he said.

"Then peace and plenty blessed once more the city of Troy, and men
forgot the perils from which they had been delivered. But ere long,
great Hercules returned, as he had promised; and with him came a fleet
of white-sailed ships and many warriors. Neither gates nor strong
walls could stand against him. Into the city he marched, and straight
to my father's palace. All fled before him, and the strongest warriors
quailed beneath his glance. Here, in this very court, he slew my
father and my brothers with his terrible arrows. I myself would have
fallen before his wrath, had not my sister, fair Hesione, pleaded for
my life.

"'I spare his life,' said Hercules, in answer to her prayers, 'for he
is but a lad. Yet he must be my slave until you have paid a price for
him, and thus redeemed him.'

"Then Hesione took the golden veil from her head, and gave it to the
hero as my purchase price. And thenceforward I was called Priam, or
the purchased; for the name which my mother gave me was Podarkes, or
the fleet-footed.

"After this Hercules and his heroes went on board their ships and
sailed back across the sea, leaving me alone in my father's halls. For
they took fair Hesione with them, and carried her to Salamis, to be the
wife of Telamon, the father of mighty Ajax. There, through these long
years she has lived in sorrow, far removed from home and friends and
the scenes of her happy childhood. And now that the hero Telamon, to
whom she was wedded, lives no longer, I ween that her life is indeed a
cheerless one."