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A deep third draught of rich unmingled blood.

But thou, O sister, look that all within

Be well prepared to give these things event.

And ye—I say 'twere well to bear a tongue

Full of fair silence and of fitting speech

As each beseems the time; and last, do thou,

Hermes the warder-god, keep watch and ward,

And guide to victory my striving sword.

[Exit with Pylades.

Many and marvellous the things of fear

Earth's breast doth bear;

And the sea's lap with many monsters teems,

And windy levin-bolts and meteor-gleams

Breed many deadly things—

Unknown and flying forms, with fear upon their wings,

And in their tread is death;

And rushing whirlwinds, of whose blasting breath

Man's tongue can tell.

But who can tell aright the fiercer thing,

The aweless soul, within man's breast inhabiting?

Who tell, how, passion-fraught and love-distraught,

The woman's eager, craving thought

Doth wed mankind to woe and ruin fell?

Yea, how the loveless love that doth possess

The woman, even as the lioness,

Doth rend and wrest apart, with eager strife,

The link of wedded life?

Let him be the witness, whose thought is not borne on light wings thro' the air,