It must be so. But now I turned it back, At last initiate in its mystic secret, And filled with pride and recklessness I called, “A god! Even so! And each pays penance due!” Then hot-foot set upon them. Horror-struck, As though I bore within my hands the thunder And at my side new modes of death in thousands, They scarce retained the heart and strength for flight. But I was on their heels as though compelled To act the vicar in the Furies’ office, And not a soul came free of my revenge. I would have rendered to the grave its ring, But though I’d strewn the way with bloody corses That marked the backward path, neither at evening Nor yet with morning could it be discovered, And so against my will the ring was mine. KAN. Such treasure has no peer. GYGES. Said I not so? A royal ring! Then take it, Royal One! KAN. Not till the battle’s ended. GYGES. Sire, since then I never have and ne’er again will wear it. So niggard of your wood? O fie! A forest Will not be needed for my funeral pyre; A single tree’s enough, and trust this arm, You’ll get remittance of the single tree. KAN. Then give’t! I’ll test it. GYGES. And I’ll weapon me. [_Exeunt._ SCENE 2 _The Queen’s Apartment_ _Enter_ RHODOPE _with her attendants, among them_ LESBIA _and_ HERO. RHODOPE. And now be happy, maidens mine; to-day Your whims are free. Though I must blame you dear If other times you even hide and listen, And though my gay-heart Hero yesterday, Who clambered up the tree, were sternly scolded Had not a bough, for all her lightsome limb, Swift-snapping dealt her punishment enough, Being over-weak for such a weight of wonder---- HERO. O Queen, and if it verily caught your eyes You’ll know as well it was the thickest one Of all our garden-trees that I had chosen. RHOD. The thickest one! Maybe; but certain ’tis The one that stood the nearest to the wall. HERO. The thickest one of all! I clambered up And pierced into a very night of green. ’Twas well-nigh eerie when the golden day Was thus behind me left, and in the darkness I still crept on. RHOD. What made you do it, then? HERO. No wish to bring Olympus some few feet Nearer my reach; no, such I freely granted The nightingale a-trilling overhead. I wanted--nay, but laugh not--I can never Forget my cradle-rocking, and I wanted A tiny rock up yonder. RHOD. Nothing more? HERO. And as I swung, nay not of set desire, But as I swung--no more, just peep a fraction; I’d be so glad to know if round our garden, As scowling Karna ever says to us, There runs a lake. LESBIA. A lake! HERO.