Page:Euripides and his age.djvu/222

Leader

Lo, where he cometh through the Castle Gate.

Through the gate comes Theseus, wrapped in gloom, evidently trying still to forget Hippolytus. The Henchman crosses his path.

Henchman

O King, I bear thee tidings of dire weight

To thee, yea, and to every man, I ween,
From Athens to the marches of Trozên.

Will Theseus guess? Will he see that this is one of his son's servants? At any rate he shows no sign of so doing.

Theseus

What? Some new stroke hath touched, unknown to me

The sister cities of my sovranty?

Henchman

Hippolytus is. . . . Nay, not dead; but stark

Outstretched, a hairsbreadth this side of the dark.

The forbidden name is spoken; there is evidently a moment of shock, but how will Theseus take the news? Will he soften?

Theseus (as though unmoved)

How slain? Was there some other man, whose wife

He had like mine defiled, who sought his life?

Stung by the taunt the Henchman answers boldly.