on the tower on the wall, saw all that was
done and she broke into a great cry. And all the women of Troy took up
the cry and wailed for Prince Hector who had guarded them and theirs
from the foe. Andromache, his wife, did not know the terrible thing
that had happened. She was in an inner chamber of Hector's house,
weaving a great web of cloth and broidering it with flowers, and she had
ordered her handmaidens to heat water for the bath, so that Hector might
refresh himself when he came in from the fight. But now she heard the
wail of the women of Troy. Fear came upon her, for she knew that such
wailing was for the best of their warriors.'

'She ran from her chamber and out into the street and came to the
battlements where the people stood watching. She saw the chariot of
Achilles dashing off towards the ships and she knew that it dragged the
dead body of Hector. Then darkness came before her eyes and she fainted
away. Her husband's sisters and his brothers' wives thronged round her
and lifted her up. And at last her life came back to her and she wailed
for Hector, "O my husband," she cried, "for misery were we two born! Now
thou hast been slain by Achilles and I am left husbandless! And ah, woe
for our young child! Hard-hearted strangers shall oppress him when he
lives amongst people that care not for him or his. And he will come
weeping to me, his widowed mother, who will live forever sorrowful
thinking upon where thou liest, Hector, by the ships of those who slew
thee."'

'So Andromache spoke and all the women of Troy joined in her grief and
wept for great Hector who had protected their city.'

XX

Now that Hector was dead, King Priam, his father, had only one thought
in his mind, and that was to get his body from Achilles and bring it
into the City so that it might be treated with the honour befitting the
man who had been the guardian of Troy. And while he sat in his grief,
thinking of his noble son lying so far from those who would have wept
over him, behold! there appeared before him Iris, the messenger of Zeus,
the greatest of the Gods. Iris said to him, "King, thou mayst ransom
from Achilles the body of Hector, thy noble son. Go thou thyself to the
hut of Achilles and bring with thee great gifts to offer him. Take with
thee a wagon that thou mayst bring back in it the body, and let only one
old henchman go with thee to drive the mules."'

'Then Priam, when he heard this, arose and went into his tre