Page:Agamemnon (Murray 1920).djvu/45

vv. 615–633.

Let thine ear mark her message. 'Tis of fair

Seeming, and craves a clear interpreter

But, Herald, I would ask thee; tell me true

Of Menelaüs. Shall he come with you,

Our land's belovèd crown, untouched of ill?

I know not how to speak false words of weal

For friends to reap thereof a harvest true.

Canst speak of truth with comfort joined? Those two

Once parted, 'tis a gulf not lightly crossed.

Your king is vanished from the Achaian host,

He and his ship! Such comfort have I brought.

Sailed he alone from Troy? Or was he caught

By storms in the midst of you, and swept away?

Thou hast hit the truth; good marksman, as men say!

And long to suffer is but brief to tell.

How ran the sailors' talk? Did there prevail

One rumour, showing him alive or dead?

None knoweth, none hath tiding, save the head

Of Helios, ward and watcher of the world.