Page:The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre.djvu/41

5 — 6]. I will now dismiss thee for a space of thirty days, that thou mayest consider the riddle aright, and thou then shalt receive my daughter to wife: and if thou doest that not, thou shalt suffer the appointed doom." Then was Apollonius sorely grieved, and with his comrades went on shipboard, and rowed till that he came to Tyre.

Verily after that, when Apollonius was gone, Antiochus the king called to him his steward who was called Thaliarchus. "Thaliarchus most trusty minister of all my secrets; knowest thou that Apollonius hath rightly read my riddle? mount now speedily on shipboard, and go after him, and when thou comest to him, then kill thou him, with iron or with poison, that thou mayest receive freedom when thou again comest." Thaliarchus, as soon as he heard that, he took with him both money and poison, and mounted on shipboard, and went after the innocent Apollonius, till that he came to his country: but Apollonius, however, first came to his own, and went into his house, and opened his book-chest, and examined the riddle according to the wisdom of all the philosophers and Chaldeans.

When he found nothing else, save what he erst thought, he said then to himself: "What wilt thou do now, Apollonius? Thou has guessed the king's riddle, and thou his [6] daughter hast not received: