Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/175

Rh beguiled him with her tall figure, her grace, and her sweet, pleading manners, was too much. She would gladly have resigned Demetrius to her, but that she should come, like a thief, to steal her loved Lysander, was too bitter to be borne. So she upbraids her fiercely; and Helena, seeing her jealousy, can no longer doubt the sincerity of her two lovers.

Fortunately, Oberon, invisible, heard this dispute, and angrily summoning Puck, he accused him of making all this mischief. He bade him lead the two knights, who have already drawn their swords to combat for the possession of Helena, through bogs and tangled pathways, by his magic arts, till, wearied by such tiresome travel, they should sink to sleep again. Then, by putting a new love-charm on Lysander’s eyes, he should be made to return to his loyalty and Hermia’s love.

Obeying Oberon’s commands, the nimble Puck flitted through bush and brake, now calling Demetrius in one direction with the voice of Lysander, and anon summoning Lysander an opposite way with the tongue of Demetrius, so that the two gentlemen, pursuing the sounds, foundered in bogs, and tore through briers, till it was near morning. Then, one after the other, Puck led all the four lovers through the thick darkness of the wood, to the group of gnarled trees, where