“Never shall you see my face again,” he cried, “unless you bring me back my little Europa, to gladden me with her smiles and her pretty ways.  Begone, and enter my presence no more, till you come leading her by the hand.”

As King Agenor said this, his eyes flashed fire (for he was a very passionate king), and he looked so terribly angry that the poor boys did not even venture to ask for their suppers, but slunk away out of the palace, and only paused on the steps a moment to consult whither they should go first.  While they were standing there, all in dismay, their mother, Queen Telephassa (who happened not to be by when they told the story to the king), came hurrying after them, and said that she, too, would go in quest of her daughter.

“Oh no, mother!” cried the boys.  “The night is dark, and there is no knowing what troubles and perils we may meet with.”

“Alas! my dear children,” answered poor Queen Telephassa, weeping bitterly, “that is only another reason why I should go with you.  If I should lose you, too, as well as my little Europa, what would become of me?”

“And let me go likewise!” said their playfellow Thasus, who came running to join them.

Thasus was the son of a seafaring person in the neighbourhood; he had been brought up with the young princess, and was their intimate friend, and loved Europa very much; so they consented that he should accompany them.  The whole party, therefore, set forth together; Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix and Thasus clustered round Queen Telephassa, grasping her skirts, and begging her to lean upon their shoulders whenever she felt weary.  In this manner they went down the palace steps, and began a journey which turned out to be a great deal longer than they dreamed of.  The last that they saw of King Agenor, he came to the door, with a servant holding a torch beside him, and called after them into the gathering darkness: 

“Remember!  Never ascend these steps again without the child!”

“Never!” sobbed Queen Telephassa; and the three brothers and Thasus answered, “Never!  Never!  Never!  Never!”

And they kept their word.  Year after year King Agenor sat in the solitude of his beautiful palace, listening in vain for their returning footsteps, hoping to hear the familiar voice of the queen, and the cheerful talk of his sons and their playfellow Thasus, entering the door together, and the sweet, childish accents of little Europa in the midst of them.  But so long a time went by, that, at last, if they had really come, the king would not have known that this was the voice of Telephassa, and these the younger voices that used to make such joyful echoes when the children were playing about the palace.  We must now leave King Agenor to sit on his throne, and must go along with Queen Telephassa and her four youthful companions.