‘If it were not for my promise,’ she said, ‘I would hurl you from the car; but as it is, I will put you safely down.’
But the Princess smiled in spite of herself.
‘Do you, then, hate Venus so much, great Goddess?’ she asked. ‘Well, you have really done me much good, and therefore I promise never to give the feather to any other goddess save you alone.’
Diana looked very much relieved; for, to tell the truth, the goddesses in those days were very jealous of one another, and Diana could not bear the thought that any one else should have the feather if she could not get it.
So for a few minutes she was silent; and then suddenly she drew in the stags.
‘I am going to set you down here,’ she said, and they plunged into the darkness below. For you must know that though they were high up, and the rays of the sun, still below the horizon, fell on them, yet, beneath them, everything was dark in the shadow of the mountains.
The chariot sank slowly until it rested on the ground, but it was still so dark that the Princess could see nothing.
‘Get out,’ said Diana; ‘you are quite safe here.’ And the Princess obeyed. ‘Now remember,’ the Goddess went on, ‘I have kept my promises. Remember to keep yours. Give the feather to no one except to me, unless I send Iris for it. To her alone give it, for she is the messenger of the goddesses.’
The Princess once more promised, and Diana shook the reins, and the chariot once more darted up through the air and out of the lower darkness into the sunlight, until it was so high that it vanished altogether from her sight.
So the Princess looked wearily down again, and the earth around her seemed doubly dark by contrast.