Deianeira Friends, how I fear that I may have gone too far in all that I have been doing just now!

Leader What hath happened, Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus?

Deianeira I know not; but feel a misgiving that I shall presently be found to have wrought a great mischief, the issue of a fair hope.

Leader It is nothing, surely, that concerns thy gift to Heracles?

Deianeira Yea, even so. And henceforth I would say to all, act not with zeal, if ye act without light.

Leader Tell us the cause of thy fear, if it may be told.

Deianeira A thing hath come to pass, my friends, such that, if I declare it, ye will hear a marvel whereof none could have dreamed.

That with which I was lately anointing the festal robe, - a white tuft of fleecy sheep's wool, - hath disappeared, - not consumed by anything in the house, but self-devoured and self-destroyed, as it crumbled down from the surface of a stone. But I must tell the story More at length, that thou mayest know exactly how this thing befell.

I neglected no part of the precepts which the savage Centaur gave me, when the bitter barb was rankling in his side: they were in my memory, like the graven words which no hand may wash from a tablet of bronze. Now these were his orders, and I obeyed them:- to keep this unguent in secret place, always remote from fire and from the sun's warm ray, until I should apply it, newly spread, where I wished. So had I done. And now, when the moment for action had come, I performed the anointing privily in the house, with a tuft of soft wool which I had plucked from a sheep of our home-flock; then I folded up my gift, and laid it, unvisited by sunlight, within its casket, as ye saw.

But as I was going back into the house, I beheld a thing too wondrous for words, and passing the wit of man to understand. I happened to have thrown the shred of wool, with which I bad been preparing the robe, into the full blaze of the sunshine. As it grew warm, it shrivelled all away, and quickly crumbled to powder on the ground, like nothing so much as the dust shed from a saw's teeth where men work timber. In such a state it lies as it fell. And from the earth, where it was strewn, clots of foam seethed up, as when the rich juice of the blue fruit from the vine of Bacchus is poured upon the ground.

So I know not, hapless one, whither to turn my thoughts; I only see that I have done a fearful deed. Why or wherefore should the monster, in his death-throes, have shown good will to me, on whose account he was dying? Impossible! No, he was cajoling me, in order to slay the man who had smitten him: and I gain the knowledge of this too late, when it avails no more. Yes, I alone - unless my foreboding prove false - I, wretched one, must destroy him! For I know that the arrow which made the wound did scathe even to the god Cheiron; and it kills all beasts that it touches. And since 'tis this same black venom in the blood that hath passed out through the wound of Nessus, must it not kill my lord also? I ween it must.

Howbeit, I am resolved that, if he is to fall, at the same time I also shall be swept from life; for no woman could bear to live with an evil name, if she rejoices that her nature is not evil.

Leader Mischief must needs be feared; but it is not well to doom our hope before the event.

Deianeira Unwise counsels leave no room even for a hope which can lend courage.

Leader Yet towards those who have erred unwittingly, men's anger is softened; and so it should be towards thee.

Deianeira Nay, such words are not for one who has borne a part in the ill deed, but only for him who has no trouble at his own door.

Leader 'Twere well to refrain from further speech, unless thou would'st tell aught to thine own son; for he is at hand, who went erewhile to seek his sire.