`` 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 counsellors 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 bead . `` 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 counsellors , 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 of Medusa , they whitened into marble !
And Perseus thrust the head back into his wallet , and went to tell his dear mother that she need no longer be afraid XXXXX the wicked King Polydectes .
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