Page 197 - the-iliad

But Apollo kept no blind look-out when he saw Minerva
with the son of Tydeus. He was angry with her, and coming
to the host of the Trojans he roused Hippocoon, a coun-
sellor of the Thracians and a noble kinsman of Rhesus. He
started up out of his sleep and saw that the horses were no
longer in their place, and that the men were gasping in their
death-agony; on this he groaned aloud, and called upon
his friend by name. Then the whole Trojan camp was in
an uproar as the people kept hurrying together, and they
marvelled at the deeds of the heroes who had now got away
towards the ships.
When they reached the place where they had killed Hec-
tor’s scout, Ulysses stayed his horses, and the son of Tydeus,
leaping to the ground, placed the blood-stained spoils in
the hands of Ulysses and remounted: then he lashed the
horses onwards, and they flew forward nothing loth to-
wards the ships as though of their own free will. Nestor was
first to hear the tramp of their feet. ‘My friends,’ said he,
‘princes and counsellors of the Argives, shall I guess right
or wrong?—but I must say what I think: there is a sound
in my ears as of the tramp of horses. I hope it may Diomed
and Ulysses driving in horses from the Trojans, but I much
fear that the bravest of the Argives may have come to some
harm at their hands.’
He had hardly done speaking when the two men came
in and dismounted, whereon the others shook hands right
gladly with them and congratulated them. Nestor knight
of Gerene was first to question them. ‘Tell me,’ said he, ‘re-
nowned Ulysses, how did you two come by these horses?

1 The Iliad