Then an arrow hit his shoulder, another pierced his neck, and he, too, fell gasping for breath.

Karnis saw him drop, and painfully raised himself a little to help him; but it was too much for him; he could only clench his fist in helpless fury and chant, half-singing, half-speaking, as loud he was able, Electra's curse: "This my last prayer, ye gods, do not disdain! For them turn day to night and joy to pain!" But the heavy infantry, who by this time were crowding through the breach, neither heard nor heeded his curse.

He lost consciousness and did not recover it till Herse, after lifting up her son and propping him against a plinth, pressed a cloth against the stump of the lance still remaining in the wound to staunch the swiftly flowing blood, and sprinkled his brow with wine.

He felt her warm tears on his face, and as he looked up into her kind, faithful eyes, brimming over with tears of sympathy and regret, his heart melted to tenderness.

All the happiest hours of the life they had spent together crowded on his memory; he answered her glance with a loving and grateful gaze and painfully held out his hand.