out from the
heights of Hymettos to the white shore of Euboea, as it glistened in
the light of early day. But whenever he went to the chase with the
hound and the spear of Artemis, Prokris saw that Eos still watched if
haply she might talk with Kephalos alone, and win him again for
herself. Once more she was happy, but her happiness was not what it
had been when Kephalos first gave her his love, while her father,
Erechtheus, was yet alive. She knew that Eos still envied her, and she
sought to guard Kephalos from the danger of her treacherous look and
her enticing words. She kept ever near him in the chase, although he
saw her not, and thus it came to pass that one day, as Prokris
watched him from a thicket, the folds of her dress rustled against the
branches, so that Kephalos thought it was some beast moving from his
den, and hurled at her the spear of Artemis that never missed its
mark. Then he heard the cry as of one who has received a deadly blow,
and when he hastened into the thicket, Prokris lay smitten down to the
earth before him. The coldness of death was on her face, and her
bright eye was dim, but her voice was as loving as ever, while she
said, "O Kephalos, it grieves me not that thy arm hath struck me down.
I have thy love, and having it, I go to the land of the bright heroes,
where my father, Erechtheus, is waiting for his child, and where thou,
too, shalt one day meet me, to dwell with me forever." One loving look
she gave to Kephalos, and the smile of parting vanished in the
stillness of death.

[Illustration: NUMA POMPILIUS VISITING THE NYMPH EGERIA.]

Then over the body of Prokris Kephalos wept tears of bitter sorrow,
and he said, "Ah, Eos, Eos, well hast thou rewarded me for doubting
once a love such as thou couldst never feel." Many days and many weeks
he mourned for his lost love, and daily he sat on the slopes of
Hymettos, and thought with a calm and almost happy grief how Prokris
there had rested by his side. All this time the spear of Artemis was
idle, and the hound went not forth to the chase, until chieftains came
from other lands to ask his aid against savage beasts or men. Among
them came Amphitryon, the lord of Thebes, to ask for help, and
Kephalos said, "I will do as thou wouldst have me. It is time that I
should begin to journey to the bright land where Prokris dwells,
beyond the western sea."

So he went with Amphitryon into the Theban land, and hunted out the
savage beasts which w