or passion there;
Thou, in his presence, many happy days
Wilt thou enjoy--These auspices may Heaven
Confirm--I cannot now evince to thee
A surer proof of love than by my flight; ...
A dreadful, hard, irrevocable proof.

_Clytemnestra_--If there be need of death, we both will die!--
But is there nothing left to try ere this?

_Aegis_.--Another plan, perchance, e'en now remains; ... But
little worthy ...

_Cly_.--And it is--

_Aegis._--Too cruel.

_Cly_.--But certain?

_Aegis_. Certain, ah, too much so!

_Cly_.--How Canst thou hide it from me?

_Aegis_.--How canst thou Of me demand it?

_Cly._--What then may it be? ...
I know not ... Speak: I am too far advanced;
I cannot now retract: perchance already
I am suspected by Atrides; maybe
He has the right already to despise me:
Hence do I feel constrained, e'en now, to hate him;
I cannot longer in his presence live;
I neither will, nor dare.--Do thou, Aegisthus,
Teach me a means, whatever it may be,
A means by which I may withdraw myself
From him forever.

_Aegis._--Thou withdraw thyself
From him? I have already said to thee
That now 'tis utterly impossible.

_Cly._--What other step remains for me to take? ...

_Aegis._--None.

_Cly._--Now I understand thee.--What a flash.
Oh, what a deadly, instantaneous flash
Of criminal conviction rushes through
My obtuse mind! What throbbing turbulence
In ev'ry vein I feel!--I understand thee:
The cruel remedy ... the only one ...
Is Agamemnon's life-blood.

_Aegis._--I am silent ...

_Cly._--Yet, by thy silence, thou dost ask that blood.

_Aegis._--Nay, rather I forbid it.--To our love
And to thy life (of mine I do not speak)
His living is the only obstacle;
But yet, thou knowest that his life is sacred:
To love, respect, defend it, thou art bound;
And I to tremble at it.--Let us cease:
The hour advances now; my long discourse
Might give occasion to suspicious thoughts.--
At length receive ... Aegisthus's last farewell.

_Cly._--Ah! hear me ... Agamemnon to our love ...
And to thy life? ... Ah, yes; there are, besides him,
No other obstacles: too certainly
His life is death to us!

_Aegis._--Ah! do not heed