The tyrant raged; my merits he obscured;610

My statues, my inscriptions, honors—all,

On pain of death he bade to be destroyed

Throughout the world—that world my hapless love,

To my own direful punishment, had given

To be by him, an untried boy, controlled.

And now my murdered husband's angry ghost

Shakes vengeful torches in my guilty face,615

Insistent, threat'ning; blames his death on me,

His murdered son, and loud demands that now