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Then the heroes lay on their oars in fear, but Medeia spoke: "I know this giant. If strangers land he leaps into his furnace, which flames there among the hills, and when he is red-hot he rushes on them, and burns them in his brazen hands. But he has but one vein in all his body filled with liquid fire, and this vein is closed with a nail.
He thought he saw a shining star, which fell into his daughter's lap; and that Medeia his daughter took it gladly, and carried it to the river side, and cast it in, and there the whirling river bore it down, and out into the Euxine Sea.
Who is this who is proof against all magic? He may kill the serpent yet. So he delayed, and sat taking counsel with his princes till the sun went down and all was dark. Then he bade a herald cry, 'Every man to his home for to- night. To-morrow we will meet these heroes, and speak about the golden fleece. Then he turned and looked at Medeia. 'This is your doing, false witch-maid!
But Medeia called her dragon chariot, and sprang into it and fled aloft, away over land and sea, and no man saw her more. And AEgeus cried, 'What hast thou done? But Theseus pointed to the stone, 'I have rid the land of an enchantment: now I will rid it of one more. And he came close to AEgeus, and drew from his bosom the sword and the sandals, and said the words which his mother bade him.
We went to fetch the golden fleece, and we have brought it, and grief therewith. Give us news of our fathers and our mothers, if any of them be left alive on earth. Then there was shouting, and laughing, and weeping; and all the kings came to the shore, and they led away the heroes to their homes, and bewailed the valiant dead. Then Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle Pelias.
Then that simple Talus dipped himself in the sea, till it hissed, and roared, and smoked; and came and knelt before Medeia, and showed her the secret nail. And she drew the nail out gently, but she poured no ichor in; and instead the liquid fire spouted forth, like a stream of red-hot iron.
So at midnight they went up the bank and found Medeia, and she brought them to a thicket beside the War-god's gate. And the base of the gate fell down and the brazen doors flew wide, and Medeia and the heroes ran forward, and hurried through the poison wood, guided by the gleam of the Golden Fleece, until they saw it hanging on one vast tree in the midst.
And Medeia thought of Jason and his brave countenance, and said: "If there was one among them who knew no fear, I could show him how to win the fleece." So in the dusk of evening they went down to the riverside, Chalciope and Medeia the witch maiden, and Argus, Phrixus's son.
Then he turned and looked at Medeia. "This is your doing, false witch-maid," he said; "you have helped these yellow-haired strangers." Medeia shrank and trembled, and her face grew pale with fear, and Aietes knew that she was guilty, and he whispered, "If they win the fleece, you die." Now the heroes went marching toward their ship, growling, like lions cheated of their prey.
But Medeia, the dark witch-maiden, was watching all the while, and she saw how the heart of Ægeus 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!
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