Rhe. No brave man deigns to smite his foe in secret, but to meet him face to face. If I can catch this knave alive, who, as thou sayest, skulks in stealthy ambuscade and plots his mischief, I will impale him at the outlet of the gates and set him up for vultures of the air to make their meal upon. This is the death he ought to die, pirate and temple-robber that he is.
Hec. To your quarters now, for night draws on. For thee I will myself point out a spot where thy host can watch this night apart from our array. Our watchword is Phœbus, if haply there be need thereof; hear and mark it well and tell it to the Thracian army. Ye must advance in front of our ranks and keep a watchful guard, and so receive Dolon who went to spy the ships, for he, if safe he is, is even now approaching the camp of Troy.
Cho. Whose watch is it? who relieves me? night's earlier stars are on the wane, and the seven Pleiads mount the sky; athwart the firmament the eagle floats. Rouse ye, why delay? Up from your beds to the watch! See ye not the moon's pale beam? Dawn is near, day is coming, and lo! a star that heralds it.
- Semicho. Who was told off to the first watch?
- The son of Mygdon, whom men call Corœbus.
- Who after him?
- The Pæonian contingent roused the Cilicians;
- And the Mysians us.
- Is it not then high time we went and roused the Lycians for the fifth watch, as the lot decided?
Cho. Hark! hark! a sound; 'tis the nightingale,[1] that slew her child, singing where she sits upon her blood-stained
- ↑ Aedon, daughter of Pandareus, bore but one son, Itylus, to her husband Zethus; envious of his brother Amphion's numerous family, she resolved to slay his eldest son, but by mistake killed her own. Whereupon she besought the gods to end her life, and they changed her into a nightingale.
