e dawn. Theseus arose, threw off his
mantle and smock, and plunged into the cold pool of the burn, and then
he drank a little of the wine, and ate of the bread and cold meat, and
set himself to move the stone. At the first effort, into which he put
all his strength, the stone stirred. With the second he felt it rise a
little way from the ground, and then he lifted with all the might in
his heart and body, and rolled the stone clean over.

[Illustration: THESEUS TRIES TO LIFT THE STONE.]

Beneath it there was nothing but the fresh turned soil, but in a hollow
of the foot of the rock, which now lay upper-most, there was a wrapping
of purple woollen cloth, that covered something. Theseus tore out the
packet, unwrapped the cloth, and found within it a wrapping of white
linen. This wrapping was in many folds, which he undid, and at last he
found a pair of shoon, such as kings wear, adorned with gold, and also
the most beautiful sword that he had ever seen. The handle was of clear
rock crystal, and through the crystal you could see gold, inlaid with
pictures of a lion hunt done in different shades of gold and silver. The
sheath was of leather, with patterns in gold nails, and the blade was of
bronze, a beautiful pattern ran down the centre to the point, the blade
was straight, and double edged, supple, sharp, and strong. Never had
Theseus seen so beautiful a sword, nor one so well balanced in his hand.

He saw that this was a king's sword; and he thought that it had not been
wrought in Greece, for in Greece was no sword-smith that could do such
work. Examining it very carefully he found characters engraved beneath
the hilt, not letters such as the Greeks used in later times, but such
Cretan signs as Connidas had taught him to read, for many a weary hour,
when he would like to have been following the deer in the forest.

Theseus pored over these signs till he read:

Icmalius me made. Of Aegeus of Athens am I.

Now he knew the secret. His father was Aegeus, the king of Athens.
Theseus had heard of him and knew that he yet lived, a sad life full of
trouble. For Aegeus had no child by his Athenian wife, and the fifty
sons of his brother, Pallas (who were called the Pallantidae) despised
him, and feasted all day in his hall, recklessly and fiercely, robbing
the people, and Aegeus had no power in his own kingdom.

'Methinks that my father has need of me!' said Theseus to himself. Then
he wrapped up the sword and shoon in th