Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/103

Rh I came, not by thy message drawn so much,

As from this house to help thee, shouldst thou grant me

Speech of thee, as thou dost. Mine wast thou once,

But liv'st with this man through thy father's baseness,

Who, ere he marched unto the coasts of Troy,

Betrothed thee mine, thereafter promised thee

To him that hath thee now, if he smote Troy.

Soon as to Greece returned Achilles' son,

Thy father I forgave: thy lord I prayed

To set thee free. I pleaded mine hard lot,—

The fate that haunted me,—that I might wed

From friends indeed, but scarce of stranger folk,

Banished as 1 am banished from mine home.

Then he with insolent scorn cast in my teeth

My mother's blood, the gory-visaged fiends.

And I—my pride fell with mine house's fortunes—

Was heart-wrung, heart-wrung, yet endured my lot,

And loth departed, of thy love bereft.

But, now thy fortune's dice have fallen awry,

And in affliction plunged dost thou despair,

Hence will I lead and give thee to thy sire;

For mighty is kinship, and in evil days

There is naught better than the bond of blood.

My marriage—'tis my father shall take thought

Thereof: herein decision is not mine.

But help thou me with all speed forth this house,

Lest my lord coming home prevent me yet,

Or Peleus learn my flight from his son's halls,

And follow in our track with chasing steeds.