[AEPYTUS _comes in_. _AEpytus_ Maidens, assure me if they told me true Who told me that the royal house was here. _The Chorus_ Rightly they told thee, and thou art arrived. _AEpytus_ Here, then, it is, where Polyphontes dwells? _The Chorus_ He doth; thou hast both house and master right. _AEpytus_ Might some one straight inform him he is sought? _The Chorus_ Inform him that thyself, for here he comes. [POLYPHONTES _comes forth, with_ ATTENDANTS _and_ GUARDS. _AEpytus_ O King, all hail! I come with weighty news; Most likely, grateful; but, in all case, sure. _Polyphontes_ Speak them, that I may judge their kind myself. _AEpytus_ Accept them in one word, for good or bad: AEpytus, the Messenian prince, is dead! _Polyphontes_ Dead!--and when died he? where? and by what hand? And who art thou, who bringest me such news? _AEpytus_ He perish'd in Arcadia, where he dwelt With Cypselus; and two days since he died. One of the train of Cypselus am I. _Polyphontes_ Instruct me of the manner of his death. _AEpytus_ That will I do, and to this end I came. For, being of like age, of birth not mean, The son of an Arcadian noble, I Was chosen his companion from a boy; And on the hunting-rambles which his heart, Unquiet, drove him ever to pursue Through all the lordships of the Arcadian dales, From chief to chief, I wander'd at his side, The captain of his squires, and his guard. On such a hunting-journey, three morns since, With beaters, hounds, and huntsmen, he and I Set forth from Tegea, the royal town. The prince at start seem'd sad, but his regard Clear'd with blithe travel and the morning air. We rode from Tegea, through the woods of oaks, Past Arne spring, where Rhea gave the babe Poseidon to the shepherd-boys to hide From Saturn's search among the new-yean'd lambs, To Mantineia, with its unbaked walls; Thence, by the Sea-God's Sanctuary and the tomb Whither from wintry Maenalus were brought The bones of Arcas, whence our race is named, On, to the marshy Orchomenian plain, And the Stone Coffins;--then, by Caphyae Cliffs, To Pheneos with its craggy citadel. There, with the chief of that hill-town, we lodged One night; and the next day at dawn fared on By the Three Fountains and the Adder's Hill To the Stymphalian Lake, our journey's end, To draw the coverts on Cyllene's side. There, on a high green spur which bathes its point Far in the liquid lake, we sate, and drew Cates from our hunters' pouch, Arcadian fare, Sweet chestnuts, barley-cakes, and boar's-flesh dried; And as we ate, and rested there, we talk'd Of places we had pass'd, sport we had had, Of beasts of chase that haunt the Arcadian hills, Wild hog, and bear, and mountain-deer, and roe;