But Perseus had not forgotten his mother; and so, one fine summer day,
he and Andromeda sailed in a beautiful ship to his own home; for the
Magic Slippers could not carry both him and his bride through the air.
The ship came to land at the very spot where the wooden chest had been
cast so many years before; and Perseus and his bride walked through the
fields towards the town.
Now, the wicked king of that land had never ceased trying to persuade
Danaë to become his wife; but she would not listen to him, and the more
he pleaded and threatened, the more she disliked him. At last when he
found that she could not be made to have him, he declared that he would
kill her; and on this very morning he had started out, sword in hand, to
take her life.
So, as Perseus and Andromeda came into the town, whom should they meet
but his mother fleeing to the altar of Jupiter, and the king following
after, intent on killing her? Danaë was so frightened that she did not
see Perseus, but ran right on towards the only place of safety. For it
was a law of that land that not even the king should be allowed to harm
any one who took refuge on the altar of Jupiter.
When Perseus saw the king rushing like a madman after his mother, he
threw himself before him and bade him stop. But the king struck at him
furiously with his sword. Perseus caught the blow on his shield, and at
the same moment took the head of Medusa from his magic pouch.
"I promised to bring you a present, and here it is!" he cried.
The king saw it, and was turned into stone, just as he stood, with his
sword uplifted and that terrible look of anger and passion in his face.
The people of the island were glad when they learned what had happened,
for no one loved the wicked king. They were glad, too, because Perseus
had come home again, and had brought with him his beautiful wife,
Andromeda. So, after they had talked the matter over among themselves,
they went to him and asked him to be their king. But he thanked them,
and said that he would rule over them for one day only, and that then he
would give the kingdom to another, so that he might take his mother back
to her home and her kindred in distant Argos.
On the morrow therefore, he gave the kingdom to the kind man who had
saved his mother and himself from the sea; and then he went on board his
ship, with Andromeda and Danaë, and sailed away across the sea towards
Argos.