The herdsmen crowded about him eager to hear any thing 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.  But I was somebody in those times, and could do something.  Be that as it may, a bitter freezing night it was, such a night as this, the air cut like steel, and the sleet gathered on our shields like crystal.  There was some twenty of us, that lay close couched down among the reeds and bull-rushes that grew in the moat that goes round the city.  The rest of us made tolerable shift, for every man had been careful to bring with him a good cloak or mantle to wrap over his armour and keep himself warm; but I, as it chanced, had left my cloak behind me, as not expecting that the night would prove so cool, or rather I believe because I had at that time a brave suit of new armour on, which, being a soldier, and having some of the soldier’s vice about me, vanity, I was not willing should be hidden under a cloak; but I paid for my indiscretion with my sufferings, for with the inclement night, and the wet of the ditch in which we lay, I was well nigh frozen to death; and when I could endure no longer, I jogged Ulysses who was next to me, and had a nimble ear, and made known my case to him, assuring him that I must inevitably perish.  He answered in a low whisper, ’Hush, lest any Greek should hear you, and take notice of your softness.’  Not a word more he said, but shewed as if he had no pity for the plight I was in.  But he was as considerate as he was brave, and even then, as he lay with his head reposing upon his hand, he was meditating how to relieve me, without exposing my weakness to the soldiers.  At last raising up his head, he made as if he had been asleep, and said, ’Friends, I have been warned in a dream to send to the fleet to king Agamemnon for a supply, to recruit our numbers, for we are not sufficient for this enterprize;’ and they believing him, one Thoas was dispatched on that errand, who departing, for more speed, as Ulysses had foreseen, left his upper garment behind him, a good warm mantle, to which I succeeded, and by the help of it got through the night with credit.  This shift Ulysses made for one in need, and would to heaven that I had now that strength in my limbs, which made me in those days to be accounted fit to be a leader under Ulysses!  I should not then want the loan of a cloak or a mantle, to wrap about me and shield my old limbs from the night-air.”

The tale pleased the herdsmen; and Eumaeus, who more than all the rest was gratified to hear tales of Ulysses, true or false, said, that for his story he deserved a mantle, and a night’s lodging, which he should have; and he spread for him a bed of goat and sheep skins by the fire; and the seeming beggar, who was indeed the true Ulysses, lay down and slept under that poor roof, in that abject disguise to which the will of Minerva had subjected him.