See there! The treason of a woman's tongue! Ye are all in the plot, I warrant ye! _Leader._ Thy words are mad! What are the men to me? Go to the palace, go! _Messenger._ (_Seeing the great knocker on the Temple door._) I will not stir Till word be come by this good messenger If Thoas be within these gates or no.-- (_Thundering at the door._) Ho, loose the portals! Ye within! What ho! Open, and tell our master one doth stand Without here, with strange evil in his hand. (_Enter Thoas from the Temple._) _Thoas._ Who dares before this portal consecrate Make uproar and lewd battering of the gate? Thy noise hath broke the Altar's ancient peace. {270} _Messenger._ Ye gods! They swore to me--and bade me cease My search--the King was gone. And all the while-- _Thoas._ These women? How? What sought they by such guile? _Messenger._ Of them hereafter! Give me first thine ear For greater things. The virgin minister That served our altar, she hath fled from this And stolen the dread Shape of Artemis, With those two Greeks. The cleansing was a lie. _Thoas._ She fled? What wild hope whispered her to fly? _Messenger._ The hope to save Orestes. Wonder on! _Thoas._ Orestes--how? Not Clytemnestra's son? _Messenger._ And our pledged altar-offering. 'Tis the same. _Thoas._ O marvel beyond marvel! By what name More rich in wonder can I name thee right? _Messenger._ Give not thy mind to that. Let ear and sight Be mine awhile; and when thou hast heard the whole Devise how best to trap them ere the goal. _Thoas._ Aye, tell thy tale. Our Tauric seas stretch far, Where no man may escape my wand of war. The Messenger gives Thoas an excited account of what has happened, ending by saying that if he send out pursuers {271} immediately, he may even yet seize the fugitives. Thoas gives his orders. _Thoas._ Ho, all ye dwellers of my savage town Set saddle on your steeds, and gallop down To watch the heads, and gather what is cast Alive from this Greek wreck. We shall make fast, By God's help, the blasphemers.--Send a corps Out in good boats a furlong from the shore; So we shall either snare them on the seas Or ride them down by land, and at our ease Fling them down gulfs of rock, or pale them high On stakes in the sun, to feed our birds and die. Women: you knew this plot. Each one of you Shall know, before the work I have to do Is done, what torment is.--Enough! A clear Task is afoot. I must not linger here. While Thoas is moving off, his men shouting and running before and behind him, there comes a sudden blasting light and thunder-roll, and Athena is seen in the air confronting them. This sudden appearance of a god to solve a problem at the end of a play is known as the _deus ex machina_, and there was actually some kind of machine by which the god appeared as if suspended in the air. {272} _Athena._