The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 · Chapter 33Scene IV
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ORESTES (armed), IPHIGENIA, THOAS
ORESTES (addressing his followers)
Redouble your exertions! hold them back! Few moments will suffice; maintain your ground, And keep a passage open to the ship For me and for my sister.
(To IPHIGENIA, without perceiving THOAS.)
Come with speed! We are betray'd,—brief time remains for flight.
(He perceives the king.)
THOAS (laying his hand on his sword)
None in my presence with impunity His naked weapon wears.
Do not profane Diana's sanctuary with rage and blood. Command your people to forbear awhile, And listen to the priestess, to the sister.
Say, who is he that threatens us?
IPHIGENIA In him Revere the king, who was my second father. Forgive me, brother, that my childlike heart Hath plac'd our fate thus wholly in his hands. I have betray'd your meditated flight, And thus from treachery redeem'd my soul.
Will he permit our peaceable return?
Thy gleaming sword forbids me to reply.
ORESTES (sheathing his sword)
Then speak! thou seest I listen to thy words.