Phoebus forced me to a woful marriage.Old ServantWas it then this, my daughter, that I noticed myself?CreusaI know not; but I will tell thee if thou speak the truth.Old ServantAt the time thou wert mourning in secret some hidden complaint?CreusaYes, ’twas then this trouble happened, which now I am declaring to thee.Old ServantHow then didst conceal thy union with Apollo?CreusaI bore a child; hear me patiently, old friend.Old ServantWhere? and who helped thy travail? or didst thou labour all alone?CreusaAll alone, in the cave where I became a wife.Old ServantWhere is the child? that thou mayst cease thy childless state.CreusaDead, old friend, to beasts exposed.Old ServantDead? did Apollo, evil god, no help afford?CreusaNone; my boy is in the halls of Hades.Old ServantWho then exposed him? surely not thyself.CreusaMyself, when ’neath the gloom of night I had wrapped him in my robe.Old ServantDid no one share thy secret of the babe’s exposure?CreusaIll-fortune and secrecy alone.Old ServantHow couldst thou in the cavern leave thy babe?CreusaAh! how? but still I did, with many a word of pity uttered o’er him.Old ServantOh for thy hard heart! Oh for the god’s, more hard than thine!