For her comfort he spake; but with deadly words did she make reply: {410}
‘Give heed now:—it needs must be, when peril and shame are nigh,
That we likewise counsel thereafter. Distraught I was at the first
In mine error, and god-misguided accomplished desires accurst.
Do thou be my shield from the Kolchian spears in the toil of the strife,
And I will beguile this man to lay in thine hands his life.
He shall come: and with dazzling gifts of welcoming win thou his heart,
If I haply persuade the heralds to hold themselves apart,
And draw him alone unto me to hearken the thing I would say.
Then thou, if this deed be good in thy sight—I say not nay—