(MEGARA, AMPHITRYON, and the children enter from the palace.)MEGARACome now, who is to sacrifice or butcher these poor children? or rob me of my wretched life? Behold! the victims are ready to be led to Hades' halls. O my children! an ill-matched company are we hurried off to die, old men and babes, and mothers, all together. Alas! for my sad fate and my children's, whom these eyes now for the last time behold. So I gave you birth and reared you only for our foes to mock, to flout, and slay. Ah me! how bitterly my hopes have disappointed me in the expectation once formed from the words of your father. (Addressing each of her sons in turn) To thee thy dead sire was for giving Argos; and thou wert to dwell in the halls of Eurystheus, lording it o'er the fair fruitful land of Argolis; and o'er thy head would he throw that lion's skin wherewith himself was girt. Thou wert to be king of Thebes, famed for its chariots, receiving as thy heritage my broad lands, for so thou didst coax thy father dear; and to thy hand used he to resign the carved club, his sure defence, pretending to give it thee. To thee he promised to give Oechalia, which once his archery had wasted. Thus with three principalities would your father exalt you his three sons, proud of your manliness; while I was choosing the best brides for you, scheming to link you by marriage to Athens, Thebes, and Sparta, that ye might live a happy life with a fast sheet-anchor to hold by. And now that is all vanished; fortune's breeze hath veered and given to you for brides the maidens of death in their stead, and tears to me to bathe them in;woe is me for my foolish thoughts and your grandsire here is celebrating your marriage-feast, accepting Hades as the father of your brides, a grim relationship to make. Ah me! which of you shall I first press to my bosom, which last? on which bestow my kiss, or clasp close to me? Oh! would that like the bee with russet wing, I could collect from every source my sighs in one, and, blending them together, shed them in one copious flood! Heracles, dear husband mine, to thee Icall, if haply mortal voice can make itself heard in Hades' halls; thy father and children are dying and I am doomed, I who once because of thee was counted blest as men count bliss. Come to our rescue; appear, I pray, if but as a phantom, since thy mere coming would be enough, for they are cowards compared with thee, who are slaying thy children.
AMPHITRYON
Lady, do thou prepare the funeral rites; but I, O Zeus, stretching out my hand to heaven, call on thee to help these children, if such be thy intention; for soon will any aid of thine be unavailing; and yet thou hast been oft invoked; my toil is wasted; death seems inevitable.
Ye aged friends, the joys of life are few; so take heed that ye pass through it as gladly as ye may, without a thought of sorrow from morn till night; for time recks little of preserving our hopes; and, when he has busied himself on his own business, away he flies. Look at me, a man who had made mark amongst his fellows by deeds of note;yet hath fortune in a single day robbed me of it as of a feather that floats away toward the sky. know not any whose plenteous wealth and high reputation is fixed and sure; fare ye well, for now have ye seen the last of your old friend, my comrades.
(MEGARA catches sight of HERACLES approaching.)MEGARA Ha! old friend, is it my own, my dearest I behold? or what am I to say?
AMPHITRYON
I know not, my daughter; I too am struck dumb.
MEGARA
Is this he who, they told us, was beneath the earth?
AMPHITRYON
'Tis he, unless some day-dream mocks our sight.
MEGARA
What am I saying? What visions do these anxious eyes behold? Old man, this is none other than thy own son. Come hither, my children, cling to your father's robe, make haste to come, never loose your hold, for here is one to help you, nowise behind our saviour Zeus.
(HERACLES enters.)
HERACLES
All hail! my house, and portals of my home, how glad am I to emerge to the light and see thee. Ha! what is this? I see my children before the house in the garb of death, with chaplets on their heads, my wife amid a throng of men, and my father weeping o'er some mischance. Let me draw near to them and inquire; lady, what strange stroke of fate hath fallen on the house?
MEGARA
Dearest of all mankind to me! O ray of light appearing to thy sire! art thou safe, and is thy coming just in time to help thy dear ones?
HERACLES
What meanest thou? what is this confusion I find on my arrival, father?
MEGARA
We are being ruined; forgive me, old friend, if I have anticipated that which thou hadst a right to tell him; for woman's nature is perhaps more prone than man's to grief, and they are my children that were being led to death, which was my own lot too.
HERACLES
Great Apollo! what a prelude to thy story!
MEGARA
Dead are my brethren, dead my hoary sire.
HERACLES
How so? what befell him? who dealt the fatal blow?
MEGARA
Lycus, our splendid monarch, slew him.
HERACLES
Did he meet him in fair fight, or was the land sick and weak?
MEGARA
Aye, from faction; now is he master of the city of Cadmus with its seven gates.
HERACLES
Why hath panic fallen on thee and my aged sire?
MEGARA
He meant to kill thy father, me, and my children.
HERACLES
Why, what had he to fear from my orphan babes?
MEGARA
He was afraid they might some day avenge Creon's death.
HERACLES
What means this dress they wear, suited to the dead?
MEGARA
'Tis the garb of death we have already put on.
HERACLES
And were ye being haled to death? O woe is me!
MEGARA
Yes, deserted by every friend, and informed that thou wert dead.
HERACLES
What put such desperate thoughts into your heads?
MEGARA
That was what the heralds of Eurystheus kept proclaiming.
HERACLES
Why did ye leave my hearth and home?
MEGARA
He forced us; thy father was dragged from his bed.
HERACLES
Had he no mercy, to ill-use the old man so?
MEGARA
Mercy forsooth! that goddess and he dwell far enough apart.
HERACLES
Was I so poor in friends in my absence?
MEGARA
Who are the friends of a man in misfortune?
HERACLES
Do they make so light of my hard warring with the Minyae?
MEGARA
