you were raging about the court."Medon caught these words of Telemachus, for he was crouching under aseat beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshlyflayed heifer's hide, so he threw off the hide, went up to Telemachus,and laid hold of his knees."Here I am, my dear sir," said he, "stay your hand therefore, andtell your father, or he will kill me in his rage against the suitorsfor having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful toyourself."Ulysses smiled at him and answered, "Fear not; Telemachus hassaved your life, that you may know in future, and tell other people,how greatly better good deeds prosper than evil ones. Go, therefore,outside the cloisters into the outer court, and be out of the way ofthe slaughter- you and the bard- while I finish my work here inside."The pair went into the outer court as fast as they could, and satdown by Jove's great altar, looking fearfully round, and stillexpecting that they would be killed. Then Ulysses searched the wholecourt carefully over, to see if anyone had managed to hide himself andwas still living, but he found them all lying in the dust andweltering in their blood. They were like fishes which fishermen havenetted out of the sea, and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping forwater till the heat of the sun makes an end of them. Even so werethe suitors lying all huddled up one against the other.Then Ulysses said to Telemachus, "Call nurse Euryclea; I havesomething to say to her."Telemachus went and knocked at the door of the women's room. "Makehaste," said he, "you old woman who have been set over all the otherwomen in the house. Come outside; my father wishes to speak to you."When Euryclea heard this she unfastened the door of the women's roomand came out, following Telemachus. She found Ulysses among thecorpses bespattered with blood and filth like a lion that has justbeen devouring an ox, and his breast and both his cheeks are allbloody, so that he is a fearful sight; even so was Ulyssesbesmirched from head to foot with gore. When she saw all the corpsesand such a quantity of blood, she was beginning to cry out for joy,for she saw that a great deed had been done; but Ulysses checkedher, "Old woman," said he, "rejoice in silence; restrain yourself, anddo not make any noise about it; it is an unholy thing to vaunt overdead men. Heaven's doom and their own evil deeds have brought thesemen to destruction, for they respected no man in the whole world,neither rich nor poor, who came near them, and they have come to a badend as a punishment for their wickedness and folly. Now, however, tellme which of the women in the house have misconducted themselves, andwho are innocent.""I will tell you the truth, my son," answered Euryclea. "There arefifty women in the house whom we teach to do things, such as cardingwool, and all kinds of household work. Of these, twelve in all havemisbehaved, and have been wanting in respect to me, and also toPenelope. They showed no disrespect to Telemachus, for he has onlylately grown and his mother never permitted him to give orders tothe female servants; but let me go upstairs and tell your wife allthat has happened, for some god has been sending her to sleep.""Do not wake her yet," answered Ulysses, "but tell the women whohave misconducted themselves to come to me."Euryclea left the cloister to tell the women, and make them cometo Ulysses; in the meantime he called Telemachus, the stockman, andthe swineherd. "Begin," said he, "to remove the dead, and make thewomen help you. Then, get sponges and clean water to swill down thetables and seats. When you have thoroughly cleansed the wholecloisters, take the women into the space between the domed room andthe wall of the outer court, and run them through with your swordstill they are quite dead, and have forgotten all about love and theway in which they used to lie in secret with the suitors."On this the women came down in a body, weeping and wailing bitterly.First they carried the dead bodies out, and propped them up againstone another in the gatehouse. Ulysses ordered them about and made themdo their work quickly, so they had to carry the bodies out. Whenthey had done this, they cleaned all the tables and seats with spongesand water, while Telemachus and the two others shovelled up theblood and dirt from the ground, and the women carried it all awayand put it out of doors. Then when they had made the whole place quiteclean and orderly, they took the women out and hemmed them in thenarrow space between the wall of the domed room and that of theyard, so that they could not get away: and Telemachus said to theother two, "I shall not let these women die a clean death, for theywere insolent to me and my mother, and used to sleep with thesuitors."So saying he made a ship's cable fast to one of the bearing-poststhat supported the roof of the domed room, and secured it all aroundthe building, at a good height, lest any of the women's feet shouldtouch the ground; and as thrushes or doves beat against a net that hasbeen set for them in a thicket just as they were getting to theirnest, and a terrible fate awaits them, even so did the women have toput their heads in nooses one after the other and die mostmiserably. Their feet moved convulsively for a while, but not for verylong.As for Melanthius, they took him through the cloister into the innercourt. There they cut off his nose and his ears; they drew out hisvitals and gave them to the dogs raw, and then in their fury theycut off his hands and his feet.When they had done this they washed their hands and feet and wentback into the house, for all was now over; and Ulysses said to thedear old nurse Euryclea, "Bring me sulphur, which cleanses allpollution, and fetch fire also that I may burn it, and purify thecloisters. Go, moreover, and tell Penelope to come here with herattendants, and also all the maid servants that are in the house.""All that you have said is true," answered Euryclea, "but let mebring you some clean clothes- a shirt and cloak. Do not keep theserags on your back any longer. It is not right.""First light me a fire," replied Ulysses.She brought the fire and sulphur, as he had bidden her, andUlysses thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outercourts. Then she went inside to call the women and tell them whathad happened; whereon they came from their apartment with torches intheir hands, and pressed round Ulysses to embrace him, kissing hishead and shoulders and taking hold of his hands. It made him feel asif he should like to weep, for he remembered every one of them.BOOK XXIII.EURYCLEA now went upstairs laughing to tell her mistress that herdear husband had come home. Her aged knees became young again andher feet were nimble for joy as she went up to her mistress and bentover her head to speak to her. "Wake up Penelope, my dear child,"she exclaimed, "and see with your own eyes something that you havebeen wanting this long time past. Ulysses has at last indeed come homeagain, and has killed the suitors who were giving so much trouble inhis house, eating up his estate and ill-treating his son.""My good nurse," answered Penelope, "you must be mad. The godssometimes send some very sensible people out of their minds, andmake foolish people become sensible. This is what they must havebeen doing to you; for you always used to be a reasonable person.Why should you thus mock me when I have trouble enough already-talking such nonsense, and waking me up out of a sweet sleep thathad taken possession of my eyes and closed them? I have never slept sosoundly from the day my poor husband went to that city with theill-omened name. Go back again into the women's room; if it had beenany one else, who had woke me up to bring me such absurd news I shouldhave sent her away with a severe scolding. As it is, your age shallprotect you.""My dear child," answered Euryclea, "I am not mocking you. It isquite true as I tell you that Ulysses is come home again. He was thestranger whom they all kept on treating so badly in the cloister.Telemachus knew all the time that he was come back, but kept hisfather's secret that he might have his revenge on all these wickedpeople.Then Penelope sprang up from her couch, threw her arms roundEuryclea, and wept for joy. "But my dear nurse," said she, "explainthis to me; if he has really come home as you say, how did he manageto overcome the wicked suitors single handed, seeing what a numberof them there always were?""I was not there," answered Euryclea, "and do not know; I only heardthem groaning while they were being killed. We sat crouching andhuddled up in a corner of the women's room with the doors closed, tillyour son came to fetch me because his father sent him. Then I foundUlysses standing over the corpses that were lying on the ground allround him, one on top of the other. You would have enjoyed it if youcould have seen him standing there all bespattered with blood andfilth, and looking just like a lion. But the corpses are now all piledup in the gatehouse that is in the outer court, and Ulysses has lita great fire to purify the house with sulphur. He has sent me tocall you, so come with me that you may both be happy together afterall; for now at last the desire of your heart has been fulfilled; yourhusband is come home to find both wife and son alive and well, andto take his revenge in his own house on the suitors who behaved sobadly to him.""'My dear nurse," said Penelope, "do not exult too confidentlyover all this. You know how delighted every one would be to seeUlysses come home- more particularly myself, and the son who hasbeen born to both of us; but what you tell me cannot be really true.It is some god who is angry with the suitors for their greatwickedness, and has made an end of them; for they respected no manin the whole world, neither rich nor poor, who came near them, whocame near them, and they have come to a bad end in consequence oftheir iniquity. Ulysses is dead far away from the Achaean land; hewill never return home again."Then nurse Euryclea said, "My child, what are you talking about? butyou were all hard of belief and have made up your mind that yourhusband is never coming, although he is in the house and by his ownfire side at this very moment. Besides I can give you another proof;when I was washing him I perceived the scar which the wild boar gavehim, and I wanted to tell you about it, but in his wisdom he would notlet me, and clapped his hands over my mouth; so come with me and Iwill make this bargain with you- if I am deceiving you, you may haveme killed by the most cruel death you can think of.""My dear nurse," said Penelope, "however wise you may be you canhardly fathom the counsels of the gods. Nevertheless, we will go insearch of my son, that I may see the corpses of the suitors, and theman who has killed them."On this she came down from her upper room, and while doing so sheconsidered whether she should keep at a distance from her husbandand question him, or whether she should at once go up to him andembrace him. When, however, she had crossed the stone floor of thecloister, she sat down opposite Ulysses by the fire, against thewall at right angles [to that by which she had entered], while Ulyssessat near one of the bearing-posts, looking upon the ground, andwaiting to see what his wife would say to him when she saw him. Fora long time she sat silent and as one lost in amazement. At one momentshe looked him full in the face, but then again directly, she wasmisled by his shabby clothes and failed to recognize him, till