Hec. (aside) Thou ill-starr’d wretch! myself I mean, when I say “thou.”  O Hecuba, what shall I do?  Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon here, or bear my ills in silence?

Aga.  Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has happened?  Who is this?

Hec. (aside) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy, spurn me from his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.

Aga.  No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy counsels.

Hec. (aside) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction on this man’s thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?

Aga.  If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou art of a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.

Hec. (aside) I can not without him take vengeance for my children.  Why do I thus hesitate?  I must be bold, whether I succeed, or fail.  Agamemnon, by these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by thy blessed hand—­

Aga.  What thy request?  Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is easy for thee to obtain.

Hec.  Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am willing to pass my whole life in slavery.

Aga.  And for what assistance dost thou call on me?

Hec.  In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king.  Seest thou this corse, o’er which I drop the tear?

Aga.  I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.

Hec.  Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.

Aga.  Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?

Hec.  It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of Troy.

Aga.  Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?

Hec.  In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.

Aga.  But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?

Hec.  His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.

Aga.  Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?

Hec.  To this country, where he was found a corse.

Aga.  To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?

Hec.  Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most destructive to him.

Aga.  By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?

Hec.  By whom else should he?  The Thracian host slew him.

Aga.  O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the gold?

Hec.  Even so, after he had heard of Troy’s disasters.

Aga.  And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?

Hec.  She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.