From lilac and rose, and lily and tulip, from oleander and strawberry-tree, all old friends in the gardens of the valleys about the city of David, the air, lingering or in haste, loaded itself with exhalations day and night; and that nothing might be wanting to the happiness of the nymphs and naiads, down through the flower-lighted shadows of the mass a brook went its course gently, and by many winding ways.
Out of the thicket, as he proceeded, on his right and left, issued the cry of the pigeon and the cooing of turtle-doves; blackbirds waited for him, and bided his coming close; a nightingale kept its place fearless, though he passed in arm's-length; a quail ran before him at his feet, whistling to the brood she was leading, and as he paused for them to get out of his way, a figure crawled from a bed of honeyed musk brilliant with balls of golden blossoms.
Ben-Hur was startled.

Had he, indeed, been permitted to see a satyr at home?
The creature looked up at him, and showed in its teeth a hooked pruning-knife; he smiled at his own scare, and, lo! the charm was evolved! Peace without fear--peace a universal condition--that it was! He sat upon the ground beneath a citron-tree, which spread its gray roots sprawling to receive a branch of the brook.

The nest of a titmouse hung close to the bubbling water, and the tiny creature looked out of the door of the nest into his eyes.

"Verily, the bird is interpreting to me," he thought.

"It says, 'I am not afraid of you, for the law of this happy place is Love.'" The charm of the Grove seemed plain to him; he was glad, and determined to render himself one of the lost in Daphne.