“Be of good cheer, since this my son protects And rescues thee. Now mayst thou well perceive, And say to other men, how much more safe Is doing good than evil. Go thou forth Out of this slaughter to the open court, Thou and the illustrious bard, and sit ye there, While here within I do what yet I must.”
He spake; they moved away and left the hall, And by the altar of almighty Jove Sat looking round them, still in fear of death.
Meantime, Ulysses passed with searching look O’er all the place, to find if yet remained A single one of all the suitor-crew Alive, and skulking from his bitter doom. He saw that all had fallen in blood and dust, Many as fishes on the shelving beach Drawn from the hoary deep by those who tend The nets with myriad meshes. Poured abroad Upon the sand, while panting to return To the salt sea they lie, till the hot sun Takes their life from them; so the suitors lay Heaped on each other. Then Ulysses took The word, and thus bespake Telemachus:—