Therefore he would have fled to the ship, but Pylades consented not, seeing that they were not wont to go back from that to which they had set their hand, but counselled that they should hide themselves during the day in a cave that was hard by the seashore, not near to the ship, lest search should be made for them, and that by night they should creep into the temple by a space that there was between the pillars, and carry off the image, and so depart.

[Illustration:  Orestes and the furies.]

So they hid themselves in a cavern by the sea.  But it chanced that certain herdsmen were feeding their oxen in pastures hard by the shore; one of these, coming near to the cavern, spied the young men as they sat therein, and stealing back to his fellows, said, “See ye not them that sit yonder.  Surely they are Gods;” for they were exceeding tall and fair to look upon.  And some began to pray to them, thinking that they might be the Twin Brethren or of the sons of Nereus.  But another laughed and said, “Not so; these are shipwrecked men who hide themselves, knowing that it is our custom to sacrifice strangers to our Gods.”  To him the others gave consent, and said that they should take the men prisoners that they might be sacrificed to the Gods.

But while they delayed Orestes ran forth from the cave, for the madness was come upon him, crying out, “Pylades, seest thou not that dragon from hell; and that who would kill me with the serpents of her mouth, and this again that breatheth out fire, holding my mother in her arms to cast her upon me?” And first he bellowed as a bull and then howled as a dog, for the Furies, he said, did so.  But the herdsmen, when they saw this, gathered together in great fear and sat down.  But when Orestes drew his sword and leapt, as a lion might leap, into the midst of the herd, slaying the beasts (for he thought in his madness that he was contending with the Furies), then the herdsmen, blowing on shells, called to the people of the land; for they feared the young men, so strong they seemed and valiant.  And when no small number was gathered together, they began to cast stones and javelins at the two.  And now the madness of Orestes began to abate, and Pylades tended him carefully, wiping away the foam from his mouth, and holding his garments before him that he should not be wounded by the stones.  But when Orestes came to himself, and beheld in what straits they were, he groaned aloud and cried, “We must die, O Pylades, only let us die as befitteth brave men.  Draw thy sword and follow me.”  And the people of the land dared not to stand before them; yet while some fled, others would cast stones at them.  For all that no man wounded them.  But at the last, coming about them with a great multitude, they smote the swords out of their hands with stones, and so bound them and took them to King Thoas.  And the King commanded that they should be taken to the temple, that the priestess might deal with them according to the custom of the place.