rion, behind Antony, restrains an exclamation of joy, and Ormuz
plunges into the darkness.

Then appears the great Diana of Ephesus, black, with enamelled eyes,
elbows at her sides, forearms turned out, and hands open.

Lions crouch upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers and stars cross one
another upon her chest; further down three rows of breasts exhibit
themselves, and from the belly to the feet she is caught in a close
sheath, from which sprout forth, in the centre of her body, bulls,
stags, griffins and bees. She is seen in the white gleaming caused by a
disc of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind her head.

"Where is my temple? Where are my amazons? How is it with me--me, the
incorruptible--that I find myself so impotent?"

Her flowers wither; her fruits, over-ripe, hang loose; the lions and the
bulls bow down their necks; the stags, exhausted, begin to pant; the
bees, with a faint buzzing, fall dying upon the ground. She presses her
breasts one after the other. They are empty! But, yielding to a
desperate pressure, her sheath bursts open. She clutches the end of it,
like the skirt of a dress, flings into it her animals and her
flower-wreaths, then goes back into the darkness; and in the distance
voices murmur, grumble, roar, cry, or bellow. The density of the night
is increased by the winds. A warm shower begins to fall in heavy drops.

_Antony_--"How pleasant is this odour of palm-trees, this rustling of
green leaves, this transparency of fountains! I would like to lie down
flat upon the ground, in order to feel it close to my heart, and my life
would be renewed in eternal youth!"

He hears the sound of castanets and cymbals, and, in the midst of a
rustic crowd, men clad in white tunics, with red bands, lead out an ass,
richly harnessed, his tail adorned with ribands and his hoofs painted. A
box, covered with a saddle-cloth of yellow linen, sways to and fro upon
his back, between two baskets, one of which receives the offerings
deposited there--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, poultry, and small
coins--while the second is full of roses, which the drivers of the ass
scatter before him as they move along. The latter wear pendants in their
ears, large cloaks, plaited tresses, and have their cheeks painted. Each
of them has an olive crown fastened around his forehead by a figured
medallion. They carry daggers in their girdles, and flourish whips with
ebony handles, each having three thongs mounted with ossi