r step, and she bent
aside the boughs. He stands erect, listening.

"It is the god!" she cries; and, falling back, would have been
precipitated from the rock, had not the youth rapidly bounded forward
and grasped her hand.

"Little one, beautiful child," he cried, "do not fear me! I have indeed
played the god formerly, to scare from my hunting-ground the poor fools
who dread the anger of Apollo. Tell me, who are you, thus wandering in
the awful garden of the gods? Who brought you hither, and what name has
been given you?"

Trembling still, and not knowing how to relate it, Evadne stammered
forth some words of her history. Her senses were bewildered by the
beauty of the hunter-boy, who now appeared how different from the marble
god! Bold, and as if ever victorious, with an undaunted brow, like
Bacchus seen through the tears of sad Ariadne awakened. Strong and swift
were his limbs, as those of a panther. His cheek was ruddy, and his
half-naked form was brown, as those appear who dwell not under a roof,
but in the uncertain shade of the forest. His locks were black and
wildly disordered, and his eyes were most like to a dark stream lighted
with golden flashes; but the laughing beauty of his lip no emblem could
convey.

Soon, seated on the turf, the story of each child was related.

"I am nobly born," said the boy, "but I love the life of a hunter. My
father has left me alone, and when I am a man, I, too, shall follow him
to Rome. But liberty is sweeter than honor or power. I escape often from
my tutor, who suspects not where I hide myself, and range all the
forests. Embarking by night, in former years, I often visited this
island. I know where to gather fruits and seek vineyards among the
ruined huts of the village beneath us. By night I descend and gather
them, for my free wanderings by day caused the fishermen to relate that
a god walked upon the shore. When some, more curious or bold, turned
their prows hitherward, to observe what form moved upon the hill, I
rolled great rocks down, with a thundering noise, into the sea, and have
terrified all men from the spot."

"We now call the vineyards and gardens ours," said Evadne, "but it
appears they truly belong to you. Descend to the shore and we will share
with you, not only the ripest clusters of the vines, but wine and loaves
which the fisherman brings us."

"Bring me hither the wine, and I will gladly drink of it, nor waste one
drop in oblation; but I must not de