CHAPTER I.

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PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN.

THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS.

An Unfinished Historical Romance

BY

THE LATE LORD LYTTON

EDITED BY HIS SON

Dedication

TO

THE REV. BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY, D.D.

CANON OF ELY,

AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

* * * * *

MY DEAR DR. KENNEDY,

Revised by your helpful hand, and corrected by your accurate

scholarship, to whom may these pages be so fitly inscribed as to that

one of their author's earliest and most honoured friends,[1] whose

generous assistance has enabled me to place them before the public in

their present form?

It is fully fifteen, if not twenty, years since my father commenced

the composition of an historical romance on the subject of Pausanias,

the Spartan Regent. Circumstances, which need not here be recorded,

compelled him to lay aside the work thus begun. But the subject

continued to haunt his imagination and occupy his thoughts. He detected

in it singular opportunities for effective exercise of the gifts most

peculiar to his genius; and repeatedly, in the intervals of other

literary labour, he returned to the task which, though again and again

interrupted, was never abandoned. To that rare combination of the

imaginative and practical faculties which characterized my father's

intellect, and received from his life such varied illustration, the

story of Pausanias, indeed, briefly as it is told by Thucydides and

Plutarch, addressed itself with singular force. The vast conspiracy of

the Spartan Regent, had it been successful, would have changed the

whole course of Grecian history. To any student of political phenomena,

but more especially to one who, during the greater part of his life,

had been personally engaged in active politics, the story of such a

conspiracy could not fail to be attractive. To the student of human

nature the character of Pausanias himself offers sources of the

deepest interest; and, in the strange career and tragic fate of the

great conspirator, an imagination fascinated by the supernatural must

have recognized remarkable elements of awe and terror. A few months

previous to his death, I asked my father whether he had abandoned all

intention of finishing his romance of "Pausanias." He replied, "On the

contrary, I am finishing it now," and entered, with great animation,

into a discussion of the subject and its capabilities. This reply to my

inquiry surprised and impressed me: for, as you are aware, my father was

then engaged in the simultaneous composition of two other and very

different works, "Kenelm Chillingly" and the "Parisians." It was the

last time he ever spoke to me about Pausanias; but from what he then

said of it I derived an impression that the book was all but completed,

and needing only a few finishing touches to be ready for publication at

no distant date.

This impression was confirmed, subsequent to my father's death, by a

letter of instructions about his posthumous papers which accompanied

his will. In that letter, dated 1856, special allusion is made to

Pausanias as a work already far advanced towards its conclusion.

You, to whom, in your kind and careful revision of it, this unfinished

work has suggested many questions which, alas, I cannot answer, as

to the probable conduct and fate of its fictitious characters, will

readily understand my reluctance to surrender an impression seemingly

so well justified. I did not indeed cease to cherish it, until

reiterated and exhaustive search had failed to recover from the

"wallet" wherein Time "puts alms for oblivion," more than those few

imperfect fragments which, by your valued help, are here arranged in

such order as to carry on the narrative of Pausanias, with no solution

of continuity, to the middle of the second volume.

There the manuscript breaks off. Was it ever continued further? I know

not. Many circumstances induce me to believe that the conception had

long been carefully completed in the mind of its author; but he has

left behind him only a very meagre and imperfect indication of the

course which, beyond the point where it is broken, his narrative was

intended to follow. In presence of this fact I have had to choose

between the total suppression of the fragment, and the publication

of it in its present form. My choice has not been made without

hesitation; but I trust that, from many points of view, the following

pages will be found to justify it.

Judiciously (as I cannot but think) for the purposes of his fiction,

my father has taken up the story of Pausanias at a period subsequent

to the battle of Plataea; when the Spartan Regent, as Admiral of the

United Greek Fleet in the waters of Byzantium, was at the summit of

his power and reputation. Mr. Grote, in his great work, expresses the

opinion (which certainly cannot be disputed by unbiassed readers of

Thucydides) that the victory of Plataea was not attributable to any

remarkable abilities on the part of Pausanias. But Mr. Grote fairly

recognizes as quite exceptional the fame and authority accorded to

Pausanias, after the battle, by all the Hellenic States; the influence

which his name commanded, and the awe which his character inspired.

Not to the mere fact of his birth as an Heracleid, not to the lucky

accident (if such it were) of his success at Plataea, and certainly

not to his undisputed (but surely by no means uncommon) physical

courage, is it possible to attribute the peculiar position which

this remarkable man so long occupied in the estimation of his

contemporaries. For the little that we know about Pausanias we are

mainly dependent upon Athenian writers, who must have been strongly

prejudiced against him. Mr. Grote, adopting (as any modern historian

needs must do) the narrative so handed down to him, never once pauses

to question its estimate of the character of a man who was at one time

the glory, and at another the terror, of all Greece. Yet in comparing

the summary proceedings taken against Leotychides with the extreme,

and seemingly pusillanimous, deference paid to Pausanias by the Ephors

long after they possessed the most alarming proofs of his treason,

Mr. Grote observes, without attempting to account for the fact, that

Pausanias, though only Regent, was far more powerful than any Spartan

King. Why so powerful? Obviously, because he possessed uncommon force

of character; a force of character strikingly attested by every

known incident of his career; and which, when concentrated upon the

conception and execution of vast designs, (even if those designs be

criminal), must be recognized as the special attribute of genius.

Thucydides, Plutarch, Diodorus, Grote, all these writers ascribe

solely to the administrative incapacity of Pausanias that offensive

arrogance which characterized his command at Byzantium, and apparently

cost Sparta the loss of her maritime hegemony. But here is precisely

one of those problems in public policy and personal conduct which the

historian bequeathes to the imaginative writer, and which needs, for

its solution, a profound knowledge rather of human nature than of

books. For dealing with such a problem, my father, in addition to the

intuitive penetration of character and motive which is common to every

great romance writer, certainly possessed two qualifications special

to himself: the habit of dealing _practically_ with political

questions, and experience in the active management of men. His

explanation of the policy of Pausanias at Byzantium, if it be not (as

I think it is) the right one, is at least the only one yet offered. I

venture to think that, historically, it merits attention; as, from the

imaginative point of view, it is undoubtedly felicitous. By elevating

our estimate of Pausanias as a statesman, it increases our interest in

him as a man.

