Others.

And, God, may Helen be there[44],
    With mirror of gold,
Decking her face so fair,
Girl-like; and hear, and stare,
    And turn death-cold: 
Never, ah, never more
  The hearth of her home to see,
Nor sand of the Spartan shore,
  Nor tombs where her fathers be,
Nor Athena’s bronzen Dwelling,
   Nor the towers of Pitane
For her face was a dark desire
Upon Greece, and shame like fire,
And her dead are welling, welling,
  From red Simois to the sea!

* * * * *

[TALTHYBIUS, followed by one or two Soldiers and bearing the child ASTYANAX dead, is seen approaching.

LEADER.

Ah, change on change!  Yet each one racks
    This land with evil manifold;
    Unhappy wives of Troy, behold,
They bear the dead Astyanax,
Our prince, whom bitter Greeks this hour
Have hurled to death from Ilion’s tower.

TALTHYBIUS.

One galley, Hecuba, there lingereth yet,
Lapping the wave, to gather the last freight
Of Pyrrhus’ spoils for Thessaly.  The chief
Himself long since hath parted, much in grief
 For Peleus’ sake, his grandsire, whom, men say,
Acastus, Pelias’ son, in war array
Hath driven to exile.  Loath enough before
Was he to linger, and now goes the more
In haste, bearing Andromache, his prize. 
’Tis she hath charmed these tears into mine eyes,
Weeping her fatherland, as o’er the wave
She gazed, and speaking words to Hector’s grave. 
Howbeit, she prayed us that due rites be done
For burial of this babe, thine Hector’s son,
That now from Ilion’s tower is fallen and dead. 
And, lo! this great bronze-fronted shield, the dread
Of many a Greek, that Hector held in fray,
O never in God’s name—­so did she pray—­
 Be this borne forth to hang in Peleus’ hall
Or that dark bridal chamber, that the wall
May hurt her eyes; but here, in Troy o’erthrown,
Instead of cedar wood and vaulted stone,
Be this her child’s last house....  And in thine hands
She bade me lay him, to be swathed in bands
Of death and garments, such as rest to thee
In these thy fallen fortunes; seeing that she
Hath gone her ways, and, for her master’s haste,
May no more fold the babe unto his rest. 
  Howbeit, so soon as he is garlanded
And robed, we will heap earth above his head
And lift our sails....  See all be swiftly done,
As thou art bidden.  I have saved thee one
Labour.  For as I passed Scamander’s stream
Hard by, I let the waters run on him,
And cleansed his wounds.—­See, I will go forth now
And break the hard earth for his grave:  so thou
And I will haste together, to set free
Our oars at last to beat the homeward sea!

[He goes out with his Soldiers, leaving the body of the Child in HECUBA’S arms.

HECUBA.