ead.

But already the goat-men were scattering through the country-side. Some
were busied gathering honey in the hollow trunks of oaks, others carving
reeds into the shape of flutes, or butting one against the other,
crashing their horned brows together. Meantime the bodies of the nymphs,
sweet wrecks of love, lay motionless, strewing the meadows. Fra Mino lay
groaning on the Chapel flags; for so fierce had been the desire of sin
within him that now he was filled full of bitter shame at his own
weakness.

Suddenly one of the nymphs, chancing as she lay to turn her eyes upon
him, cried out:

"A man! a man!"

And pointing him out to her companions:

"Look, sisters; yonder is no goat-herd, he has no flute of reed beside
him. Nor yet do I recognize him for the master of one of those rustic
farmsteads whose garden-close, sloping to the hill-side beneath the
vines, is guarded by a Priapus hewn out of a stump of beech. What would
he among us, if he is neither goat-herd, nor neat-herd, nor gardener?
His looks are harsh and gloomy, and I cannot read in his eyes the love
of the gods and goddesses that people the wide sky, the woods and
mountains. He wears a barbarous habit; perhaps he is a Scythian. Let us
approach the stranger, my sisters, and make sure he is not come as a foe
to sully our fountains, hew down our trees, tear open our hill-sides
and betray to cruel men the mystery of our happy lurking places. Come
with me, Mnais; come, AEgle, Neaera and Melib[oe]a.

"On! on!" returned Mnais, "on, with our arms in hand!"

"On! on!" all cried in chorus.

Then Fra Mino saw them spring up, and gather great handfuls of roses,
and advance upon him in a long line, each armed with roses and thorns.
But the distance that separated them from him, which at first had seemed
very short, for indeed he thought almost to touch them and felt their
breath on his face, appeared suddenly to increase, and he watched them
coming as though from out a far-off forest. Impatient to be at him, they
began to run, threatening him with their cruel flowers, while menaces
flew from their flower-like lips. And lo! as they came nearer, a change
was wrought in them; at each step they lost something of their grace and
beauty, and the bloom of their youth faded as fast as the roses in their
hands. First their eyes grew hollow and the mouth fell in. The neck, but
now so pure and white, hung in great hideous folds, and grey elf-locks
draggled over their wrin