Andromache Part 7

[_Angrily._] Bah! You deem because you are rude you are valiant, Alcimedon! The soldiers of the South were as brave as you.

ALCIMEDON.

[_Turning away towards the maidens._] Let not Andromache draw the water, jades!

HERMIONE.

Will you not draw for her yourself, old man?

ALCIMEDON.

_I_ draw water! [_Drawing himself up in indignation._] By Hermes! I care not for the tongue of a barren woman.

[_Voices and the loud talk of huntsmen are heard outside._

VOICE OF MOLOSSUS.

Ho! Mother, Mother!

MAID.

[_Looking._] It is Molossus! And the King's huntsmen. They are coming up the path.

ALCIMEDON.

Already!

HERMIONE.

[_To_ ANDROMACHE, _who has stopped_.] Why do you wait? Have I not bidden you back to the castle? And when the hall is swept, go to your own house. Come not up to trouble the King till that web is finished.

ANDROMACHE.

[_Turning again and moving away._] I go, O Queen.

VOICE OF PYRRHUS.

[_Outside._] Ho, wife of Hector, mother of Molossus! Stay, and look at him.

MOLOSSUS _and_ PYRRHUS _enter, with some spearmen_; PYRRHUS _has his arm on the neck of_ MOLOSSUS.

MOLOSSUS.

[_Running forward._] Mother, look! I have slain a man!

PYRRHUS.

He has slain his first man.

[MOLOSSUS _holds up his hands, the palms of which are smeared with blood_.

MOLOSSUS.

See, mother; they have smeared me with his blood!

HERMIONE.

[_Holding aloof._] Keep away from the altar, with foul hands!

ANDROMACHE.

[_To_ PYRRHUS, _with reproach, while she embraces_ MOLOSSUS.] You said you would take him to no battles, only to hunting.

PYRRHUS.

[_Cheerily._] By Hermes, it was he who made the battle! I meant nothing but hunting.

ALCIMEDON.

Well done, boy! A true prince, a true prince!

PYRRHUS.

We had driven the deer down over the mountains and we came on a herd of the Napaeans' cattle grazing, right up on the moors.

ANDROMACHE.

You promised me you would raid no cattle with him.

PYRRHUS.

By Hermes! They _came_ to us! And the herd-boy never saw us; he was sitting on a stone in the sun, and thinking of nothing. And even then I would not raid the cattle. When suddenly up jumped the herd-boy and looked at us, with his mouth open. And before he knew who we were, I heard a tw.a.n.g!--and there he was with an arrow in his neck!

[_Laughs._

MOLOSSUS.

Right through his throat, mother! He was looking up. [_Imitating the att.i.tude._] And I have got a pipe he was plaiting. It wasn't finished, but it blows.

[_He shows a pipe made of reeds._

PYRRHUS.

You can play better things than pipes, my boy. So we ran down and cut off the cattle; and I have given them to Molossus for his own herd.

MOLOSSUS.

And father put the blood on my hands himself.