Of Cadmus laid hand on him. But the swift hand that slaughters Is mine; mine is the praise! Bless ye this day of days! [_The_ LEADER _tries to speak, but is not able_; AGAVE _begins gently stroking the head_. AGAVE. Gather ye now to the feast! LEADER. Feast!--O miserable! AGAVE. See, it falls to his breast, Curling and gently tressed, The hair of the Wild Bull's crest-- The young steer of the fell! LEADER. Most like a beast of the wild That head, those locks defiled. AGAVE (_lifting up the head, more excitedly_). He wakened his Mad Ones, A Chase-God, a wise God! He sprang them to seize this! He preys where his band preys. LEADER (_brooding, with horror_). In the trail of thy Mad Ones Thou tearest thy prize, God! AGAVE. Dost praise it? LEADER. I praise this? AGAVE. Ah, soon shall the land praise! LEADER. And Pentheus, O Mother, Thy child? AGAVE. He shall cry on My name as none other, Bless the spoils of the Lion! LEADER. Aye, strange is thy treasure! AGAVE. And strange was the taking! LEADER. Thou art glad? AGAVE. Beyond measure; Yea, glad in the breaking Of dawn upon all this land, By the prize, the prize of my hand! LEADER. Show then to all the land, unhappy one, The trophy of this deed that thou hast done! AGAVE. Ho, all ye men that round the citadel And shining towers of ancient Thêbê dwell, Come! Look upon this prize, this lion's spoil, That we have taken--yea, with our own toil, We, Cadmus' daughters! Not with leathern-set Thessalian javelins, not with hunter's net, Only white arms and swift hands' bladed fall. Why make ye much ado, and boast withal Your armourers' engines? See, these palms were bare That caught the angry beast, and held, and tare The limbs of him! . . . Father! . . . Go, bring to me My father! . . . Aye, and Pentheus, where is he, My son? He shall set up a ladder-stair Against this house, and in the triglyphs there Nail me this lion's head, that gloriously I bring ye, having slain him--I, even I! [_She goes through the crowd towards the Castle, showing the head and looking for a place to hang it. Enter from the Mountain_ CADMUS, _with attendants, bearing the body of_ PENTHEUS _on a bier_. CADMUS.