The sons of Pallas ill brooked the arrival and acknowledgment of this unexpected heir to the throne.

They armed themselves and their followers, and prepared for war.

But one half of their troops, concealed in ambush, were cut off by Theseus (instructed in their movements by the treachery of a herald), and the other half, thus reduced, were obliged to disperse.

So Theseus remained the undisputed heir to the Athenian throne.
IV.

It would be vain for the historian, but delightful for the poet, to follow at length this romantic hero through all his reputed enterprises.