onged
Fight for her, who should have her! We stood
Upon the walls, and she with her hood
Close to her cheek. But I saw the flicker
In her blue eyes!

PASIPHASSA

But I was quicker,
And saw the man she looked upon,
And after what her blue eyes shone
Like cyanus in morning light.

GORGO

Husband and lover she saw fight,
Man to man, with death between.

RHODOPE

Hatred coucht, as long and lean
As a lone wolf, on her man's crest--

PASIPHASSA

And bit the Trojan!

CHTHONOE

Thine was the rest,
Goddess! And Helen lit the fire,
With her disdain, of his desire.

MYRTILLA

Her eyes burned like the frosty stars
Of winter midnight.

PASIPHASSA

His the scars!
Bitten in his wax-pale cheek.

CHTHONOE

Nay, in his heart----

SITYS

Nay, in his bleak
And writhen smile you see it!

GORGO

Nay!
In his sick soul.

RHODOPE

Let him go his way!
Hear my thought of a happier thing--
Sparta's trees in flood of spring
Where Eurotas' banks abrim
Drown the reeds, and foam-clots swim
Like a scattered brood of duck!

MYRTILLA

Flowers anod! White flowers to pluck,
Stiffened in the foamy curds!
Ah, the green thickets quick with birds!

SITYS

Calling Itys! Itys! Itys!

PASIPHASSA

She calls not here--her house it is
In Sparta!

RHODOPE (_with a sob_)

Peace!

CHTHONOE

From my heart a cry--
Send me back, Goddess, ere I die
To those dear places and clean things--
To see my people, feel the wings
Of the gray night fold over me,
And touch my mother's knees, and be
Her child, as long ago I was
Before I lay burning in Ilios!

[_They hide their faces in their knees.
Then one by one they sing._]

Let me sing an old sweet air,
Mother of Argos, to Thee,
For hope in my heart is fair
As light on the hills seen from afar a