THE
RUINOUS FACE
BY
MAURICE HEWLETT
ILLUSTRATED
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
MCMIX
Copyright, 1909, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
Published October, 1909.
"Hence there is in Rhodes a sanctuary
of Helen of the Tree."
—Pausanias, iii., 19, 9.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Helen and Eutyches FrontispieceThe Abduction of Helen Facing p. 8From the painting by Rudolph von Deutsch.Helen of Troy " 20From the painting by Sir Frederick Leighton.Paris and Helen " 30From the painting by Jacques Louis David in the Louvre.
THE RUINOUS FACE
When the siege of Troy had beenten years doing, and most of thechieftains were dead, both of those afieldand those who held the walls; and somehad departed in their ships, and all whoremained were leaden-hearted; therewas one who felt the rage of war insatiatein his bowels: Menelaus, yellow-hairedKing of the Argives. He, indeed, restednot day or night, but knew the feverfretting at his members, and the burningin his heart. And when he scannedthe windy plain about the city, and thedesolation of it; and when he saw thehuts of the Achæans, and the furrows[ii]where the chariots ploughed along thelines, and the charred places of camp-fires,smoke-blackened trees, and puddledwaters of Scamander, and corn-landsand pastures which for ten years hadknown neither plough nor deep-breathedcattle, nor querulous sheep; even thenin the heart of Menelaus was no pity forDardan nor Greek, but only for himselfand what he had lost—white-bosomedHelen, darling of Gods and men, andgolden treasure of the house.
The vision of her glowing face andveiled eyes came to him in the night-seasonto make him mad, and in dreamshe saw her, as once and many times hehad seen her, lie supine. There as shelay in his dream, all white and gold,thinner than the mist-wreath upon amountain, he would cry aloud for hisloss, and throw his arms out over theempty bed, and feel his eye-sockets[iii]smart for lack of tears; for tears camenot to him, but his fever made his skinquite dry, and so were his eyes dry.Therefore, when the chiefs of the Achæansin Council, seeing how their strengthwas wearing down like a sno