Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/192

94 Both horse and foot, to hasten, tarrying not

For sacrifice, with loosened rein, and meet

Where the two paths of travellers converge,

Lest those two maidens slip from out our hands,

And I, outdone, become a laughing-stock

To him, this stranger. Go, I bid you, quickly.

And as for him, if I were wroth with him,

E'en as he merits, he should not depart

Unhurt from me; but with the self-same laws

With which he came shall he be recompensed,

Those and no others. [To .] Never shalt thou stir

From out this land until before mine eyes

Thou place those maidens. Thou dost grievous wrong

To thine own self, thy fathers, and thy country,

Who, coming to a state that loves the right,

And without law does nothing, sett'st at nought

The things it most reveres, and rushing in,

Tak'st what thou wilt, with deeds of violence.

Thou must have deemed my city void of men,

Slave-like, submissive, and myself as nought.

And yet it was not Thebes that made thee base:

'Tis not her wont to rear unrighteous men;

Nor would'st thou win her praise, if she should hear

Thou tramplest on my rights, deftest Gods,

And rudely seizest these poor suppliants.

I truly, had I entered on thy land,

Although my cause were justest of the just,

Would not, without the ruler of the land,

Be he who may, have seized or led away;

But should have known what way I ought to live,

A stranger sojourning with citizens.

But thou dost shame a city which deserves