“I have hold.”

“Then keep her safe, and say that the son of Zeus is a noble friend.  See if she be like thy wife; and change thy sorrow for joy.”

And when the King looked, lo! the veiled woman was Alcestis his wife.

THE STORY OF THE VENGEANCE OF MEDEA.

Jason, being of right the prince of Iolcos in the land of Thessaly, came back to his kingdom.  But Pelias, who had now for many years taken it for himself, spake him fair, and persuaded him that he should go on some adventure, and find glory and renown for himself, and so return; and he sware that afterwards he would peaceably give up the kingdom.  Now in the land of Colchis, which lieth to the east of the sea which men call the Hospitable Sea, there was kept a great treasure, even the fleece of a great ram, which had been sacrificed there in time past.  A marvellous beast was this ram, for it had flown through the air to Colchis from the land of Greece; and its fleece was of pure gold.  So Jason gathered together many valiant men, sons of gods and heroes, such as were Hercules the son of Zeus, and Castor and Pollux, the twin brethren, and Calais and Zethus, that were sons to the North Wind, and Orpheus, that was the sweetest singer of all the dwellers upon earth.  And they built for themselves a ship, and called its name the Argo, and so set sail, that they might bring back the fleece of gold to the land of Greece, to which, indeed, it rightfully belonged.  Now when Jason and his fellows were come to Colchis, they asked the fleece of the king of the country.  And he said that he would give it to them; only Jason must first yoke certain bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils, and slay a great dragon.  But the Princess Medea saw Jason, and loved him, and purposed in her heart that she would help him.  And being a great witch, and knowing all manner of drugs and enchantments, she gave him an ointment which kept all that anointed themselves with it so that they took no harm in battle with man or beast.  But first Jason had promised, swearing to her a great oath, that she should be his wife, and that he would take her with him to the land of Greece, and that he would be faithful unto her to his life’s end.  So when he and his companions had yoked the bulls, and slain the dragon, and carried away the fleece, they took Medea with them in the ship, and so departed.  But when Jason was come to the land of Iolcos, Pelias was not willing to keep his promise that he would give the kingdom to him.  Whereupon Medea devised this thing against him.  She took a ram, and cut him in pieces, and boiled his flesh in water, putting herbs into the cauldron, and saying divers enchantments over it; and, lo! the beast came forth young, though it had been very old.  Then she said to the daughters of Pelias, “Ye see this ram, how he was old, and I have made him young by boiling him in water.  Do ye so likewise to your father, and I will help you with drugs and