Then Helen looked at him, and saw his eyes, and was horribly afraid. She said, "I know not whether I can trust thee;" but he answered her:
"Have I not proved that to thee? Did I not give thee the sword with which to free thyself?"
"Yea," she said, "but have I freed myself indeed?"
He stretched out his arms to her, saying, "Free? Yes, thou art free, most glorious one. And now I too am free to love thee."
But she used craft in her fear, saying, "I am soiled with wicked blood. Stay thou here, Eutyches, and I will purify myself, and be as thou wouldst have me."
And he let her go with a kiss, saying, "Be quick. Have I not waited twelve years?"
Then Helen arose and went out of the chamber, and out of the house into the garden. And she stood before the altar of Artemis Eileithyia, and prayed before it, saying, "O Holy One, I give thee thanks indeed that now I know the way of peace." And then she went farther into the grove of ilex-trees where the altar and the image stood, and took off her girdle and bound it straightly round her neck. And she clomb the tree, and tied the end of the girdle about the branch thereof; and afterward cast herself down, and hung there quite still. And the cord which she used was of silk, and had girt her raiment about her, below her fair breasts.
THE END