AGAVE Lo, from the trunk new-shorn Hither a Mountain Thorn Bear we! O Asia-born Bacchanals, bless this chase! LEADER I see. Yea; I see. Have I not welcomed thee? AGAVE (_very calmly and peacefully_) He was young in the wildwood Without nets I caught him! Nay; look without fear on The Lion; I have ta'en him! LEADER Where in the wildwood? Whence have ye brought him? AGAVE Kithaeron. . . . LEADER Kithaeron? AGAVE The Mountain hath slain him! LEADER Who first came nigh him? AGAVE I, I, 'tis confessèd! And they named me there by him Agave the Blessèd! LEADER Who was next in the band on him? AGAVE The daughters.... LEADER The daughters? AGAVE Of Cadmus laid hand on him. But the swift hand that slaughters Is mine; mine is the praise! Bless ye this day of days! [_The_ LEADER _tries to speak, but is not able;_ AGAVE _begins gently stroking the head_.] AGAVE Gather ye now to the feast! LEADER Feast!--O miserable! AGAVE See, it falls to his breast, Curling and gently tressed, The hair of the Wild Bull's crest-- The young steer of the fell! LEADER Most like a beast of the wild That head, those locks defiled. AGAVE (_lifting up the head, more excitedly_) He wakened his Mad Ones, A Chase-God, a wise God! He sprang them to seize this! He preys where his band preys. LEADER (_brooding, with horror_) In the trail of thy Mad Ones Thou tearest thy prize, God! AGAVE Dost praise it? LEADER I praise this? AGAVE Ah, soon shall the land praise! LEADER And Pentheus, O Mother, Thy child? AGAVE He shall cry on My name as none other, Bless the spoils of the Lion! LEADER Aye, strange is thy treasure! AGAVE And strange was the taking! LEADER Thou art glad? AGAVE Beyond measure; Yea, glad in the breaking Of dawn upon all this land, By the prize, the prize of my hand! LEADER Show them to all the land, unhappy one, The trophy of this deed that thou hast done!