So spake he, and round him straight did the veil of slumber close. {1110}
But she laid up his wisdom her heart within; and she straightway uprose
From her couch in the palace: the women her handmaids with hurrying feet
Came, eagerly tending their lady the Queen with service meet.
And she silently summoned her herald, and spake in his ears her request
To be instant in bidding Aison’s son, at his Queen’s behest,
To wed with the maiden, nor more with Alkinoüs the king to plead;
For himself to the Kolchians would go and pronounce the doom decreed,
That, if she were virgin yet, he would render her up to be led
To her father: but if she ministered unto a husband’s bed,