72 THE WONDER-BOOK OF HORSES 



At length, Bellerophon bethought him that, 

 since this world was beset with so many distress- 

 ing things, worse even than Chimaeras, he would 

 leave it and ride on the back of Pegasus to heaven. 

 There is no knowing what he might have done, 

 had not Zeus, just in the nick of time, sent a gad- 

 fly to sting the horse. Pegasus made a wild 

 plunge to escape the fly, and Bellerophon, taken 

 by surprise, was tumbled to the earth. Strange 

 to say, the hero was not killed, but only blinded 

 by his fall ; and he never heard of Pegasus again. 



