hrace, a part of Europe opposite Troy, and Priam was chief of all
princes on his side of the sea, as Agamemnon was chief king in Greece.
Priam had many beautiful things; he had a vine made of gold, with golden
leaves and clusters, and he had the swiftest horses, and many strong and
brave sons; the strongest and bravest was named Hector, and the youngest
and most beautiful was named Paris.

There was a prophecy that Priam's wife would give birth to a burning
torch, so, when Paris was born, Priam sent a servant to carry the baby
into a wild wood on Mount Ida, and leave him to die or be eaten by
wolves and wild cats. The servant left the child, but a shepherd found
him, and brought him up as his own son. The boy became as beautiful, for
a boy, as Helen was for a girl, and was the best runner, and hunter, and
archer among the country people. He was loved by the beautiful Oenone,
a nymph--that is, a kind of fairy--who dwelt in a cave among the woods
of Ida. The Greeks and Trojans believed in these days that such fair
nymphs haunted all beautiful woodland places, and the mountains, and
wells, and had crystal palaces, like mermaids, beneath the waves of the
sea. These fairies were not mischievous, but gentle and kind. Sometimes
they married mortal men, and Oenone was the bride of Paris, and hoped
to keep him for her own all the days of his life.

It was believed that she had the magical power of healing wounded men,
however sorely they were hurt. Paris and Oenone lived most happily
together in the forest; but one day, when the servants of Priam had
driven off a beautiful bull that was in the herd of Paris, he left the
hills to seek it, and came into the town of Troy. His mother, Hecuba,
saw him, and looking at him closely, perceived that he wore a ring which
she had tied round her baby's neck when he was taken away from her soon
after his birth. Then Hecuba, beholding him so beautiful, and knowing
him to be her son, wept for joy, and they all forgot the prophecy that
he would be a burning torch of fire, and Priam gave him a house like
those of his brothers, the Trojan princes.

The fame of beautiful Helen reached Troy, and Paris quite forgot unhappy
Oenone, and must needs go to see Helen for himself. Perhaps he meant
to try to win her for his wife, before her marriage. But sailing was
little understood in these times, and the water was wide, and men were
often driven for years out of their course, to Egypt, and Africa, and
f