“Know, fair youth, that you are going to torment and to death, for he
who met you is a robber and a murderer of men. Whatsoever stranger he
meets, he entices him hither to death; and as for this bed of which he
speaks, truly it fits all comers, yet none ever rose alive off it, save
me.”
[Illustration: THESEUS AND PROCRUSTES]
“Why?” asked Theseus, astonished.
“Because, if a man be too tall for it, he lops his limbs till they be
short enough, and if he be too short, he stretches his limbs till they
be long enough; but me only he spared, seven weary years agone, for I
alone of all fitted his bed exactly, so he spared me, and made me his
slave. Once I was a wealthy merchant, and dwelt in a great city; but now
I hew wood and draw water for him, the tormentor of all mortal men.”
Then Theseus said nothing; but he ground his teeth together.
“Escape, then,” said the old man; “for he will have no pity on thy
youth. But yesterday he brought up hither a young man and a maiden, and
fitted them upon his bed; and the young man’s hands and feet he cut off,
but the maiden’s limbs he stretched until she died, and so both perished
miserably--but I am tired of weeping over the slain. He is called
Procrustes, the stretcher. Flee from him; yet whither will you flee? The
cliffs are steep, and who can climb them? and there is no other road.”
But Theseus laid his hand upon the old man’s mouth, and said, “There is
no need to flee;” and he turned to go down the pass.
“Do not tell him that I have warned you, or he will kill me by some evil
death,” the old man screamed after him down the glen; but Theseus strode
on in his wrath.
He said to himself: “This is an ill-ruled land. When shall I have done
ridding it of monsters?” As he spoke, Procrustes came up the hill, and
all the merchants with him, smiling and talking gayly. When he saw
Theseus, he cried, “Ah, fair young guest, have I kept you too long
waiting?”
But Theseus answered, “The man who stretches his guests upon a bed and
hews off their hands and feet, what shall be done to him, when right is
done throughout the land?”
Then the countenance of Procrustes changed, and his cheeks grew as green
as a lizard, and he felt for his sword in haste. But Theseus leaped on
him, and cried:--
“Is this true, my host, or is it false?” and he clasped Procrustes
around waist and elbow, so that he could not draw his sword.
“Is this true, my host, or is it false?” But Procrustes answered never a
word.
Then Theseus flung him from him, and lifted up his dreadful club; and
before Procrustes could strike him, he had struck and felled him to the
ground. And once again he struck him; and his evil soul fled forth, and
went down into the depths squeaking, like a bat into the darkness of a
cave.
Then Theseus stripped him of his gold ornaments, and went up to his
house, and found there great wealth and treasure, which he had stolen
from the passers-by. And he called the people of the country, whom
Procrustes had spoiled a long time, and divided the treasure among them,
and went down the mountains, and away.
--CHARLES KINGSLEY.