesters, who do their best to rescue from oblivion the
unworthy names of their patrons; but all in vain; they may keep
them from their fate a little while, but ere long the river of
oblivion must swallow them all.

"The swans, that with harmonious strains carry certain names to
the temple of Eternal Memory, are the great poets, who save from
oblivion worse than death the names of those they judge worthy of
immortality. Swans of this kind are rare. Let monarchs know the
true breed, and fail not to nourish with care such as may chance
to appear in their time."

THE WAR IN AFRICA

When Astolpho had descended to the earth with the precious phial,
St. John showed him a plant of marvellous virtues, with which he
told him he had only to touch the eyes of the king of Abyssinia to
restore him to sight. "That important service," said the saint,
"added to your having delivered him from the Harpies, will induce
him to give you an army wherewith to attack the Africans in their
rear, and force them to return from France to defend their own
country." The saint also instructed him how to lead his troops in
safety across the great deserts, where caravans are often
overwhelmed with moving columns of sand. Astolpho, fortified with
ample instructions, remounted the Hippogriff, thanked the saint,
received his blessing, and took his flight down to the level
country.

Keeping the course of the river Nile, he soon arrived at the
capital of Abyssinia, and rejoined Senapus. The joy of the king
was great when he heard again the voice of the hero who had
delivered him from the Harpies. Astolpho touched his eyes with the
plant which he had brought from the terrestrial paradise, and
restored their sight. The king's gratitude was unbounded. He
begged him to name a reward, promising to grant it, whatever it
might be. Astolpho asked an army to go to the assistance of
Charlemagne, and the king not only granted him a hundred thousand
men, but offered to lead them himself.

The night before the day appointed for the departure of the troops
Astolpho mounted his winged horse, and directed his flight towards
a mountain, whence the fierce South-wind issues, whose blast
raises the sands of the Nubian desert, and whirls them onward in
overwhelming clouds. The paladin, by the advice of St. John, had
prepared himself with a leather bag, which he placed adroitly,
with its mouth open, over the vent whence issues this terrible
wind. At the first dawn of morning the wind rushed from its cavern
to resume its daily course, and was caught in the bag, and
securely tied up. Astolpho, delighted with his prize, returned to
his army, placed himself at their head, and commenced his march.
The Abyssinians traversed without danger or difficulty those vast
fields of sand which separate their country from the kingdoms of
Northern Africa, for the terrible South-wind, taken completely
captive, had not force enough left to blow out a candle.

Senapus was distressed that he could not furnish any cavalry, for
his country, rich in camels and elephants, was destitute of
horses. This difficulty the saint had foreseen, and had taught
Astolpho the means of remedying. He now put those means in
operation. Having reached a place whence he beheld a vast plain
and the sea, he chose from his troops those who appeared to be the
best made and the most intelligent. These he caused to be arranged
in squadrons at the foot of a lofty mountain which bordered the
plain, and he himself mounted to the summit to carry into effect
his great design. Here he found vast quantities of fragments of
rock and pebbles. These he set rolling down the mountain's side,
and, wonderful to relate, as they rolled they grew in size, made
themselves bodies, legs, necks, and long faces. Next they began to
neigh, to curvet, to scamper on all sides over the plain. Some
were bay, some roan, some dapple, some chestnut. The troops at the
foot of the mountain exerted themselves to catch these new-created
horses, which they easily did, for the miracle had been so
considerate as to provide all the horses with bridles and saddles.
Astolpho thus suddenly found himself supplied with an excellent
corps of cavalry, not fewer (as Archbishop Turpin asserts) than
eighty thousand strong. With these troops Astolpho reduced all the
country to subjection, and at last arrived before the walls of
Agramant's capital city, Biserta, to which he laid siege.

We must now return to the camp of the Christians, which lay before
Arles, to which city the Saracens had retired after being defeated
in a night attack led on by Rinaldo. Agramant here received the
tidings of the invasion of his country by a fresh enemy, the
Abyssinians, and learned that Biserta was in danger of falling
into their hands. He took counsel of his officers, and decided to
send an embassy to Charles, proposing that the whole quarrel
should be submitted to the combat of two warriors, one from each
side, according to the issue of which it should be decided which
party should pay tribute to the other, and the war should cease.
Charlemagne, who had not heard of the favorable turn which affairs
had taken in Africa, readily agreed to this proposal, and Rinaldo
was selected on the part of the Christians to sustain the combat.

The Saracens selected Rogero for their champion. Rogero was still
in the Saracen camp, kept there by honor alone, for his mind had
been opened to the truth of the Christian faith by the arguments
of Bradamante, and he had resolved to leave the party of the
infidels on the first favorable opportunity, and to join the
Christian side. But his honor forbade him to do this while his
former friends were in distress; and thus he waited for what time
might bring forth, when he was startled by the announcement that
he had been selected to uphold the cause of the Saracens against
the Christians, and that his foe was to be Rinaldo, the brother of
Bradamante.

While Rogero was overwhelmed with this intelligence Bradamante on
her side felt the deepest distress at hearing of the proposed
combat. If Rogero should fall she felt that no other man living
was worthy of her love; and if, on the other hand, Heaven should
resolve to punish France by the death of her chosen champion,
Bradamante would have to deplore her brother, so dear to her, and
be no less completely severed from the object of her affections.

While the fair lady gave herself up to these sad thoughts, the
sage enchantress, Melissa, suddenly appeared before her. "Fear
not, my daughter," said she, "I shall find a way to interrupt this
combat which so distresses you."

Meanwhile Rinaldo and Rogero prepared their weapons for the
conflict. Rinaldo had the choice, and decided that it should be on
foot, and with no weapons but the battle-axe and poniard. The
place assigned was a plain between the camp of Charlemagne and the
walls of Arles.

Hardly had the dawn announced the day appointed for this memorable
combat, when heralds proceeded from both sides to mark the lists.
Erelong the African troops were seen to advance from the city,
Agramant at their head; his brilliant arms adorned in the Moorish
fashion, his horse a bay, with a white star on his forehead.
Rogero marched at his side, and some of the greatest warriors of
the Saracen camp attended him, bearing the various parts of his
armor and weapons. Charlemagne, on his part, proceeded from his
intrenchments, ranged his troops in semicircle, and stood
surrounded by his peers and paladins. Some of them bore portions
of the armor of Rinaldo, the celebrated Ogier, the Dane, bearing
the helmet which Rinaldo took from Mambrino. Duke Namo of Bavaria
and Salomon of Bretagne bore two axes, of equal weight, prepared
for the occasion.

The terms of the combat were then sworn to with the utmost
solemnity by all parties. It was agreed that if from either part
any attempt was made to interrupt the battle both combatants
should turn their arms against the party which should be guilty of
the interruption; and both monarchs assented to the condition that
in such case the champion of the offending party should be
discharged from his allegiance, and at liberty to transfer his
arms to the other side.

When all the preparations were concluded the monarchs and their
attendants retired each to his own side, and the champions were
left alone. The two warriors advanced with measured steps towards
each other, and met in the middle of the space. They attacked one
another at the same moment, and the air resounded with the blows
they gave. Sparks flew from their battle-axes, while the velocity
with which they managed their weapons astonished the beholders.
Rogero, always remembering that his antagonist was the brother of
his betrothed, could not aim a deadly wound; he strove only to
ward off those levelled against himself. Rinaldo, on the other
hand, much as he esteemed Rogero, spared not his blows, for he
eagerly desired victory for his own sake, and for the sake of his
country and his faith.

The Saracens soon perceived that their champion fought feebly, and
gave not to Rinaldo such blows as he received from him. His
disadvantage was so marked that anxiety and shame were manifest on
the countenance of Agramant. Melissa, one of the most acute
enchantresses that ever lived, seized this moment to disguise
herself under the form of Rodomont, that rude and impetuous
warrior, who had now for some time been absent from the Saracen
camp. Approaching Agramant, she said, "How could you, my lord,
have the imprudence of selecting a young man without experience to
oppose the most redoubtable warrior of France? Surely you must
have been regardless of the honor of your arms, and of the fate of
your empire! But it is not too late. Break without delay the
agreement which is sure to result in your ruin." So saying, she
addressed the troops who stood near, "Friends," said she, "follow
me; under my guidance every one of you will be a match for a score
of those feeble Christians." Agramant, delighted at seeing
Rodomont once more at his side, gave his consent, and the
Saracens, at the instant, couched their lances, set spurs to their
steeds, and swept down upon the French. Melissa, when she saw her
work successful, disappeared.

Rinaldo and Rogero, seeing the truce broken, and the two armies
engaged in general conflict, stopped their battle; their martial
fury ceased at once, they joined hands, and resolved to act no
more on either side until it should be clearly ascertained which
party had failed to observe its oath. Both renewed their promise
to abandon forever the party which had been thus false and
perjured.

Meanwhile, the Christians, after the first moment of surprise, met
the Saracens with courage redoubled by rage at the treachery of
their foes. Guido the Wild, brother and rival of Rinaldo, Griffon
and Aquilant, sons of Oliver, and numerous others whose names have
already been celebrated in our recitals, beat back the assailants,
and at last, after prodigious slaughter, forced them to take
shelter within the walls of Arles.

We will now return to Orlando, whom we last heard of as furiously
mad, and doing a thousand acts of violence in his senseless rage.
One day he came to the borders of a stream which intercepted his
course. He swam across it, for he could swim like an otter, and on
the other side saw a peasant watering his horse. He seized the
animal, in spite of the resistance of the peasant, and rode it
with furious speed till he arrived at the sea-coast, where Spain
is divided from Africa by only a narrow strait. At the moment of
his arrival a vessel had just put off to cross the strait. She was
full of people who, with glass in hand, seemed to be taking a
merry farewell of the land, wafted by a favorable breeze.

The frantic Orlando cried out to them to stop and take him in; but
they, having no desire to admit a madman to their company, paid
him no attention. The paladin thought this behavior very uncivil;
and by force of blows made his horse carry him into the water in
pursuit of the ship. The wretched animal soon had only his head
above water; but as Orlando urged him forward, nothing was left
for the poor beast but either to die or swim over to Africa.

Already Orlando had lost sight of the bark; distance and the swell
of the sea completely hid it from his sight. He continued to press
his horse forward, till at last it could struggle no more, and
sunk beneath him. Orlando, nowise concerned, stretched out his
nervous arms, puffing the salt water from before his mouth, and
carried his head above the waves. Fortunately they were not rough,
scarce a breath of wind agitated the surface; otherwise, the
invincible Orlando would then have met his death. But fortune,
which it is said favors fools, delivered him from this danger, and
landed him safe on the shore of Ceuta. Here he rambled along the
shore till he came to where the black army of Astolpho held its
camp.

Now it happened, just before this time, that a vessel filled with
prisoners which Rodomont had taken at the bridge had arrived, and,
not knowing of the presence of the Abyssinian army, had sailed
right into port, where of course the prisoners and their captors
changed places, the former being set at liberty and received with
all joy, the latter sent to serve in the galleys. Astolpho thus
found himself surrounded with Christian knights, and he and his
friends were exchanging greetings and felicitations, when a noise
was heard in the camp, and seemed to increase every moment.

Astolpho and his friends seized their weapons, mounted their
horses, and rode to the quarter whence the noise proceeded.
Imagine their astonishment when they saw that the tumult was
caused by a single man, perfectly naked, and browned with dirt and
exposure, but of a force and fury so terrible that he overturned
all that offered to lay hands on him.

Astolpho, Dudon, Oliver, and Florimart gazed at him with
amazement. It was with difficulty they knew him. Astolpho, who had
been warned of his condition by his holy monitor, was the first to
recognize him. As the paladins closed round Orlando, the madman
dealt one and another a blow of his fist, which, if they had not
been in armor, or he had had any weapon, would probably have
despatched them; as it was, Dudon and Astolpho measured their
length on the sand. But Florimart seized him from behind,
Sansonnet and another grasped his legs, and at last they succeeded
in securing him with ropes. They took him to the water-side and
washed him well, and then Astolpho, having first bandaged his
mouth so that he could not breathe except through his nose,
brought the precious phial, uncorked it, and placed it adroitly
under his nostrils, when the good Orlando took it all up in one
breath. O marvellous prodigy! The paladin recovered in an instant
all his intelligence. He felt like one who had awakened from a
painful dream, in which he had believed that monsters were about
to tear him to pieces. He seemed prostrated, silent, and abashed.
Florismart, Oliver, and Astolpho stood gazing upon him, while he
turned his eyes around and on himself. He seemed surprised to find
himself naked, bound, and stretched on the sea-shore. After a few
moments he recognized his friends, and spoke to them in a tone so
tender that they hastened to unbind him, and to supply him with
garments. Then they exerted themselves to console him, to diminish
the weight with which his spirits were oppressed, and to make him
forget the wretched condition into which he had been sunk.

Orlando, in recovering his reason, found himself also delivered
from his insane attachment to the queen of Cathay. His heart felt
now no further influenced by the recollection of her than to be
moved with an ardent desire to retrieve his fame by some
distinguished exploit. Astolpho would gladly have yielded to him
the chief command of the army, but Orlando would not take from the
friend to whom he owed so much the glory of the campaign; but in
everything the two paladins acted in concert, and united their
counsels. They proposed to make a general assault on the city of
Biserta, and were only waiting a favorable moment, when their plan
was interrupted by new events.

Agramant, after the bloody battle which followed the infraction of
the truce, found himself so weak that he saw it was in vain to
attempt to remain in France. So, in concert with Sobrino, the
bravest and most trusted of his chiefs, he embarked to return to
his own country, having previously sent off his few remaining
troops in the same direction. The vessel which carried Agramant
and Sobrino approached the shore where the army of Astolpho lay
encamped before Biserta, and having discovered this fact before it
was too late, the king commanded the pilot to steer eastward, with
a view to seek protection of the King of Egypt. But the weather
becoming rough, he consented to the advice of his companions, and
sought harbor in an island which lies between Sicily and Africa.
There he found Gradasso, the warlike king of Sericane, who had
come to France to possess himself of the horse Bayard and the
sword Durindana; and having procured both these prizes was
returning to his own country.

The two kings, who had been companions in arms under the walls of
Paris, embraced one another affectionately. Gradasso learned with
regret the reverses of Agramant, and offered him his troops and
his person. He strongly deprecated resorting to Egypt for aid.
"Remember the great Pompey," said he, "and shun that fatal shore.
My plan," he continued, "is this: I mean to challenge Orlando to
single combat. Possessed of such a sword and steed as mine, if he
were made of steel or bronze, he could not escape me. He being
removed, there will be no difficulty in driving back the
Abyssinians. We will rouse against them the Moslem nations from
the other side of the Nile, the Arabians, Persians, and Chaldeans,
who will soon make Senapus recall his army to defend his own
territories."

Agramant approved this advice except in one particular. "It is for
me," said he, "to combat Orlando; I cannot with honor devolve that
duty on another."

"Let us adopt a third course," said the aged warrior Sobrino. "I
would not willingly remain a simple spectator of such a contest.
Let us send three squires to the shore of Africa to challenge
Orlando and any two of his companions in arms to meet us three in
this island of Lampedusa."

This counsel was adopted; the three squires sped on their way; and
now presented themselves, and rehearsed their message to the
Christian knights.

Orlando was delighted, and rewarded the squires with rich gifts.
He had already resolved to seek Gradasso and compel him to restore
Durindana, which he had learned was in his possession. For his two
companions the Count chose his faithful friend Florismart and his
cousin Oliver.

The three warriors embarked, and sailing with a favorable wind,
the second morning showed them, on their right, the island where
this important battle was to be fought. Orlando and his two
companions, having landed, pitched their tent. Agramant had placed
his opposite.

Next morning, as soon as Aurora brightened the edges of the
horizon, the warriors of both parties armed themselves and mounted
their horses. They took their positions, face to face, lowered
their lances, placed them in rest, clapped spurs to their horses,
and flew to the charge. Orlando met the charge of Gradasso. The
paladin was unmoved, but his horse could not sustain the terrible
shock of Bayard. He recoiled, staggered, and fell some paces
behind. Orlando tried to raise him, but, finding his efforts
unavailing, seized his shield, and drew his famous Balisardo.
Meanwhile Agramant and the brave Oliver gained no advantage, one
or the other; but Florismart unhorsed the King Sobrino. Having
brought his foe to the ground, he would not pursue his victory,
but hastened to attack Gradasso, who had overthrown Orlando.
Seeing him thus engaged, Orlando would not interfere, but ran with
sword upraised upon Sobrino, and with one blow deprived him of
sense and motion. Believing him dead, he next turned to aid his
beloved Florismart. That brave paladin, neither in horse nor arms
equal to his antagonist, could but parry and evade the blows of
the terrible Durindana. Orlando, eager to succor him, was delayed
for a moment in securing and mounting the horse of the King
Sobrino. It was but an instant, and with sword upraised, he rushed
upon Gradasso who, noways disconcerted at the onset of this second
foe, shouted his defiance, and thrust at him with his sword, but,
having miscalculated the distance, scarcely reached him, and
failed to pierce his mail. Orlando, in return, dealt him a blow
with Balisardo, which wounded as it fell face, breast, and thigh,
and, if he had been a little nearer, would have cleft him in
twain. Sobrino, by this time recovered from his swoon, though
severely wounded, raised himself on his legs, and looked to see
how he might aid his friends. Observing Agramant hard pressed by
Oliver, he thrust his sword into the bowels of the latter's horse,
which fell, and bore down his master, entangling his leg as he
fell, so that Oliver could not extricate himself. Florismart saw
the danger of his friend, and ran upon Sobrino with his horse,
overthrew him, and then turned to defend himself from Agramant.
They were not unequally matched, for though Agramant, mounted on
Brigliadoro, had an advantage over Florismart, whose horse was but
indifferent, yet Agramant had received a serious wound in his
encounter with Oliver.

Nothing could exceed the fury of the encounter between Orlando and
Gradasso. Durindana, in the hands of Gradasso, clove asunder
whatever it struck; but such was the skill of Orlando, who
perfectly knew the danger to which he was exposed from a stroke of
that weapon, it had not yet struck him in such a way as to inflict
a wound. Meanwhile, Gradasso was bleeding from many wounds, and
his rage and incaution increased every moment. In his desperation
he lifted Durindana with both hands, and struck so terrible a blow
full on the helmet of Orlando, that for a moment it stunned the
paladin. He dropped the reins, and his frightened horse scoured
with him over the plain. Gradasso turned to pursue him, but at
that moment saw Florismart in the very act of striking a fatal
blow at Agramant, whom he had unhorsed. While Florismart was
wholly intent upon completing his victory, Gradasso plunged his
sword into his side. Florismart fell from his horse, and bathed
the plain with his blood.

Orlando recovered himself just in time to see the deed. Whether
rage or grief predominated in his breast, I cannot tell; but,
seizing Balisardo with fury, his first blow fell upon Agramant,
who was nearest to him, and smote his head from his shoulders. At
this sight Gradasso for the first time felt his courage sink, and
a dark presentiment of death came over him. He hardly stood on his
defence when Orlando cast himself upon him, and gave him a fatal
thrust. The sword penetrated his ribs, and came out a palm's
breadth on the other side of his body.

Thus fell beneath the sword of the most illustrious paladin of
France the bravest warrior of the Saracen host. Orlando then, as
if despising his victory, leaped lightly to the ground, and ran to
his dear friend Florismart, embraced him, and bathed him with his
tears. Florismart still breathed. He could even command his voice
to utter a few parting words: "Dear friend, do not forget me,--
give me your prayers,--and oh! be a brother to Flordelis." He died
in uttering her name.

After a few moments given to grief Orlando turned to look for his
other companion and his late foes. Oliver lay oppressed with the
weight of his horse, from which he had in vain struggled to
liberate himself. Orlando extricated him with difficulty; he then
raised Sobrino from the earth, and committed him to his squire,
treating him as gently as if he had been his own brother. For this
terrible warrior was the most generous of men to a fallen foe. He
took Bayard and Brigliadoro, with the arms of the conquered
knights; their bodies and their other spoils he remitted to their
attendants.

But who can tell the grief of Flordelis when she saw the warriors
return, and found not Florismart as usual after absence hasten to
her side. She knew by the aspect of the others that her lord was
slain. At the thought, and before the question could pass her
lips, she fell senseless upon the ground. When life returned, and
she learned the truth of her worst fears, she bitterly upbraided
herself that she had let him depart without her. "I might have
saved him by a single cry when his enemy dealt him that
treacherous blow, or I might have thrown myself between and given
my worthless life for his. Or if no more, I might have heard his
last words, I might have given him a last kiss." So she lamented,
and could not be comforted.

ROGERO AND BRADAMANTE

After the interruption of the combat with Rinaldo, as we have
related, Rogero was perplexed with doubts what course to take. The
terms of the treaty required him to abandon Agramant, who had
broken it, and to transfer his allegiance to Charlemagne; and his
love for Bradamante called him in the same direction; but
unwillingness to desert his prince and leader in the hour of
distress forbade this course. Embarking, therefore, for Africa, he
took his way to rejoin the Saracen army; but was arrested midway
by a storm which drove the vessel on a rock. The crew took to
their boat, but that was quickly swamped in the waves, and Rogero
with the rest were compelled to swim for their lives. Then while
buffeting the waves Rogero bethought him of his sin in so long
delaying his Christian profession, and vowed in his heart that, if
he should live to reach the land, he would no longer delay to be
baptized. His vows were heard and answered; he succeeded in
reaching the shore, and was aided and relieved on landing by a
pious hermit, whose cell overlooked the sea. From him he received
baptism, having first passed some days with him, partaking his
humble fare, and receiving instruction in the doctrines of the
Christian faith.

While these things were going on, Rinaldo, who had set out on his
way to seek Gradasso and recover Bayard from him, hearing on his
way of the great things which were doing in Africa, repaired
thither to bear his part in them. He arrived too late to do more
than join his friends in lamenting the loss of Florismart, and to
rejoice with them in their victory over the Pagan knights. On the
death of their king the Africans gave up the contest, Biserta
submitted, and the Christian knights had only to dismiss their
forces, and return home. Astolpho took leave of his Abyssinian
army, and sent them back laden with spoil to their own country,
not forgetting to intrust to them the bag which held the winds, by
means of which they were enabled to cross the sandy desert again
without danger, and did not untie it till they reached their own
country.

Orlando now, with Oliver, who much needed the surgeon's care, and
Sobrino, to whom equal attention was shown, sailed in a swift
vessel to Sicily, bearing with him the body of Florismart, to be
laid in Christian earth. Rinaldo accompanied them, as did
Sansonnet and the other Christian leaders. Arrived at Sicily, the
funeral was solemnized with all the rites of religion, and with
the profound grief of those who had known Florismart, or had heard
of his fame. Then they resumed their course, steering for
Marseilles. But Oliver's wound grew worse instead of better, and
his sufferings so distressed his friends that they conferred
together, not knowing what to do. Then said the pilot, "We are not
far from an isle where a holy hermit dwells alone in the midst of
the sea. It is said none seek his counsel or his aid in vain. He
hath wrought marvellous cures, and if you resort to that holy man
without doubt he can heal the knight." Orlando bade him steer
thither, and soon the bark was laid safely beside the lonely rock;
the wounded man was lowered into their boat, and carried by the
crew to the hermit's cell. It was the same hermit with whom Rogero
had taken refuge after his shipwreck, by whom he had been
baptized, and with whom he was now staying, absorbed in sacred
studies and meditations.

The holy man received Orlando and the rest with kindness, and
inquired their errand; and being told that they had come for help
for one who, warring for the Christian faith, was brought to
perilous pass by a sad wound, he straightway undertook the cure.
His applications were simple, but they were seconded by his
prayers. The paladin was soon relieved from pain, and in a few
days his foot was perfectly restored to soundness. Sobrino, as
soon as he perceived the holy monk perform that wonder, cast aside
his false prophet, and with contrite heart owned the true God, and
demanded baptism at his hands. The hermit granted his request, and
also by his prayers restored him to health, while all the
Christian knights rejoiced in his conversion almost as much as at
the restoration of Oliver. More than all Rogero felt joy and
gratitude, and daily grew in grace and faith.

Rogero was known by fame to all the Christian knights, but not
even Rinaldo knew him by sight, though he had proved his prowess
in combat. Sobrino made him known to them, and great was the joy
of all when they found one whose valor and courtesy were renowned
through the world no longer an enemy and unbeliever, but a convert
and champion of the true faith. All press about the knight; one
grasps his hand, another locks him fast in his embrace; but more
than all the rest, Rinaldo cherished him, for he more than any
knew his worth.

It was not long before Rogero confided to his friend the hopes he
entertained of a union with his sister, and Rinaldo frankly gave
his sanction to the proposal. But causes unknown to the paladin
were at that very time interposing obstacles to its success.

The fame of the beauty and worth of Bradamante had reached the
ears of the Grecian Emperor, Constantine, and he had sent to
Charlemagne to demand the hand of his niece for Leo, his son, and
the heir to his dominions. Duke Aymon, her father, had only
reserved his consent until he should first have spoken with his
son Rinaldo, now absent.

The warriors now prepared to resume their voyage. Rogero took a
tender farewell of the good hermit who had taught him the true
faith. Orlando restored to him the horse and arms which were
rightly his, not even asserting his claim to Balisarda, that sword
which he himself had won from the enchantress.

The hermit gave his blessing to the band, and they reembarked. The
passage was speedy, and very soon they arrived in the harbor of
Marseilles.

Astolpho, when he had dismissed his troops, mounted the
Hippogriff, and at one flight shot over to Sardinia, thence to
Corsica, thence, turning slightly to the left, hovered over
Provence, and alighted in the neighborhood of Marseilles. There he
did what he had been commanded to do by the holy saint; he
unbridled the Hippogriff, and turned him loose to seek his own
retreats, never more to be galled with saddle or bit. The horn had
lost its marvellous power ever since the visit to the moon.

Astolpho reached Marseilles the very day when Orlando, Rinaldo,
Oliver, Sobrino, and Rogero arrived there. Charles had already
heard the news of the defeat of the Saracen kings, and all the
accompanying events. On learning the approach of the gallant
knights, he sent forward some of his most illustrious nobles to
receive them, and himself, with the rest of his court, kings,
dukes, and peers, the queen, and a fair and gorgeous band of
ladies, set forward from Arles to meet them.

No sooner were the mutual greetings interchanged, than Orlando and
his friends led forward Rogero, and presented him to the Emperor.
They vouch him son of Rogero, Duke of Risa, one of the most
renowned of Christian warriors, by adverse fortune stolen in his
infancy, and brought up by Saracens in the false faith, now by a
kind Providence converted, and restored to fill the place his
father once held among the foremost champions of the throne and
Church.

Rogero had alighted from his horse, and stood respectfully before
the Emperor. Charlemagne bade him remount and ride beside him; and
omitted nothing which might do him honor in sight of his martial
train. With pomp triumphal and with festive cheer the troop
returned to the city; the streets were decorated with garlands,
the houses hung with rich tapestry, and flowers fell like rain
upon the conquering host from the hands of fair dames and damsels,
from every balcony and window. So welcomed, the mighty Emperor
passed on till he reached the royal palace, where many days he
feasted, high in hall, with his lords, amid tourney, revel, dance,
and song.

When Rinaldo told his father, Duke Aymon, how he had promised his
sister to Rogero, his father heard him with indignation, having
set his heart on seeing her united to the Grecian Emperor's son.
The Lady Beatrice, her mother, also appealed to Bradamante herself
to reject a knight who had neither title nor lands, and give the
preference to one who would make her Empress of the wide Levant.
But Bradamante, though respect forbade her to refuse her mother's
entreaty, would not promise to do what her heart repelled, and
answered only with a sigh, until she was alone, and then gave a
loose to tears.

Meanwhile Rogero, indignant that a stranger should presume to rob
him of his bride, determined to seek the Prince of Greece, and
defy him to mortal combat. With this design he donned his armor,
but exchanged his crest and emblazonment, and bore instead a white
unicorn upon a crimson field. He chose a trusty squire, and,
commanding him not to address him as Rogero, rode on his quest.
Having crossed the Rhine and the Austrian countries into Hungary,
he followed the course of the Danube till he reached Belgrade.
There he saw the imperial ensigns spread, and white pavilions,
thronged with troops, before the town. For the Emperor Constantine
was laying siege to the city to recover it from the Bulgarians,
who had taken it from him not long before.

A river flowed between the camp of the Emperor and the Bulgarians,
and at the moment when Rogero approached, a skirmish had begun
between the parties from either camp, who had approached the
stream for the purpose of watering. The Greeks in that affray were
four to one, and drove back the Bulgarians in precipitate rout.
Rogero, seeing this, and animated only by his hatred of the
Grecian prince, dashed into the middle of the flying mass, calling
aloud on the fugitives to turn. He encountered first a leader of
the Grecian host in splendid armor, a nephew of the Emperor, as
dear to him as a son. Rogero's lance pierced shield and armor, and
stretched the warrior breathless on the plain. Another and another
fell before him, and astonishment and terror arrested the advance
of the Greeks, while the Bulgarians, catching courage from the
cavalier, rally, change front, and chase the Grecian troops, who
fly in their turn. Leo, the prince, was at a distance when this
sudden skirmish rose, but not so far but that he could see
distinctly, from an elevated position which he held, how the
changed battle was all the work of one man, and could not choose
but admire the bravery and prowess with which it was done. He knew
by the blazonry displayed that the champion was not of the
Bulgarian army, though he furnished aid to them. Although he
suffered by his valor, the prince could not wish him ill, for his
admiration surpassed his resentment. By this time the Greeks had
regained the river, and crossing it by fording or swimming, some
made their escape, leaving many more prisoners in the hands of the
Bulgarians. Rogero, learning from some of the captives that Leo
was at a point some distance down the river, rode thither with a
view to meet him, but arrived not before the Greek prince had
retired beyond the stream, and broken up the bridge. Day was
spent, and Rogero, wearied, looked round for a shelter for the
night. He found it in a cottage, where he soon yielded himself to
repose. It so happened, a knight who had narrowly escaped Rogero's
sword in the late battle also found shelter in the same cottage,
and, recognizing the armor of the unknown knight, easily found
means of securing him as he slept, and next morning carried him in
chains and delivered him to the Emperor. By him he was in turn
delivered to his sister Theodora, mother of the young knight, the
first victim of Rogero's spear. By her he was cast into a dungeon,
till her ingenuity could devise a death sufficiently painful to
satiate her revenge.

Bradamante, meanwhile, to escape her father's and mother's
importunity, had begged a boon of Charlemagne, which the monarch
pledged his royal word to grant; it was that she should not be
compelled to marry any one unless he should first vanquish her in
single combat. The Emperor therefore proclaimed a tournament in
these words: "He that would wed Duke Aymon's daughter must contend
with the sword against that dame, from the sun's rise to his
setting; and if, in that time, he is not overcome the lady shall
be his."

Duke Aymon and the Lady Beatrice, though much incensed at the
course things had taken, brought their daughter to court, to await
the day appointed for the tournament. Bradamante, not finding
there him whom her heart required, distressed herself with doubts
what could be the cause of his absence. Of all fancies, the most
painful one was that he had gone away to learn to forget her,
knowing her father's and her mother's opposition to their union,
and despairing to contend against them. But oh, how much worse
would be the maiden's woe, if it were known to her what her
betrothed was then enduring!

