while before, seeing that now, even were he to bid her, she could not shed a tear.

In sunshine and in laughter passed the hours, until it was the day of their espousal. That fair morning, ushered in with the dawn-time singing of birds and all the first sweet waking sounds of nature,-was it not written upon their hearts as in letters of gold on tablets of crystal? Also, did not her image remain always in his heart, eternally a virgin, forever young? So came she, walking meekly, garlanded with roses and with myrtle, clad all in spotless robes of snow-pale silk, over which there wandered delicate threads of gold, like sunlight fallen through the branches of dead trees upon the winter fields of Libya. So came she, walking utterly alone, save for the spirit of Truth on her right hand, and on her left the spirit of Innocence. His brows were also bound with myrtle, and on his splendid breast the maidens laughing had hung gay chains of flowers, as though Summer, waxed bold through beauty, should so bind stately Autumn.

Anon when evening came, she, together with her little bridesman Gelo, was conducted in a carriage of gold and of ivory to the house of Cleon, preceded by a merry band of youths and maidens, all bearing lighted torches, and accompanied by music and by dancing. In this wise passed she through those gardens wherein she had first met him who was now her husband, the three white horses trampling with their golden shoes upon the sweetness of the fallen rose-leaves, while little Gelo bended back the branches, heavy-laden with blossoms red and white, that they might not disarrange her bridal wreath. So on, past the terrace of white marble, where, on that day most awful, Megasthenes had come to them with proclamation of supposed blasphemy, and where now the half-burned torches of the thronging bridal guests made red reflections, like to fiery poniards stabbing the cold white. At last, unto the portal of the house, where Cleon greeted her, and the jovial throng did pour upon their heads blue figs and scarlet pomegranates, both fruit and flowers.

Afterward they all assembled at the banquet-table, while sounds of lute, of harp, and of lyre trembled upon the fragrant air, soft and rhythmic as the beating of birds' wings on a still noon in time of harvest. And the wines flowed red like blood, and purple as the first upspringing of violets, and golden as the sunlight on the tresses of a young maiden, from Crete and Cnidus and Cyprus, from Mende and from the isle of Lesbos. On the tables of polished cypress-wood inlaid with gold and with silver gleamed images wondrously wrought, set all with precious stones, emeralds and sapphires and rubies, beryl and hyacinth. The drinking-vessels of much-carved amber were crowned with garlands of white flowers, and the perfume of roses reigned absolute, as reigns a fair woman over the hearts of men.

Now, in the midst of all this gladness, and just as Cleon had sent his cup to Temenos, Autonoë bearing it in her own hands, ere that she had given it into her father's hold there rushed into the apartment Gigas the Taurican, red as to his face and flaming as to his eyes, while by main force he dragged after him an aged woman. And all they being started to their feet, he cried out in a loud voice, saying,—

"Ye have used me like a slave, but I will show you him whom ye should so use!"

And, striding up to Cleon, he reached forth his brawny arm and tore away the golden fillet from his brow, and pointed with fingers crooked with hate to a deep-red mark which showed upon the pale brow of the senator. And he said,

"This is he whom ye treat like an emperor, but who is in verity

a slave !"

Whereat all they being transfixed with amazement, he further told them how that Cleon was in no wise that which he pretended to be, but by birth a slave of Ionia, who had escaped some seventeen years ago with his young master from a besieged town on the sea-shore, and that, the real Cleon having fallen dead from his wounds, he, the false Cleon, had clad himself in the raiment of his dead master, binding his brow with the golden fillet which he had since worn, in order to hide the mark with which, as they did see, he had been branded. Also he called upon the old woman to bear him witness, saying, "Give word unto these people, O Thyrsa, how that thou, being the nurse of the dead Cleon, dost know of all these matters."

Then said the old woman, but not lifting up her head, "What thou hast said is true, O Gigas, and I have proofs here which better than myself can bear thee witness."

Now, while yet there was over all the assembly that hush which is the herald of tumult, and while Cleon stood with unbound branded brow facing his guests as though his forehead supported a diadem rather than a mark of ignominy, Autonoë, setting down the vessel which she had carried to her father, walked swiftly down the long table-side, and, reaching him who in spite of all was now her husband, bent toward him, and, ere he knew what she did purpose, pressed down her lips against the mark upon his forehead.

