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SCENE FROM THE EUMENDIES
21
 I'll suck the ruddy current of each vein, Thy heart's blood's fountain will I drain.Thus having wasted thee living away, I'll drag thee downward to the realms below,That for thy Mother's murder thou may'st payUnsleeping pangs. There shalt thou join, and knowOthers that Guilt's dread sentence undergo,—The Treacherous Host and Guest, the Thankless Child,The Bold Blaspheming Wretch that hath the Gods reviled.
For great is He, the Ruler of the Dead,Before whose eye each mortal's acts are spread;Who, in the tablets of his mindWith an all-recording penWriting the crimes of human-kind,Exacts a stern account from erring men.
ORESTES.Taught by long-suffering I am skill'd in artsTo purify the sinful; and I knowBoth when to speak and when is silence best.And now a wise Instructor orders meThat these my dread accusers meet reply.
Behold, the blood that clotted on my handHas slept and faded from it! I have washedHence the pollution of my Mother's death.
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