To Mars, Jupiter had promised the victory for his chosen knight; but Venus, her lovely eyes red with weeping, besought that her favored suitor, young Palamon, might have Emelie for his bride. While she thus prayed the stern Jupiter, her breast heavy with sighs, and her cheeks wet with silver tears, Saturn, oldest of the gods, thus whispered her,—“ Grieve not, O fairest of the daughters of the gods. To Jupiter and Mars belong victory in war and honor among men; to me, dark treason and black pestilence; mine is the drowning in the lonely sea, the strangling rope, the deadly poison, and all means of sudden death. Weep no more, for I promise thy pleasure shall yet be done, and Palamon shall have Emelie.”
Now in the broad daylight, Athens is all astir. Now is heard the clattering of hoofs; the ringing of hammers, which rivet together the links of the armor; the tramping of hurried feet; the sharp word of command, and the knights calling on their squires. Now is seen the glitter of gold and the flash of steel, the waving of plumes and fluttering of mantles. Now each man has fastened the last buckle and helped his master mount, and the steeds champ their shining bits, impatient to be gone.
Inside the walls of the tourney-ground, under a canopy, sit Theseus and his court. Among
