THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 115 
dion to allow Philomela to accompany him back, 
and remain a short time with her sister ; but Tereus 
no sooner beheld the lovely Philomela than he be- 
came passionately in love with her ; and, when he 
at length, after much solicitation, obtained the reluc- 
tant consent of her father for her to accompany him, 
forgetful of all the ties of honour and affection, giv- 
ing way to his ungovernable passion, conducted the 
hapless Philomela to a remote castle, among almost 
inaccessible woods, where, regardless of her intreaties 
and tears, and every restraint that the ties of their 
near relationship should have imposed upon him, he 
took advantage of her helpless situation, and reduced 
her to a state of misery and disgrace. When, in the 
agony of her soul, she reproached him with his 
cruelty and treachery, vowing she would make 
known her wrongs, he was so provoked by the elo- 
quence of her sorrow, and the justness of her indig- 
nation, and enraged by the sense of his guilt, that he 
cut out her tongue. 
The unhappy Philomela, thus confined and in- 
jured, without the power of making her wrongs 
known, bethought herself of a means of communi- 
cating her wretched condition to her affectionate 
sister, to whom Tereus had reported that she was dead. 
