wered her, and said, "Dear
Wife! I too think of all these things. But how can I shun the battle, like
a coward, to be the mock of the Trojans, and of the Trojan dames with
trailing robes? I, who have always fought in the van of battle, and won
glory for my father and myself? I know that the day will come, when sacred
Ilium shall be leveled with the ground, and Priam and the people of Priam
shall perish. But it is not so much the fate of Priam, and of my mother,
Hecuba, and of my brethren, which fills my soul with anguish; but it is
_thy_ misery, dear one, in the day when some Achaian warrior shall bear
thee away, weeping, and rob thee of thy freedom. Thou, alas! wilt abide in
Argos, and ply the loom, the slave of another woman; or bear water from
the Hypereian fount, being harshly treated! And one will say, as he
looketh upon thee, 'This was the wife of Hector, the foremost of the
horse-taming Trojans in the war round Ilium.' But may the deep earth cover
_me_, ere I hear thee crying in the day of thy captivity."

So spake he, and held out his arms to take his darling boy. But the child
shrank crying, and nestled in the bosom of his well-girdled nurse; for he
feared the horsehair crest, nodding terribly from the brazen helmet. Then
the fond parents laughed; and Hector doffed his helmet, and laid it on the
ground. And he kissed his dear child, and fondled him, and prayed thus to
Zeus:--

"O Zeus! and all ye Gods! grant that this, my son, may like me be foremost
to fight among the Trojans, and rule as a king in Ilium; so that men may
say, 'He is far better than his father'!"

Thus speaking, he laid the child in the fragrant bosom of his dear wife
Andromache; and he pitied her, and caressed her with his hand, and called
her by her name. "Dear one! be not thus utterly cast down. No man can slay
me till my hour of destiny is come. But no man, when once he hath been
born, can escape his fate, be he a brave man or a coward. Go thou to thy
house, to the distaff and the loom, and make thy maidens ply their labors.
But _men_ shall engage in war, and I the first of all in Troy."

So spake Hector of the glancing helmet, and went his way. And his dear
wife went to her home, looking back at him as she went, shedding bitter
tears. And she found her maidens there, and with them she bewailed her
lord, while yet he lived; for they feared that he would never again return
from battle.

And the goodly Paris donned his beautiful armor, an