Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/53

Rh

Child, pluck up courage. The recorded vote

Of Argos is a sovran people's voice:

Certain I am that they will fight for thee.

Ægyptus' sons are wild, abandoned men;

Their lust of battle hard to be appeased:

And if I say so thy heart knows 'tis true.

They have gotten them stalwart ships,

The stout oak braces:

They have gotten them shining ships

With cruel steely faces.

They set a course o'er unknown waves;

They struck an unseen quarry:

And multitudes of tawny slaves

Summoned to their foray.

Ay, but they'll meet their match; a multitude

Whose arms by oft exposure to the blaze

Of burning noon are firm as marble filed.

I pray you, leave me not alone, my father.

Left to herself a woman is but nought:

She hath no stomach for brave deeds of war.

But they are men in mind and heart deranged;

Possessed, yea, mad with godless lust and pride:

The human soul in them so much estranged

From holy thoughts, mercy and truth and awe,

They reck them less than crows, with beak and claw,

That rob the altars of things sanctified.