These prodigies affect the pious prince; But, more perplexed with those that happened since, He purposes to seek the Clarian God, } Avoiding Delphos, his more famed abode; } Since Phlegian robbers made unsafe the road. } Yet could not he from her he loved so well, The fatal voyage, he resolved, conceal; But when she saw her lord prepared to part, A deadly cold ran shivering to her heart; Her faded cheeks are changed to boxen hue, And in her eyes the tears are ever new; She thrice essayed to speak; her accents hung, And, faultering, died unfinished on her tongue, Or vanished into sighs; with long delay Her voice returned; and found the wonted way. Tell me, my lord, she said, what fault unknown } Thy once beloved Alcyone has done? } Whither, ah whither is thy kindness gone! } Can Ceyx then sustain to leave his wife, And unconcerned forsake the sweets of life? What can thy mind to this long journey move, Or need'st thou absence to renew thy love? Yet, if thou goest by land, though grief possess My soul even then, my fears will be the less. But ah! be warned to shun the watery way, The face is frightful of the stormy sea. For late I saw a drift disjointed planks, And empty tombs erected on the banks. Nor let false hopes to trust betray thy mind, Because my sire in caves constrains the wind, Can with a breath a clamorous rage appease, They fear his whistle, and forsake the seas: Not so; for, once indulged, they sweep the main, Deaf to the call, or, hearing, hear in vain; But bent on mischief, bear the waves before, And, not content with seas, insult the shore; When ocean, air, and earth, at once engage, And rooted forests fly before their rage; At once the clashing clouds to battle move, And lightnings run across the fields above: I know them well, and marked their rude comport, While yet a child, within my father's court; In times of tempest they command alone, And he but sits precarious on the throne; The more I know, the more my fears augment, And fears are oft prophetic of the event. But if not fears, or reasons will prevail, If fate has fixed thee obstinate to sail, Go not without thy wife, but let me bear } My part of danger with an equal share, } And present suffer what I only fear; } Then o'er the bounding billows shall we fly, Secure to live together, or to die.-- These reasons moved her starlike husband's heart, But still he held his purpose to depart; For as he loved her equal to his life, He would not to the seas expose his wife; Nor could be wrought his voyage to refrain, But sought by arguments to sooth her pain: