THE GORGON’S HEAD. 4]

spoken to him. ‘One of the Gorgons is stirring in her
sleep, and is just about to turn over. ‘That is Medusa.
Do not look at her! The sight would turn you to stone!
Look at the reflection of her face and figure in the bright
mirror of your shield.”

Perseus now understood Quicksilver’s motive for so
earnestly exhorting him to polish his shield. In its sur-
face he could safely look at the reflection of the Gorgon’s
face. And there it was, — that terrible countenance, —
mirrored in the brightness of the shield, with the moon-
light falling over it, and displaying all its horror. The
snakes, whose venomous natures could not altogether
sleep, kept twisting themselves over the forehead. It
was the fiercest and most horrible face that ever was seen
or imagined, and yet with a strange, fearful, and savage
kind of beauty in it. The eyes were closed, and the
Gorgon was still in a deep slumber; but there was an
unquiet expression disturbing her features, as if the mon-
ster was troubled with an ugly dream. She gnashed her
white tusks, and dug into the sand with her brazen claws.

The snakes, too, seemed to feel Medusa’s dream, and
to be made more restless by it. They twined themselves
into tumultuous knots, writhed fiercely, and uplifted a
hundred hissing heads, without opening their eyes. _

“Now, now!” whispered Quicksilver, who was grow-
ing impatient. “Makea dash at the monster!”

“ But be calm,” said the grave, melodious voice, at the ‘
young man’s side. ‘Look im your slueld, as you fly
downward, and take care that you do not miss your first
stroke.”