Foiled shall they be. Yet well it were for you,
(If, ere with aid I come, I tarry long),
Not by one step this sanctuary to leave.
Farewell, fear nought: soon shall the hour be born
When he that scorns the gods shall rue his scorn.
Chorus
Ah but I shudder, father!—ah, even now,
Even as I speak, the swift-winged ships draw nigh!
I shudder, I shiver, I perish with fear:
Overseas though I fled,
Yet nought it avails; my pursuers are near!
Danaus
Children, take heart; they who decreed to aid
Thy cause will arm for battle, well I ween.
Chorus
But desperate is Aegyptus' ravening race,
With fight unsated; thou too know'st it well.
In their wrath they o'ertake us; the prow is deep-dark
In the which they have sped,
And dark is the bench and the crew of the bark!
Danaus
Yea but a crew as stout they here shall find,
And arms well steeled beneath a noon-day sun.
Chorus
Ah yet, O father, leave us not forlorn!
Alone, a maid is nought, a strengthless arm.
