Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/49

397–430]

Without dispute. And now, my sovereign lord,

According to thy pleasure, thine own self

Examine and convict her. For my part

I have good right to be away and free

From the bad business I am come upon.

. This maiden!

How came she in thy charge? Where didst thou find her?

. Burying the prince. One word hath told thee all.

. Hasty thou thy wits, and knowest thou what thou sayest?

. I saw her burying him whom you forbade

To bury. Is that, now, clearly spoken, or no?

. And how was she detected. caught, and taken?

. It fell in this wise. We were come to the spot,

Bearing the dreadful burden of thy threats;

And first with care we swept the dust away

From round the corse, and laid the dank limbs bare:

Then sate below the hill-top, out o’ the wind,

Where no bad odour from the dead might strike us,

Stirring each other on with interchange

Of loud revilings on the negligent

In ’tendance on this duty. So we stayed

Till in mid heaven the sun’s resplendent orb

Stood high, and the heat strengthened. Suddenly,

The Storm-god raised a whirlwind from the ground,

Vexing heaven’s concave, and filled all the plain,

Rending the locks of all the orchard groves,

Till the great sky was choked withal. We closed

Our lips and eyes, and bore the God-sent evil.

When after a long while this ceased, the maid

Was seen, and wailed in high and bitter key,

Like some despairing bird that hath espied

Her nest all desolate, the nestlings gone.

So, when she saw the body bare, she mourned

Loudly, and cursed the authors of this deed.

Then nimbly with her hands she brought dry dust,

And holding high a shapely brazen cruse,