The Author of "Pausanias" does not merely tell us that his hero, when

in conference with the Spartan commissioners, displayed "great natural

powers which, rightly trained, might have made him not less renowned

in council than in war;" but he gives us, though briefly, the

arguments used by Pausanias. He presents to us the image, always

interesting, of a man who grasps firmly the clear conception of a

definite but difficult policy, for success in which he is dependent on

the conscious or involuntary cooperation of men impenetrable to that

conception, and possessed of a collective authority even greater than

his own. To retain Sparta temporarily at the head of Greece was an

ambition quite consistent with the more criminal designs of Pausanias;

and his whole conduct at Byzantium is rendered more intelligible than

it appears in history, when he points out that "for Sparta to maintain

her ascendancy two things are needful: first, to continue the war

by land, secondly, to disgust the Ionians with their sojourn at

Byzantium, to send them with their ships back to their own havens, and

so leave Hellas under the sole guardianship of the Spartans and their

Peloponnesian allies." And who has not learned, in a later school, the

wisdom of the Spartan commissioners? Do not their utterances sound

familiar to us? "Increase of dominion is waste of life and treasure.

Sparta is content to hold her own. What care we, who leads the Greeks

into blows? The fewer blows the better. Brave men fight if they must:

wise men never fight if they can help it." Of this scene and some

others in the first volume of the present fragment (notably the scene

in which the Regent confronts the allied chiefs, and defends himself

against the charge of connivance at the escape of the Persian

prisoners), I should have been tempted to say that they could not have

been written without personal experience of political life; if

the interview between Wallenstein and the Swedish ambassadors in

Schiller's great trilogy did not recur to my recollection as I write.

The language of the ambassadors in that interview is a perfect manual

of practical diplomacy; and yet in practical diplomacy Schiller had

no personal experience. There are, indeed, no limits to the creative

power of genius. But it is perhaps the practical politician who will

be most interested by the chapters in which Pausanias explains his

policy, or defends his position.

In publishing a romance which its author has left unfinished, I may

perhaps be allowed to indicate briefly what I believe to have been

the general scope of its design, and the probable progress of its

narrative.

The "domestic interest" of that narrative is supplied by the story of

Cleonice: a story which, briefly told by Plutarch, suggests one of

the most tragic situations it is possible to conceive. The pathos and

terror of this dark weird episode in a life which history herself

invests with all the character of romance, long haunted the

imagination of Byron; and elicited from Goethe one of the most

whimsical illustrations of the astonishing absurdity into which

criticism sometimes tumbles, when it "o'erleaps itself and falls o'

the other---."

Writing of Manfred and its author, he says, "There are, properly

speaking, two females whose phantoms for ever haunt him; and which,

in this piece also, perform principal parts. One under the name of

Astarte, the other without form or actual presence, and merely a

voice. Of the horrid occurrence which took place with the former, the

following is related:--When a bold and enterprising young man, he won

the affections of a Florentine lady. Her husband discovered the amour,

and murdered his wife. But the murderer was the same night found dead

in the street, and there was no one to whom any suspicion could be

attached. Lord Byron removed from Florence, and _these spirits haunted

him all his life after_. This romantic incident is rendered highly

probable by innumerable allusions to it in his poems. As, for instance,

when turning his sad contemplations inwards, he applies to himself the

fatal history of the King of Sparta. It is as follows: Pausanias, a

Lacedaemonian General, acquires glory by the important victory at

Plataea; but afterwards forfeits the confidence of his countrymen by

his arrogance, obstinacy, and secret intrigues with the common enemy.

This man draws upon himself the heavy guilt of innocent blood, which

attends him to his end. For, while commanding the fleet of the allied

Greeks in the Black Sea, he is inflamed with a violent passion for a

Byzantine maiden. After long resistance, he at length obtains her from

her parents; and she is to be delivered up to him at night. She modestly

desires the servant to put out the lamp, and, while groping her way in

the dark, she overturns it. Pausanias is awakened from his sleep;

apprehensive of an attack from murderers he seizes his sword, and

destroys his mistress. The horrid sight never leaves him. Her shade

pursues him unceasingly; and in vain he implores aid of the gods and the

exorcising priests. That poet must have a lacerated heart who selects

such a scene from antiquity, appropriates it to himself, and burdens his

tragic image with it."[2]

It is extremely characteristic of Byron, that, instead of resenting

this charge of murder, he was so pleased by the criticism in which

it occurs that he afterwards dedicated "The Deformed Transformed" to

Goethe. Mr. Grote repeats the story above alluded to, with all the

sanction of his grave authority, and even mentions the name of the

young lady; apparently for the sake of adding a few black strokes to

the character of Pausanias. But the supernatural part of the legend

was, of course, beneath the notice of a nineteenth-century critic; and

he passes it by. This part of the story is, however, essential to

the psychological interest of it. For whether it be that Pausanias

supposed himself, or that contemporary gossips supposed him, to be

haunted by the phantom of the woman he had loved and slain, the fact,

in either case, affords a lurid glimpse into the inner life of

the man;--just as, although Goethe's murder-story about Byron is

ludicrously untrue, yet the fact that such a story was circulated,

and could be seriously repeated by such a man as Goethe without being

resented by Byron himself, offers significant illustration both of

what Byron was, and of what he appeared to his contemporaries. Grote

also assigns the death of Cleonice to that period in the life of

Pausanias when he was in the command of the allies at Byzantium; and

refers to it as one of the numerous outrages whereby Pausanias abused

and disgraced the authority confided to him. Plutarch, however, who

tells the story in greater detail, distinctly fixes the date of its

catastrophe subsequent to the return of the Regent to Byzantium, as a

solitary volunteer, in the trireme of Hermione. The following is his

account of the affair:

"It is related that Pausanias, when at Byzantium, sought, with

criminal purpose, the love of a young lady of good family, named

Cleonice. The parents yielding to fear, or necessity, suffered him to

carry away their daughter. Before entering his chamber, she requested

that the light might be extinguished; and in darkness and silence she

approached the couch of Pausanias, who was already asleep. In so doing

she accidentally upset the lamp. Pausanias, suddenly aroused from

slumber, and supposing that some enemy was about to assassinate him,

seized his sword, which lay by his bedside, and with it struck the

maiden to the ground. She died of her wound; and from that moment

repose was banished from the life of Pausanias. A spectre appeared to

him every night in his sleep; and repeated to him in reproachful tones

this hexameter verse,_Whither I wait thee march, and receive the doom

thou deservest. Sooner or later, but ever, to man crime bringeth

disaster.'_

The allies, scandalized by this misdeed, concerted with Cimon, and

besieged Pausanias in Byzantium. But he succeeded in escaping,

Continually troubled by the phantom, he took refuge, it is said, at

Heraclea, in that temple where the souls of the dead are evoked. He

appealed to Cleonice and conjured her to mitigate his torment. She

appeared to him, and told him that on his return to Sparta he would

attain the end of his sufferings; indicating, as it would seem, by

these enigmatic words, the death which there awaited him. "This"

