in which
they were to be confined till the next day, when they were to be
delivered to death. As they passed along the people looked with sympathy
upon their fair young faces, and deeply lamented their coming fate. And,
as Venus willed, among the spectators were Minos and his fair daughter
Ariadne, who stood at the palace door to see them pass.

The eyes of the young princess fell upon the face of Theseus, the
Athenian prince, and her heart throbbed with a feeling she had never
before known. Never had she gazed upon a man who seemed to her half so
brave and handsome as this princely youth. All that night thoughts of
him drove slumber from her eyes. In the early morning, moved by a
new-born love, she sought the prison, and, through her privilege as the
king's daughter, was admitted to see the prisoners. Venus was doing the
work which the oracle had promised.

Calling Theseus aside, the blushing maiden told him of her sudden love,
and that she ardently longed to save him. If he would follow her
directions he would escape. She gave him a sword, which she had taken
from her father's armory and concealed beneath her cloak, that he might
be armed against the devouring beast. And she provided him besides with
a ball of thread, bidding him to fasten the end of it to the entrance of
the Labyrinth, and unwind it as he went in, that it might serve him as a
clue to find his way out again.

As may well be believed, Theseus warmly thanked his lovely visitor, told
her that he was a king's son, and that he returned her love, and begged
her, in case he escaped, to return with him to Athens and be his bride.
Ariadne willingly consented, and left the prison before the guards came
to conduct the victims to their fate. It was like the story of Jason and
Medea retold.

With hidden sword and clue Theseus followed the guards, in the midst of
his fellow-prisoners. They were led into the depths of the Labyrinth
and there left to their fate. But the guards had failed to observe that
Theseus had fastened his thread at the entrance and was unwinding the
ball as he went. And now, in this dire den, for hours the hapless
victims awaited their destiny. Mid-day came, and with it a distant roar
from the monster reverberated frightfully through the long passages.
Nearer came the blood-thirsty brute, his bellowing growing louder as he
scented human beings. The trembling victims waited with but a single
hope, and that was in the sword of their valiant p