Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/109

Rh The slayer of to-day shall die to-morrow—

The wage of wrong is woe.

While Time shall be, while Zeus in heaven is lord,

His law is fixed and stern;

On him that wrought shall vengeance be outpoured—

The tides of doom return.

The children of the curse abide within

These halls of high estate—

And none can wrench from off the home of sin

The clinging grasp of fate.

Now walks thy word aright, to tell

This ancient truth of oracle;

But I with vows of sooth will pray

To him, the power that holdeth sway

O'er all the race of Pleisthenes—

Tho' dark the deed and deep the guilt,

With this last blood, my hands have spilt,

I pray thee let thine anger cease!

I pray thee pass from us away

To some new race in other lands,

There, if thou wilt, to wrong and slay

The lives of men by kindred hands.

For me 'tis all sufficient meed,

Tho' little wealth or power were won,

So I can say, 'Tis past and done.

The bloody lust and murderous,

The inborn frenzy of our house,

Is ended by my deed.

[Enter Ægisthus.