The Mother’s Tragedy

{ 30) THE FATAL FORCE ‘* She In the habiliments of the goddess Isis That day appeared.”—Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 6, 16. “Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the earth, reached by a descending ladder which hath Seven Steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and fatal force.”— ZOROASTER. PEOPLE. RATOUM, Queen of Egyft. PACHAD, her son (by the son of herself and the LEPER). THE LEPER, her divorced husband. THE KING OF SYRIA. AMENHATEP, High Priest. Chorus of Priests. Soldiers of Egypt. Syrian Troops. PACHAD. HY is thy back made stiff, unrighteous priest, ! Thy knee reluctant? Thine old eyes, grown blind, Stare into silence, and behold no god Longer. Thy forehead knows no reverence Nor sign of worship. Or sits mutiny Blasphemous on thy brows? For in thine eyes