ber or forget.

XLIII.

"My new rich life had grown a common thing,
The pleasant years still passing one by one,
When deep in Ida was I wandering
The glare of well-built Ilios to shun,
In summer, ere the day was wholly done,
When I beheld a goodly prince,--the hair
To bloom upon his lip had scarce begun,--
The season when the flower of youth is fair.

XLIV.

"Then knew I Hermes by his golden wand
Wherewith he lulls the eyes of men to sleep;
But, nodding with his brows, he bade me stand,
And spake, 'To-night thou hast a tryst to keep,
With Goddesses within the forest deep;
And Paris, lovely things shalt thou behold,
More fair than they for which men war and weep,
Kingdoms, and fame, and victories, and gold.

XLV.

"'For, lo! to-night within the forest dim
Do Aphrodite and Athene meet,
And Hera, who to thee shall bare each limb,
Each grace from golden head to ivory feet,
And thee, fair shepherd Paris, they entreat
As thou 'mongst men art beauteous, to declare
Which Queen of Queens immortal is most sweet,
And doth deserve the meed of the most fair.

XLVI.

"'For late between them rose a bitter strife
In Peleus' halls upon his wedding day,
When Peleus took him an immortal wife,
And there was bidden all the God's array,
Save Discord only; yet she brought dismay,
And cast an apple on the bridal board,
With "Let the fairest bear the prize away"
Deep on its golden rind and gleaming scored.

XLVII.

"'Now in the sudden night, whenas the sun
In Tethys' silver arms hath slept an hour,
Shalt thou be had into the forest dun,
And brought unto a dark enchanted bower,
And there of Goddesses behold the flower
With very beauty burning in the night,
And these will offer Wisdom, Love, and Power;
Then, Paris, be thou wise, and choose aright!'

XLVIII.

"He spake, and pass'd, and Night without a breath,
Without a star drew on; and now I heard
The voice that in the springtime wandereth,
The crying of Dame Hera's shadowy bird;
And soon the silence of the trees was stirred
By the wise fowl of Pallas; and anigh,
More sweet than is a girl's first loving word,
The doves of Aphrodite made reply.

XLIX.

"These voices did I follow through the trees,
Threading the coppice 'neath a starless sky,
When, lo! the very Queen of Goddesses,
In golden beauty gleaming wondrously,
Even she that hath the Heaven for canopy,
And in the arms of mig