y. For there shall be mourning and lamentation in thine own house,
and against thy people shall be stirred up many cities. And now, my
child, lead me home and let this man rage against them that are younger
than I."

So the prophet departed and the old men were sore afraid and said:

"He hath spoken terrible things, O King; nor ever since these gray hairs
were black have we known him say that which was false."

"Even so," said the king, "and I am troubled in heart and yet am loath
to depart from my purpose."

"King Creon," said the old men, "thou needest good counsel."

"What, then, would ye have done?"

"Set free the maiden from the sepulchre and give this dead man burial."

Then the king cried to his people that they should bring bars wherewith
to loosen the doors of the sepulchre, and hastened with them to the
place. But coming on their way to the body of Prince Polynices, they
took it up and washed it, and buried that which remained of it, and
raised over the ashes a great mound of earth. And this being done, they
drew near to the place of the sepulchre; and as they approached, the
king heard within a very piteous voice, and knew it for the voice of his
son. Then he bade his attendants loose the door with all speed; and when
they had loosed it, they beheld within a very piteous sight. For the
maiden Antigone had hanged herself by the girdle of linen which she
wore, and the young man Prince Haemon stood with his arms about her dead
body, embracing it. And when the king saw him, he cried to him to come
forth; but the prince glared fiercely upon him and answered him not a
word, but drew his two-edged sword. Then the king, thinking that his son
was minded in his madness to slay him, leapt back, but the prince drove
the sword into his own heart and fell forward on the earth, still
holding the dead maiden in his arms. And when they brought the tidings
of these things to Queen Eurydice, the wife of King Creon and mother to
the prince, she could not endure the grief, being thus bereaved of her
children, but laid hold of a sword and slew herself therewith.

So the house of King Creon was left desolate unto him that day, because
he despised the ordinances of the gods.

THE STORY OF IPHIGENIA

King Agamemnon sat in his tent at Aulis, where the army of the Greeks
was gathered together, being about to sail against the great city of
Troy. And it was now past midnight; but the king slept not, for he was
careful