Nausicaa took great delight (as ladies are
commonly taken with these kind of travellers' stories) to hear of the
monster Polyphemus, of the men that devour each other in Laestrygonia,
of the enchantress Circe, of Scylla, and the rest; to which she
listened with a breathless attention, letting fall a shower of tears
from her fair eyes every now and then, when Ulysses told of some more
than usual distressful passage in his travels: and all the rest of
his auditors, if they had before entertained a high respect for their
guest, now felt their veneration increased ten-fold, when they learned
from his own mouth what perils, what sufferance, what endurance, of
evils beyond man's strength to support, this much-sustaining, almost
heavenly man, by the greatness of his mind, and by his invincible
courage, had struggled through.

The night was far spent before Ulysses had ended his narrative, and
with wishful glances he cast his eyes towards the eastern parts, which
the sun had begun to flecker with his first red: for on the morrow
Alcinous had promised that a bark should be in readiness to convoy him
to Ithaca.

In the morning a vessel well manned and appointed was waiting for him;
into which the king and queen heaped presents of gold and silver,
massy plate, apparel, armour, and whatsoever things of cost or rarity
they judged would be most acceptable to their guest: and the sails
being set, Ulysses embarking with expressions of regret took his leave
of his royal entertainers, of the fair princess (who had been his
first friend,) and of the peers of Phaeacia; who crowding down to the
beach to have the last sight of their illustrious visitant, beheld the
gallant ship with all her canvas spread, bounding and curvetting over
the waves, like a horse proud of his rider; or as if she knew that in
her capacious womb's rich freightage she bore Ulysses.

He whose life past had been a series of disquiets, in seas among rude
waves, in battles amongst ruder foes, now slept securely, forgetting
all; his eye-lids bound in such deep sleep, as only yielded to death:
and when they reached the nearest Ithacan port by the next morning, he
was still asleep. The mariners not willing to awake him, landed him
softly, and laid him in a cave at the foot of an olive tree, which
made a shady recess in that narrow harbour, the haunt of almost
none but the sea-nymphs, which are called Naiads; few ships before
this Phaeacian vessel having put into that hav