s has spared your life, you seem to have no fear about
sleeping in the thick of your foes. You have paid a great ransom, and
have received the body of your son; were you still alive and a prisoner
the sons whom you have left at home would have to give three times as
much to free you; and so it would be if Agamemnon and the other
Achaeans were to know of your being here."

When he heard this the old man was afraid and roused his servant.
Mercury then yoked their horses and mules, and drove them quickly
through the host so that no man perceived them. When they came to the
ford of eddying Xanthus, begotten of immortal Jove, Mercury went back
to high Olympus, and dawn in robe of saffron began to break over all
the land. Priam and Idaeus then drove on toward the city lamenting and
making moan, and the mules drew the body of Hector. No one neither man
nor woman saw them, till Cassandra, fair as golden Venus standing on
Pergamus, caught sight of her dear father in his chariot, and his
servant that was the city's herald with him. Then she saw him that was
lying upon the bier, drawn by the mules, and with a loud cry she went
about the city saying, "Come hither Trojans, men and women, and look on
Hector; if ever you rejoiced to see him coming from battle when he was
alive, look now on him that was the glory of our city and all our
people."

At this there was not man nor woman left in the city, so great a sorrow
had possessed them. Hard by the gates they met Priam as he was bringing
in the body. Hector's wife and his mother were the first to mourn him:
they flew towards the waggon and laid their hands upon his head, while
the crowd stood weeping round them. They would have stayed before the
gates, weeping and lamenting the livelong day to the going down of the
sun, had not Priam spoken to them from the chariot and said, "Make way
for the mules to pass you. Afterwards when I have taken the body home
you shall have your fill of weeping."

On this the people stood asunder, and made a way for the waggon. When
they had borne the body within the house they laid it upon a bed and
seated minstrels round it to lead the dirge, whereon the women joined
in the sad music of their lament. Foremost among them all Andromache
led their wailing as she clasped the head of mighty Hector in her
embrace. "Husband," she cried, "you have died young, and leave me in
your house a widow; he of whom we are the ill-starred parents is still
a mere child, an