Hect. No dispute of ceremony:
These are enow for me, in faith enow.
Their bodies shall not flag while I can lead;
Nor wearied limbs confess mortality,
Before those ants, that blacken all yon hill,
Are crept into the earth. Farewell.[Exit Hect.
Troil. Farewell.—Come, Greek.
Thers. Now these rival rogues will clapperclaw one another, and I shall have the sport of it.
[Exit Troil. with Thers.
Enter Achilles and Myrmidons.
Achill. Which way went Hector?
Myrmid. Up yon sandy hill;
You may discern them by their smoking track:
A wavering body working with bent hams
356 Against the rising, spent with painful march,
And by loose footing cast on heaps together.
Achil. O thou art gone, thou sweetest, best of friends!
Why did I let thee tempt the shock of war,
Ere yet the tender nerves had strung thy limbs,
And knotted into strength! Yet, though too late,
I will, I will revenge thee, my Patroclus!
Nor shall thy ghost thy murderers long attend,
But thou shalt hear him calling Charon back,
Ere thou art wafted to the farther shore.—
Make haste, my soldiers; give me this day's pains
For my dead friend: strike every hand with mine,
Till Hector breathless on the ground we lay!
Revenge is honour, the securest way.[Exit with Myrm.
Enter Thersites, Troilus, Trojans.
Thers. That's Calchas's tent.
Troil. Then, that one spot of earth contains more falsehood,
Than all the sun sees in his race beside.
That I should trust the daughter of a priest!
Priesthood, that makes a merchandise of heaven!
Priesthood, that sells even to their prayers and blessings
And forces us to pay for our own cozenage!