OR.  A truce now to unnecessary words. 
My mother’s vileness and Aegisthus’ waste,
Draining and squandering with spendthrift hand
Our patrimony, tell me not anew. 
Such talk might stifle opportunity. 
But teach me, as befits the present need,
What place may serve by lurking vigilance
Or sudden apparition to o’erwhelm
Our foes in the adventure of to-day. 
And, when we pass within, take heedful care
Bright looks betray thee not unto our mother. 
But groan as for the dire calamity
Vainly reported:—­Let’s achieve success,
Then with free hearts we may rejoice and laugh.

EL.  Dear brother, wheresoe’er thy pleasure leads,
My will shall follow, since the joys I know,
Not from myself I took them, but from thee. 
And ne’er would I consent thy slightest grief
Should win for me great gain.  Ill should I then
Serve the divinity of this high hour! 
Thou knowest how matters in the palace stand. 
Thou hast surely heard, Aegisthus is from home,
And she, our mother, is within.  Nor fear
She should behold me with a smiling face. 
Mine ancient hate of her hath sunk too deep. 
And from the time I saw thee, tears of joy
Will cease not.  Wherefore should I stint their flow? 
I, who in this thy coming have beheld
Thee dead and living?  Strangely hast thou wrought
On me;—­that should my father come alive,
I would not think the sight were miracle,
But sober truth.  Since such thy presence, then,
Lead as thy spirit prompts.  For I alone
Of two things surely had achieved one,
Noble deliverance or a noble death.

OR.  Be silent; for I hear within the house
A footstep coming forth.

EL. (loudly). 
                         Strangers, go in! 
For none within the palace will reject
Your burden, nor be gladdened by the event.

Enter the Old Man.

OLD M. O lost in folly and bereft of soul! 
Is’t that your care for life hath ebbed away,
Or were you born without intelligence,
When fallen, not near, but in the midst of ill,
And that the greatest, ye perceive it not? 
Had I not watched the doors this while, your deeds
Had gone within the palace ere yourselves. 
But, as things are, my care hath fenced you round. 
Now, then, have done with long-protracted talk,
And this insatiable outburst of joy,
And enter, for in such attempts as these
Delay is harmful:  and ’tis more than time.

OR.  But how shall I find matters there within?

OLD M. Well.  You are shielded by their ignorance.

OR.  That means you have delivered me as dead.

OLD M. Alone of dead men thou art here above.

OR.  Doth this delight them, or how went the talk?

OLD M. I will report, when all is done.  Meanwhile,
Know, all is well with them, even what is evil.

EL.  Who is this, brother?  I beseech thee, tell.