Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/294

266 Silent we sat, till all agreed at last

To go to where they were, albeit forbid.

And there we see a Hellene galley's hull

With ranks of oar-blades fringed, sea-plashing wings,

And fifty seamen at the tholes thereof

Grasping their oars: and from their bonds set free

Beside the galley's stern the young men stood.

The prow with poles some steadied, some hung up

The anchor at the catheads, some in haste,

The while they haled the hawsers through their hands,

Dropped ladders for the strangers to the sea.

But we spared not, so soon as we beheld

Their cunning wiles: we grasped the stranger-maid,

The hawser-bands, and strove to wrench the helms

Out through the stern-ports of the stately ship.

And rang our shouts:—"By what right do ye steal

Images from our land and priestesses?

Who and whose son art thou, to kidnap her?"

But he, "Orestes I, her brother, son

Of Agamemnon, know thou. She I bear

Hence is my sister whom I lost from home."

Yet no less clung we to the stranger-maid,

And would have forced to follow us to thee,

Whence came these fearful buffets on my cheeks.

For in their hands steel weapons had they none,

Nor we; but there were clenched fists hailing blows,

And those young champions twain dashed spurning feet,

As javelins swift, on belly and rib of us.

Scarce had we grappled, ere our limbs waxed faint;

And marked with ghastly scars of strife we fled

Unto the cliffs, some bearing gory weals