Page:Agamemnon (Murray 1920).djvu/59

vv. 946–964. And while I walk yon wonders of the sea

God grant no eye of wrath be cast on me

From far!

[The Attendants untie his shoes.

For even now it likes me not

To waste mine house, thus marring underfoot

The pride thereof, and wondrous broideries

Bought in far seas with silver. But of these

Enough.—And mark, I charge thee, this princess

Of Ilion; tend her with all gentleness.

God's eye doth see, and loveth from afar,

The merciful conqueror. For no slave of war

Is slave by his own will. She is the prize

And chosen flower of Ilion's treasuries,

Set by the soldiers' gift to follow me.

Now therefore, seeing I am constrained by thee

And do thy will, I walk in conqueror's guise

Beneath my Gate, trampling sea-crimson dyes.

There is the sea—its caverns who shall drain?

Breeding of many a purple-fish the stain

Surpassing silver, ever fresh renewed,

For robes of kings. And we, by right indued,

Possess our fill thereof. Thy house, O King,

Knoweth no stint, nor lack of anything.

What trampling of rich raiment, had the cry

So sounded in the domes of prophesy,