ing
radiantly through the darkness._]

SLAVE (_grasping the Fleece_). 'Tis this?

MEDEA. Nay, hold thy hand! Unveil it not.

(_Addressing the Fleece_.)

Once more let me behold thee, fatal gift
Of trusting guest-friend! Shine for one last time,
Thou witness of the downfall of my house,
Bespattered with my father's, brother's blood,
Sign of Medea's shame and hateful crime!

[_She stamps upon the lance-haft and breaks it in two_.]

So do I rend thee now, so sink thee deep
In earth's dark bosom, whence, a bane to men,
Thou sprang'st.

[_She lays the broken standard in the chest with the other objects and
shuts down the cover_.]

GORA (_comes down_).

What does my mistress here?

MEDEA. Thou seest.

GORA. Wilt thou, then, bury in the earth that Fleece,
The symbol of thy service to the gods,
That saved thee, and shall save thee yet again?

MEDEA (_scornfully_).

That saved me? 'Tis because it saved me not,
That here I lay it. I am safe enough.

GORA (_ironically_).

Thanks to thy husband's love?

MEDEA (_to the slave, ignoring Gora's taunt_).

Is all prepared?

SLAVE. Yea, mistress.

MEDEA. Come!

[_She grasps one handle of the chest, the slave the other, and together
they carry it to the pit._]

GORA (_observing them from a distance_).

Oh, what a task is this
For a proud princess, daughter of a king!

MEDEA. Nay, if it seem so hard, why dost not help?

GORA. Lord Jason's handmaid am I--and not thine!
Nor is it meet one slave another serve.

MEDEA (_to the slave_).

Now lay it in, and heap the earth upon it.

[_The slave lets the chest down into the pit and shovels in the earth
upon it. MEDEA kneels at one side of the pit as he works._]

GORA (_standing in the foreground_).

Oh, let me die, ye gods of Colchis, now,
That I may look no more on such a sight!
Yet, first hurl down your lightning-stroke of wrath
Upon this traitor who hath wrought us woe.
Let me but see him die; then slay me too!

MEDEA (_to the slave_).

'Tis finished. Stamp the earth about it close,
And go.--I charge thee, guard m