Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/220

208

Nay: had Time taught me that, I had not stooped

To bandy words with such a slave as thou.

This, then, is all thine answer; thou'lt not speak

One syllable of what our Father asks.

Oh, that I were a debtor to his kindness!

I would requite him to the uttermost!

A cutting speech! You take me for a boy

Whom you may taunt and tease.

Why art thou not

A boy—a very booby—to suppose

Thou wilt get aught from me? There is no wrong

However shameful, nor no shift of malice

Whereby Zeus shall persuade me to unlock

My lips until these shackles be cast loose.

Therefore let lightning leap with smoke and flame,

And all that is be beat and tossed together,

With whirl of feathery snowflakes and loud crack

Of subterranean thunder; none of these

Shall bend my will or force me to disclose

By whom 'tis fated he shall fall from power.

What good can come of this? Think yet again!

I long ago have thought and long ago

Determined.