Chapter 11

IPHIGENIA, _alone_. These words at an unseasonable hour Produce a strong revulsion in my breast; I am alarm'd!--For as the rushing tide In rapid currents eddies o'er the rocks Which lie among the sand upon the shore; E'en so a stream of joy o'erwhelm'd my soul. I grasp'd what had appear'd impossible. It was as though another gentle cloud Around me lay, to raise me from the earth, And rock my spirit in the same sweet sleep Which the kind goddess shed around my brow, What time her circling arm from danger snatch'd me. My brother forcibly engross'd my heart; I listen'd only to his friend's advice; My soul rush'd eagerly to rescue them, And as the mariner with joy surveys The less'ning breakers of a desert isle, So Tauris lay behind me. But the voice Of faithful Arkas wakes me from my dream, Reminding me that those whom I forsake Are also men. Deceit doth now become Doubly detested. O my soul, be still! Beginn'st thou now to tremble and to doubt? Thy lonely shelter on the firm-set earth Must thou abandon? and, embark'd once more, At random drift upon tumultuous waves, A stranger to thyself and to the world?