Tongues fast bound: for now the people

May with freedom speak at pleasure;

For the yoke of power is broken;

And blood-stained in all its meadows

Holds the sea-washed isle of Aias

What was once the host of Persia.

Re-enter Atossa

Atoss. Whoe'er, my friends, is vexed in troublous times,

600

Knows that when once a tide of woe sets in,