Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/296

240 Stricken. Thou shalt in Hades be his bride

Whose love thou wast in life. So great the grace

I grant thee: thine to me—to avenge my sire!

[Enters hut.

Vengeance for wrong! The stormy winds, long lashing

The house, have veered! There was an hour saw fall

My chief, with blood the laver's silver dashing,

When shrieked the roof,—yea, topstones of the wall

Shrieked back his cry, "Fiend-wife, and art thou tearing

My life from me, who in the tenth year's earing

Come to my dear land, mine ancestral hall?"

The tide of justice whelmeth, refluent-roaring,

The wanton wife who met her hapless lord,

When to the towers Titanic heavenward-soaring

He came,—with welcome met him of the sword,

Who grasped in hand the axe keen-edged to sever

Life's thread:—O hapless spouse, what wrong soever

Stung to the deed the murderess abhorred!

Ruthless as mountain lioness roaming through

Green glades, she wrought the deed she had set her hands to do.

[Cry within.]

O children, in God's name slay not your mother!

Dost thou hear how thrills 'neath the roof a cry?