it ready against the
transgressor, and now hath the arrow sped to the mark! Evil was the day
when Paris shamed the table of his host, stealing the wife of his
bosom! Evil the hour when she went, as one that goeth lightly and
carelessly, through the gates of Troy, and brought with her the dowry of
destruction and death. Sorrow she left behind her in her home; the
desolate couch and the empty hall, for here, the grace of the shapely
statues mocked her husband's grief with the stony stare of their
loveless eyes, and there, but the empty joy remained that dwells in the
dreams of the night. Aye! and a sorrow she left that was greater than
this. For the heroes went forth from the land of Greece, valiant and
wise and true; and lo! all that Ares, the changer, but not of money,
sendeth back is a handful of ashes shut in an urn of brass! Therefore
there is wrath in the city against the sons of Atreus, the leaders of
the host; nor does the vengeance of the Gods forget the shedder of
blood."

But while they talked thus among themselves, some yet doubting whether
the thing were true, cried one of them, "Now shall we know the certainty
of this matter, for here cometh a herald with leaves of olive on his
head, and he hath dust on his garments and mire on his feet, as one who
cometh from a journey."

Then the herald, whose name was Talthybius, came to the place where they
had assembled, and when he had saluted Zeus and Apollo, whom, having
been an enemy at Troy, he would fain have as friend, and Hermes, who was
the god of his heralds' craft he said, "Know ye all that King Agamemnon
hath come, having, by the help of Zeus, executed judgment to the full
against Troy and her children, for the evil which they wrought against
the Gods and against this land."

Then he told the elders what things they had suffered, first on sea,
being crowded together on shipboard; and then on land, having their
lodging near to the walls of their enemies, and under the open canopy of
heaven, being drenched with rains and dews, and frozen with snows from
Mount Ida, and burnt with the sun in the windless days of summer. "But
now," he said, "these things are past and gone. And we will nail the
spoils of Troy in the temples of the Gods, to be a memorial for them
that shall come after. But let the people rejoice, and praise their
King and his captains."

[Illustration: THE EMPTY JOY THAT DWELLS IN THE DREAMS OF THE NIGHT.]

Then came forth Queen Clytaemnestra