He was plunged in a dungeon where no ray of daylight ever
penetrated, loaded with chains, and scantily supplied with the
coarsest food. No wonder despair took possession of his heart, and
he longed for death as a relief, when one night (or one day, for
both were equally dark to him) he was roused with the glare of a
torch and saw two men enter his cell. It was the Prince Leo, with
an attendant, who had come as soon as he had learned the wretched
fate of the brave knight whose valor he had seen and admired on
the field of battle. "Cavalier," said he, "I am one whom thy valor
hath so bound to thee, that I willingly peril my own safety to
lend thee aid." "Infinite thanks I owe you," replied Rogero, "and
the life you give me I promise faithfully to render back upon your
call, and promptly to stake it at all times for your service." The
prince then told Rogero his name and rank, at hearing which a tide
of contending emotions almost overwhelmed Rogero. He was set at
liberty, and had his horse and arms restored to him.

Meanwhile, tidings arrived of King Charles' decree that whoever
aspired to the hand of Bradamante must first encounter her with
sword and lance. This news made the Grecian prince turn pale, for
he knew he was no match for her in fight. Communing with himself,
he sees how he may make his wit supply the place of valor, and
employ the French knight, whose name was still unknown to him, to
fight the battle for him. Rogero heard the proposal with extreme
distress; yet it seemed worse than death to deny the first request
of one to whom he owed his life. Hastily he gave his assent "to do
in all things that which Leo should command." Afterward, bitter
repentance came over him; yet, rather than confess his change of
mind, death itself would be welcome. Death seems his only remedy;
but how to die? Sometimes he thinks to make none but a feigned
resistance, and allow her sword a ready access, for never can
death come more happily than if her hand guide the weapon. Yet
this will not avail, for, unless he wins the maid for the Greek
prince, his debt remains unpaid. He had promised to maintain a
real, not a feigned encounter. He will then keep his word, and
banish every thought from his bosom except that which moved him to
maintain his truth.

The young prince, richly attended, set out, and with him Rogero.
They arrived at Paris, but Leo preferred not to enter the city,
and pitched his tents without the walls, making known his arrival
to Charlemagne by an embassy. The monarch was pleased, and
testified his courtesy by visits and gifts. The prince set forth
the purpose of his coming, and prayed the Emperor to dispatch his
suit--"to send forth the damsel who refused ever to take in
wedlock any lord inferior to herself in fight; for she should be
his bride, or he would perish beneath her sword."

Rogero passed the night before the day assigned for the battle
like that which the felon spends, condemned to pay the forfeit of
his life on the ensuing day. He chose to fight with sword only,
and on foot, for he would not let her see Frontino, knowing that
she would recognize the steed. Nor would he use Balisarda, for
against that enchanted blade all armor would be of no avail, and
the sword that he did take he hammered well upon the edge to abate
its sharpness. He wore the surcoat of Prince Leo, and his shield,
emblazoned with a golden, double-headed eagle. The prince took
care to let himself be seen by none.

Bradamante, meanwhile, prepared herself for the combat far
differently. Instead of blunting the edge of her falchion she
whets the steel, and would fain infuse into it her own acerbity.
As the moment approached she seemed to have fire within her veins,
and waited impatiently for the trumpet's sound. At the signal she
drew her sword, and fell with fury upon her Rogero. But as a well-
built wall or aged rock stands unmoved the fury of the storm, so
Rogero, clad in those arms which Trojan Hector once wore,
withstood the strokes which stormed about his head and breast and
flank. Sparks flew from his shield, his helm, his cuirass; from
direct and back strokes, aimed now high, now low, falling thick
and fast, like hailstones on a cottage roof; but Rogero, with
skilful ward, turns them aside, or receives them where his armor
is a sure protection, careful only to protect himself, and with no
thought of striking in return. Thus the hours passed away, and, as
the sun approached the west, the damsel began to despair. But so
much the more her anger increases, and she redoubles her efforts,
like the craftsman who sees his work unfinished while the day is
wellnigh spent. O miserable damsel! didst thou know whom thou
wouldst kill,--if, in that cavalier matched against thee thou
didst but know Rogero, on whom thy very life-threads hang, rather
than kill him thou wouldst kill thyself, for he is dearer to thee
than life.

King Charles and the peers, who thought the cavalier to be the
Grecian prince, viewing such force and skill exhibited, and how
without assaulting her the knight defended himself, were filled
with admiration, and declared the champions well matched, and
worthy of each other.

When the sun was set Charlemagne gave the signal for terminating
the contest, and Bradamante was awarded to Prince Leo as a bride.
Rogero, in deep distress, returned to his tent. There Leo unlaced
his helmet, and kissed him on both cheeks. "Henceforth," said he,
"do with me as you please, for you cannot exhaust my gratitude."
Rogero replied little, laid aside the ensigns he had worn, and
resumed the unicorn, then hasted to withdraw himself from all
eyes. When it was midnight he rose, saddled Frontino, and sallied
from his tent, taking that direction which pleased his steed. All
night he rode absorbed in bitter woe, and called on Death as alone
capable of relieving his sufferings. At last he entered a forest,
and penetrated into its deepest recesses. There he unharnessed
Frontino, and suffered him to wander where he would. Then he threw
himself down on the ground, and poured forth such bitter wailings
that the birds and beasts, for none else heard him, were moved to
pity with his cries.

Not less was the distress of the lady Bradamante, who, rather than
wed any one but Rogero, resolved to break her word, and defy
kindred, court, and Charlemagne himself; and, if nothing else
would do, to die. But relief came from an unexpected quarter.
Marphisa, sister of Rogero, was a heroine of warlike prowess equal
to Bradamante. She had been the confidante of their loves, and
felt hardly less distress than themselves at seeing the perils
which threatened their union. "They are already united by mutual
vows," she said, "and in the sight of Heaven what more is
necessary?" Full of this thought she presented herself before
Charlemagne, and declared that she herself was witness that the
maiden had spoken to Rogero those words which they who marry
swear; and that the compact was so sealed between the pair that
they were no longer free, nor could forsake the one the other to
take another spouse. This her assertion she offered to prove, in
single combat, against Prince Leo, or any one else.

Charlemagne, sadly perplexed at this, commanded Bradamante to be
called, and told her what the bold Marphisa had declared.
Bradamante neither denied nor confirmed the statement, but hung
her head, and kept silence. Duke Aymon was enraged, and would fain
have set aside the pretended contract on the ground that, if made
at all, it must have been made before Rogero was baptized, and
therefore void. But not so thought Rinaldo, nor the good Orlando,
and Charlemagne knew not which way to decide, when Marphisa spoke
thus:

"Since no one else can marry the maiden while my brother lives,
let the prince meet Rogero in mortal combat, and let him who
survives take her for his bride."

This saying pleased the Emperor, and was accepted by the prince,
for he thought that, by the aid of his unknown champion, he should
surely triumph in the fight. Proclamation was therefore made for
Rogero to appear and defend his suit; and Leo, on his part, caused
search to be made on all sides for the knight of the Unicorn.

Meanwhile Rogero, overwhelmed with despair, lay stretched on the
ground in the forest night and day without food, courting death.
Here he was discovered by one of Leo's people, who, finding him
resist all attempts to remove him, hastened to his master, who was
not far off, and brought him to the spot. As he approached he
heard words which convinced him that love was the cause of the
knight's despair; but no clew was given to guide him to the object
of that love. Stooping down, the prince embraced the weeping
warrior, and, in the tenderest accents, said: "Spare not, I
entreat you, to disclose the cause of your distress, for few such
desperate evils betide mankind as are wholly past cure. It grieves
me much that you would hide your grief from me, for I am bound to
you by ties that nothing can undo. Tell me, then, your grief, and
leave me to try if wealth, art, cunning, force, or persuasion
cannot relieve you. If not, it will be time enough after all has
been tried in vain to die."

He spoke in such moving accents that Rogero could not choose but
yield. It was some time before he could command utterance; at last
he said, "My lord, when you shall know me for what I am, I doubt
not you, like myself, will be content that I should die. Know,
then, I am that Rogero whom you have so much cause to hate, and
who so hated you that, intent on putting you to death, he went to
seek you at your father's court. This I did because I could not
submit to see my promised bride borne off by you. But, as man
proposes and God disposes, your great courtesy, well tried in time
of sore need, so moved my fixed resolve, that I not only laid
aside the hate I bore, but purposed to be your friend forever. You
then asked of me to win for you the lady Bradamante, which was all
one as to demand of me my heart and soul. You know whether I
served you faithfully or not. Yours is the lady; possess her in
peace; but ask me not to live to see it. Be content rather that I
die; for vows have passed between myself and her which forbid that
while I live she can lawfully wive with another."

So filled was gentle Leo with astonishment at these words that for
a while he stood silent, with lips unmoved and steadfast gaze,
like a statue. And the discovery that the stranger was Rogero not
only abated not the good will he bore him, but increased it, so
that his distress for what Rogero suffered seemed equal to his
own. For this, and because he would appear deservedly an Emperor's
son, and, though in other things outdone, would not be surpassed
in courtesy, he says: "Rogero, had I known that day when your
matchless valor routed my troops that you were Rogero, your virtue
would have made me your own, as then it made me while I knew not
my foe, and I should have no less gladly rescued you from
Theodora's dungeon. And if I would willingly have done so then,
how much more gladly will I now restore the gift of which you
would rob yourself to confer it upon me. The damsel is more due to
you than to me, and though I know her worth, I would forego not
only her, but life itself, rather than distress a knight like
you."

This and much more he said to the same intent; till at last Rogero
replied, "I yield, and am content to live, and thus a second time
owe my life to you."

But several days elapsed before Rogero was so far restored as to
return to the royal residence, where an embassy had arrived from
the Bulgarian princes to seek the knight of the unicorn, and
tender to him the crown of that country, in place of their king,
fallen in battle.

Thus were things situated when Prince Leo, leading by the hand
Rogero, clad in the battered armor in which he had sustained the
conflict with Bradamante, presented himself before the king.
"Behold," he said "the champion who maintained from dawn to
setting sun the arduous contest; he comes to claim the guerdon of
the fight." King Charlemagne, with all his peerage, stood amazed;
for all believed that the Grecian prince himself had fought with
Bradamante. Then stepped forth Marphisa, and said, "Since Rogero
is not here to assert his rights, I, his sister, undertake his
cause, and will maintain it against whoever shall dare dispute his
claim." She said this with so much anger and disdain that the
prince deemed it no longer wise to feign, and withdrew Rogero's
helmet from his brow, saying, "Behold him here!" Who can describe
the astonishment and joy of Marphisa! She ran and threw her arms
about her brother's neck, nor would give way to let Charlemagne
and Rinaldo, Orlando, Dudon, and the rest, who crowded round,
embrace him, and press friendly kisses on his brow. The joyful
tidings flew fast by many a messenger to Bradamante, who in her
secret chamber lay lamenting. The blood that stagnated about her
heart flowed at that notice so fast, that she had wellnigh died
for joy. Duke Aymon and the Lady Beatrice no longer withheld their
consent, and pledged their daughter to the brave Rogero before all
that gallant company.

Now came the Bulgarian ambassadors, and, kneeling at the feet of
Rogero, besought him to return with them to their country, where,
in Adrianople, the crown and sceptre were awaiting his acceptance.
Prince Leo united his persuasions to theirs, and promised, in his
royal father's name, that peace should be restored on their part.
Rogero gave his consent, and it was surmised that none of the
virtues which shone so conspicuously in him so availed to
recommend Rogero to the Lady Beatrice as the hearing her future
son-in-law saluted as a sovereign prince.

THE BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES

After the expulsion of the Saracens from France Charlemagne led
his army into Spain, to punish Marsilius, the king of that
country, for having sided with the African Saracens in the late
war. Charlemagne succeeded in all his attempts, and compelled
Marsilius to submit, and pay tribute to France. Our readers will
remember Gano, otherwise called Gan, or Ganelon, whom we mentioned
in one of our early chapters as an old courtier of Charlemagne,
and a deadly enemy of Orlando, Rinaldo, and all their friends. He
had great influence over Charles, from equality of age and long
intimacy; and he was not without good qualities: he was brave and
sagacious, but envious, false, and treacherous. Gan prevailed on
Charles to send him as ambassador to Marsilius, to arrange the
tribute. He embraced Orlando over and over again at taking leave,
using such pains to seem loving and sincere, that his hypocrisy
was manifest to every one but the old monarch. He fastened with
equal tenderness on Oliver, who smiled contemptuously in his face,
and thought to himself, "You may make as many fair speeches as you
choose, but you lie." All the other paladins who were present
thought the same, and they said as much to the Emperor, adding
that Gan should on no account be sent ambassador to the Spaniards.
But Charles was infatuated.

Gan was received with great honor by Marsilius. The king, attended
by his lords, came fifteen miles out of Saragossa to meet him, and
then conducted him into the city with acclamations. There was
nothing for several days but balls, games, and exhibitions of
chivalry, the ladies throwing flowers on the heads of the French
knights, and the people shouting, "France! Mountjoy and St.
Denis!"

After the ceremonies of the first reception the king and the
ambassador began to understand one another. One day they sat
together in a garden on the border of a fountain. The water was so
clear and smooth it reflected every object around, and the spot
was encircled with fruit-trees which quivered with the fresh air.
As they sat and talked, as if without restraint, Gan, without
looking the king in the face, was enabled to see the expression of
his countenance in the water, and governed his speech accordingly.
Marsilius was equally adroit, and watched the face of Gan while he
addressed him. Marsilius began by lamenting, not as to the
ambassador, but as to the friend, the injuries which Charles had
done him by invading his dominions, charging him with wishing to
take his kingdom from him and give it to Orlando; till at length
he plainly uttered his belief that if that ambitious paladin were
but dead good men would get their rights.

Gan heaved a sigh, as if he was unwillingly compelled to allow the
force of what the king said; but unable to contain himself long he
lifted up his face, radiant with triumphant wickedness, and
exclaimed: "Every word you utter is truth; die he must, and die
also must Oliver, who struck me that foul blow at court. Is it
treachery to punish affronts like these? I have planned
everything,--I have settled everything already with their
besotted master. Orlando will come to your borders--to
Roncesvalles--for the purpose of receiving the tribute. Charles
will await him at the foot of the mountains. Orlando will bring
but a small band with him: you, when you meet him, will have
secretly your whole army at your back. You surround him, and who
receives tribute then?"

The new Judas had scarcely uttered these words when his exultation
was interrupted by a change in the face of nature. The sky was
suddenly overcast, there was thunder and lightning, a laurel was
split in two from head to foot, and the Carob-tree under which Gan
was sitting, which is said to be the species of tree on which
Judas Iscariot hung himself, dropped one of its pods on his head.

Marsilius, as well as Gan, was appalled at this omen; but on
assembling his soothsayers they came to the conclusion that the
laurel-tree turned the omen against the Emperor, the successor of
the Caesars, though one of them renewed the consternation of Gan
by saying that he did not understand the meaning of the tree of
Judas, and intimating that perhaps the ambassador could explain
it. Gan relieved his vexation by anger; the habit of wickedness
prevailed over all other considerations; and the king prepared to
march to Roncesvalles at the head of all his forces.

Gan wrote to Charlemagne to say how humbly and submissively
Marsilius was coming to pay the tribute into the hands of Orlando,
and how handsome it would be of the Emperor to meet him half-way,
and so be ready to receive him after the payment at his camp. He
added a brilliant account of the tribute, and the accompanying
presents. The good Emperor wrote in turn to say how pleased he was
with the ambassador's diligence, and that matters were arranged
precisely as he wished. His court, however, had its suspicion
still, though they little thought Gan's object in bringing Charles
into the neighborhood of Roncesvalles was to deliver him into the
hands of Marsilius, after Orlando should have been destroyed by
him.

Orlando, however, did as his lord and sovereign desired. He went
to Roncesvalles, accompanied by a moderate train of warriors, not
dreaming of the atrocity that awaited him. Gan, meanwhile, had
hastened back to France, in order to show himself free and easy in
the presence of Charles, and secure the success of his plot; while
Marsilius, to make assurance doubly sure, brought into the passes
of Roncesvalles no less than three armies, which were successively
to fall on the paladin in case of the worst, and so extinguish him
with numbers. He had also, by Gan's advice, brought heaps of wine
and good cheer to be set before his victims in the first instance;
"for that," said the traitor, "will render the onset the more
effective, the feasters being unarmed. One thing, however, I must
not forget," added he; "my son Baldwin is sure to be with Orlando;
you must take care of his life for my sake."

"I give him this vesture off my own body," said the king; "let him
wear it in the battle, and have no fear. My soldiers shall be
directed not to touch him."

Gan went away rejoicing to France. He embraced the sovereign and
the court all round with the air of a man who had brought them
nothing but blessings, and the old king wept for very tenderness
and delight.

"Something is going on wrong, and looks very black," thought
Malagigi, the good wizard; "Rinaldo is not here, and it is
indispensably necessary that he should be. I must find out where
he is, and Ricciardetto too, and send for them with all speed."

Malagigi called up by his art a wise, terrible, and cruel spirit,
named Ashtaroth. "Tell me, and tell me truly, of Rinaldo," said
Malagigi to the spirit. The demon looked hard at the paladin, and
said nothing. His aspect was clouded and violent.

The enchanter, with an aspect still cloudier, bade Ashtaroth lay
down that look, and made signs as if he would resort to angrier
compulsion; and the devil, alarmed, loosened his tongue, and said,
"You have not told me what you desire to know of Rinaldo."

"I desire to know what he has been doing, and where he is."

"He has been conquering and baptizing the world, east and west,"
said the demon, "and is now in Egypt with Ricciardetto."

"And what has Gan been plotting with Marsilius?" inquired
Malagigi; "and what is to come of it?"

"I know not," said the devil. "I was not attending to Gan at the
time, and we fallen spirits know not the future. All I discern is
that by the signs and comets in the heavens something dreadful is
about to happen--something very strange, treacherous, and bloody;
and that Gan has a seat ready prepared for him in hell."

"Within three days," cried the enchanter, loudly, "bring Rinaldo
and Ricciardetto into the pass of Ronces-Valles. Do it, and I
hereby undertake to summon thee no more."

"Suppose they will not trust themselves with me?" said the spirit.

"Enter Rinaldo's horse, and bring him, whether he trust thee or
not."

"It shall be done," returned the demon.

There was an earthquake, and Ashtaroth disappeared.

Marsilius now made his first movement towards the destruction of
Orlando, by sending before him his vassal, King Blanchardin, with
his presents of wines and other luxuries. The temperate but
courteous hero took them in good part, and distributed them as the
traitor wished; and then Blanchardin, on pretence of going forward
to salute Charlemagne, returned, and put himself at the head of
the second army, which was the post assigned him by his liege-
lord. King Falseron, whose son Orlando had slain in battle, headed
the first army, and King Balugante the third. Marsilius made a
speech to them, in which he let them into his design, and
concluded by recommending to their good will the son of his friend
Gan, whom they would know by the vest he had sent him, and who was
the only soul amongst the Christian they were to spare.

This son of Gan, meanwhile, and several of the paladins, who
distrusted the misbelievers, and were anxious at all events to be
with Orlando, had joined the hero in the fatal valley; so that the
little Christian host, considering the tremendous valor of their
lord and his friends, were not to be sold for nothing. Rinaldo,
alas! the second thunderbolt of Christendom, was destined not to
be there in time to meet the issue. The paladins in vain begged
Orlando to be on his guard against treachery, and send for a more
numerous body of men. The great heart of the Champion of the Faith
was unwilling to harbor suspicion as long as he could help it. He
refused to summon aid which might be superfluous; neither would he
do anything but what his liege-lord had directed. And yet he could
not wholly repress a misgiving. A shadow had fallen on his heart,
great and cheerful as it was. The anticipations of his friends
disturbed him, in spite of the face with which he met them.
Perhaps by a certain foresight he felt his death approaching; but
he felt bound not to encourage the impression. Besides, time
pressed; the moment of the looked-for tribute was at hand, and
little combinations of circumstances determine often the greatest
events.

King Marsilius was to arrive early next day with the tribute, and
Oliver, with the morning sun, rode forth to reconnoitre, and see
if he could discover the peaceful pomp of the Spanish court in the
distance. He rode up the nearest height, and from the top of it
beheld the first army of Marsilius already forming in the passes.
"O devil Gan," he exclaimed, "this then is the consummation of thy
labors!" Oliver put spurs to his horse, and galloped back down the
mountain to Orlando.

"Well," cried the hero, "what news?"

"Bad news," said his cousin, "such as you would not hear of
yesterday. Marsilius is here in arms, and all the world is with
him."

The paladins pressed round Orlando, and entreated him to sound his
horn, in token that he needed help. His only answer was to mount
his horse, and ride up the mountain with Sansonetto.

As soon, however, as he cast forth his eyes, and beheld what was
round about him, he turned in sorrow, and looked down into
Roncesvalles, and said, "O miserable valley! the blood shed in
thee this day will color thy name forever."

Orlando's little camp were furious against the Saracens. They
armed themselves with the greatest impatience. There was nothing
but lacing of helmets and mounting of horses, while good
Archbishop Turpin went from rank to rank exhorting and encouraging
the warriors of Christ. Orlando and his captains withdrew for a
moment to consultation. He fairly groaned for sorrow, and at first
had not a word to say, so wretched he felt at having brought his
people to die in Roncesvalles. Then he said: "If it had entered
into my heart to conceive the king of Spain to be such a villain
never would you have seen this day. He has exchanged with me a
thousand courtesies and good words; and I thought that the worse
enemies we had been before, the better friends we had become now.
I fancied every human being capable of this kind of virtue on a
good opportunity, saving, indeed, such base-hearted wretches as
can never forgive their very forgivers; and of these I did not
suppose him to be one. Let us die, if die we must, like honest and
gallant men, so that it shall be said of us it was only our bodies
that died. The reason why I did not sound the horn was partly
because I thought it did not become us, and partly because our
liege lord could hardly save us, even if he heard it." And with
these words Orlando sprang to his horse, crying, "Aways against
the Saracens!" But he had no sooner turned his face than he wept
bitterly, and said, "O Holy Virgin, think not of me, the sinner
Orlando, but have pity on these thy servants!"

And now with a mighty dust, and an infinite sound of horns and
tambours, which came filling the valley, the first army of the
infidels made its appearance, horses neighing, and a thousand
pennons flying in the air. King Falseron led them on, saying to
his officers: "Let nobody dare to lay a finger on Orlando. He
belongs to myself. The revenge of my son's death is mine. I will
cut the man down that comes between us." "Now, friends," said
Orlando, "every man for himself, and St. Michael for us all! There
is not one here that is not a perfect knight." And he might well
say it, for the flower of all France was there, except Rinaldo and
Ricciardetto--every man a picked man, all friends and constant
companions of Orlando.

So the captains of the little troop and of the great army sat
looking at one another, and singling one another out as the latter
came on, and then the knights put spear in rest, and ran for a
while two and two in succession, one against the other.

Astolpho was the first to move. He ran against Arlotto of Sorio,
and thrust his antagonist's body out of the saddle, and his soul
into the other world. Oliver encountered Malprimo, and, though he
received a thrust which hurt him, sent his lance right through the
heart of Malprimo.

Falseron was daunted at this blow. "Truly," thought he, "this is a
marvel." Oliver did not press on among the Saracens, his wound was
too painful; but Orlando now put himself and his whole band in
motion, and you may guess what an uproar ensued. The sound of the
rattling of blows and helmets was as if the forge of Vulcan had
been thrown open. Falseron beheld Orlando coming so furiously,
that he thought him a Lucifer who had burst his chain, and was
quite of another mind than when he purposed to have him all to
himself. On the contrary, he recommended himself to his gods, and
turned away, meaning to wait for a more auspicious season of
revenge. But Orlando hailed him with a terrible voice, saying, "O
thou traitor! was this the end to which old quarrels were made
up?" Then he dashed at Falseron with a fury so swift, and at the
same time with a mastery of his lance so marvellous, that, though
he plunged it in the man's body so as instantly to kill him, and
then withdrew it, the body did not move in the saddle. The hero
himself, as he rushed onwards, was fain to see the end of a stroke
so perfect, and turning his horse back, touched the carcass with
his sword, and it fell on the instant!

When the infidels beheld their leader dead such fear fell upon
them that they were for leaving the field to the paladins, but
they were unable. Marsilius had drawn the rest of his forces round
the valley like a net, so that their shoulders were turned in
vain. Orlando rode into the thick of them, and wherever he went
thunderbolts fell upon helmets. Oliver was again in the fray, with
Walter and Baldwin, Avino and Avolio, while Arch-bishop Turpin
had changed his crosier for a lance, and chased a new flock before
him to the mountains.

Yet what could be done against foes without number? Marsilius
constantly pours them in. The paladins are as units to thousands.
Why tarry the horses of Rinaldo and Ricciardetto?

The horses did not tarry, but fate had been quicker than
enchantment. Ashtaroth had presented himself to Rinaldo in Egypt,
and, after telling his errand, he and Foul-mouth, his servant,
entered the horses of Rinaldo and Ricciardetto, which began to
neigh, and snort, and leap with the fiends within them, till off
they flew through the air over the pyramids and across the desert,
and reached Spain and the scene of action just as Marsilius
brought up his third army. The two paladins on their horses
dropped right into the midst of the Saracens, and began making
such havoc among them that Marsilius, who overlooked the fight
from a mountain, thought his soldiers had turned against one
another. Orlando beheld it, and guessed it could be no other but
his cousins, and pressed to meet them. Oliver coming up at the
same moment, the rapture of the whole party is not to be
expressed. After a few hasty words of explanation they were forced
to turn again upon the enemy, whose numbers seemed perfectly
without limit.

Orlando, making a bloody passage towards Marsilius, struck a youth
on the head, whose helmet was so strong as to resist the blow, but
at the same time flew off, Orlando prepared to strike a second
blow, when the youth exclaimed, "Hold! you loved my father; I am
Bujaforte!" The paladin had never seen Bujaforte, but he saw the
likeness to the good old man, his father, and he dropped his
sword. "O Bujaforte," said he, "I loved him indeed; but what does
his son do here fighting against his friends?"

Bujaforte could not at once speak for weeping. At length he said:
"I am forced to be here by my lord and master, Marsilius; and I
have made a show of fighting, but have not hurt a single
Christian. Treachery is on every side of you. Baldwin himself has
a vest given him by Marsilius, that everybody may know the son of
his friend Gan, and do him no harm."

"Put your helmet on again," said Orlando, "and behave just as you
have done. Never will your father's friend be an enemy to the
son."

The hero then turned in fury to look for Baldwin, who was
hastening towards him at that moment, with friendliness in his
looks.

"'Tis strange," said Baldwin, "I have done my duty as well as I
could, yet nobody will come against me. I have slain right and
left, and cannot comprehend what it is that makes the stoutest
infidels avoid me."

"Take off your vest," said Orlando, contemptuously, "and you will
soon discover the secret, if you wish to know it. Your father has
sold us to Marsilius, all but his honorable son."

"If my father," said Baldwin, impetuously tearing off the vest,
"has been such a villain, and I escape dying, I will plunge this
sword through his heart. But I am no traitor, Orlando, and you do
me wrong to say it. Think not I can live with dishonor."

Baldwin spurred off into the fight, not waiting to hear another
word from Orlando, who was very sorry for what he had said, for he
perceived that the youth was in despair.

And now the fight raged beyond all it had done before; twenty
pagans went down for one paladin, but still the paladins fell.
Sansonetto was beaten to earth by the club of Grandonio, Walter
d'Amulion had his shoulder broken, Berlinghieri and Ottone were
slain, and at last Astolpho fell, in revenge of whose death
Orlando turned the spot where he died into a lake of Saracen
blood. The luckless Bujaforte met Rinaldo, and before he could
explain how he seemed to be fighting on the Saracen side received
such a blow upon the head that he fell, unable to utter a word.
Orlando, cutting his way to a spot where there was a great
struggle and uproar, found the poor youth Baldwin, the son of Gan,
with two spears in his breast. "I am no traitor now," said
Baldwin, and those were the last words he said. Orlando was
bitterly sorry to have been the cause of his death, and tears
streamed from his eyes. At length down went Oliver himself. He had
become blinded with his own blood, and smitten Orlando without
knowing him. "How now, cousin," cried Orlando, "have you too gone
over to the enemy?" "O my lord and master," cried the other, "I
ask your pardon. I can see nothing; I am dying. Some traitor has
stabbed me in the back. If you love me, lead my horse into the
thick of them, so that I may not die unavenged."

"I shall die myself before long," said Orlando, "out of very toil
and grief; so we will go together."

Orlando led his cousin's horse where the press was thickest, and
dreadful was the strength of the dying man and his tired
companion. They made a street through which they passed out of the
battle, and Orlando led his cousin away to his tent, and said,
"Wait a little till I return, for I will go and sound the horn on
the hill yonder."

"'Tis of no use," said Oliver, "my spirit is fast going and
desires to be with its Lord and Saviour."

He would have said more, but his words came from him imperfectly,
like those of a man in a dream, and so he expired.

When Orlando saw him dead he felt as if he was alone on the earth,
and he was quite willing to leave it, only he wished that King
Charles, at the foot of the mountains, should know how the case
stood before he went. So he took up the horn and blew it three
times, with such force that the blood burst out of his nose and
mouth. Turpin says that at the third blast the horn broke in two.

In spite of all the noise of the battle, the sound of the horn
broke over it like a voice out of the other world. They say that
birds fell dead at it, and that the whole Saracen army drew back
in terror. Charlemagne was sitting in the midst of his court when
the sound reached him, and Gan was there. The Emperor was the
first to hear it.

"Do you hear that?" said he to his nobles. "Did you hear the horn
as I heard it?"

Upon this they all listened, and Gan felt his heart misgive him.
The horn sounded a second time.

"What is the meaning of this?" said Charles.

"Orlando is hunting," observed Gan, "and the stag is killed."

But when the horn sounded yet a third time, and the blast was one
of so dreadful a vehemence, everybody looked at the other, and
then they all looked at Gan in a fury. Charles rose from his seat.

"This is no hunting of the stag," said he. "The sound goes to my
very heart. O Gan! O Gan! Not for thee do I blush, but for myself.
O foul and monstrous villain! Take him, gentleman, and keep him in
close prison. Would to God I had not lived to see this day!"

But it was no time for words. They put the traitor in prison and
then Charles, with all his court, took his way to Roncesvalles,
grieving and praying.

It was afternoon when the horn sounded, and half an hour after it
when the Emperor set out; and meantime Orlando had returned to the
fight that he might do his duty, however hopeless, as long as he
could sit his horse. At length he found his end approaching, for
toil and fever, and rode all alone to a fountain where he had
before quenched his thirst. His horse was wearier than he, and no
sooner had his master alighted than the beast, kneeling down as if
to take leave, and to say, "I have brought you to a place of
rest," fell dead at his feet. Orlando cast water on him from the
fountain, not wishing to believe him dead; but when he found it to
no purpose, he grieved for him as if he had been a human being,
and addressed him by name with tears, and asked forgiveness if he
had ever done him wrong. They say that the horse, at these words,
opened his eyes a little, and looked kindly at his master, and
then stirred never more. They say also that Orlando then summoning
all his strength, smote a rock near him with his beautiful sword
Durindana, thinking to shiver the steel in pieces, and so prevent
its falling into the hands of the enemy, but though the rock split
like a slate, and a great cleft remained ever after to astonish
the eyes of pilgrims, the sword remained uninjured.

