ream-fond swans,
Inferior seem'd his covering: but his tongue,
His babbling tongue his ruin wrought; and chang'd
His hue from splendid white to gloomy black.

No fairer maid all Thessaly contain'd,
Than young Coronis,--to the Delphic god
Most dear while chaste, or while her fault unknown.
But Corvus, Phoebus' watchman, spy'd the deed
Adulterous;--and inexorably bent
To tell the secret crime, his flight directs
To seek his master. Him the daw pursues,
On plumes quick waving, curious all to learn.
His errand heard, she cries;--"Thy anxious task,
"A journey vain, pursue not: mark my words;--
"Learn what I have been;--see what now I am;
"And hear from whence my change: a fault you'll find
"Too much fidelity, which wrought my woe.

"Time was, when Pallas, Ericthonius took,
"Offspring created motherless, and close
"In basket twin'd with Attic twigs conceal'd.
"The charge to keep, three sister-maids she chose,
"Daughters of Cecrops double-form'd, but close,
"Conceal'd what lodg'd within; and strict forbade
"All prying, that her secret safe might rest.
"On a thick elm, behind light leaves conceal'd,
"I mark'd their actions. Two their sacred charge
"Hold faithful; Pandrosos, and Herse they:
"Aglauros calls her sisters cowards weak;
"The twistings with bold hand unloosening, sees
"Within an infant, and a dragon stretch'd.
"The deed I tell to Pallas, and from her
"My service this remuneration finds:
"Driven from her presence, she my place supplies
"Of favorite with the gloomy bird of night.
"All other birds my fate severe may warn,
"To seek not danger by officious tales.
"Pallas, perhaps you think, but lightly lov'd
"One whom she thus so suddenly disgrac'd.
"But ask of Pallas;--she, though much enrag'd
"Will yet my truth confirm. A regal maid
"Was I,--of facts to all well-known I speak:
"Coroneus noble, of the Phocian lands
"As sire I claim. Me wealthy suitors sought--
"Contemn me not,--my beauty was my bane.
"While careless on the sandy shore I roam'd,
"With gentle pace as wont, the ocean's god
"Saw me and lov'd: persuasive words in vain
"Long trying, force prepar'd, and me pursu'd.
"I fled; the firm shore left, and tir'd my limbs
"Vainly, upon the light soft sinking sand.
"There to assist me men and gods I call'd;
"Deaf to the sound was every mortal ear:
"But by a virgin's cries a virgin mov'd,
"Assista