Page:The Goddesses in Congress on Olympus-on-Spree.djvu/23

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And that it still may come,—though clauado pede. Think not to threat the Mistress of the Seas, For Thetis both your strength and weakness sees. You dare not plans of Proserpine withstand. And, in this game, have played up to her hand. Shall I to your vote, then, entrust my fate?— You shall not, here, between us arbitrate! Let Goddesses, then, learn my judgment so:— Strong? yes, you are! but, independent?—No!

Minerva.

Most unbecoming, this, to one so great!— It's language that I have not heard of late.

Thetis.

'Twould seem,—though vowing you admire the tone— You like the bluntness on one side alone.— But now,—a truce to this—Here is the question,— Whether the Congress bow to your suggestion— That Proserpine tear Treaties into shreds, And fling the fragments at our baffled heads?— For instance—in this matter of the Bosphorus,— That gain be all for her, and only loss for us; That Isis nominally keep the key That opes the gateway of the Euxine Sea, Giving the other leave to pick her pocket, Whenever Hades' Queen it suits to lock it. Isis, just now, we all beheld succumb, Held tight beneath the Proserpinal thumb;—