Psyche alone bowed to her destiny.
``We have angered Venus unwittingly,'' she said,
``and all for sake of me, heedless maiden that
I am! Give me up, therefore, dear father and
mother. If I atone, it may be that the city will
prosper once more.''
So she besought them, until, after many
unavailing denials, the parents consented; and with
a great company of people they led Psyche up
the mountain,--as an offering to the monster
of whom the Oracle had spoken,--and left her
there alone.
Full of courage, yet in a secret agony of grief,
she watched her kindred and her people wind
down the mountain-path, too sad to look back,
until they were lost to sight. Then, indeed, she
wept, but a sudden breeze drew near, dried her
tears, and caressed her hair, seeming to murmur
comfort. In truth, it was Zephyr, the kindly
West Wind, come to befriend her; and as she took
heart, feeling some benignant presence, he lifted
her in his arms, and carried her on wings as even
as a sea-gull's, over the crest of the fateful
mountain and into a valley below. There he left her,
resting on a bank of hospitable grass, and there
the princess fell asleep.
When she awoke, it was near sunset. She
looked about her for some sign of the monster's
approach; she wondered, then, if her grievous
trial had been but a dream. Near by she saw a
sheltering forest, whose young trees seemed to
beckon as one maid beckons to another; and
eager for the protection of the dryads, she went
thither.
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