CHAPTER XI.
THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES.
While the Trojans watched with good hope, the Greeks were possessed with fear. And King Agamemnon was troubled beyond all others. He bade the heralds call every man to the assembly, bidding them severally without making proclamation. Gloomily they sat, and when the King rose up to speak, his tears dropped down, as the waters drop down a steep cliff-side from some spring which the sunshine toucheth not. Thus he spake: "O friends, lords and leaders of the Greeks, verily Zeus dealeth ill with me. Once he promised that I should take the city of Troy and so return home; but now he hath deceived me, bidding me go back dishonoured, having lost much people. Thus indeed do I now read his decree. Wherefore let us flee with our ships to the land of our fathers, for Troy we may not take."
