ht hand. He added, in a loud voice, looking all round
the hall: 'This is my son, Theseus, the slayer of monsters, and his is
the power in the house!'

The sons of Pallas grew pale with fear and anger, but not one dared to
make an insolent answer. They knew that they were hated by the people
of Athens, except some young men of their own sort, and they did not
dare to do anything against the man who had slain Periphetes and Sinis,
and Cercyon, and Sciron, and, in the midst of his paid soldiers, had
struck off the head of Procrustes. Silent all through dinner sat the
sons of Pallas, and, when they had eaten, they walked out silently, and
went to a lonely place, where they could make their plans without being
overheard.

Theseus went with Medea into her fragrant chamber, and they spake a few
words together. Then Medea took a silver bowl, filled it with water,
and, drawing her dark silken mantle over her head, she sat gazing into
the bowl. When she had gazed silently for a long time she said: 'Some of
them are going towards Sphettus, where their father dwells, to summon
his men in arms, and some are going to Gargettus on the other side of
the city, to lie in ambush, and cut us off when they of Sphettus assail
us. They will attack the palace just before the dawn. Now I will go
through the town, and secretly call the trusty men to arm and come to
defend the palace, telling them that the son of Aegeus, the man who
cleared the ways, is with us. And do you take your chariot, and drive
speedily to the sons of Phytalus, and bring all their spears, chariot
men and foot men, and place them in ambush around the village of
Gargettus, where one band of the Pallantidae will lie to-night till dawn.
The rest you know.'

Theseus nodded and smiled. He drove at full speed to Aphidnae, where the
sons of Phytalus armed their men, and by midnight they lay hidden in the
woods round the village of Gargettus. When the stars had gone onward,
and the second of the three watches of the night was nearly past, they
set bands of men to guard every way from the little town, and Theseus
with another band rushed in, and slew the men of the sons of Pallas
around their fires, some of them awake, but most of them asleep. Those
who escaped were taken by the bands who watched the ways, and when the
sky was now clear at the earliest dawn, Theseus led his companions to
the palace of Aegeus, where they fell furiously upon the rear of the men
from Sphettus, who w