s, and drums, with groups of
maidens representing nymphs, dryads, and hamadryads. Darkness fell at
last amid drunken shouts from the tent, shouts raised in honor of
Luna. Meanwhile the groves were lighted with a thousand lamps. From the
lupanaria on the shores shone swarms of lights; on the terraces appeared
new naked groups, formed of the wives and daughters of the first Roman
houses. These with voice and unrestrained manner began to lure partners.
The raft touched the shore at last. Caesar and the Augustians vanished
in the groves, scattered in lupanaria, in tents hidden in thickets,
in grottos artificially arranged among fountains and springs. Madness
seized all; no one knew whither Caesar had gone; no one knew who was a
senator, who a knight, who a dancer, who a musician. Satyrs and fauns
fell to chasing nymphs with shouting. They struck lamps with thyrses to
quench them. Darkness covered certain parts of the grove. Everywhere,
however, laughter and shouts were heard, and whispers, and panting
breaths. In fact Rome had not seen anything like that before.

Vinicius was not drunk, as he had been at the feast in Nero's palace,
when Lygia was present; but he was roused and intoxicated by the sight
of everything done round about, and at last the fever of pleasure seized
him. Rushing into the forest, he ran, with others, examining who of the
dryads seemed most beautiful. New flocks of these raced around him every
moment with shouts and with songs; these flocks were pursued by fauns,
satyrs, senators, knights, and by sounds of music. Seeing at last a band
of maidens led by one arrayed as Diana, he sprang to it, intending to
examine the goddess more closely. All at once the heart sank in his
bosom, for he thought that in that goddess, with the moon on her
forehead, he recognized Lygia.

They encircled him with a mad whirl, and, wishing evidently to incline
him to follow, rushed away the next moment like a herd of deer. But he
stood on the spot with beating heart, breathless; for though he saw that
the Diana was not Lygia, and that at close sight she was not even like
her, the too powerful impression deprived him of strength. Straightway
he was seized by such yearning as he had never felt before, and love for
Lygia rushed to his breast in a new, immense wave. Never had she seemed
so dear, pure, and beloved as in that forest of madness and frenzied
excess. A moment before, he himself wished to drink of that cup, and
share in