Polymestor.
Where?—where?—beneath thy raiment, or in hiding?
Hecuba.
In yon tents, safe beneath a heap of spoils.
Polymestor.
Safe?—there?—Achaian ships empale us round.1015
Hecuba.
Inviolate are the captive women's tents.
Polymestor.
Within is all safe? Be they void of men?
Hecuba.
Within is no Achaian, only we.
Enter the tents,—for fain the Argives are
To unmoor the ships for homeward flight from Troy,—1020
That, all well done, thou mayst with thy sons fare
To where thou gav'st a home unto my child.
Hecuba and Polymestor with Children enter the tent.
Chorus.
Not yet is the penalty paid, but thy time is at hand,
As who reeleth adown an abyss wherein foothold is none
Slant-slipping, from sweet life hurled, for the life thou hast ta'en.
For wherever it cometh to pass that the rightful demand1029
Of justice's claim and the laws of the Gods be at one,
Then is ruinous bane for the sinner, O ruinous bane !
