whole
joyous company then rushed off, and paid their devotions to Neptune in
his palace. Cupid and Venus were also present here; and the goddess of
love spoke words of comfort to Endymion, assuring him that his long
expectancy would soon find its full reward. She had by this time probed
the secret of Diana, but she refrained from naming that deity to
Endymion. She invited him and his bride to pass a portion of their
honeymoon in Cythera,[20] with Adonis and Cupid. A stupendous festival
in Neptune's palace succeeded. Endymion finally sank down in a trance;
Nereids conveyed him up to a forest by a lake; and as he floated
earthwards he heard in dream words promising that his goddess would soon
waft him up into heaven. He awoke in the sylvan scene.

_Book 4._ The first sound that Endymion heard was a female voice; the
wail of a damsel who had followed Bacchus from the banks of the Ganges,
and who longed to be at home again, if only to die there. Unseen
himself, he saw a beautiful girl, who lay bemoaning her loveless lot. He
at once felt that, if he adored his unknown goddess, he loved also his
Indian Bacchante. He sprang forward and declared his passion.[21] She,
after chaunting her long journeyings in the train of Bacchus, explained
that, being sick-hearted and weary, she had strayed away in the forest,
and was now but the votary of sorrow. Endymion continued to woo her with
sweet words and hot: he heard a dismal voice, "Woe to Endymion!" echoing
through the forest. Mercury descended and touched the ground with his
wand, and two winged horses sprang out of the earth. Endymion seated his
Bacchante upon one horse and mounted the other; they flew upward,
eagle-high. In the air they passed Sleep, who had heard a report that a
mortal was to wed a daughter of Jove, and who desired to hearken to the
marriage ditties before he returned to his cave. The influence of Sleep
made the winged horses drowse, and also Endymion and the Bacchante.
Endymion then dreamed of being in heaven, the mate of gods and
goddesses, Diana among them. In dream he sprang towards Diana, and so
awoke; but awake he still saw the same vision. Diana was there in
heaven; his Bacchante was beside him lying on the horse's pinions. He
kissed the Bacchante, and almost in the same breath protested to Diana
his unshaken constancy. The Bacchante then awoke. Endymion, dazed in
mind with his divided allegiance, urged her to be gone, and the winged
horses resumed their