Page:The story of Greece told to boys and girls.djvu/67

 been carried away by the Greeks, he hastened to the tent of Agamemnon, taking with him a ransom great 'beyond telling.' In his hands he bore a golden staff on which he had placed the holy garland, that the Greeks, seeing it, might treat him with reverence.

'Now may the gods that dwell in the mansions of Olympus grant you to lay waste the city of Priam and to fare happily homeward,' said the priest to the assembled chiefs, 'only set ye my dear child free and accept the ransom in reverence to Apollo.'

All save Agamemnon wished to accept the ransom and set Chryseis free, but he was wroth with the priest and roughly bade him begone.

'Let me not find thee, old man,' he cried, 'amid the ships, whether tarrying now or returning again hereafter, lest the sacred staff of the god avail thee naught. And thy daughter will I not set free. But depart, provoke me not, that thou mayest the rather go in peace.'

Then Chryseis was angry with Agamemnon, while for his daughter's sake he wept.

Down by the 'shore of the loud-sounding sea' he walked, praying to Apollo, 'Hear me, god of the silver bow. If ever I built a temple gracious in thine eyes, or if ever I burnt to thee fat flesh of bulls or goats, fulfil thou this my desire; let the Greeks pay by thine arrows for my tears.'

Apollo heard the cry of the priest, and swift was his answer. For he hastened to the tents of the Greeks, bearing upon his shoulders his silver bow, and he sped arrows of death into the camp.

Dogs, mules, men, all fell before the arrows of the angry god. The bodies of the dead were burned on great piles of wood, and the smoke rose black toward the sky.

For nine days the clanging of the silver bow was heard. Then Achilles called the hosts of the Greeks together, and before them all he spoke thus to Agamemnon: 'Let us go home, Son of Atreus,' he said, 'rather than perish, as we surely