Part 11 (2/2)

Hither, for doom and deed!

Hither with lifted sword, Justice, Wrath of the Lord, Come in our visible need!

Smite till the throat shall bleed, Smite till the heart shall bleed, Him the tyrannous, lawless, G.o.dless, Echion's earth-born seed!

_Other Maidens._

Tyrannously hath he trod; Marched him, in Law's despite, Against thy Light, O G.o.d, Yea, and thy Mother's Light; Girded him, falsely bold, Blinded in craft, to quell And by man's violence hold Things unconquerable.

_A Baccha.n.a.l._

A strait pitiless mind Is death unto G.o.dliness; And to feel in human kind Life, and a pain the less.

Knowledge, we are not foes!

I seek thee diligently; But the world with a great wind blows, s.h.i.+ning, and not from thee; Blowing to beautiful things, On, amid dark and light, Till Life, through the trammellings Of Laws that are not the Right, Breaks, clean and pure, and sings Glorying to G.o.d in the height!

_All the Chorus._

Hither for doom and deed!

Hither with lifted sword, Justice, Wrath of the Lord, Come in our visible need!

Smite till the throat shall bleed, Smite till the heart shall bleed, Him the tyrannous, lawless, G.o.dless, Echion's earth-born seed!

LEADER.

Appear, appear, whatso thy shape or name O Mountain Bull, Snake of the Hundred Heads, Lion of Burning Flame!

O G.o.d, Beast, Mystery, come! Thy mystic maids Are hunted!--Blast their hunter with thy breath, Cast o'er his head thy snare; And laugh aloud and drag him to his death, Who stalks thy herded madness in its lair!

_Enter hastily a_ MESSENGER _from the Mountain, pale and distraught_.

MESSENGER.

Woe to the house once blest in h.e.l.las! Woe To thee, old King Sidonian, who didst sow The dragon-seed on Ares' b.l.o.o.d.y lea!

Alas, even thy slaves must weep for thee!

LEADER.

News from the mountain?--Speak! How hath it sped?

MESSENGER.

Pentheus, my king, Echion's son, is dead!

LEADER.

All hail, G.o.d of the Voice, Manifest ever more!

MESSENGER.

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