el told him as much, and that they
purposed to execute their design upon him that very night. In this
distress, the poor man (as if inspired by his good Genius) girds about
him his heretofore victorious, now his mourning cloak, with a brave
resolution to compose and sing his own epitaph, as the swans when
they apprehend the approaches of death are reported to do. Being thus
habited, he told the seamen he was minded to commit the protection of
himself and his fellow-passengers to the providence of the gods in a
Pythian song; then standing upon the poop near the side of the vessel,
and having invoked the help and assistance of all the sea gods, he
strikes up briskly and sings to his harp. Before he had half finished
his carol, the sun set, and he could discern Peloponnesus before him.
The seamen thought it tedious to tarry for the night, wherefore they
resolved to murder him immediately, to which purpose they unsheathed
their swords. Seeing this, and observing the steersman covering his
face, he leaped into the sea as far as he could; but before his body
sunk he found himself supported by dolphins. At first he was surprised
with care and trouble; but by and by, finding himself marching forward
with much ease and security, and observing a whole shoal of dolphins
flocking about him and joyfully contending which should appear most
forward and serviceable in his preservation, and discerning the vessel
at a considerable distance behind, he apprehended the nimbleness of
his porters; then, and not till then, his fears forsook him, and he
professed he was neither so fearful of death nor desirous of life as
he was full of ambitious desire, that he might show to all men that he
stood in the grace and favor of the gods, and that he might himself have
a firm belief in them. In his passage, as he lifted up his eyes toward
heaven, and beheld the stars glittering and twinkling and the moon full
and glorious, and the sea calm all about her as she seemed to rise out
of it, and yielding him (as it were) a beaten track; he declared,
he thought God's justice had more eyes than one, and that with these
innumerable eyes the gods beheld what was acted here below both by
sea and land. With such contemplations he performed his voyage less
anxiously, which much abated the tediousness thereof and was a comfort
and refreshment to him in his solitude and danger. At last, arriving
near the promontory which was both steep and high, and fearing danger
in