Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/191

Rh "O Ajax, I hear the voice of Ulysses; and he shouteth as if the men of Troy had compassed him about, and he was left alone. Come, therefore, let us help him, lest he come to harm, and the Greeks have a heavy loss!"

Thus he spake, and led the way, and Ajax followed him; and when they came to Ulysses, the Trojans had beset him, even as the jackals beset a long-horned hart among the hills, which a hunter hath wounded with an arrow from the bow. From the hunter he flieth, while the wound is warm, but when he groweth weak the jackals tear him. Then cometh a lion, and the jackals flee. So fled the Trojans when Ajax came and stood beside Ulysses. Then Menelaüs took Ulysses by the hand, and led him from out the throng.

Then Ajax leapt upon the Trojans and slew many, scouring the plain, and killing horse and man. But Hector knew not of it, for he fought upon the left of the battle by the banks of Scamander, where old Nestor and Idomeneus of Crete kept up the battle for the Greeks. Nor had these given way but that Paris, husband of Helen, stayed Machaon