THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

To slaughter nigh; but sometimes mighty woes
Yield mighty changes, so when Fortune wills.
ORESTES
Forbear: the words of Phoebus naught avail me;
For, passing from the shrine, the virgin comes.
(IPHIGENIA enters from the temple. She is carrying a letter.)
IPHIGENIA {to the guards)
Go you away, and in the shrine prepare
What those, who o'er the rites preside, require.
(The guards go into the temple.)
Here, strangers, is the letter folded close:
What I would further, hear. The mind of man
In dangers, and again, from fear relieved,
Of safety when assured, is not the same:
I therefore fear lest he, who should convey
To Argos this epistle, when return 'd
Safe to his native country, will neglect
My letter, as a thing of little worth.
ORESTES
What wouldst thou then? What is thy anxious thought?
IPHIGENIA
This: let him give an oath that he will bear
To Argos this epistle to those friends,
To whom it is my ardent wish to send it.
ORESTES
And wilt thou in return give him thy oath?
IPHIGENIA
That I will do, or will not do, say what.
ORESTES
To send him from this barbarous shore alive.
IPHIGENIA
That's just: how should he bear my letter else?
ORESTES
But will the monarch to these things assent?
IPHIGENIA
By me induced. Him I will see embark'd.