(adds Plutarch) "is a story told by most of the historians."[3]

I feel no doubt that this version of the story, or at least the

general outline of it, would have been followed by the romance had my

father lived to complete it. Some modification of its details would

doubtless have been necessary for the purposes of fiction. But that

the Cleonice of the novel is destined to die by the hand of her lover,

is clearly indicated. To me it seems that considerable skill and

judgment are shown in the pains taken, at the very opening of the book,

to prepare the mind of the reader for an incident which would have been

intolerably painful, and must have prematurely ended the whole narrative

interest, had the character of Cleonice been drawn otherwise than as we

find it in this first portion of the book. From the outset she appears

before us under the shadow of a tragic fatality. Of that fatality she

is herself intuitively conscious: and with it her whole being is in

harmony. No sooner do we recognise her real character than we perceive

that, for such a character, there can be no fit or satisfactory issue

from the difficulties of her position, in any conceivable combination

of earthly circumstances. But she is not of the earth earthly. Her

thoughts already habitually hover on the dim frontier of some vague

spiritual region in which her love seeks refuge from the hopeless

realities of her life; and, recognising this betimes, we are prepared

to see above the hand of her ill-fated lover, when it strikes her down

in the dark, the merciful and releasing hand of her natural destiny.

But, assuming the author to have adopted Plutarch's chronology,

and deferred the death of Cleonice till the return of Pausanias to

Byzantium (the latest date to which he could possibly have deferred

it), this catastrophe must still have occurred somewhere in the

course, or at the close, of his second volume. There would, in that

case, have still remained about nine years (and those the most

eventful) of his hero's career to be narrated. The premature removal

of the heroine from the narrative, so early in the course of it,

would therefore, at first sight, appear to be a serious defect in the

conception of this romance. Here it is, however, that the credulous

gossip of the old biographer comes to the rescue of the modern artist.

I apprehend that the Cleonice of the novel would, after her death,

have been still sensibly present to the reader's imagination

throughout the rest of the romance. She would then have moved through

it like a fate, reappearing in the most solemn moments of the story,

and at all times apparent, even when unseen, in her visible influence

upon the fierce and passionate character, the sombre and turbulent

career, of her guilty lover. In short, we may fairly suppose that,

in all the closing scenes of the tragedy, Cleonice would have still

figured and acted as one of those supernatural agencies which my

father, following the example of his great predecessor, Scott, did not

scruple to introduce into the composition of historical romance.[4]

Without the explanation here suggested, those metaphysical

conversations between Cleonice, Alcman, and Pausanias, which occupy

the opening chapters of Book II., might be deemed superfluous. But, in

fact, they are essential to the preparation of the catastrophe; and

that catastrophe, if reached, would undoubtedly have revealed to any

reflective reader their important connection with the narrative which

they now appear to retard somewhat unduly.

Quite apart from the unfinished manuscript of this story of Pausanias,

and in another portion of my father's papers which have no reference

to this story, I have discovered the following, undated, memorandum of

the destined contents of the second and third volumes of the work.

PAUSANIAS.

VOL. II.

Lysander--Sparta--Ephors--Decision to recall Pausanias.

Pausanias with Pharnabazes--On the point of success--Xerxes'

daughter--Interview with Cleonice--Recalled.

Sparta--Alcman with his family.

Cleonice--Antagoras--Yields to suit of marriage.

Pausanias suddenly reappears, as a volunteer--Scenes.

VOL. III.

Pausanias removes Cleonice, &c.--Conspiracy against him--Up to

Cleonice's death.

His expulsion from Byzantium---His despair--His journey into

Thrace--Scythians, &c.

Heraclea--Ghost.

His return--to Colonae.

Antagoras resolved on revenge--Communicates with Sparta.

The * * *--Conference with Alcman--Pausanias depends on Helots, and

money.

His return--to death.

This is the only indication I can find of the intended conclusion of

the story. Meagre though it be, however, it sufficiently suggests the

manner in which the author of the romance intended to deal with the

circumstances of Cleonice's death as related by Plutarch. With her

forcible removal by Pausanias, or her willing flight with him from the

house of her father, it would probably have been difficult to reconcile

the general sentiment of the romance, in connection with any

circumstances less conceivable than those which are indicated in the

memorandum. But in such circumstances the step taken by Pausanias migh

have had no worse motive than the rescue of the woman who loved him

from forced union with another; and Cleonice's assent to that step might

have been quite compatible with the purity and heroism of her character.

In this manner, moreover, a strong motive is prepared for that sentiment

of revenge on the part of Antagoras whereby the dramatic interest of the

story might be greatly heightened in the subsequent chapters. The

intended introduction of the supernatural element is also clearly

indicated. But apart from this, fine opportunities for psychological

analysis would doubtless have occurred in tracing the gradual deterio-

ration of such a character as that of Pausanias when, deprived of the

guardian influence of a hope passionate but not impure, its craving for

fierce excitement must have been stimulated by remorseful memories and

impotent despairs. Indeed, the imperfect manuscript now printed, contains

only the exposition of a tragedy. All the most striking effects, all the

strongest dramatic situations, have been reserved for the pages of the

manuscript which, alas, are either lost or unwritten.

Who can doubt, for instance, how effectually in the closing scenes of

this tragedy the grim image of Alithea might have assumed the place

assigned to it by history? All that we now see is the preparation made

for its effective presentation in the foreground of such later scenes,

by the chapter in the second volume describing the meeting between

Lysander and the stern mother of his Spartan chief. In Lysander himself,

moreover, we have the germ of a singularly dramatic situation. How would

Lysander act in the final struggle which his character and fate are

already preparing for him, between patriotism and friendship, his

fidelity to Pausanias, and his devotion to Sparta? Is Lysander's father

intended for that Ephor, who, in the last moment, made the sign that

warned Pausanias to take refuge in the temple which became his living

tomb? Probably. Would Themistocles, who was so seriously compromised in

the conspiracy of Pausanias, have appearedand played a part in those

scenes on which the curtain must remain unlifted? Possibly. Is Alcman the

helot who revealed, to the Ephors, the gigantic plots of his master just

when those plots were on the eve of execution? There is much in the

relations between Pausanias and the Mothon, as they are described in the

opening chapters of the romance, which favours, and indeed renders almost

irresistible, such a supposition. But then, on the other hand, what genius

on the part of the author could reconcile us to the perpetration by his

hero of a crime so mean, so cowardly, as that personal perfidy to which

history ascribes the revelation of the Regent's far more excusable

treasons, and their terrible punishment?

