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METAMORPHOSES BOOK VII leaped up again. Her cheeks grew red, then all her face became pale again; and as a tiny spark, which has lain hidden beneath the ashes, is fed by a breath of wind, then grows and regains its former strength as it is fanned to life; so now her smouldering love, which you would have thought all but dying, at sight of the young hero standing before her blazed up again. It chanced that the son of Aeson was more beautiful than usual that day: you could pardon her for loving him. She gazed upon him and held her eyes fixed on his face as if she had never seen him before; and in her infatuation she thought the face she gazed on nore than mortal, nor could she turn herself away from him. But when the stranger began to speak, rasped her right hand, and in low tones asked for her aid and promised marriage in return, she burst into tears and said: "I see what I am about to do nor shal ignorance of the truth be my undoing, but love itself. You shall be preserved by my assistance; but when preserved, fulfil your promise." He swore he would be true by the sacred rites of the threefold goddess, by whatever divinity might be in that grove, by the all-beholding father of his father-in- law who was to be, by his own successes and his mighty perils. She believed; and straight he re- e magic herbs and learnt their use, then withdrew full of joy into his lodging. The next dawn had put to flight the twinkling stars. Then the throngs gathered into the sacred field of Mars and took their stand on the heights. In the midst of the company sat the king himself, clad in purple, and conspicuous with his ivory sceptre. -See! here come the brazen-footed bulls, breathing fire from nostrils of adamant The very grass shrivels upatthe touch of theirhot breath. Andas full furnaces 349