And now Rinaldo and Ricciardetto came up, with Turpin, having
driven back the Saracens, and told Orlando that the battle was
won. Then Orlando knelt before Turpin and begged remission of his
sins, and Turpin gave him absolution. Orlando fixed his eyes on
the hilt of his sword as on a crucifix, and embraced it, and he
raised his eyes and appeared like a creature seraphical and
transfigured, and bowing his head, he breathed out his pure soul.

And now King Charles and his nobles came up. The Emperor, at sight
of the dead Orlando, threw himself, as if he had been a reckless
youth, from his horse, and embraced and kissed the body, and said:
"I bless thee, Orlando; I bless thy whole life, and all that thou
wast, and all that thou ever didst, and the father that begat
thee; and I ask pardon of thee for believing those who brought
thee to thine end. They shall have their reward, O thou beloved
one! But indeed it is thou that livest, and I who am worse than
dead."

Horrible to the Emperor's eyes was the sight of the field of
Roncesvalles. The Saracens indeed had fled, conquered; but all his
paladins but two were left on it dead, and the whole valley looked
like a great slaughter-house, trampled into blood and dirt, and
reeking to the heat. Charles trembled to his heart's core for
wonder and agony. After gazing dumbly on the place he cursed it
with a solemn curse, and wished that never grass might grow in it
again, nor seed of any kind, neither within it nor on any of its
mountains around, but the anger of Heaven abide over it forever.

Charles and his warriors went after the Saracens into Spain. They
took and fired Saragossa, and Marsilius was hung to the carob-tree
under which he had planned his villainy with Gan; and Gan was hung
and drawn and quartered in Roncesvalles, amidst the execrations of
the country.

RINALDO AND BAYARD

CHARLEMAGNE was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of so many of
his bravest warriors at the disaster of Roncesvalles, and bitterly
reproached himself for his credulity in resigning himself so
completely to the counsels of the treacherous Count Gan. Yet he
soon fell into a similar snare when he suffered his unworthy son,
Charlot, to acquire such an influence over him, that he constantly
led him into acts of cruelty and injustice that in his right mind
he would have scorned to commit. Rinaldo and his brothers, for
some slight offence to the imperious young prince, were forced to
fly from Paris, and to take shelter in their castle of Montalban;
for Charles had publicly said, if he could take them he would hang
them all. He sent numbers of his bravest knights to arrest them,
but all without success. Either Rinaldo foiled their efforts and
sent them back, stripped of their armor and of their glory, or,
after meeting and conferring with him, they came back and told the
king they could not be his instruments for such a work.

At last Charles himself raised a great army, and went in person to
compel the paladin to submit. He ravaged all the country round
about Montalban, so that supplies of food should be cut off, and
he threatened death to any who should attempt to issue forth,
hoping to compel the garrison to submit for want of food.

Rinaldo's resources had been brought so low that it seemed useless
to contend any longer. His brothers had been taken prisoners in a
skirmish, and his only hope of saving their lives was in making
terms with the king.

So he sent a messenger, offering to yield himself and his castle
if the king would spare his and his brothers' lives. While the
messenger was gone Rinaldo, impatient to learn what tidings he
might bring, rode out to meet him. When he had ridden as far as he
thought prudent he stopped in a wood, and alighting, tied Bayard
to a tree. Then he sat down, and, as he waited, he fell asleep.
Bayard meanwhile got loose, and strayed away where the grass
tempted him. Just then came along some country people, who said to
one another, "Look, is not that the great horse Bayard that
Rinaldo rides? Let us take him, and carry him to King Charles, who
will pay us well for our trouble." They did so, and the king was
delighted with his prize, and gave them a present that made them
rich to their dying day.

When Rinaldo woke he looked round for his horse, and, finding him
not, he groaned, and said, "O unlucky hour that I was born! how
fortune persecutes me!" So desperate was he that he took off his
armor and his spurs, saying, "What need have I of these, since
Bayard is lost?" While he stood thus lamenting, a man came from
the thicket, seemingly bent with age. He had a long beard hanging
over his breast, and eyebrows that almost covered his eyes. He
bade Rinaldo good day. Rinaldo thanked him, and said, "A good day
I have hardly had since I was born." Then said the old man,
"Signor Rinaldo, you must not despair, for God will make all
things turn to the best." Rinaldo answered, "My trouble is too
heavy for me to hope relief. The king has taken my brothers, and
means to put them to death. I thought to rescue them by means of
my horse Bayard, but while I slept some thief has stolen him." The
old man replied, "I will remember you and your brothers in my
prayers. I am a poor man, have you not something to give me?"
Rinaldo said, "I have nothing to give," but then he recollected
his spurs. He gave them to the beggar, and said, "Here, take my
spurs. They are the first present my mother gave me when my
father, Count Aymon, dubbed me knight. They ought to bring you ten
pounds."

The old man took the spurs, and put them into his sack, and said,
"Noble sir, have you nothing else you can give me?" Rinaldo
replied, "Are you making sport of me? I tell you truly if it were
not for shame to beat one so helpless, I would teach you better
manners." The old man said, "Of a truth, sir, if you did so you
would do a great sin. If all had beaten me of whom I have begged I
should have been killed long ago, for I ask alms in churches and
convents, and wherever I can." "You say true," replied Rinaldo,
"if you did not ask, none would relieve you." The old man said,
"True, noble sir, therefore I pray if you have anything more to
spare, give it me." Rinaldo gave him his mantle, and said, "Take
it, pilgrim. I give it you for the love of Christ, that God would
save my brothers from a shameful death, and help me to escape out
of King Charles's power."

The pilgrim took the mantle, folded it up, and put it into his
bag. Then a third time he said to Rinaldo, "Sir, have you nothing
left to give me that I may remember you in my prayers?" "Wretch!"
exclaimed Rinaldo, "do you make me your sport?" and he drew his
sword, and struck at him; but the old man warded off the blow with
his staff, and said, "Rinaldo, would you slay your cousin,
Malagigi?" When Rinaldo heard that he stayed his hand, and gazed
doubtingly on the old man, who now threw aside his disguise, and
appeared to be indeed Malagigi. "Dear cousin," said Rinaldo, "pray
forgive me. I did not know you. Next to God, my trust is in you.
Help my brothers to escape out of prison, I entreat you. I have
lost my horse, and therefore cannot render them any assistance."
Malagigi answered, "Cousin Rinaldo, I will enable you to recover
your horse. Meanwhile, you must do as I say."

Then Malagigi took from his sack a gown, and gave it to Rinaldo to
put on over his armor, and a hat that was full of holes, and an
old pair of shoes to put on. They looked like two pilgrims, very
old and poor. Then they went forth from the wood, and after a
little while saw four monks riding along the road. Malagigi said
to Rinaldo, "I will go meet the monks, and see what news I can
learn."

Malagigi learned from the monks that on the approaching festival
there would be a great crowd of people at court, for the prince
was going to show the ladies the famous horse Bayard that used to
belong to Rinaldo. "What!" said the pilgrim; "is Bayard there?"
"Yes," answered the monks; "the king has given him to Charlot,
and, after the prince has ridden him the king means to pass
sentence on the brothers of Rinaldo, and have them hanged." Then
Malagigi asked alms of the monks, but they would give him none,
till he threw aside his pilgrim garb, and let them see his armor,
when, partly for charity and partly for terror, they gave him a
golden cup, adorned with precious stones that sparkled in the
sunshine.

Malagigi then hastened back to Rinaldo, and told him what he had
learned.

The morning of the feast-day Rinaldo and Malagigi came to the
place where the sports were to be held. Malagigi gave Rinaldo his
spurs back again, and said, "Cousin, put on your spurs, for you
will need them." "How shall I need them," said Rinaldo, "since I
have lost my horse?" Yet he did as Malagigi directed him.

When the two had taken their stand on the border of the field
among the crowd the princes and ladies of the court began to
assemble. When they were all assembled the king came also, and
Charlot with him, near whom the horse Bayard was led, in the
charge of grooms, who were expressly enjoined to guard him safely.
The king, looking round on the circle of spectators, saw Malagigi
and Rinaldo, and observed the splendid cup that they had, and said
to Charlot, "See, my son, what a brilliant cup those two pilgrims
have got. It seems to be worth a hundred ducats." "That is true,"
said Charlot; "Let us go and ask where they got it." So they rode
to the place where the pilgrims stood, and Charlot stopped Bayard
close to them.

The horse snuffed at the pilgrims, knew Rinaldo, and caressed his
master. The king said to Malagigi, "Friend, where did you get that
beautiful cup?" Malagigi replied, "Honorable sir, I paid for it
all the money I have saved from eleven years' begging in churches
and convents. The Pope himself has blessed it, and given it the
power that whosoever eats or drinks out of it shall be pardoned of
all his sins." Then said the king to Charlot, "My son, these are
right holy men; see how the dumb beast worships them."

Then the king said to Malagigi, "Give me a morsel from your cup,
that I may be cleared of my sins." Malagigi answered, "Illustrious
lord, I dare not do it, unless you will forgive all who have at
any time offended you. You know that Christ forgave all those who
had betrayed and crucified him." The king replied, "Friend, that
is true; but Rinaldo has so grievously offended me, that I cannot
forgive him, nor that other man, Malagigi, the magician. These two
shall never live in my kingdom again. If I catch them I will
certainly have them hanged. But tell me, pilgrim, who is that man
who stands beside you?" "He is deaf, dumb, and blind," said
Malagigi. Then the king said again, "Give me to drink of your cup,
to take away my sins." Malagigi answered, "My lord king, here is
my poor brother, who for fifty days has not heard, spoken, nor
seen. This misfortune befell him in a house where we found
shelter, and the day before yesterday we met with a wise woman,
who told him the only hope of a cure for him was to come to some
place where Bayard was to be ridden, and to mount and ride him;
that would do him more good than anything else." Then said the
king, "Friend, you have come to the right place, for Bayard is to
be ridden here to-day. Give me a draught from your cup, and your
companion shall ride upon Bayard." Malagigi, hearing these words,
said, "Be it so." Then the king, with great devotion, took a
spoon, and dipped a portion from the pilgrim's cup, believing that
his sins should be thereby forgiven.

When this was done, the king said to Charlot, "Son, I request that
you will let this sick pilgrim sit on your horse, and ride if he
can, for by so doing he will be healed of all his infirmities."
Charlot replied, "That will I gladly do." So saying, he
dismounted, and the servants took the pilgrim in their arms, and
helped him on the horse.

Wher Rinaldo was mounted, he put his feet in the stirrups, and
said, "I would like to ride a little." Malagigi, hearing him
speak, seemed delighted, and asked him whether he could see and
hear also. "Yes," said Rinaldo, "I am healed of all my
infirmities." When the king heard it he said to Bishop Turpin, "My
lord bishop, we must celebrate this with a procession, with
crosses and banners, for it is a great miracle."

When Rinaldo remarked that he was not carefully watched, he spoke
to the horse, and touched him with the spurs. Bayard knew that his
master was upon him, and he started off upon a rapid pace, and in
a few moments was a good way off. Malagigi pretended to be in
great alarm. "O noble king and master," he cried, "my poor
companion is run away with; he will fall and break his neck." The
king ordered his knights to ride after the pilgrim, and bring him
back, or help him if need were. They did so, but it was in vain.
Rinaldo left them all behind him, and kept on his way till he
reached Montalban. Malagigi was suffered to depart, unsuspected,
and he went his way, making sad lamentation for the fate of his
comrade, who he pretended to think must surely be dashed to
pieces.

Malagigi did not go far, but having changed his disguise, returned
to where the king was, and employed his best art in getting the
brothers of Rinaldo out of prison. He succeeded; and all three got
safely to Montalban, where Rinaldo's joy at the rescue of his
brothers and the recovery of Bayard was more than tongue can tell.

DEATH OF RINALDO

THE distress in Rinaldo's castle for want of food grew more severe
every day, under the pressure of the siege. The garrison were
forced to kill their horses, both to save the provision they would
consume, and to make food of their flesh. At last all the horses
were killed except Bayard, and Rinaldo said to his brothers,
"Bayard must die, for we have nothing else to eat." So they went
to the stable and brought out Bayard to kill him. But Alardo said,
"Brother, let Bayard live a little longer; who knows what God may
do for us?"

Bayard heard these words, and understood them as if he was a man,
and fell on his knees, as if he would beg for mercy. When Rinaldo
saw the distress of his horse his heart failed him, and he let him
live.

Just at this time Aya, Rinaldo's mother, who was the sister of the
Emperor, came to the camp, attended by knights and ladies, to
intercede for her sons. She fell on her knees before the king, and
besought him that he would pardon Rinaldo and his brothers: and
all the peers and knights took her side, and entreated the king to
grant her prayer. Then said the king, "Dear sister, you act the
part of a good mother, and I respect your tender heart, and yield
to your entreaties. I will spare your sons their lives if they
submit implicitly to my will."

When Charlot heard this he approached the king and whispered in
his ear. And the king turned to his sister and said, "Charlot must
have Bayard, because I have given the horse to him. Now go, my
sister, and tell Rinaldo what I have said."

When the Lady Aya heard these words she was delighted, thanked God
in her heart, and said, "Worthy king and brother, I will do as you
bid me." So she went into the castle, where her sons received her
most joyfully and affectionately, and she told them the king's
offer. Then Alardo said, "Brother, I would rather have the king's
enmity than give Bayard to Charlot, for I believe he will kill
him." Likewise said all the brothers. When Rinaldo heard them he
said, "Dear brothers, if we may win our forgiveness by giving up
the horse, so be it. Let us make our peace, for we cannot stand
against the king's power." Then he went to his mother, and told
her they would give the horse to Charlot, and more, too, if the
king would pardon them, and forgive all that they had done against
his crown and dignity. The lady returned to Charles and told him
the answer of her sons.

When the peace was thus made between the king and the sons of
Aymon, the brothers came forth from the castle, bringing Bayard
with them, and, falling at the king's feet, begged his
forgiveness. The king bade them rise, and received them into favor
in the sight of all his noble knights and counsellors, to the
great joy of all, especially of the Lady Aya, their mother. Then
Rinaldo took the horse Bayard, gave him to Charlot, and said, "My
lord and prince, this horse I give to you; do with him as to you
seems good." Charlot took him, as had been agreed on. Then he made
the servants take him to the bridge, and throw him into the water.
Bayard sank to the bottom, but soon came to the surface again and
swam, saw Rinaldo looking at him, came to land, ran to his old
master, and stood by him as proudly as if he had understanding,
and would say, "Why did you treat me so?" When the prince saw that
he said, "Rinaldo, give me the horse again, for he must die."
Rinaldo replied, "My lord and prince, he is yours without
dispute," and gave him to him. The prince then had a millstone
tied to each foot, and two to his neck, and made them throw him
again into the water. Bayard struggled in the water, looked up to
his master, threw off the stones, and came back to Rinaldo.

When Alardo saw that, he said, "Now must thou be disgraced
forever, brother, if thou give up the horse again." But Rinaldo
answered, "Brother, be still. Shall I for the horse's life provoke
the anger of the king again?" Then Alardo said, "Ah, Bayard! what
a return do we make for all thy true love and service!" Rinaldo
gave the horse to the prince again, and said, "My lord, if the
horse comes out again I cannot return him to you any more, for it
wrings my heart too much." Then Chariot had Bayard loaded with the
stones as before, and thrown into the water; and commanded Rinaldo
that he should not stand where the horse would see him. When
Bayard rose to the surface he stretched his neck out of the water
and looked round for his master, but saw him not. Then he sunk to
the bottom.

Rinaldo was so distressed for the loss of Bayard that he made a
vow to ride no horse again all his life long, nor to bind a sword
to his side, but to become a hermit. He resolved to betake himself
to some wild wood, but first to return to his castle, to see his
children, and to appoint to each his share of his estate.

So he took leave of the king and of his brothers, and returned to
Montalban, and his brothers remained with the king. Rinaldo called
his children to him, and he made his eldest born, Aymeric, a
knight, and made him lord of his castle and of his land. He gave
to the rest what other goods he had, and kissed and embraced them
all, commended them to God, and then departed from them with a
heavy heart.

He had not travelled far when he entered a wood, and there met
with a hermit, who had long been retired from the world. Rinaldo
greeted him, and the hermit replied courteously, and asked him who
he was and what was his purpose. Rinaldo replied, "Sir, I have led
a sinful life; many deeds of violence have I done, and many men
have I slain, not always in a good cause, but often under the
impulse of my own headstrong passions. I have also been the cause
of the death of many of my friends, who took my part, not because
they thought me in the right, but only for love of me. And now I
come to make confession of all my sins, and to do penance for the
rest of my life, if perhaps the mercy of God will forgive me." The
hermit said, "Friend, I perceive you have fallen into great sins,
and have broken the commandments of God, but his mercy is greater
than your sins; and if you repent from your heart, and lead a new
life, there is yet hope for you that he will forgive you what is
past." So Rinaldo was comforted, and said, "Master, I will stay
with you, and what you bid ane I will do." The hermit replied,
"Roots and vegetables will be your food; shirt or shoes you may
not wear; your lot must be poverty and want if you stay with me."
Rinaldo replied, "I will cheerfully bear all this, and more." So
he remained three whole years with the hermit, and after that his
strength failed, and it seemed as if he was like to die.

One night the hermit had a dream, and heard a voice from heaven,
which commanded him to say to his companion that he must without
delay go to the Holy Land, and fight against the heathen. The
hermit, when he heard that voice, was glad, and calling Rinaldo,
he said, "Friend, God's angel has commanded me to say to you that
you must without delay go to Jerusalem, and help our fellow-
Christians in their struggle with the Infidels." Then said
Rinaldo, "Ah! master, how can I do that? It is over three years
since I made a vow no more to ride a horse, nor take a sword or
spear in my hand." The hermit answered, "Dear friend, obey God,
and do what the angel commanded." "I will do so," said Rinaldo,
"and pray for me, my master, that God may guide me right." Then he
departed, and went to the seaside, and took ship and came to
Tripoli in Syria.

And as he went on his way his strength returned to him, till it
was equal to what it was in his best days. And though he never
mounted a horse, nor took a sword in his hand, yet with his
pilgrim's staff he did good service in the armies of the
Christians; and it pleased God that he escaped unhurt, though he
was present in many battles, and his courage inspired the men with
the same. At last a truce was made with the Saracens, and Rinaldo,
now old and infirm, wishing to see his native land again before he
died, took ship and sailed for France. When he arrived he shunned
to go to the resorts of the great, and preferred to live among the
humble folk, where he was unknown. He did country work, and lived
on milk and bread, drank water, and was therewith content. While
he so lived he heard that the city of Cologne was the holiest and
best of cities, on account of the relics and bodies of saints who
had there poured out their blood for the faith. This induced him
to betake himself thither. When the pious hero arrived at Cologne
he went to the monastery of St. Peter, and lived a holy life,
occupied night and day in devotion. It so happened that at that
time in the next town to Cologne there raged a dreadful
pestilence. Many people came to Rinaldo, to beg him to pray for
them, that the plague might be stayed. The holy man prayed
fervently, and besought the Lord to take away the plague from the
people, and his prayer was heard. The stroke of the pestilence was
arrested, and all the people thanked the holy man and praised God.

Now there was at this time at Cologne a bishop, called Agilolphus,
who was a wise and understanding man, who led a pure and secluded
life, and set a good example to others. This bishop undertook to
build the Church of St. Peter, and gave notice to all stonemasons
and other workmen round about to come to Cologne, where they
should find work and wages. Among others came Rinaldo; and he
worked among the laborers and did more than four or five common
workmen. When they went to dinner he brought stone and mortar so
that they had enough for the whole day. When the others went to
bed he stretched himself out on the stones. He ate bread only, and
drank nothing but water; and had for his wages but a penny a day.
The head workman asked him his name, and where he belonged. He
would not tell, but said nothing and pursued his work. They called
him St. Peter's workman, because he was so devoted to his work.

When the overseer saw the diligence of this holy man he chid the
laziness of the other workmen, and said, "You receive more pay
than this good man, but do not do half as much work." For this
reason the other workmen hated Rinaldo, and made a secret
agreement to kill him. They knew that he made it a practice to go
every night to a certain church to pray and give alms. So they
agreed to lay wait for him, with the purpose to kill him. When he
came to the spot, they seized him, and beat him over the head till
he was dead. Then they put his body into a sack, and stones with
it, and cast it into the Rhine, in the hope the sack would sink to
the bottom, and be there concealed. But God willed not that it
should be so, but caused the sack to float on the surface, and be
thrown upon the bank. And the soul of the holy martyr was carried
by angels, with songs of praise, up to the heavens.

Now at that time the people of Dortmund had become converted to
the Christian faith; and they sent to the Bishop of Cologne, and
desired him to give them some of the holy relics that are in such
abundance in that city. So the Bishop called together his clergy
to deliberate what answer they should give to this request. And it
was determined to give to the people of Dortmund the body of the
holy man who had just suffered martyrdom.

When now the body with the coffin was put on the cart, the cart
began to move toward Dortmund without horses or help of men, and
stopped not till it reached the place where the church of St.
Rinaldo now stands. The Bishop and his clergy followed the holy
man to do him honor, with singing of hymns, for a space of three
miles. And St. Rinaldo has ever since been the patron of that
place, and many wonderful works has God done through him, as may
be seen in the legends.

HUON OF BORDEAUX

WHEN Charlemagne grew old he felt the burden of government become
heavier year by year, till at last he called together his high
barons and peers to propose to abdicate the empire and the throne
of France in favor of his sons, Charlot and Lewis.

The Emperor was unreasonably partial to his eldest son; he would
have been glad to have had the barons and peers demand Charlot for
their only sovereign; but that prince was so infamous, for his
falsehood and cruelty, that the council strenuously opposed the
Emperor's proposal of abdicating, and implored him to continue to
hold a sceptre which he wielded with so much glory.

Amaury of Hauteville, cousin of Ganelon, and now head of the
wicked branch of the house of Maganza, was the secret partisan of
Charlot, whom he resembled in his loose morals and bad
dispositions. Amaury nourished the most bitter resentment against
the house of Guienne, of which the former Duke, Sevinus, had often
rebuked his misdeeds. He took advantage of this occasion to do an
injury to the two young children whom the Duke Sevinus had left
under the charge of the Duchess Alice, their mother; and at the
same time, to advance his interest with Charlot by increasing his
wealth and power. With this view he suggested to the prince a new
idea.

He pretended to agree with the opinion of the barons; he said that
it would be best to try Charlot's capacity for government by
giving him some rich provinces before placing him upon the throne;
and that the Emperor, without depriving himself of any part of his
realm, might give Charlot the investiture of Guienne. For although
seven years had passed since the death of Sevinus, the young Duke,
his son, had not yet repaired to the court of Charlemagne to
render the homage due to his lawful sovereign.

We have often had occasion to admire the justice and wisdom of the
advice which on all occasions the Duke Namo of Bavaria gave to
Charlemagne, and he now discountenanced, with indignation, the
selfish advice of Amaury. He represented to the Emperor the early
age of the children of Sevinus, and the useful and glorious
services of their late father, and proposed to Charlemagne to send
two knights to the Duchess at Bordeaux, to summon her two sons to
the court of the Emperor, to pay their respects and render homage.

Charlemagne approved this advice, and sent two chevaliers to
demand the two young princes of their mother. No sooner had the
Duchess learned the approach of the two knights, than she sent
distinguished persons to receive them; and as soon as they entered
the palace she presented herself before them, with her elder and
younger sons, Huon and Girard.

The deputies, delighted with the honors and caresses they
received, accompanied with rich presents, left Bordeaux with
regret and on their return represented to Charlemagne that the
young Duke Huon seemed born to tread in the footsteps of his brave
father, informing him that in three months the young princes of
Guienne would present themselves at his court.

The Duchess employed the short interval in giving her sons her
last instructions. Huon received them in his heart, and Girard
gave as much heed to them as could be expected from one so young.

The preparations for their departure having been made, the Duchess
embraced them tenderly, commending them to the care of Heaven, and
charged them to call, on their way, at the celebrated monastery of
Cluny, to visit the Abbot, the brother of their father. This
Abbot, worthy of his high dignity, had never lost an opportunity
of doing good, setting an example of every excellence, and making
virtue attractive by his example.

He received his nephews with the greatest magnificence; and, aware
how useful his presence might be to them with Charlemagne, whose
valued counsellor he was, he took with them the road to Paris.

When Amaury learned what reception the two deputies of Charlemagne
had received at Bordeaux, and the arrangements made for the visit
of the young princes to the Emperor's court, he suggested to
Charlot to give him a troop of his guards, with which he proposed
to lay wait for the young men in the wood of Montlery, put them to
death, and thereby give the prince Charlot possession of the duchy
of Guienne.

A plan of treachery and violence agreed but too well with
Charlot's disposition. He not only adopted the suggestion of
Amaury, but insisted upon taking a part in it. They went out
secretly, by night, followed by a great number of attendants, all
armed in black, to lie in ambuscade in the wood where the brothers
were to pass.

Girard, the younger of the two, having amused himself as he rode
by flying his hawk at such game as presented itself, had ridden in
advance of his brother and the Abbot of Cluny. Charlot, who saw
him coming, alone and unarmed, went forth to meet him, sought a
quarrel with him, and threw him from his horse with a stroke of
his lance. Girard uttered a cry as he fell; Huon heard it, and
flew to his defence, with no other weapon than his sword. He came
up with him, and saw the blood flowing from his wound. "What has
this child done to you, wretch!" he exclaimed to Charlot. "How
cowardly to attack him when unprepared to defend himself!" "By my
faith," said Charlot, "I mean to do the same by you. Know that I
am the son of Duke Thierry of Ardennes, from whom your father,
Sevinus, took three castles; I have sworn to avenge him, and I
defy you." "Coward," answered Huon, "I know well the baseness that
dwells in your race; worthy son of Thierry, use the advantage that
your armor gives you; but know that I fear you not." At these
words Charlot had the wickedness to put his lance in rest, and to
run upon Huon, who had barely time to wrap his arm in his mantle.
With this feeble buckler he received the thrust of the lance. It
penetrated the mantle, but missed his body. Then, rising upon his
stirrups, Sir Huon struck Charlot so terrible a blow with his
sword that the helmet was cleft asunder, and his head too. The
dastardly prince fell dead upon the ground.

Huon now perceived that the wood was full of armed men. He called
the men of his suite, and they hastily put themselves in order,
but nobody issued from the wood to attack him. Amaury, who saw
Charlot's fall, had no desire to compromit himself; and, feeling
sure that Charlemagne would avenge the death of his son, he saw no
occasion for his doing anything more at present. He left Huon and
the Abbot of Cluny to bind up the wound of Girard, and, having
seen them depart and resume their way to Paris, he took up the
body of Charlot, and, placing it across a horse, had it carried to
Paris, where he arrived four hours after Huon.

The Abbot of Cluny presented his nephew to Charlemagne, but Huon
refrained from paying his obeisance, complaining grievously of the
ambush which had been set for him, which he said could not have
been without the Emperor's permission. Charlemagne, surprised at a
charge which his magnanimous soul was incapable of meriting, asked
eagerly of the Abbot what were the grounds of the complaints of
his nephew. The Abbot told him faithfully all that had happened,
informing him that a coward knight, who called himself the son of
Thierry of Ardennes, had wounded Girard, and run upon Huon, who
was unarmed; but by his force and valor he had overcome the
traitor, and left him dead upon the plain.

Charlemagne indignantly disavowed any connection with the action
of the infamous Thierry, congratulated the young Duke upon his
victory, himself conducted the two brothers to a rich apartment,
stayed to see the first dressing applied to the wound of Girard,
and left the brothers in charge of Duke Namo of Bavaria, who,
having been a companion in arms of the Duke Sevinus, regarded the
young men almost as if they were his own sons.

Charlemagne had hardly quitted them when, returning to his
chamber, he heard cries, and saw through the window a party of
armed men just arrived. He recognized Amaury, who bore a dead
knight stretched across a horse; and the name of Charlot was heard
among the exclamations of the people assembled in the court-yard.

Charles's partiality for this unworthy son was one of his
weaknesses. He descended in trepidation to the court-yard, ran to
Amaury, and uttered a cry of grief on recognizing Charlot. "It is
Huon of Bordeaux," said the traitor Amaury, "who has massacred
your son before it was in my power to defend him." Charlemagne,
furious at these words, seized a sword, and flew to the apartment
of the two brothers to plunge it into the heart of the murderer of
his son. Duke Namo stopped his hand for an instant, while Charles
told him the crime of which Huon was accused. "He is a peer of the
realm," said Namo, "and if he is guilty, is he not here in your
power, and are not we peers the proper judges to condemn him to
death? Let not your hand be stained with his blood." The Emperor,
calmed by the wisdom of Duke Namo, summoned Amaury to his
presence. The peers assembled to hear his testimony, and the
traitor accused Huon of Bordeaux of having struck the fatal blow
without allowing Charlot an opportunity to defend himself, and
though he knew that his opponent was the Emperor's eldest son.

The Abbot of Cluny, indignant at the false accusation of Amaury,
advanced, and said, "By Saint Benedict, sire, the traitor lies in
his throat. If my nephew has slain Charlot it was in his own
defence, and after having seen his brother wounded by him, and
also in ignorance that his adversary was the prince. Though I am a
son of the Church," added the good Abbot, "I forget not that I am
a knight by birth. I offer to prove with my body the lie upon
Amaury, if he dares sustain it, and I shall feel that I am doing a
better work to punish a disloyal traitor, than to sing lauds and
matins."

Huon to this time had kept silent, amazed at the black calumny of
Amaury; but now he stepped forth, and, addressing Amaury, said:
"Traitor! darest thou maintain in arms the lie thou hast uttered?"
Amaury, a knight of great prowess, despising the youth and slight
figure of Huon, hesitated not to offer his glove, which Huon
seized; then, turning again to the peers, he said: "I pray you let
the combat be allowed me, for never was there a more legitimate
cause." The Duke Namo and the rest, deciding that the question
should be remitted to the judgment of Heaven, the combat was
ordained, to which Charlemagne unwillingly consented. The young
Duke was restored to the charge of Duke Namo, who the next morning
invested him with the honors of knighthood, and gave him armor of
proof, with a white shield. The Abbot of Cluny, delighted to find
in his nephew sentiments worthy of his birth, embraced him, gave
him his blessing, and hastened to the church of St. Germains to
pray for him, while the officers of the king prepared the lists
for the combat.

The battle was long and obstinate. The address and agility of Huon
enabled him to avoid the terrible blows which the ferocious Amaury
aimed at him. But Huon had more than once drawn blood from his
antagonist. The effect began to be perceived in the failing
strength of the traitor; at last he threw himself from his horse,
and kneeling, begged for mercy. "Spare me," he said, "and I will
confess all. Aid me to rise, and lead me to Charlemagne." The
brave and loyal Huon, at these words, put his sword under his left
arm, and stretched out his right to raise the prostrate man, who
seized the opportunity to give him a thrust in the side. The
hauberk of Huon resisted the blow, and he was wounded but
slightly. Transported with rage at this act of baseness, he forgot
how necessary for his complete acquittal the confession of Amaury
was, and without delay dealt him the fatal blow.

