Eternal gods, could this thing come to pass? How many a time has my pure infant-hand Yielded your due of pious sacrifice! For you the first lock fell from off my head Ere yet I guessed the source of every blessing That prospers men was held within your hand. Nor was the virgin ever slow to tend Your service; rarely sent her altar-flame A twinned desire toward your lofty seat, Nay, every wish that threatened rise she strove To crush in shame and anguish to the depths Beneath her conscious thought; for she would win Only your benison and not your bounty, She would but thank, naught would she supplicate. The Woman, too, needed no ghostly dream Like that which smote the Tyndarid with horror, To monish her of duty’s holy bond; She came herself and decked the altar round And yet--why dedicates a mortal man To you the choicest part of all his goods If ye show not the gracious will to shield When he himself no more has power to shield? A man repels the lion with his sword When, by the goad of rage or hunger driven, He flashes rampant at the midday heat; No brave man calls on Zeus to hurl his bolts, But ward against the base snake’s crept surprisal When he is steeped in calm war-weary slumber; There is your work; to you belongs the night. And I--and I--rests then a curse on me, A curse from ancient time that holds your power Bounden in Styx, that god-affront so heinous There’s none would even dare it on a slave-girl The meanest of my train, falls on myself Sanctioned by you like a god-fearing deed? [_Enter_ HERO. HERO. The King! RHOD. So soon? ’Tis death that comes with him! Then good; it palls me in the night of nights Whereof the earthly night is but a shade. Why tremble, then? It was my very wish. [_Enter_ KANDAULES. KAN. Do you forgive? RHOD. Sire, you can do no other, The appointed hour is now. Why this much asking? KAN. I understand you not. RHOD. Be open, King! You find me ready. KAN. Ready! To what end? RHOD. I know your duty and I give you thanks You’re bent on swift fulfilment; of a truth It must be mine were you of tardy will. You’ve searched, tracked down, and taken instant vengeance, It breaks out from your looks--now comes my turn! KAN. Where do your strayed wits tend? RHOD. Are you not come For vengeance hither? KAN. No, by all the gods! RHOD. And all have life that yesterday had life? KAN. Why not? RHOD. There’s many may have done foul crime. KAN. I know of none. RHOD. And what then brings you here? KAN.