ose heart is not sound, and never will be. But
come, my brother, and sit by me; for thou verily hast suffered most for
me, who am a dog, and for the grievous sin of Paris, upon whom, surely,
Zeus is bringing evil days; he will be, hereafter, a song of scorn in the
mouths of future men, through all time to come."

But noble Hector answered her, "If thou lovest me, dear Helen, bid me not
stay; for I go to succor my friends, who long for me in my absence. But do
thou try and rouse this husband of thine, and bid him overtake me. As for
me, I shall first go to my home, and to my wife and my little son; for who
knoweth whether I shall ever return to them again?"

So spake the glorious Hector, and went his way to his own well-furnished
house; but he found not Andromache there; for she had gone to the tower,
with her fair-robed nurse and with her boy, all bathed in tears. Hector
asked the servants whither the white-armed Andromache was gone; and the
busy matron of the house replied, "She is gone to the tower of holy Troy;
for she heard that the Trojans were defeated, and the Achaians
victorious." Then Hector returned, by the same way, down the wide streets,
and came to the Scaean Gate.

And his peerless wife, even Andromache, daughter of the high-minded
Eetion, king of Cilicia--she whom he had won by countless gifts--came
running to meet him. And with her came the handmaid, the nurse, bearing in
her arms Hector's tender boy, Astyanax, beautiful as the morning star. And
Hector smiled, and looked on his darling boy, while Andromache stood
beside him weeping. And she clasped his hand, and called him by his name.
"O my dear lord, thy dauntless courage will destroy thee! Hast thou no
pity for thy infant child, and for thy hapless wife, who soon will be a
widow? It were far better for me to die, if I lose _thee_; for nevermore
can I know comfort, but only pain and sorrow. For I shall be utterly
alone. I have neither father nor mother; for Eetion, my royal sire, was
slain by great Achilles. And all my seven brothers went down to Hades on
the selfsame day! they too were slain by swift-footed Pelides. But my
mother was smitten in her father's halls, by the gentle arrows of the
archer Artemis. Lo! now, _thou_ art all in all to me, father, mother,
brother, and dearly loved husband! Come, then, take pity on us, and abide
in the tower, and make not thy boy an orphan, and thy wife a widow!"

And the glorious Hector of the glancing helm ans