Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/225

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OF THE VEIL.
207

dazzle my audacious eyes. In my conſternation I apprehended the fate of Acteon at leaſt, and drew back in alarm; meanwhile they ſlipped among the reeds, and hid themſelves. Shortly thereafter I ſaw ſeven ſwans aſcend high into the air: they ſoon vaniſhed from before my eyes. I now had time to reflect on my own fooliſh conduct; I acted like a madman, tore my coat, plucked my beard, and wept aloud, till the fury of my ſorrow ſunk gradually away into the ſtillneſs of melancholy. I ſlunk in ſilence to my cell, and took my way along the place whence the ſwans had riſen on wing oppoſite my reed cot; I there found the morning dew bruſhed from the graſs, I ſaw a trace in the wet ſand, which ſeemed to have been impreſſed by the elegant foot of Zoe: beſide it lay a packet cloſely rolled up, which I ſnatched in haſte. It proved, upon opening it, to be a woman’s glove of fine white ſilk, which would have been too ſmall for any other but Zoe’s delicate hand. There fell out‘of