y then the meaning true.

LEADER.

I would not have thee cast to infamy
Of guilt, where none is proved,
One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved.

OEDIPUS.

'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand
Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land.

LEADER.

No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun!
May he desert me here, and every friend
With him, to death and utterest malison,
If e'er my heart could dream of such an end!

[Sidenote: vv. 665-680]

But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore,
In a land half slain,
If we join to the griefs of yore
Griefs of you twain.

OEDIPUS.

Oh, let him go, though it be utterly
My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary.
'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know
Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go.

CREON.

I see thy mercy moving full of hate
And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate.
Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart
Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part.

OEDIPUS.

Oh, leave me and begone!

CREON.

I go, wronged sore
By thee. These friends will trust me as before.

[CREON _goes._ OEDIPUS _stands apart lost in
trouble of mind._

LEADER. [_Antistrophe._

Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again?

JOCASTA.

I will, when I have heard.

[Sidenote: vv. 681-696]

LEADER.

There fell some word, some blind imagining
Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting.

JOCASTA.

From both the twain it rose?

LEADER.

From both the twain.

JOCASTA.

Aye, and what was the word?

LEADER.

Surely there is enough of evil stirred,
And Thebes heaves on the swell
Of storm.--Oh, leave this lying where it fell.

OEDIPUS.

So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight
My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite.

LEADER.

O King, not once I have answered. Visibly
Mad were I, lost to all wise usages,
To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee
We saw of old blue sky and summer seas,
When Thebes in the storm and rain
Reeled, like to die.
Oh, if thou canst, again
Blue sky, blue sky...!

[Sidenote: vv. 697-713]

JOCASTA.

Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued
Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud.

OEDIPUS.

I will, wife.