quitted the temple.

MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.

CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
with him, thou mayest recount this news.

MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
has been done.

CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?

MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
gates, bearing a weight of evil news.

THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
hammering at the door, and sending fear within?

MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
that you were away, while you really were in the house.

TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?

MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.

TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?[175]

MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.

TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?

MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.

TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly[176] call thee by a greater name?

MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and having
perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
strangers.

TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of the
neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.

MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret[177]
flame and expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters
of the strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
screame