two roads met, and summon everybody to court.
Thither, accordingly, came a great multitude of good-for-nothing
vagabonds, all of whom, out of pure love of mischief, would have been
glad if Perseus had met with some ill-hap in his encounter with the
Gorgons. If there were any better people in the island (as I really
hope there may have been, although the story tells nothing about any
such), they stayed quietly at home, minding their business and taking
care of their little children. Most of the inhabitants, at all events,
ran as fast as they could to the palace and shoved and pushed and
elbowed one another in their eagerness to get near a balcony on which
Perseus showed himself, holding the embroidered wallet in his hand.

On a platform within full view of the balcony sat the mighty King
Polydectes, amid his evil counselors, and with his flattering
courtiers in a semi-circle round about him. Monarch, counselors,
courtiers and subjects all gazed eagerly toward Perseus.

"Show us the head! Show us the head!" shouted the people; and there
was a fierceness in their cry as if they would tear Perseus to pieces
unless he should satisfy them with what he had to show. "Show us the
head of Medusa with the snaky locks!"

A feeling of sorrow and pity came over the youthful Perseus.

"O King Polydectes," cried he, "and ye many people, I am very loath to
show you the Gorgon's head!"

"Ah, the villain and coward!" yelled the people more fiercely than
before. "He is making game of us! He has no Gorgon's head! Show us the
head if you have it, or we will take your own head for a football!"

The evil counselors whispered bad advice in the king's ear; the
courtiers murmured, with one consent, that Perseus had shown
disrespect to their royal lord and master; and the great King
Polydectes himself waved his hand and ordered him, with the stern,
deep voice of authority, on his peril, to produce the head.

"Show me the Gorgon's head or I will cut off your own!"

And Perseus sighed.

"This instant," repeated Polydectes, "or you die!"

"Behold it then!" cried Perseus in a voice like the blast of a
trumpet.

And suddenly holding up the head, not an eyelid had time to wink
before the wicked King Polydectes, his evil counselors and all his
fierce subjects were no longer anything but the mere images of a
monarch and his people. They were all fixed forever in the look and
attitude of that moment! At the first glimpse of the terrible head