At once each servant braced his armour on;

Around their king a faithful guard they stand.

While yet each shaft flew deathful from his hand:

Chief after chief expired at every wound,

And swell’d the bleeding mountain on the ground.

Soon as his store of flying fates was spent.

Against the wall he set the bow unbent;

And now his shoulders bear the massy shield,

And now his hands two beamy javelins wield:

He frowns beneath his nodding plume, that play’d

O’er the high crest, and cast a dreadful shade.


There stood a window near, whence looking down

From o’er the porch appear’d the subject town.

A double strength of valves secured the place,

A high and narrow, but the only pass:

The cautious king, with all-preventing care,

To guard that outlet, placed Eumaeus there;

When Agelaus thus: “Has none the sense

To mount yon window, and alarm from thence

The neighbour-town? the town shall force the door,

And this bold archer soon shall shoot no more.”

Melanthius then: “That outlet to the gate

So near adjoins, that one may guard the strait.

But other methods of defence remain;

Myself with arms can furnish all the train;

Stores from the royal magazine I bring,

And their own darts shall pierce the prince and king.”


He said; and mounting up the lofty stairs,

Twelve shields, twelve lances, and twelve helmets bears:

All arm, and sudden round the hall appears

A blaze of bucklers, and a wood of spears.


The hero stands oppress’d with mighty woe,

On every side he sees the labour grow;

“Oh cursed event! and oh unlook’d for aid!

Melanthius or the women have betray’d—

Oh my dear son!”—The father with a sigh

Then ceased; the filial virtue made reply;


“Falsehood is folly, and ’tis just to own

The fault committed: this was mine alone;

My haste neglected yonder door to bar,

And hence the villain has supplied their war.

Run, good Eumaeus, then, and (what before

I thoughtless err’d in) well secure that door: