“Thou sayest well,” answered Odysseus; “and ere long the wooers shall feel their might.  Now learn further what thou must do.  To-morrow thou shalt go up to the house, and join the company of the wooers, and afterwards the swineherd will bring me thither in the disguise of a beggar old and miserable.  If the wooers use me despitefully seek not to prevent it, but let thy heart endure, even though they beat me, or drag me by the feet through the doors.  Thou mayest reprove them gently, and bid them cease from their wantonness, but they will not heed thee for their lives are forfeit already.  Mark further, and take heed what I say.  When the time to strike is come I will give thee a signal, and, forthwith, thou shalt remove all the weapons from the halls, and make excuse to the wooers, saying that thou art bestowing them in a safe place, out of reach of the smoke.  Leave only two swords and two shields and two spears, as weapons for ourselves.  But above all I charge thee to let none know of my coming—­neither Laertes, nor Eumaeus, nor Penelope herself.  Alone we must work, and watch the temper of the thralls, to see if there be any on our side.”

III

Meanwhile the faithful swineherd made all haste to carry his message to Penelope.  Just as he was approaching the house, he met one of the crew of Telemachus’ ship coming up from the harbour on the same errand.  So they went together, and while Eumaeus conveyed the tidings privately to Penelope, he who was sent from the ship delivered his report in the hearing of the whole household.

Great was the dismay of the suitors when they learnt that their foul plot had been frustrated.  One by one they stole out of the house to a secret place of meeting; and when they were all assembled they began to devise what was next to be done.  While they were debating they were joined by Antinous and the crew of the ship which had been lying in wait for Telemachus in the strait.  Always the foremost in violent counsels, Antinous breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the young prince.  “The boy only escaped us by a miracle,” he said.  “All day long we had sentinels on all the heights commanding the sea, and at night we patrolled the waters in our ship.  Yet for all our vigilance he has slipped through our hands.  But I will not be baffled thus,” he added, stamping with fury.  “This wretched boy must die, or we shall never accomplish our purpose.  Let us make haste and slay him before he comes back to the town, or he will call a meeting of the people and proclaim to all Ithaca that we sought to slay him, and failed.  Then the whole city will rise against us, and we shall have to fly for our lives.”

Then another of the wooers rose up and rebuked Antinous for his bloodthirsty counsels.  This man’s name was Amphinomus, and he was the chief among the wooers who came from Dulichium.  More than any of the other suitors he found favour with Penelope, for he was a prudent man and a just, and his voice was pleasant to her ear.  “Remember,” he said, “that Telemachus is of royal race; and it is a dreadful thing to shed the blood of kings.  I will have no hand in such an act, without sure and manifest sign that it is the will of Zeus.”