These questions must remain unanswered. The magician can wave his wand

no more. The circle is broken, the spells are scattered, the secret

lost. The images which he evoked, and which he alone could animate,

remain before us incomplete, semi-articulate, unable to satisfy the

curiosity they inspire. A group of fragments, in many places broken,

you have helped me to restore. With what reverent and kindly care,

with what disciplined judgment and felicitous suggestion, you have

accomplished the difficult task so generously undertaken, let me here

most gratefully attest. Beneath the sculptor's name, allow me to

inscribe upon the pedestal your own; and accept this sincere assurance

of the inherited esteem and personal regard with which I am,

My dear Dr. Kennedy,

Your obliged and faithful

LYTTON.

GINTRA, _5 July, 1875_.

Notes:

[1] The late Lord Lytton, in his unpublished autobiographical memoirs,

describing his contemporaries at Cambridge, speaks of Dr. Kennedy as

"a young giant of learning."--L.

[2] Moore's "Life and Letters of Lord Byron," p. 723.

[3] Plutarch, "Life of Cimon."

[4] "Harold."

PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

On one of the quays which bordered the unrivalled harbour of

Byzantium, more than twenty-three centuries before the date at which

this narrative is begun, stood two Athenians. In the waters of the

haven rode the vessels of the Grecian Fleet. So deep was the basin, in

which the tides are scarcely felt,[5] that the prows of some of the

ships touched the quays, and the setting sun glittered upon the smooth

and waxen surfaces of the prows rich with diversified colours and

wrought gilding. To the extreme right of the fleet, and nearly

opposite the place upon which the Athenians stood, was a vessel still

more profusely ornamented than the rest. On the prow were elaborately

carved the heads of the twin deities of the Laconian mariner, Castor

and Pollux; in the centre of the deck was a wooden edifice or pavilion

having a gilded roof and shaded by purple awnings, an imitation of the

luxurious galleys of the Barbarian; while the parasemon, or flag, as

it idly waved in the faint breeze of the gentle evening, exhibited the

terrible serpent, which, if it was the fabulous type of demigods and

heroes, might also be regarded as an emblem of the wily but stern

policy of the Spartan State. Such was the galley of the commander of

the armament, which (after the reduction of Cyprus) had but lately

wrested from the yoke of Persia that link between her European and

Asiatic domains, that key of the Bosporus--"the Golden Horn" of

Byzantium.[6]

High above all other Greeks (Themistocles alone excepted) soared the

fame of that renowned chief, Pausanias, Regent of Sparta and General

of the allied troops at the victorious battle-field of Plataea. The

spot on which the Athenians stood was lonely and now unoccupied, save

by themselves and the sentries stationed at some distance on either

hand. The larger proportion of the crews in the various vessels were

on shore; but on the decks idly reclined small groups of sailors, and

the murmur of their voices stole, indistinguishably blended, upon the

translucent air. Behind rose, one above the other, the Seven Hills, on

which long afterwards the Emperor Constantine built a second Rome; and

over these heights, even then, buildings were scattered of various

forms and dates, here the pillared temples of the Greek colonists,

to whom Byzantium owed its origin, there the light roofs and painted

domes which the Eastern conquerors had introduced.

One of the Athenians was a man in the meridian of manhood, of a calm,

sedate, but somewhat haughty aspect; the other was in the full bloom

of youth, of lofty stature, and with a certain majesty of bearing;

down his shoulders flowed a profusion of long curled hair, divided in

the centre of the forehead, and connected with golden clasps, in which

was wrought the emblem of the Athenian nobles--the Grasshopper--a

fashion not yet obsolete, as it had become in the days of Thucydides.

Still, to an observer, there was something heavy in the ordinary

expression of the handsome countenance. His dress differed from the

earlier fashion of the Ionians;[7] it dispensed with those loose linen

garments which had something of effeminacy in their folds, and was

confined to the simple and statue-like grace that characterised the

Dorian garb. Yet the clasp that fastened the chlamys upon the right

shoulder, leaving the arm free, was of pure gold and exquisite

workmanship, and the materials of the simple vesture were of a quality

that betokened wealth and rank in the wearer.

"Yes, Cimon," said the elder of the Athenians, "yonder galley itself

affords sufficient testimony of the change that has come over the

haughty Spartan. It is difficult, indeed, to recognize in this

luxurious satrap, who affects the dress, the manners, the very

insolence of the Barbarian, that Pausanias who, after the glorious day

of Plataea, ordered the slaves to prepare in the tent of Mardonius

such a banquet as would have been served to the Persian, while his own

Spartan broth and bread were set beside it, in order that he might

utter to the chiefs of Greece that noble pleasantry, 'Behold the

folly of the Persians, who forsook such splendour to plunder such

poverty.'"[8]

"Shame upon his degeneracy, and thrice shame!" said the young Cimon,

sternly. "I love the Spartans so well, that I blush for whatever

degrades them. And all Sparta is dwarfed by the effeminacy of her

chief."

"Softly, Cimon," said Aristides, with a sober smile. "Whatever

surprise we may feel at the corruption of Pausanias, he is not one who

will allow us to feel contempt. Through all the voluptuous softness

acquired by intercourse with these Barbarians, the strong nature of

the descendant of the demigod still breaks forth. Even at the distaff

I recognize Alcides, whether for evil or for good. Pausanias is one on

whom our most anxious gaze must be duly bent. But in this change of

his I rejoice; the gods are at work for Athens. See you not that,

day after day, while Pausanias disgusts the allies with the Spartans

themselves, he throws them more and more into the arms of Athens? Let

his madness go on, and ere long the violet-crowned city will become

the queen of the seas."

"Such was my own hope," said Cimon, his face assuming a new

expression, brightened with all the intelligence of ambition and

pride; "but I did not dare own it to myself till you spoke. Several

officers of Ionia and the Isles have already openly and loudly

proclaimed to me their wish to exchange the Spartan ascendancy for the

Athenian."