Duke Namo and the other peers approached, had the body of Amaury
dragged forth from the lists, and conducted Huon to Charlemagne.
The Emperor, however, listening to nothing but his resentment and
grief for the death of his son, refused to be satisfied; and under
the plea that Huon had not succeeded in making his accuser retract
his charge seemed resolved to confiscate his estates and to banish
him forever from France. It was not till after long entreaties on
the part of Duke Namo and the rest that he consented to grant Huon
his pardon, under conditions which he should impose.

Huon approached, and knelt before the Emperor, rendered his
homage, and cried him mercy for the involuntary killing of his
son. Charlemagne would not receive the hands of Huon in his own,
but touched him with his sceptre, saying, "I receive thy homage,
and pardon thee the death of my son, but only on one condition.
You shall go immediately to the court of the Sultan Gaudisso; you
shall present yourself before him as he sits at meat; you shall
cut off the head of the most illustrious guest whom you shall find
sitting nearest to him; you shall kiss three times on the mouth
the fair princess, his daughter, and you shall demand of the
Sultan, as token of tribute to me, a handful of the white hair of
his beard, and four grinders from his mouth."

These conditions caused a murmur from all the assembly. "What!"
said the Abbot of Cluny; "slaughter a Saracen prince without first
offering him baptism?" "The second condition is not so hard," said
the young peers, "but the demand that Huon is bound to make of the
old Sultan is very uncivil, and will be hard to obtain."

The Emperor's obstinacy when he had once resolved upon a thing is
well known. To the courage of Huon nothing seemed impossible. "I
accept the conditions," said he, silencing the intercessions of
the old Duke of Bavaria; "my liege, I accept my pardon at this
price. I go to execute your commands, as your vassal and a peer of
France."

The Duke Namo and Abbot of Cluny, being unable to obtain any
relaxation of the sentence passed by Charlemagne, led forth the
young Duke, who determined to set out at once on his expedition.
All that the good Abbot could obtain of him was, that he should
prepare for this perilous undertaking by going first to Rome, to
pay his homage to the Pope, who was the brother of the Duchess
Alice, Huon's mother, and from him demand absolution and his
blessing. Huon promised it, and forthwith set out on his way to
Rome.

HUON OF BORDEAUX (Continued)

HUON, having traversed the Apennines and Italy, arrived at the
environs of Rome, where, laying aside his armor, he assumed the
dress of a pilgrim. In this attire he presented himself before the
Pope, and not till after he had made a full confession of his sins
did he announce himself as his nephew. "Ah! my dear nephew,"
exclaimed the Holy Father, "what harder penance could I impose
than the Emperor has already done? Go in peace, my son," he added,
absolving him, "I go to intercede for you with the Most High."
Then he led his nephew into his palace, and introduced him to all
the Cardinals and Princes of Rome as the Duke of Guienne, son of
the Duchess Alice, his sister.

Huon, at setting out, had made a vow not to stop more than three
days in a place. The Holy Father took advantage of this time to
inspire him with zeal for the glory of Christianity, and with
confidence in the protection of the Most High. He advised him to
embark for Palestine, to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and to depart
thence for the interior of Asia.

Loaded with the blessings of the Holy Father, Huon, obeying his
counsels, embarked for Palestine, arrived, and visited with the
greatest reverence the holy places. He then departed, and took his
way toward the east.

But, ignorant of the country and of the language, he lost himself
in a forest, and remained three days without seeing a human
creature, living on honey and wild fruits which he found on the
trees. The third day, seeking a passage through a rocky defile, he
beheld a man in tattered clothing, whose beard and hair covered
his breast and shoulders. This man stopped on seeing him, observed
him, and recognized the arms and bearing of a French knight. He
immediately approached, and exclaimed, in the language of the
South of France, "God be praised! Do I indeed behold a chevalier
of my own country, after fifteen years passed in this desert
without seeing the face of a fellow-countryman?"

Huon, to gratify him still more, unlaced his helmet, and came
towards him with a smiling countenance. The other regarded him
with more surprise than at first. "Good Heaven!" he exclaimed,
"was there ever such a resemblance? Ah, noble sir," he added,
"tell me, I beseech you, of what country and race you come?" "I
require," replied Huon, "before telling you mine, that you first
reveal your own; let it suffice you at present to know that I am a
Christian, and that in Guienne I was born." "Ah! Heaven grant that
my eyes and my heart do not deceive me," exclaimed the unknown;
"my name is Sherasmin; I am brother to Guire, the Mayor of
Bordeaux. I was taken prisoner in the battle where my dear and
illustrious master, Sevinus, lost his life. For three years I
endured the miseries of slavery; at length I broke my chains and
escaped to this desert, where I have sustained myself in solitude
ever since. Your features recall to me my beloved sovereign, in
whose service I was from my infancy till his death." Huon made no
reply but by embracing the old man, with tears in his eyes. Then
Sherasmin learned that his arms enfolded the son of the Duke
Sevinus. He led him to his cabin, and spread before him the dry
fruits and honey which formed his only aliment.

Huon recounted his adventures to Sherasmin, who was moved to tears
at the recital. He then consulted him on means of conducting his
enterprise. Sherasmin hesitated not to confess that success seemed
impossible; nevertheless he swore a solemn oath never to abandon
him. The Saracen language, which he was master of, would be
serviceable to them when they should leave the desert, and mingle
with men.

They took the route of the Red Sea, and entered Arabia. Their way
lay through a region which Sherasmin described as full of terrors.
It was inhabited by Oberon, King of the Fairies, who made captive
such knights as were rash enough to penetrate into it, and
transformed them into Hobgoblins. It was possible to avoid this
district at the expense of somewhat lengthening their route; but
no dangers could deter Huon of Bordeaux; and the brave Sherasmin,
who had now resumed the armor of a knight, reluctantly consented
to share with him the dangers of the shorter route.

They entered a wood, and arrived at a spot whence alleys branched
off in various directions. One of them seemed to be terminated by
a superb palace, whose gilded roofs were adorned with brilliant
weathercocks covered with diamonds. A superb chariot issued from
the gate of the palace, and drove toward Huon and his companion,
as if to meet them half-way. The prince saw no one in the chariot
but a child apparently about five years old, very beautiful, and
clad in a robe which glittered with precious stones. At the sight
of him, Sherasmin's terror was extreme. He seized the reins of
Huon's horse, and turned him about, hurrying the prince away, and
assuring him that they were lost if they stopped to parley with
the mischievous dwarf, who, though he appeared a child, was full
of years and of treachery. Huon was sorry to lose sight of the
beautiful dwarf, whose aspect had nothing in it to alarm; yet he
followed his friend, who urged on his horse with all possible
speed. Presently a storm began to roar through the forest, the
daylight grew dim, and they found their way with difficulty. From
time to time they seemed to hear an infantine voice, which said,
"Stop, Duke Huon; listen to me: it is in vain you fly me!"

Sherasmin only fled the faster, and stopped not until he had
reached the gate of a monastery of monks and nuns, the two
communities of which were assembled at that time in a religious
procession. Sherasmin, feeling safe from the malice of the dwarf
in the presence of so many holy persons and the sacred banners,
stopped to ask an asylum, and made Huon dismount also. But at that
moment they were joined by the dwarf, who blew a blast upon an
ivory horn which hung from his neck. Immediately the good
Sherasmin, in spite of himself, began to dance like a young
collegian, and seizing the hand of an aged nun, who felt as if it
would be her death, they footed it briskly over the grass, and
were imitated by all the other monks and nuns, mingled together,
forming the strangest dancing-party ever beheld. Huron alone felt
no disposition to dance; but he came near dying of laughter at
seeing the ridiculous postures and leaps of the others.

The dwarf, approaching Huon, said, in a sweet voice, and in Huon's
own language, "Duke of Guienne, why do you shun me? I conjure you,
in Heaven's name, speak to me." Huon, hearing himself addressed in
this serious manner, and knowing that no evil spirit would dare to
use the holy name in aid of his schemes, replied, "Sir, whoever
you are, I am ready to hear and answer you." "Huon, my friend,"
continued the dwarf, "I always loved your race, and you have been
dear to me ever since your birth. The gracious state of conscience
in which you were when you entered my wood has protected you from
all enchantments, even if I had intended to practise any upon you.
If these monks, these nuns, and even your friend Sherasmin, had
had a conscience as pure as yours, my horn would not have set them
dancing; but where is the monk or the nun who can always be deaf
to the voice of the tempter, and Sherasmin in the desert has often
doubted the power of Providence."

At these words Huon saw the dancers overcome with exertion. He
begged mercy for them, the dwarf granted it, and the effect of the
horn ceased at once; the nuns got rid of their partners, smoothed
their dresses, and hastened to resume their places in the
procession. Sherasmin, overcome with heat, panting, and unable to
stand on his legs, threw himself upon the grass, and began, "Did
not I tell you"--He was going on in an angry tone, but the dwarf,
approaching, said, "Sherasmin, why have you murmured against
Providence? Why have you thought evil of me? You deserved this
light punishment; but I know you to be good and loyal; I mean to
show myself your friend, as you shall soon see." At these words he
presented him a rich goblet. "Make the sign of the cross on this
cup," said he, "and then believe that I hold my power from the God
you adore, whose faithful servant I am, as well as you." Sherasmin
obeyed, and on the instant the cup was filled with delicious wine,
a draught of which restored vigor to his limbs, and made him feel
young again. Overcome with gratitude, he threw himself on his
knees, but the dwarf raised him, and bade him sit beside him, and
thus commenced his history:

"Julius Caesar, going by sea to join his army, was driven by a
storm to take shelter in the island of Celea, where dwelt the
fairy Glorianda. From this renowned pair I draw my birth. I am the
inheritor of that which was most admirable in each of my parents:
my father's heroic qualities, and my mother's beauty and magic
art. But a malicious sister of my mother's, in revenge for some
slight offence, touched me with her wand when I was only five
years old, and forbade me to grow any bigger; and my mother, with
all her power, was unable to annul the sentence. I have thus
continued infantile in appearance, though full of years and
experience. The power which I derive from my mother I use
sometimes for my own diversion, but always to promote justice and
to reward virtue. I am able and willing to assist you, Duke of
Guienne, for I know the errand on which you come hither. I presage
for you, if you follow my counsels, complete success; and the
beautiful Clarimunda for a wife."

When he had thus spoken he presented to Huon the precious and
useful cup, which had the faculty of filling itself when a good
man took it in his hand. He gave him also his beautiful horn of
ivory, saying to him, "Huon, when you sound this gently, you will
make the hearers dance, as you have seen; but if you sound it
forcibly, fear not that I shall hear it, though at a hundred
leagues' distance, and will fly to your relief; but be careful not
to sound it in that way, unless upon the most urgent occasion."

Oberon directed Huon what course he should take to reach the
country of the Sultan Gaudisso. "You will encounter great perils,"
said he, "before arriving there, and I fear me," he added, with
tears in his eyes, "that you will not in everything obey my
directions, and in that case you will suffer much calamity." Then
he embraced Huon and Sherasmin, and left them.

Huon and his follower travelled many days through the desert
before they reached any inhabited place, and all this while the
wonderful cup sustained them, furnishing them not only wine, but
food also. At last they came to a great city. As day was
declining, they entered its suburbs, and Sherasmin, who spoke the
Saracen language perfectly, inquired for an inn where they could
pass the night. A person who appeared to be one of the principal
inhabitants, seeing two strangers of respectable appearance making
this inquiry, stepped forward and begged them to accept the
shelter of his mansion. They entered, and their host did the
honors of his abode with a politeness which they were astonished
to see in a Saracen. He had them served with coffee and sherbet,
and all was conducted with great decorum, till one of the servants
awkwardly overturned a cup of hot coffee on the host's legs, when
he started up, exclaiming in very good Gascon, "Blood and thunder!
you blockhead, you deserve to be thrown over the mosque!"

Huon could not help laughing to see the vivacity and the language
of his country thus break out unawares. The host, who had no idea
that his guests understood his words, was astonished when Huon
addressed him in the dialect of his country. Immediately
confidence was established between them; especially when the
domestics had retired. The host, seeing that he was discovered,
and that the two pretended Saracens were from the borders of the
Garonne, embraced them, and disclosed that he was a Christian.
Huon, who had learned prudence from the advice of Oberon, to test
his host's sincerity, drew from his robe the cup which the Fairy-
king had given him, and presented it empty to the host. "A fair
cup," said he, "but I should like it better if it was full."
Immediately it was so. The host, astonished, dared not put it to
his lips. "Drink boldly, my dear fellow-countryman," said Huon;
"your truth is proved by this cup, which only fills itself in the
hands of an honest man." The host did not hesitate longer; the cup
passed freely from hand to hand; their mutual cordiality increased
as it passed, and each recounted his adventures. Those of Huon
redoubled his host's respect; for he recognized in him his
legitimate sovereign: while the host's narrative was in these
words:

"My name is Floriac; this great and strong city, you will hear
with surprise and grief, is governed by a brother of Duke Sevinus,
and your uncle. You have no doubt heard that a young brother of
the Duke of Guienne was stolen away from the sea-shore, with his
companions, by some corsairs. I was then his page, and we were
carried by those corsairs to Barbary, where we were sold for
slaves. The Barbary prince sent us as part of the tribute which he
yearly paid to his sovereign, the Sultan Gaudisso. Your uncle, who
had been somewhat puffed up by the flattery of his attendants,
thought to increase his importance with his new master by telling
him his rank. The Sultan, who, like a true Mussulman, detested all
Christian princes, exerted himself from that moment to bring him
over to the Saracen faith. He succeeded but too well. Your uncle,
seduced by the arts of the Santons, and by the pleasures and
indulgences which the Sultan allowed him, committed the horrid
crime of apostasy; he renounced his baptism, and embraced
Mahometanism. Gaudisso then loaded him with honors, made him
espouse one of his nieces, and sent him to reign over this city
and adjoining country. Your uncle preserved for me the same
friendship which he had had when a boy; but all his caresses and
efforts could not make me renounce my faith. Perhaps he respected
me in his heart for my resistance to his persuasions, perhaps he
had hopes of inducing me in time to imitate him. He made me
accompany him to this city, of which he was master, he gave me his
confidence, and permits me to keep in my service some Christians,
whom I protect for the sake of their faith."

"Ah!" exclaimed Huon, "take me to this guilty uncle. A prince of
the house of Guienne, must he not blush at the cowardly
abandonment of the faith of his fathers?"

"Alas!" replied Floriac, "I fear he will neither be sensible of
shame at your reproaches, nor of pleasure at the sight of a nephew
so worthy of his lineage. Brutified by sensuality, jealous of his
power, which he often exercises with cruelty, he will more
probably restrain you by force or put you to death."

"Be it so," said the brave and fervent Huon, "I could not die in a
better cause; and I demand of you to conduct me to him to-morrow,
after having told him of my arrival and my birth." Floriac still
objected, but Huon would take no denial, and he promised
obedience.

Next morning Floriac waited upon the Governor and told him of the
arrival of his nephew, Huon of Bordeaux; and of the intention of
the prince to present himself at his court that very day. The
Governor, surprised, did not immediately answer; though he at once
made up his mind what to do. He knew that Floriac loved Christians
and the princes of his native land too well to aid in any treason
to one of them; he therefore feigned great pleasure at hearing of
the arrival of the eldest born of his family at his court. He
immediately sent Floriac to find him; he caused his palace to be
put in festal array, his divan to be assembled, and after giving
some secret orders, went himself to meet his nephew, whom he
introduced under his proper name and title to all the great
officers of his court.

Huon burned with indignation at seeing his uncle with forehead
encircled with a rich turban, surmounted with a crescent of
precious stones. His natural candor made him receive with pain the
embraces which the treacherous Governor lavished upon him.
Meanwhile the hope of finding a suitable moment to reproach him
for his apostasy made him submit to those honors which his uncle
caused to be rendered to him. The Governor evaded with address the
chance of being alone with Huon and spent all the morning in
taking him through his gardens and palace. At last, when the hour
of dinner approached, and the Governor took him by the hand to
lead him into the dining-hall, Huon seized the opportunity and
said to him in a low voice, "O my uncle! O Prince, brother of the
Duke Sevinus! in what condition have I the grief and shame of
seeing you!" The Governor pretended to be moved, pressed his hand,
and whispered in his ear, "Silence! my dear nephew; to-morrow
morning I will hear you fully."

Huon, comforted a little by these words, took his seat at the
table by the side of the Governor. The Mufti, some Cadis, Agas,
and Santons, filled the other places. Sherasmin sat down with
them; but Floriac, who would not lose sight of his guests,
remained standing, and passed in and out to observe what was going
on within the palace. He soon perceived a number of armed men
gliding through the passages and antechambers connected with the
dining-hall. He was about to enter to give his guests notice of
what he had seen when he heard a violent noise and commotion in
the hall. The cause was this.

Huon and Sherasmin were well enough suited with the first course
and ate with good appetite; but the people of their country not
being accustomed to drink only water at their meals, Huon and
Sherasmin looked at one another, not very well pleased at such a
regimen. Huon laughed outright at the impatience of Sherasmin, but
soon, experiencing the same want himself, he drew forth Oberon's
cup and made the sign of the cross. The cup filled and he drank it
off, and handed it to Sherasmin, who followed his example. The
Governor and his officers, seeing this abhorred sign, contracted
their brows and sat in silent consternation. Huon pretended not to
observe it, and having filled the cup again handed it to his
uncle, saying, "Pray, join us, dear uncle; it is excellent
Bordeaux wine, the drink that will be to you like mother's milk."
The Governor, who often drank in secret with his own favorite
Sultanas the wines of Greece and Shiraz, never in public drank
anything but water. He had not for a long time tasted the
excellent wines of his native land; he was sorely tempted to drink
what was now handed to him, it looked so bright in the cup,
outshining the gold itself. He stretched forth his hand, took the
brimming goblet, and raised it to his lips, when immediately it
dried up and disappeared. Huon and Sherasmin, like Gascons as they
were, laughed at his astonishment. "Christian dogs!" he exclaimed,
"do you dare to insult me at my own table? But I will soon be
revenged." At these words he threw the cup at the head of his
nephew, who caught it with his left hand, while with the other he
snatched the turban, with its crescent, from the Governor's head
and threw it on the floor. All the Saracens started up from table,
with loud outcries, and prepared to avenge the insult. Huon and
Sherasmin put themselves on their defence, and met with their
swords the scimitars directed against them. At this moment the
doors of the hall opened and a crowd of soldiers and armed eunuchs
rushed in, who joined in the attack upon Huon and Sherasmin. The
Prince and his followers took refuge on a broad shelf or side-
board, where they kept at bay the crowd of assailants, making the
most forward of them smart for their audacity. But more troops
came pressing in and the brave Huon, inspired by the wine of
Bordeaux, and not angry enough to lose his relish for a joke, blew
a gentle note on his horn, and no sooner was it heard than it
quelled the rage of the combatants and set them to dancing. Huon
and Sherasmin, no longer attacked, looked down from their elevated
position on a scene the most singular and amusing. Very soon the
Sultanas, hearing the sound of the dance and finding their guards
withdrawn, came into the hall and mixed with the dancers. The
favorite Sultana seized upon a young Santon, who performed jumps
two feet high; but soon the long dresses of this couple got
intermingled and threw them down. The Santon's beard was caught in
the Sultana's necklace, and they could not disentangle them. The
Governor by no means approved this familiarity, and took two steps
forward to get at the Santon, but he stumbled over a prostrate
Dervise and measured his length on the floor. The dancing
continued till the strength of the performers was exhausted, and
they fell, one after the other, and lay helpless. The Governor at
length made signs to Huon that he would yield everything if he
would but allow him to rest. The bargain was ratified; the
Governor allowed Huon and Sherasmin to depart on their way, and
even gave them a ring which would procure them safe passage
through his country and access to the Sultan Gaudisso. The two
friends hastened to avail themselves of this favorable turn, and
taking leave of Floriac, pursued their journey.

HUON OF BORDEAUX (Continued)

HUON had seen many beauties at his mother's court, but his heart
had never been touched with love. Honor had been his mistress, and
in pursuit of that he had never found time to give a thought to
softer cares. Strange that a heart so insensible should first be
touched by something so unsubstantial as a dream; but so it was.

The day after the adventure with his uncle night overtook the
travellers as they passed through a forest. A grotto offered them
shelter from the night dews. The magic cup supplied their evening
meal; for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, but
more solid fare when desired. Fatigue soon threw them into
profound repose. Lulled by the murmur of the foliage, and
breathing the fragrance of the flowers, Huon dreamed that a lady
more beautiful than he had ever before seen hung over him and
imprinted a kiss upon his lips. As he stretched out his arms to
embrace her a sudden gust of wind swept her away.

Huon awoke in an agony of regret. A few moments sufficed to afford
some consolation in showing him that what had passed was but a
dream; but his perplexity and sadness could not escape the notice
of Sherasmin. Huon hesitated not to inform his faithful follower
of the reason of his pensiveness; and got nothing in return but
his rallyings for allowing himself to be disturbed by such a
cause. He recommended a draught from the fairy goblet, and Huon
tried it with good effect.

At early dawn they resumed their way. They travelled till high
noon, but said little to one another. Huon was musing on his
dream, and Sherasmin's thoughts flew back to his early days on the
banks of the flowery Garonne.

On a sudden they were startled by the cry of distress, and turning
an angle of the wood, came where a knight hard pressed was
fighting with a furious lion. The knight's horse lay dead, and it
seemed as if another moment would end the combat, for terror and
fatigue had quite disabled the knight for further resistance. He
fell, and the lion's paw was raised over him, when a blow from
Huon's sword turned the monster's rage upon a new enemy. His roar
shook the forest, and he crouched in act to spring, when, with the
rapidity of lightning, Huon plunged his sword into his side. He
rolled over on the plain in the agonies of death.

They raised the knight from the ground, and Sherasmin hastened to
offer him a draught from the fairy cup. The wine sparkled to the
brim, and the warrior put forth his lips to quaff it, but it
shrunk away, and did not even wet his lips. He dashed the goblet
angrily on the ground, with an exclamation of resentment. This
incident did not tend to make either party more acceptable to the
other; and what followed was worse. For when Huon said, "Sir
knight, thank God for your deliverance,"--"Thank Mahomet, rather,
yourself," said he, "for he has led you this day to render service
to no less a personage than the Prince of Hyrcania."

At the sound of this blasphemy Huon drew his sword and turned upon
the miscreant, who, little disposed to encounter the prowess of
which he had so lately seen proof, betook himself to flight. He
ran to Huon's horse, and lightly vaulting on his back, clapped
spurs to his side, and galloped out of sight.

The adventure was vexatious, yet there was no remedy. The prince
and Sherasmin continued their journey with the aid of the
remaining horse as they best might. At length, as evening set in,
they descried the pinnacles and towers of a great city full before
them, which they knew to be the famous city of Bagdad.

They were well-nigh exhausted with fatigue when they arrived at
its precincts, and in the darkness, not knowing what course to
take, were glad to meet an aged woman, who, in reply to their
inquiries, offered them such accommodations as her cottage could
supply. They thankfully accepted the offer, and entered the low
door. The good dame busily prepared the best fare her stores
supplied,--milk, figs, and peaches,--deeply regretting that the
bleak winds had nipped her almond-trees.

Sir Huon thought he had never in his life tasted any fare so good.
The old lady talked while her guests ate. She doubted not, she
said, they had come to be present at the great feast in honor of
the marriage of the Sultan's daughter, which was to take place on
the morrow. They asked who the bridegroom was to be, and the old
lady answered, "The Prince of Hyrcania," but added, "Our princess
hates him, and would rather wed a dragon than him." "How know you
that?" asked Huon; and the dame informed him that she had it from
the princess herself, who was her foster-child. Huon inquired the
reason of the princess's aversion; and the woman pleased to find
her chat excite so much interest, replied that it was all in
consequence of a dream. "A dream!" exclaimed Huon. "Yes! a dream.
She dreamed that she was a hind, and that the Prince, as a hunter,
was pursuing her, and had almost overtaken her, when a beautiful
dwarf appeared in view, drawn in a golden car, having by his side
a young man of yellow hair and fair complexion, like one from a
foreign land. She dreamed that the car stopped where she stood,
and that, having resumed her own form, she was about to ascend it,
when suddenly it faded from her view, and with it the dwarf and
the fair-haired youth. But from her heart that vision did not
fade, and from that time her affianced bridegroom, the Hyrcanian
prince, had become odious to her sight. Yet the Sultan, her
father, by no means regarding such a cause as sufficient to
prevent the marriage, had named the morrow as the time when it
should be solemnized, in presence of his court and many princes of
the neighboring countries, whom the fame of the princess's beauty
and the bridegroom's splendor had brought to the scene."

We may suppose this conversation woke a tumult of thoughts in the
breast of Huon. Was it not clear that Providence led him on, and
cleared the way for his happy success? Sleep did not early visit
the eyes of Huon that night; but, with the sanguine temper of
youth, he indulged his fancy in imagining the sequel of his
strange experience.

The next day, which he could not but regard as the decisive day of
his fate, he prepared to deliver the message of Charlemagne. Clad
in his armor, fortified with his ivory horn and his ring, he
reached the palace of Gaudisso when the guests were assembled at
the banquet. As he approached the gate a voice called on all true
believers to enter; and Huon, the brave and faithful Huon, in his
impatience passed in under that false pretention. He had no sooner
passed the barrier than he felt ashamed of his baseness, and was
overwhelmed with regret. To make amends for his fault he ran
forward to the second gate, and cried to the porter, "Dog of a
misbeliever, I command you in the name of Him who died on the
cross, open to me!" The points of a hundred weapons immediately
opposed his passage. Huon then remembered for the first time the
ring he had received from his uncle, the Governor. He produced it,
and demanded to be led to the Sultan's presence. The officer of
the guard recognized the ring, made a respectful obeisance, and
allowed him free entrance. In the same way he passed the other
doors to the rich saloon where the great Sultan was at dinner with
his tributary princes. At sight of the ring the chief attendant
led Huon to the head of the hall, and introduced him to the Sultan
and his princes as the ambassador of Charlemagne. A seat was
provided for him near the royal party.

The Prince of Hyrcania, the same whom Huon had rescued from the
lion, and who was the destined bridegroom of the beautiful
Clarimunda, sat on the Sultan's right hand, and the princess
herself on his left. It chanced that Huon found himself near the
seat of the princess, and hardly were the ceremonies of reception
over before he made haste to fulfill the commands of Charlemagne
by imprinting a kiss upon her rosy lips, and after that a second,
not by command, but by good will. The Prince of Hyrcania cried
out, "Audacious infidel! take the reward of thy insolence!" and
aimed a blow at Huon, which, if it had reached him, would have
brought his embassy to a speedy termination. But the ingrate
failed of his aim, and Huon punished his blasphemy and ingratitude
at once by a blow which severed his head from his body.

So suddenly had all this happened that no hand had been raised to
arrest it; but now Gaudisso cried out, "Seize the murderer!" Huon
was hemmed in on all sides, but his redoubtable sword kept the
crowd of courtiers at bay. But he saw new combatants enter, and
could not hope to maintain his ground against so many. He
recollected his horn, and raising it to his lips, blew a blast
almost as loud as that of Roland at Roncesvalles. It was in vain.
Oberon heard it; but the sin of which Huon had been guilty in
bearing, though but for a moment, the character of a believer in
the false prophet, had put it out of Oberon's power to help him.
Huon, finding himself deserted, and conscious of the cause, lost
his strength and energy, was seized, loaded with chains, and
plunged into a dungeon.

His life was spared for the time, merely that he might be reserved
for a more painful death. The Sultan meant that, after being made
to feel all the torments of hunger and despair, he should be
flayed alive.

But an enchanter more ancient and more powerful than Oberon
himself interested himself for the brave Huon. The enchanter was
Love. The Princess Clarimunda learned with horror the fate to
which the young prince was destined. By the aid of her governante
she gained over the keeper of the prison, and went herself to
lighten the chains of her beloved. It was her hand that removed
his fetters, from her he received supplies of food to sustain a
life which he devoted from thenceforth wholly to her. After the
most tender explanations the princess departed, promising to
repeat her visit on the morrow.

The next day she came according to promise, and again brought
supplies of food. These visits were continued during a whole
month. Huon was too good a son of the Church to forget that the
amiable princess was a Saracen, and he availed himself of these
interviews to instruct her in the true faith. How easy it is to
believe the truth when uttered by the lips of those we love!
Clarimunda ere long professed her entire belief in the Christian
doctrines, and desired to be baptized.

Meanwhile the Sultan had repeatedly inquired of the jailer how his
prisoner bore the pains of famine, and learned to his surprise
that he was not yet much reduced thereby. On his repeating the
inquiry, after a short interval, the keeper replied that the
prisoner had died suddenly, and had been buried in the cavern. The
Sultan could only regret that he had not sooner ordered the
execution of the sentence.

While these things were going on the faithful Sherasmin, who had
not accompanied Huon in his last adventure, but had learned by
common rumor the result of it, came to the court in hopes of doing
something for the rescue of his master. He presented himself to
the Sultan as Solario, his nephew. Guadisso received him with
kindness, and all the courtiers loaded him with attentions. He
soon found means to inform himself how the Princess regarded the
brave but unfortunate Huon, and having made himself known to her,
confidence was soon established between them. Clarimunda readily
consented to assist in the escape of Huon, and to quit with him
her father's court to repair to that of Charlemagne. Their united
efforts had nearly perfected their arrangement, a vessel was
secretly prepared, and all things in forwardness for the flight,
when an unlooked-for obstacle presented itself. Huon himself
positively refused to go leaving the orders of Charlemagne
unexecuted.

Sherasmin was in despair. Bitterly he complained of the fickleness
and cruelty of Oberon in withdrawing his aid at the very crisis
when it was most necessary. Earnestly he urged every argument to
satisfy the prince that he had done enough for honor, and could
not be held bound to achieve impossibilities. But all was of no
avail, and he knew not which way to turn, when one of those events
occurred which are so frequent under Turkish despotisms. A courier
arrived at the court of the Sultan, bearing the ring of his
sovereign, the mighty Agrapard, Caliph of Arabia, and bringing the
bow-string for the neck of Gaudisso. No reason was assigned; none
but the pleasure of the Caliph is ever required in such cases; but
it was suspected that the bearer of the bow-string had persuaded
the Caliph that Gaudisso, whose rapacity was well known, had
accumulated immense treasures, which he had not duly shared with
his sovereign, and thus had obtained an order to supersede him in
his Emirship.

The body of Gaudisso would have been cast out a prey to dogs and
vultures, had not Sherasmin, under the character of nephew of the
deceased, been permitted to receive it, and give it decent burial,
which he did, but not till he had taken possession of the beard
and grinders, agreeably to the orders of Charlemagne.

No obstacle now stood in the way of the lovers and their faithful
follower in returning to France. They sailed, taking Rome in their
way, where the Holy Father himself blessed the union of his
nephew, Duke Huon of Bordeaux, with the Princess Clarimunda.

Soon afterward they arrived in France, where Huon laid his
trophies at the feet of Charlemagne, and, being restored to the
favor of the Emperor, hastened to present himself and his bride to
the Duchess, his mother, and to the faithful liegemen of his
province of Guienne and his city of Bordeaux, where the pair were
received with transports of joy.

