LEADER OF CHORUS
    What portent from the Gods is here? 
    My mind is mazed with doubt and fear. 
    How can I gainsay what I see? 
    I know the girl Antigone,
    O hapless child of hapless sire! 
    Didst thou, then, recklessly aspire
    To brave kings’ laws, and now art brought
    In madness of transgression caught?

Enter Watchman, bringing in ANTIGONE

WATCH.  Here is the doer of the deed—­this maid
We found her burying him.  Where is the King?

CH.  Look, he comes forth again to meet thy call.

Enter CREON.

CR.  What call so nearly times with mine approach?

WATCH.  My lord, no mortal should deny on oath,
Judgement is still belied by after thought
When quailing ’neath the tempest of your threats,
Methought no force would drive me to this place
But joy unlook’d for and surpassing hope
Is out of bound the best of all delight,
And so I am here again,—­though I had sworn
I ne’er would come,—­and in my charge this maid,
Caught in the act of caring for the dead
Here was no lot throwing, this hap was mine
Without dispute.  And now, my sovereign lord,
According to thy pleasure, thine own self
Examine and convict her.  For my part
I have good right to be away and free
From the bad business I am come upon.

CR.  This maiden! 
How came she in thy charge?  Where didst thou find her?

WATCH.  Burying the prince.  One word hath told thee all.

CR.  Hast thou thy wits, and knowest thou what thou sayest?

WATCH.  I saw her burying him whom you forbade
To bury.  Is that, now, clearly spoken, or no?

CR.  And how was she detected, caught, and taken?

WATCH.  It fell in this wise.  We were come to the spot,
Bearing the dreadful burden of thy threats;
And first with care we swept the dust away
From round the corse, and laid the dank limbs bare: 
Then sate below the hill-top, out o’ the wind,
Where no bad odour from the dead might strike us,
Stirring each other on with interchange
Of loud revilings on the negligent
In ’tendance on this duty.  So we stayed
Till in mid heaven the sun’s resplendent orb
Stood high, and the heat strengthened.  Suddenly,
The Storm-god raised a whirlwind from the ground,
Vexing heaven’s concave, and filled all the plain,
Rending the locks of all the orchard groves,
Till the great sky was choked withal.  We closed
Our lips and eyes, and bore the God-sent evil. 
When after a long while this ceased, the maid
Was seen, and wailed in high and bitter key,
Like some despairing bird that hath espied
Her nest all desolate, the nestlings gone. 
So, when she saw the body bare, she mourned
Loudly, and cursed the authors of this deed. 
Then nimbly with her hands she brought dry dust,
And holding high a shapely brazen cruse,