veil dispers'd.
"Now Ceres calm, her daughter safe regain'd,
"Enquires:--O Arethusa! say the cause,
"Which hither brought thee; why a sacred fount?
"Hush'd were the waves; and from the lowest depths
"The goddess rais'd her head; and as she told,
"The old amours the flood of Elis knew,
"Press'd out the water from her tresses green.

"Once with the nymphs, that on Achaia's hills
"Rove, was I seen; none closer beat than I
"The thickets; none than I more skilful spread
"Th' ensnaring net. Yet though no fame I sought
"For beauty; though robust, I bore the name
"Of beauteous. Whilst the constant theme of praise,
"My features fair, to me no pleasure gave;
"What other nymphs inspire with joyful pride,
"Corporeal charms, did but my blushes raise.
"To please I thought a crime. Once tir'd with sport,
"The Stymphalidian forest I had left:
"Warm was the day; I with redoubled heat,
"Glow'd from my toil. A gliding stream I found
"By ripplings undisturb'd; silent and smooth
"It flow'd; so clear, that every stone was seen
"On the deep bottom; gently crept the waves;
"To creep scarce seeming; o'er the shelving banks
"The stream-fed poplar, and the willow hoar,
"A grateful shadow cast. The brink I reach'd
"Dipp'd first my feet, then waded to my knee;
"Not yet content, I loos'd my zone, and hung
"Upon a bending osier my soft robe:
"Then naked plung'd amid the stream; the waves
"Beating, and sporting in a thousand shapes;
"My arms around in every posture flung;
"A strange unusual murmur seem'd to sound,
"Deep from the bottom; terror-struck I gain'd
"The nearest brink;--when,--whither dost thou fly?
"O, Arethusa? whither dost thou fly?
"Alphaeus, from his waters, hoarse exclaim'd!
"Vestless I fled, for on th' opposing bank
"My garment hung. Fiercer the god pursu'd;
"Fiercer he burn'd, all naked as I ran:
"Prepar'd more ready for his force I seem'd.
"Such was my flight, and such was his pursuit;
"As when on trembling wings, before the hawk
"Fly the mild doves: as when the hawk fierce drives
"The trembling doves before him. Long the chase
"I bore; Orchomenus, and Psophis soon
"I pass'd, and pass'd Cyllene, and the caves
"Of Maenalus, and Erymanthus' frosts,
"To Elis, ere his speed could cope with mine.
"In strength unequal, I sustain'd no more
"The toilsome race; he stouter flagg'd less soon.
"But still o'er plains I ran; o