OGIER, THE DANE

OGIER, the Dane, was the son of Geoffrey, who wrested Denmark from
the Pagans, and reigned the first Christian king of that country.
When Ogier was born, and before he was baptized, six ladies of
ravishing beauty appeared all at once in the chamber of the
infant. They encircled him, and she who appeared the eldest took
him in her arms, kissed him, and laid her hand upon his heart. "I
give you," said she, "to be the bravest warrior of your times."
She delivered the infant to her sister, who said, "I give you
abundant opportunities to display your valor." "Sister," said the
third lady, "you have given him a dangerous boon; I give him that
he shall never be vanquished." The fourth sister added, as she
laid her hand upon his eyes and his mouth, "I give you the gift of
pleasing." The fifth said, "Lest all these gifts serve only to
betray, I give you sensibility to return the love you inspire."
Then spoke Morgana, the youngest and handsomest of the group.
"Charming creature, I claim you for my own; and I give you not to
die till you shall have come to pay me a visit in my isle of
Avalon." Then she kissed the child and departed with her sisters.

After this the king had the child carried to the font and baptized
with the name of Ogier.

In his education nothing was neglected to elevate him to the
standard of a perfect knight, and render him accomplished in all
the arts necessary to make him a hero.

He had hardly reached the age of sixteen years when Charlemagne,
whose power was established over all the sovereigns of his time,
recollected that Geoffroy, Ogier's father, had omitted to render
the homage due to him as Emperor, and sovereign lord of Denmark,
one of the grand fiefs of the empire. He accordingly sent an
embassy to demand of the king of Denmark this homage, and on
receiving a refusal, couched in haughty terms, sent an army to
enforce the demand. Geoffroy, after an unsuccessful resistance,
was forced to comply, and as a pledge of his sincerity delivered
Ogier, his eldest son, a hostage to Charles, to be brought up at
his court. He was placed in charge of the Duke Namo of Bavaria,
the friend of his father, who treated him like his own son.

Ogier grew up more and more handsome and amiable every day. He
surpassed in form, strength, and address all the noble youths his
companions; he failed not to be present at all tourneys; he was
attentive to the elder knights, and burned with impatience to
imitate them. Yet his heart rose sometimes in secret against his
condition as a hostage, and as one apparently forgotten by his
father.

The King of Denmark, in fact, was at this time occupied with new
loves. Ogier's mother having died, he had married a second wife,
and had a son named Guyon. The new queen had absolute power over
her husband, and fearing that, if he should see Ogier again, he
would give him the preference over Guyon, she had adroitly
persuaded him to delay rendering his homage to Charlemagne, till
now four years had passed away since the last renewal of that
ceremony. Charlemagne, irritated at this delinquency, drew closer
the bonds of Ogier's captivity until he should receive a response
from the king of Denmark to a fresh summons which he caused to be
sent to him.

The answer of Geoffroy was insulting and defiant, and the rage of
Charlemagne was roused in the highest degree. He was at first
disposed to wreak his vengeance upon Ogier, his hostage; but at
the entreaties of Duke Namo, who felt towards his pupil like a
father, consented to spare his life, if Ogier would swear fidelity
to him as his liege-lord, and promise not to quit his court
without his permission. Ogier accepted these terms, and was
allowed to retain all the freedom he had before enjoyed.

The Emperor would have immediately taken arms to reduce his
disobedient vassal, if he had not been called off in another
direction by a message from Pope Leo, imploring his assistance.
The Saracens had landed in the neighborhood of Rome, occupied
Mount Janiculum, and prepared to pass the Tiber and carry fire and
sword to the capital of the Christian world. Charlemagne hesitated
not to yield to the entreaties of the Pope. He speedily assembled
an army, crossed the Alps, traversed Italy, and arrived at
Spoleto, a strong place to which the Pope had retired. Leo, at the
head of his Cardinals, advanced to meet him, and rendered him
homage, as to the son of Pepin, the illustrious protector of the
Holy See, coming, as his father had done, to defend it in the hour
of need.

Charlemagne stopped but two days at Spoleto, and learning that the
Infidels, having rendered themselves masters of Rome, were
besieging the Capitol, which could not long hold out against them,
marched promptly to attack them.

The advanced posts of the army were commanded by Duke Namo, on
whom Ogier waited as his squire. He did not yet bear arms, not
having received the order of knighthood. The Oriflamme, the royal
standard, was borne by a knight named Alory, who showed himself
unworthy of the honor.

Duke Namo, seeing a strong body of the Infidels advancing to
attack him, gave the word to charge them. Ogier remained in the
rear, with the other youths, grieving much that he was not
permitted to fight. Very soon he saw Alory lower the Oriflamme,
and turn his horse in flight. Ogier pointed him out to the young
men, and seizing a club, rushed upon Alory and struck him from his
horse. Then, with his companions, he disarmed him, clothed himself
in his armor, raised the Oriflamme, and mounting the horse of the
unworthy knight, flew to the front rank, where he joined Duke
Namo, drove back the Infidels, and carried the Oriflamme quite
through their broken ranks. The Duke, thinking it was Alory, whom
he had not held in high esteem, was astonished at his strength and
valor. Ogier's young companions imitated him, supplying themselves
with armor from the bodies of the slain; they followed Ogier and
carried death into the ranks of the Saracens, who fell back in
confusion upon their main body.

Duke Namo now ordered a retreat, and Ogier obeyed with reluctance,
when they perceived Charlemagne advancing to their assistance. The
combat now became general, and was more terrible than ever.
Charlemagne had overthrown Corsuble, the commander of the
Saracens, and had drawn his famous sword, Joyeuse, to cut off his
head, when two Saracen knights set upon him at once, one of whom
slew his horse, and the other overthrew the Emperor on the sand.
Perceiving by the eagle on his casque who he was, they dismounted
in haste to give him his deathblow. Never was the life of the
Emperor in such peril. But Ogier, who saw him fall, flew to his
rescue. Though embarrassed with the Oriflamme, he pushed his horse
against one of the Saracens and knocked him down; and with his
sword dealt the other so vigorous a blow that he fell stunned to
the earth. Then helping the Emperor to rise, he remounted him on
the horse of one of the fallen knights. "Brave and generous
Alory!" Charles exclaimed, "I owe to you my honor and my life!"
Ogier made no answer; but, leaving Charlemagne surrounded by a
great many of the knights who had flown to his succor, he plunged
into the thickest ranks of the enemy, and carried the Oriflamme,
followed by a gallant train of youthful warriors, till the
standard of Mahomet turned in retreat, and the Infidels sought
safety in their intrenchments.

Then the good Archbishop Turpin laid aside his helmet and his
bloody sword (for he always felt that he was clearly in the line
of his duty while slaying Infidels), took his mitre and his
crosier, and intoned Te Deum.

At this moment Ogier, covered with blood and dust, came to lay the
Oriflamme at the feet of the Emperor. He was followed by a train
of warriors of short stature, who walked ill at ease loaded with
armor too heavy for them. Ogier knelt at the feet of Charlemagne,
who embraced him, calling him Alory, while Turpin from the height
of the altar, blessed him with all his might. Then young Orlando,
son of the Count Milone, and nephew of Charlemagne, no longer able
to endure this misapprehension, threw down his helmet, and ran to
unlace Ogier's, while the other young men laid aside theirs. Our
author says he cannot express the surprise, the admiration, and
the tenderness of the Emperor and his peers. Charles folded Ogier
in his arms, and the happy fathers of those brave youths embraced
them with tears of joy. The good Duke Namo stepped forward, and
Charlemagne yielded Ogier to his embrace. "How much do I owe you,"
he said, "good and wise friend, for having restrained my anger! My
dear Ogier! I owe you my life! My sword leaps to touch your
shoulder, yours and those of your brave young friends." At these
words he drew that famous sword, Joyeuse, and while Ogier and the
rest knelt before him, gave them the accolade conferring on them
the order of knighthood. The young Orlando and his cousin Oliver
could not refrain, even in the presence of the Emperor, from
falling upon Ogier's neck, and pledging with him that brotherhood
in arms, so dear and so sacred to the knights of old times; but
Charlot, the Emperor's son, at the sight of the glory with which
Ogier had covered himself, conceived the blackest jealousy and
hate.

The rest of the day and the next were spent in the rejoicings of
the army. Turpin in a solemn service implored the favor of Heaven
upon the youthful knights, and blessed the white armor which was
prepared for them. Duke Namo presented them with golden spurs,
Charles himself girded on their swords. But what was his
astonishment when he examined that intended for Ogier! The loving
Fairy, Morgana, had had the art to change it, and to substitute
one of her own procuring, and when Charles drew it out of the
scabbard, these words appeared written on the steel: "My name is
Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durindana."
Charles saw that a superior power watched over the destinies of
Ogier; he vowed to love him as a father would, and Ogier promised
him the devotion of a son. Happy had it been for both if they had
always continued mindful of their promises.

The Saracen army had hardly recovered from its dismay when
Carahue, King of Mauritania, who was one of the knights overthrown
by Ogier at the time of the rescue of Charlemagne, determined to
challenge him to single combat. With that view he assumed the
dress of a herald, resolved to carry his own message. The French
knights admired his air, and said to one another that he seemed
more fit to be a knight than a bearer of messages.

Carahue began by passing the warmest eulogium upon the knight who
bore the Oriflamme on the day of the battle, and concluded by
saying that Carahue, King of Mauritania, respected that knight so
much that he challenged him to the combat.

Ogier had risen to reply, when he was interrupted by Charlot, who
said that the gage of the King of Mauritania could not fitly be
received by a vassal, living in captivity; by which he meant
Ogier, who was at that time serving as hostage for his father.
Fire flashed from the eyes of Ogier, but the presence of the
Emperor restrained his speech, and he was calmed by the kind looks
of Charlemagne, who said, with an angry voice, "Silence, Charlot!
By the life of Bertha, my queen, he who has saved my life is as
dear to me as yourself. Ogier," he continued, "you are no longer a
hostage. Herald! report my answer to your master, that never does
knight of my court refuse a challenge on equal terms. Ogier, the
Dane, accepts of his, and I myself am his security."

Carahue, profoundly bowing, replied, "My lord, I was sure that the
sentiments of so great a sovereign as yourself would be worthy of
your high and brilliant fame; I shall report your answer to my
master, who I know admires you, and unwillingly takes arms against
you." Then, turning to Charlot, whom he did not know as the son of
the Emperor, he continued, "As for you, Sir Knight, if the desire
of battle inflames you, I have it in charge from Sadon, cousin of
the King of Mauritania, to give the like defiance to any French
knights who will grant him the honor of the combat."

Charlot, inflamed with rage and vexation at the public reproof
which he had just received, hesitated not to deliver his gage.
Carahue received it with Ogier's, and it was agreed that the
combat should be on the next day in a meadow environed by woods
and equally distant from both armies.

The perfidious Charlot meditated the blackest treason. During the
night he collected some knights unworthy of the name, and like
himself in their ferocious manners; he made them swear to avenge
his injuries, armed them in black armor, and sent them to lie in
ambush in the wood, with orders to make a pretended attack upon
the whole party, but in fact, to lay heavy hands upon Ogier and
the two Saracens.

At the dawn of day Sadon and Carahue, attended tonly by two pages
to carry their spears, took their way to the appointed meadow; and
Charlot and Ogier repaired thither also, but by different paths.
Ogier advanced with a calm air, saluted courteously the two
Saracen knights, and joined them in arranging the terms of combat.

While this was going on the perfidious Charlot remained behind and
gave his men the signal to advance. That cowardly troop issued
from the wood and encompassed the three knights. All three were
equally surprised at the attack, but neither of them suspected the
other to have any hand in the treason. Seeing the attack made
equally upon them all, they united their efforts to resist it, and
made the most forward of the assailants bite the dust. Cortana
fell on no one without inflicting a mortal wound, but the sword of
Carahue was not of equal temper and broke in his hands. At the
same instant his horse was slain, and Carahue fell, without a
weapon, and entangled with his prostrate horse. Ogier, who saw it,
ran to his defence, and leaping to the ground covered the prince
with his shield, supplied him with the sword of one of the fallen
ruffians, and would have him mount his own horse. At that moment
Charlot, inflamed with rage, pushed his horse upon Ogier, knocked
him down, and would have run him through with his lance if Sadon,
who saw the treason, had not sprung upon him and thrust him back.
Carahue leapt lightly upon the horse which Ogier presented him,
and had time only to exclaim, "Brave Ogier, I am no longer your
enemy, I pledge to you an eternal friendship," when numerous
Saracen knights were seen approaching, having discovered the
treachery, and Charlot with his followers took refuge in the wood.

The troop which advanced was commanded by Dannemont, the exiled
king of Denmark, whom Geoffroy, Ogier's father, had driven from
his throne and compelled to take refuge with the Saracens.
Learning who Ogier was, he instantly declared him his prisoner, in
spite of the urgent remonstrances and even threats of Carahue and
Sadon, and carried him under a strong guard to the Saracen camp.
Here he was at first subjected to the most rigorous captivity, but
Carahue and Sadon insisted so vehemently on his release,
threatening to turn their arms against their own party if it was
not granted, while Dannemont as eagerly opposed the measure, that
Corsuble, the Saracen commander, consented to a middle course, and
allowed Ogier the freedom of his camp, upon his promise not to
leave it without permission.

Carahue was not satisfied with this partial concession. He left
the city next morning, proceeded to the camp of Charlemagne, and
demanded to be led to the Emperor. When he reached his presence he
dismounted from his horse, took off his helmet, drew his sword,
and holding it by the blade presented it to Charlemagne as he
knelt before him.

"Illustrious prince," he said, "behold before you the herald who
brought the challenge to your knights from the King of Mauritania.
The cowardly old King Dannemont has made the brave Ogier prisoner,
and has prevailed on our general to refuse to give him up. I come
to make amends for this ungenerous conduct by yielding myself,
Carahue, King of Mauritania, your prisoner."

Charlemagne, with all his peers, admired the magnanimity of
Carahue; he raised him, embraced him, and restored to him his
sword. "Prince," said he, "your presence and the bright example
you afford my knights consoles me for the loss of Ogier. Would to
God you might receive our holy faith, and be wholly united with
us." All the lords of the court, led by Duke Namo, paid their
respects to the King of Mauritania. Charlot only failed to appear,
fearing to be recognized as a traitor; but the heart of Carahue
was too noble to pierce that of Charlemagne by telling him the
treachery of his son.

Meanwhile the Saracen army was rent by discord. The troops of
Carahue clamored against the commander-in-chief because their king
was left in captivity. They even threatened to desert the cause
and turn their arms against their allies. Charlemagne pressed the
siege vigorously, till at length the Saracen leaders found
themselves compelled to abandon the city and betake themselves to
their ships. A truce was made; Ogier was exchanged for Carahue,
and the two friends embraced one another with vows of perpetual
brotherhood. The Pope was reestablished in his dominions, and
Italy being tranquil, Charlemagne returned with his peers and
their followers to France.

OGIER, THE DANE (Continued)

CHARLEMAGNE had not forgotten the offence of Geoffroy, the King of
Denmark, in withholding homage, and now prepared to enforce
submission. But at this crisis he was waited upon by an embassy
from Geoffroy, acknowledging his fault, and craving assistance
against an army of invaders who had attacked his states with a
force which he was unable to repel. The soul of Charlemagne was
too great to be implacable, and he took this opportunity to test
that of Ogier, who had felt acutely the unkindness of his father,
in leaving him, without regard or notice, fifteen years in
captivity. Charles asked Ogier whether, in spite of his father's
neglect, he was disposed to lead an army to his assistance. He
replied, "A son can never be excused from helping his father by
any cause short of death." Charlemagne placed an army of a
thousand knights under the command of Ogier, and great numbers
more volunteered to march under so distinguished a leader. He flew
to the succor of his father, repelled the invaders, and drove them
in confusion to their vessels. Ogier then hastened to the capital,
but as he drew near the city he heard all the bells sounding a
knell. He soon learned the cause; it was the obsequies of
Geoffroy, the King. Ogier felt keenly the grief of not having been
permitted to embrace his father once more, and to learn his latest
commands; but he found that his father had declared him heir to
his throne. He hastened to the church where the body lay; he knelt
and bathed the lifeless form with his tears. At that moment a
celestial light beamed all around, and a voice of an angel said,
"Ogier, leave thy crown to Guyon, thy brother, and bear no other
title than that of 'The Dane.' Thy destiny is glorious, and other
kingdoms are reserved for thee." Ogier obeyed the divine behest.
He saluted his stepmother respectfully, and embracing his brother,
told him that he was content with his lot in being reckoned among
the paladins of Charlemagne, and resigned all claims to the crown
of Denmark.

Ogier returned covered with glory to the court of Charlemagne, and
the Emperor, touched with this proof of his attachment, loaded him
with caresses, and treated him almost as an equal.

We pass in silence the adventures of Ogier for several ensuing
years, in which the fairy-gifts of his infancy showed their force
in making him successful in all enterprises, both of love and war.
He married the charming Belicene, and became the father of young
Baldwin, a youth who seemed to inherit in full measure the
strength and courage of his father and the beauty of his mother.
When the lad was old enough to be separated from his mother, Ogier
took him to court and presented him to Charlemagne, who embraced
him and took him into his service. It seemed to Duke Namo, and all
the elder knights, as if they saw in him Ogier himself, as he was
when a youth; and this resemblance won for the lad their kind
regards. Even Charlot at first seemed to be fond of him, though
after a while the resemblance to Ogier which he noticed had the
effect to excite his hatred.

Baldwin was attentive to Charlot, and lost no occasion to be
serviceable. The Prince loved to play chess, and Baldwin, who
played well, often made a party with him.

One day Charlot was nettled at losing two pieces in succession; he
thought he could, by taking a piece from Baldwin, get some amends
for his loss; but Baldwin, seeing him fall into a trap which he
had set for him, could not help a slight laugh, as he said,
"Check-mate." Chariot rose in a fury, seized the rich and heavy
chess-board, and dashed it with all his strength on the head of
Baldwin, who fell, and died where he fell.

Frightened at his own crime, and fearing the vengeance of the
terrible Ogier, Charlot concealed himself in the interior of the
palace. A young companion of Baldwin hastened and informed Ogier
of the event. He ran to the chamber, and beheld the body of his
child bathed in blood, and it could not be concealed from him that
Charlot gave the blow. Transported with rage, Ogier sought Charlot
through the palace, and Charlot, feeling safe nowhere else, took
refuge in the hall of Charlemagne, where he seated himself at
table with Duke Namo and Salomon, Duke of Brittany. Ogier, with
sword drawn, followed him to the very table of the Emperor. When a
cupbearer attempted to bar his way he struck the cup from his hand
and dashed the contents in the Emperor's face. Charles rose in a
passion, seized a knife, and would have plunged it into his
breast, had not Salomon and another baron thrown themselves
between, while Namo, who had retained his ancient influence over
Ogier, drew him out of the room. Foreseeing the consequence of
this violence, pitying Ogier, and in his heart excusing him, Namo
hurried him away before the guards of the palace could arrest him,
made him mount his horse, and leave Paris.

Charlemagne called together his peers, and made them take an oath
to do all in their power to arrest Ogier, and bring him to condign
punishment. Ogier on his part sent messages to the Emperor,
offering to give himself up on condition that Charlot should be
punished for his atrocious crime. The Emperor would listen to no
conditions, and went in pursuit of Ogier at the head of a large
body of soldiers. Ogier, on the other hand, was warmly supported
by many knights, who pledged themselves in his defence. The
contest raged long, with no decisive results. Ogier more than once
had the Emperor in his power, but declined to avail himself of his
advantage, and released him without conditions. He even implored
pardon for himself, but demanded at the same time the punishment
of Charlot. But Charlemagne was too blindly fond of his unworthy
son to subject him to punishment for the sake of conciliating one
who had been so deeply injured.

At length, distressed at the blood which his friends had lost in
his cause, Ogier dismissed his little army, and slipping away from
those who wished to attend him, took his course to rejoin the Duke
Guyon, his brother. On his way, having reached the forest of
Ardennes, weary with long travel, the freshness of a retired
valley tempted him to lie down to take some repose. He unsaddled
Beiffror, relieved himself of his helmet, lay down on the turf,
rested his head on his shield, and slept.

It so happened that Turpin, who occasionally recalled to mind that
he was Archbishop of Rheins, was at that time in the vicinity,
making a pastoral visit to the churches under his jurisdiction.
But his dignity of peer of France, and his martial spirit, which
caused him to be reckoned among the "preux chevaliers" of his
time, forbade him to travel without as large a retinue of knights
as he had of clergymen. One of these was thirsty, and knowing the
fountain on the borders of which Ogier was reposing, he rode to
it, and was struck by the sight of a knight stretched on the
ground. He hastened back, and let the Archbishop know, who
approached the fountain, and recognized Ogier.

The first impulse of the good and generous Turpin was to save his
friend, for whom he felt the warmest attachment; but his
archdeacons and knights, who also recognized Ogier, reminded the
Archbishop of the oath which the Emperor had exacted of them all.
Turpin could not be false to his oath; but it was not without a
groan that he permitted his followers to bind the sleeping knight.
The Archbishop's attendants secured the horse and arms of Ogier,
and conducted their prisoner to the Emperor at Soissons.

The Emperor had become so much embittered by Ogier's obstinate
resistance, added to his original fault, that he was disposed to
order him to instant death. But Turpin, seconded by the good Dukes
Namo and Salomon, prayed so hard for him that Charlemagne
consented to remit a violent death, but sentenced him to close
imprisonment, under the charge of the Archbishop, strictly
limiting his food to one quarter of a loaf of bread per day, with
one piece of meat, and a quarter of a cup of wine. In this way he
hoped to quickly put an end to his life without bringing on
himself the hostility of the King of Denmark, and other powerful
friends of Ogier. He exacted a new oath of Turpin to obey his
order strictly.

The good Archbishop loved Ogier too well not to cast about for
some means of saving his life, which he foresaw he would soon lose
if subjected to such scanty fare, for Ogier was seven feet tall,
and had an appetite in proportion. Turpin remembered, moreover,
that Ogier was a true son of the Church, always zealous to
propagate the faith and subdue unbelievers; so he felt justified
in practising on this occasion what in later times has been
entitled "mental reservation," without swerving from the letter of
the oath which he had taken. This is the method he hit upon.

Every morning he had his prisoner supplied with a quarter of a
loaf of bread, made of two bushels of flour, to this he added a
quarter of a sheep or a fat calf, and he had a cup made which held
forty pints of wine, and allowed Ogier a quarter of it daily.

Ogier's imprisonment lasted long; Charlemagne was astonished to
hear, from time to time, that he still held out; and when he
inquired more particularly of Turpin, the good Archbishop, relying
on his own understanding of the words, did not hesitate to affirm
positively that he allowed his prisoner no more than the permitted
ration.

We forgot to say that, when Ogier was led prisoner to Soissons,
the Abbot of Saint Faron, observing the fine horse Beiffror, and
not having at the time any other favor to ask of Charlemagne,
begged the Emperor to give him the horse, and had him taken to his
abbey. He was impatient to try his new acquisition, and when he
had arrived in his litter at the foot of the mountain where the
horse had been brought to meet him mounted him and rode onward.
The horse, accustomed to bear the enormous weight of Ogier in his
armor, when he perceived nothing on his back but the light weight
of the Abbot, whose long robes fluttered against his sides, ran
away, making prodigious leaps over the steep acclivities of the
mountain till he reached the convent of Jouaire, where, in sight
of the Abbess and her nuns, he threw the Abbot, already half dead
with fright, to the ground. The Abbot, bruised and mortified,
revenged himself on poor Beiffror, whom he condemned, in his
wrath, to be given to the workmen to drag stones for a chapel that
he was building near the abbey. Thus, ill-fed, hard-worked, and
often beaten, the noble horse Beiffror passed the time while his
master's imprisonment lasted.

That imprisonment would have been as long as his life if it had
not been for some important events which forced the Emperor to set
Ogier at liberty.

The Emperor learned at the same time that Carahue, King of
Mauritania, was assembling an army to come and demand the
liberation of Ogier; that Guyon, King of Denmark, was prepared to
second the enterprise with all his forces; and, worse than all,
that the Saracens, under Bruhier, Sultan of Arabia, had landed in
Gascony, taken Bordeaux, and were marching with all speed for
Paris.

Charlemagne now felt how necessary the aid of Ogier was to him.
But, in spite of the representations of Turpin, Namo, and Salomon,
he could not bring himself to consent to surrender Charlot to such
punishment as Ogier should see fit to impose. Besides, he believed
that Ogier was without strength and vigor, weakened by
imprisonment and long abstinence.

At this crisis he received a message from Bruhier, proposing to
put the issue upon the result of a combat between himself and the
Emperor or his champion; promising, if defeated, to withdraw his
army. Charlemagne would willingly have accepted the challenge, but
his counsellors all opposed it. The herald was therefore told that
the Emperor would take time to consider his proposition, and give
his answer the next day.

It was during this interval that the three Dukes succeeded in
prevailing upon Charlemagne to pardon Ogier, and to send for him
to combat the puissant enemy who now defied him; but it was no
easy task to persuade Ogier. The idea of his long imprisonment and
the recollection of his son, bleeding and dying in his arms by the
blow of the ferocious Charlot, made him long resist the urgency of
his friends. Though glory called him to encounter Bruhier, and the
safety of Christendom demanded the destruction of this proud enemy
of the faith, Ogier only yielded at last on condition that Charlot
should be delivered into his hands to be dealt with as he should
see fit.

The terms were hard, but the danger was pressing, and Charlemagne,
with a returning sense of justice, and a strong confidence in the
generous though passionate soul of Ogier, at last consented to
them.

Ogier was led into the presence of Charlemagne by the three peers.
The Emperor, faithful to his word, had caused Charlot to be
brought into the hall where the high barons were assembled, his
hands tied, and his head uncovered. When the Emperor saw Ogier
approach he took Charlot by the arm, led him towards Ogier, and
said these words: "I surrender the criminal; do with him as you
think fit." Ogier, without replying, seized Charlot by the hair,
forced him on his knees, and lifted with the other hand his
irresistible sword. Charlemagne, who expected to see the head of
his son rolling at his feet, shut his eyes and uttered a cry of
horror.

Ogier had done enough. The next moment he raised Charlot, cut his
bonds, kissed him on the mouth, and hastened to throw himself at
the feet of the Emperor.

Nothing can exceed the surprise and joy of Charlemagne at seeing
his son unharmed and Ogier kneeling at his feet. He folded him in
his arms, bathed him with tears, and exclaimed to his barons, "I
feel at this moment that Ogier is greater than I." As for Charlot,
his base soul felt nothing but the joy of having escaped death; he
remained such as he had been, and it was not till some years
afterwards he received the punishment he deserved, from the hands
of Huon of Bordeaux, as we have seen in a former chapter.

OGIER, THE DANE (Continued)

WHEN Charlemagne had somewhat recovered his composure he was
surprised to observe that Ogier appeared in good case, and had a
healthy color in his cheeks. He turned to the Archbishop, who
could not help blushing as he met his eye. "By the head of Bertha,
my queen," said Charlemagne, "Ogier has had good quarters in your
castle, my Lord Archbishop; but so much the more am I indebted to
you." All the barons laughed and jested with Turpin, who only
said, "Laugh as much as you please, my lords; but for my part I am
not sorry to see the arm in full vigor that is to avenge us on the
proud Saracen."

Charlemagne immediately despatched his herald, accepting the
challenge, and appointing the next day but one for the encounter.
The proud and crafty Bruhier laughed scornfully when he heard the
reply accepting his challenge, for he had a reliance on certain
resources besides his natural strength and skill. However, he
swore by Mahomet to observe the conditions as proposed and agreed
upon.

Ogier now demanded his armor, and it was brought to him in
excellent condition, for the good Turpin had kept it faithfully;
but it was not easy to provide a horse for the occasion.
Charlemagne had the best horses of his stables brought out, except
Blanchard, his own charger; but all in vain, the weight of Ogier
bent their backs to the ground. In this embarrassment the
Archbishop remembered that the Emperor had given Beiffror to the
Abbot of St. Faron, and sent off a courier in haste to re-demand
him.

Monks are hard masters, and the one who directed the laborers at
the abbey had but too faithfully obeyed the orders of the Abbot.
Poor Beiffror was brought back, lean, spiritless, and chafed with
the harness of the vile cart that he had had to draw so long. He
carried his head down, and trod heavily before Charlemagne; but
when he heard the voice of Ogier he raised his head, he neighed,
his eyes flashed, his former ardor showed itself by the force with
which he pawed the ground. Ogier caressed him, and the good steed
seemed to return his caresses; Ogier mounted him, and Beiffror,
proud of carrying his master again, leapt and curvetted with all
his youthful vigor.

Nothing being now wanted, Charlemagne, at the head of his army,
marched forth from the city of Paris, and occupied the hill of
Montmartre, whence the view extended over the plain of St. Denis,
where the battle was to be fought.

When the appointed day came the Dukes Namo and Salomon, as seconds
of Ogier, accompanied him to the place marked out for the lists,
and Bruhier, with two distinguished Emirs, presented himself on
the other side.

Bruhier was in high spirits, and jested with his friends, as he
advanced, upon the appearance of Beiffror. "Is that the horse they
presume to match with Marchevallee, the best steed that ever fed
in the vales of Mount Atlas?" But now the combatants, having met
and saluted each other, ride apart to come together in full
career. Beiffror flew over the plain, and met the adversary more
than half-way. The lances of the two combatants were shivered at
the shock, and Bruhier was astonished to see almost at the same
instant the sword of Ogier gleaming above his head. He parried it
with his buckler, and gave Ogier a blow on his helmet, who
returned it with another, better aimed or better seconded by the
temper of his blade, for it cut away part of Bruhier's helmet, and
with it his ear and part of his cheek. Ogier, seeing the blood,
did not immediately repeat his blow, and Bruhier seized the moment
to gallop off at one side. As he rode he took a vase of gold which
hung at his saddle-bow, and bathed with its contents the wounded
part. The blood instantly ceased to flow, the ear and the flesh
were restored quite whole, and the Dane was astonished to see his
antagonist return to the ground as sound as ever.

Bruhier laughed at his amazement. "Know," said he, "that I possess
the precious balm that Joseph of Arimathea used upon the body of
the crucified one, whom you worship. If I should lose an arm I
could restore it with a few drops of this. It is useless for you
to contend with me. Yield yourself, and, as you appear to be a
strong fellow, I will make you first oarsman in one of my
galleys."

Ogier, though boiling with rage, forgot not to implore the
assistance of Heaven. "O Lord!" he exclaimed, "suffer not the
enemy of thy name to profit by the powerful help of that which
owes all its virtue to thy divine blood." At these words he
attacked Bruhier again with more vigor than ever; both struck
terrible blows, and made grievous wounds; but the blood flowed
from those of Ogier, while Bruhier stanched his by the application
of his balm. Ogier, desperate at the unequal contest, grasped
Cortana with both hands, and struck his enemy such a blow that it
cleft his buckler, and cut off his arm with it; but Bruhier at the
same time launched one at Ogier, which, missing him, struck the
head of Beiffror, and the good horse fell, and drew down his
master in his fall.

Bruhier had time to leap to the ground, to pick up his arm and
apply his balsam; then, before Ogier had recovered his footing, he
rushed forward with sword uplifted to complete his destruction.

Charlemagne, from the height of Montmartre, seeing the brave Ogier
in this situation, groaned, and was ready to murmur against
Providence; but the good Turpin, raising his arms, with a faith
like that of Moses, drew down upon the Christian warrior the favor
of Heaven.

