And “Ah, forbear!” the sufferer shrieks; “forbear,
O mother dear! our bodies in these trees
Alone are rent! Farewell!” And o’er the words,
Scarce-uttered, closed the bark, and all was still.
But yet they weep; and in the sun their tears
To amber harden, by the clear stream caught
And borne, the gaud and grace of Latian maids.[170]
The story of Baucis and Philemon—the worthy peasants who so hospitably entertained the gods, Zeus and Hermes, disguised as travellers, that their cottage was changed into a temple and they themselves into its priest and priestess—is more familiar. Their prayer that neither should witness the death of the other was fulfilled by the gods, by means of a device familiar enough to the folk-lore of the time:—
As one morn upon the hallowed steps,
Bowed now with years, they stood, and to a knot