DE.  Yea, now I learn this triumph of my lord,
Joy reigns without a rival in my breast. 
This needs must run with that in fellowship. 
Yet wise consideration even of good
Is flecked with fear of what reverse may come. 
And I, dear friends, when I behold these maids,
Am visited with sadness deep and strange. 
Poor friendless beings, in a foreign land
Wandering forlorn in homeless orphanhood! 
Erewhile, free daughters of a freeborn race,
Now, snared in strong captivity for life. 
O Zeus of battles, breaker of the war,
Ne’er may I see thee[2] turn against my seed
So cruelly; or, if thou meanest so,
Let me be spared that sorrow by my death! 
Such fear in me the sight of these hath wrought. 
Who art thou, of all damsels most distressed? 
Single or child-bearing?  Thy looks would say,
A maid, of no mean lineage.  Lichas, tell,
Who is the stranger-nymph?  Who gave her birth? 
Who was her sire?  Mine eye hath pitied her
O’er all, as she o’er all hath sense of woe.

LICH.  What know I?  Why should’st thou demand?  Perchance
Not lowest in the list of souls there born.

DE.  How if a princess, offspring of their King?

LICH.  I cannot tell.  I did not question far.

DE.  Have none of her companions breathed her name?

LICH.  I brought them silently.  I did not hear.

DE.  Yet speak it to us of thyself, poor maid! 
’Tis sorrow not to know thee who thou art.

LICH.  She’ll ne’er untie her tongue, if she maintain
An even tenor, since nor more nor less
Would she disclose; but, poor unfortunate! 
With agonizing sobs and tears she mourns
This crushing sorrow, from the day she left
Her wind-swept home.  Her case is cruel, sure,—­
And claims a privilege from all who feel.

DE.  Well, let her go, and pass beneath the roof
In peace, as she desires; nor let fresh pain
From me be added to her previous woe. 
She hath enough already.  Come, away! 
Let’s all within at once, that thou mayest speed
Thy journey, and I may order all things here.
                    [Exit LICHAS, with Captives, into the house. 
                                     DEANIRA is about to follow them

Re-enter Messenger.

MESS.  Pause first there on the threshold, till you learn
(Apart from those) who ’tis you take within,
And more besides that you yet know not of,
Which deeply imports your knowing.  Of all this
I throughly am informed.

DE.  What cause hast thou
Thus to arrest my going?

MESS.  Stand, and hear. 
Not idle was my former speech, nor this.

DE.  Say, must we call them back in presence here,
Or would’st thou tell thy news to these and me?

MESS.  To thee and these I may, but let those be.