Strangers, shall do you service, and withal
To me; and thus is fair speed best attained,580
If the same end be pleasing unto all.
Wouldst thou, if I would save thee, take for me
To Argos tidings to my kindred there,
And bear a letter, which a captive wrote
Of pity for me, counting not mine hand585
His murderer, but that he died by law
Of this land, since the Goddess holds it just?
For I had none from Argos come, to go
Back, saved alive, to Argos, and to bear
My letter to a certain friend of mine.590
But thou, if thou art nobly-born, as seems,
And know'st Mycenæ, and the folk I mean,
Receive thy life: accept no base reward,
Deliverance, for a little letter's sake.
But this man, since the state constraineth so,595
Torn from thee, be the Goddess' sacrifice.
Orestes.
Well say'st thou, save for one thing, stranger maid:—
That he be slain were heavy on my soul.
I was his pilot to calamity,
He sails with me for mine affliction's sake.600
Unjust it were that I, in pleasuring thee,
Should seal his doom, and 'scape myself from ills.
Nay, be it thus,—the letter give to him
To bear to Argos; so art thou content:
But me let who will slay. Most base it is605
That one should in misfortune whelm his friends,
Himself escaping. This man is my friend,
Whose life I tender even as mine own.
