which she transforms him into a stag, and his own hounds tear him to
pieces.

And now Thebes was standing; now Cadmus, thou mightst seem happy in thy
exile. Both Mars and Venus[14] had become thy father-in-law and
mother-in-law; add to this, issue by a wife so illustrious, so many
sons[15] and daughters, and grandchildren, dear pledges {of love};
these, too, now of a youthful age. But, forsooth, the last day {of life}
must always be awaited by man, and no one ought to be pronounced happy
before his death,[16] and his last obsequies. Thy grandson, Cadmus, was
the first occasion of sorrow to thee, among so much prosperity, the
horns, too, not his own, placed upon his forehead, and you, O dogs,
glutted with the blood of your master. But, if you diligently inquire
into his {case}, you will find the fault of an accident, and not
criminality in him; for what criminality did mistake embrace?

There was a mountain stained with the blood of various wild beasts; and
now the day had contracted the meridian shadow of things, and the sun
was equally distant from each extremity {of the heavens}; when the
Hyantian youth[17] {thus} addressed the partakers of his toils, as they
wandered along the lonely haunts {of the wild beasts}, with gentle
accent: "Our nets are moistened, my friends, and our spears, too, with
the blood of wild beasts; and the day has yielded sufficient sport; when
the next morn, borne upon her rosy chariot, shall bring back the light,
let us seek again our proposed task. Now Phoebus is at the same distance
from both lands, {the Eastern and the Western}, and is cleaving the
fields with his heat. Cease your present toils, and take away the
knotted nets." The men execute his orders, and cease their labors. There
was a valley, thick set with pitch-trees and the sharp-pointed cypress;
by name Gargaphie,[18] sacred to the active Diana. In the extreme recess
of this, there was a grotto in a grove, formed by no art; nature, by her
ingenuity, had counterfeited art; for she had formed a natural arch, in
the native pumice and the light sand-stones. A limpid fountain ran
murmuring on the right hand with its little stream, having its spreading
channels edged with a border of grass. Here, {when} wearied with
hunting, the Goddess of the woods was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in
clear water.

After she had entered there, she handed to one of the Nymphs, her
armor-bearer, her javelin, her quiver, and her unstrung bow. Anothe