Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/207

Rh Already the brands, nor the deeds of murder they spare.

Yet God overruleth the issue still,

To mete unto men what issue he will:

Great is his power! By a curse-fiend led

This house on a track of blood hath been sped

Since Myrtilus, dashed from the chariot, plashed in the sea-surge, dead.

Ha, I see unto the palace Menelaus draweth near

Hasty-footed, having heard the deeds but now accomplished here.

Ye within the mansion—Atreus' children!—bar the bolted gate!—

Haste! oh haste! A formidable foeman is the fortunate

Unto such as be—as thou, Orestes, now—in evil strait.

I come at news of strange and violent deeds

Wrought by two tigers, men I call them not.

In sooth I heard a rumour that my wife

Is slain not, but hath vanished from the earth:

An idle tale I count it, brought by one

Distraught with fear. Nay, some device is this

Of yonder matricide—a thing to mock!

Open the door!—within there!—serving-men!

Thrust wide the gates, that I may save at least

My child from hands of blood-polluted men,

And take mine hapless miserable wife,

Even mine helpmeet, whose destroyers now

Shall surely perish with her by mine hand.