And all earth's fruits cast wildly on the ground, 350 Meeting the cheerless eye Of frugal housewives, give them pain of heart; And many a gift of earth In formless heaps is whirled In waves of nothingness; And the young maidens know a sorrow new; For now the foe prevails, And gains rich prize of wretched captive's bed; 360 And now their only hope Is that the night of death will come at last, Their truest, best ally, To rescue them from sorrow fraught with tears. _Enter_ ETEOCLES, _followed by his_ Chief Captains, _and by the_ Scout _Semi-Chor. A._ The army scout, so deem I, brings to us, Dear friends, some tidings new, with quickest speed Plying the nimble axles of his feet. _Semi-Chor. B._ Yea, the king's self, the son of Œdipus, Is nigh to hear the scout's exact report; And haste denies him too an even step. _Mess._ I knowing well, will our foes' state report, 370 How each his lot hath stationed at the gates. At those of Prœtos, Tydeus thunders loud, And him the prophet suffers not to cross Ismenos' fords, the victims boding ill.[94] And Tydeus, raging eager for the fight, Shouts like a serpent in its noontide scream, And on the prophet, Œcleus' son, heaps shame, That he, in coward fear, doth crouch and fawn Before the doom and peril of the fight. And with such speech he shakes his triple crest, O'ershadowing all his helm, and 'neath his shield 380 Bells wrought in bronze ring out their chimes of fear; And on his shield he bears this proud device,— A firmament enchased, all bright with stars;[95] And in the midst the full moon's glittering orb, Sovran of stars and eye of Night, shines forth. And thus exulting in o'er boastful arms, By the stream's bank he shouts in lust of war, [E'en as a war-horse panting in his strength Against the curb that galls him, who at sound Of trumpet's clang chafes hotly.] Whom wilt thou Set against him? Who is there strong enough When the bolts yield, to guard the Prœtan gates? 390