"And with all your love for Sparta," said Aristides, looking

steadfastly and searchingly at his comrade, "you would not then

hesitate to rob her of a glory which you might bestow on your own

Athens?"

"Ah, am I not Athenian?" answered Cimon, with a deep passion in his

voice. "Though my great father perished a victim to the injustice of

a faction--though he who had saved Athens from the Mede died in the

Athenian dungeon--still, fatherless, I see in Athens but a mother, and

if her voice sounded harshly in my boyish years, in manhood I have

feasted on her smiles. Yes, I honour Sparta, but I love Athens. You

have my answer."

"You speak well," said Aristides, with warmth; "you are worthy of the

destinies for which I foresee that the son of Miltiades is reserved.

Be wary, be cautious; above all, be smooth, and blend with men of

every state and grade. I would wish that the allies themselves should

draw the contrast between the insolence of the Spartan chief and the

courtesy of the Athenians. What said you to the Ionian officers?"

"I said that Athens held there was no difference between to command

and to obey, except so far as was best for the interests of Greece;

that--as on the field of Plataea, when the Tegeans asserted precedence

over the Athenians, we, the Athenian army, at once exclaimed, through

your voice, Aristides, 'We come here to fight the Barbarian, not to

dispute amongst ourselves; place us where you will'[9]:--even so now,

while the allies give the command to Sparta, Sparta we will obey. But

if we were thought by the Grecian States the fittest leaders, our

answer would be the same that we gave at Plataea, 'Not we, but Greece

be consulted: place us where you will!'"

"O wise Cimon!" exclaimed Aristides, "I have no caution to bestow on

you. You do by intuition that which I attempt by experience. But hark!

What music sounds in the distance? the airs that Lydia borrowed from

the East?"

"And for which," said Cimon, sarcastically, "Pausanias hath abandoned

the Dorian flute."

Soft, airy, and voluptuous were indeed the sounds which now, from the

streets leading upwards from the quay, floated along the delicious

air. The sailors rose, listening and eager, from the decks; there was

once more bustle, life, and animation on board the fleet. From several

of the vessels the trumpets woke a sonorous signal-note. In a few

minutes the quays, before so deserted, swarmed with the Grecian

mariners, who emerged hastily, whether from various houses in the

haven, or from the encampment which stretched along it, and hurried

to their respective ships. On board the galley of Pausanias there was

more especial animation; not only mariners, but slaves, evidently

from the Eastern markets, were seen, jostling each other, and heard

talking, quick and loud, in foreign tongues. Rich carpets were

unfurled and laid across the deck, while trembling and hasty hands

smoothed into yet more graceful folds the curtains that shaded the

gay pavilion in the centre. The Athenians looked on, the one with

thoughtful composure, the other with a bitter smile, while these

preparations announced the unexpected, and not undreaded, approach of

the great Pausanias.

"Ho, noble Cimon!" cried a young man who, hurrying towards one of the

vessels, caught sight of the Athenians and paused. "You are the very

person whom I most desired to see. Aristides too!--we are fortunate."

The speaker was a young man of slighter make and lower stature

than the Athenians, but well shaped, and with features the partial

effeminacy of which was elevated by an expression of great vivacity

and intelligence. The steed trained for Elis never bore in its

proportions the evidence of blood and rare breeding more visibly than

the dark brilliant eye of this young man, his broad low transparent

brow, expanded nostril and sensitive lip, revealed the passionate

and somewhat arrogant character of the vivacious Greek of the Aegean

Isles.

"Antagoras," replied Cimon, laying his hand with frank and somewhat

blunt cordiality on the Greek's shoulder, "like the grape of your own

Chios, you cannot fail to be welcome at all times. But why would you

seek us now ?"

"Because I will no longer endure the insolence of this rude Spartan.

Will you believe it, Cimon--will you believe it, Aristides? Pausanias

has actually dared to sentence to blows, to stripes, one of my own

men--a free Chian--nay, a Decadarchus.[10] I have but this instant

heard it. And the offence--Gods! the _offence!_--was that he ventured

to contest with a Laconian, an underling in the Spartan army, which

one of the two had the fair right to a wine cask! Shall this be borne,

Cimon?"

"Stripes to a Greek!" said Cimon. and the colour mounted to his brow.

"Thinks Pausanias that the Ionian race are already his Helots?"

"Be calm," said Aristides; "Pausanias approaches. I will accost him."

"But listen still!" exclaimed Antagoras eagerly, plucking the gown of

the Athenian as the latter turned away. "When Pausanias heard of the

contest between my soldier and his Laconian, what said he, think you?

'Prior claim; learn henceforth that, where the Spartans are to be

found, the Spartans in all matters have the prior claim.'"

"We will see to it," returned Aristides, calmly; "but keep by my

side."

And now the music sounded loud and near, and suddenly, as the

procession approached, the character of that music altered. The Lydian

measures ceased, those who had attuned them gave way to musicians of

loftier aspect and simpler garb; in whom might be recognized, not indeed

the genuine Spartans, but their free, if subordinate, countrymen of

Laconia; and a minstrel, who walked beside them, broke out into a song,

partially adapted from the bold and lively strain of Alcaeus, the first

two lines in each stanza ringing much to that chime, the two latter

reduced into briefer compass, as, with allowance for the differing laws

of national rhythm, we thus seek to render the verse:

SONG.

Multitudes, backward! Way for the Dorian;

Way for the Lord of rocky Laconia;

Heaven to Hercules opened

Way on the earth for his son.

Steel and fate, blunted, break on his fortitude;

Two evils only never endureth he--

Death by a wound in retreating,

Life with a blot on his name.

Rocky his birthplace; rocks are immutable;

So are his laws, and so shall his glory be.

Time is the Victor of Nations,

Sparta the Victor of Time.

Watch o'er him heedful on the wide ocean,

Brothers of Helen, luminous guiding stars;

Dangerous to Truth are the fickle,

Dangerous to Sparta the seas.

Multitudes, backward! Way for the Conqueror;

Way for the footstep half the world fled before;

Nothing that Phoebus can shine on

Needs so much space as Renown.

Behind the musicians came ten Spartans, selected from the celebrated

three hundred who claimed the right to be stationed around the king

in battle. Tall, stalwart, sheathed in armour, their shields slung at

their backs, their crests of plumage or horsehair waving over their

strong and stern features, these hardy warriors betrayed to the keen

eye of Aristides their sullen discontent at the part assigned to

them in the luxurious procession; their brows were knit, their lips

contracted, and each of them who caught the glance of the Athenians,

turned his eyes, as half in shame, half in anger, to the ground.

