Thinke howe his faite, was Ilions foule deface.”
And Shakespeare sets forth Troilus (Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 2, l. 81, vol. vi. p. 164) as saying of Helen,—
“Why, she is a pearl,
Whose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships,
And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants.”
And then, as adding (l. 92),—
“O, theft most base,
That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep!
But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n.
That in their country did them that disgrace,