tradetur genero, passurus prodita regna, et sciet an propriae conspirent Tartara causae. hoc sanctum; mansura fluant hoc ordine fata.” 65 dixit et horrendo concussit sidera motu. At procul armisoni Cererem sub rupibus antri securam placidamque diu iam certa peracti terrebant simulacra mali, noctesque timorem ingeminant omnique perit Proserpina somno. 70 namque modo adversis invadi viscera telis, nunc sibi mutatas horret nigrescere vestes, nunc steriles mediis frondere penatibus ornos. stabat praeterea luco dilectior omni laurus, virgineos quondam quae fronde pudica 75 umbrabat thalamos: hanc imo stipite caesam vidit et incomptos foedari pulvere ramos quaesivitque nefas. Dryades dixere gementes Tartarea Furias debellavisse bipenni. Sed tunc ipsa sui iam non ambagibus ullis 80 nuntia materno facies ingesta sopori: namque videbatur tenebroso obtecta recessu carceris et saevis Proserpina vincta catenis, non qualem Siculis olim mandaverat arvis nec qualem roseis nuper convallibus Aetnae 85 suspexere deae: squalebat pulchrior auro caesaries et nox oculorum infecerat ignes exhaustusque gelu pallet rubor, ille superbi flammeus oris honos, et non cessura pruinis membra colorantur picei caligine regni. 90 * * * * * Page 351 over to my son-in-law, Pluto himself, for punishment in those regions he had fain betray. There he shall learn whether Hell is true to her own monarch’s cause. Such is my will; thus let the unchangeable fates fulfil my decree.” He spake and shook the stars with his dread nod. But, far from Sicily, no uncertain suspicions of the loss she had suffered alarmed Ceres, where long she had dwelt peaceful and secure beneath the rocky roof of the cave resounding with arms. Dreams doubled her dread and a vision of Proserpine lost troubled her every sleep. Now she dreams that an enemy’s spear is piercing her body, now (oh horror!) that her raiment is changed and is become black, now that the infecund ash is budding in the midst of her house. Moreover, there stood a laurel, loved above all the grove, that used with maiden leaf to o’ershadow the virgin bower of Proserpine. This she saw hewn down to the roots, its straggling branches fouled with dust, and when she asked the cause of this disaster weeping dryads told her that the Furies had destroyed it with an axe of Hell.