Coming now upon the quay, opposite to the galley of Pausanias, from

which was suspended a ladder of silken cords, the procession halted,

and opening on either side, left space in the midst for the commander.

"He comes," whispered Antagoras to Cimon. "By Hercules! I pray you

survey him well. Is it the conqueror of Mardonius, or the ghost of

Mardonius himself?"

The question of the Chian seemed not extravagant to the blunt son of

Miltiades, as his eyes now rested on Pausanias.

The pure Spartan race boasted, perhaps, the most superb models of

masculine beauty which the land blessed by Apollo could afford. The

laws that regulate marriage ensured a healthful and vigorous progeny.

Gymnastic discipline from early boyhood gave ease to the limbs, iron

to the muscle, grace to the whole frame. Every Spartan, being born to

command, being noble by his birth, lord of the Laconians, Master of

the Helots, superior in the eyes of Greece to all other Greeks, was at

once a Republican and an Aristocrat. Schooled in the arts that compose

the presence, and give calmness and majesty to the bearing, he

combined with the mere physical advantages of activity and strength a

conscious and yet natural dignity of mien. Amidst the Greeks assembled

at the Olympian contests, others showed richer garments, more

sumptuous chariots, rarer steeds, but no state could vie with Sparta

in the thews and sinews, the aspect and the majesty of the men.

Nor were the royal race, the descendants of Hercules, in external

appearance unworthy of their countrymen and of their fabled origin.

Sculptor and painter would have vainly tasked their imaginative minds

to invent a nobler ideal for the effigies of a hero, than that which

the Victor of Plataea offered to their inspiration. As he now paused

amidst the group, he towered high above them all, even above Cimon

himself. But in his stature there was nothing of the cumbrous bulk and

stolid heaviness, which often destroy the beauty of vast strength.

Severe and early training, long habits of rigid abstemiousness, the

toils of war, and, more than all, perhaps, the constant play of

a restless, anxious, aspiring temper, had left, undisfigured by

superfluous flesh, the grand proportions of a frame, the very

spareness of which had at once the strength and the beauty of one of

those hardy victors in the wrestling or boxing match, whose agility

and force are modelled by discipline to the purest forms of grace.

Without that exact and chiselled harmony of countenance which

characterised perhaps the Ionic rather than the Doric race, the

features of the royal Spartan were noble and commanding. His

complexion was sunburnt, almost to oriental swarthiness, and the

raven's plume had no darker gloss than that of his long hair, which

(contrary to the Spartan custom), flowing on either side, mingled

with the closer curls of the beard. To a scrutinizing gaze, the more

dignified and prepossessing effect of this exterior would perhaps have

been counterbalanced by an eye, bright indeed and penetrating, but

restless and suspicious, by a certain ineffable mixture of arrogant

pride and profound melancholy in the general expression of the

countenance, ill according with that frank and serene aspect which

best becomes the face of one who would lead mankind. About him

altogether--the countenance, the form, the bearing--there was that

which woke a vague, profound, and singular interest, an interest

somewhat mingled with awe, but not altogether uncalculated to produce

that affection which belongs to admiration, save when the sudden frown

or disdainful lip repelled the gentler impulse and tended rather to

excite fear, or to irritate pride, or to wound self-love.

But if the form and features of Pausanias were eminently those of

the purest race of Greece, the dress which he assumed was no less

characteristic of the Barbarian. He wore, not the garb of the noble

Persian race, which, close and simple, was but a little less manly

than that of the Greeks, but the flowing and gorgeous garments of the

Mede. His long gown, which swept the earth, was covered with flowers

wrought in golden tissue. Instead of the Spartan hat, the high Median

cap or tiara crowned his perfumed and lustrous hair, while (what

of all was most hateful to Grecian eyes) he wore, though otherwise

unarmed, the curved scimitar and short dirk that were the national

weapons of the Barbarian. And as it was not customary, nor indeed

legitimate, for the Greeks to wear weapons on peaceful occasions

and with their ordinary costume, so this departure from the common

practice had not only in itself something offensive to the jealous

eyes of his comrades, but was rendered yet more obnoxious by the

adoption of the very arms of the East.

By the side of Pausanias was a man whose dark beard was already sown

with grey. This man, named Gongylus, though a Greek--a native of

Eretria, in Euboea--was in high command under the great Persian king.

At the time of the barbarian invasion under Datis and Artaphernes,

he had deserted the cause of Greece and had been rewarded with the

lordship of four towns in Aeolis. Few among the apostate Greeks were

more deeply instructed in the language and manners of the Persians;

and the intimate and sudden friendship that had grown up between him

and the Spartan was regarded by the Greeks with the most bitter and

angry suspicion. As if to show his contempt for the natural jealousy

of his countrymen, Pausanias, however, had just given to the Eretrian

the government of Byzantium itself, and with the command of the

citadel had entrusted to him the custody of the Persian prisoners

captured in that port. Among these were men of the highest rank and

influence at the court of Xerxes; and it was more than rumoured that

of late Pausanias had visited and conferred with them, through the

interpretation of Gongylus, far more frequently than became the

General of the Greeks. Gongylus had one of those countenances which

are observed when many of more striking semblance are overlooked.

But the features were sharp and the visage lean, the eyes vivid and

sparkling as those of the lynx, and the dark pupil seemed yet more

dark from the extreme whiteness of the ball, from which it lessened or

dilated with the impulse of the spirit which gave it fire. There was

in that eye all the subtle craft, the plotting and restless malignity

which usually characterised those Greek renegades who prostituted

their native energies to the rich service of the Barbarian; and the

lips, narrow and thin, wore that everlasting smile which to the

credulous disguises wile, and to the experienced betrays it. Small,

spare, and prematurely bent, the Eretrian supported himself by a

staff, upon which now leaning, he glanced, quickly and pryingly,

around, till his eyes rested upon the Athenians, with the young Chian

standing in their rear.

"The Athenian Captains are here to do you homage, Pausanias," said he

in a whisper, as he touched with his small lean fingers the arm of the

Spartan.

Pausanias turned and muttered to himself, and at that instant

Aristides approached.

"If it please you, Pausanias, Cimon and myself, the leaders of the

Athenians, would crave a hearing upon certain matters."

"Son of Lysimachus, say on."

"Your pardon, Pausanias," returned the Athenian, lowering his voice,

and with a smile--"This is too crowded a council-hall; may we attend

you on board your galley?"

