The island-princes; high-born dames of Crete

And Cephalonia saw again their lords;

Only Ulysses came not; yet the war

Was over, and his vessels, like a troop

Of cranes in file, had spread their wings for home.

More was unknown. Then many a winter’s night

The servants piled great fagots, smeared with tar,

High on the palace-roof; with mine own hands

I fired the heaps, that, haply, far away

On the dark waters, might my lord take heart