is known, and my death is sure. And I will give
you the Fleece of Gold for the price of my life.'

Then Jason swore that she should be his wife, and more dear to him than
all the world. So she went aboard their boat, and swiftly they rowed up
stream to the dark wood where the dragon who never sleeps lay guarding
the Fleece of Gold. There she landed, and Jason, and Orpheus with his
harp, and through the wood they went, but that old serpent saw them
coming, and hissed so loud that women wakened in Colchis town, and
children cried to their mothers. But Orpheus struck softly on his harp,
and he sang a hymn to Sleep, bidding him come and cast a slumber on the
dragon's wakeful eyes. This was the song he sang:

Sleep! King of Gods and men!
Come to my call again,
Swift over field and fen,
Mountain and deep;
Come, bid the waves be still;
Sleep, streams on height and hill;
Beasts, birds, and snakes, thy will
Conquereth, Sleep!
Come on thy golden wings,
Come ere the swallow sings,
Lulling all living things,
Fly they or creep!
Come with thy leaden wand,
Come with thy kindly hand,
Soothing on sea or land
Mortals that weep.
Come from the cloudy west,
Soft over brain and breast,
Bidding the Dragon rest,
Come to me, Sleep!

This was Orpheus's song, and he sang so sweetly that the bright, small
eyes of the dragon closed, and all his hard coils softened and uncurled.
Then Jason set his foot on the dragon's neck and hewed off his head, and
lifted down the Golden Fleece from the sacred oak tree, and it shone
like a golden cloud at dawn. He waited not to wonder at it, but he and
Medea and Orpheus hurried through the wet wood-paths to the ship, and
threw it on board, cast a cloak over it, and bade the heroes sit down to
the oars, half of them, but the others to take their shields and stand
each beside the oarsmen, to guard them from the arrows of the Colchians.
Then he cut the stern cables with his sword, and softly they rowed,
under the bank, down the dark river to the sea. But the hissing of the
dragon had already awakened the Colchians, and lights were flitting by
the palace windows, and Aetes was driving in his chariot with all his
men down to the banks of the river. Then their arrows fell like hail
about the ship, but they rebounded from the shields of the heroes, and
the swift ship sped over the bar, and leaped as she felt the first waves
of the salt sea.

[Ill