Atossa's Dream.
"Not so; they have spears for close fighting and shields."
"And who is master of their army?"
"They are not slaves or subjects to any man."
"How, then, can they abide the onset of the Persians?"
"Nay, but so well they abide it that they slew a great army of King Darius."
"What thou sayest is ill to hear for the mothers of them that are gone."
And when the Queen had thus spoken, the counsellors espied a man of Persia running to them with all speed, and knew that he bare tidings from the hosts, whether good or evil. And when the man was come, he cried out, "O land of Persia, abode of proud wealth, how are thy riches destroyed, and the flower of thy strength perished! 'Tis an ill task to bring such tidings, yet I am constrained to tell all our trouble. O men of Persia, the whole army of our land hath perished."
Then the old men cried out, bewailing themselves that they had lived to see this day. And the messenger told them how he had himself seen this great trouble befall the Persians, and had not heard it from others, and that it was at Salamis that the army had perished, and the city of Athens that had been chief among their enemies, the old men breaking in upon his story as he spake with their lamentations. But after a while the Queen Atossa stood forward, saying, "For a while I was dumb, for the trouble that I heard suffered me not to speak. But we must bear what the Gods send. Tell me, therefore, who is yet alive? and for whom must we make lamentation?"