The story of his change shall here be told. In Thessaly there lived a nymph of old, Coronis named; a peerless maid she shined, Confess’d the fairest of the fairer kind. Apollo loved her till her guilt he knew, While true she was, or while he thought her true; “But his own bird, the raven, chanced to find The false one with a secret rival join’d. Coronis begg’d him to suppress the tale; But could not with repeated prayers prevail. His milk-white pinions to the god he plied; The busy daw flew with him side by side, And, by a thousand teasing questions, drew The important secret from him as they flew. The daw gave honest counsel, though despised, And, tedious in her tattle, thus advised: