{286}

When Paris arrived at Sparta, and sought hospitality at the royal palace,
he was kindly received by king Menelaus. At the banquet given in his
honour, he charmed both host and hostess by his graceful manner and varied
accomplishments, and specially ingratiated himself with the fair Helen, to
whom he presented some rare and chaste trinkets of Asiatic manufacture.

Whilst Paris was still a guest at the court of the king of Sparta, the
latter received an invitation from his friend Idomeneus, king of Crete, to
join him in a hunting expedition; and Menelaus, being of an unsuspicious
and easy temperament, accepted the invitation, leaving to Helen the duty of
entertaining the distinguished stranger. Captivated by her surpassing
loveliness, the Trojan prince forgot every sense of honour and duty, and
resolved to rob his absent host of his beautiful wife. He accordingly
collected his followers, and with their assistance stormed the royal
castle, possessed himself of the rich treasures which it contained, and
succeeded in carrying off its beautiful, and not altogether unwilling
mistress.

They at once set sail, but were driven by stress of weather to the island
of Crania, where they cast anchor; and it was not until some years had
elapsed, during which time home and country were forgotten, that Paris and
Helen proceeded to Troy.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE WAR.--When Menelaus heard of the violation of his
hearth and home he proceeded to Pylos, accompanied by his brother
Agamemnon, in order to consult the wise old king Nestor, who was renowned
for his great experience and state-craft. On hearing the facts of the case
Nestor expressed it as his opinion that only by means of the combined
efforts of all the states of Greece could Menelaus hope to regain Helen in
defiance of so powerful a kingdom as that of Troy.

Menelaus and Agamemnon now raised the war-cry, which was unanimously
responded to from one end of Greece to the other. Many of those who
volunteered {287} their services were former suitors of the fair Helen, and
were therefore bound by their oath to support the cause of Menelaus; others
joined from pure love of adventure, but one and all were deeply impressed
with the disgrace which would attach to their country should such a crime
be suffered to go unpunished. Thus a powerful army was collected in which
few names of note were missing.

Only in the case of two great heroes, Odysseus (Ulysses) and Achilles, did
Me