_Dioc._ How are you traitors, countrymen of Thebes? This holy sire, who presses you with oaths, Forgets your first; were you not sworn before To Laius and his blood? _All._ We were; we were. _Dioc._ While Laius has a lawful successor, Your first oath still must bind: Eurydice Is heir to Laius; let her marry Creon. Offended heaven will never be appeased, While OEdipus pollutes the throne of Laius, A stranger to his blood. _All._ We'll no OEdipus, no OEdipus. _1 Cit._ He puts the prophet in a mouse-hole. _2 Cit._ I knew it would be so; the last man ever speaks the best reason. _Tir._ Can benefits thus die, ungrateful Thebans! Remember yet, when, after Laius' death, The monster Sphinx laid your rich country waste, Your vineyards spoiled, your labouring oxen slew, Yourselves for fear mewed up within your walls; She, taller than your gates, o'er-looked your town; But when she raised her bulk to sail above you, She drove the air around her like a whirlwind, And shaded all beneath; till, stooping down, She clap'd her leathern wing against your towers, And thrust out her long neck, even to your doors[2]. _Dioc. Alc. Pyr._ We'll hear no more. _Tir._ You durst not meet in temples, To invoke the gods for aid; the proudest he, Who leads you now, then cowered, like a dared[3] lark: This Creon shook for fear, The blood of Laius curdled in his veins, 'Till OEdipus arrived. Called by his own high courage and the gods, Himself to you a god, ye offered him Your queen and crown; (but what was then your crown!) And heaven authorized it by his success. Speak then, who is your lawful king? _All._ 'Tis OEdipus. _Tir._ 'Tis OEdipus indeed: Your king more lawful Than yet you dream; for something still there lies In heaven's dark volume, which I read through mists: 'Tis great, prodigious; 'tis a dreadful birth, Of wondrous fate; and now, just now disclosing. I see, I see! how terrible it dawns, And my soul sickens with it! _1 Cit._ How the god shakes him! _Tir._ He comes, he comes! Victory! conquest! triumph! But oh! guiltless and guilty: murder! parricide! Incest! discovery! punishment--'tis ended, And all your sufferings o'er. _A Trumpet within: enter_ HAEMON. _Haem._ Rouse up, you Thebans; tune your _Io Paeans_! Your king returns; the Argians are o'ercome; Their warlike prince in single combat taken, And led in bands by god-like OEdipus! _All._ OEdipus, OEdipus, OEdipus! _Creon._ Furies confound his fortune!-- [_Aside._ Haste, all haste, [_To them._ And meet with blessings our victorious king; Decree processions; bid new holidays; Crown all the statues of our gods with garlands; And raise a brazen column, thus inscribed,-- _To OEdipus, now twice a conqueror; deliverer of his Thebes._ Trust me, I weep for joy to see this day.