Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/323

Rh. Who then exposed him? surely not thyself.

. Myself, when 'neath the gloom of night I had wrapped him in my robe.

. Did no one share thy secret of the babe's exposure?

. Ill-fortune and secrecy alone.

. How couldst thou in the cavern leave thy babe?

. Ah! how? but still I did, with many a word of pity uttered o'er him.

. Oh for thy hard heart! Oh for the god's, more hard than thine!

. Hadst thou but seen the babe stretch forth his hands to me!

. To find thy mother's breast, to nestle in thy arms?

. By being kept therefrom he suffered grievous wrong from me.

. How camest thou to think of casting forth thy babe?

. Methought the god would save his own begotten child.

. Ah me! what storms assail thy family's prosperity!

. Why weepest thou, old man, with head close-veiled?

. To see the sorrows of thy sire and thee.

. Such is our mortal life; naught abideth in one stay.

. Daughter, let us cease to dwell on themes of woe.

. What must I do? Misfortune leaves us helpless.

. Avenge thee on the god who first did injure thee.

. How can I, weak mortal as I am, outrun those mightier powers?