the Goddess of Love
had come to save the God of War. They fled this way and that, or stood
drunken with the sight of beauty, and were dashed down by the horses and
crushed of the chariot wheels. Now she had passed the gates, and after
her poured the host of Pharaoh. Now Rei reined up the horses by the
broken chariot of the Wanderer, and now the Wanderer, with a shout of
joy, had sprung into the chariot of Helen.

"And art thou come to be with me in my last battle?" he whispered in her
ear. "Art thou indeed that Argive Helen whom I love, or am I drunk with
the blood of men and blind with the sheen of spears, and is this the
vision of a man doomed to die?"

"It is no vision, Odysseus, for I am Helen's self," she answered gently.
"I have learned all the truth, and knowing thy fault, count it but a
little thing. Yet because thou didst forget the words of the immortal
Goddess, who, being my foe now and for ever, set this cunning snare for
thee, the doom is on thee, that Helen shall not be thine in this space
of life. For thou fightest in thy last battle, Odysseus. On! see thy
hosts clamour to be led, and there the foe hangs black as storm and
shoots out the lightning of his spears. On, Odysseus, on! that the doom
may be accomplished, and the word of the Ghost fulfilled!"

Then the Wanderer turned and called to the Captains, and the Captains
called to the soldiers and set them in array, and following the
blood-red Star they rolled down upon the gathered foe as the tide rolls
upon the rocks when the breath of the gale is strong; and as the waters
leap and gather till the rocks are lost in the surge, so the host
of Pharaoh leapt upon the foe and swallowed them up. And ever in the
forefront of the war blazed the Red Star on Helen's breast, and ever the
sound of her singing pierced the din of death.

Now the host of the Nine-bow barbarians was utterly destroyed, and the
host of Pharaoh came up against the wall that was set about the camp
of the Achaeans to guard their ships, and at its head came the golden
chariot wherein were the Wanderer and Helen. The Captains of the Achaeans
looked wondering from their wall, watching the slaughter of their
allies.

"Now, who is this?" cried a Captain, "who is this clad in golden armour
fashioned like our own, who leads the host of Pharaoh to victory?"

Then a certain aged leader of men looked forth and answered:

"Such armour I have known indeed, and such a man once wore it. The
armo