So, get thee gone! Naught knowing how the great years, rolling on, Have laid thee bare, and thy long debt full paid. O vaunt not, if one step be proudly made In evil, that all Justice is o'ercast: Vaunt not, ye men of sin, ere at the last The thin-drawn marge before you glimmereth Close, and the goal that wheels 'twixt life and death. LEADER. Justice is mighty. Passing dark hath been His sin: and dark the payment of his sin. ELECTRA (_with a weary sigh, turning from the body_). Ah me! Go some of you, bear him from sight, That when my mother come, her eyes may light On nothing, nothing, till she know the sword.... [_The body is borne into the hut_. PYLADES _goes with it_. ORESTES (_looking along the road_). Stay, 'tis a new thing! We have still a word To speak... ELECTRA. What? Not a rescue from the town Thou seëst? ORESTES. 'Tis my mother comes: my own Mother, that bare me. [_He takes off his crown_. ELECTRA (_springing, as it were, to life again, and moving where she can see the road_). Straight into the snare! Aye, there she cometh,--Welcome in thy rare Chariot! All welcome in thy brave array! ORESTES. What would we with our mother? Didst thou say Kill her? ELECTRA (_turning on him_). What? Is it pity? Dost thou fear To see thy mother's shape? ORESTES. 'Twas she that bare My body into life. She gave me suck. How can I strike her? ELECTRA. Strike her as she struck Our father! ORESTES (_to himself, brooding_). Phoebus, God, was all thy mind Turned unto darkness? ELECTRA. If thy God be blind, Shalt thou have light? ORESTES (_as before_). Thou, thou, didst bid me kill My mother: which is sin. ELECTRA. How brings it ill To thee, to raise our father from the dust? ORESTES. I was a clean man once. Shall I be thrust From men's sight, blotted with her blood? ELECTRA. Thy blot Is black as death if him thou succour not! ORESTES. Who shall do judgment on me, when she dies? ELECTRA. Who shall do judgment, if thy father lies. Forgotten? ORESTES (_turning suddenly to_ ELECTRA). Stay! How if some fiend of Hell, Hid in God's likeness, spake that oracle? ELECTRA. In God's own house? I trow not. ORESTES. And I trow It was an evil charge! [_He moves away from her._ ELECTRA (_almost despairing_). To fail me now! To fail me now! A coward!--O brother, no! ORESTES. What shall it be, then? The same stealthy blow ... ELECTRA. That slew our father! Courage! thou hast slain Aegisthus. ORESTES. Aye. So be it.--I have ta'en A path of many terrors: and shall do Deeds horrible. 'Tis God will have it so.... Is this the joy of battle, or wild woe? [_He goes into the house._ LEADER.