e was come, for the walls of the
temple were high and the gates not easy to be broken through.
Therefore he would have fled to the ship, but Pylades consented not,
seeing that they were not wont to go back from that to which they had
set their hand, but counseled that they should hide themselves during
the day in a cave that was hard by the seashore, not near to the ship,
lest search should be made for them, and that by night they should
creep into the temple by a space that there was between the pillars,
and carry off the image, and so depart.

So they hid themselves in a cavern by the sea. But it chanced that
certain herdsmen were feeding their oxen in pastures hard by the
shore; one of these, coming near to the cavern, spied the young men as
they sat therein, and stealing back to his fellows, said, "See ye not
them that sit yonder. Surely they are gods;" for they were exceeding
tall and fair to look upon. And some began to pray to them, thinking
that they might be the Twin Brethren or of the sons of Nereus. But
another laughed and said, "Not so; these are shipwrecked men who hide
themselves, knowing that it is our custom to sacrifice strangers to
our gods." To him the others gave consent and said that they should
take the men prisoners that they might be sacrificed to the gods.

But while they delayed, Orestes ran forth from the cave, for the
madness was come upon him, crying out, "Pylades, seest thou not that
dragon from hell; and that who would kill me with the serpents of her
mouth, and this again that breatheth out fire, holding my mother in
her arms to cast her upon me?" And first he bellowed as a bull and
then howled as a dog, for the Furies, he said, did so. But the
herdsmen, when they saw this, gathered together in great fear and sat
down. But when Orestes drew his sword and leapt, as a lion might leap,
into the midst of the herd, slaying the beasts (for he thought in his
madness that he was contending with the Furies), then the herdsmen,
blowing on shells, called to the people of the land; for they feared
the young men, so strong they seemed and valiant. And when no small
number was gathered together, they began to cast stones and javelins
at the two. And now the madness of Orestes began to abate, and Pylades
tended him carefully, wiping away the foam from his mouth and holding
his garments before him that he should not be wounded by the stones.
But when Orestes came to himself and beheld in what straits th