of
the worst.

After this (being now under the guidance of the two princes, who were
well acquainted with the way), they quickly sailed to Colchis. When the
king of the country, whose name was Aetes, heard of their arrival,
he instantly summoned Jason to court. The king was a stern and cruel
looking potentate; and though he put on as polite and hospitable an
expression as he could, Jason did not like his face a whit better than
that of the wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father. "You are
welcome, brave Jason," said King Aetes. "Pray, are you on a pleasure
voyage?--Or do you meditate the discovery of unknown islands?--or what
other cause has procured me the happiness of seeing you at my court?"

"Great sir," replied Jason, with an obeisance--for Chiron had taught him
how to behave with propriety, whether to kings or beggars--"I have
come hither with a purpose which I now beg your majesty's permission to
execute. King Pelias, who sits on my father's throne (to which he has
no more right than to the one on which your excellent majesty is now
seated), has engaged to come down from it, and to give me his crown and
sceptre, provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty
is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis; and I humbly solicit
your gracious leave to take it away." In spite of himself, the king's
face twisted itself into an angry frown; for, above all things else in
the world, he prized the Golden Fleece, and was even suspected of having
done a very wicked act, in order to get it into his own possession.
It put him into the worst possible humor, therefore, to hear that the
gallant Prince Jason, and forty-nine of the bravest young warriors of
Greece, had come to Colchis with the sole purpose of taking away his
chief treasure.

"Do you know," asked King Aetes, eyeing Jason very sternly, "what are
the conditions which you must fulfill before getting possession of the
Golden Fleece?"

"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the tree
on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs the risk
of being devoured at a mouthful."

"True," said the king, with a smile that did not look particularly
good-natured. "Very true, young man. But there are other things as hard,
or perhaps a little harder, to be done before you can even have the
privilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must first
tame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls, whic