IPHIGENIA   IN   TAURIS
I face an altar soaked with bloody death.	225
I hear the cry for pity and the moans
Of men—a thing too hideous to be told.
Yet even that seems little to me now—
Now that a throne is empty and his eyes	230
Are done with weeping, as I wish mine were.
I who have loved him through these lonely years
Shall never see him now but as I left him,
A little baby at his mother's breast—
I who had thought to see him as a king.	235
The Second Maiden
(Pointing.)
That herdsman running, stumbling, from the beach!
What can have happened there?
(They watch the sea-path?)
A Herdsman
(Entering out of breath.)
0	daughter of the house of Agamemnon,
1	bring you news!
Iphigenia
Urgent enough for this
Rough outcry in the temple-yard?	240
The Herdsman
A ship
From sea has passed through the Symplegades!
And through the fog two fellows waded ashore,
And never was a finer offering
Than these two boys will be for Artemis!
I have been sent to tell you to make ready.	245
Iphigenia
Where are they from?—what country? Could you say?