Part 5 (1/2)

[Illustration: _But the greater part reviled hione_]

Now Telemachus sat athis father who in that shape begged an alms; and when his father came and presented himself before hiave him of his own meat which he had in his dish, and of his own cup to drink And the suitors were past ar, as they esteearded by the prince

Then Antinous, as a great lord, and of chief note a the suitors, said, ”Prince Teleo fro that they have been so the ears of such as hearken to thes' palaces

This is soyptian”

”I see,” said Ulysses, ”that a poor et salt froht his own nant to be answered with such sharpness by a supposed beggar, snatched up a stool, hich he se reat heart he meditated deep evils to come upon them all, which for a time must be kept close, and he went and sat hiiven hiht, but for his belly this man smites If a poor man has any God to take his part, my lord Antinous shall not live to be the queen's husband”

Then Antinous raged highly, and threatened to drag his about his ears, if he spoke another word

But the other suitors did in nowise approve of the harsh language, nor of the blohich Antinous had dealt; and sooes about hid under that poor disguise? for in the likeness of poor pilgrims the Gods have many times descended to try the dispositions of s passed, Tele the instructions of his father But secretly he waited for the sign which Minerva was to send from heaven

That day there followed Ulysses to the court one of the coars, Irus by name, one that had received alms beforetime of the suitors, and was their ordinary sport, when they were inclined (as that day) to give way to mirth, to see him eat and drink; for he had the appetite of six e stature and proportions of body; yet had in hi to curry favour with the suitors, and recoreat lord as Antinous was, began to revile and scorn Ulysses, putting foul language upon hiht with the fist But Ulysses, dee ars coht him not to trouble him, but to enjoy that portion which the liberality of their entertainers gave hi that, of their bounty, there was sufficient for all

But Irus, thinking that this forbearance in Ulysses was nothing hly storht; and by this time the quarrel had attracted the notice of the suitors, ith loud laughters and shouting egged on the dispute, and lord Antinous swore by all the Gods it should be a battle, and that in that hall the strife should be determined To this the rest of the suitors with violent clamours acceded, and a circle was oat was proposed as the victor's prize, as at the Oly no re that the suitors should behold so in their own persons they were to taste of, stripped himself, and prepared for the combat But first he demanded that he should have fair play shown him, that none in that asseainst hiht easily crush hiths And Telemachus passed his word that no foul play should be shown him, but that each party should be left to their own unassisted strengths, and to this he made Antinous and the rest of the suitors swear

But when Ulysses had laid aside his garments, and was bare to the waist, all the beholders ad of such exquisite shape and whiteness, and at his great and brawny bosoth which seeht so old; and they said, What limbs and what sinews he has! and coward fear seized on the ar, and he dropped his threats, and his big words, and would have fled, but lord Antinous stayed him, and threatened him that if he declined the combat, he would put hi Echetus reigned, the roughest tyrant which at that time the world contained, and who had that antipathy to rascal beggars, such as he, that when any landed on his coast he would crop their ears and noses and give the Echetus prevailed above the fear of Ulysses, addressed hied in so odious a strife with a fellow of his base conditions, and loathing longer to be made a spectacle to entertain the eyes of his foes, with one blohich he struck him beneath the ear, so shattered the teeth and jawbone of this soon baffled coward that he laid hi in the dust, with s hi to the door, and put his staff into his hand, and bade his and swine, but not presuuests another tiary!

The suitors applauded in their vain minds the issue of the contest, and rioted in mirth at the expense of poor Irus, who they vowed should be forthwith e Echetus; and they bestowed thanks on Ulysses for ridding the court of that unsavoury morsel, as they called him; but in their inward souls they would not have cared if Irus had been victor, and Ulysses had taken the foil, but it was ht In such pastiht entertain was co

And Ulysses leaned his back against a pillar froht to the dancers, and he hts were in his head And as he stood near the laht fell upon his head, which was thin of hair and bald, as an oldoccasion from some words which were spoken before, scoffed, and said, ”Now I know for a certainty that soarly appearance of this man, for, as he stands by the lamps, his sleek head throws bealory” And another said, ”He passes his ti exes of ain, ”he could not raise a fence or dig a ditch for his livelihood, if a arden”

