em equal recompense."

"And I," said the Prince, "am no lover of these men. For when Achilles
was dead--"

"How sayest thou? Is the son of Peleus dead?"

"Yea; but it was the hand of a God and not of a man that slew him."

"A mighty warrior slain by a mighty foe! But say on."

"Ulysses, and Phoenix who was my sire's foster-father, came in a ship
to fetch me; and when I was come to the camp they even greeted me
kindly, and sware that it was Achilles' self they saw, so like was I to
my sire. And, my mourning ended, I sought the sons of Atreus and asked
of them the arms of my father, but they made answer that they had given
them to Ulysses; and Ulysses, chancing to be there, affirmed that they
had done well, seeing that he had saved them from the enemy. And when I
could prevail nothing, I sailed away in great wrath."

"'Tis even," Philoctetes made reply, "as I should have judged of them.
But I marvel that the Greater Ajax endured to see such doings."

"Ah! but he was already dead."

"This is grievous news. And how fares old Nestor of Pylos?"

"But ill, for his eldest born, Antilochus, is dead."

"I could have spared any rather than these two, Ajax and Antilochus. But
Patroclus, where was he when thy father died?"

"He was already slain. For 'tis ever thus that war taketh the true man
and leaveth the false. But of these things I have had enough and more
than enough. Henceforth my island of Scyros, though it be rocky and
small, shall content me. And now, Prince Philoctetes, I go, for the wind
favours us, and we must take the occasion which the Gods give us."

And when Philoctetes knew that Neoptolemus was about to depart, he
besought him with many prayers that he would take him also on his ship;
for the voyage, he said, would not be of more than a single day. "Put
me," he said, "where thou wilt, in forecastle, or hold, or stern, and
set me on shore even as it may seem best to thee. Only take me from this
place." And the sailors also made entreaty to the Prince that he would
do so; and he, after a while, made as if he consented to their prayers.

But while Philoctetes was yet thanking him and his companions, there
came two men to the cave, of whom one was a sailor in the Prince's ship,
and the other a merchant. And the merchant said that he was sailing from
Troy to his home, and that chancing to come to the island, and knowing
that the Prince was there, he judged it well to tell him his news; 'twas
briefly this,