Then the old men, the counsellors of the city, cried shame upon her that she had done so foul a deed, saying that the people should curse her and cast her out.  But she was not one whit fearful or ashamed, saying that he whom she had slain was a man of blood, and unfaithful, and that he had suffered a just punishment together with his paramour.  And when they made lamentation over the King that he had been treacherously slain, she said, “Think not that I am this dead man’s wife, as indeed I seem to be; rather am I the avenger that executeth judgment for the ancient evils of this house.”

And when they cried, “O my King, who shall do thee due honour at thy burial, and speak thy praise, and weep for thee?” she made reply, “Trouble not yourselves with these things.  As I slew him so will I bury him.  And though many tears follow him not from his house, yet doubtless when he cometh to the dwellings of the dead, Iphigenia, his daughter, whom he loved, will meet him, and throw her arms about him, and kiss him, so dear a father he was to her.”

[Illustration:  The murder of Agamemnon.]

And while they talked thus with each other, there came forward the Prince AEgisthus, with his guard about him, boasting that now the wrongs of his father Thyestes were avenged.  Then again the strife of words grew fierce, for the counsellors reproached the Prince that he was treacherous, having bound himself with a false woman against his lord the King; and cowardly also and base, in that he had not dared to do this deed himself, but had left it to the hands of another; also they prophesied that Orestes should come and execute the just judgment of the Gods on them that had slain his father.  And the Prince endured not to hear such words, but threatened bonds and imprisonment.  So had strife nearly begun, for AEgisthus called to his guards, and the counsellors would fain have roused the citizens, but the Queen, for indeed she would that the shedding of blood should have an end, spake and soothed the anger of the Prince, saying, “Heed not what these babblers say.  Thou and I are rulers in this place, aye, and will order all things aright.”

So the two lived together for a while in great pride and joy.  But the blood cried against them from the ground, and the Gods forgat them not.

THE STORY OF ELECTRA, OR THE RETURN OF ORESTES.

When King Agamemnon was slain by his wicked wife Clytaemnestra, the boy Orestes his son had perished also by the hands of his mother, but that his sister Electra took him and delivered him out of the hands of them that would have slain him.  And having saved him, she sent him to the house of Strophius the Phocian, who was a friend to the house of the King, her father.  And here Orestes abode till he was of age and strength to fulfil the law.  For the law of the land was that, if a man should be foully slain, his son should