Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/431

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The king hath many an ally, lackland knaves,

Fellows that have a name that they are rich,

Who sowed sedition, ruining the land,

To plunder neighbours, since their own estates,

Squandered by wasteful idleness, were gone.

Thou wast seen entering Thebes: since thou wast seen,

Let not foes gather, and thou fall unwares.

Though all the city saw me, nought reck I.

Yet, since I marked a bird in ominous place,

I knew that trouble on mine house had fallen,

And of set purpose entered secretly.

Go now, and hail thine hearth-gods with fair speech,

And show thy face to thine ancestral halls.

Himself, yon king, shall come to hale thy wife

And sons for murder, and to slaughter me.

If here thou bide, shall all go well with thee,

And thou shalt gain by surety. Stir not up

Thy city, ere thou hast ordered all things well.

I will: well said. I pass mine halls within.

Returned at last from sunless nether crypts

Of Hades and The Maid, I will not slight

The Gods, but hail them first beneath my roof.