Then the Prince made reply, "'Tis not in me, son of Laertes, to work by craft and guile, neither was it in my father before me. I am ready to carry off this man with a strong arm; and how, being a cripple, shall he stand against us? but deceit I will not use. And though I should be loath to fail thee in this our common enterprise, yet were this better than to prevail by fraud."
Then said Ulysses, "And I, too, in my youth would do all things by the hand and not by the tongue; but now I know that the tongue hath alone the mastery."
And the Prince replied, "But thou biddest me speak the thing that is false."
"I bid thee prevail over Philoctetes by craft."
"But why may I not persuade him, or even constrain him by force?"
"To persuasion he will not hearken, and force thou mayest not use, for he hath arrows that deal death without escape."
"But is it not a base thing for a man to lie?"
"Surely not, if a lie save him."
"Tell me what is the gain to me if this man come to Troy."
"Without this bow and these arrows Troy falleth not. For though it is the pleasure of the Gods that thou take the city, yet canst not thou take it without these, nor indeed these without thee."