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have said. I will stay our fighting for as long a time as you
have named.’
As he spoke he laid his hand on the old man’s right wrist,
in token that he should have no fear; thus then did Pri-
am and his attendant sleep there in the forecourt, full of
thought, while Achilles lay in an inner room of the house,
with fair Briseis by his side.
And now both gods and mortals were fast asleep through
the livelong night, but upon Mercury alone, the bringer of
good luck, sleep could take no hold for he was thinking all
the time how to get King Priam away from the ships without
his being seen by the strong force of sentinels. He hovered
therefore over Priam’s head and said, ‘Sir, now that Achilles
has spared your life, you seem to have no fear about sleep-
ing in the thick of your foes. You have paid a great ransom,
and have received the body of your son; were you still alive
and a prisoner the sons whom you have left at home would
have to give three times as much to free you; and so it would
be if Agamemnon and the other Achaeans were to know of
your being here.’
When he heard this the old man was afraid and roused
his servant. Mercury then yoked their horses and mules,
and drove them quickly through the host so that no man
perceived them. When they came to the ford of eddying
Xanthus, begotten of immortal Jove, Mercury went back to
high Olympus, and dawn in robe of saffron began to break
over all the land. Priam and Idaeus then drove on toward
the city lamenting and making moan, and the mules drew
the body of Hector. No one neither man nor woman saw

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