Hang steadily behind, to seize and slay,
Down the green woods, a wild fawn or a hare,
That shrieking flies them; on his track so lay
Odysseus and the son of Tydeus there,
Winding him out from Troy, and never swerved a hair." (W.)
Their aim is to take him alive. Diomed at last gets within an easy spear-cast—
"Then, hurling, he so ruled his aim, the spear
Whizzed by the neck, then sank into the ground.
He, trembling in his teeth, and white with fear,
Stood: from his mouth there came a chattering sound.
They panting, as he wept, his arms enwound.
Take me alive, and sell me home,' cried he;
'Brass, iron, and fine gold are with me found.
Glad will my father render countless fee,
If living by the ships they bear him news of me.'" (W.)
Ulysses parleys with the unhappy youth, and drags from his terrified lips not only the secret of his errand, but the disposition of the Trojan forces,— most convenient information for their own movements. Especially, he tells them where they might find an easy prey, such as his own soul would love. Rhesus, king of the Thracian allies, has his camp apart—
"No steeds that e'er I saw,
Whiter than snow, and swifter than the wind."
The unwilling treachery does not save his wretched life. Ulysses sarcastically admires his choice of a reward—
"High soared thy hopes indeed, that thought to win
The horses of Achilles; hard are they
For mortal man to harness or control,
Save for Achilles' self, the goddess-born."
Then—with the cruel indifference to human life which marks every one of Homer's heroes—he severs his head from his body.
