Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/259

Rh My tongue shall say, that thou mayst tell my friends.

So is all safe: if thou lose not the script,

Itself shall voiceless tell its written tale:

But if this writing in the sea be lost,

Then thy life saved shall save my words for me.

Well hast thou said, both for thy need, and me.

Now say to whom this letter I must bear

To Argos, and from thee what message speak.

Say to Orestes, Agamemnon's son—

"This Iphigeneia, slain in Aulis, sends,

Who liveth, yet for those at home lives not—"

Where is she? Hath she risen from the dead?

She whom thou seest—confuse me not with speech:—

"Bear me to Argos, brother, ere I die:

From this wild land, these sacrifices, save,

Wherein mine office is to slay the stranger; "—

What shall I say?—Now dream we, Pylades?

"Else to thine house will I become a curse,

Orestes "—so, twice heard, hold fast the name.