Page:Suppliant Maidens (Morshead) 1883.djvu/62

48

Whiche'er is best and sweetest to your will:

And I and all these citizens whose vote

Stands thus decreed, will your protectors be.

Look not to find elsewhere more loyal guard.

O godlike chief, God grant my prayer:

Fair blessings on thy proffers fair,

Lord of Pelasgia's race!

Yet, of thy grace, unto our side

Send thou the man of courage tried,

Of counsel deep and prudent thought,—

Be Danaus to his children brought;

For his it is to guide us well

And warn where it behoves to dwell—

What place shall guard and shelter us

From malice and tongues slanderous:

Swift always are the lips of blame

A stranger-maiden to defame—

But Fortune give us grace!

A stainless fame, a welcome kind

From all this people shall ye find:

Dwell therefore, damsels, loved of us,

Within our walls, as Danaus

Allots to each, in order due,

Her dower of attendants true.

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