192 A Legend of the Egean. [FEB. 



*' If thou canst be happier, I will strive to live on the remembrance 

 that I have been happy, and on the presence of my son." 



" He is as much mine as thine, remember," retorted the father. " If 

 I bore him from thee to my home, he might rise to high honours." 



Aphelia gazed on the being who thus spoke. The bloom returned to 

 his visage, the unearthly radiance to his eyes ; he stood over her with 

 such an air of conscious power and freedom, that, prostrating herself 

 before him, she cried wildly 



" It is then as I feared. Jove warned me by his thunders in vain ! 

 Take our son, but, ah, in pity, take his mother's life too. It will be no 

 sin in thee !" 



The supposed Myrtillo kissed her, saying hastily 



" No, beloved ! keep thy boy. If I reclaim ye not shortly, conclude 

 me no longer an inhabitant of this world." 



He was gone ; and when Aphelia fled for comfort to Eobardus, she 

 learnt that he also had departed, none knew whither. 



Now, added penury fell on the widowed one ; bereft of her help- 

 mate, and encumbered with an infant. The aged Phrosyne could give 

 her little aid, and less advice. Fain would Alexis have shared his all 

 with her ; but declining every benefit from him, the matron struggled 

 on. " It is the will of the gods that I should be thus tried," she 

 thought ; " but while they spare my child and my health, I dare not 

 repine for my conscience is unburthened. Nor avarice, vanity, nor 

 Unholy passion, brought me to this. No, my babe ! thou wert not born 

 in infamy, and, therefore, I shame not to see thee inherit the blue eyes, 

 the golden curls of thy sire. Whatever he may be, I am his spouse, 

 and will train thee to integrity for his sake." 



One day, as she sat nursing her little one beside the door, she was 

 startled by the sound of music ; and, on looking up, beheld a grand 

 procession winding along the road. In a sumptuous car sat a warrior 

 of mature age, attended by soldiery and slaves. She would have 

 retired, but that her boy, caught by the glitter, held out his dimpled 

 arms, and laughingly sprung to and fro in her embrace, to the sound 

 of the cymbals. 



Presently the car stopped, the commanding hero alighted, and ap- 

 proached her. She stood as one in a dream. 



" Aphelia," said the stranger, mildly, fc Eobardus hath told me thy 

 history. What he permitted is forgiven, but must be forgotten. Feli- 

 city awaits thee ; thou hast no choice but to accept it ; thy child, too, 

 shall be protected, so thou thinkest no more of the faithless, the abject 

 Myrtillo." 



The woman's fortitude returned. Looking with scorn on all this 

 pomp, she said 



" Never shall my son or I abide where we may hear my husband 

 slandered. Honest labour in this hovel is the felicity I choose/' 



" Know, then," exclaimed her hearer, sternly, " that I am Palemon, 

 thy king, and can chastise the disobedience of a subject." 



" If I speak treason, slay me !" answered Aphelia, undismayed. 



" Not so," returned her sovereign ; " for learn that thou art the child 

 of Lysander, whom the good priest swore to destroy, that he might pre- 

 serve. Behold, an oath made unto a sinful mortal is not held binding 

 by the righteous gods." 



" Mighty kinsman !" cried Aphelia, " if these miracles be true, yet 



