ay off saw him and
said, "This, Diomed, is the man, and these are the horses about which
Dolon whom we killed told us. Do your very utmost; dally not about your
armour, but loose the horses at once--or else kill the men yourself,
while I see to the horses."

Thereon Minerva put courage into the heart of Diomed, and he smote them
right and left. They made a hideous groaning as they were being hacked
about, and the earth was red with their blood. As a lion springs
furiously upon a flock of sheep or goats when he finds them without
their shepherd, so did the son of Tydeus set upon the Thracian soldiers
till he had killed twelve. As he killed them Ulysses came and drew them
aside by their feet one by one, that the horses might go forward freely
without being frightened as they passed over the dead bodies, for they
were not yet used to them. When the son of Tydeus came to the king, he
killed him too (which made thirteen), as he was breathing hard, for by
the counsel of Minerva an evil dream, the seed of Oeneus, hovered that
night over his head. Meanwhile Ulysses untied the horses, made them
fast one to another and drove them off, striking them with his bow, for
he had forgotten to take the whip from the chariot. Then he whistled as
a sign to Diomed.

But Diomed stayed where he was, thinking what other daring deed he
might accomplish. He was doubting whether to take the chariot in which
the king's armour was lying, and draw it out by the pole, or to lift
the armour out and carry it off; or whether again, he should not kill
some more Thracians. While he was thus hesitating Minerva came up to
him and said, "Get back, Diomed, to the ships or you may be driven
thither, should some other god rouse the Trojans."

Diomed knew that it was the goddess, and at once sprang upon the
horses. Ulysses beat them with his bow and they flew onward to the
ships of the Achaeans.

But Apollo kept no blind look-out when he saw Minerva with the son of
Tydeus. He was angry with her, and coming to the host of the Trojans he
roused Hippocoon, a counsellor of the Thracians and a noble kinsman of
Rhesus. He started up out of his sleep and saw that the horses were no
longer in their place, and that the men were gasping in their
death-agony; on this he groaned aloud, and called upon his friend by
name. Then the whole Trojan camp was in an uproar as the people kept
hurrying together, and they marvelled at the deeds of the heroes who
had now got away t