Not long after this it happened that Daedalus was guilty of a deed which
angered the king very greatly; and had not Minos wished him to build
other buildings for him, he would have put him to death and no doubt
have served him right.
"Hitherto," said the king, "I have honored you for your skill and
rewarded you for your labor. But now you shall be my slave and shall
serve me without hire and without any word of praise."
Then he gave orders to the guards at the city gates that they should not
let Daedalus pass out at any time, and he set soldiers to watch the
ships that were in port so that he could not escape by sea. But although
the wonderful artisan was thus held as a prisoner, he did not build any
more buildings for King Minos; he spent his time in planning how he
might regain his freedom.
"All my inventions," he said to his son Icarus, "have hitherto been made
to please other people; now I will invent something to please myself."
So, all through the day he pretended to be planning some great work for
the king, but every night he locked himself up in his chamber and
wrought secretly by candle light. By and by he had made for himself a
pair of strong wings, and for Icarus another pair of smaller ones; and
then, one midnight, when everybody was asleep, the two went out to see
if they could fly. They fastened the wings to their shoulders with wax,
and then sprang up into the air. They could not fly very far at first,
but they did so well that they felt sure of doing much better in time.
The next night Daedalus made some changes in the wings. He put on an
extra strap or two; he took out a feather from one wing, and put a new
feather into another; and then he and Icarus went out in the moonlight
to try them again. They did finely this time. They flew up to the top of
the king's palace, and then they sailed away over the walls of the city
and alighted on the top of a hill. But they were not ready to undertake
a long journey yet; and so, just before daybreak, they flew back home.
Every fair night after that they practiced with their wings, and at the
end of a month they felt as safe in the air as on the ground, and could
skim over the hilltops like birds.
Early one morning; before King Minos had risen from his bed, they
fastened on their wings, sprang into the air, and flew out of the city.
Once fairly away from the island, they turned towards the west, for
Daedalus had heard of an island named Sicily, which lay hundreds of
miles away, and he had made up his mind to seek a new home there.
[Illustration: "HE FELT HIMSELF SINKING THROUGH THE AIR."]
All went well for a time, and the two bold flyers sped swiftly over the
sea, skimming along only a little above the waves, and helped on their
way by the brisk east wind. Towards noon the sun shone very warm, and
Daedalus called out to the boy who was a little behind and told him to
keep his wings cool and not fly too high. But the boy was proud of his
skill in flying, and as he looked up at the sun he thought how nice it
would be to soar like it high above the clouds in the blue depths of the
sky.
"At any rate," said he to himself, "I will go up a little higher.
Perhaps I can see the horses which draw the sun car, and perhaps I shall
catch sight of their driver, the mighty sun master himself."
So he flew up higher and higher, but his father who was in front did not
see him. Pretty soon, however, the heat of the sun began to melt the wax
with which the boy's wings were fastened. He felt himself sinking
through the air; the wings had become loosened from his shoulders. He
screamed to his father, but it was too late. Daedalus turned just in
time to see Icarus fall headlong into the waves. The water was very deep
there, and the skill of the wonderful artisan could not save his child.
He could only look with sorrowing eyes at the unpitying sea, and fly on
alone to distant Sicily. There, men say, he lived for many years, but he
never did any great work, nor built anything half so marvelous as the
Labyrinth of Crete. And the sea in which poor Icarus was drowned was
called forever afterward by his name, the Icarian Sea.
[Illustration]