While Daphnis was engaged in these religious ceremonies, the following circumstances befel Chloe. She was sitting weeping and watching her flock, and exclaiming (as was natural) "Daphnis has forgotten me. He is dreaming of some wealthy match. To what purpose did I make him swear by his goats instead of by the Nymphs? he has deserted the former as well as me; nor even when sacrificing to the Nymphs and to Pan, has he had any desire to see his Chloe. Perhaps among his mother's waiting women, he has seen some girl preferable to me. May he be happy! As for me I shall not survive it."
While she was giving utterance to these thoughts, Lampis the herdsman with a band of rustics suddenly came up and seized her. He conceived that Daphnis would no longer marry her, and that Dryas would be well content to have him as a son-in-law. While she was being borne off with tears and shrieks, some one who had witnessed the transaction, hastened to inform Nape: Nape informed Dryas, and Dryas communicated it to Daphnis. Distracted at the intelligence, afraid to explain the circumstance to his father, and unable to restrain his own emotions, he betook himself to the outer garden-walk and there vented his grief:—
"What an unhappy discovery of parentage, is mine! How much better would it have been for me still to tend my herds! How much happier was I, when a slave! then I could behold my Chloe!—but now, Lampis has carried her away; this very night, perhaps, she will be his wife! In the mean time I am here, drinking and feasting, and have to no purpose sworn by Pan, by my goats, and by the Nymphs."
These words were overheard by Gnatho, who was lurking in the garden; he considered it a good opportunity for effecting a reconciliation with Daphnis. Assembling some youths, who waited upon Astylus, he pursued Dryas, whom he desired to conduct them to the place where Lampis dwelt. They overtook him just as he was dragging Chloe into his house, rescued her from him, and gave the country-fellows, his companions, a sound drubbing. He was very desirous also to seize and bind Lampis, and bring him back like a prisoner of war, but the fellow was too much for him and ran away.
Having accomplished this exploit, he returned just as night was coming on. Dionysophanes had already retired to rest; but finding Daphnis still up and weeping in the garden, presented Chloe to him, and gave him an account of the whole adventure, beseeching him to bear no ill-will, but to retain him in his service, in which he would prove himself of use, and not to banish him from his father's table, which would deprive him of his bread. When Daphnis saw Chloe, and once more had her in his possession, he forgave Gnatho, because of his good deed, and began to apologize to the maiden for his neglect.
Upon holding a consultation, Daphnis at first resolved to marry Chloe privately, and to keep her in concealment, making no one but her own mother acquainted with the matter; Dryas would not concur in this plan, he was for communicating every thing to Daphnis's father, and himself undertook the task of obtaining his consent. Accordingly, taking the tokens with him in his scrip, he went the next day to Dionysophanes and Clearista, who were sitting in the garden, in company with Astylus and Daphnis; silence ensued upon his appearance, when he addressed them thus:—
"The same necessity, which influenced Lamon, now urges me to publish circumstances, which hitherto have remained secret. I am not Chloe's father; nor was she in the first instance brought up by me. Other persons were her parents, and when lying in the grotto of the Nymphs, a ewe became her nurse. I saw this myself, to my astonishment, and under the power of this feeling, I adopted her. Her beauty confirms what I say; for she does not resemble either me or my wife. These tokens, which I likewise found with her, prove the truth of my assertion, for they are too valuable to belong to any shepherd. Examine them, endeavour to find out the maiden's relatives, and perhaps she will prove worthy of your son."
This last expression was not thrown out undesignedly by Dryas: nor was it heard heedlessly by Dionysophanes, who turning his eyes upon Daphnis, and observing him turn pale, while a tear stole down his cheeks, easily discovered the youth's love. Moved more by regard for his own child than by any concern for the unknown maiden, he weighed the words of Dryas with great attention. After viewing the tokens produced before him, the gilt sandals, the anklets, and the head-dress, he called Chloe to him, and bid her take courage, for she had already got a husband, and most probably would soon discover her real father and mother. Clearista now took her, and dressed her as became the intended wife of her son. Dionysophanes, in the mean time, retired apart with Daphnis, and inquired whether she was still a virgin; and upon his declaring that nothing had passed between them, beyond kisses and vows: pleased with their mutual oaths of fidelity, he made them join the banquet.
Now might it be seen what beauty is when set off by the accessories of ornament, Chloe when richly dressed, with her hair braided, and her face resplendent from the bath, appeared to all so much more beautiful than before, that Daphnis himself could hardly recognize her. Any spectator, even without knowing anything about the tokens, would have sworn that Dryas could not be the father of so fair a maiden. Nevertheless he was invited to the feast, where he and Nape, with Lamon and Myrtale for their companions, reclined on a separate couch.
On the following day victims were again sacrificed to the gods; bowls were prepared, and Chloe suspended her pastoral equipments—her pipe, her scrip, her cloak of goat-skin, and her milkpails. She also mingled wine with the waters of the fountain in the grotto, because she had been suckled near it, and had so often bathed there, then she crowned with flowers the ewe's grave, which Dryas pointed out to her. She, too, piped once more to her flock, and having done so, prayed the Nymphs that her parents might prove worthy of the union of Daphnis and herself.