Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/503

Rh

I will be slayer. Manage thou the steeds;

For versed art thou in craft, and keen of wit.

Best set each man where best his help avails.

Lo, yonder Alexander I discern

Draw nigh us. From some watchman hath he heard

A doubtful rumour of the approach of foes.

Or cometh he with others, or alone?

Alone. To Hector's couch, meseems, he fares,

To tell how spies upon the host be here.

Ought he not then to be the first to die?

Thou canst not overpass the doom of fate.

It may not be that by thine hand he die.

Haste thou against the man for whom thou bring'st

The slaughter-doom. To Paris will I seem

Kypris his friend, present to aid his toils,

And with false words will answer him I hate.

This have I told you: nought the doomed man knows,

Nor aught hath heard, for all he is so near.

[Exeunt Od. and Diom.