THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

MAID
The waves had washed him ashore.
HECUBA {chanting)
Alas! alas! I read aright the vision I saw in my sleep, nor did the
phantom dusky-winged escape my ken, even the vision I saw concerning
my son, who is now no more within the bright sunshine.
LEADER
Who slew him then? Can thy dream-lore tell us that?
HECUBA (chanting)
'Twas my own, own friend, the knight of Thrace, with whom his
aged sire had placed the boy in hiding.
LEADER
O horror! what wilt thou say? did he slay him to get the gold?
HECUBA (chanting)
0 awful crime! 0 deed without a name! beggaring wonder! impious!
intolerable! Where are now the laws 'twixt guest and host?
Accursed monster! how hast thou mangled his flesh, slashing the poor
child's limbs with ruthless sword, lost to all sense of pity!
LEADER
Alas for thee! how some deity, whose hand is heavy on thee, hath sent
thee troubles beyond all other mortals! But yonder I see our lord and
master Agamemnon coming; so let us be still henceforth, my friends.
(AGAMEMNON enters.)
AGAMEMNON
Hecuba, why art thou delaying to come and bury thy daughter? for it
was for this that Talthybius brought me thy message begging that none
of the Argives should touch thy child. And so I granted this, and none is
touching her, but this long delay of thine fills me with wonder. Wherefore
am I come to send thee hence; for our part there is well performed; if
herein there be any place for "well."
(He sees the body.)
Ha! what man is this I see near the tents, some Trojan's corpse? 'tis
not an Argive's body; that the garments it is clad in tell me.
HECUBA (aside)
Unhappy one! in naming thee I name myself; O Hecuba, what shall I
do? throw myself here at Agamemnon's knees, or bear my sorrows in
silence?