”I wish,” said Ulysses, ”that you who speak this and ood crooked scythe put in , and you such another, where the grass grew longest, to be up by daybreak,of food till we had finished; or that ere set to plough four acres in one day of good glebe land, to see whose furroere evenest and cleanest; or that we ht hands a good steel-headed lance were placed, to try whose blows fell heaviest and thickest upon the adversary's head-piece I would cause you such work as you should have s slack at work But you would do well to spare th till the owner of this house shall return, till the day when Ulysses shall return, when returning he shall enter upon his birthright”

This was a galling speech to those suitors, to who which they most dreaded; and a sudden fear fell upon their souls, as if they were sensible of the real presence of that st theht know him; and Eurymachus, incensed, snatched a massy cup which stood on a table near and hurled it at the head of the supposed beggar, and but narrowlyof him; and all the suitors rose, as at once, to thrust hiarly presence and his rude speeches had profaned But Telemachus cried to them to forbear, and not to presume to lay hands upon a wretched man to whom he had promised protection He asked if they were mad, to mix such abhorred uproar with his feasts He bade theo to bed at their free pleasures, so long as he should give license to that freedom; but why should they abuse his banquet, or let the words which a poor beggar spake have power to move their spleens so fiercely'

They bit their lips and frowned for anger to be checked so by a youth; nevertheless for that tirace to abstain, either for shame, or that Minerva had infused into them a terror of Ulysses's son

So that day's feast was concluded without bloodshed, and the suitors, tired with their sports, departed severally each man to his apartment

Only Ulysses and Telemachus remained And now Teleht down into the hall armour and lances from the armoury; for Ulysses said, ”On the morroe shall have need of them” And moreover he said, ”If any one shall ask why you have taken them down, say it is to clean theathered since the owner of this house went for Troy” And as Teleone out, and it was pitch dark, and the ar beams as of fire, and he said to his father, ”The pillars of the house are on fire” And his father said, ”It is the Gods who sit above the stars, and have power to ood o of the lances

Now Ulysses had not seen his wife Penelope in all the tile with the suitors at their banquets, but, as became one that had been Ulysses's wife, kepther excellent housewiferies a her maids in the remote apartments of the palace Only upon solemn days she would come down and show herself to the suitors And Ulysses was filled with a longing desire to see his wife again, whom for twenty years he had not beheld, and he softly stole through the known passages of his beautiful house, till he caallery that led to the chamber where she slept And when the ar who came to the court to-day, about whom all that uproar was stirred up in the hall: what does he here?” But Penelope gave coht before her, for she said, ”Itconcerning Ulysses”

[Illustration: _Where the allery_]

Then was Ulysses right glad to hear hiotten, nor her great love towards him decayed in all that time that he had been away And he stood before his queen, and she knew him not to be Ulysses, but supposed that he had been some poor traveller And she asked him of what country he was

He told her (as he had before told Eumaeus) that he was a Cretan born, and, however poor and cast down he now seerandson to king Minos; and though he noanted bread, he had once had it in his power to feast Ulysses Then he feigned how Ulysses, sailing for Troy, was forced by stress of weather to put his fleet in at a port of Crete, where for twelve days he was his guest, and entertained by hiarments which Ulysses had on, by which Penelope knew he had seen her lord

In this manner Ulysses told his wifeso near to the life that the feeling of that which she took in at her ears beca that the kindly tears ran down her fair cheeks, while she thought upon her lord, dead as she thought him, and heavily mourned the loss of hih in very deed he stood so near her

Ulysses was moved to see her weep, but he kept his own eyes dry as iron or horn in their lids, putting a bridle upon his strong passion, that it should not issue to sight

Then told he how he had lately been at the court of Thesprotia, and what he had learned concerning Ulysses there, in order as he had delivered to Euht be a possibility of Ulysses being alive, and she said, ”I dreaht I had twenty household fohich did eat wheat steeped in water from my hand, and there came suddenly from the clouds a crooked-beaked haho soused on the their necks; then took his flight back up to the clouds And in reat moan for my fowls, and for the destruction which the hawk had made; and ht ofupon the beam of my chaely even in ood cheer,'