Burst pitiless. Loud the mainland wave is roaring.

This charge be thine: myself, a sleepless spy,

Will bring thee sure word from the hostile camp:

Safe from without, so ye be strong within. [Exit.

Eteocles.

O Jove! O Earth! O Gods that keep the city!

And thou fell Fury of my father’s curse![f11]

Destroy not utterly this Cadméan seat

Rent, razed, deracinated by the foe!

Yield not our pious hearths, where the loved speech