ce of the
trembling servant, he says, "Fly hence, O thou accursed pander to
forbidden lust, who shouldst have given me satisfaction by thy death,
if {it was} not {that} thy destruction would bring disgrace on my
character." Frightened, he hastens away, and reports to his mistress the
threatening expressions of Caunus. Thou, Byblis, on hearing of his
refusal, turnest pale, and thy breast, beset with an icy chill, is
struck with alarm; yet when thy senses return, so, too, does thy frantic
passion return, and thy tongue with difficulty utters such words as
these, the air being struck {by thy accents}:

"And deservedly {am I thus treated}; for why, in my rashness, did I make
the discovery of this wound? why have I so speedily committed words to a
hasty letter, which ought {rather} to have been concealed? The feelings
of his mind ought first to have been tried beforehand by me, with
ambiguous expressions. Lest he should not follow me in my course,
I ought, with some part of my sail[56] {only}, to have observed what
kind of a breeze it was, and to have scudded over the sea in safety;
{whereas}, now, I have filled my canvass with winds {before} untried.
I am driven upon rocks in consequence; and sunk, I am buried beneath the
whole ocean, and my sails have {now} no retreat. And besides, was I not
forbidden, by unerring omens, to indulge my passion, at the time when
the waxen {tablets} fell, as I ordered him to deliver them, and made my
hopes sink to the ground? and ought not either the day to have been
changed, or else my whole intentions; but rather, {of the two},[57] the
day? {Some} God himself warned me, and gave me unerring signs, if I had
not been deranged; and yet I ought to have spoken out myself, and not to
have committed myself to writing, and personally {I ought} to have
discovered my passion; {then} he would have seen my tears, {then} he
would have seen the features of her who loved him; I might have given
utterance to more than what the letter contained. I might have thrown my
arms around his reluctant neck, and have embraced his feet, and lying
{on the ground}, I might have begged for life; and if I had been
repelled, I might have seemed on the point of death. All this, {I say},
I might {then} have done; if each of these things could not {singly}
have softened his obdurate feelings, {yet} all of them might.

"Perhaps, too, there may be some fault in the servant that was sent.
He did not wait on him at a convenient