HECUBA. 137 steps, lead on, guide your aged mistress to yon tent. My child, come forth ; come forth, thou daughter of the queen of sorrows ; listen to thy mother's voice, my child, that thou mayst know the hideous rumour I now hear about thy life. Pol. O mother, mother mine ! why dost thou call so loud? what news is it thou hast proclaimed, scaring me, like a cowering bird, from my chamber by this alarm ? Hec. Alas, my daughter ! Pol. Why this ominous address? it bodeth sorrow for me. Hec. Woe for thy life ! Pol. Tell all, hide it no longer. Ah mother ! how I dread, ay dread the import of thy loud laments. Hec Ah my daughter ! a luckless mother's child ! Pol. Why dost thou tell me this ? Hec. The Argives with one consent are eager for thy sacrifice to the son of Peleus ^ at his tomb. Pol. Ah ! mother mine ! how canst thou speak of such a dire mischance ? Yet tell me all, yes all, O mother dear ! Hec. 'Tis a rumour ill-boding I tell, my child ; they bring me word that sentence is passed upon thy life by the Argives' vote. Pol. Alas, for thy cruel sufferings! my persecuted mother ! woe for thy life of grief ! What grievous outrage some fiend hath sent on thee, hateful, horrible ! No more shall I thy daughter share thy bondage, hapless youth on hapless age attending. For thou, alas ! wilt see thy hapless child torn from thy arms, as a calf of the hills is torn from its mother, and sent beneath the darkness of the earth with severed throat for Hades, where with the dead shall I be laid, ah me ! For thee I weep with plaintive wail, mother doomed to a life of sorrow ! for my own life, its ruin and ^ Of the numerous attempts to explain IljjXe/^a yivva or q. none appears satisfactory. Weil's correction IlqXti^t yevv^ is here followed.
