Then rushed their wretched mother on the twain; And seeing them thus wounded unto death, Wailed: "O my sons! too late, too late I come To succor you!" Then, clasping them by turns, She wept and mourned the long toil of her breasts, Groaning; and by her side their sister groaned: "O ye who should have been my mother's stay In age, O, thoughtless of my maiden years Unwedded, dearest brothers!" From his chest Heaving a heavy breath, King Eteocles heard His mother, and stretched forth a cold damp hand On hers, and nothing said, but with his eyes Spake to her by his tears, showing kind thoughts In symbols. Then the other, who still breathed, Looked at his sister, and the queen, and said, "We have perished, mother! yea, I pity thee, And this my sister, and my brother dead; For dear he was--my foe--and yet was dear. Bury me, O my mother, and thou, too, Sweet sister, in my father's land, I pray; And close my dying eyelids with thy hand, Mother!"--Upon his eyes he placed her hand-- "And fare you well! Now darkness clips me round." Then both breathed out their weary life together. But the queen, when she saw this direful end, Maddened with anguish drew the dead man's sword, And wrought things horrible; for through her throat She thrust the blade; and on her dearest falling Dies, and lies stretched, clasping both in her arms. But to return to the virtue of #eupsychia#. The play of _Hecuba_ contains a still more touching picture of heroism in death than that displayed by Menoikeus. Troy has been taken. Ulysses is sent by the Greeks to inform Hecuba that her daughter Polyxena must be sacrificed. Hecuba reminds him how in former days he had come disguised as a spy to Troy, and how she had recognized him, and, at his strong entreaty, spared him from discovery. In return for this, let him now spare her daughter. Frigidly and politely Ulysses replies, "True, lady, a life for a life. You saved mine, I would do something to save yours; but your daughter is quite another person. I have not the pleasure of having received benefits from her. I must trouble her to follow me." Then Polyxena breaks silence: