And now there came a messenger from the King’s palace and told her all that had there befallen.  But when she heard it she knew that the time was come, and went into the house.

And the women that stood without heard a terrible cry from the children as they sought to flee from their mother and could not.  And while they doubted whether they should not hasten within and, it might be, deliver them from their mother, came Jason to the gate and said to them, “Tell me, ladies, is Medea in this place, or hath she fled?  Verily she must hide herself in the earth, or mount into the air, if she would not suffer due punishment for that which she hath done to the King and to his daughter.  But of her I think not so much as of her children.  For I would save them, lest the kinsmen of the dead do them some harm, seeking vengeance for the bloody deed of their mother.”

Then the women answered, “O Jason, thou knowest not the truth, or thou wouldst not speak such words.”

“How so?  Would she kill me also?”

“Thy children are dead, slain by the hand of their mother.”

“Dead are they?  When did she slay them?”

“If thou wilt open the gates thou wilt see the dead corpses of thy children.”

But when he battered at the gates, and cried out that they should open to him, he heard a voice from above, and saw Medea borne in a chariot, with winged dragons for horses, who cried to him, “Why seekest thou the dead and me that slew them?  Trouble not thyself.  If thou wantest aught of me, say on, but thou shalt never touch me with thy hand.  For this chariot, which my father the Sun hath given me, shalt deliver me out of thy hands.”

Then Jason cried, “Thou art an accursed woman, that hast slain thy own children with the sword, and yet darest to look upon the earth and the sun.  What madness was it that I brought thee from thy own country to this land of Greece, for thou didst betray thy father and slay thy brother with the sword, and now thou hast killed thine own children, to avenge what thou deemest thine own wrong.  No woman art thou, but a lioness or monster of the sea.”

And to these things she answered, “Call me what thou wilt, lioness or monster of the sea; but this I know, that I have pierced thy heart.  And as for thy children, thou shalt not touch them or see them any more; for I will bear them to the grove of Here and bury them there, lest some enemy should break up their tomb and do them some dishonour.  And I myself go to the land of Attica, where I shall dwell with King AEgeus, the son of Pandion.  And as for thee, thou shalt perish miserably, for a beam from the ship Argo shall smite thee on the head.  So shalt thou die.”

Thus was the vengeance of Medea accomplished.

THE STORY OF THE DEATH OF HERCULES.