Already the brands, nor the deeds of murder they spare.
Yet God overruleth the issue still,
To mete unto men what issue he will:
Great is his power! By a curse-fiend led
This house on a track of blood hath been sped
Since Myrtilus, dashed from the chariot, plashed in the sea-surge, dead.
Ha, I see unto the palace Menelaus draweth near
Hasty-footed, having heard the deeds but now accomplished here.1550
Ye within the mansion—Atreus' children!—bar the bolted gate!—
Haste! oh haste! A formidable foeman is the fortunate
Unto such as be—as thou, Orestes, now—in evil strait.
Enter Menelaus, below; Orestes and Pylades above, with Hermionê.
Menelaus.
I come at news of strange and violent deeds
Wrought by two tigers, men I call them not.1555
In sooth I heard a rumour that my wife
Is slain not, but hath vanished from the earth:
An idle tale I count it, brought by one
Distraught with fear. Nay, some device is this
Of yonder matricide—a thing to mock!1560
Open the door!—within there!—serving-men!
Thrust wide the gates, that I may save at least
My child from hands of blood-polluted men,
And take mine hapless miserable wife,
Even mine helpmeet, whose destroyers now1565
Shall surely perish with her by mine hand.
