friends.

[Footnote 1: Compare the stratagem of Zopyrus, in "Stories from Greek
History."]

"When morning came, the voice of wailing rose high in the streets of
Troy; but my heart rejoiced, for I was filled with longing for my
home, and my eyes were opened to the folly which I had wrought by the
beguilement of Aphrodite, when I left my fatherland and broke faith
with my lord."

"Tis a good story, and thou hast told it well, fair wife," said
Menelaus. "Now hear my tale. It was the time when I and the other
champions were shut up in the wooden horse; and Odysseus was with us.
Then thou camest thither, led, I suppose, by some god, hostile to
Greece, who wished to work our ruin; and Deiphobus followed thee.
Three times thou didst pace around our hollow ambush, feeling it with
thy hands, and calling aloud to the princes of Greece by name; and thy
voice was like the voice of all their wives. There we sat, I, and
Diomede, and the rest, and heard thee calling. Now I and Diomede were
minded to answer thee, or to go forth and confer with thee; but
Odysseus suffered it not, and when one of our number was about to lift
up his voice he pressed his hands on that foolish mouth, and
restrained him by force until thou hadst left the place. And so he
saved all our lives."

"Yes," said Telemachus, "he had a heart of iron. But what has it
availed him? It could not save him from ruin. Howbeit, no more of
this; 'tis time to go to rest and forget our cares in sleep."