’Tis true. There came Red blood as well. LESBIA. Oh horror! HERO. Sooth it is She honours equally with ours strange gods We have no knowledge of; and so perchance ’Tis some dark rite. LESBIA. No, no! Where sounds the flute And where the pipe? Who sings the song of Hymen? Where is the band of dancers? I was blind! She has gone forth to turn her home no more. Queen, hearken to my prayer--relent!... And is A feast prepared? HERO. No. Oh, to be in the dark! LESBIA. Then curses on the pride of heart that held me, This very day of all, so far from her! And now--O Goddess, she is Thine this hour, Incline her heart, I cannot do so more! HERO. Yes, Pure and Chaste and Holy, do this thing ... And is’t not strange as well that she should choose No more the ever-blithesome Aphrodite For witness, but the stern-faced Hestia Before whose gaze the greenest garland dries? LESBIA. Oh, oh, it means the Thing most dread of all! [_Enter_ GYGES. HERO. Gyges! LESBIA. Oh take him! Only--do it not! GYGES. I feel as though myself had lost the blood That streamed from out his veins. I am death-cold. HERO. How pale his seeming is! GYGES. There is the altar-- But at another have I sought for her---- And there her maids are standing--there is she---- What means it all? [_Enter_ THOAS. THOAS. I offer you the crown. GYGES. It passes to the Lydians, not to me. THOAS. I brought it to the Lydians ere to you, And as their herald stand before you now. THE PEOPLE (_without_). Hail, Gyges, Hail! [RHODOPE _rises and turns round_. THE PEOPLE (_pressing in_). Gyges, our King, all hail! THOAS. This shouting is no thing for pride. The neighbours Have fallen on the land, and ’tis your task To lead them. GYGES. What? THOAS. ’Twas just as I had thought. He was too mild; there’s not a soul that feared him, And now they’re here. [GYGES _puts on the crown_. GYGES. ’Tis I that pay his debt. RHOD. (_who has been slowly approaching_ GYGES). Gyges, your own is first to pay. GYGES. O Queen, Be you the prize that draws me with its lure When far and wide I’ve crushed my foes in rout. RHOD. Nay, nay! You gain no hour of grace from me. We cannot go before my Father’s presence; Then come with me and stand at Hestia’s altar, And give to me before her countenance The hand’s eternal bond I give to you. GYGES.