Ask not the cause.

ULYSSES.

This sudden change

AGAMEMNON.

Polyxena shall die.

Pelides' injur'd ghost demands her. Greece

Requires her blood, and Greece shall be obey'd,

ULYSSES.

W Oh, sir, consider well what 'tis you do.

Should you desert Polyxena's defence,

Cassandra's love→→→

AGAMEMNON.

Cassandra! Furies seize her.

Name her no more, I sicken at the sound.
Alas! Ulysses, 'twas my love for her,
That poison to my fame, that held me here
In ignominious bondage: love of her

First led me to withhold the victim destin'd,
By Greece united, to Achilles' tomb.

ULYSSES.

I must obey your will, yet heav'n is witness

With what extreme reluctance

AGAMEMNON.

If thou lov'st me

Thou wilt no longer tarry. Hence, I charge thee,
See that my will's perform'd: ev'n in the sight

Of curst Cassandra, let her sister die.

Hence, I for ever banish from my breast

[Exit Ulysses.

That bane of all our peace and virtue, love;

And in his stead, from the dark realms of night,
Those realms of lamentation and affright,

In all the horrors of your snaky hair,

Ye furies, rise! Grief, terror, rage, despair!
The pow'rs of hell in my assistance join,

And all the transports of revenge be mine!

To take our last farewell; to gaze once more

Upon that dying sweetness.

SECOND CAPTIVE.

To behold

That lovely flower, which our fost❜ring care
With such attention rear'd, untimely blasted.

FIRST CAPTIVE.

Ah, fruitless care! ah, unavailing beauty!

Those eyes that beam with ev'ry gentle virtue, The iron hand of death must close for ever.

THIRD CAPTIVE.

Th' unsullied whiteness of her polish'd neck,
Where with the loves the sister graces play'd,

Soon shall the murd'rous knife deform with gore.

SECOND CAPTIVE.

A livid paleness shall usurp the place

Of health's new-budded roses in her cheek.

Those lips, from which so musically soft

The graceful accents fell, no more shall open,

To shed their fragrance round.

THIRD CAPTIVE.

Oh, best-lov'd maid!

Thou dear companion of my youthful hours,
And art thou lost for ever? Then, for ever

Will I lament thee. To my mournful heart
No comfort e'er shall come.

FIRST CAPTIVE.

Our lot is hopeless.

Oh, could our tears recall the fatal sentence !

But what are tears, or pray'rs, or spotless virtue ?

They cannot bend Ulysses to compassion;

They cannot save whom wrathful heaven forsakes.Say, friend, where didst thou leave the wretched Hecuba? How did she bear this last, worst stroke of fate?

SECOND CAPTIVE.

Roll'd in the dust, with frantic grief, she tore
Her hoary hair, she smote her aged breast,
And heap'd the glowing embers on her head;
And oft with accent wild, and earnest gesture,
Seem'd to hold converse with her absent child.
Then tax'd the justice of the gods, and curs'd

The hour which gave her birth. At length exhausted, Within in speechless agony she lies.

FIRST CAPTIVE.

Where does the sun, in his diurnal course,

Survey such misery? Unhappy woman!
Doom'd to drag on a wretched load of life
In worse than mortal agony. In death
We touch the goal, the period of our woes;
But to thy view each slow-succeeding hour
Brings but a sad variety of woe.-

Lo! where Cassandra comes. Her lofty soul
Disdains to bend beneath the weight of grief,
And with a manly fortitude surveys

The evils which surround her.

SCENE II.

CASSANDRA, CAPTIVES.

CASSANDRA.

We are met,

My lov'd companions, on a mournful business.

How painful 'tis to part from those we love!

And yet we will not gratify our tyrants
With fruitless lamentation. Let us rather,

Fall'n

'n as we are, instruct their pride, how much