Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/173

Rh rising from her bed, she beheld the stout figure of Bottom thus frightfully crowned. To see was only to love, because her lids were heavy with the charmed flower-juice, and she alighted from her swaying couch, and ran quickly to the weaver.

Then, with sweet words and delicate caresses, the tiny queen led the huge monster to her bower, and summoned her attendant fairies to do him reverence. The astonished weaver yielded himself up to the strange enchantment, and the elves, hovering about him, prepared to do his bidding, as their gracious mistress had desired.

When Hermia awoke from her deep slumber, and missed Lysander, she was seized with the greatest affright. Starting up, she ran wildly through the forest, till she encountered Demetrius, and accused him of slaying her lost lover, that he might have no rival to her love. When Demetrius denied this, she ran on, calling, in agonizing tones, upon her lost Lysander. Oberon saw their meeting, heard his tender words to Hermia, and remembering how Demetrius had scorned sweet Helena, he saw that Puck had not yet anointed his eyes with the flower. So, throwing the knight into an enchanted sleep, he sprinkled some drops from the flowers upon his eyelids, and went off to lead