Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/45

Rh But, rather, strongly throb beneath the touch, While from the veins the blood leaps forth anew. The sickly heart is shriveled up and lies Deep hidden in the breast; the veins appear Of livid hue. The entrails suffer lack; And from the wasting liver oozes slow A stream of black corruption. Nay, behold (A sign of dark foreboding to a king Who holdeth single sway), two swelling points Of equal elevation rise to view; But both are lopped and covered with a veil. Refusing lurking-place to things unseen, The hostile side uprears itself with strength And shows seven swelling veins; but these, again, An intersecting line cuts straight across, Preventing their return. The natural law And order of the parts has been reversed, And nothing lies within its proper place. All on the right the blood-filled lungs appear, Incapable of air; the heart no more Is found upon the left, its 'customed place. The fatty walls, with their soft covering, No longer richly fold the entrails in. The ways of nature are in all things changed; The womb itself is most unnatural. Look close, and see what impious thing is this: Oh, monstrous! 'tis the unborn progeny Of a heifer still unmated! stranger still, It lies not in the wonted place, assigned By nature's laws, but fills its mother's side. It moves its members with a feeble groan; Its unformed limbs with trembling rigors twitch. Black blood has stained the darkened entrails all; The mangled bodies strive e'en yet to move, Make show to rise, and menace with their horns The priestly hands. The entrails shun the touch. Nor is that lowing which has frightened thee The deep-voiced roar of bulls, nor do the calls Of frightened cattle sound upon our ears: