--'tis time for me to haste away!
[Exit hurriedly.

JUNO. (Looking after her with exultation.)
Weak, proud, and easily-deluded woman!
His tender looks shall be consuming fire--
His kiss, annihilation--his embrace,
A raging tempest to thee! Human frames
Are powerless to endure the dreaded presence
Of him who wields the thunderbolt on high!
(With raving ecstasy.)
Ha! when her waxen mortal body melts
Within the arms of him, the fire-distilling,
As melts the fleecy snow before the heat
Of the bright sun--and when the perjured one
In place of his soft tender bride, embraces
A form of terror--with what ecstasy
Shall I gaze downwards from Cithaeron's height,
Exclaiming, so that in his hand the bolt
Shall quake: "For shame, Saturnius! Fie, for shame!
What need is there for thee to clasp so roughly?"
[Exit hastily.
(A, Symphony.)

SCENE II.

The Hall as before.--Sudden brightness.
ZEUS in the shape of a youth.--MERCURY in the distance.

ZEUS.
Thou son of Maia!

MERCURY. (Kneeling, with his head bowed reverentially.)
Zeus!

ZEUS. Up! Hasten! Turn
Thy pinions' flight toward far Scamander's bank!
A shepherd there is weeping o'er the grave
Of his loved shepherdess. No one shall weep
When Zeus is loving: Call the dead to life!

MERCURY. (Rising.)
Let but thy head a nod almighty give,
And in an instant I am there,--am back
In the same instant--

ZEUS. Stay! As I o'er Argos
Was flying, from my temples curling rose
The sacrificial smoke: it gave me joy
That thus the people worship me--so fly
To Ceres, to my sister,--thus speaks Zeus:
"Ten-thousandfold for fifty years to come
Let her reward the Argive husbandmen!"--

MERCURY.
With trembling haste I execute thy wrath,--
With joyous speed thy messages of grace,
Father of all! For to the deities
'Tis bliss to make man happy; to destroy him
Is anguish to the gods. Thy will be done!
Where shall I pour into thine ears their thanks,--
Below in dust, or at thy throne on high?

ZEUS.
Here at my throne on earth--within the palace,
Of Semele! Away! [Exit Mercury.
Does she not come,
As is her wont, Olympus' mighty king
To clasp against her rapture-swelling breast?
Why hastens