ry of a hero, for he looked so.

_Myr._ And was: the ancestor of heroes, too,
And thine no less.

_Sar._ Aye, Myrrha, but the woman,
The female who remained, she flew upon me,
And burnt my lips up with her noisome kisses; 150
And, flinging down the goblets on each hand,
Methought their poisons flowed around us, till
Each formed a hideous river. Still she clung;
The other phantoms, like a row of statues,
Stood dull as in our temples, but she still
Embraced me, while I shrunk from her, as if,
In lieu of her remote descendant, I
Had been the son who slew her for her incest.[25]
Then--then--a chaos of all loathsome things
Thronged thick and shapeless: I was dead, yet feeling-- 160
Buried, and raised again--consumed by worms,
Purged by the flames, and withered in the air!
I can fix nothing further of my thoughts,
Save that I longed for thee, and sought for thee,
In all these agonies,--and woke and found thee.

_Myr._ So shalt thou find me ever at thy side,
Here and hereafter, if the last may be.
But think not of these things--the mere creations
Of late events, acting upon a frame
Unused by toil, yet over-wrought by toil-- 170
Such as might try the sternest.

_Sar._ I am better.
Now that I see thee once more, _what was seen_
Seems nothing.

_Enter_ SALEMENES.

_Sal._ Is the king so soon awake?

_Sar._ Yes, brother, and I would I had not slept;
For all the predecessors of our line
Rose up, methought, to drag me down to them.
My father was amongst them, too; but he,
I know not why, kept from me, leaving me
Between the hunter-founder of our race,
And her, the homicide and husband-killer, 180
Whom you call glorious.

_Sal._ So I term you also,
Now you have shown a spirit like to hers.
By day-break I propose that we set forth,
And charge once more the rebel crew, who still
Keep gathering head, repulsed, but not quite quelled.

_Sar._ How wears the night?

_Sal._ There yet remain some hours
Of darkness: use them for your further rest.

_Sar._ No, not to-night, if 'tis not gone: methought
I passed hours in that vision.

_Myr