"Not so," answered the Spartan haughtily; "the morning to affairs, the

evening to recreation. We shall sail in the bay to see the moon rise,

and if we indulge in consultations, it will be over our winecups. It

is a good custom."

"It is a Persian one," said Cimon bluntly.

"It is permitted to us," returned the Spartan coldly, "to borrow from

those we conquer. But enough of this. I have no secrets with the

Athenians. No matter if the whole city hear what you would address to

Pausanias."

"It is to complain," said Aristides with calm emphasis, but still in

an undertone.

"Ay, I doubt it not: the Athenians are eloquent in grumbling."

"It was not found so at Plataea," returned Cimon.

"Son of Miltiades," said Pausanias loftily, "your wit outruns your

experience. But my time is short. To the matter!"

"If you will have it so, I will speak," said Aristides, raising his

voice. "Before your own Spartans, our comrades in arms, I proclaim our

causes of complaint. Firstly, then, I demand release and compensation

to seven Athenians, free-born and citizens, whom your orders have

condemned to the unworthy punishment of standing all day in the open

sun with the weight of iron anchors on their shoulders."

"The mutinous knaves!" exclaimed the Spartan. "They introduced into

the camp the insolence of their own agora, and were publicly heard in

the streets inveighing against myself as a favourer of the Persians."

"It was easy to confute the charge; it was tyrannical to punish words

in men whose deeds had raised you to the command of Greece."

"_Their_ deeds! Ye Gods, give me patience! By the help of Juno the

protectress it was this brain and this arm that--But I will not

justify myself by imitating the Athenian fashion of wordy boasting.

Pass on to your next complaint."

"You have placed slaves--yes, Helots--around the springs, to drive

away with scourges the soldiers that come for water."

"Not so, but merely to prevent others from filling their vases until

the Spartans are supplied."

"And by what right--?" began Cimon, but Aristides checked him with a

gesture, and proceeded.

"That precedence is not warranted by custom, nor by the terms of

our alliance; and the springs, O Pausanias, are bounteous enough to

provide for all. I proceed. You have formally sentenced citizens and

soldiers to the scourge. Nay, this very day you have extended the

sentence to one in actual command amongst the Chians. Is it not so,

Antagoras?"

"It is," said the young Chian, coming forward boldly; "and in the name

of my countrymen I demand justice."

"And I also, Uliades of Samos," said a thickset and burly Greek who

had joined the group unobserved, "_I_ demand justice. What, by the

Gods! Are we to be all equals in the day of battle? 'My good sir,

march here;' and, 'My dear sir, just run into that breach;' and yet

when we have won the victory and should share the glory, is one state,

nay, one man to seize the whole, and deal out iron anchors and tough

cowhides to his companions? No, Spartans, this is not your view of the

case; you suffer in the eyes of Greece by this misconduct. To Sparta

itself I appeal."

"And what, most patient sir," said Pausanias, with calm sarcasm,

though his eye shot fire, and the upper lip, on which no Spartan

suffered the beard to grow, slightly quivered--"what is your

contribution to the catalogue of complaints?"

"Jest not, Pausanias; you will find me in earnest," answered Uliades,

doggedly, and encouraged by the evident effect that his eloquence had

produced upon the Spartans themselves. "I have met with a grievous

wrong, and all Greece shall hear of it, if it be not redressed. My own

brother, who at Mycale slew four Persians with his own hand, headed a

detachment for forage. He and his men were met by a company of mixed

Laconians and Helots, their forage taken from them, they themselves

assaulted, and my brother, a man who has monies and maintains forty

slaves of his own, struck thrice across the face by a rascally Helot.

Now, Pausanias, your answer!"

"You have prepared a notable scene for the commander of your forces,

son of Lysimachus," said the Spartan, addressing himself to Aristides.

"Far be it from me to affect the Agamemnon, but your friends are less

modest in imitating the venerable model of Thersites. Enough" (and

changing the tone of his voice, the chief stamped his foot vehemently

to the ground): "we owe no account to our inferiors; we render no

explanation save to Sparta and her Ephors."

"So be it, then," said Aristides, gravely; "we have our answer, and

you will hear of our appeal."

Pausanias changed colour. "How?" said he, with a slight hesitation in

his tone. "Mean you to threaten me--Me--with carrying the busy tales

of your disaffection to the Spartan government?"

"Time will show. Farewell, Pausanias. We will detain you no longer

from your pastime."

"But," began Uliades.

"Hush," said the Athenian, laying his hand on the Samian's shoulder.

"We will confer anon."

Pausanias paused a moment, irresolute and in thought. His eyes glanced

towards his own countrymen, who, true to their rigid discipline,

neither spake nor moved, but whose countenances were sullen and

overcast, and at that moment his pride was shaken, and his heart

misgave him. Gongylus watched his countenance, and once more laying

his hand on his arm, said in a whisper--

"He who seeks to rule never goes back."

"Tush, you know not the Spartans."

"But I know Human Nature; it is the same everywhere. You cannot yield

to this insolence; to-morrow, of your own accord, send for these men

separately and pacify them."

"You are right. Now to the vessel!"

With this, leaning on the shoulder of the Persian, and with a slight

wave of his hand towards the Athenians--he did not deign even that

gesture to the island officers--Pausanias advanced to the vessel, and

slowly ascending, disappeared within his pavilion. The Spartans and

the musicians followed; then, spare and swarthy, some half score of

Egyptian sailors; last came a small party of Laconians and Helots,

who, standing at some distance behind Pausanias, had not hitherto been

observed. The former were but slightly armed; the latter had forsaken

their customary rude and savage garb, and wore long gowns and gay

tunics, somewhat in the fashion of the Lydians. With these last there

was one of a mien and aspect that strongly differed from the lowering

and ferocious cast of countenance common to the Helot race. He was

of the ordinary stature, and his frame was not characterised by any

appearance of unusual strength; but he trod the earth, with a firm

step and an erect crest, as if the curse of the slave had not yet

destroyed the inborn dignity of the human being. There was a certain

delicacy and refinement, rather of thought than beauty, in his clear,

sharp, and singularly intelligent features. In contradistinction from

the free-born Spartans, his hair was short, and curled close above a

broad and manly forehead; and his large eyes of dark blue looked full

and bold upon the Athenians with something, if not of defiance, at

least of pride in their gaze, as he stalked by them to the vessel.

"A sturdy fellow for a Helot," muttered Cimon.

