ek by nation, who was driven by stress
of weather to the place, for none went thither willingly. And the name
of the King was Thoas, which signifieth in the Greek tongue, "swift of
foot."

Now when the maiden had been there many years she dreamed a dream. And
in the dream she seemed to have departed from the land of the Taurians
and to dwell in the city of Argos, wherein she had been born. And as she
slept in the women's chamber there befell a great earthquake, and cast
to the ground the palace of her fathers, so that there was left one
pillar only which stood upright. And as she looked on this pillar,
yellow hair seemed to grow upon it as the hair of a man, and it spake
with a man's voice. And she did to it as she was wont to do to the
strangers that were sacrificed upon the altar, purifying it with water,
and weeping the while. And the interpretation of the dream she judged to
be that her brother Orestes was dead, for that male children are the
pillars of a house, and that he only was left to the house of her
father.

Now it chanced that at this same time Orestes, with Pylades that was his
friend, came in a ship to the land of the Taurians. And the cause of his
coming was this. After that he had slain his mother, taking vengeance
for the death of King Agamemnon his father, the Furies pursued him. Then
Apollo, who had commanded him to do this deed, bade him go to the land
of Athens that he might be judged. And when he had been judged and
loosed, yet the Furies left him not. Wherefore Apollo commanded that he
should sail for the land of the Taurians and carry there the image of
Artemis and bring it to the land of the Athenians, and that after this
he should have rest. Now when the two were come to the place, they saw
the altar that it was red with the blood of them that had been slain
thereon. And Orestes doubted how they might accomplish the things for
the which he was come, for the walls of the temple were high, and the
gates not easy to be broken through. Therefore he would have fled to the
ship, but Pylades consented not, seeing that they were not wont to go
back from that to which they had set their hand, but counselled that
they should hide themselves during the day in a cave that was hard by
the seashore, not near to the ship, lest search should be made for them,
and that by night they should creep into the temple by a space that
there was between the pillars, and carry off the image, and so depart.

[Illustra