when Hector saw him he was seized
with panic, and he fled from the gates in terror.

But Achilles, swift of foot, rushed after him. As a falcon, swiftest of
all birds, swoops upon the trembling dove, and takes no heed of her
piteous screaming, so Achilles flew straight at Hector. And pursuer and
pursued passed by the guard and the wild fig-tree, the sport of the winds,
and came to the two springs of water, which feed the deep-whirling
Scamander. Brave was he who fled, but mightier far was he who chased him
on his swift feet; and they were racing not for some prize in the games,
but for the life of the noble horse-taming Hector. And like horses in the
race for a great prize--a tripod or a woman--so the twain ran thrice round
the sacred city of King Priam; and all the Gods were looking on.

And Zeus, the great father of Gods and men, spake first: "Alas! I see a
man whom I love above all others chased round the walls of Troy. Come now,
let us take some counsel, whether to save him or leave him to be slain by
the son of Peleus."

And the fierce-eyed Athene answered him, "O thou great Lord of the
Lightning, Cloud-girt King! what a word hast thou spoken! Wouldst thou
indeed save a mortal long ago doomed by Fate? Do as thou pleasest; but we
Gods shall not praise thee."

And her great father, the Cloud-Gatherer, answered with gentle words, "O
Trito-born, my dear child! be of good cheer. I spake not in earnest, and
would fain please thee. Do as seemeth good to thee." And Athene, full of
joy, sped down from high Olympus.

Achilles, with all speed, was chasing the noble Hector, as the dogs hunt
the fawn of a deer through dale and woodland; and though the fawn hideth
behind a bush, they follow by the scent until they find it; so Hector
could not escape from the swift-footed son of Peleus. Often did Hector
rush along the strong walls, in hopes that the Trojans within might succor
him from above with their arrows. But Achilles gained on him and turned
him into the plain again.

And so, though Hector failed in his flight and Achilles in his pursuit,
yet might Hector have escaped his doom, had not this been the last time
that Apollo the Far-Darter came nigh to him, to nerve his heart and his
swift knees. Achilles had made a sign to his comrades, and forbade them to
launch their darts against the noble Hector, lest one of them should gain
high honor, and he come only second. And when they had, for the fourth
time, run round the wa