FIRST SLAVE. As I told you, that is his form of madness. There you have a sample of his follies. When his trouble first began to seize him, he said to himself, "By what means could I go straight to Zeus?" Then he made himself very slender little ladders and so clambered up towards heaven; but he soon came hurtling down again and broke his head. Yesterday, to our misfortune, he went out and brought us back this thoroughbred, but from where I know not, this great beetle, whose groom he has forced me to become. He himself caresses it as though it were a horse, saying, "Oh! my little Pegasus,[264] my noble aerial steed, may your wings soon bear me straight to Zeus!" But what is my master doing? I must stoop down to look through this hole. Oh! great gods! Here! neighbours, run here quick! here is my master flying off mounted on his beetle as if on horseback. TRYGAEUS. Gently, gently, go easy, beetle; don't start off so proudly, or trust at first too greatly to your powers; wait till you have sweated, till the beating of your wings shall make your limb joints supple. Above all things, don't let off some foul smell, I adjure you; else I would rather have you stop in the stable altogether. SECOND SERVANT. Poor master! Is he crazy? TRYGAEUS. Silence! silence! SECOND SERVANT (_to Trygaeus_). But why start up into the air on chance? TRYGAEUS. 'Tis for the weal of all the Greeks; I am attempting a daring and novel feat. SECOND SERVANT. But what is your purpose? What useless folly! TRYGAEUS. No words of ill omen! Give vent to joy and command all men to keep silence, to close down their drains and privies with new tiles and to stop their own vent-holes.[265] FIRST SERVANT. No, I shall not be silent, unless you tell me where you are going. TRYGAEUS. Why, where am I likely to be going across the sky, if it be not to visit Zeus? FIRST SERVANT. For what purpose? TRYGAEUS. I want to ask him what he reckons to do for all the Greeks. SECOND SERVANT. And if he doesn't tell you? TRYGAEUS. I shall pursue him at law as a traitor who sells Greece to the Medes.[266] SECOND SERVANT. Death seize me, if I let you go. TRYGAEUS. It is absolutely necessary. SECOND SERVANT. Alas! alas! dear little girls, your father is deserting you secretly to go to heaven. Ah! poor orphans, entreat him, beseech him. LITTLE DAUGHTER. Father! father! what is this I hear? Is it true? What! you would leave me, you would vanish into the sky, you would go to the crows?[267] 'Tis impossible! Answer, father, an you love me. TRYGAEUS. Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a barley loaf every morning--and a punch in the eye for sauce! LITTLE DAUGHTER. But how will you make the journey? 'Tis not a ship that will carry you thither. TRYGAEUS. No, but this winged steed will.