VI
72. Agreeably to Medea's advice, Jason went in the morning to the palace of King Æetes. Entering the presence chamber, he stood at the foot of the throne and made a low obeisance.
"Your eyes look heavy, Prince Jason," observed the king; "you appear to have spent a sleepless night. I hope you have been considering the matter a little more wisely, and have concluded not to get yourself scorched to a cinder in attempting to tame my brazen-lunged bulls."
73. "That is already accomplished, may it please your majesty," replied Jason. "The bulls have been tamed and yoked; the field has been plowed; the dragon's teeth have been sown broadcast and harrowed into the soil; the crop of armed warriors have sprung up, and they have slain one another to the last man. And now I solicit your majesty's permission to encounter the dragon, that I may take down the Golden Fleece from the tree and depart with my nine and forty comrades."
74. King Æetes scowled and looked very angry and greatly disturbed; for he knew that, in accordance with his kingly promise, he ought now to permit Jason to win the Fleece if his courage and skill should enable him to do so.
75. "You never would have succeeded in this business, young man," said he, "if my undutiful daughter Medea had not helped you with her enchantments. Had you acted fairly, you would have been at this instant a black cinder or a handful of white ashes. I forbid you, on pain of death, to make any more attempts to get the Golden Fleece. To speak my mind plainly, you shall never set eyes on so much as one of its glistening locks."
76. Jason left the king's presence in great sorrow and anger. But, as he was hastening down the palace steps, the Princess Medea called after him and beckoned him to return.
"What says King Æetes, my royal and upright father?" inquired Medea, slightly smiling. "Will he give you the Golden Fleece without any further risk or trouble?"
77. "On the contrary," answered Jason, "he is very angry with me for taming the brazen bulls and sowing the dragon's teeth. And he forbids me to make any more attempts, and positively refuses to give up the Golden Fleece whether I slay the dragon or no."
78. "Yes, Jason," said the princess, "and I can tell you more. Unless you set sail from Colchis before to-morrow's sunrise, the king means to burn your fifty-oared galley and put yourself and your forty-nine brave comrades to the sword. But be of good courage. The Golden Fleece you shall have, if it lies within the power of my enchantments to get it for you. Wait for me here an hour before midnight."
79. At the appointed hour you might again have seen Prince Jason and the Princess Medea, side by side, stealing through the streets of Colchis, on their way to the sacred grove, in the center of which the Golden Fleece was suspended to a tree.
80. Jason followed Medea's guidance into the Grove of Mars, where the great oak trees that had been growing for centuries threw so thick a shade that the moonbeams struggled vainly to find their way through it. Only here and there a glimmer fell upon the leaf-strewn earth, or now and then a breeze stirred the boughs aside and gave Jason a glimpse of the sky, lest, in that deep obscurity, he might forget that there was one overhead.
81. At length, when they had gone farther and farther into the heart of the duskiness, Medea squeezed Jason's hand.
"Look yonder," she whispered. "Do you see it?"
Gleaming among the venerable oaks there was a radiance, not like the moonbeams, but rather resembling the golden glory of the setting sun. It proceeded from an object which appeared to be suspended at about a man's height from the ground, a little farther within the wood.
82. "What is it?" asked Jason.
"Have you come so far to seek it," exclaimed Medea, "and do you not recognize the meed of all your toils and perils when it glitters before your eyes? It is the Golden Fleece."
83. Jason went onward a few steps farther, and then stopped to gaze. Oh, how beautiful it looked, shining with a marvelous light of its own, that prize which so many heroes had longed to behold, but had perished in the quest of it either by the perils of their voyage or by the fiery breath of the brazen-lunged bulls!
84. "How gloriously it shines!" cried Jason, in a rapture. "It has surely been dipped in the richest gold of sunset. Let me hasten onward and take it to my bosom."
"Stay," said Medea, holding him back. "Have you forgotten what guards it?"
85. To say the truth, in the joy of beholding the object of his desires, the terrible dragon had quite slipped out of Jason's memory. Soon, however, something came to pass that reminded him what perils were still to be encountered.
86. An antelope, that probably mistook the yellow radiance for sunrise, came bounding fleetly through the grove. He was rushing straight towards the Golden Fleece, when suddenly there was a frightful hiss, and the immense head and half the scaly body of the dragon were thrust forth—for he was twisted round the trunk of the tree on which the Fleece hung—and seizing the poor antelope, swallowed him with one snap of his jaws.
87. The dragon had probably heard the voices; for, swift as lightning, his black head and forked tongue came hissing among the trees again, darting full forty feet at a stretch. As it approached, Medea tossed a magic potion right down the monster's wide-open throat. Immediately, with an outrageous hiss and a tremendous wriggle, flinging his tail up to the tiptop of the tallest tree and shattering all its branches as it crashed heavily down again, the dragon fell at full length upon the ground and lay quite motionless.
88. "It is only a sleeping potion," said the enchantress to Prince Jason. "Quick! Snatch the prize and let us begone. You have won the Golden Fleece."
Jason caught the Fleece from the tree and hurried through the grove, the deep shadows of which were illuminated, as he passed, by the golden glory of the precious object that he bore along.
89. Jason found the heroes seated on the benches of the galley, with their oars held perpendicularly, ready to let fall into the water.
As he drew near, he heard the Talking Image calling to him with more than ordinary eagerness in its grave, sweet voice:
"Make haste, Prince Jason! For your life, make haste!"
The galley flew over the water.
90. With one bound, he leaped aboard. At sight of the glorious radiance of the Golden Fleece, the nine and forty heroes gave a mighty shout, and Orpheus, striking his harp, sang a song of triumph, to the cadence of which the galley flew over the water, homeward bound, as if careering along with wings.
I. Jā´sȯn. Ĭ ŏl´c̵hŏs. Çĕn´ta̤urs̝. C̵hī´rŏn. Ǣ´sȯn. Pē´lĭ ăs. Săn´dals̝: shoes consisting of soles strapped to the feet. Tûr´bū̍ lent: disturbed; roused to great commotion. Nĕp´tū̍ne. Gärb: dress.
II. Măl´ĭçe: ill will. Quĕst: search. Scĕp´tẽr: a staff carried by a king as a sign of his authority.
III. Dō dō´nȧ. Är´gus. Găl´ley̆: a vessel with oars, used by ancient people. Prow: the forepart of a vessel. Stûr´dy̆: strong. Ĕn coun´tẽr: meet.
IV. Cŏl´c̶hĭs. Ǣ ē´tēs̝. Mĕd´ĭ tāte: intend; think seriously. Sō̍ lĭ´çĭt: ask earnestly. Vŭl´can. Căd´mus. Är´gō̍ na̤uts. Cŏm´plā̍i sănt ly̆: politely. Mē dē´ȧ.
V. Ŏb scū´rĭ ty̆: darkness. Clăṉ´gor: a sharp, harsh, ringing sound. Prō̍ trūd´ĕd: thrust out. Bat tal´ion: body of troops.
VI. Ō̍ bēi´sançe: bow. Sŭs pĕnd´ĕd: hung. Mēed: reward. Po´tion: drink; dose; usually of liquid medicine. Ĭl lū´mĭ nāt ĕd: lighted up; brightened. Or´pheus. Cā´dençe: the close or fall of a strain of music.
Key composing "The Star-Spangled Banner"