So while they sat discoursing in this manner, supper was served in, and
the servants of the herdsman, who had been out all day in the fields, came
in to supper, and took their seats at the fire, for the night was bitter
and frosty. After supper, Ulysses, who had well eaten and drunken, and was
refreshed with the herdsman's good cheer, was resolved to try whether his
host's hospitality would extend to the lending him a good warm mantle or
rug to cover him in the night season; and framing an artful tale for the
purpose, in a merry mood, filling a cup of Greek wine, he thus began:
"I will tell you a story of your king Ulysses and myself. If there is ever
a time when a man may have leave to tell his own stories, it is when he
has drunken a little too much. Strong liquor driveth the fool, and moves
even the heart of the wise, moves and impels him to sing and to dance, and
break forth in pleasant laughters, and perchance to prefer a speech too
which were better kept in. When the heart is open, the tongue will be
stirring. But you shall hear. We led our powers to ambush once under the
walls of Troy."
The herdsmen crowded about him eager to hear anything which related to
their king Ulysses and the wars of Troy, and thus he went on:
"I remember, Ulysses and Menelaus had the direction of that enterprise,
and they were pleased to join me with them in the command. I was at that
time in some repute among men, though fortune has played me a trick since,
as you may perceive.
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