went to fetch the golden fleece; and we have brought it, and grief
therewith. Give us news of our fathers and our mothers, if any of them
be left alive on earth."

Then there was shouting and laughing, and weeping; and all the kings
came to the shore, and they led away the heroes to their homes, and
bewailed the valiant dead.

Then Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle Pelias. And
when he came in, Pelias sat by the hearth, crippled and blind with age;
while opposite him sat Æson, Jason's father, crippled and blind
likewise; and the two old men's heads shook together, as they tried to
warm themselves before the fire.

And Jason fell down at his father's knees, and wept, and called him by
his name. And the old man stretched his hands out, and felt him, and
said: "Do not mock me, young hero. My son Jason is dead long ago at
sea."

"I am your own son Jason, whom you trusted to the Centaur upon Pelion;
and I have brought home the golden fleece, and a princess of the Sun's
race for my bride. So now give me up the kingdom, Pelias my uncle, and
fulfil your promise as I have fulfilled mine."

Then his father clung to him like a child, and wept, and would not let
him go; and cried, "Now I shall not go down lonely to my grave. Promise
me never to leave me till I die."


PART VI