which had swords drew them, and some with shields, that could find them,
and some with tables and benches snatched up in haste, rose in a mass to
overwhelm and crush those two; yet they singly bestirred themselves like
men, and defended themselves against that great host, and through tables,
shields, and all, right through the arrows of Ulysses clove, and the
irresistible lances of Telemachus; and many lay dead, and all had wounds,
and Minerva in the likeness of a bird sat upon the beam which went across
the hall, clapping her wings with a fearful noise; and sometimes the great
bird would fly among them, cuffing at the swords and at the lances, and up
and down the hall would go, beating her wings, and troubling everything,
that it was frightful to behold, and it frayed the blood from the cheeks
of those heaven-hated suitors; but to Ulysses and his son she appeared in
her own divine similitude, with her snake-fringed shield, a goddess armed,
fighting their battles. Nor did that dreadful pair desist till they had
laid all their foes at their feet. At their feet they lay in shoals: like
fishes, when the fishermen break up their nets, so they lay gasping and
sprawling at the feet of Ulysses and his son. And Ulysses remembered the
prediction of Tiresias, which said that he was to perish by his own
guests, unless he slew those who knew him not.

[Illustration: _Rose in a mass to overwhelm and crush those two_.]

Then certain of the queen's household went up and told Penelope what had
happened, and how her lord Ulysses was come home, and had slain the
suitors. But she gave no heed to their words, but thought that some frenzy
possessed them, or that they mocked her; for it is the property of such
extremes of sorrow as she had felt not to believe when any great joy
cometh. And she rated and chid them exceedingly for troubling her. But
they the more persisted in their asseverations of the truth of what they
had affirmed; and some of them had seen the slaughtered bodies of the