SERVANT. Woe's me! my murdered master! Thrice woeful deed! Ægisthus lives no more. Open the women's gates! uncase the bolts! Were needed here a Titan's strength--though that Would nothing boot the dead. Ho! hillo! ho! Are all here deaf? or do I babble breath In sleepers' ears? Where, where is Clytemnestra? What keeps my mistress? On a razor's edge Her fate now lies; the blow's already poised, That falls on her too--nor unjustly falls. [_Enter_ CLYTEMNESTRA. CLYTEMNESTRA. Well! what's the matter? why this clamorous cry? SERVANT. He, who was dead, has slain the quick. 'Tis so. CLYTEMNESTRA. Ha! Thou speak'st riddles; but I understand thee. We die by guile, as guilefully we slew. Bring me an axe! an axe to kill a man! Quickly!--or conqueror or conquered, I Will fight it out. To this 'tis come at last. [_Enter_ ORESTES, _dragging in the dead body of_ ÆGISTHUS; _with him_ PYLADES. ORESTES. Thee next I seek. For him, he hath enough. CLYTEMNESTRA. Ah me! my lord, my loved Ægisthus dead! ORESTES. Dost love this man? then thou shalt sleep with him, In the same tomb. He was thy bedmate living, Be thou his comrade, dead. CLYTEMNESTRA. Hold thee, my son! Look on this breast, to which with slumbrous eyes Thou oft hast clung, the while thy baby gum Sucked the nutritious milk. {126} ORESTES. What say'st thou, Pylades? Shall I curtail the work, and spare my mother? PYLADES. Bethink thee well; the Loxian oracles, Thy sure-pledged vows, where are they, if she live? Make every man thy foe, but fear the gods. ORESTES. Thy voice shall rule in this; thou judgest wisely. Follow this man; here, side by side with him, I'll butcher thee. Seemed he a fairer man Than was my father when my father lived? Sleep thou, where he sleeps; him thou lovest well, And whom thou chiefly shouldst have loved thou hatedst. CLYTEMNESTRA. I nursed thy childhood, and in peace would die.[n60] ORESTES. Spare thee to live with me--my father's murderer? CLYTEMNESTRA. Not I; say rather Fate ordained his death. ORESTES. The self-same Fate ordains thee now to die. CLYTEMNESTRA. My curse beware, the mother's curse that bore thee. ORESTES. That cast me homeless from my father's house. CLYTEMNESTRA. Nay; to a friendly house I lent thee, boy. ORESTES. Being free-born, I like a slave was sold. CLYTEMNESTRA. I trafficked not with thee. I gat no gold. ORESTES. Worse--worse than gold--a thing too foul to name! CLYTEMNESTRA. Name all my faults; but had thy father none? ORESTES. Thou art a woman sitting in thy chamber.[n61] Judge not the man that goes abroad, and labours. CLYTEMNESTRA. Hard was my lot, my child, alone, uncherished. ORESTES. Alone by the fire, while for thy gentle ease The husband toiled. CLYTEMNESTRA. Thou wilt not kill me, son? ORESTES. I kill thee not. Thyself dost kill thyself.