_Deid._ Enough. Now while the Dryads of the hill Interpret to the creatures our good will, Listen, and I will tell you a new game That we can play together.—As hither I came, I marked that in the hazel copse below, Where we so oft have hidden and loved to go To hear the night-bird, or to take unseen 230 Our noontide walks beneath the tangled screen, The woodcutter hath been with cruel blade, And of the tasselled plumes his strewage made: And by the mossy moots the covert shorn Now lieth low in swathe like autumn corn. These ere he lop and into bundles bind, Let us go choose the fairest we may find, And of their feathered orphan saplings weave A bowery dome, until the birds believe We build a nest, and are come here to dwell. 240 Hie forth, ye Scyrian maids; do as I tell: And having built our bower amid the green, We will choose one among us for a queen, And be the Amazons, whose maiden clan By broad Thermodon dwells, apart from man; Who rule themselves, from his dominion free, And do all things he doth, better than he. First, Amazons, your queen: to choose her now: Who shall she be? _Ch._ Thyself, thou. Who but thou? Deidamia. _Deid._ Where then were the play, 250 If I should still command, and ye obey? _Ch._ Choose thou for all. _Deid._ Nor will I name her, lest Ye say my favour sets one o’er the rest. _Ch._ Thy choice is ours. _Deid._ If then I gave my voice For Pyrrha? _Ch._ Pyrrha, Pyrrha is our choice. Hail, Pyrrha, hail! Queen of the Amazons! _Deid._ (_To Ach._). To thee I abdicate my place, and give My wreath for crown. Long, my queen, mayst thou live! Now, fellow-subjects, hie we off at once. _ACHILLES._ Stay, stay! Is this the privilege of the throne? 260 Am I preferred but to be left alone? No guard, no counsellor, no company! Deidamia, stay! _Deid._ Thy word must be My law, O queen: I will abide. But ye Forth quickly, as I said; ye know the place. _Ch._ Follow me, follow: I lead the race. Follow, we follow, we give thee chase. Follow me, follow. We come, we come. [_Exeunt Chor._