Page:The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre.djvu/38

Rh the struggling damsel with great difficulty overcame; and the perpetrated crime sought to conceal.

Then it happened that the maiden's foster-mother went into the chamber, and saw her sitting in great affliction, and said to her, "Why art thou, lady, of so afflicted mind?" The maiden answered her, "Dear foster-mother, now today two noble names have perished in this chamber." The foster-mother said, "Of whom sayest thou that?" She answered her and said, "Ere the day of my nuptials, I am with sinful crime polluted." Then said the foster-mother, "Who was ever of so daring mind that durst defile a King’s daughter, ere the day of her nuptials, end not dread the king’s ire?" The maiden said, "Impiety hath perpetrated the crime against me." The foster-mother said, "Why sayest thou it not to thy father?" The maiden said, "Where is the father? truly in me wretched hath my father’s name cruelly perished, and to me now therefore death is exceedingly desirable." The foster-mother, truly, when she heard that the maiden longed for her death, then she called her to her with gentle speech, and entreated that she would turn her mind from that desire, and bow to her father's will, notwithstanding that she were compelled thereto. [3] In this state of things, truly, continued the impious king Antiochus, and with a feigned mind showed himself to his fellow-citizens as though he were the pious father of his daughter, and among his familiar