Great Hector of the beamy helm replied:— “Nay, Helen, ask me not to sit; thy speech Is courteous, but persuades me not. My mind Is troubled for the Trojans, to whose aid I hasten, for they miss me even now. But thou exhort this man, and bid him haste To overtake me ere I leave the town. I go to my own mansion first, to meet My household—my dear wife and little child; Nor know I whether I may come once more To them, or whether the great gods ordain That I must perish by the hands of Greeks.”
So spake the plumèd Hector, and withdrew, And reached his pleasant palace, but found not White-armed Andromache within, for she Was in the tower, beside her little son And well-robed nurse, and sorrowed, shedding tears. And Hector, seeing that his blameless wife Was not within, came forth again, and stood Upon the threshold questioning the maids.
“I pray you, damsels, tell me whither went White-armed Andromache? Has she gone forth To seek my sisters, or those stately dames, My brothers’ wives? Or haply has she sought The temple of Minerva, where are met The other bright-haired matrons of the town To supplicate the dreaded deity?”
Then said the diligent housewife in reply:— “Since thou wilt have the truth—thy wife is gone Not to thy sisters, nor those stately dames, Thy brothers’ wives; nor went she forth to join The other bright-haired matrons of the town, Where in Minerva’s temple they are met To supplicate the dreaded deity But to the lofty tower of Troy she went When it was told her that the Trojan troops Lost heart, and that the valor of the Greeks Prevailed. She now is hurrying toward the walls, Like one distracted, with her son and nurse.”