"My house," he went on to plead, "is a house of stone, like the Egyptians', and stored up within it, Chryseis, there are chests, in which are necklaces, and pearls, and golden bodkins for your hair. All shall be yours, and you shall be first and noblest of all the women in Crete."
Chryseis slowly raised her eyes from the ground, and laying her hand upon Hanno's shoulder, in a firm, deliberate, and yet gentle voice, said:
"Our holy Zeus has given me to Hanno, and with Hanno I shall remain."
The Dorian, mortified and excited, literally stamped with rage.
"What!" he cried, "prefer a Phœnician subject to a king of the Hellenes?"
"A Sidonian scribe," said Hanno, "is the equal of any king on earth. I own no superior except my captain and the gods above."
"Though he were the lowliest sailor in the service," declared Chryseis, "my heart is his. His goddess Ashtoreth has delivered me in the hour of peril, and Zeus, my god, pronounces that I am his."
The Dorian could do no more: in vain he pointed to the smiling meadows and the shady forests of the island, and contrasted them with the abode upon the raging water of an angry sea; Chryseis maintained that the water had charms as many as the land. Unable to prevail with her, he made a final appeal to me; but finding me firm in my resolve to leave the girl unfettered in her choice, he gave a growl of anger, and without turning his head, remounted his chariot and drove rapidly away.
"Mine, henceforth," said Hanno to Chryseis, as he led her to the ship. "You are as a priestess of Ashtoreth, the guardian of us all!" and he drew her closer to his side.
The sail was soon hoisted, and the rowers settled to their seats. Leaving the shore, we made long tacks to get to windward, and in five hours had passed the northernmost extremity of Crete. In the course of the night we were coasting the rocky land upon the north of the lesser Cythera.