Orestes. 
Well, fifty oars lie waiting on the sea.

Iphigenia. 
Aye, there comes thy work, till an end be made.

Orestes. 
Good.  It needs only that these women aid
Our secret.  Do thou speak with them, and find
Words of persuasion.  Power is in the mind
Of woman to wake pity.—­For the rest,
God knoweth:  may it all end for the best!

Iphigenia. 
O women, you my comrades, in your eyes
I look to read my fate.  In you it lies,
That either I find peace, or be cast down
To nothing, robbed for ever of mine own—­
Brother, and home, and sister pricelessly
Beloved.—­Are we not women, you and I,
A broken race, to one another true,
And strong in our shared secrets?  Help me through
This strait; keep hid the secret of our flight,
And share our peril!  Honour shineth bright
On her whose lips are steadfast ...  Heaven above! 
Three souls, but one in fortune, one in love,
Thou seest us go—­is it to death or home? 
If home, then surely, surely, there shall come
Part of our joy to thee.  I swear, I swear
To aid thee also home ...

[she goes to one after another, and presently kneels embracing the knees of the Leader.]

I make my prayer
By that right hand; to thee, too, by that dear
Cheek; by thy knees; by all that is not here
Of things beloved, by mother, father, child—­
Thou hadst a child!—­How say ye?  Have ye smiled
Or turned from me?  For if ye turn away,
I and my brother are lost things this day.

Leader. 
Be of good heart, sweet mistress.  Only go
To happiness.  No child of man shall know
From us thy secret.  Hear me, Zeus on high!

Iphigenia (rising). 
God bless you for that word, and fill your eye
With light!—­

[turning to Orestes and Pylades.]

But now, to work!  Go thou, and thou,
In to the deeper shrine.  King Thoas now
Should soon be here to question if the price
Be yet paid of the strangers’ sacrifice.

[Orestes and Pylades go in.]

Thou Holy One, that on the shrouded sand
Of Aulis saved me from a father’s hand
Blood-maddened, save me now, and save these twain. 
Else shall Apollo’s lips, through thy disdain,
Be no more true nor trusted in men’s eyes. 
Come from the friendless shore, the cruel skies,
Come back:  what mak’st thou here, when o’er the sea
A clean and joyous land doth call for thee?

[she follows the men into the temple.]

Chorus.

[Strophe I.]

Bird of the sea rocks, of the bursting spray,
      O halcyon bird,
That wheelest crying, crying, on thy way;
Who knoweth grief can read the tale of thee: 
One love long lost, one song for ever heard
    And wings that sweep the sea.