Ste. Find me Alcanor, daughter. And this hour
We leave for Sparta.
Pyrr. I am ready, sir.
[Exit, lower right. Stesilaus goes into house, upper left]
Bia. She has good eyes, and used them. Overshot,
By Hermes! I must follow,—'twixt this fool
And meditation's eye must interpose
My soldier self!
[Tears off robe, under which he wears a simple, belted tunic, flings jewels from his ears, and drives out Bico. Goes off, lower right. Enter Pelagon, much ruffled, from street]
Pel. Where's Stesilaus? Stesilaus, ho!
Find Stesilaus!
[Stesilaus returns, upper left]
O, my friend, they're mad,
And you must fly! I never was so battered!
The senators cry out you played with them
As though their stationed honors were a row
Of last year's weanlings,—first to say you bore
Full power to treat, then at their open answer
To cover and prefer the opposite,
Declaring that their noble terms must cool
On th' road to Sparta! As I speak your comrades
Are driven through the gates. You must not stay.
They'll have your life, they are so worked. Come, come!
I know a way—I'll get you through——
Ste. I'll go
The way I came.
Pel. Nay, nay, I'll slip you out!
Leave here your wife and daughter. In gentler hour
I'll send them after, with your son,—
Ste. I'll speak
To Pyrrha——
Pel. No! This way! The world's at somersault!
The turtle's on his back, his claws to Heaven!
No one would hear me! Me! The voice of Athens!
And jeered me down, for I was Biades' kin,—
Though why the wind sits so I know not!
Come—come—I was so battered——