the dead prophet may be fulfilled.
Yet first shalt thou lie in the arms of the golden Helen."

The Wanderer answered:

"Queen, how may this be, for I am alone on a seagirt isle, and I have no
ship and no companions to speed me over the great gulf of the sea?"

Then the voice answered:

"Fear not! the gods can bring to pass even greater things than these. Go
from my house, and lie down to sleep in my holy ground, within the noise
of the wash of the waves. There sleep, and take thy rest! Thy strength
shall come back to thee, and before the setting of the new sun thou
shalt be sailing on the path to The World's Desire. But first drink from
the chalice on my altar. Fare thee well!"

The voice died into silence, like the dying of music. The Wanderer awoke
and lifted his head, but the light had faded, and the temple was grey in
the first waking of the dawn. Yet there, on the altar where no cup had
been, stood a deep chalice of gold, full of red wine to the brim. This
the Wanderer lifted and drained--a draught of Nepenthe, the magic cup
that puts trouble out of mind. As he drank, a wave of sweet hope went
over his heart, and buried far below it the sorrow of remembrance, and
the trouble of the past, and the longing desire for loves that were no
more.

With a light step he went forth like a younger man, taking the two
spears in his hand, and the bow upon his back, and he lay down beneath a
great rock that looked toward the deep, and there he slept.

III

THE SLAYING OF THE SIDONIANS

Morning broke in the East. A new day dawned upon the silent sea, and on
the world of light and sound. The sunrise topped the hill at last, and
fell upon the golden raiment of the Wanderer where he slept, making it
blaze like living fire. As the sun touched him, the prow of a black ship
stole swiftly round the headland, for the oarsmen drove her well with
the oars. Any man who saw her would have known her to be a vessel of
the merchants of Sidon--the most cunning people and the greediest of
gain--for on her prow were two big-headed shapes of dwarfs, with gaping
mouths and knotted limbs. Such gods as those were worshipped by the
Sidonians. She was now returning from Albion, an isle beyond the pillars
of Heracles and the gates of the great sea, where much store of tin is
found; and she had rich merchandise on board. On the half-deck beside
the steersman was the captain, a thin, keen-eyed sailor, who looked
shoreward and saw the sun blaz