KING. Alas! with vast environment of ills I'm hedged all round. Misfortune, like a sea, Comes rushing in: the deep unfathomed flood I fear to cross, and find no harbour nigh. {234} Thy prayer if I refuse, black horror rises Before me, that no highest-pointed aim May overshoot. If posted fore these walls I give thy kindred battle, I shall be Amerced with bitter loss, who reckless dared For woman's sake to incarnadine the plain With brave men's blood. Yet I perforce must fear The wrath of suppliant Jove, than which no terror Awes human hearts more strongly. Take these branches, Thou aged father of these maids, and place them On other altars of the native gods, Where they may speak, true heralds of thy mission, To all the citizens: and, mark me, keep My words within thy breast: for still the people To spy a fault in whoso bears authority Have a most subtle sight. Trust your good cause. Thy pitiful tale may move their righteous ire Against your haughty-hearted persecutors, And 'neath their wings they'll shield you. The afflicted Plead for themselves: their natural due is kindness. DANAUS. Your worth we know to prize, and at their weight Our high protector's friendly words we value. But send, we pray, attendant guides to show us The pillar-compassed seats divine,[n33] the altars That stand before their temples, who protect This city and this land, and to insure Our safety mid the people: for our coming (Being strangers from the distant Nile, and not Like you that drink the stream of Inachus In features or in bearing) might seem strange. Too bold an air might rouse suspicion; men Oft-times have slain their best friends unawares. KING. (_to the Attendants_) See him escorted well! conduct him hence To the altars of the city, to the shrines Of the protecting gods, wasting no speech On whom you meet. Attend the suppliant stranger! [_Exeunt Attendants with_ DANAUS. CHORUS. These words to him: and, with his sails well trimmed, Fair be his voyage! But I, what shall I do, My anchor where? KING. Here leave these boughs that prove Thy sorrows. {235} CHORUS. Here at thy rever'd command I leave them. KING. This ample wood shall shade thee; wait thou here! CHORUS. No sacred grove is this: how should it shield me? KING. We will not yield thee to the vultures' claws. CHORUS. But worse than vultures, worse than dragons threat us. KING. Gently. To fair words give a fair reply. CHORUS. I'm terror-struck. Small marvel that I fret. KING. Fear should be far, when I the king am near.[f15] CHORUS. With kind words cheer me, and kind actions too.