hands on his
eyes and made him fall asleep.

Next day the wooers came to the palace, and with rough jest and rude
word they greeted Odysseus.

"Who harms this man must fight with me," said Telemachus, and at that
the wooers shouted with laughter.

But a stranger who sat among them cried out in a voice of fear:

"I see your hands and knees shrouded in blackness! I see your cheeks
wet with tears! The walls and the pillars drip blood; the porch is
full of shadows, and pale ghosts are hastening out of the gray mist
that fills the palace."

At this the wooers laughed the more, for they thought the man was mad.
But, as in a dream, he had seen truly what was to come to pass.

Weeping, Penelope then brought forth from the armory the great bow
with which Odysseus had shot in years that were past. Her heart was
full of love for Odysseus, and she could not bear to wed another.

Telemachus then threw aside his red cloak and ranged out the bronze
axes.

One by one the wooers tried to move the great bow and make it drive a
swift arrow before it. One by one they failed.

And when it seemed as if no man there was strong enough to move it,
Odysseus took it in his hands, and between each axe he shot an arrow.
When the last arrow was shot he tore off his rags, and in a voice that
rang through the palace he cried to Telemachus: "Now is it time to
prepare supper for the wooers! Now, at last, is this terrible trial
ended. I go to shoot at another mark!"

With that he shot an arrow at the wooer who had ever been the most
insolent and the most cruel. It smote him in the throat, his blood
dripped red on the ground, and he fell dead.

The others gave a great cry of rage, but Odysseus looked at them with
burning eyes, and with a voice that made them tremble he cried:

"Ye dogs! ye said I should never return, and, like the traitors ye
are, ye have wasted my goods and insulted my queen. But now death has
come for you, and none shall escape."

In vain did the cowards, their faces pale with fear, beg for mercy.
Mercy there was none that day. It was useless for those who drew their
swords and rushed on Odysseus to try to slay him, for ere their swords
could touch him, his bow had driven sharp arrows into their hearts.

One of the servants of the palace treacherously climbed into the
armory and brought spears and shields and helmets for the wooers. But
even that did not daunt Odysseus and his son. Telemachus, with his
spear, slew man