answered Theseus, "and therefore I give it
freely and gladly. But thou, King Minos, art
thou not thyself appalled, who, year after year,
hast perpetrated this dreadful wrong, by giving
seven innocent youths and as many maidens
to be devoured by a monster? Dost thou not
tremble, wicked king, to turn thine eyes inward
on thine own heart? Sitting there on thy golden
throne, and in thy robes of majesty, I tell thee
to thy face, King Minos, thou art a more hideous
monster than the Minotaur himself!"

"Aha! do you think me so?" cried the king,
laughing in his cruel way. "To-morrow, at
breakfast time, you shall have an opportuni-
ty of judging which is the greater monster,
the Minotaur or the king! Take them aw r ay,
guards; and let this free-spoken youth be the
Minotaur's first morsel!"

Near the king's throne (though I had no
time to tell you so before) stood his daughter
Ariadne. She was a beautiful and tender-heart-
ed maiden, and looked at these poor doomed
captives with very different feelings from those
of the iron-breasted King Minos. She really
wept, indeed, at the idea of how much human

[[53]]

p052 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p053w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p054

v?