Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/332

304 poor mistress! what suffering now awaits thy soul? Must then our wish to work another harm end in our own discomfiture, as justice doth decree?

. My trusty maids, the men of death are on my track; the vote of Delphi goes against me; they give me up to die.

. Unhappy one! we know thy sad mischance, how thou art placed.

. Oh! whither can I fly? for scarce had I the start of my pursuers from the house in my race for life; 'tis by stealth alone that I have thus far escaped my foes.

. Where shouldst thou fly except to the altar?

. What good is that to me?

. To slay a suppliant is forbidden.

. Aye, but the law has given me over to death.

. Only if thou fall into their hands.

. Look! here they come, cruel champions of vengeance, eagerly brandishing their swords.

. Sit thee down upon the altar of burnt-offering! for if thou art slain there, thou wilt fix upon thy murderers the stain of bloodguiltiness; but we must bear our fortune.

. O father Cephissus, with the bull-shaped head, what a viper is this thy child, or dragon with fiery eyes that dart a murderous gleam, in whose heart is throned incarnate daring, noxious as those Gorgon drops of venom wherewith she sought to compass my death. Seize her, that the peaks of Parnassus may card the flowing tresses of her hair, for thence shall she be hurled headlong amid the rocks. My lucky star hath kept me from going to Athens, there to fall beneath the power of a step-mother. For I have gauged thy feelings towards me—the full extent of thy bitter hostility—whilst yet amongst my friends; for hadst thou once shut me