d he bade the groom do the like.
Then he drove slowly, watching the bushes and underwood beside the way.
Soon he saw the smoke going up from the roof of a great castle high in
the woods beside the road; and on the road there was a man waiting.
Theseus, as he drove towards him, saw the glitter of armour in the
underwood, and the setting sun shone red on a spear-point above the
leaves. 'Here is our man,' he said to the groom, and pulled up his
horses beside the stranger. He loosened his sword in the sheath, and
leaped out of the chariot, holding the reins in his left hand, and bowed
courteously to the man, who was tall, weak-looking, and old, with grey
hair and a clean-shaven face, the colour of ivory. He was clad like a
king, in garments of dark silk, with gold bracelets, and gold rings that
clasped the leather gaiters on his legs, and he smiled and smiled, and
rubbed his hands, while he looked to right and left, and not at Theseus.

'I am fortunate, fair sir,' said he to Theseus, 'for I love to entertain
strangers, with whom goes the favour and protection of Zeus. Surely
strangers are dear to all men, and holy! You, too, are not unlucky, for
the night is falling, and the ways will be dark and dangerous. You will
sup and sleep with me, and to-night I can give you a bed that is well
spoken of, for its nature is such that it fits all men, the short and
the tall, and you are of the tallest.'

'To-night, fair sir,' quoth Theseus, 'your own bed will be full long for
you.' And, drawing the sword of Aegeus, he cut sheer through the neck of
Procrustes at one blow, and the head of the man flew one way, and his
body fell another way.

Then with a swing of his hand Theseus turned his shield from his front
to his back, and leaped into the chariot. He lashed the horses forward
with a cry, while the groom also turned his own shield from front to
back; and the arrows of the bowmen of Procrustes rattled on the bronze
shields as the chariot flew along, or struck the sides and the seat of
it. One arrow grazed the flank of a horse, and the pair broke into a
wild gallop, while the yells of the bowmen grew faint in the distance.
At last the horses slackened in their pace as they climbed a hill, and
from the crest of it Theseus saw the lights in the city of Aphidnae.

'Now, my friend,' he said to the groom, 'the way is clear to Athens, and
on your homeward road with the horses and the chariot you shall travel
well guarded. By the splendour