Eksodos
VOICE.
But our own misery.
LEADER.
I cannot hear him right; it sounds as if
745
The Thracians were surprised or in some grief.
THRACIAN.
The army lost and the king slain,
Stabbed in the dark! Ah, pain! pain!
This deep raw wound . . . Oh, let me die
By thy side, Master, by thy side!
750
In shame together let us lie
Who came to save, and failed and died.
LEADER.
This needs no surmise: ’tis disaster plain
That comes. He speaketh of some ally slain.
755
THRACIAN.
Disaster, yea: and with disaster shame,
Which lights Disaster to a twofold flame
Of evil. For to die in soldier’s wise,
Since die we needs must . . . though the man who dies
Hath pain . . . to all his house ’tis praise and pride;
760
But we, like laggards and like fools we died!
When Hector’s hand had showed us where to rest
And told the watchword, down we lay, oppressed
With weariness of that long march, and slept
