Must pay the penalty of these your father's crimes—925
My heart with horror melts, a numbing chill pervades
My limbs, and all my soul is filled with sinking fear.
Now wrath gives place, and, heedless of my husband's sins,
The tender mother-instinct quite possesses me.
And could I shed my helpless children's blood? Not so,
Oh, say not so, my maddened heart! Far from my hand930
And thought be that unnameable and hideous deed!
What sin have they that shedding of their wretched blood
Would wash away?