And he whispered, "It is done," and showed her the sword. Then she
laid her finger on her lips, and led him to the prison and opened the
doors, and set all the prisoners free, while the guards lay sleeping
heavily, for Ariadne had drugged them with wine.

So they fled to their ship together, and leapt on board and hoisted up
the sail, and the night lay dark around them, so that they escaped all
safe, and Ariadne became the wife of Theseus.

But that fair Ariadne never came to Athens with her husband. Some say
that, as she lay sleeping on the shore, one of the gods found her
and took her up into the sky, and some say that the gods drove away
Theseus, and took Ariadne from him by force. But, however that may be,
in his haste or his grief, Theseus forgot to put up the white sail.

Now AEgeus his father sat on the cliffs and watched day after day, and
strained his old eyes across the waters to see the ship afar. And when
he saw the black sail he gave up Theseus for dead, and in his grief he
fell into the sea and was drowned, and it is called the AEgean Sea to
this day.

Then Theseus was King of Athens, and he guarded it and ruled it well,
and many wise things he did, so that his people honored him after he
was dead, for many a hundred years, as the father of their freedom and
of their laws.

HERCULES

ADAPTED BY THOMAS CARTWRIGHT

I

THE TWELVE LABORS OF HERCULES

Hercules, the hero of strength and courage, was the son of Jupiter and
Alcmene. His life was one long series of wonders.

As soon as he was born, Juno, who hated Alcmene with an exceeding
great hatred, went to the Fates and begged them to make the life of
the newly-born babe hard and perilous.

The Fates were three, namely, Clotho who spun the thread of life,
Lachesis who settled the lot of gods and mortals in life, and Atropos
who cut the thread of life spun by Clotho.

When once the Fates had decided what the lot of any being, whether god
or man, was to be, Jupiter himself could not alter their decision.

It was to these fateful three, then, that Juno made her prayer
concerning the infant Hercules. She could not, however, prevent him
from having an honorable career, since it was written that he should
triumph over all dangers and difficulties that might beset him.

All that was conceded to her was that Hercules should be put under the
dominion of Eurystheus, King of Thebes, his eldest brother, a harsh
and pitiless man. This onl