and straight
to my father's palace. All fled before him, and the strongest warriors
quailed beneath his glance. Here, in this very court, he slew my
father and my brothers with his terrible arrows. I myself would have
fallen before his wrath, had not my sister, fair Hesione, pleaded for
my life.

"'I spare his life,' said Hercules, in answer to her prayers, 'for he
is but a lad. Yet he must be my slave until you have paid a price for
him, and thus redeemed him.'

"Then Hesione took the golden veil from her head, and gave it to the
hero as my purchase price. And thenceforward I was called Priam, or
the purchased; for the name which my mother gave me was Podarkes, or
the fleet-footed.

"After this Hercules and his heroes went on board their ships and
sailed back across the sea, leaving me alone in my father's halls. For
they took fair Hesione with them, and carried her to Salamis, to be the
wife of Telamon, the father of mighty Ajax. There, through these long
years she has lived in sorrow, far removed from home and friends and
the scenes of her happy childhood. And now that the hero Telamon, to
whom she was wedded, lives no longer, I ween that her life is indeed a
cheerless one."

"When Priam had finished his tale, he drew his seat still nearer mine,
and looked into my face with anxious, beseeching eyes. Then he said,
'I have long wished to send a ship across the sea to bring my sister
back to Troy. A dark-prowed vessel, built for speed and safety, lies
now at anchor in the harbor, and a picked crew is ready to embark at
any moment. And here is my son Paris, handsome and brave, who is
anxious to make voyage to Salamis, to seek unhappy Hesione. Yet our
seamen have never ventured far from home, and they know nothing of the
dangers of the deep, nor do they feel sure they can find their way to
Greece. And so we have a favor to ask of you; and that is, that when
your ship sails to-morrow, ours may follow in its wake across the sea."

Here Menelaus paused as if in deep thought, and not until his listeners
begged him to go on, did he resume his story.

[1]Menelaus, king of Lacedaemon, was the husband of Helen, the most
beautiful woman in the world. At the time of his marriage to Helen all
the princes of Greece had vowed to support him against any enemy who
should attempt to defraud him of his rights. This and the following
story tell of his visit to Troy and its results.

PARIS AND HELEN

MEN