Then went up a murmur of praise and admiration from all those present, but modulated as in reverence; and in the eyes of many there were tears, and in the heart of all a pity most profound and tender,— all save Gigas, who, when he saw how she upon whom he sought revenge did conduct herself to him whom he hated, snarled with rage like to an angry tiger, and cursed with inarticulate curses.

Cleon spake no word, good or evil; only when he felt the lips of the woman whom he loved upon the mark which was as a seal of shame upon his brow, he fell to trembling through all his limbs, but remained standing, with head erect and dauntless bearing.

Then said Gigas, smiling as smiles a sleeping man who in his dreams hath gotten his enemy by the throat, "Thou art richer, woman, by one slave! As for thee, my lord Temenos, let me offer thee my heart-felt congratulations upon thy newly-acquired son!"

"Proof! proof!" cried Temenos, in a thick voice, being all but speechless with grief and indignation.

Then Gigas, yet more smiling as to his pulpy lips, wherein gleamed his white teeth like to the seeds in a sun-split pomegranate, commanded the old Ionian that she bring forth the proofs that were in her keeping.

Now, all present protested against this, and were for turning both

Gigas and the woman from the house, with all insults in their power; but Cleon said, "Let her speak, I pray ye." Whereat, though murmuring, they did as he said, and hearkened unto her.

Though stricken in years, and whiter than wool as to her shaggy locks, she was a tall woman, sound of limb and voice, with eyes set like two torches in the night of her swarthy face. And, lifting up her voice, she spake as follows:

"I am that Thyrsa who nursed thee at her breast. Dost thou remember me, O Cleon ?"

He answered in a deep voice, but with utmost calmness, "Well do I remember thee and the love that thou didst bear me."

At this her brilliant eyes gleamed with sudden radiance beneath her overhanging brows, as though two actual torches flared with a sudden wind far in deep caverns, and she saith, "Yea, I did love thee well, and have journeyed night and day, since first the spring did this year visit the earth, to hold speech with thee."

He saith to her, "Say on." And Gigas, growling in his throat, plucked at her dark mantle, bidding her have a care in what wise she gabbled.

Then saith the woman, loosing herself from the grasp of the Taurican, and approaching nearer to Cleon where he stood with Autonoë at his side,

"True is it, O my master, that thou art branded with the brand of a slave; true is it that thou didst escape as hath been said and didst change raiment with a dead man; but truer than all is this: thou art no slave, but very Cleon, and a prince of the sacred house of Democles by right of the blood which is in thy veins."

When Gigas so heard her speak, it seemed as though for one instant he had turned to stone; the next, leaping as fire leaps from an angry sky, he sprang upon and dashed her to the ground, tearing with his rough hands her scattered locks, snarling and foaming like a wild beast. They, having secured and bound him with their quickly-snatched-off girdles, lifted and refreshed Thyrsa with wine and seated her in a chair.

All this while Cleon, like a man just risen from the dead, stared at the blank air as upon his cast-off cerements. And he seemed not to hear, while the old woman told how she had changed the children in their infancy, binding her son's brows with the golden fillet of the young prince, and clothing the son of Democles in the cotton garments of her own child. And, having confirmed her story with proofs unquestionable, ere they could prevent her she arose and cast herself upon the ground in front of Cleon, and placed her hands about his feet, and put down her head upon them, so that they were covered with her white locks, as with the frozen mists of northern countries, and she saith unto him,"If that I must die, I pray thee kill me, rather than that I should be stoned or cast into the spiked-pit."

Stooping, he lifted her full gently, and composed her grizzled tresses with his own hands, and he said,

"Even as thou hast, after many years, brought peace unto me, peace also dwell with thee. Be not afraid, for no harm shall come unto thee." She, falling again upon the ground, did weep aloud.

VIII.

Now, from the night of Thyrsa's confession Autonoë seemed not to be able to control a vague dread which seized upon her. The falling of a flower from a vase, the sudden flight of a dove past her window, noises and sights the most gentle, filled her with terror and with unrest. And when it was told her by one of her slaves that Gigas had escaped and was gone, no one knew whither, so great were her distress and apprehension that Cleon determined to take her to an island off the coast of Sicily, whereon was another palace belonging to him.

It was on an afternoon most radiant that they set sail from Mytellus. And Autonoë, looking out upon the burnished surface of the sea, said to Cleon, "Doth it not remind thee of the shield of the great goddess as she appeared to us on Areopagus ?"

