Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/509

Rh

Praise not the prowess thou of a knavish thief!

He came in the days overpast

Unto Troy:—from his eyes rheum poured:

Rags round his body were cast:

'Neath his cloak was a hidden sword:

Like a vagabond varlet he prowled, begging crumbs from the feastful board,

With head overgrimed with foulness, and hair

All filth-defiled.

As though the war-chiefs' foe he were,

The house he reviled—

The house of the Atreïd kings:—O meet,

O just should it be that he perish, ere

He trample Phrygia beneath his feet.

Whether Odysseus or another came,

I fear me: us the guards shall Hector blame,—

How blame us?

Shall speak his suspicion out,—

Of what deed? What is thy fearful doub ?

That even by us passed in—