ches in with a torch, and asked her if all was well. She
told him what she had done; and Eutyches came close with the torch and
saw that the King was dead. Then he said, "Before dawn we must depart,
thou and I."

She said, "Where can I go? What will become of me?"

He gazed upon her, saying, "I will love thee for ever, as I have these
twelve years and more."

She said to him, "I will go now if thou wilt help me, Eutyches."

He said, "I will help thee when I can."

Then Helen looked at him, and saw his eyes, and was horribly afraid. She
said, "I know not whether I can trust thee;" but he answered her:

"Have I not proved that to thee? Did I not give thee the sword with
which to free thyself?"

"Yea," she said, "but have I freed myself indeed?"

He stretched out his arms to her, saying, "Free? Yes, thou art free,
most glorious one. And now I too am free to love thee."

But she used craft in her fear, saying, "I am soiled with wicked blood.
Stay thou here, Eutyches, and I will purify myself, and be as thou
wouldst have me."

And he let her go with a kiss, saying, "Be quick. Have I not waited
twelve years?"

Then Helen arose and went out of the chamber, and out of the house into
the garden. And she stood before the altar of Artemis Eileithyia, and
prayed before it, saying, "O Holy One, I give thee thanks indeed that
now I know the way of peace." And then she went farther into the grove
of ilex-trees where the altar and the image stood, and took off her
girdle and bound it straightly round her neck. And she clomb the tree,
and tied the end of the girdle about the branch thereof; and afterward
cast herself down, and hung there quite still. And the cord which she
used was of silk, and had girt her raiment about her, below her fair
breasts.

THE END

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