Part 10 (2/2)

'Twas we that left a pa.s.sage clear.-- A pa.s.sage?--Yea, for these men's way, Who came by night into the lines unchecked.

[_A sound of moaning outside in the darkness, which has been heard during the last few lines, now grows into articulate words._

VOICE.

Woe, woe!

The burden of the wrath of fate!

GUARDS.

Ha, listen! Wait.

Crouch on the ground; it may be yet Our man is drawing to the net.

VOICE.

Woe, woe!

The burden of the hills of Thrace!

LEADER.

An ally? None of h.e.l.lene race.

VOICE.

Woe, woe!

Yea, woe to me and woe to thee, My master! Once to set thine eye On Ilion the accurst, and die!

LEADER (_calling aloud_).

Ho there! What ally pa.s.ses? The dim night Blurreth mine eyes; I cannot see thee right.

VOICE. [vv. 738-756]

Ho, some one of the Trojan name!

Where sleeps your king beneath his s.h.i.+eld, Hector? What marshal of the field Will hear our tale . . . the men who came And struck us and were gone; and we, We woke and there was nought to see, But our own misery.

LEADER.

I cannot hear him right; it sounds as if The Thracians were surprised or in some grief.

[_There enters a wounded man, walking with difficulty; he is the Thracian Charioteer who came with_ RHESUS.

THRACIAN.

The army lost and the king slain, Stabbed in the dark! Ah, pain! pain!

This deep raw wound . . . Oh, let me die By thy side, Master, by thy side!

In shame together let us lie Who came to save, and failed and died.

LEADER.

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