refore I would fain
bind him with an oath that he will deliver it to them that should have
it in the city of Argos." And Orestes consented, saying that she also
should bind herself with an oath that she would deliver one of the two
from death. So she sware by Artemis that she would persuade the king,
and deliver Pylades from death. And Pylades sware on his part by Zeus,
the father of heaven, that he would give the tablet to those whom it
should concern. And having sworn it, he said, "But what if a storm
overtake me and the tablet be lost and I only be saved?"

"I will tell thee what hath been written in the tablet; and if it
perish, thou shalt tell them again; but if not, then thou shalt give
it as I bid thee."

"And to whom shall I give it?"

"Thou shalt give it to Orestes, son of Agamemnon. And that which is
written therein is this: '_I that was sacrificed in Aulis, even
Iphigenia, who am alive and yet dead to my own people, bid thee----_'"

But when Orestes heard this, he brake in, "Where is this Iphigenia?
Hath the dead come back among the living?"

"Thou seest her in me. But interrupt me not. '_I bid thee fetch me
before I die to Argos from a strange land, taking me from the altar
that is red with the blood of strangers, whereat I serve._' And if
Orestes ask by what means I am alive, thou shalt say that Artemis put
a hind in my stead, and that the priest, thinking that he smote me
with the knife, slew the beast, and that the goddess brought me to
this land."

Then said Pylades, "My oath is easy to keep. Orestes, take thou this
tablet from thy sister."

Then Orestes embraced his sister, crying--for she turned from him, not
knowing what she should think--"O my sister, turn not from me; for I
am thy brother whom thou didst not think to see."

And when she yet doubted, he told her of certain things by which she
might know him to be Orestes--how that she had woven a tapestry
wherein was set forth the strife between Atreus and Thyestes
concerning the golden lamb; and that she had given a lock of her hair
at Aulis to be a memorial of her; and that there was laid in her
chamber at Argos the ancient spear of Pelops, her father's grandsire,
with which he slew Oenomaues and won Hippodamia to be his wife.

And when she heard this, she knew that he was indeed Orestes, whom,
being an infant and the latest born of his mother, she had in time
past held in her arms. But when the two had talked together for a
space, rejo