For a time the boat rose and fell with the waves. It pitched and rolled and reeled. Great waves splashed over it, washing the oarsmen overboard.
The masts were torn away. At last the little boat, buried in the trough of the wave, sank beneath the water.
The king and all his crew lay buried deep beneath the deep blue sea.
Weeks passed. Months passed. A year went by.
Queen Halcyone wandered restlessly up and down the shore. With weary eyes she watched the purple distance. But the king did not return.
She prayed to the gods that they would guard and protect the king whom she loved so dearly. She went to the sacred altars of her country, and burned incense there.
When the goddess Juno heard the prayers and saw the tears of the lovely Queen Halcyone, she was sad for her. Juno called to her side the beautiful rainbow messenger, Iris.
"Iris," said Juno, "this night I wish you to go down on your rainbow bridge to the god of dreams.
"Ask him to send to Halcyone a dream which shall tell her of the fate of her husband, the king. It is better that she should know what has befallen him whom she loved than to wander thus in uncertainty."
So Iris, the beautiful messenger, swept down to the god of dreams—and that night Halcyone dreamed that the king came to her and told her his story. He told her how the boat and all therein had long since been buried under the sea.