ough incessant irritations? Consider--for
you compel me to speak of things of which I have no right to
speak--consider what a proud and scornful answer you sent him when
he--but you shall not compel me; I will not speak of it! Our guilt and
our innocence are liable to endless misinterpretations, endless
excuses. Only to the undeceived eye of the gods do we appear as we are;
they alone can judge us. But the gods, you know it, king, speak their
verdict through the sword of the bravest. Let us therefore wait to hear
their bloody sentence. Why shall we turn in cowardice from this highest
of judgments to a lower? Are our arms already so weary that the pliant
tongue must take their place?

ARIDAeUS.

I hear with astonishment----

PHILOTAS.

Ah! a woman, too, may be listened to with astonishment.

ARIDAeUS.

With astonishment, prince, and not without grief. Fate has destined you
for the throne! To you it will confide the welfare of a mighty and
noble nation; to you! What dreadful future reveals itself to me! You
will overwhelm your people with laurels,--and with misery. You will
count more victories than happy subjects. Well for me, that my days
will not reach into yours! But woe to my son, to my honest son! You
will scarcely allow him to lay aside his armour----

PHILOTAS.

Comfort the father, O king! I shall allow your son far more!--far more!

ARIDAeUS.

Far more? Explain yourself.

PHILOTAS.

Have I spoken a riddle? O do not ask, king, that a youth, such as I am,
shall always speak with caution and design. I only wished to say the
fruit is often very different from what the blossom promises. An
effeminate prince, history has taught me, has often proved a warlike
king. Could not the reverse occur with me? Or perhaps the meaning of
what I said was that I had still a long and dangerous way to the
throne. Who knows if the gods will allow me to accomplish it? And do
not let me accomplish it, father of gods and men, if in the future thou
seest in me a waster of the most precious gift which thou hast
entrusted to me,--the blood of my subjects!

ARIDAeUS.

Yes, prince; what is a king, if he be not a father? What is a hero void
of human love? Now I recognise this also in you, and am your friend
ag