s me? Ah!...
[_seeing the axe_.

_AEpytus_

Upbraids thee? no one.

_Merope_

Thou dost well: but take....

_AEpytus_

What wav'st thou off?

_Merope_

That murderous axe away!

_AEpytus_

Thy son is here.

_Merope_

One said so, sure, but now.

_AEpytus_

Here, here thou hast him!

_Merope_

Slaughter'd by this hand!...

_AEpytus_

No, by the Gods, alive and like to live!

_Merope_

What, thou?--I dream----

_AEpytus_

May'st thou dream ever so!

_Merope_ (_advancing towards him_)

My child? unhurt?...

_AEpytus_

Only by over joy

_Merope_

Art thou, then, come?...

_AEpytus_

Never to part again.

[_They fall into one another's arms. Then_ MEROPE,
_holding_ AEPYTUS _by the hand, turns to_ THE
CHORUS.

_Merope_

O kind Messenian maidens, O my friends,
Bear witness, see, mark well, on what a head
My first stroke of revenge had nearly fallen!

_The Chorus_

We see, dear mistress: and we say, the Gods,
As hitherto they kept him, keep him now.

_Merope_

O my son! _str._
I have, I have thee ... the years
Fly back, my child! and thou seem'st
Ne'er to have gone from these eyes,
Never been torn from this breast.

_AEpytus_

Mother, my heart runs over; but the time
Presses me, chides me, will not let me weep.

_Merope_

Fearest thou now?

_AEpytus_

I fear not, but I think on my design.

_Merope_

At the undried fount of this breast,
A babe, thou smilest again.
Thy brothers play at my feet,
Early-slain innocents! near,
Thy kind-speaking father stands.

_AEpytus_

Remember, to revenge his death I come!

_Merope_

Ah ... revenge! _ant._
That word! it kills me! I see
Once more roll back on my house,
Never to ebb, the accurst
All-flooding ocean of blood.

_AEpytus_

Mother, sometimes the justice of the Gods
Appoints the way to peace through shedding blood.

_Merope_

Sorrowful peace!

_AEpytus_

And yet the only peace to us allow'd.

_Merope_

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