If the figure that guarded Crete was made of brass , then the monarch , who ruled over it , might be thought to have a still harder metal in his breast , and might have been called a man of iron . He bent his shaggy brows upon the poor Athenian victims . Any other mortal , beholding their fresh and tender beauty , and their innocent looks , would have felt himself sitting on thorns until he had made every soul of them happy by bidding them go free as the summer wind . But this immitigable Minos cared only to examine whether they were plump enough to satisfy the Minotaur 's appetite . For my part , I wish he himself had been the only victim ; and the monster would have found him a pretty tough one . One after another , King Minos called these pale , frightened youths and sobbing maidens to his footstool , gave them each a poke in the ribs with his sceptre -LRB- to try whether they were in good flesh or no -RRB- , and dismissed them with a nod to his guards . But when his eyes rested on Theseus , the king looked at him more attentively , because his face was calm and brave . `` Young man , '' asked he , with his stern voice , `` are you not appalled at the certainty of being devoured by this terrible Minotaur ? '' `` I have offered my life in a good cause , '' answered Theseus , `` and therefore I give it freely and gladly . But thou , King Minos , art thou not thyself appalled , who , year after year , hast perpetrated this dreadful wrong , by giving seven innocent youths and as many maidens to be devoured by a monster ? Dost thou not tremble , wicked king , to turn shine eyes inward on shine own heart ? Sitting there on thy golden throne , and in thy robes of majesty , I tell thee to thy face , King Minos , thou art a more hideous monster than the Minotaur himself ! '' `` Aha ! do you think me so ? '' cried the king , laughing in his cruel way . `` To-morrow , at breakfast time , you shall have an opportunity of judging which is the greater monster , the Minotaur or the king ! Take them away , guards ; and let this free-spoken youth be the Minotaur 's first morsel . '' Near the king 's throne -LRB- though I had no time to tell you so before -RRB- stood his daughter Ariadne . She was a beautiful and tender-hearted maiden , and looked at these poor doomed captives with very different feelings from those of the iron-breasted King Minos . She really wept indeed , at the idea of how much human happiness would be needlessly thrown away , by giving so many young people , in the first bloom and rose blossom of their lives , to be eaten up by a creature who , no doubt , would have preferred a fat ox , or even a large pig , to the plumpest of them .
And when she beheld the brave , spirited figure XXXXX Prince Theseus bearing himself so calmly in his terrible peril , she grew a hundred times more pitiful than before .
as at by in of on over though to with