“Let us surround him,” was the reply.
The men approached from both sides and speedily formed a circle around the departing pair. At each step they took the ring grew smaller. Bremon noticed the danger, showed his teeth, growled, and no longer wandered away from his master.
“Keep close behind me, wife,” said Lyrcus.
And, to obtain greater freedom of movement, he took off his upper garment and flung it to her. Then, crouching slightly behind his shield, he waited until the difficulty of marching on the uneven surface of the mountain should make a breach in the Pelasgians’ circle.
“Follow me!” he called to Byssa, and set off at a run, but to give her time did not go at full speed and, ere he knew it, he was surrounded.
With the courage given by superior strength Lyrcus now tried to fight his way through. He felled two Pelasgians to the earth, and Bremon furiously attacked two others and made them unfit for combat. But the poor dog was soon killed, and Lyrcus needed all his skill in the use of arms to defend himself.
Just at that moment a loud shout was heard close at hand.
“Hold! In the name of the gods, hold!”
A youth in full armor suddenly forced his way to Lyrcus and covered him with his own body.
“Pelasgians!” he cried, “so brave a warrior ought not to die thus ... one against many.”