The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18

mortals sent upon me for some sin wrought by dim kings of old my ances- tors. What was it brought thee to thy death? Speak, Phaedra, purest of hearts that ever the gun of day or the stars of night touched-speak" In his agony the king bent low over the dead form of his wife and observed in her clenched hand a tablet of writing fastened by a cord to Iher wrist, so that even should her hand relax in death the writing might not be lost.
 'Hah,' cried Theseus. There is writing there. Perhaps it will make me understand the cause of this; or is it scme dying wish for me and for my chill dren? Twas her last prayer. Fear not, fond wife, no woman born shall lie by Theseus' side or reign in Theseus' house."
 He took the tablet from the dead hand. It was sealed with her golden signet, which seemed to look up to him trust fully. He broke the thread, and began to read, the while the courtiers broke back from him into mortified and expect ant groups. AS he read his face assumed a look which terrified all who saw it. Tben he broke out Into uncomfortable emotion. 'Oh, horror piled on horrorl' he cried. .'who could bear to see what
 Is written here? These tablets cry aloud things not to be forgotten or unavenged. And can hold it back no more-it must be told. Ho. hearken, all who dwell in this my land, Hippolytus. forgetting the eyes of the gods, has laid violent hands upon this my wife, Then suddenly he became apparently calm, and raising both hands to heaven said in a stately and solemn manner of invocation. 70, Fath- et Poseidon. thou dist grant me three wishes. For one of these slay now my son, Hippolytus. Let him not outlive this day."
 The frightened courtiers begged the king to recall his prayer of vengeance, but he sternly replied that it could not be. And If his prayer for vengeance was not am swered he himself would cast out his son to be a wanderer and an exile. He should be held by two great dooms-that answer to his prayer or to be an outcase and drain the cup of poverty and misery in strange and barbaric lands. As the King ceased speaking there came a footstep on the marble floor which he knew well and to hear which approaching had often sent a glad thrill to his heart-the step of Hippolytus. Father" cried the youth T heard a sound of mourning and woe and hastened to see If 1t concerned thee why what is this? The Queen dead there nay 1t cannot be. It Is scarcely an hour since saw her standing here alive. Why did she die?" Not voice answered him.
 all gazed upon him with troubled looks, and his fathers stern and yet grief stricken face awed him. Father" he cried, Speak to me, tell me what has happened and why you and all about me gaze upon me with such looks"
 Theseus regarded his son intently and then said as if to himself. "Ah, would the gods have given us here below some sure test for sitting the soul that we might convict the liar by his own true tone and not live duped forever' "Why?" said Hippolytus. has some friend proved false? Or has scandal been attained here. though utterly innocent ? l am dazed-I cannot comprehehd any of this, but see that 1t somehow concerns
 me- 70 heart of man." replied the King, "to what heights of wickedness and perfidy will 1t aspire. And if with each | new age come greater store of blood and lies. then must the gods devise some re- | zion far from us sto hold therein the worlds sin and perfdy Behold, all ye
 who are within the sound of my voice, here stands my son. Look upon him. He hath defiled my wife and now stands here convicted by the dead
 Hippolytus fell back with a cry of an- guish and covered his face with his robe. He saw in flash how matters | stood-how the Queen, who. he wrong ly believed, had sent her handmaid to him--had. in revenge for his scorn, taken her life and left this lying rec ord. There he stood while his father heaped reproaches, curses and vituper- ation upon him. Get thee from this land" at length cried Theseus, ito thine exile with all speed. Never more shalt thou behold god-built Athens. Come not again to the furthest shore of my realm. My hand has weight vile things like thee to slay-but go. and misery and perpetual exile be thy portion unless the gift of Poseidon shall slay thee first" The mortified youth collected himself e little and said: Father, thine anger Is terrible. But if all the hidden things of this affair were laid open to thee your speech would not be so vengeful. I cannot speak before the crowd. Nevertheless, since this blow has fallen upon me. l must not be dumb. I swear by this sunlight and this earth that there is not man in all thy
 realm more innocent than I. You all
 know how I have held myself since
 boyhood--how chaste. In my life of
 innocence move thee not, so be 1t. But
 tsll me if that poor woman lying was,
 in her life, so fair as to tempt me from all that have been before"
 So Hippolytus poured out his plead
 ines and recalled the business and the
 purity of his life; swore by all the gods his innocence. and called down ven
 geance on himself here and hereafter
 if he had ever. even in thought or deed
 been untrue to Theseus. Again and
 again the truth came to his lips--ahd
 yet he would not say it. And if he did.
 what witnesses had he? The old nurse
 would hardly confess her part in the
 matter And who would believe his story? All he. could say only made his father more determined to have ven-
 geance on him, and only made him be- lieve more firmly the tablet taken from