NURSE. Ah! mighty, O my daughters! was the grief Sprung from the gift to Heracles conveyed! LEADER OF CH. What new thing is befallen? Why speak'st thou so? NUR. Our Queen hath found her latest journey's end. Even now she is gone, without the help of feet. CH. Not dead? NUR. You know the whole. CH. Dead! hapless Queen! NUR. The truth hath twice been told. CH. O tell us how! What was her death, poor victim of dire woe? NUR. Most ruthless was the deed. CH. Say, woman, say! What was the sudden end? NUR. Herself she slew. CH. What rage, what madness, clutched The mischief-working brand? How could her single thought Contrive the accomplishment of death on death? NUR. Chill iron stopped the sources of her breath. CH. And thou, poor helpless crone, didst see this done? NUR. Yea, I stood near and saw. CH. How was it? Tell! NUR. With her own hand this violence was given. CH. What do I hear? NUR. The certainty of truth. CH. A child is come, From this new bridal that hath rushed within, A fresh-born Fury of woe! NUR. Too true. But hadst thou been at hand to see Her action, pity would have wrung thy soul. CH. Could this be ventured by a woman's hand? NUR. Ay, and in dreadful wise, as thou shalt hear. When all alone she had gone within the gate, And passing through the court beheld her boy Spreading the couch that should receive his sire, Ere he returned to meet him,--out of sight She hid herself, and fell at the altar's foot, And loudly cried that she was left forlorn; And, taking in her touch each household thing That formerly she used, poor lady, wept O'er all; and then went ranging through the rooms, Where, if there caught her eye the well-loved form Of any of her household, she would gaze And weep aloud, accusing her own fate And her abandoned lot, childless henceforth! When this was ended, suddenly I see her Fly to the hero's room of genial rest. With unsuspected gaze o'ershadowed near, I watched, and saw her casting on the bed The finest sheets of all. When that was done, She leapt upon the couch where they had lain And sat there in the midst. And the hot flood Burst from her eyes before she spake:--'Farewell, My bridal bed, for never more shalt thou Give me the comfort I have known thee give.' Then with tight fingers she undid her robe, Where the brooch lay before the breast, and bared All her left arm and side. I, with what speed Strength ministered, ran forth to tell her son The act she was preparing. But meanwhile, Ere we could come again, the fatal blow Fell, and we saw the wound. And he, her boy, Seeing, wept aloud. For now the hapless youth Knew that himself had done this in his wrath, Told all too late i' the house, how she had wrought Most innocently, from the Centaur's wit. So now the unhappy one, with passionate words