And from their huntsman to become their prey. And yet consider why the change was wrought, You'll find it his misfortune, not his fault; Or if a fault, it was the fault of chance: For how can guilt proceed from ignorance? THE TRANSFORMATION OF ACTÆON INTO A STAG. In a fair chase a shady mountain stood, Well stored with game, and marked with trails of blood. Here did the huntsmen till the heat of day Pursue the stag, and load themselves with prey; When thus Actæon calling to the rest: 'My friends,' says he, 'our sport is at the best. The sun is high advanced, and downward sheds His burning beams directly on our heads; Then by consent abstain from further spoils, Call off the dogs, and gather up the toils; _10 And ere to-morrow's sun begins his race, Take the cool morning to renew the chase.' They all consent, and in a cheerful train The jolly huntsmen, loaden with the slain, Return in triumph from the sultry plain. Down in a vale with pine and cypress clad, Refreshed with gentle winds, and brown with shade, The chaste Diana's private haunt, there stood Full in the centre of the darksome wood A spacious grotto, all around o'ergrown _20 With hoary moss, and arched with pumice-stone. From out its rocky clefts the waters flow, And trickling swell into a lake below. Nature had everywhere so played her part, That everywhere she seemed to vie with art. Here the bright goddess, toiled and chafed with heat, Was wont to bathe her in the cool retreat. Here did she now with all her train resort, Panting with heat, and breathless from the sport; Her armour-bearer laid her bow aside, _30 Some loosed her sandals, some her veil untied; Each busy nymph her proper part undressed; While Crocale, more handy than the rest, Gathered her flowing hair, and in a noose Bound it together, whilst her own hung loose. Five of the more ignoble sort by turns Fetch up the water, and unlade their urns. Now all undressed the shining goddess stood, When young Actæon, wildered in the wood, To the cool grot by his hard fate betrayed, _40 The fountains filled with naked nymphs surveyed. The frighted virgins shrieked at the surprise, (The forest echoed with their piercing cries,) Then in a huddle round their goddess pressed: She, proudly eminent above the rest, With blushes glowed; such blushes as adorn The ruddy welkin, or the purple morn; And though the crowding nymphs her body hide, Half backward shrunk, and viewed him from aside. Surprised, at first she would have snatched her bow, _50 But sees the circling waters round her flow; These in the hollow of her hand she took, And dashed them in his face, while thus she spoke: 'Tell if thou canst the wondrous sight disclosed, A goddess naked to thy view exposed.' This said, the man began to disappear By slow degrees, and ended in a deer. A rising horn on either brow he wears,