Ogier, promptly disengaging himself, pressed Bruhier with so much
impetuosity that he drove him to a distance from his horse, to
whose saddle-bow the precious balm was suspended; and very soon
Charlemagne saw Ogier, now completely in the advantage, bring his
enemy to his knees, tear off his helmet, and, with a sweep of his
sword, strike his head from his body.

After the victory, Ogier seized Marchevallee, leaped upon his
back, and became possessed of the precious flask, a few drops from
which closed his wounds and restored his strength. The French
knights who had been Bruhier's captives, now released, pressed
round Ogier to thank him for their deliverance.

Charlemagne and his nobles, as soon as their attention was
relieved from the single combat, perceived from their elevated
position an unusual agitation in the enemy's camp. They attributed
it at first to the death of their general, but soon the noise of
arms, the cries of combatants, and new standards which advanced,
disclosed to them the fact that Bruhier's army was attacked by a
new enemy.

The Emperor was right; it was the brave Carahue of Mauritania,
who, with an army, had arrived in France, resolved to attempt the
liberation of Ogier, his brother in arms. Learning on his arrival
the changed aspect of affairs, he hesitated not to render a signal
service to the Emperor, by attacking the army of Bruhier in the
midst of the consternation occasioned by the loss of its
commander.

Ogier recognized the standard of his friend, and leaping upon
Marchevallee, flew to aid his attack. Charlemagne followed with
his army; and the Saracen host, after an obstinate conflict, was
forced to surrender unconditionally.

The interview of Ogier and Carahue was such as might be
anticipated of two such attached friends and accomplished knights.
Charlemagne went to meet them, embraced them, and putting the King
of Mauritania on his right and Ogier on his left, returned with
triumph to Paris. There the Empress Bertha and the ladies of her
court crowned them with laurels, and the sage and gallant
Eginhard, chamberlain and secretary of the Emperor, wrote all
these great events in his history.

A few days after Guyon, King of Denmark, arrived in France with a
chosen band of knights, and sent an ambassador to Charlemagne, to
say that he came, not as an enemy, but to render homage to him as
the best knight of the time and the head of the Christian world.
Charlemagne gave the ambassador a cordial reception, and mounting
his horse, rode forward to meet the King of Denmark.

These great princes, being assembled at the court of Charles, held
council together, and the ancient and sage barons were called to
join it.

It was decided that the united Danish and Mauritanian armies
should cross the sea and carry the war to the country of the
Saracens, and that a thousand French knights should range
themselves under the banner of Ogier, the Dane, who, though not a
king, should have equal rank with the two others.

We have not space to record all the illustrious actions performed
by Ogier and his allies in this war. Suffice it to say, they
subdued the Saracens of Ptolemais and Judaea, and, erecting those
regions into a kingdom, placed the crown upon the head of Ogier.
Guyon and Carahue then left him, to return to their respective
dominions. Ogier adopted Walter, the son of Guyon of Denmark, to
be his successor in his kingdom. He superintended his education,
and saw the young prince grow up worthy of his cares. But Ogier,
in spite of all the honors of his rank, often regretted the court
of Charlemagne, the Duke Namo, and Salomon of Brittany, for whom
he had the respect and attachment of a son. At last, finding
Walter old enough to sustain the weight of government, Ogier
caused a vessel to be prepared secretly, and, attended only by one
squire, left his palace by night, and embarked to return to
France.

The vessel, driven by a fair wind, cut the sea with the swiftness
of a bird; but on a sudden it deviated from its course, no longer
obeyed the helm, and sped fast towards a black promontory which
stretched into the sea. This was a mountain of loadstone, and, its
attractive power increasing as the distance diminished, the vessel
at last flew with the swiftness of an arrow towards it, and was
dashed to pieces on its rocky base. Ogier alone saved himself, and
reached the shore on a fragment of the wreck.

Ogier advanced into the country, looking for some marks of
inhabitancy, but found none. On a sudden he encountered two
monstrous animals, covered with glittering scales, accompanied by
a horse breathing fire. Ogier drew his sword and prepared to
defend himself; but the monsters, terrific as they appeared, made
no attempt to assail him, and the horse, Papillon, knelt down, and
appeared to court Ogier to mount upon his back. Ogier hesitated
not to see the adventure through; he mounted Papillon, who ran
with speed, and soon cleared the rocks and precipices which hemmed
in and concealed a beautiful landscape. He continued his course
till he reached a magnificent palace, and, without allowing Ogier
time to admire it, crossed a grand court-yard adorned with
colonnades, and entered a garden, where, making his way through
alleys of myrtle, he checked his course, and knelt down on the
enamelled turf of a fountain.

Ogier dismounted and took some steps along the margin of the
stream, but was soon stopped by meeting a young beauty, such as
they paint the Graces, and almost as lightly attired as they. At
the same moment, to his amazement, his armor fell off of its own
accord. The young beauty advanced with a tender air, and placed
upon his head a crown of flowers. At that instant the Danish hero
lost his memory; his combats, his glory, Charlemagne and his
court, all vanished from his mind; he saw only Morgana, he desired
nothing but to sigh forever at her feet.

We abridge the narrative of all the delights which Ogier enjoyed
for more than a hundred years. Time flew by, leaving no impression
of its flight. Morgana's youthful charms did not decay, and Ogier
had none of those warnings of increasing years which less favored
mortals never fail to receive. There is no knowing how long this
blissful state might have lasted, if it had not been for an
accident, by which Morgana one day, in a sportive moment, snatched
the crown from his head. That moment Ogier regained his memory,
and lost his contentment. The recollection of Charlemagne, and of
his own relatives and friends, saddened the hours which he passed
with Morgana. The fairy saw with grief the changed looks of her
lover. At last she drew from him the acknowledgment that he wished
to go, at least for a time, to revisit Charles's court. She
consented with reluctance, and with her own hands helped to
reinvest him with his armor. Papillon was led forth, Ogier mounted
him, and, taking a tender adieu of the tearful Morgana, crossed at
rapid speed the rocky belt which separated Morgana's palace from
the borders of the sea. The sea-goblins which had received him at
his coming awaited him on the shore. One of them took Ogier on his
back, and the other placing himself under Papillon, they spread
their broad fins, and in a short time traversed the wide space
that separates the isle of Avalon from France. They landed Ogier
on the coast of Languedoc, and then plunged into the sea and
disappeared.

Ogier remounted on Papillon, who carried him across the kingdom
almost as fast as he had passed the sea. He arrived under the
walls of Paris, which he would scarcely have recognized if the
high towers of St. Genevieve had not caught his eye. He went
straight to the palace of Charlemagne, which seemed to him to have
been entirely rebuilt. His surprise was extreme, and increased
still more on finding that he understood with difficulty the
language of the guards and attendants in replying to his
questions; and seeing them smile as they tried to explain to one
another the language in which he addressed them. Presently the
attention of some of the barons who were going to court was
attracted to the scene, and Ogier, who recognized the badges of
their rank, addressed them, and inquired if the Dukes Namo and
Salomon were still residing at the Emperor's court. At this
question the barons looked at one another in amazement; and one of
the eldest said to the rest, "How much this knight resembles the
portrait of my grand-uncle, Ogier the Dane." "Ah! my dear nephew,
I am Ogier the Dane," said he; and he remembered that Morgana had
told him that he was little aware of the flight of time during his
abode with her.

The barons, more astonished than ever, concluded to conduct him to
the monarch who then reigned, the great Hugh Capet.

The brave Ogier entered the palace without hesitation; but when,
on reaching the royal hall, the barons directed him to make his
obeisance to the King of France, he was astonished to see a man of
short stature and large head, whose air, nevertheless, was noble
and martial, seated upon the throne on which he had so often seen
Charlemagne, the tallest and handsomest sovereign of his time.

Ogier recounted his adventures with simplicity and affectedness.
Hugh Capet was slow to believe him; but Ogier recalled so many
proofs and circumstances, that at last he was forced to recognize
the aged warrior to be the famous Ogier the Dane.

The king informed Ogier of the events which had taken place during
his long absence; that the line of Charlemagne was extinct; that a
new dynasty had commenced; that the old enemies of the kingdom,
the Saracens, were still troublesome; and that at that very time
an army of those miscreants was besieging the city of Chartres, to
which he was about to repair in a few days to its relief. Ogier,
always inflamed with the love of glory, offered the service of his
arm, which the illustrious monarch accepted graciously, and
conducted him to the queen. The astonishment of Ogier was
redoubled when he saw the new ornaments and head-dresses of the
ladies; still, the beautiful hair which they built up on their
foreheads, and the feathers interwoven, which waved with so much
grace, gave them a noble air that delighted him. His admiration
increased when, instead of the old Empress Bertha, he saw a young
queen who combined a majestic mien with the graces of her time of
life, and manners candid and charming, suited to attach all
hearts. Ogier saluted the youthful queen with a respect so
profound that many of the courtiers took him for a foreigner, or
at least for some nobleman brought up at a distance from Paris,
who retained the manners of what they called the old court.

When the queen was informed by her husband that it was the
celebrated Ogier the Dane whom he presented to her, whose
memorable exploits she had often read in the chronicles of
antiquity, her surprise was extreme, which was increased when she
remarked the dignity of his address, the animation and even the
youthfulness of his countenance. This queen had too much
intelligence to believe hastily; proof alone could compel her
assent; and she asked him many questions about the old court of
Charlemagne, and received such instructive and appropriate answers
as removed every doubt. It is to the corrections which Ogier was
at that time enabled to make to the popular narratives of his
exploits that we are indebted for the perfect accuracy and
trustworthiness of all the details of our own history.

King Hugh Capet, having received that same evening couriers from
the inhabitants of Chartres, informing him that they were hard
pressed by the besiegers, resolved to hasten with Ogier to their
relief.

Ogier terminated this affair as expeditiously as he had so often
done others. The Saracens having dared to offer battle, he bore
the Oriflamme through the thickest of their ranks; Papillon,
breathing fire from his nostrils, threw them into disorder, and
Cortana, wielded by his invincible arm, soon finished their
overthrow.

The king, victorious over the Saracens, led back the Danish hero
to Paris, where the deliverer of France received the honors due to
his valor. Ogier continued some time at the court, detained by the
favor of the king and queen; but erelong he had the pain to
witness the death of the king. Then it was that, impressed with
all the perfections which he had discerned in the queen, he could
not withhold the tender homage of the offer of his hand. The queen
would perhaps have accepted it, she had even called a meeting of
her great barons to deliberate on the proposition, when, the day
before the meeting was to be held, at the moment when Ogier was
kneeling at her feet, she perceived a crown of gold which an
invisible hand had placed on his brow, and in an instant a cloud
enveloped Ogier, and he disappeared forever from her sight. It was
Morgana, the fairy, whose jealousy was awakened at what she
beheld, who now resumed her power, and took him away to dwell with
her in the island of Avalon. There, in company with the great King
Arthur of Britain, he still lives, and when his illustrious friend
shall return to resume his ancient reign he will doubtless return
with him, and share his triumph.






GLOSSARY


Abdalrahman, founder of the independent Ommiad (Saracenic) power
in Spain, conquered at Tours by Charles Martel

Aberfraw, scene of nuptials of Branwen and Matholch

Absyrtus, younger brother of Medea

Abydos, a town on the Hellespont, nearly opposite to Sestos

Abyla, Mount, or Columna, a mountain in Morocco, near Ceuta, now
called Jebel Musa or Ape's Hill, forming the Northwestern
extremity of the African coast opposite Gibraltar (See Pillars of
Hercules)

Acestes, son of a Trojan woman who was sent by her father to
Sicily, that she might not be devoured by the monsters which
infested the territory of Troy

Acetes, Bacchanal captured by Pentheus

Achates, faithful friend and companion of Aeneas

Achelous, river-god of the largest river in Greece--his Horn of
Plenty

Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, son of Peleus and of the Nereid
Thetis, slain by Paris

Acis, youth loved by Galatea and slain by Polyphemus

Acontius, a beautiful youth, who fell in love with Cydippe, the
daughter of a noble Athenian.

Acrisius, son of Abas, king of Argos, grandson of Lynceus, the
great-grandson of Danaus.

Actaeon, a celebrated huntsman, son of Aristaeus and Autonoe, who,
having seen Diana bathing, was changed by her to a stag and killed
by his own dogs.

Admeta, daughter of Eurystheus, covets Hippolyta's girdle.

Admetus, king of Thessaly, saved from death by Alcestis

Adonis, a youth beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), and Proserpine;
killed by a boar.

Adrastus, a king of Argos.

Aeacus, son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Aegina, renowned in all Greece
for his justice and piety.

Aeaea, Circe's island, visited by Ulysses.

Aeetes, or Aeeta, son of Helios (the Sun) and Perseis, and father
of Medea and Absyrtus.

Aegeus, king of Athens.

Aegina, a rocky island in the middle of the Saronic gulf.

Aegis, shield or breastplate of Jupiter and Minerva.

Aegisthus, murderer of Agamemnon, slain by Orestes.

Aeneas, Trojan hero, son of Anchises and Aphrodite (Venus), and
born on Mount Ida, reputed first settler of Rome,

Aeneid, poem by Virgil, relating the wanderings of Aeneas from
Troy to Italy,

Ae'olus, son of Hellen and the nymph Orseis, represented in Homer
as the happy ruler of the Aeolian Islands, to whom Zeus had given
dominion over the winds,

Aesculapius, god of the medical art,

Aeson, father of Jason, made young again by Medea,

Aethiopians, inhabitants of the country south of Egypt,

Aethra, mother of Theseus by Aegeus,

Aetna, volcano in Sicily,

Agamedes, brother of Trophonius, distinguished as an architect,

Agamemnon, son of Plisthenis and grandson of Atreus, king of
Mycenae, although the chief commander of the Greeks, is not the
hero of the Iliad, and in chivalrous spirit altogether inferior to
Achilles,

Agave, daughter of Cadmus, wife of Echion, and mother of Pentheus,

Agenor, father of Europa, Cadmus, Cilix, and Phoenix,

Aglaia, one of the Graces,

Agni, Hindu god of fire,

Agramant, a king in Africa,

Agrican, fabled king of Tartary, pursuing Angelica, finally killed
by Orlando,

Agrivain, one of Arthur's knights,

Ahriman, the Evil Spirit in the dual system of Zoroaster, See
Ormuzd

Ajax, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, and grandson of Aeacus,
represented in the Iliad as second only to Achilles in bravery,

Alba, the river where King Arthur fought the Romans,

Alba Longa, city in Italy founded by son of Aeneas,

Alberich, dwarf guardian of Rhine gold treasure of the Nibelungs

Albracca, siege of,

Alcestis, wife of Admetus, offered hersell as sacrifice to spare
her husband, but rescued by Hercules,

Alcides (Hercules),

Alcina, enchantress,

Alcinous, Phaeacian king,

Alcippe, daughter of Mars, carried off by Halirrhothrus,

Alcmena, wife of Jupiter, and mother of Hercules,

Alcuin, English prelate and scholar,

Aldrovandus, dwarf guardian of treasure,

Alecto, one of the Furies,

Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of Greece,
Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, and India,

Alfadur, a name for Odin,

Alfheim, abode of the elves of light,

Alice, mother of Huon and Girard, sons of Duke Sevinus,

Alphenor, son of Niobe,

Alpheus, river god pursuing Arethusa, who escaped by being changed
to a fountain,

Althaea, mother of Meleager, whom she slew because he had in a
quarrel killed her brothers, thus disgracing "the house of
Thestius," her father,

Amalthea, nurse of the infant Jupiter in Crete,

Amata, wife of Latinus, driven mad by Alecto,

Amaury of Hauteville, false hearted Knight of Charlemagne,

Amazons, mythical race of warlike women,

Ambrosia, celestial food used by the gods,

Ammon, Egyptian god of life identified by Romans with phases of
Jupiter, the father of gods,

Amphiaraus, a great prophet and hero at Argos,

Amphion, a musician, son of Jupiter and Antiope (See Dirce),

Amphitrite, wife of Neptune,

Amphyrsos, a small river in Thessaly,

Ampyx, assailant of Perseus, turned to stone by seeing Gorgon's
head,

Amrita, nectar giving immortality,

Amun, See Ammon

Amymone, one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, and mother by
Poseidon (Neptune) of Nauplius, the father of Palamedes,

Anaxarete, a maiden of Cyprus, who treated her lover Iphis with
such haughtiness that he hanged himself at her door,

Anbessa, Saracenic governor of Spain (725 AD),

Anceus, one of the Argonauts,

Anchises, beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), by whom he became the
father of Aeneas,

Andraemon, husband of Dryope, saw her changed into a tree,

Andret, a cowardly knight, spy upon Tristram,

Andromache, wife of Hector

Andromeda, daughter of King Cephas, delivered from monster by
Perseus

Aneurin, Welsh bard

Angelica, Princess of Cathay

Anemone, short lived wind flower, created by Venus from the blood
of the slain Adonis

Angerbode, giant prophetess, mother of Fenris, Hela and the
Midgard Serpent

Anglesey, a Northern British island, refuge of Druids fleeing from
Romans

Antaeus, giant wrestler of Libya, killed by Hercules, who, finding
him stronger when thrown to the earth, lifted him into the air and
strangled him

Antea, wife of jealous Proetus

Antenor, descendants of, in Italy

Anteros, deity avenging unrequited love, brother of Eros (Cupid)

Anthor, a Greek

Antigone, daughter of Aedipus, Greek ideal of filial and sisterly
fidelity

Antilochus, son of Nestor

Antiope, Amazonian queen. See Dirce

Anubis, Egyptian god, conductor of the dead to judgment

Apennines

Aphrodite See Venus, Dione, etc.

Apis, Egyptian bull god of Memphis

Apollo, god of music and song

Apollo Belvedere, famous antique statue in Vatican at Rome

Apples of the Hesperides, wedding gifts to Juno, guarded by
daughters of Atlas and Hesperis, stolen by Atlas for Hercules,

Aquilo, or Boreas, the North Wind,

Aquitaine, ancient province of Southwestern France,

Arachne, a maiden skilled in weaving, changed to a spider by
Minerva for daring to compete with her,

Arcadia, a country in the middle of Peloponnesus, surrounded on
all sides by mountains,

Arcady, star of, the Pole star,

Arcas, son of Jupiter and Callisto,

Archer, constellation of the,

Areopagus, court of the, at Athens,

Ares, called Mars by the Romans, the Greek god of war, and one of
the great Olympian gods,

Arethusa, nymph of Diana, changed to a fountain,

Argius king of Ireland, father of Isoude the Fair,

Argo, builder of the vessel of Jason for the Argonautic
expedition,

Argolis, city of the Nemean games,

Argonauts, Jason's crew seeking the Golden Fleece,

Argos, a kingdom in Greece,

Argus, of the hundred eyes, guardian of Io,

Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who helped Theseus slay the
Minotaur,

Arimanes SEE Ahriman.

Arimaspians, one-eyed people of Syria,

Arion, famous musician, whom sailors cast into the sea to rob him,
but whose lyric song charmed the dolphins, one of which bore him
safely to land,

Aristaeus, the bee keeper, in love with Eurydice,

Armorica, another name for Britain,

Arridano, a magical ruffian, slain by Orlando,

Artemis SEE Diana

Arthgallo, brother of Elidure, British king,

Arthur, king in Britain about the 6th century,

Aruns, an Etruscan who killed Camilla,

Asgard, home of the Northern gods,

Ashtaroth, a cruel spirit, called by enchantment to bring Rinaldo
to death,

Aske, the first man, made from an ash tree,

Astolpho of England, one of Charlemagne's knights,

Astraea, goddess of justice, daughter of Astraeus and Eos,

Astyages, an assailant of Perseus,

Astyanax, son of Hector of Troy, established kingdom of Messina in
Italy,

Asuias, opponents of the Braminical gods,

Atalanta, beautiful daughter of King of Icaria, loved and won in a
foot race by Hippomenes,

Ate, the goddess of infatuation, mischief and guilt,

Athamas, son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Orchomenus, in
Boeotia, SEE Ino

Athene, tutelary goddess of Athens, the same as Minerva,

Athens, the capital of Attica, about four miles from the sea,
between the small rivers Cephissus and Ilissus,

Athor, Egyptian deity, progenitor of Isis and Osiris,

Athos, the mountainous peninsula, also called Acte, which projects
from Chalcidice in Macedonia,

Atlantes, foster father of Rogero, a powerful magician,

Atlantis, according to an ancient tradition, a great island west
of the Pillars of Hercules, in the ocean, opposite Mount Atlas,

Atlas, a Titan, who bore the heavens on his shoulders, as
punishment for opposing the gods, one of the sons of Iapetus,

Atlas, Mount, general name for range in northern Africa,

Atropos, one of the Fates

Attica, a state in ancient Greece,

Audhumbla, the cow from which the giant Ymir was nursed. Her milk
was frost melted into raindrops,

Augean stables, cleansed by Hercules,

Augeas, king of Elis,

Augustan age, reign of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, famed for
many great authors,

Augustus, the first imperial Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire 31
BC--14 AD,

Aulis, port in Boeotia, meeting place of Greek expedition against
Troy,

Aurora, identical with Eos, goddess of the dawn,

Aurora Borealis, splendid nocturnal luminosity in northern sky,
called Northern Lights, probably electrical,

Autumn, attendant of Phoebus, the Sun,

Avalon, land of the Blessed, an earthly paradise in the Western
Seas, burial place of King Arthur,

Avatar, name for any of the earthly incarnations of Vishnu, the
Preserver (Hindu god),

Aventine, Mount, one of the Seven Hills of Rome,

Avernus, a miasmatic lake close to the promontory between Cumae
and Puteoli, filling the crater of an extinct volcano, by the
ancients thought to be the entrance to the infernal regions,

Avicenna, celebrated Arabian physician and philosopher,

Aya, mother of Rinaldo,

Aymon, Duke, father of Rinaldo and Bradamante,

B

Baal, king of Tyre,

Babylonian River, dried up when Phaeton drove the sun chariot,

Bacchanali a, a feast to Bacchus that was permitted to occur but
once in three years, attended by most shameless orgies,

Bacchanals, devotees and festal dancers of Bacchus,

Bacchus (Dionysus), god of wine and revelry,

Badon, battle of, Arthur's final victory over the Saxons,

Bagdemagus, King, a knight of Arthur's time,

Baldur, son of Odin, and representing in Norse mythology the sun
god,

Balisardo, Orlando's sword,

Ban, King of Brittany, ally of Arthur, father of Launcelot,

Bards, minstrels of Welsh Druids,

Basilisk SEE Cockatrice

Baucis, wife of Philemon, visited by Jupiter and Mercury,

Bayard, wild horse subdued by Rinaldo,

Beal, Druids' god of life,

Bedivere, Arthur's knight,

Bedver, King Arthur's butler, made governor of Normandy,

Bedwyr, knightly comrade of Geraint,

Belisarda, Rogero's sword,

Bellerophon, demigod, conqueror of the Chimaera,

Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, represented as the sister or
wife of Mars,

Beltane, Druidical fire festival,

Belus, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Libya or Eurynome, twin
brother of Agenor,

Bendigeid Vran, King of Britain,

Beowulf, hero and king of the Swedish Geats,

Beroe, nurse of Semele,

Bertha, mother of Orlando,

Bifrost, rainbow bridge between the earth and Asgard

Bladud, inventor, builder of the city of Bath,

Blamor, a knight of Arthur,

Bleoberis, a knight of Arthur,

Boeotia, state in ancient Greece, capital city Thebes,

Bohort, King, a knight of Arthur,

Bona Dea, a Roman divinity of fertility,

Bootes, also called Areas, son of Jupiter and Calisto, changed to
constellation of Ursa Major,

Boreas, North wind, son of Aeolus and Aurora,

Bosporus (Bosphorus), the Cow-ford, named for Io, when as a heifer
she crossed that strait,

Bradamante, sister to Rinaldo, a female warrior,

Brademagus, King, father of Sir Maleagans,

Bragi, Norse god of poetry,

Brahma, the Creator, chief god of Hindu religion,

Branwen, daughter of Llyr, King of Britain, wife of Mathclch,

Breciliande, forest of, where Vivian enticed Merlin,

Brengwain, maid of Isoude the Fair

Brennus, son of Molmutius, went to Gaul, became King of the
Allobroges,

Breuse, the Pitiless, a caitiff knight,

Briareus, hundred armed giant,

Brice, Bishop, sustainer of Arthur when elected king,

Brigliadoro, Orlando's horse,

Briseis, captive maid belonging to Achilles,

Britto, reputed ancestor of British people,

Bruhier, Sultan of Arabia,

Brunello, dwarf, thief, and king

Brunhild, leader of the Valkyrie,

Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas, and founder of city of New Troy
(London), SEE Pandrasus

Bryan, Sir, a knight of Arthur,

Buddha, called The Enlightened, reformer of Brahmanism, deified
teacher of self abnegation, virtue, reincarnation, Karma
(inevitable sequence of every act), and Nirvana (beatific
absorption into the Divine), lived about

Byblos, in Egypt,

Byrsa, original site of Carthage,

C

Cacus, gigantic son of Vulcan, slain by Hercules, whose captured
cattle he stole,

Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and of Telephassa, and
brother of Europa, who, seeking his sister, carried off by
Jupiter, had strange adventures--sowing in the ground teeth of a
dragon he had killed, which sprang up armed men who slew each
other, all but five, who helped Cadmus to found the city of
Thebes,

Caduceus, Mercury's staff,

Cadwallo, King of Venedotia (North Wales),

Caerleon, traditional seat of Arthur's court,

Caesar, Julius, Roman lawyer, general, statesman and author,
conquered and consolidated Roman territory, making possible the
Empire,

Caicus, a Greek river,

Cairns, Druidical store piles,

Calais, French town facing England,

Calchas, wisest soothsayer among the Greeks at Troy,

Caliburn, a sword of Arthur,

Calliope, one of the nine Muses

Callisto, an Arcadian nymph, mother of Arcas (SEE Bootes), changed
by Jupiter to constellation Ursa Minor,

Calpe, a mountain in the south of Spain, on the strait between the
Atlantic and Mediterranean, now Rock of Gibraltar,

Calydon, home of Meleager,

Calypso, queen of Island of Ogyia, where Ulysses was wrecked and
held seven years,

Camber, son of Brutus, governor of West Albion (Wales),

Camelot, legendary place in England where Arthur's court and
palace were located,

Camenae, prophetic nymphs, belonging to the religion of ancient
Italy,

Camilla, Volscian maiden, huntress and Amazonian warrior, favorite
of Diana,

Camlan, battle of, where Arthur was mortally wounded,

Canterbury, English city,

Capaneus, husband of Evadne, slain by Jupiter for disobedience,

Capet, Hugh, King of France (987-996 AD),

Caradoc Briefbras, Sir, great nephew of King Arthur,

Carahue, King of Mauretania,

Carthage, African city, home of Dido

Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and twin sister of
Helenus, a prophetess, who foretold the coming of the Greeks but
was not believed,

Cassibellaunus, British chieftain, fought but not conquered by
Caesar,

Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda,

Castalia, fountain of Parnassus, giving inspiration to Oracular
priestess named Pythia,

Castalian Cave, oracle of Apollo,

Castes (India),

Castor and Pollux--the Dioscuri, sons of Jupiter and Leda,--
Castor a horseman, Pollux a boxer (SEE Gemini),

Caucasus, Mount

Cavall, Arthur's favorite dog,

Cayster, ancient river,

Cebriones, Hector's charioteer,

Cecrops, first king of Athens,

Celestials, gods of classic mythology,

Celeus, shepherd who sheltered Ceres, seeking Proserpine, and
whose infant son Triptolemus was in gratitude made great by Ceres,

Cellini, Benvenuto, famous Italian sculptor and artificer in
metals,

Celtic nations, ancient Gauls and Britons, modern Bretons, Welsh,
Irish and Gaelic Scotch,

Centaurs, originally an ancient race, inhabiting Mount Pelion in
Thessaly, in later accounts represented as half horses and half
men, and said to have been the offspring of Ixion and a cloud,

Cephalus, husband of beautiful but jealous Procris,

Cephe us, King of Ethiopians, father of Andromeda,

Cephisus, a Grecian stream,

Cerberus, three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades,
called a son of Typhaon and Echidna

CERES (See Demeter)

CESTUS, the girdle of Venus

CEYX, King of Thessaly (See Halcyone)

CHAOS, original Confusion, personified by Greeks as most ancient
of the gods

CHARLEMAGNE, king of the Franks and emperor of the Romans

CHARLES MARTEL', king of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne,
called Martel (the Hammer) from his defeat of the Saracens at
Tours

CHARLOT, son of Charlemagne

CHARON, son of Erebos, conveyed in his boat the shades of the dead
across the rivers of the lower world

CHARYB'DIS, whirlpool near the coast of Sicily, See Scylla

CHIMAERA, a fire breathing monster, the fore part of whose body
was that of a lion, the hind part that of a dragon, and the middle
that of a goat, slain by Bellerophon

CHINA, Lamas (priests) of

CHOS, island in the Grecian archipelago

CHIRON, wisest of all the Centaurs, son of Cronos (Saturn) and
Philyra, lived on Mount Pelion, instructor of Grecian heroes

CHRYSEIS, Trojan maid, taken by Agamemnon

CHRYSES, priest of Apollo, father of Chryseis

CICONIANS, inhabitants of Ismarus, visited by Ulysses

CIMBRI, an ancient people of Central Europe

Cimmeria, a land of darkness

Cimon, Athenian general

Circe, sorceress, sister of Aeetes

Cithaeron, Mount, scene of Bacchic worship

Clarimunda, wife of Huon

Clio, one of the Muses

Cloridan, a Moor

Clotho, one of the Fates

Clymene, an ocean nymph

Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, killed by Orestes

Clytie, a water nymph, in love with Apollo

Cnidos, ancient city of Asia Minor, seat of worship of Aphrodite
(Venus)

Cockatrice (or Basilisk), called King of Serpents, supposed to
kill with its look

Cocytus, a river of Hades

Colchis, a kingdom east of the Black Sea

Colophon, one of the seven cities claiming the birth of Homer

Columba, St, an Irish Christian missionary to Druidical parts of
Scotland

Conan, Welsh king

Constantine, Greek emperor

Cordeilla, daughter of the mythical King Leir

Corineus, a Trojan warrior in Albion

Cornwall, southwest part of Britain

Cortana, Ogier's sword

Corybantes, priests of Cybele, or Rhea, in Phrygia, who
celebrated her worship with dances, to the sound of the drum and
the cymbal, 143

Crab, constellation

Cranes and their enemies, the Pygmies, of Ibycus

Creon, king of Thebes

Crete, one of the largest islands of the Mediterranean Sea, lying
south of the Cyclades

Creusa, daughter of Priam, wife of Aeneas

Crocale, a nymph of Diana

Cromlech, Druidical altar

Cronos, See Saturn

Crotona, city of Italy

Cuchulain, Irish hero, called the "Hound of Ireland,"

Culdees', followers of St. Columba, Cumaean Sibyl, seeress
of Cumae, consulted by Aeneas, sold Sibylline books to Tarquin

Cupid, child of Venus and god of love

Curoi of Kerry, wise man

Cyane, river, opposed Pluto's passage to Hades

Cybele (Rhea)

Cyclopes, creatures with circular eyes, of whom Homer speaks as a
gigantic and lawless race of shepherds in Sicily, who devoured
human beings, they helped Vulcan to forge the thunderbolts of Zeus
under Aetna

Cymbeline, king of ancient Britain

Cynosure (Dog's tail), the Pole star, at tail of Constellation
Ursa Minor

Cynthian mountain top, birthplace of Artemis (Diana) and Apollo

Cyprus, island off the coast of Syria, sacred to Aphrodite

Cyrene, a nymph, mother of Aristaeus

Daedalus, architect of the Cretan Labyrinth, inventor of sails

Daguenet, King Arthur's fool

Dalai Lama, chief pontiff of Thibet

Danae, mother of Perseus by Jupiter

Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, who were
betrothed to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, but were commanded by
their father to slay each her own husband on the marriage night

Danaus (See Danaides)

Daphne, maiden loved by Apollo, and changed into a laurel tree

Dardanelles, ancient Hellespont

Dardanus, progenitor of the Trojan kings

Dardinel, prince of Zumara

Dawn, See Aurora

Day, an attendant on Phoebus, the Sun

Day star (Hesperus)

Death, See Hela

Deiphobus, son of Priam and Hecuba, the bravest brother of Paris

Dejanira, wife of Hercules

Delos, floating island, birthplace of Apollo and Diana

Delphi, shrine of Apollo, famed for its oracles

Demeter, Greek goddess of marriage and human fertility, identified
by Romans with Ceres

Demeha, South Wales

Demodocus, bard of Alomous, king of the Phaeaeians

Deucalion, king of Thessaly, who with his wife Pyrrha were the
only pair surviving a deluge sent by Zeus

Dia, island of

Diana (Artemis), goddess of the moon and of the chase, daughter of
Jupiter and Latona

Diana of the Hind, antique sculpture in the Louvre, Paris

Diana, temple of

Dictys, a sailor

Didier, king of the Lombards

Dido, queen of Tyre and Carthage, entertained the shipwrecked
Aeneas

Diomede, Greek hero during Trojan War

Dione, female Titan, mother of Zeus, of Aphrodite (Venus)

Dionysus See Bacchus

Dioscuri, the Twins (See Castor and Pollux)

Dirce, wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who ordered Amphion and
Zethus to tie Antiope to a wild bull, but they, learning Antiope
to be their mother, so treated Dirce herself

Dis See Pluto

Discord, apple of, See Eris.

