Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/65

Rh him as a mother waveth a fly from her child when he lieth asleep. She guided it to where the golden clasps of the belt came together, and the breastplate overlapped. It passed through the belt, and through the corselet, and through the girdle, and pierced the skin. Then the red blood rushed out and stained the white skin, even as some Lycian or Carian woman stains the white ivory with red to adorn the war-horse of a king. Even so were the thighs and legs and ankles of Menelaüs dyed with blood.

Sore dismayed was King Agamemnon to see the blood; sore dismayed also was the brave Menelaüs, till he spied the barb of the arrow, and knew that the wound was not deep. But Agamemnon cried: "It was in an evil hour for thee, my brother, that I made a covenant with these false sons of Troy. Right well, indeed, I know that oath and sacrifice are not in vain. For though Zeus fulfil not now his purpose, yet will he take vengeance at the last, and the guilty shall suffer, they and their wives, and their children. Troy shall fall; but woe is me if thou shouldst die, Menelaüs.