_ Ah, cruel, leave me!
I go--
_El._ No, stay! The people rage, and cry
Out on thee for a parricidal wife.
Show thyself not as yet, or thou incurrest
Great peril. 'T was for this I came. In thee
A mother's agony appeared, to see
Thy children dragged to death, and thou hast now
Atoned for thy misdeed. My brother sends me
To comfort thee, to succor and to hide thee
From dreadful sights. To find Aegisthus out,
All armed meanwhile, he and his Pylades
Search everywhere. Where is the wicked wretch?
_Cly._ Orestes is the wicked wretch!
_El_. O Heaven!
_Cly._ I go to save him or to perish with him.
_El._ Nay, mother, thou shalt never go. Thou ravest--
_Cly._ The penalty is mine. I go--
_El._ O mother!
The monster that but now thy children doomed
To death, wouldst thou--
_Cly._ Yes, I would save him--I!
Out of my path! My terrible destiny
I must obey. He is my husband. All
Too dear he cost me. I will not, can not lose him.
You I abhor, traitors, not children to me!
I go to him. Loose me, thou wicked girl!
At any risk I go, and may I only
Reach him in time! [_Exit._
_El_. Go to thy fate, then, go,
If thou wilt so, but be thy steps too late!
Why can not I, too, arm me with a dagger,
To pierce with stabs a thousand-fold the breast
Of infamous Aegisthus! O blind mother, oh,
How art thou fettered to his baseness! Yet,
And yet, I tremble--If the angry mob
Avenge their murdered king on her--O Heaven!
Let me go after her--But who comes here?
Pylades, and my brother not beside him?
_Enter_ PYLADES.
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