ARES. Shall we not collect our forces in unison, mortal as they are, and die together in resisting this invasion? DIONYSUS. The kind barbarians are with us. They will fight at our side. HEPHAESTUS. Yes, let us fight and die. ZEUS. You have no forces to collect, my sons. We cannot take toll of the blood of the barbarians. We cannot resist, we can but submit and withdraw.... The ships fleet closer. They are like monstrous fishes of living silver. I confess this is not what I anticipated. This is not what my faint dream seemed to indicate. What inspires the implacable destroyer to pursue us, and with this imposing and miraculous navy, to the shore of that harmless exile in which we were endeavouring to forget his existence, I know not. But let us at least preserve that dignity which has survived our deity. Whatever may be now in store for us--if the worst of all things be now hurrying to complete our annihilation--let us meet it with simplicity. Let us meet it with an even mind. CIRCE. Oh, see! what are those filaments of blue and violet and grassy green which flutter in the cordage of the three ships? PHOEBUS. They leap forward, though no wind is blowing. CIRCE. They are arranged in order, and they bend upwards and now outwards. HERA. The colours of them are those which adorn my bird. PALLAS. Ah! wonder of wonders! These have joined one another, see, and now they shoot forward together in a vibrating ribband of delicious lustre, and now it is arched to our shore, and descends at the lowest of these our woodland stairs. ZEUS. A vast rainbow from the three white vessels to this island!... And behold, a figure steps from it. She is robed to the feet in palest watchet blue, and her face is like a rosy star, and she waves her violet wings in the incommunicable speed of her ascent. My children, it is Iris, our lost daughter, our ineffable messenger. Let us await in silence the tidings which she brings. [ZEUS _seats himself, and the Gods take their places as before. The air is now translucent, the sky cloudless, while the beechwoods flash with the lustre of dew, and the sea beyond the white ships is like a floor of turquoise._ IRIS _is seen to rise from the shore, through the gorge in the woods. She approaches, half flying, half climbing, with incredible velocity. She appears, in her splendour, at the top of the stairs, and looks round upon the Gods. Without exception, in the magnificence of her presence they look grey and old and dim. She hesitates a moment, and then kneels before the throne of_ ZEUS.] IRIS.