Ch. Alas for me wretched! I am a prophetess of horrors.
Mes. Stretched in the dust are they beyond all dispute.
Ch. Came they even to that? bitter then are thy tidings, yet speak them.
Mes. Even thus [too surely] were they destroyed by brotherly hands.
Ch. Even thus was the demon at once impartial to both.
Mes. And he himself, to be sure of this, is cutting off the ill-fated race.
Ch. Over such events one may both rejoice and weep—[rejoice] at the success of our city—but [mourn because][166] our princes, the two generals, have portioned out the whole possession of their substance with the hammer-wrought Scythian steel, and they will possess of land just as much as they receive at their burial, carried off according to the unhappy imprecations of their sire.
Mes. The city is rescued, but earth hath drank the blood of the brother princes through their slaughter of each other.
[Exit Messenger.[167]