broad, fleecy mantle, covering all. Forth went the train with torches in their hands, And quickly spread two couches. Then the swift Achilles pleasantly to Priam said:—
“Sleep, excellent old man, without the tent, Lest some one of our counsellors arrive, Such as oft come within my tent to sit And talk of warlike matters. Seeing thee In the dark hours of night, he might relate The tale to Agamemnon, king of men, And hinder thus the ransom of thy son. But say, and truly say, how many days Requirest thou to pay the funeral rites To noble Hector, so that I may rest As many, and restrain the troops from war.”
Then answered godlike Priam, aged king: “Since, then, thou wilt, Achilles, that we pay The rites of burial to my noble son, I own the favor. Well thou knowest how We Trojans are constrained to keep within The city walls, for it is far to bring Wood from the mountains, and we fear to dare The journey. Nine days would we mourn the dead Within our dwellings, and upon the tenth Would bury him, and make a solemn feast, And the next day would rear his monument, And on the twelfth, if needful, fight again.”