Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/262

 Troy, contrived of laurels, cypresses, and box trees, with windings in and out, turnings, returnings, dæedaldædal [sic] wanderings and perplexed passages, almost beyond conceit or imagination. And in the courses of the maze were arbours here and there with seats for them to rest awhile, who took the pains to tread these windings; and many of these trees were cut into the fantastic similitude of towers and castle walls, strange monstrous beasts, and symbols of secret meaning. And at the entrance was a stone pillar, about four feet in height, and on the top was this legend:

Hic quem Creticus edit Daedalus est LuberinthusLaberinthus [sic],

De quo nullus vadere quivit qui fuit intus,

Ni Theseus gratis Ariadne stamine jutus.

And in the midst of the labyrinth was a very fair and pleasant bower of box, with the likenesses of peacocks, foxes, pheasants, and doves devised in the topiary manner, and a seat of marble very exquisitely carved. Now this place was often resorted to by Constance and the scholar, who were never weary of tracking out its windings in company, and had found out a secret concerning it; namely that one of the hedges was in fact double and had within itself a passage, which might only be entered by pressing down a bough at a certain place; and when they had gone in they perceived that none who passed by could spy them out since the green walls on either side were thick and impenetrable. And you may guess that they often came