But he said hastily, “Do you not know who this Theseus is?  The hero who has cleared the country from all monsters.  I must go out and welcome him.”

So AEgeus came into the hall, and when Theseus saw him his heart leapt into his mouth, and he longed to fall on his neck and welcome him.  But he controlled himself and thought, “My father may not wish for me, after all.  I will try him before I discover myself.”  And he bowed low before AEgeus and said, “I have delivered the King’s realm from many monsters, therefore I am come to ask a reward of the King.”

Old AEgeus looked on him and loved him, but he only sighed and said, “It is little that I can give you, noble lad, and nothing that is worthy of you.”

“All I ask,” said Theseus, “is to eat and drink at your table.”

“That I can give you,” said AEgeus, “if at least I am master in my own hall.”

Then he bade them put a seat for Theseus, and set before him the best of the feast, and Theseus sat and ate so much that all the company wondered at him, but always he kept his club by his side.

But Medeia, the dark witch-maiden, was watching all the while, and she saw how the heart of AEgeus opened to Theseus, and she said to herself, “This youth will be master here, unless I hinder it.”

Then she went back modestly to her chamber, while Theseus ate and drank, and all the servants whispered, “This, then, is the man who killed the monsters!  How noble are his looks, and how huge his size!  Ah, would he were our master’s son!”

Presently Medeia came forth, decked in all her jewels and her rich Eastern robes, and looking more beautiful than the day, so that all the guests could look at nothing else.  And in her right hand she held a golden cup, and in her left a flask of gold.  She came up to Theseus, and spoke in a sweet and winning voice, “Hail to the hero! drink of my charmed cup, which gives rest after every toil and heals all wounds;” and as she spoke she poured sparkling wine into the cup.

Theseus looked up into her fair face and into her deep dark eyes, and as he looked he shrank and shuddered, for they were dry eyes like the eyes of a snake.

Then he rose and said, “The wine is rich, and the wine-bearer fair.  Let her pledge me first herself in the cup that the wine may be sweeter.”

Medeia turned pale and stammered, “Forgive me, fair hero, but I am ill and dare drink no wine.”

Theseus looked again into her eyes and cried, “Thou shalt pledge me in that cup or die!”

Then Medeia shrieked and dashed the cup to the ground and fled, for there was strong poison in that wine.

And Medeia called her dragon chariot, and sprang into it, and fled aloft, away over land and sea, and no man saw her more.

[Illustration:  THESEUS LOOKED UP INTO HER FAIR FACE.]

AEgeus cried, “What have you done?”

But Theseus said, “I have rid the land of one enchantment, now I will rid it of one more.”