Would we had never ta'en that cruel oath!
(Exeunt Vassals.)
HELEN.(alone, after standing some time gazing round her, paces backwards and forwards with agitated steps, then, stopping suddenly, bends her ear to the ground as if she listened earnestly to something).
That notes the turning tide.—Tremendous agent!
Mine executioner, that, step by step,
Advances to the awful work of death.—
Onward it wears: a little space remov'd
The dreadful conflict is.
(Raising her eyes to heaven, and moving her lips, as in the act of devotion, before she again speaks aloud.)
I' the dark roll'd clouds, the thunder's awful home:
Thou art i' the wide-shored earth,—the pathless desert;
And in the dread immensity of waters,—
I' the fathomless deep thou art.
Awful but excellent! beneath thy hand.
With trembling confidence, I bow me low,
And wait thy will in peace.
(Sits down on a crag of the rock, with her arms crossed over her breast in silent resignation; then,
