BOOK IV.

EUDORUS and Cymodocea, concealed from the world in an obscure valley in the forests of Arcadia, knew not that the eyes of Saints and of Angels were fixed upon them, and that the Almighty himself was then determining their destiny. Thus were the shepherds of Canaan visited by the God of Nachor whilst surrounded by the flocks which fed in the west of Bethlehem. No sooner do the morning songsters announce to Lasthenes the return of day, than he rises from his couch; he wraps himself in a mantle woven by his industrious spouse and lined with wool, so grateful to old age. Preceded by two dogs of Laconia, his faithful guard, he issues forth and advances towards the apartment of the bishop of Lacedæmon: but the reverend prelate was already in the fields offering up his morning orisons to the Eternal. The dogs of Lasthenes sprang towards Cyrillus, and bending down their heads with an air of affection, seemed to offer him the respect and obeisance of their master. The venerable Christians saluted each other with affectionate gravity and proceeded to stroll along the hill, entertaining themselves with the wisdom of ancient

times; thus did the Arcadian Evander conduct Anchises to the woods of Pheneus, when Priam, as yet happy, came to Salamis to seek his sister Hesione; and thus did the same Evander, an exile upon the shores of Tiber, receive the illustrious son of his ancient guest when fortune had completed the sufferings of the monarch of Ilion.

Demodocus soon joined them: he was followed by Cymodocea, more beautiful than the infant light upon the eastern horizon.

In the side of a mountain which overlooked the dwelling of Lasthenes, was a grotto, the retreat of sparrows and doves; it was there that, in imitation of the hermits of Thebais, Eudorus retired to shed the tears of his penitence. To the wall of this grotto was suspended a crucifix,* and at the foot of the crucifix arms, a crown of oak obtained in battle, and triumphal decorations. Eudorus began to feel in his bosom the revival of sensations, the meaning of which, from the anguish they had already occasioned him, he had but too much reason to understand. Alarmed by this new danger,

*The sign of the cross, says Mosheim in his Eccles. Hist. was supposed to administer a victorious power over all sorts of calamities, and was more especially considered as the surest defence against the snares and stratagems of malignant spirits. And hence it was that no Christian ever undertook any thing of moment, without arming himself with the influence of this triumphant sign.

he had passed the whole night in supplicating divine aid. When Aurora had dispelled the clouds of night, he washed away the traces of his tears in a fountain of pure water, and preparing to quit his grotto, endeavoured by the simplicity of his dress to diminish the splendour of his beauty. He laces on his feet Gallic buskins made of the skin of the mountain goat; he conceals his cilice* under the tunic of a hunter; he throws over his shoulder and fastens upon his breast the spoils of a white doe: a cruel herdsmen had, by a stone discharged from a sling, overthrown this queen of the forest whilst drinking, with her tender fawn, upon the borders of the Achelous. In his left hand Eudorus takes two ashen javelins; in his right he suspends one of those coral chaplets with which the virgin martyrs ornamented their hair when preparing for death: innocent chaplets, ye have since served to enumerate the prayers which the children of innocence offer to their God!t Armed against the beasts of the forest and the Spirits of darkness, Eudorus descends from the rocky heights, like a Christian soldier of the The

* The cilice was a garment of hair cloth used by penitents. It may be thought scarcely necessary to mention, that the chaplet is a string of beads, used in the Roman church, to keep account of the number of Pater-Nosters and Ave-Marias, to be rehearsed in honour of God and the holy virgin. A Rosary is a chaplet of fifteen decades of Ave-Marias.

ban legion returning to the camp after the watches of the night. He leaps the waters of a torrent, and joins the little troop which waited for him at the foot of the orchard. He raises to his lips the hem of Cyrillus' mantle; he receives the paternal benediction, and with downcast eyes offers his salutations to Demodocus and Cymodocea. The blushes of morning diffuse themselves over the countenance of the daughter of Homer. In a short time Sephora and her daughters issue from the gynecœum.* The bishop of Lacedæmon, addressing the son of Lasthenes :

"Eudorus," said he, "you are the object of curiosity to Christian Greece. Who has not heard of your sufferings and your penitence? I am persuaded that even your Messenian guests will listen with interest to the recital of your adventures."

"Venerable old man," cried Demodocus, "whose habit announces the shepherd of mankind, not a word issues from thy lips which is not dictated by Minerva. It is true, like my ancestor the divine Homer, I would willingly spend years in relating or in listening to adventures. Can any thing be more agreeable than the conversation of a traveller, who, seated at the table of his host,

* The gynecœum was an apartment in all Grecian houses --so called from its being exclusively appropriated to the wo

men.

whilst the rain and the winds are contending without, recounts, secure from danger, the vicissitudes and perils of his life? I delight to feel my eyes suffused with tears, when emptying the cup of Hercules: libations are more sacred for being mingled with tears: the description of the sufferings which Jupiter inflicts upon the children of men tempers the intoxicating pleasures of the banquet, and prevents us from being unmindful of the gods. And thou thyself, beloved Eudorus, thou wilt enjoy a sweet satisfaction in recalling to thy mind the storms which thou hast manfully sustained the mariner, returned to the cottage of his fathers, contemplates with secret delight his rudder and his oars suspended during the winter over the peaceful hearth."

The Ladon and the Alpheus, uniting their streams below the orchard, embraced an island which seemed to spring from the marriage of their waters: it was planted with those aged trees which the people of Arcadia considered as their It was there that Alcimedon cut the beech which he wrought into such beautiful cups for the shepherds :* there also was seen the foun

ancestors.

pocula ponam

Fagina, cœlatum divini apus Alcimedontis :

Virg. Ecl. III. v. 37.

Id. 44.

Et nobis idem Alcimedon duo pocula fecit.