Do not thou any more tow'rd these apartments EGIS. SCENE III. EGISTHUS. Come forth, Thyestes, from profound Avernus; come, Hangs the suspended sword; now, now, he feels it: Lend to the dire catastrophe with me; Love, terror, to the necessary crime Compel the impious woman. AGA. AGAMEMNON (within). Treason! Ah!... My wife? . . . O Heavens! . . . I die . . . O traitorous deed! EGIS. Die, thou The blows redouble; yes, die! And thou redouble, woman, all the weapon hide. Within his heart; shed, to the latest drop, The blood of that fell miscreant; in our blood The dagger drips; See, with blood my hands, my face, my garments, All, all are blood . . . Oh, for a deed like this, What vengeance will be wreaked! . . . I see already, I see hurled back, and by what hand! I freeze, I faint, I shudder, I dissolve with horror. My strength, my utterance, fail me. Where am I? EGIS. ... Tremendous cries Resound on every side throughout the palace: ELEC. It still remains for thee to murder me, Thou impious, vile assassin of my father ... But what do I behold? O Heavens! . . . my mother? .. Flagitious woman, dost thou grasp the sword? Didst thou commit the murder? EGIS. Hold thy peace. Stop not my path thus; quickly I return; Murder my son? Thou first shalt murder me. Ægisthus! . . . Stop! ... Wilt thou SCENE VII. ELECTRA. ELEC. O night!... O father! . . . Ah, it was your deed, Ye gods, this thought of mine to place Orestes - In safety first. Thou wilt not find him, traitor. Ah live, Orestes, live: and I will keep This impious steel for thy adult right hand. ALFONSO X. ALFONSO X., King of Leon and Castile, born in 1221, ascended the throne in 1252, was deposed by his son, Sancho, in 1282, and died in 1284. His acquaintance with geometry, astronomy, and the occult sciences of his time gained for him the appellation of el Sabio, "the Learned." The works in prose attributed to him range over a great variety of subjects, historical, scientific, and legal, although many of them were merely written or compiled by his order. He' caused the Bible to be translated into Castilian, and thereby performed for the Spanish language a service very similar to that performed for the English by James I. Mariana says of him: "He was more fit for letters than for the government of his subjects; he studied the heavens and watched the stars, but forgot the earth and lost his kingdom.” "WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT." "A TYRANT," says this law, "doth signify a cruel lord, who, by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained power over any realm or country; and such men be of such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be able to fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said that they use their power against the people in three manners. The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills; and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive to make them poor, and to put them |