Then the Queen and the old man talked together about the matter.  And when he would have had her slay her husband, she refused, saying that she could not do the deed, for that she thought of the time when he was faithful and loving to her.  But when he would have her execute vengeance on the youth, she consented.  Only she doubted how this might be done.  Then the old man cried, “Arm thine attendants with the sword and slay him.”

“Aye,” said the Queen, “and I would lead them myself; but where shall I slay him?”

“Slay him,” said the old man, “in the tent where he feasteth his friends.”

“Nay,” answered the Queen, “the deed would be too manifest; the hands also of slaves are ever feeble.”

Then the old man cried in a rage, “I see thou playest the coward.  Take counsel for thyself.”

Then said the Queen, “I have a plan in my heart that is both crafty and sure.  Listen now, and I will unfold it to thee.  Thou knowest how in time past the Giants that were the sons of Earth made war against the Gods in the plain of Phlegra; and that Earth, seeking to help her children, brought forth the Gorgon; and that Pallas, the daughter of Zeus, slew the monster.  Know then that Pallas gave to Ericthonius, who was the first King of the land of Attica, being sprung from the earth, two drops of the blood of the Gorgon, whereof the one hath the power to kill whomsoever it shall touch, and the other to heal all manner of diseases.  And these she shut in gold to keep them; and Ericthonius gave them to King Erechtheus my father, and he, when he died, gave them to me.  And I carry them in a bracelet on my wrist.  And thou shalt take the one that worketh death, and with it thou shalt slay this youth.”

“’Tis well thought,” the old man made answer; “but where shall I do the deed?”

“In Athens,” said the Queen, “when he shall have come to my house.”

But the old man said, “That is not well; for thou wilt have the repute of the deed, even if thou slay him not.  Slay him rather in this place, where thou shalt be more likely to deceive thy husband, for it must not be that he know it.”

When the Queen heard this she said, “Hear, then, what thou must do.  Go to the place where my husband maketh a sacrifice and a feast following.  And when the guests are even now ready to cease from their feasting and make libations to the Gods, drop his drop of death into the cup of him who would lord it over my house.  Of a surety if it pass his throat he shall never come to the city of Athens.”

So the old man went on his errand, and as he went he said to himself, “Old foot of mine, do this thy business as though thou wert young.  Thou hast to help the house of thy master against an enemy.  Let them that are happy talk of piety; he that would work his adversary woe must take no account of laws.”