They, bolting upward, made a sudden spring,

That snapped, like gossamer threads, each leathern trace,

And dashed the chariot on a statue’s base.

XV.

By arms invisible the falling dame

Was held unwounded in the yielding air;

And on her brow there fell a fiery rain

Of kisses, caught from lips in ambush there;

Then gently to the earth her form declined,

While rose a reed-like murmur on the wind.