roofs of men. As soon as the terrified priestess has described all this, the scene opens and we see it for ourselves. In the inner sanctuary of the temple is Orestes sitting on the Omphalos, and by him stands Apollo; while behind them, in a semicircle, the Furies are asleep, and quite in the background stands Mercury or Hermes, the escorter of the dead. Apollo speaks:—
"Never will I betray thee: to the end
I guard thee, standing near, or far aloof;
Nor will be gracious ever to thy foes.
And captured now this maddened crew thou seest.
By sleep the loathsome virgins are o'erpowered,
Hoary primeval progeny,—with whom
Nor god, nor man, nor beast, will e'er consort.
For Evil's sake brought forth, in evil gloom
Of subterranean Tartarus they dwell,
Abhorred of men and of the Olympian gods.
But hie thee hence, nor e'er relax thy speed,
For as thou tread'st the wand'rer-trampled earth,
They'll track thee o'er the ample continent,
O'er the wide ocean and the citied isles;
And thou, faint not too early, o'er thy grief
Brooding alone; but haste to Pallas' walls,
And suppliant, her ancient image clasp.
There judges we shall have to try this cause,
And soothing words: so means we shall devise
For evermore to free thee from these toils;
For at my bidding was thy mother slain."
Orestes prays his patron to hold to his promise; and Apollo bids him not to fear, and intrusts him to Hermes to be escorted to Athens, the city of Pallas.
The victim is gone, and the pursuers are still asleep,