Discordia, See Eris.

Dodona, site of an oracle of Zeus (Jupiter)

Dorceus, a dog of Diana

Doris, wife of Nereus

Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus

Druids, ancient Celtic priests

Dryades (or Dryads), See Wood nymphs

Dryope, changed to a lotus plant, for plucking a lotus--enchanted
form of the nymph Lotis

Dubricius, bishop of Caerleon,

Dudon, a knight, comrade of Astolpho,

Dunwallo Molmu'tius, British king and lawgiver

Durindana, sword of Orlando or Rinaldo

Dwarfs in Wagner's Nibelungen Ring

E

Earth (Gaea); goddess of the

Ebudians, the

Echo, nymph of Diana, shunned by Narcissus, faded to nothing but a
voice

Ecklenlied, the

Eddas, Norse mythological records,

Ederyn, son of Nudd

Egena, nymph of the Fountain

Eisteddfod, session of Welsh bards and minstrels

Electra, the lost one of the Pleiades, also, sister of Orestes

Eleusian Mysteries, instituted by Ceres, and calculated to awaken
feelings of piety and a cheerful hope of better life in the future

Eleusis, Grecian city

Elgin Marbles, Greek sculptures from the Parthenon of Athens, now
in British Museum, London, placed there by Lord Elgin

Eliaures, enchanter

Elidure, a king of Britain

Elis, ancient Greek city

Elli, old age; the one successful wrestler against Thor

Elphin, son of Gwyddiro

Elves, spiritual beings, of many powers and dispositions--some
evil, some good

Elvidnir, the ball of Hela

Elysian Fields, the land of the blest

Elysian Plain, whither the favored of the gods were taken without
death

Elysium, a happy land, where there is neither snow, nor cold, nor
ram. Hither favored heroes, like Menelaus, pass without dying, and
live happy under the rule of Rhadamanthus. In the Latin poets
Elysium is part of the lower world, and the residence of the
shades of the blessed

Embla, the first woman

Enseladus, giant defeated by Jupiter

Endymion, a beautiful youth beloved by Diana

Enid, wife of Geraint

Enna, vale of home of Proserpine

Enoch, the patriarch

Epidaurus, a town in Argolis, on the Saronic gulf, chief seat of
the worship of Aeculapius, whose temple was situated near the town

Epimetheus, son of Iapetus, husband of Pandora, with his brother
Prometheus took part in creation of man

Epirus, country to the west of Thessaly, lying along the Adriatic
Sea

Epopeus, a sailor

Erato, one of the Muses

Erbin of Cornwall, father of Geraint

Erebus, son of Chaos, region of darkness, entrance to Hades

Eridanus, river

Erinys, one of the Furies

Eriphyle, sister of Polynices, bribed to decide on war, in which
her husband was slain

Eris (Discordia), goddess of discord. At the wedding of Peleus and
Thetis, Eris being uninvited threw into the gathering an apple
"For the Fairest," which was claimed by Hera (Juno), Aphrodite
(Venus) and Athena (Minerva) Paris, being called upon for
judgment, awarded it to Aphrodite

Erisichthon, an unbeliever, punished by famine

Eros See Cupid

Erytheia, island

Eryx, a mount, haunt of Venus

Esepus, river in Paphlagonia

Estrildis, wife of Locrine, supplanting divorced Guendolen

Eteocles, son of Oeipus and Jocasta

Etruscans, ancient people of Italy,

Etzel, king of the Huns

Euboic Sea, where Hercules threw Lichas, who brought him the
poisoned shirt of Nessus

Eude, king of Aquitaine, ally of Charles Martel

Eumaeus, swineherd of Aeeas

Eumenides, also called Erinnyes, and by the Romans Furiae or
Diraae, the Avenging Deities, See Furies

Euphorbus, a Trojan, killed by Menelaus

Euphros'yne, one of the Graces

Europa, daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor, by Zeus the mother
of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon

Eurus, the East wind

Euyalus, a gallant Trojan soldier, who with Nisus entered the
Grecian camp, both being slain,

Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, who, fleeing from an admirer, was
killed by a snake and borne to Tartarus, where Orpheus sought her
and was permitted to bring her to earth if he would not look back
at her following him, but he did, and she returned to the Shades,

Eurylochus, a companion of Ulysses,

Eurynome, female Titan, wife of Ophlon

Eurystheus, taskmaster of Hercules,

Eurytion, a Centaur (See Hippodamia),

Euterpe, Muse who presided over music,

Evadne, wife of Capaneus, who flung herself upon his funeral pile
and perished with him

Evander, Arcadian chief, befriending Aeneas in Italy,

Evnissyen, quarrelsome brother of Branwen,

Excalibar, sword of King Arthur,

F

Fafner, a giant turned dragon, treasure stealer, by the Solar
Theory simply the Darkness who steals the day,

Falerina, an enchantress,

Fasolt, a giant, brother of Fafner, and killed by him,

"Fasti," Ovid's, a mythological poetic calendar,

FATA MORGANA, a mirage

FATES, the three, described as daughters of Night--to indicate the
darkness and obscurity of human destiny--or of Zeus and Themis,
that is, "daughters of the just heavens" they were Clo'tho, who
spun the thread of life, Lach'esis, who held the thread and fixed
its length and At'ropos, who cut it off

FAUNS, cheerful sylvan deities, represented in human form, with
small horns, pointed ears, and sometimes goat's tail

FAUNUS, son of Picus, grandson of Saturnus, and father of Latinus,
worshipped as the protecting deity of agriculture and of
shepherds, and also as a giver of oracles

FAVONIUS, the West wind

FEAR

FENRIS, a wolf, the son of Loki the Evil Principle of Scandinavia,
supposed to have personated the element of fire, destructive
except when chained

FENSALIR, Freya's palace, called the Hall of the Sea, where were
brought together lovers, husbands, and wives who had been
separated by death

FERRAGUS, a giant, opponent of Orlando

FERRAU, one of Charlemagne's knights

FERREX. brother of Porrex, the two sons of Leir

FIRE WORSHIPPERS, of ancient Persia, See Parsees FLOLLO, Roman
tribune in Gaul

FLORA, Roman goddess of flowers and spring

FLORDELIS, fair maiden beloved by Florismart

FLORISMART, Sir, a brave knight,

FLOSSHILDA, one of the Rhine daughters

FORTUNATE FIELDS

FORTUNATE ISLANDS (See Elysian Plain)

FORUM, market place and open square for public meetings in Rome,
surrounded by court houses, palaces, temples, etc

FRANCUS, son of Histion, grandson of Japhet, great grandson of
Noah, legendary ancestor of the Franks, or French

FREKI, one of Odin's two wolves

FREY, or Freyr, god of the sun

FREYA, Norse goddess of music, spring, and flowers

FRICKA, goddess of marriage

FRIGGA, goddess who presided over smiling nature, sending
sunshine, rain, and harvest

FROH, one of the Norse gods

FRONTI'NO, Rogero's horse

FURIES (Erinnyes), the three retributive spirits who punished
crime, represented as snaky haired old woman, named Alecto,
Megaeira, and Tisiphone

FUSBERTA, Rinaldo's sword

G

GAEA, or Ge, called Tellus by the Romans, the personification of
the earth, described as the first being that sprang fiom Chaos,
and gave birth to Uranus (Heaven) and Pontus (Sea)

GAHARIET, knight of Arthur's court

GAHERIS, knight

GALAFRON, King of Cathay, father of Angelica

GALAHAD, Sir, the pure knight of Arthur's Round Table, who safely
took the Siege Perilous (which See)

GALATEA, a Nereid or sea nymph

GALATEA, statue carved and beloved by Pygmalion

GALEN, Greek physician and philosophical writer

GALLEHANT, King of the Marches

GAMES, national athletic contests in Greece--Olympian, at Olympia,
Pythian, near Delphi, seat of Apollo's oracle, Isthmian, on the
Corinthian Isthmus, Nemean, at Nemea in Argolis

GAN, treacherous Duke of Maganza

GANELON of Mayence, one of Charlemagne's knights

GANGES, river in India

GANO, a peer of Charlemagne

GANYMEDE, the most beautiful of all mortals, carried off to
Olympus that he might fill the cup of Zeus and live among the
immortal gods

GARETH, Arthur's knight

GAUDISSO, Sultan

GAUL, ancient France

GAUTAMA, Prince, the Buddha

GAWAIN, Arthur's knight

GAWL, son of Clud, suitor for Rhiannon

GEMINI (See Castor), constellation created by Jupiter from the
twin brothers after death, 158

GENGHIS Khan, Tartar conqueror

GENIUS, in Roman belief, the protective Spirit of each individual
man, See Juno

GEOFFREY OF MON'MOUTH, translator into Latin of the Welsh History
of the Kings of Britain (1150)

GERAINT, a knight of King Arthur

GERDA, wife of Frey

GERI, one of Odin's two wolves

GERYON, a three bodied monster

GESNES, navigator sent for Isoude the Fair

GIALLAR HORN, the trumpet that Heimdal will blow at the judgment
day

GIANTS, beings of monstrous size and of fearful countenances,
represented as in constant opposition to the gods, in Wagner's
Nibelungen Ring

GIBICHUNG RACE, ancestors of Alberich

GIBRALTAR, great rock and town at southwest corner of Spain (See
Pillars of Hercules)

GILDAS, a scholar of Arthur's court

GIRARD, son of Duke Sevinus

GLASTONBURY, where Arthur died

GLAUCUS, a fisherman, loving Scylla

GLEIPNIR, magical chain on the wolf Fenris

GLEWLWYD, Arthur's porter

GOLDEN FLEECE, of ram used for escape of children of Athamas,
named Helle and Phryxus (which See), after sacrifice of ram to
Jupiter, fleece was guarded by sleepless dragon and gained by
Jason and Argonauts (which See, also Helle)

GONERIL, daughter of Leir

GORDIAN KNOT, tying up in temple the wagon of Gordius, he who
could untie it being destined to be lord of Asia, it was cut by
Alexander the Great, 48

Gordius, a countryman who, arriving in Phrygia in a wagon, was
made king by the people, thus interpreting an oracle, 48

Gorgons, three monstrous females, with huge teeth, brazen claws
and snakes for hair, sight of whom turned beholders to stone,
Medusa, the most famous, slain by Perseus

Gorlois, Duke of Tintadel

Gouvernail, squire of Isabella, queen of Lionesse, protector of
her son Tristram while young, and his squire in knighthood

Graal, the Holy, cup from which the Saviour drank at Last Supper,
taken by Joseph of Arimathea to Europe, and lost, its recovery
becoming a sacred quest for Arthur's knights

Graces, three goddesses who enhanced the enjoyments of life by
refinement and gentleness; they were Aglaia (brilliance),
Euphrosyne (joy), and Thalia (bloom)

Gradas'so, king of Sericane

Graeae, three gray haired female watchers for the Gorgons, with
one movable eye and one tooth between the three

Grand Lama, Buddhist pontiff in Thibet

Grendel, monster slain by Beowulf

Gryphon (griffin), a fabulous animal, with the body of a lion and
the head and wings of an eagle, dwelling in the Rhipaean
mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one eyed Arimaspians,
and guarding the gold of the North,

Guebers, Persian fire worshippers,

Guendolen, wife of Locrine,

Guenevere, wife of King Arthur, beloved by Launcelot,

Guerin, lord of Vienne, father of Oliver,

Guiderius, son of Cymbeline,

Guillamurius, king in Ireland,

Guimier, betrothed of Caradoc,

Gullinbursti, the boar drawing Frey's car,

Gulltopp, Heimdell's horse,

Gunfasius, King of the Orkneys,

Ganther, Burgundian king, brother of Kriemhild,

Gutrune, half sister to Hagen,

Gwern son of Matholch and Branwen,

Gwernach the Giant,

Gwiffert Petit, ally of Geraint,

Gwyddno, Garanhir, King of Gwaelod,

Gwyr, judge in the court of Arthur,

Gyoll, river,

H

Hades, originally the god of the nether world--the name later
used to designate the gloomy subterranean land of the dead,

Haemon, son of Creon of Thebes, and lover of Antigone,

Haemonian city,

Haemus, Mount, northern boundary of Thrace,

Hagan, a principal character in the Nibelungen Lied, slayer of
Siegfried,

HALCYONE, daughter of Aeneas, and the beloved wife of Ceyx, who,
when he was drowned, flew to his floating body, and the pitying
gods changed them both to birds (kingfishers), who nest at sea
during a certain calm week in winter ("halcyon weather")

HAMADRYADS, tree-nymphs or wood-nymphs, See Nymphs

HARMONIA, daughter of Mars and Venus, wife of Cadmus

HAROUN AL RASCHID, Caliph of Arabia, contemporary of Charlemagne

HARPIES, monsters, with head and bust of woman, but wings, legs
and tail of birds, seizing souls of the wicked, or punishing
evildoers by greedily snatching or defiling their food

HARPOCRATES, Egyptian god, Horus

HEBE, daughter of Juno, cupbearer to the gods

HEBRUS, ancient name of river Maritzka

HECATE, a mighty and formidable divinity, supposed to send at
night all kinds of demons and terrible phantoms from the lower
world

HECTOR, son of Priam and champion of Troy

HECTOR, one of Arthur's knights

HECTOR DE MARYS', a knight

HECUBA, wife of Priam, king of Troy, to whom she bore Hector,
Paris, and many other children

HEGIRA, flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina (622 AD), era from
which Mahometans reckon time, as we do from the birth of Christ

HEIDRUN, she goat, furnishing mead for slain heroes in Valhalla

HEIMDALL, watchman of the gods

HEL, the lower world of Scandinavia, to which were consigned those
who had not died in battle

HELA (Death), the daughter of Loki and the mistress of the
Scandinavian Hel

HELEN, daughter of Jupiter and Leda, wife of Menelaus, carried
off by Paris and cause of the Trojan War

HELENUS, son of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for his prophetic
powers

HELIADES, sisters of Phaeton

HELICON, Mount, in Greece, residence of Apollo and the Muses,
with fountains of poetic inspiration, Aganippe and Hippocrene

HELIOOPOLIS, city of the Sun, in Egypt

HELLAS, Gieece

HELLE, daughter of Thessalian King Athamas, who, escaping from
cruel father with her brother Phryxus, on ram with golden fleece,
fell into the sea strait since named for her (See Golden Fleece)

HELLESPONt, narrow strait between Europe and Asia Minor, named for
Helle

HENGIST, Saxon invader of Britain, 449 AD

HEPHAESTOS, See VULCAN

HERA, called Juno by the Romans, a daughter of Cronos (Saturn)
and Rhea, and sister and wife of Jupiter, See JUNO

HERCULES, athletic hero, son of Jupiter and Alcmena, achieved
twelve vast labors and many famous deeds

HEREWARD THE WAKE, hero of the Saxons

HERMES (Mercury), messenger of the gods, deity of commerce,
science, eloquence, trickery, theft, and skill generally

HERMIONE, daughter of Menelaus and Helen

HERMOD, the nimble, son of Odin

HERO, a priestess of Venus, beloved of Leander

HERODOTUS, Greek historian

HESIOD, Greek poet

HESPERIA, ancient name for Italy

HESPERIDES (See Apples of the Hesperides)

HESPERUS, the evening star (also called Day Star)

HESTIA, cilled Vesta by the Romans, the goddess of the hearth

HILDEBRAND, German magician and champion

HINDU TRIAD, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva

HIPPOCRENE (See Helicon)

HIPPODAMIA, wife of Pirithous, at whose wedding the Centaurs
offered violence to the bride, causing a great battle

HIPPOGRIFF, winged horse, with eagle's head and claws

HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons

Hippolytus, son of Thesus

HIPPOMENES, who won Atalanta in foot race, beguiling her with
golden apples thrown for her to

HISTION, son of Japhet

HODUR, blind man, who, fooled by

Loki, threw a mistletoe twig at Baldur, killing him

HOEL, king of Brittany

HOMER, the blind poet of Greece, about 850 B C

HOPE (See PANDORA)

HORAE See HOURS

HORSA, with Hengist, invader of Britain

HORUS, Egyptian god of the sun

HOUDAIN, Tristram's dog

HRINGHAM, Baldur's ship

HROTHGAR, king of Denmark

HUGI, who beat Thialfi in foot races

HUGIN, one of Odin's two ravens

HUNDING, husband of Sieglinda

HUON, son of Duke Sevinus

HYACINTHUS, a youth beloved by Apollo, and accidentally killed by
him, changed in death to the flower, hyacinth

HYADES, Nysaean nymphs, nurses of infant Bacchus, rewarded by
being placed as cluster of stars in the heavens

HYALE, a nymph of Diana

HYDRA, nine headed monster slain by Hercules

HYGEIA, goddess of health, daughter of Aesculapius

HYLAS, a youth detained by nymphs of spring where he sought water

HYMEN, the god of marriage, imagined as a handsome youth and
invoked in bridal songs

HYMETTUS, mountain in Attica, near Athens, celebrated for its
marble and its honey

HYPERBOREANS, people of the far North

HYPERION, a Titan, son of Uranus and Ge, and father of Helios,
Selene, and Eos, cattle of,

Hyrcania, Prince of, betrothed to Clarimunda

Hyrieus, king in Greece,

I

Iapetus, a Titan, son of Uranus and Ge, and father of Atlas,
Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius,

Iasius, father of Atalanta

Ibycus, a poet, story of, and the cranes

Icaria, island of the Aegean Sea, one of the Sporades

Icarius, Spartan prince, father of Penelope

Icarus, son of Daedalus, he flew too near the sun with artificial
wings, and, the wax melting, he fell into the sea

Icelos, attendant of Morpheus

Icolumkill SEE Iona

Ida, Mount, a Trojan hill

Idaeus, a Trojan herald

Idas, son of Aphareus and Arene, and brother of Lynceus Idu'na,
wife of Bragi

Igerne, wife of Gorlois, and mother, by Uther, of Arthur

Iliad, epic poem of the Trojan War, by Homer

Ilioheus, a son of Niobe

Ilium SEE Troy

Illyria, Adriatic countries north of Greece

Imogen, daughter of Pandrasus, wife of Trojan Brutus

Inachus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of Phoroneus and
Io, also first king of Argos, and said to have given his name to
the river Inachus

INCUBUS, an evil spirit, supposed to lie upon persons in their
sleep

INDRA, Hindu god of heaven, thunder, lightning, storm and rain

INO, wife of Athamas, fleeing from whom with infant son she sprang
into the sea and was changed to Leucothea

IO, changed to a heifer by Jupiter

IOBATES, King of Lycia

IOLAUS, servant of Hercules

IOLE, sister of Dryope

IONA, or Icolmkill, a small northern island near Scotland, where
St Columba founded a missionary monastery (563 AD)

IONIA, coast of Asia Minor

IPHIGENIA, daughter of Agamemnon, offered as a sacrifice but
carried away by Diana

IPHIS, died for love of Anaxarete, 78

IPHITAS, friend of Hercules, killed by him

IRIS, goddess of the rainbow, messenger of Juno and Zeus

IRONSIDE, Arthur's knight

ISABELLA, daughter of king of Galicia

ISIS, wife of Osiris, described as the giver of death

ISLES OF THE BLESSED

ISMARUS, first stop of Ulysses, returning from Trojan War
ISME'NOS, a son of Niobe, slain by Apollo

ISOLIER, friend of Rinaldo

ISOUDE THE FAIR, beloved of Tristram

ISOUDE OF THE WHITE HANDS, married to Tristram

ISTHMIAN GAMES, See GAMES

ITHACA, home of Ulysses and Penelope

IULUS, son of Aeneas

IVO, Saracen king, befriending Rinaldo

IXION, once a sovereign of Thessaly, sentenced in Tartarus to be
lashed with serpents to a wheel which a strong wind drove
continually around

J

JANICULUM, Roman fortress on the Janiculus, a hill on the other
side of the Tiber

JANUS, a deity from the earliest times held in high estimation by
the Romans, temple of

JAPHET (Iapetus)

JASON, leader of the Argonauts, seeking the Golden Fleece

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, who bore the Holy Graal to Europe

JOTUNHEIM, home of the giants in Northern mythology

JOVE (Zeus), chief god of Roman and Grecian mythology, See JUPITER

JOYOUS GARDE, residence of Sir Launcelot of the Lake

JUGGERNAUT, Hindu deity

JUNO, the particular guardian spirit of each woman (See Genius)

JUNO, wife of Jupiter, queen of the gods

JUPITER, JOVIS PATER, FATHER JOVE, JUPITER and JOVE used
interchangeably, at Dodona, statue of the Olympian

JUPITER AMMON (See Ammon)

JUPITER CAPITOLINUS, temple of, preserving the Sibylline books

JUSTICE, See THEMIS

K

KADYRIATH, advises King Arthur

KAI, son of Kyner

KALKI, tenth avatar of Vishnu

KAY, Arthur's steward and a knight

KEDALION, guide of Orion

KERMAN, desert of

KICVA, daughter of Gwynn Gloy

KILWICH, son of Kilydd

KILYDD, son of Prince Kelyddon, of Wales

KNEPH, spirit or breath

KNIGHTS, training and life of

KRIEMHILD, wife of Siegfried

KRISHNA, eighth avatar of Vishnu, Hindu deity of fertility in
nature and mankind

KYNER, father of Kav

KYNON, son of Clydno

L

LABYRINTH, the enclosed maze of passageways where roamed the
Minotaur of Crete, killed by Theseus with aid of Ariadne

LACHESIS, one of the Fates (which See)

LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN, tale told by Kynon

LAERTES, father of Ulysses

LAESTRYGONIANS, savages attacking Ulysses

LAIUS, King of Thebes

LAMA, holy man of Thibet

LAMPETIA, daughter of Hyperion LAOC'OON, a priest of Neptune, in
Troy, who warned the Trojans against the Wooden Horse (which See),
but when two serpents came out of the sea and strangled him and
his two sons, the people listened to the Greek spy Sinon, and
brought the fatal Horse into the town

LAODAMIA, daughter of Acastus and wife of Protesilaus

LAODEGAN, King of Carmalide, helped by Arthur and Merlin

LAOMEDON, King of Troy

LAPITHAE, Thessalonians, whose king had invited the Centaurs to
his daughter's wedding but who attacked them for offering violence
to the bride

LARES, household deities

LARKSPUR, flower from the blood of Ajax

LATINUS, ruler of Latium, where Aeneas landed in Italy

LATMOS, Mount, where Diana fell in love with Endymion

LATONA, mother of Apollo

LAUNCELOT, the most famous knight of the Round Table

LAUSUS, son of Mezentius, killed by Aeneas

LAVINIA, daughter of Latinus and wife of Aeneas

LAVINIUM, Italian city named for Lavinia

LAW, See THEMIS

LEANDER, a youth of Abydos, who, swimming the Hellespont to see
Hero, his love, was drowned

LEBADEA, site of the oracle of Trophomus

LEBYNTHOS, Aegean island

LEDA, Queen of Sparta, wooed by Jupiter in the form of a swan

LEIR, mythical King of Britain, original of Shakespeare's Lear

LELAPS, dog of Cephalus

LEMNOS, large island in the Aegean Sea, sacred to Vulcan

LEMURES, the spectres or spirits of the dead

LEO, Roman emperor, Greek prince

LETHE, river of Hades, drinking whose water caused forgetfulness

LEUCADIA, a promontory, whence Sappho, disappointed in love, was
said to have thrown herself into the sea

LEUCOTHEA, a sea goddess, invoked by sailors for protection (See
Ino)

LEWIS, son of Charlemagne

LIBER, ancient god of fruitfulness

LIBETHRA, burial place of Orpheus

LIBYA, Greek name for continent of Africa in general

LIBYAN DESERT, in Africa

LIBYAN OASIS

LICHAS, who brought the shirt of Nessus to Hercules

LIMOURS, Earl of

LINUS, musical instructor of Hercules

LIONEL, knight of the Round Table

LLYR, King of Britain

LOCRINE, son of Brutus in Albion, king of Central England

LOEGRIA, kingdom of (England)

LOGESTILLA, a wise lady, who entertained Rogero and his friends

LOGI, who vanquished Loki in an eating contest

LOKI, the Satan of Norse mythology, son of the giant Farbanti

LOT, King, a rebel chief, subdued by King Arthur, then a loyal
knight

LOTIS, a nymph, changed to a lotus-plant and in that form plucked
by Dryope

LOTUS EATERS, soothed to indolence, companions of Ulysses landing
among them lost all memory of home and had to be dragged away
before they would continue their voyage

LOVE (Eros) issued from egg of Night, and with arrows and torch
produced life and joy

LUCAN, one of Arthur's knights

Lucius Tiberius, Roman procurator in Britain demanding tribute
from Arthur

LUD, British king, whose capital was called Lud's Town (London)

LUDGATE, city gate where Lud was buried, 387

LUNED, maiden who guided Owain to the Lady of the Fountain

LYCAHAS, a turbulent sailor

LYCAON, son of Priam

LYCIA, a district in Southern Asia Minor

LYCOMODES, king of the Dolopians, who treacherously slew Theseus

LYCUS, usurping King of Thebes

LYNCEUS, one of the sons of Aegyptus

M

MABINOGEON, plural of Mabinogi, fairy tales and romances of the
Welsh

MABON, son of Modron

MACHAON, son of Aesculapius

MADAN, son of Guendolen

MADOC, a forester of King Arthur

MADOR, Scottish knight

MAELGAN, king who imprisoned Elphin

MAEONIA, ancient Lydia

MAGI, Persian priests

MAHADEVA, same as Siva

MAHOMET, great prophet of Arabia, born in Mecca, 571 AD,
proclaimed worship of God instead of idols, spread his religion
through disciples and then by force till it prevailed, with
Arabian dominion, over vast regions in Asia, Africa, and Spain in
Europe

MAIA, daughter of Atlas and Pleione, eldest and most beautiful of
the Pleiades

MALAGIGI the Enchanter, one of Charlemagne's knights

MALEAGANS, false knight

MALVASIUS, King of Iceland

MAMBRINO, with invisible helmet

MANAWYD DAN, brother of King Vran, of London

MANDRICARDO, son of Agrican

MANTUA, in Italy, birthplace of Virgil

MANU, ancestor of mankind

MARATHON, where Theseus and Pirithous met

MARK, King of Cornwall, husband of Isoude the Fair

MARO See VIRGIL

MARPHISA, sister of Rogero

MARSILIUS, Spanish king, treacherous foe of Charlemagne

MARSYAS, inventor of the flute, who challenged Apollo to musical
competition, and, defeated, was flayed alive

MATSYA, the Fish, first avatar of Vishnu

MEANDER, Grecian river

MEDE, A, princess and sorceress who aided Jason

MEDORO, a young Moor, who wins Angelica

MEDUSA, one of the Gorgons

MEGAERA, one of the Furies

MELAMPUS, a Spartan dog, the first mortal endowed with prophetic
powers

MELANTHUS, steersman for Bacchus

MELEAGER, one of the Argonauts (See Althaea)

MELIADUS, King of Lionesse, near Cornwall

MELICERTES, infant son of Ino. changed to Palaemon (See Ino,
Leucothea, and Palasmon)

MELISSA, priestess at Merlin's tomb

MELISSEUS, a Cretan king

MELPOMENE, one of the Muses

MEMNON, the beautiful son of Tithonus and Eos (Aurora), and king
of the Ethiopians, slain in Trojan War

MEMPHIS, Egyptian city

MENELAUS, son of King of Sparta, husband of Helen

MENOECEUS, son of Creon, voluntary victim in war to gain success
for his father

MENTOR, son of Alcimus and a faithful friend of Ulysses

MERCURY (See HERMES)

MERLIN, enchanter

MEROPE, daughter of King of Chios, beloved by Orion

MESMERISM, likened to curative oracle of Aesculapius at Epidaurus

METABUS, father of Camilla

METAMORPHOSES, Ovid's poetical legends of mythical
transformations, a large source of our knowledge of classic
mythology

METANIRA, a mother, kind to Ceres seeking Proserpine

METEMPSYCHOSIS, transmigration of souls--rebirth of dying men
and women in forms of animals or human beings

METIS, Prudence, a spouse of Jupiter

MEZENTIUS, a brave but cruel soldier, opposing Aeneas in Italy

MIDAS

MIDGARD, the middle world of the Norsemen

MIDGARD SERPENT, a sea monster, child of Loki

MILKY WAY, starred path across the sky, believed to be road to
palace of the gods

MILO, a great athlete

MLON, father of Orlando

MILTON, John, great English poet, whose History of England is here
largely used

MIME, one of the chief dwarfs of ancient German mythology

MINERVA (Athene), daughter of Jupiter, patroness of health,
learning, and wisdom

MINOS, King of Crete

MINO TAUR, monster killed by Theseus

MISTLETOE, fatal to Baldur

MNEMOSYNE, one of the Muses

MODESTY, statue to

MODRED, nephew of King Arthur

MOLY, plant, powerful against sorcery

MOMUS, a deity whose delight was to jeer bitterly at gods and men

MONAD, the "unit" of Pythagoras

MONSTERS, unnatural beings, evilly disposed to men

MONTALBAN, Rinaldo's castle

MONTH, the, attendant upon the Sun

MOON, goddess of, see DIANA

MORAUNT, knight, an Irish champion

MORGANA, enchantress, the Lady of the Lake in "Orlando Furioso,"
same as Morgane Le Fay in tales of Arthur

MORGANE LE FAY, Queen of Norway, King Arthur's sister, an
enchantress

MORGAN TUD, Arthur's chief physician

MORPHEUS, son of Sleep and god of dreams

MORTE D'ARTHUr, romance, by Sir Thomas Mallory

MULCIBER, Latin name of Vulcan

MULL, Island of

MUNIN, one of Odin's two ravens

MUSAEUS, sacred poet, son of Orpheus

MUSES, The, nine goddesses presiding over poetry, etc--Calliope,
epic poetry, Clio, history, Erato, love poetry, Euterpe, lyric
poetry; Melpomene, tragedy, Polyhymnia, oratory and sacred song
Terpsichore, choral song and dance, Thalia, comedy and idyls,
Urania, astronomy

MUSPELHEIM, the fire world of the Norsemen

MYCENAS, ancient Grecian city, of which Agamemnon was king

MYRDDIN (Merlin)

MYRMIDONS, bold soldiers of Achilles

MYSIA, Greek district on northwest coast of Asia Minor

MYTHOLOGY, origin of, collected myths, describing gods of early
peoples

N

NAIADS, water nymphs

NAMO, Duke of Bavaria, one of Charlemagne's knights

NANNA, wife of Baldur

NANTERS, British king

NANTES, site of Caradoc's castle

NAPE, a dog of Diana

NARCISSUS, who died of unsatisfied love for his own image in the
water

NAUSICAA, daughter of King Alcinous, who befriended Ulysses

NAUSITHOUS, king of Phaeacians

NAXOS, Island of

NEGUS, King of Abyssinia

NEMEA, forest devastated by a lion killed by Hercules

NEMEAN GAMES, held in honor of Jupiter and Hercules

NEMEAN LION, killed by Hercules

NEMESIS, goddess of vengeance

NENNIUS, British combatant of Caesar

NEOPTOLEMUS, son of Achilles

NEPENTHE, ancient drug to cause forgetfulness of pain or distress

NEPHELE, mother of Phryxus and Helle

NEPHTHYS, Egyptian goddess

NEPTUNE, identical with Poseidon, god of the sea

NEREIDS, sea nymphs, daughters of Nereus and Doris

NEREUS, a sea god

NESSUS, a centaur killed by Hercules, whose jealous wife sent him
a robe or shirt steeped in the blood of Nessus, which poisoned him

NESTOR, king of Pylos, renowned for his wisdom, justice, and
knowledge of war

NIBELUNGEN HOARD, treasure seized by Siegfried from the
Nibelungs, buried in the Rhine by Hagan after killing Siegfried,
and lost when Hagan was killed by Kriemhild, theme of Wagner's
four music dramas, "The Ring of the Nibelungen,"

NIBELUNGEN LIED, German epic, giving the same nature myth as the
Norse Volsunga Saga, concerning the Hoard

NIBELUNGEN RING, Wagner's music dramas

NIBELUNGS, the, a race of Northern dwarfs

NIDHOGGE, a serpent in the lower world that lives on the dead

NIFFLEHEIM, mist world of the Norsemen, the Hades of absent
spirits

NILE, Egyptian river

NIOBE, daughter of Tantalus, proud Queen of Thebes, whose seven
sons and seven daughters were killed by Apollo and Diana, at which
Amphion, her husband, killed himself, and Niobe wept until she was
turned to stone

NISUS, King of Megara

NOAH, as legendary ancestor of French, Roman, German, and British
peoples

NOMAN, name assumed by Ulysses

NORNS, the three Scandinavian Fates, Urdur (the past), Verdandi
(the present), and Skuld (the future)

NOTHUNG, magic sword

NOTUS, southwest wind

NOX, daughter of Chaos and sister of Erebus, personification of
night

Numa, second king of Rome

NYMPHS, beautiful maidens, lesser divinities of nature Dryads and
Hamadryads, tree nymphs, Naiads, spring, brook, and river nymphs,
Nereids, sea nymphs Oreads, mountain nymphs or hill nymphs

O

OCEANUS, a Titan, ruling watery elements

OCYROE, a prophetess, daughter of Chiron

ODERIC

ODIN, chief of the Norse gods

ODYAR, famous Biscayan hero

ODYSSEUS See ULYSSES

ODYSSEY, Homer's poem, relating the wanderings of Odysseus
(Ulysses) on returning from Trojan War

OEDIPUS, Theban hero, who guessed the riddle of the Sphinx (which
See), becoming King of Thebes

OENEUS, King of Calydon

OENONE, nymph, married by Paris in his youth, and abandoned for
Helen

OENOPION, King of Chios

OETA, Mount, scene of Hercules' death

OGIER, the Dane, one of the paladins of Charlemagne

OLIVER, companion of Orlando

OLWEN, wife of Kilwich

OLYMPIA, a small plain in Elis, where the Olympic games were
celebrated

OLYMPIADS, periods between Olympic games (four years)

OLYMPIAN GAMES, See GAMES

OLYMPUS, dwelling place of the dynasty of gods of which Zeus was
the head

OMPHALE, queen of Lydia, daughter of Iardanus and wife of Tmolus

OPHION, king of the Titans, who ruled Olympus till dethroned by
the gods Saturn and Rhea

OPS See RHEA

ORACLES, answers from the gods to questions from seekers for
knowledge or advice for the future, usually in equivocal form, so
as to fit any event, also places where such answers were given
forth usually by a priest or priestess

ORC, a sea monster, foiled by Rogero when about to devour Angelica

OREADS, nymphs of mountains and hills

ORESTES, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, because of his crime
in killing his mother, he was pursued by the Furies until purified
by Minerva

ORION, youthful giant, loved by Diana, Constellation

ORITHYIA, a nymph, seized by Boreas

ORLANDO, a famous knight and nephew of Charlemagne

ORMUZD (Greek, Oromasdes), son of Supreme Being, source of good
as his brother Ahriman (Arimanes) was of evil, in Persian or
Zoroastrian religion

ORPHEUS, musician, son of Apollo and Calliope, See EURYDICE

OSIRIS, the most beneficent of the Egyptian gods

OSSA, mountain of Thessaly

OSSIAN, Celtic poet of the second or third century

OVID, Latin poet (See Metamorphoses)

OWAIN, knight at King Arthur's court

OZANNA, a knight of Arthur

P

PACTOLUS, river whose sands were changed to gold by Midas

PAEON, a name for both Apollo and Aesculapius, gods of medicine,

PAGANS, heathen

PALADINS or peers, knights errant

PALAEMON, son of Athamas and Ino

PALAMEDES, messenger sent to call Ulysses to the Trojan War

PALAMEDES, Saracen prince at Arthur's court

PALATINE, one of Rome's Seven Hills

PALES, goddess presiding over cattle and pastures

PALINURUS, faithful steersman of Aeeas

PALLADIUM, properly any image of Pallas Athene, but specially
applied to an image at Troy, which was stolen by Ulysses and
Diomedes

PALLAS, son of Evander

PALLAS A THE'NE (Minerva)

PAMPHA GUS, a dog of Diana

PAN, god of nature and the universe

PANATHENAEA, festival in honor of Pallas Athene (Minerva)

PANDEAN PIPES, musical instrument of reeds, made by Pan in
memory of Syrinx

PANDORA (all gifted), first woman, dowered with gifts by every
god, yet entrusted with a box she was cautioned not to open, but,
curious, she opened it, and out flew all the ills of humanity,
leaving behind only Hope, which remained

PANDRASUS, a king in Greece, who persecuted Trojan exiles under
Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas, until they fought, captured him,
and, with his daughter Imogen as Brutus' wife, emigrated to Albion
(later called Britain)

PANOPE, plain of

PANTHUS, alleged earlier incarnation of Pythagoras

PAPHLAGNIA, ancient country in Asia Minor, south of Black Sea

PAPHOS, daughter of Pygmalion and Galatea (both of which, See)

PARCAE See FATES

PARIAHS, lowest caste of Hindus

PARIS, son of Priam and Hecuba, who eloped with Helen (which.
See)

PARNASSIAN LAUREl, wreath from Parnassus, crown awarded to
successful poets

PARNASSUS, mountain near Delphi, sacred to Apollo and the Muses

PARSEES, Persian fire worshippers (Zoroastrians), of whom there
are still thousands in Persia and India

PARTHENON, the temple of Athene Parthenos ("the Virgin") on the
Acropolis of Athens

PASSEBREUL, Tristram's horse

PATROCLUS, friend of Achilles, killed by Hector

PECHEUR, King, uncle of Perceval

PEERS, the

PEG A SUS, winged horse, born from the sea foam and the blood of
Medusa

PELEUS, king of the Myrmidons, father of Achilles by Thetis

PELIAS, usurping uncle of Jason

PELION, mountain

PELLEAS, knight of Arthur

PENATES, protective household deities of the Romans

PENDRAGON, King of Britain, elder brother of Uther Pendragon,
who succeeded him

PENELOPE, wife of Ulysses, who, waiting twenty years for his
return from the Trojan War, put off the suitors for her hand by
promising to choose one when her weaving was done, but unravelled
at night what she had woven by day

PENEUS, river god, river

PENTHESILEA, queen of Amazons

PENTHEUS, king of Thebes, having resisted the introduction of
the worship of Bacchus into his kingdom, was driven mad by the god

PENUS, Roman house pantry, giving name to the Penates

PEPIN, father of Charlemagne

PEPLUS, sacred robe of Minerva

PERCEVAL, a great knight of Arthur

PERDIX, inventor of saw and compasses

PERIANDER, King of Corinuh, friend of Arion

PERIPHETES, son of Vulcan, killed by Theseus

PERSEPHONE, goddess of vegetation, 8 See Pioserpine

PERSEUS, son of Jupiter and Danae, slayer of the Gorgon Medusa,
deliverer of Andromeda from a sea monster, 116 122, 124, 202

PHAEACIANS, people who entertained Ulysses

PHAEDRA, faithless and cruel wife of Theseus

PHAETHUSA, sister of Phaeton, 244

PHAETON, son of Phoebus, who dared attempt to drive his father's
sun chariot

PHANTASOS, a son of Somnus, bringing strange images to sleeping
men

PHAON, beloved by Sappho

PHELOT, knight of Wales

PHEREDIN, friend of Tristram, unhappy lover of Isoude

PHIDIAS, famous Greek sculptor

PHILEMON, husband of Baucis

PHILOCTETES, warrior who lighted the fatal pyre of Hercules

PHILOE, burial place of Osiris

PHINEUS, betrothed to Andromeda

PHLEGETHON, fiery river of Hades

PHOCIS

PHOEBE, one of the sisters of Phaeton

PHOEBUS (Apollo), god of music, prophecy, and archery, the sun
god

PHOENIX, a messenger to Achilles, also, a miraculous bird dying
in fire by its own act and springing up alive from its own ashes

PHORBAS, a companion of Aeneas, whose form was assumed by Neptune
in luring Palinuras the helmsman from his roost

PHRYXUS, brother of Helle

PINABEL, knight

PILLARS OF HERCULES, two mountains--Calpe, now the Rock of
Gibraltar, southwest corner of Spain in Europe, and Abyla, facing
it in Africa across the strait

PINDAR, famous Greek poet

PINDUS, Grecian mountain

PIRENE, celebrated fountain at Corinth

PIRITHOUS, king of the Lapithae in Thessaly, and friend of
Theseus, husband of Hippodamia

PLEASURE, daughter of Cupid and Psyche

PLEIADES, seven of Diana's nymphs, changed into stars, one being
lost

PLENTY, the Horn of

PLEXIPPUS, brother of Althea

PLINY, Roman naturalist

PLUTO, the same as Hades, Dis, etc. god of the Infernal Regions

PLUTUS, god of wealth

PO, Italian river

POLE STAR

POLITES, youngest son of Priam of Troy

POLLUX, Castor and (Dioscuri, the Twins) (See Castor)

POLYDECTES, king of Seriphus

POLYDORE, slain kinsman of Aeneas, whose blood nourished a bush
that bled when broken

POLYHYMNIA, Muse of oratory and sacred song

POLYIDUS, soothsayer

POLYNICES, King of Thebes

POLYPHEMUS, giant son of Neptune

POLYXENA, daughter of King Priam of Troy

POMONA, goddess of fruit trees (See VERTUMNUS)

PORREX and FER'REX, sons of Leir, King of Britain

PORTUNUS, Roman name for Palaemon

POSEIDON (Neptune), ruler of the ocean

PRECIPICE, threshold of Helas hall

PRESTER JOHN, a rumored priest or presbyter, a Christian pontiff
in Upper Asia, believed in but never found

PRIAM, king of Troy

PRIWEN, Arthur's shield

PROCRIS, beloved but jealous wife of Cephalus

PROCRUSTES, who seized travellers and bound them on his iron bed,
stretching the short ones and cutting short the tall, thus also
himself served by Theseus

PROETUS, jealous of Bellerophon

PROMETHEUS, creator of man, who stole fire from heaven for man's
use

PROSERPINE, the same as Persephone, goddess of all growing
things, daughter of Ceres, carried off by Pluto

PROTESILAUS, slain by Hector the Trojan, allowed by the gods to
return for three hours' talk with his widow Laodomia

PROTEUS, the old man of the sea

PRUDENCE (Metis), spouse of Jupiter

PRYDERI, son of Pwyll

PSYCHE, a beautiful maiden, personification of the human soul,
sought by Cupid (Love), to whom she responded, lost him by
curiosity to see him (as he came to her only by night), but
finally through his prayers was made immortal and restored to him,
a symbol of immortality

PURANAS, Hindu Scriptures

PWYLL, Prince of Dyved

PYGMALION, sculptor in love with a statue he had made, brought to
life by Venus, brother of Queen Dido

PYGMIES, nation of dwarfs, at war with the Cranes

PYLADES, son of Straphius, friend of Orestes

PYRAMUS, who loved Thisbe, next door neighbor, and, their parents
opposing, they talked through cracks in the house wall, agreeing
to meet in the near by woods, where Pyramus, finding a bloody veil
and thinking Thisbe slain, killed himself, and she, seeing his
body, killed herself (Burlesqued in Shakespeare's "Midsummer
Night's Dream")

PYRRHA, wife of Deucalion

PYRRHUS (Neoptolemus), son of Achilles

PYTHAGORAS, Greek philosopher (540 BC), who thought numbers to be
the essence and principle of all things, and taught transmigration
of souls of the dead into new life as human or animal beings

PYTHIA, priestess of Apollo at Delphi

PYTHIAN GAMES

PYTHIAN ORACLE

PYTHON, serpent springing from Deluge slum, destroyed by Apollo

Q

QUIRINUS (from quiris, a lance or spear), a war god, said to be
Romulus, founder of Rome

R

RABICAN, noted horse

RAGNAROK, the twilight (or ending) of the gods

RAJPUTS, minor Hindu caste

REGAN, daughter of Leir

REGILLUS, lake in Latium, noted for battle fought near by
between the Romans and the Latins

REGGIO, family from which Rogero sprang

REMUS, brother of Romulus, founder of Rome

RHADAMANTHUS, son of Jupiter and Europa after his death one of
the judges in the lower world

RHAPSODIST, professional reciter of poems among the Greeks

RHEA, female Titan, wife of Saturn (Cronos), mother of the chief
gods, worshipped in Greece and Rome

RHINE, river

RHINE MAIDENS, OR DAUGHTERS, three water nymphs, Flosshilda,
Woglinda, and Wellgunda, set to guard the Nibelungen Hoard, buried
in the Rhine

RHODES, one of the seven cities claiming to be Homer's birthplace

RHODOPE, mountain in Thrace

RHONGOMYANT, Arthur's lance

RHOECUS, a youth, beloved by a Dryad, but who brushed away a bee
sent by her to call him to her, and she punished him with
blindness

RHIANNON, wife of Pwyll

RINALDO, one of the bravest knights of Charlemagne

RIVER OCEAN, flowing around the earth

ROBERT DE BEAUVAIS', Norman poet (1257)

ROBIN HOOD, famous outlaw in English legend, about time of Richard
Coeur de Lion

ROCKINGHAM, forest of

RODOMONT, king of Algiers

ROGERO, noted Saracen knight

ROLAND (Orlando), See Orlando

ROMANCES

ROMANUS, legendary great grandson of Noah

ROME

ROMULUS, founder of Rome

RON, Arthur's lance

RONCES VALLES', battle of

ROUND TABLE King Arthur's instituted by Merlin the Sage for
Pendragon, Arthur's father, as a knightly order, continued and
made famous by Arthur and his knights

RUNIC CHARACTERS, or runes, alphabetic signs used by early
Teutonic peoples, written or graved on metal or stone

RUTULIANS, an ancient people in Italy, subdued at an early period
by the Romans

RYENCE, king in Ireland

S

SABRA, maiden for whom Severn River was named, daughter of Locrine
and Estrildis thrown into river Severn by Locrine's wife,
transformed to a river nymph, poetically named Sabrina

SACRIPANT, king of Circassia

SAFFIRE, Sir, knight of Arthur

SAGAS, Norse tales of heroism, composed by the Skalds

SAGRAMOUR, knight of Arthur

St. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, precipitous pointed rock hill on the coast of
Brittany, opposite Cornwall

SAKYASINHA, the Lion, epithet applied to Buddha

SALAMANDER, a lizard like animal, fabled to be able to live in
fire

SALAMIS, Grecian city

SALMONEUS, son of Aeolus and Enarete and brother of Sisyphus

SALOMON, king of Brittany, at Charlemagne's court

SAMHIN, or "fire of peace," a Druidical festival

SAMIAN SAGE (Pythagoras)

SAMOS, island in the Aegean Sea

SAMOTHRACIAN GODS, a group of agricultural divinities, worshipped
in Samothrace

SAMSON, Hebrew hero, thought by some to be original of Hercules

SAN GREAL (See Graal, the Holy)

SAPPHO, Greek poetess, who leaped into the sea from promontory of
Leucadia in disappointed love for Phaon

SARACENS, followers of Mahomet

SARPEDON, son of Jupiter and Europa, killed by Patroclus

SATURN (Cronos)

SATURNALIA, a annual festival held by Romans in honor of Saturn

SATURNIA, an ancient name of Italy

SATYRS, male divinities of the forest, half man, half goat

SCALIGER, famous German scholar of 16th century

SCANDINAVIA, mythology of, giving account of Northern gods,
heroes, etc

SCHERIA, mythical island, abode of the Phaeacians

SCHRIMNIR, the boar, cooked nightly for the heroes of Valhalla
becoming whole every morning

SCIO, one of the island cities claiming to be Homer's birthplace

SCOPAS, King of Thessaly

SCORPION, constellation

SCYLLA, sea nymph beloved by Glaucus, but changed by jealous Circe
to a monster and finally to a dangerous rock on the Sicilian
coast, facing the whirlpool Charybdis, many mariners being wrecked
between the two, also, daughter of King Nisus of Megara, who loved
Minos, besieging her father's city, but he disliked her disloyalty
and drowned her, also, a fair virgin of Sicily, friend of sea
nymph Galatea

SCYROS, where Theseus was slain

SCYTHIA, country lying north of Euxine Sea

SEMELE, daughter of Cadmus and, by Jupiter, mother of Bacchus

SEMIRAMIS, with Ninus the mythical founder of the Assyrian empire
of Nineveh

SENAPUS, King of Abyssinia, who entertained Astolpho

SERAPIS, or Hermes, Egyptian divinity of Tartarus and of
medicine

SERFS, slaves of the land

SERIPHUS, island in the Aegean Sea, one of the Cyclades

SERPENT (Northern constellation)

SESTOS, dwelling of Hero (which See also Leander)

"SEVEN AGAINST THEBES," famous Greek expedition

SEVERN RIVER, in England

SEVINUS, Duke of Guienne

SHALOTT, THE LADY OF

SHATRIYA, Hindu warrior caste

SHERASMIN, French chevalier

SIBYL, prophetess of Cumae

SICHAEUS, husband of Dido

SEIGE PERILOUS, the chair of purity at Arthur's Round Table, fatal
to any but him who was destined to achieve the quest of the
Sangreal (See Galahad)

SIEGFRIED, young King of the Netherlands, husband of Kriemhild,
she boasted to Brunhild that Siegfried had aided Gunther to beat
her in athletic contests, thus winning her as wife, and Brunhild,
in anger, employed Hagan to murder Siegfried. As hero of Wagner's
"Valkyrie," he wins the Nibelungen treasure ring, loves and
deserts Brunhild, and is slain by Hagan

SIEGLINDA, wife of Hunding, mother of Siegfried by Siegmund

SIEGMUND, father of Siegfried

SIGTRYG, Prince, betrothed of King Alef's daughter, aided by
Hereward

SIGUNA, wife of Loki

SILENUS, a Satyr, school master of Bacchus

SILURES (South Wales)

SILVIA, daughter of Latin shepherd

SILVIUS, grandson of Aeneas, accidentally killed in the chase by
his son Brutus

SIMONIDES, an early poet of Greece

SINON, a Greek spy, who persuaded the Trojans to take the Wooden
Horse into their city

SIRENS, sea nymphs, whose singing charmed mariners to leap into
the sea, passing their island, Ulysses stopped the ears of his
sailors with wax, and had himself bound to the mast so that he
could hear but not yield to their music

SIRIUS, the dog of Orion, changed to the Dog star

SISYPHUS, condemned in Tartarus to perpetually roll up hill a big
rock which, when the top was reached, rolled down again

SIVA, the Destroyer, third person of the Hindu triad of gods

SKALDS, Norse bards and poets

SKIDBLADNIR, Freyr's ship

SKIRNIR, Frey's messenger, who won the god's magic sword by
getting him Gerda for his wife

SKRYMIR, a giant, Utgard Loki in disguise, who fooled Thor in
athletic feats

SKULD, the Norn of the Future

SLEEP, twin brother of Death

SLEIPNIR, Odin's horse

SOBRINO, councillor to Agramant

SOMNUS, child of Nox, twin brother of Mors, god of sleep

SOPHOCLES, Greek tragic dramatist

SOUTH WIND See Notus

SPAR'TA, capital of Lacedaemon

SPHINX, a monster, waylaying the road to Thebes and propounding
riddles to all passers, on pain of death, for wrong guessing, who
killed herself in rage when Aedipus guessed aright

SPRING

STONEHENGE, circle of huge upright stones, fabled to be sepulchre
of Pendragon

STROPHIUS, father of Pylades

STYGIAN REALM, Hades

STYGIAN SLEEP, escaped from the beauty box sent from Hades to
Venus by hand of Psyche, who curiously opened the box and was
plunged into unconsciousness

STYX, river, bordering Hades, to be crossed by all the dead

SUDRAS, Hindu laboring caste

SURTUR, leader of giants against the gods in the day of their
destruction (Norse mythology)

SURYA, Hindu god of the sun, corresponding to the Greek Helios

SUTRI, Orlando's birthplace

SVADILFARI, giant's horse

SWAN, LEDA AND

SYBARIS, Greek city in Southern Italy, famed for luxury

SYLVANUS, Latin divinity identified with Pan

SYMPLEGADES, floating rocks passed by the Argonauts

SYRINX, nymph, pursued by Pan, but escaping by being changed to a
bunch of reeds (See Pandean pipes)

T

TACITUS, Roman historian

TAENARUS, Greek entrance to lower regions

TAGUS, river in Spain and Portugal

TALIESIN, Welsh bard

TANAIS, ancient name of river Don

TANTALUS, wicked king, punished in Hades by standing in water
that retired when he would drink, under fruit trees that withdrew
when he would eat

TARCHON, Etruscan chief

TARENTUM, Italian city

TARPEIAN ROCK, in Rome, from which condemned criminals were
hurled

TARQUINS, a ruling family in early Roman legend

TAURIS, Grecian city, site of temple of Diana (See Iphigenia)

TAURUS, a mountain

TARTARUS, place of confinement of Titans, etc, originally a black
abyss below Hades later, represented as place where the wicked
were punished, and sometimes the name used as synonymous with
Hades

TEIRTU, the harp of

TELAMON, Greek hero and adventurer, father of Ajax

TELEMACHUS, son of Ulysses and Penelope

TELLUS, another name for Rhea

TENEDOS, an island in Aegean Sea

TERMINUS, Roman divinity presiding over boundaries and frontiers

TERPSICHORE, Muse of dancing

TERRA, goddess of the earth

TETHYS, goddess of the sea

TEUCER, ancient king of the Trojans

THALIA, one of the three Graces

THAMYRIS, Thracian bard, who challenged the Muses to competition
in singing, and, defeated, was blinded

THAUKT, Loki disguised as a hag

THEBES, city founded by Cadmus and capital of Boeotia

THEMIS, female Titan, law counsellor of Jove

THEODORA, sister of Prince Leo

THERON, one of Diana's dogs

THERSITES, a brawler, killed by Achilles

THESCELUS, foe of Perseus, turned to stone by sight of Gorgon's
head

THESEUM, Athenian temple in honor of Theseus

THESEUS, son of Aegeus and Aethra, King of Athens, a great hero of
many adventures

THESSALY

THESTIUS, father of Althea

THETIS, mother of Achilles

THIALFI, Thor's servant

THIS'BE, Babylonian maiden beloved by Pyramus

THOR, the thunderer, of Norse mythology, most popular of the gods

THRACE

THRINA'KIA, island pasturing Hyperion's cattle, where Ulysses
landed, but, his men killing some cattle for food, their ship was
wrecked by lightning

THRYM, giant, who buried Thor's hammer

THUCYDIDES, Greek historian

TIBER, river flowing through Rome

TIBER, FATHER, god of the river

TIGRIS, river

TINTADEL, castle of, residence of King Mark of Cornwall

TIRESIAS, a Greek soothsayer

TISIPHONE, one of the Furies

TITANS, the sons and daughters of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea
(Earth), enemies of the gods and overcome by them

TITHONUS, Trojan prince

TITYUS, giant in Tartarus

TMOLUS, a mountain god

TORTOISE, second avatar of Vishnu

TOURS, battle of (See Abdalrahman and Charles Martel)

TOXEUS, brother of Melauger's mother, who snatched from Atalanta
her hunting trophy, and was slain by Melauger, who had awarded it
to her

TRIAD, the Hindu

TRIADS, Welsh poems

TRIMURTI, Hindu Triad

TRIPTOL'EMUS, son of Celeus , and who, made great by
Ceres, founded her worship in Eleusis

TRISTRAM, one of Arthur's knights, husband of Isoude of the White
Hands, lover of Isoude the Fair,

TRITON, a demi god of the sea, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and
Amphitrite

TROEZEN, Greek city of Argolis

TROJAN WAR

TROJANOVA, New Troy, City founded in Britain (See Brutus, and
Lud)

TROPHONIUS, oracle of, in Boeotia

TROUBADOURS, poets and minstrels of Provence, in Southern France

TROUVERS', poets and minstrels of Northern France

TROY, city in Asia Minor, ruled by King Priam, whose son, Paris,
stole away Helen, wife of Menelaus the Greek, resulting in the
Trojan War and the destruction of Troy

TROY, fall of

TURNUS, chief of the Rutulianes in Italy, unsuccessful rival of
Aeneas for Lavinia

TURPIN, Archbishop of Rheims

TURQUINE, Sir, a great knight, foe of Arthur, slain by Sir
Launcelot

TYPHON, one of the giants who attacked the gods, were defeated,
and imprisoned under Mt. Aetna

TYR, Norse god of battles

TYRE, Phoenician city governed by Dido

TYRIANS

TYRRHEUS, herdsman of King Turnus in Italy, the slaying of whose
daughter's stag aroused war upon Aeneas and his companions

U

UBERTO, son of Galafron

ULYSSES (Greek, Odysseus), hero of the Odyssey

UNICORN, fabled animal with a single horn

URANIA, one of the Muses, a daughter of Zeus by Mnemosyne

URDUR, one of the Norns or Fates of Scandinavia, representing the
Past

USK, British river

UTGARD, abode of the giant Utgard Loki

UTGARD LO'KI, King of the Giants (See Skrymir)

UTHER (Uther Pendragon), king of Britain and father of Arthur,

UWAINE, knight of Arthur's court

V

VAISSYAS, Hindu caste of agriculturists and traders

VALHALLA, hall of Odin, heavenly residence of slain heroes

VALKYRIE, armed and mounted warlike virgins, daughters of the gods
(Norse), Odin's messengers, who select slain heroes for Valhalla
and serve them at their feasts

VE, brother of Odin

VEDAS, Hindu sacred Scriptures

VENEDOTIA, ancient name for North Wales

VENUS (Aphrodite), goddess of beauty

VENUS DE MEDICI, famous antique statue in Uffizi Gallery,
Florence, Italy

VERDANDI, the Present, one of the Norns

VERTUMNUS, god of the changing seasons, whose varied appearances
won the love of Pomona

VESTA, daughter of Cronos and Rhea, goddess of the homefire, or
hearth

VESTALS, virgin priestesses in temple of Vesta

VESUVIUS, Mount, volcano near Naples

VILLAINS, peasants in the feudal scheme

VIGRID, final battle-field, with destruction of the gods ind
their enemies, the sun, the earth, and time itself

VILI, brother of Odin and Ve

VIRGIL, celebrated Latin poet (See Aeneid)

VIRGO, constellation of the Virgin, representing Astraea, goddess
of innocence and purity

VISHNU, the Preserver, second of the three chief Hindu gods

VIVIANE, lady of magical powers, who allured the sage Merlin and
imprisoned him in an enchanted wood

VOLSCENS, Rutulian troop leader who killed Nisus and Euryalus

VOLSUNG, A SAGA, an Icelandic poem, giving about the same legends
as the Nibelungen Lied

VORTIGERN, usurping King of Britain, defeated by Pendragon 390,
397

VULCAN (Greek, Haephestus), god of fire and metal working, with
forges under Aetna, husband of Venus

VYA'SA, Hindu sage

W

WAIN, the, constellation

WELLGUNDA, one of the Rhine-daughters

WELSH LANGUAGE

WESTERN OCEAN

WINDS, THE

WINTER

WODEN, chief god in the Norse mythology, Anglo Saxon for Odin

WOGLINDA, one of the Rhine-daughters

WOMAN, creation of

WOODEN HORSE, the, filled with armed men, but left outside of Troy
as a pretended offering to Minerva when the Greeks feigned to sail
away, accepted by the Trojans (See Sinon, and Laocoon), brought
into the city, and at night emptied of the hidden Greek soldiers,
who destroyed the town

WOOD NYMPHS

WOTAN, Old High German form of Odin

X

XANTHUS, river of Asia Minor

Y

YAMA, Hindu god of the Infernal Regions

YEAR, THE

YGDRASIL, great ash-tree, supposed by Norse mythology to support
the universe

YMIR, giant, slain by Odin

YNYWL, Earl, host of Geraint, father of Enid

YORK, Britain

YSERONE, niece of Arthur, mother of Caradoc

YSPA DA DEN PEN'KAWR, father of Olwen

Z

ZENDAVESTA, Persian sacred Scriptures

ZEPHYRUS, god of the South wind,

ZERBINO, a knight, son of the king of Scotland

ZETES, winged warrior, companion of Theseus

ZETHUS, son of Jupiter and Antiope, brother of Amphion. See Dirce

ZEUS, See JUPITER

ZOROASTER, founder of the Persian religion, which was dominant in
Western Asia from about 550 BC to about 650 AD, and is still held
by many thousands in Persia and in India






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