The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 35

Do not profane Diana's sanctuary with rage and blood.

Command your people to forbear awhile, And listen to the priestess, to the sister.

ORESTES

Say, who is he that threatens us?

IPHIGENIA In him Revere the king, who was my second father.

Forgive me, brother, that my childlike heart Hath plac'd our fate thus wholly in his hands.

I have betray'd your meditated flight, And thus from treachery redeem'd my soul.

ORESTES

Will he permit our peaceable return?

IPHIGENIA

Thy gleaming sword forbids me to reply.

ORESTES (_sheathing his sword_)

Then speak! thou seest I listen to thy words.

SCENE V

ORESTES, IPHIGENIA, THOAS

_Enter_ PYLADES, _soon after him_ ARKAS _both with drawn swords_.

PYLADES

Do not delay! our friends are putting forth Their final strength, and, yielding step by step, Are slowly driven backward to the sea.-- A conference of princes find I here?

Is this the sacred person of the king?

ARKAS

Calmly, as doth become thee, thou dost stand, O king, surrounded by thine enemies.

Soon their temerity shall be chastiz'd; Their yielding followers fly,--their s.h.i.+p is ours, Speak but the word and it is wrapt in flames.

THOAS

Go, and command my people to forbear!

Let none annoy the foe while we confer.

[ARKAS _retires_.]

ORESTES

I willingly consent. Go, Pylades!

Collect the remnant of our friends, and wait The appointed issue of our enterprize.

[PYLADES _retires_.]

SCENE VI

IPHIGENIA, THOAS, ORESTES

IPHIGENIA

Relieve my cares ere ye begin to speak.

I fear contention, if thou wilt not hear The voice of equity, O king,--if thou Wilt not, my brother, curb thy headstrong youth.

THOAS

I, as becomes the elder, check my rage.

Now answer me: how dost thou prove thyself The priestess' brother, Agamemnon's son?

ORESTES

Behold the sword with which the hero slew The valiant Trojans. From his murderer I took the weapon, and implor'd the G.o.ds To grant me Agamemnon's mighty arm, Success, and valor, with a death more n.o.ble.

Select one of the leaders of thy host, And place the best as my opponent here.

Where'er on earth the sons of heroes dwell, This boon is to the stranger ne'er refus'd.

THOAS

This privilege hath ancient custom here To strangers ne'er accorded.

ORESTES

Then from us Commence the novel custom! A whole race In imitation soon will consecrate Its monarch's n.o.ble action into law.

Nor let me only for our liberty,-- Let me, a stranger, for all strangers fight.

If I should fall, my doom be also theirs; But if kind fortune crown me with success, Let none e'er tread this sh.o.r.e, and fail to meet The beaming eye of sympathy and love, Or unconsoled depart!

THOAS

Thou dost not seem Unworthy of thy boasted ancestry.

Great is the number of the valiant men Who wait upon me; but I will myself, Although advanc'd in years, oppose the foe, And am prepar'd to try the chance of arms.

IPHIGENIA

No, no! such b.l.o.o.d.y proofs are not requir'd.

Unhand thy weapon, king! my lot consider; Rash combat oft immortalizes man; If he should fall, he is renown'd in song; But after ages reckon not the tears Which ceaseless the forsaken woman sheds; And poets tell not of the thousand nights Consum'd in weeping, and the dreary days, Wherein her anguish'd soul, a prey to grief, Doth vainly yearn to call her lov'd one back.

Fear warn'd me to beware lest robbers' wiles Might lure me from this sanctuary, and then Betray me into bondage. Anxiously I question'd them, each circ.u.mstance explor'd, Demanded proofs, now is my heart a.s.sur'd.

See here, the mark on his right hand impress'd As of three stars, which on his natal day Were by the priest declar'd to indicate Some dreadful deed therewith to be perform'd.

And then this scar, which doth his eyebrow cleave, Redoubles my conviction. When a child, Electra, rash and inconsiderate, Such was her nature, loos'd him from her arms, He fell against a tripos. Oh, 'tis he!-- Shall I adduce the likeness to his sire, Or the deep rapture of my inmost heart, In further token of a.s.surance, king?

THOAS