our vessel might be wrecked, and our bones left whitening along
the shore."

"But just listen to the pleasant voices of those maidens, and
that buzz of the loom, as the shuttle passes to and fro," said
another comrade. "What a domestic, household, home-like sound
it is! Ah, before that weary siege of Troy, I used to hear the
buzzing loom and the women's voices under my own roof. Shall I
never hear them again? nor taste those nice little savory
dishes which my dearest wife knew how to serve up?"

"Tush! we shall fare better here," said another. "But how
innocently those women are babbling together, without guessing
that we overhear them! And mark that richest voice of all, so
pleasant and so familiar, but which yet seems to have the
authority of a mistress among them. Let us show ourselves at
once. What harm can the lady of the palace and her maidens do
to mariners and warriors like us?"

"Remember," said Eurylochus, "that it was a young maiden who
beguiled three of our friends into the palace of the king of
the Laestrygons, who ate up one of them in the twinkling of an
eye."

No warning or persuasion, however, had any effect on his
companions. They went up to a pair of folding doors at the
farther end of the hall, and throwing them wide open, passed
into the next room. Eurylochus, meanwhile, had stepped behind a
pillar. In the short moment while the folding doors opened and
closed again, he caught a glimpse of a very beautiful woman