At last the black ship reached the end of its voyage. The young people
were set ashore, and a party of soldiers led them through the streets
towards the prison, where they were to stay until the morrow. They did
not weep nor cry out now, for they had outgrown their fears. But with
paler faces and firm-set lips, they walked between the rows of Cretan
houses, and looked neither to the right nor to the left. The windows and
doors were full of people who were eager to see them.
"What a pity that such brave young men should be food for the Minotaur,"
said some.
"Ah, that maidens so beautiful should meet a fate so sad!" said others.
And now they passed close by the palace gate, and in it stood King Minos
himself, and his daughter Ariadne, the fairest of the women of Crete.
"Indeed, those are noble young fellows!" said the king.
"Yes, too noble to feed the vile Minotaur," said Ariadne.
"The nobler, the better," said the king; "and yet none of them can
compare with your lost brother Androgeos."
Ariadne said no more; and yet she thought that she had never seen any
one who looked so much like a hero as young Theseus. How tall he was,
and how handsome! How proud his eye, and how firm his step! Surely there
had never been his like in Crete.
All through that night Ariadne lay awake and thought of the matchless
hero, and grieved that he should be doomed to perish; and then she began
to lay plans for setting him free. At the earliest peep of day she
arose, and while everybody else was asleep, she ran out of the palace
and hurried to the prison. As she was the king's daughter, the jailer
opened the door at her bidding and allowed her to go in. There sat the
seven youths and the seven maidens on the ground, but they had not lost
hope. She took Theseus aside and whispered to him. She told him of a
plan which she had made to save him; and Theseus promised her that, when
he had slain the Minotaur, he would carry her away with him to Athens
where she should live with him always. Then she gave him a sharp sword,
and hid it underneath his cloak, telling him that with it alone could he
hope to slay the Minotaur.
"And here is a ball of silken thread," she said. "As soon as you go into
the Labyrinth where the monster is kept, fasten one end of the thread to
the stone doorpost, and then unwind it as you go along. When you have
slain the Minotaur, you have only to follow the thread and it will lead
you back to the door. In the meanwhile I will see that your ship is
ready to sail, and then I will wait for you at the door of the
Labyrinth."
[Illustration: "THE JAILER OPENED THE DOOR AT HER BIDDING."]
Theseus thanked the beautiful princess and promised her again that if he
should live to go back to Athens she should go with him and be his
wife. Then with a prayer to Athena, Ariadne hastened away.