rom the tokens of fire,
as other soothsayers are wont. Wherefore the King gathered together all
that could bear arms, even youths not grown, and old men that were waxed
feeble with age, and bade them fight for the land, for "she," he said,
"gave you birth and reared you, and now asketh that ye help her in this
her need. And though hitherto we have fared well in this war, know ye
for certain, for Tiresias the soothsayer hath said it, that there
cometh a great danger this day upon the city. Wherefore haste ye to the
battlements, and to the towers that are upon the walls, and take your
stand in the gates, and be of good courage, and quit you like men."

[Illustration: THE OATH OF THE SEVEN CHIEFS]

And as he made an end of speaking there ran in one who declared that
even now the enemy was about to assault the city. And after him came a
troop of maidens of Thebes, crying out that the enemy had come forth
from the camp, and that they heard the tramp of many feet upon the
earth, and the rattling of shields, and the noise of many spears. And
they lifted up their voices to the Gods that they should help the city,
to Ares, the god of the golden helmet, that he should defend the land
which in truth was his from old time, and to Father Zeus, and to Pallas,
who was the daughter of Zeus, and to Poseidon, the great ruler of the
sea, and to Aphrodite the Fair, for that she was the mother of their
race, and to Apollo, the wolf-king, that he would be as a devouring wolf
to the enemy, and to Artemis, that she should bend her bow against them,
and to Here, the Queen of heaven, even to all the dwellers in Olympus,
that they should defend the city, and save it.

But the King was very wroth when he heard this outcry, and cried, "Think
ye to make bold the hearts of our men by these lamentations? Now may the
Gods save me from this race of women; for if they be bold no man can
endure their insolence, and if they be afraid they vex both their home
and their country. Even so now do ye help them that are without and
trouble your own people. But hearken to this. He that heareth not my
command, be he man or woman, the people shall stone him. Speak I
plainly?"

"But, O son of Oedipus," the maidens made reply, "we hear the rolling
of the chariot wheels, and the rattling of the axles, and the jingling
of the bridle reins."

"What then?" said the King, "if the ship labour in the sea, and the
helmsman leave the helm and fly to the prow that he may p