SCENE THE THIRTEENTH.
ÆGYSTHUS, LYCON, ORESTES, ELECTRA and
Guards.
ÆGYSTHUS.
Take hence these boasters, and in sep'rate dungeons
See them secur'd from converse and from light.
ELECTRA.
A lot I've long been exercis'd for bearing.
ORESTES.
I was prepar'd, Electra, to die with thee:
But not to live divided.
ELECTRA.
Fear not life.
We shall not long lament each other's absence.
I know the Ruler of our fates too well
To dread that cruel kindness.
ORESTES.
Then we part—
ELECTRA.
Forever!
ORESTES.
Killing thought!
ELECTRA.
Nay do not weep.
ORESTES.
Ne'er 'till this moment did I taste affliction:
For ev'ry ill I've hitherto encounter'd
Was happiness, compar'd with what I feel
In this heart-rending—O malicious fortune!—
Could ruin reach me not without involving
Innocence like thine? A planet so malignant
Rul'd at my hour of birth, that I am destin'd
To murder all who love me.
ELECTRA.
Do not grudge
The satisfaction that my heart receives
In dying with thee—for thee—
ÆGYSTHUS.
Force 'em hence.
ORESTES.
Fell ministers—indulge me an embrace—
I ask no more. Electra!—to thy fate
I am constrain'd to yield thee up.
ELECTRA.
This pang,
Tho' not the last, will be by far the sharpest
Our issuing souls can suffer—
ORESTES.
Oh!—Farewel.
Orestes goes off, guarded; and after him, Electra.