He, smiling at her pretty fancy, saith, with his fingers in her short curls, "In brightness it doth remind me of these locks of thine, and in vastness of my love for thee; but very like it doth more resemble the shield of Pallas."

Whereat she bended ere he could prevent her and kissed his hand as it rested upon her shoulder. For he liked not such homage from her unto whom was all his adoration, and always the blood sought his brow when thus she caressed him.

As the sun sank ever westward, his rays upon the falling of the water from the many oars caused it to appear like unto an ever-falling shower of gold upon the white breasts of the waves fawning like seaDanaës about the moving ship, while the sails, bulging with a light gale, seemed like unto vast goblets of beaten gold, filled wine-like by the wind. Gold was the mighty dome above them, gold the ridgy hollows of the sea, gold, gold the sweet locks of the woman whom with his Midas touch the sun had also made a thing of gold. But soon the silver of the rising moon began to mingle with the brighter glow; also the violet mantle from the shoulders of departing Day descended floating-wise on sea and land, while the Night, her tresses sown with stars, came toward them over the dark waters, leaving her lustrous footprints on the waves.

As they stood forgetful of all else save their own nearness and the beauty that wrapped them as in a garment, there came close to their ears a burst of laughter, not loud, but harsh and grating as the noise made by a vessel that has run upon jagged rocks. Whereat they, turning quickly, saw in the feathery dusk the face of Gigas leaned toward them, as out of a sacrificial smoke might be thrust the head of a yet living bull.

Cleon said, with a stern voice, covering his wife with his arm and with his mantle,

"What dost thou here?"

The Taurican, laughing yet more, saith, "Be assured that thou shalt know ere long." Then, seeing that Autonoë cowered even beneath her husband's mantle, he said, with sudden savageness, "Tremble not, Thou hast naught more to fear from my love; but from my hate, verily much hast thou to fear." And he said to Cleon, "Thou

woman.

knowest that I am a Taurican. All on board thy ship are bought with my gold." And, as it were won to good-humor by this thought, he fell again to chuckling in his throat.

By and by, seeing that they spoke no word either to him or to each other, he said, roughly,

"Well, do ye not desire to know whither ye are bound?"

Cleon made answer, "No information that thou canst give us will be acceptable."

"Truly sayest thou!" bellowed Gigas, bending over with much laughter. "Most wisely hast thou spoken, O beloved of the gods !" "Dost thou not fear that the gods will smite thee?" asked Autonoë, waxing angry at his scorn of her husband.

"Nay, girl, I fear neither gods nor men. But surely thou dost desire to know whither thou art bound? Even, my pretty one, unto my native land, unto the coast of Taurica. Haply thou hast heard how it doth fare with strangers who are shipwrecked on the coast of Taurica?"

Then Cleon, or ever Autonoë could prevent him, had sprung upon Gigas and had seized him by the throat, that they twain rolled over and over upon the deck of the ship. Now, after some moments, Gigas, being uppermost, bound Cleon's hands with his girdle, saying, as he did so, "This is a pretty trick, most noble lord, which I did learn at thy marriage." And he laughed as he made secure the knots and watched the Athenian as he got upon his feet.

"Beast!" saith Cleon, between his teeth, "I care not for being bound, but that a thing so foul as thou should have touched me."

"Were it not," said Gigas, "that I have even a sweeter fate in store for thee and thy fair spouse, I would feed the fishes with thy sacred body." And he laughed still more quietly and yet deeper in his throat.

Now, after some hours, about the going down of the moon, behold, they approached a rugged coast, dark-rising from the pale sea, and, feeling Cleon shiver against her as they stood together, Gigas from some motive not having separated them, Autonoë saith,

"Beloved, why dost thou tremble?"

He saith to her, "That shore which thou seest is Taurica!"

She answered him, "Yea, so I did think; but wherefore will it be so evil if he doth wreck our vessel on that coast, seeing that he doth plainly mean that we shall drown together? For with thee I fear nothing,-not even death."

He saith to her, "The gods have pity upon me! Hast thou ne'er heard in what wise the Tauricans do serve those who are shipwrecked on their coasts?"

She saith, "No."

Then in a heavy voice, like the voice of such as have seen hope die, he saith, "All such strangers as are shipwrecked upon the coast of Taurica the people do sacrifice unto Artemis."

Then went she very pale, and, tightening her clasp about him, "Will they kill thee, then ?"

He saith, breaking down into sudden weeping which shook him