184 THE WONDER-BOOK OF HORSES 



every warrior chief to join him in defending the 

 honor of their country by punishing the Trojans 

 and bringing fair Helen back to her home. Nor 

 need I relate how the young Achilles was at first 

 hidden away by his mother lest he should go to 

 the war and lose his life therein; nor how, being 

 discovered in his hiding-place, he was afterward 

 persuaded to lead his Myrmidons to the attack 

 upon Troy, although well knowing that he would 

 never return to his native land ; nor how nine long 

 years were wasted in desultory warfare along the 

 Trojan shores ; nor yet how, at the beginning of 

 the tenth year, Achilles, being angered at Aga- 

 memnon's high-handed tyranny, drew off his 

 Myrmidons and withheld his aid at the very time 

 when the Greeks stood most in need of it. Of 

 all these things you may read in the works of the 

 great poets; my story has to do with Swift and 

 Old-Gold and the events that grew out of 

 Achilles's wrath. 



A month had already passed since the quarrel, 

 and Achilles sat sulkily in his hut, nursing his 

 anger toward Agamemnon. On either side of 

 him, along the sandy sea-beach, were the tents 

 of his Myrmidons ; and behind them, drawn up on 

 the shelving shore just out of reach of the lap- 



