follow them, nor would I suffer it. Now hearken all, and act as I advise: First banquet, rank by rank, throughout the host, And set your guards, and each of you keep watch; And then, if any Trojan stands in fear For his possessions, let him bring them all Into the common stock, to be consumed; Better that we enjoy them than the Greeks. Tomorrow, with the dawn and all in arms, We will do battle at the roomy ships Valiantly. If in truth the noble son Of Peleus choose to rise and to defend The ships, so much the worse for him, since I Shall not for him desert the field, but stand Firmly against him, whether he obtain The victory or I. The chance of war Is equal, and the slayer oft is slain.”
So Hector spake: the Trojans shouted forth Applause, the madmen! Pallas took away Their reason; all approved the fatal plan Of Hector; no one ventured to commend The sober counsel of Polydamas. And then they banqueted throughout the host; But all night long the Achaians mourned with tears Patroclus, while Pelides in the midst, Leading the ceaseless lamentation, placed His slaughter-dealing hands upon the breast Of his companion with continual sighs. As a maned lion, from whose haunt within The thick, dark wood a hunter has borne off The whelps, returning finds them gone, and grieves, And roams the valleys, tracking as he goes The robber, bent to find him, for his rage Is fierce—with such fierce sorrow Peleus’ son Spake, deeply sighing, to his Myrmidons:—
“O, idle were the words which once I spake, When in our palace-halls I bade the chief Menoetius bear a cheerful heart. I said That I would bring to Opus yet again, Laden with spoil from Ilium overthrown, His valiant son. But Jove doth not fulfil The plans of men. That both of us should stain Earth with our blood in Troy was the decree Of fate, and never will the aged knight Peleus receive me in his palace-halls, Returning from the war, nor Thetis, she Who gave me birth; the earth will hold me here. And now, since after thee I take my place In earth, Patroclus, I will not perform Thy funeral rites before I bring to thee The arms and head of