Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/446

444 And there, the mild benevolence of age.

Thus gazing long, the silence neither broke;

A solemn scene! at length the father spoke:

"Permit me now, beloved of Jove, to steep

My careful temples in the dew of sleep:

For since the day that numbered with the dead

My hapless son, the dust has been my bed;

Soft sleep a stranger to my weeping eyes;

My only food, my sorrows and my sighs!

Till now, encouraged by the grace you give,

I share thy banquet, and consent to live."

With that, Achilles bade prepare the bed,

With purple soft, and shaggy carpets spread:

Forth, by the flaming lights, they bend their way,

And place the couches, and the coverings lay.

Then he: " Now, father, sleep, but sleep not here;

Consult thy safety, and forgive my fear

Lest any Argive, at this hour awake,

To ask our counsel, or our orders take,

Approaching sudden to our open tent,

Perchance behold thee, and our grace prevent.

Should such report thy honoured person here

The king of. men the ransom might defer.

But say with speed, if aught of thy desire

Remains unasked, what time the rites require

To inter thy Hector? For, so long we stay

Our slaughtering arm, and bid the hosts obey."

"If then thy will permit," the monarch said,

"To finish all due honours to the dead,

This, of thy grace, accord: to thee are known

The fears of Ilion, closed within her town;

And at what distance from our walls aspire

The hills of Ide, and forests for the fire.

Nine days to vent our sorrows I request,

The tenth shall see the funeral and the feast;

The next, to raise his monument be given;

The twelfth we war, if war be doomed by heaven!"

"This thy request," replied the chief, "enjoy:

Till then, our arms suspend the fall of Troy."

Then gave his hand at parting, to prevent

The old man's fears, and turned within the tent;

Where fair Briseïs, bright with blooming charms,

Expects her hero with desiring arms.

But in the porch the king and herald rest,

Sad dreams of care yet wandering in their breast.

Now gods and men the gifts of sleep partake;

Industrious Hermes only was awake.

The king's return revolving in his mind,

To pass the ramparts, and the watch to blind.