I think you wished To see me fight. Be glad, then, for I do it. But this for payment--keep the crown in ward And give’t to whoso of the twain survives. (_To_ GYGES.) If it be you, I grudge it not, and men Will see it on your brow with joy--Come, come! You say you’d never take it? Fie, oh fie! ’Twould only lapse upon a lesser man. GYGES. Sire, swear you’ll do your honest part in fight. KAN. ’Tis mine to show her I’ll not lightly lose So dear a loveliness. I swear it then. And you? GYGES. She lives and dies with me. I must. And though at every cut and thrust I’m thinking “Liefer by far a kiss!” yet none the more I’ll slack the force of any blow. KAN. Then give Your hand for this once more.--Now be for me A tiger. I for you a lion, and this The wildwood where we oft have led the chase. [_They draw._ GYGES. There’s one thing yet. Shame held it back. She means To wed with me if you be overcome. KAN. Ah, now I understand her! GYGES. On your guard! [_A fight, during which they disappear to the left._ THOAS. He falls! The last o’ the Heraclids is fallen! [_Exit in their direction._ SCENE 2 _The Temple of Hestia. Evening: torches are lit. In the centre a statue of the goddess._ RHODOPE _appears from the right in solemn procession, with her_ LESBIA, HERO, _and_ KARNA. RHODOPE. Karna, the funeral-pyre--’tis being built? KARNA. ’Tis built ere now. [RHODOPE _paces into the temple and kneels before the statue of the goddess_. HERO. She speaks of funeral-pyres Instead of bridal-chambers? LESBIA. What, amazed? There must be first one dead within this place Or ever in this place there be a bride. HERO. I tremble, Lesbia. She questioned me, When I was tiring her, if in our garden Were growing poison-berries---- LESBIA. What? HERO. And if I might not go and bring her some of them, For every one she said she’d give a pearl Though there should be a hundred; but with speed It must be done. LESBIA. And you? HERO. I answered no, And thereupon she smiled and said, “I’m like To think it. I shall show you them to-morrow.” And yet I thought it strange. LESBIA. And strange it is. HERO. Thereon she sent me from her, but I spied And saw her take a poniard fine of point As though for test, no other word could name it, And scratch her arm. LESBIA. Hero! HERO.