indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old man.

TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy dead
daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send me.

HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to death,
but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn from thy
mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch that I am.
But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or did ye proceed
in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me, though you will
relate no pleasing tale.

TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity for
thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance shall I
bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The whole host
of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the sacrifice of thy
daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the hand, placed her
on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and there followed a
chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to restrain with their hands
thy daughter's struggles; then the son of Achilles took a full-crowned
goblet of entire gold, and poured forth libations to his deceased father;
and makes signal to me to proclaim silence through all the Grecian host.
And I standing forth in the midst, thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let
all the people remain silent; silence, be still:" and I made the people
perfectly still. But he said, "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these
libations which have the power of soothing, and which speed the dead on
their way; and come, that thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this
virgin, which both the army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious
to us, and grant us to weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships,
and to return each to his country, having met with a prosperous return from