Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/118

 I thought,—made a phantom in the hall, and he rushed after it in headlong haste, and stabbed the lustrous air, thinking he wounded me. Further the Bacchic god did other outrage to him; he dashed the building to the ground, and there it lies a mass of ruin, a sight to make him rue most bitterly my bonds. At last from sheer fatigue he dropped his sword and fell fainting; for he, a mortal frail, dared to wage war upon a god; but I meantime quietly left the house and am come to you, with never a thought of Pentheus. But methinks he will soon appear before the house; at least there is a sound of steps within. What will he say, I wonder, after this? Well, be his fury never so great, I will lightly bear it; for ’tis a wise man’s way to school his temper into due control.

. [Rushing out.] Shamefully have I been treated; that stranger, whom but now I made so fast in prison, hath escaped me. Ha! there is the man! What means this? How didst thou come forth, to appear thus in front of my palace?

. Stay where thou art; and moderate thy fury.

. How is it thou hast escaped thy fetters and art at large?

. Did I not say, or didst thou not hear me, “There is one will loose me.” . Who was it? there is always something strange in what thou sayest.

. He who makes the clustering vine to grow for man.

. * * * *

. A fine taunt indeed thou hurlest here at Dionysus!

. [To his servants] Bar every tower that hems us in, I order you.

. What use? Cannot gods pass even over walls?