“Run and bring them,” said.  Ulysses, “while I have arrows left; when these are gone I cannot hold the doorway against them all.”

So Telemachus ran to the armory and hurried back with helmets and shields and spears; and he armed himself and made the two servants do the same, and they took their stand beside the king.  While the arrows lasted, Ulysses shot, and struck down the wooers man by man.  And then he leant the bow against the doorpost, and slung the shield about him and put on the helmet and took two spears in his hand.

Now there was a postern in the hall, close beside the great doorway and opening on the corridor.  Ulysses had put the swineherd to guard it, and now the boldest of the suitors said to the rest, “Could not some of us force a passage there and raise the cry for rescue?”

“Little use in that,” said Melanthius, “the great doorway is too close, and one brave man might stop us all before we reached the court.  I have a better plan.  Ulysses and his son have stowed away the weapons, and I think I know where they are.  I will go and fetch you what you need.”

With these words he clambered up through the lights of the hall and got into the armory, and fetched out twelve shields and as many spears and helmets, and brought them to the princes.  The heart of Ulysses misgave him when he saw the armor and the long spears in their hands; and he felt that the fight would go hard, and said to Telemachus, “Melanthius or one of the women has betrayed us.”

“Father, it was my fault,” said Telemachus; “I left the door of the armory open, and one of them must have kept sharper watch than I did.  Go, Eumaeus, make fast the door, and see whether this is the doing of Melanthius, as I guess.”

While they spoke, Melanthius went again to fetch more armor, and the swineherd spied him and said, “There is the villain going to the armory, as we thought; tell me, shall I kill him, if I can master him, or shall I bring him here to suffer for his sins?” “Telemachus and I will guard the doorway here,” said Ulysses, “and you and the shepherd shall bind him hand and foot and leave him in the chamber to wait his doom.”

So the two went up to the armory, and stood in wait on either side of the door; and as Melanthius came out, they leapt upon him and dragged him back by the hair and flung him on the ground and bound him tightly to a pillar hand and foot.  “Lie there,” said Eumaeus, “and take your ease:  the dawn will not find you sleeping, when it is time for you to rise and drive out your goats.”  With that they went back to join Ulysses, and the four stood together at the threshold,—­four men against a host.