"And merits well his freedom," said the son of Lysimachus. "I remember

him well. He is Alcman, the foster-brother of Pausanias, whom he

attended at Plataea. Not a Spartan that day bore himself more

bravely."

"No doubt they will put him to death when he goes back to Sparta,"

said Antagoras. "When a Helot is brave, the Ephors clap the black mark

against his name, and at the next crypteia he suddenly disappears."

"Pausanias may share the same fate as his Helot, for all I care,"

quoth Uliades. "Well, Athenians, what say you to the answer we have

received?"

"That Sparta shall hear of it," answered Aristides.

"Ah, but is that all? Recollect the Ionians have the majority in the

fleet; let us not wait for the slow Ephors. Let us at once throw off

this insufferable yoke, and proclaim Athens the Mistress of the Seas.

What say you, Cimon?"

"Let Aristides answer."

"Yonder lie the Athenian vessels," said Aristides. "Those who put

themselves voluntarily under our protection we will not reject. But

remember we assert no claim; we yield but to the general wish."

"Enough; I understand you," said Antagoras.

"Not quite," returned the Athenian with a smile. "The breach between

you and Pausanias is begun, but it is not yet wide enough. You

yourselves must do that which will annul all power in the Spartan, and

then if ye come to Athens ye will find her as bold against the Doric

despot as against the Barbarian foe."

"But speak more plainly. What would you have us do?" asked Uliades,

rubbing his chin in great perplexity.

"Nay, nay, I have already said enough. Fare ye well,

fellow-countrymen," and leaning lightly on the shoulder of Cimon, the

Athenian passed on.

Meanwhile, the splendid galley of Pausanias slowly put forth into the

farther waters of the bay. The oars of the rowers broke the surface

into countless phosphoric sparkles, and the sound they made, as they

dashed amidst the gentle waters, seemed to keep time with the song

and the instruments on the deck. The Ionians gazed in silence as the

stately vessel, now shooting far ahead of the rest, swept into the

centre of the bay. And the moon, just rising, shone full upon the

glittering prow, and streaked the rippling billows over which it had

bounded, with a light, as it were, of glory.

Antagoras sighed. "What think you of?" asked the rough Samian.

"Peace," replied Antagoras. "In this hour, when the fair face of

Artemis recalls the old legends of Endymion, is it not permitted to

man to remember that before the iron age came the golden, before war

reigned love?"

"Tush," said Uliades. "Time enough to think of love when we have

satisfied vengeance. Let us summon our friends, and hold council on

the Spartan's insults."

"Whither goes now the Spartan?" murmured Antagoras abstractedly, as

he suffered his companion to lead him away. Then halting abruptly, he

struck his clenched hand on his breast.

"O Aphrodite!" he cried; "this night--this night I will seek thy

temple. Hear my vows--soothe my jealousy!"

"Ah," grunted Uliades, "if, as men say, thou lovest a fair Byzantine,

Aphrodite will have sharp work to cure thee of jealousy, unless she

first makes thee blind."

Antagoras smiled faintly, and the two Ionians moved on slowly and in

silence. In a few minutes more the quays were deserted and nothing but

the blended murmur, spreading wide and indistinct throughout the camp,

and a noisier but occasional burst of merriment from those resorts

of obscener pleasure which were profusely scattered along the haven,

mingled with the whispers of "the far resounding sea."

Notes:

[5] Gibbon, ch. 17.

[6] "The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm

of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period the denomination of

the Golden Horn. The curve which it describes might be compared to the

horn of a stag, or, as it should seem, with more propriety to that of

an ox."--Gib. c. 17; Strab. 1. x.

[7] Ion _apud_ Plut.

[8] Herod. ix. 82.

[9] Plut. in Vit. Arist.

[10] Leader of ten men.

CHAPTER II.

On a couch, beneath his voluptuous awning, reclined Pausanias. The

curtains, drawn aside, gave to view the moonlit ocean, and the dim

shadows of the shore, with the dark woods beyond, relieved by the

distant lights of the city. On one side of the Spartan was a small

table, that supported goblets and vases of that exquisite wine which

Maronea proffered to the thirst of the Byzantine, and those cooling

and delicious fruits which the orchards around the city supplied as

amply as the fabled gardens of the Hesperides, were heaped on the

other side. Towards the foot of the couch, propped upon cushions piled

on the floor, sat Gongylus, conversing in a low, earnest voice,

and fixing his eyes steadfastly on the Spartan. The habits of the

Eretrian's life, which had brought him in constant contact with

the Persians, had infected his very language with the luxuriant

extravagance of the East. And the thoughts he uttered made his

language but too musical to the ears of the listening Spartan.

"And fair as these climes may seem to you, and rich as are the gardens

and granaries of Byzantium, yet to me who have stood on the terraces

of Babylon and looked upon groves covering with blossom and fruit the

very fortresses and walls of that queen of nations,--to me, who have

roved amidst the vast delights of Susa, through palaces whose very

porticoes might enclose the limits of a Grecian city,--who have stood,

awed and dazzled, in the courts of that wonder of the world, that

crown of the East, the marble magnificence of Persepolis--to me,

Pausanias, who have been thus admitted into the very heart of Persian

glories, this city of Byzantium appears but a village of artisans and

fishermen. The very foliage of its forests, pale and sickly, the very

moonlight upon these waters, cold and smileless, ah, if thou couldst

but see! But pardon me, I weary thee?"

"Not so," said the Spartan, who, raised upon his elbow, listened to

the words of Gongylus with deep attention. "Proceed." "Ah, if thou

couldst but see the fair regions which the great king has apportioned

to thy countryman Demaratus. And if a domain, that would satiate

the ambition of the most craving of your earlier tyrants, fall to

Demaratus, what would be the splendid satrapy in which the conqueror

of Plataea might plant his throne?"

"In truth, my renown and my power are greater than those ever

possessed by Demaratus," said the Spartan musingly.

"Yet," pursued Gongylus, "it is not so much the mere extent of the

territories which the grateful Xerxes could proffer to the brave

Pausanias--it is not their extent so much that might tempt desire,

neither is it their stately forests, nor the fertile meadows, nor the

ocean-like rivers, which the gods of the East have given to the race

of Cyrus. There, free from the strange constraints which our austere

customs and solemn Deities impose upon the Greeks, the beneficent

Ormuzd scatters ever-varying delights upon the paths of men. All that

art can invent, all that the marts of the universe can afford of the

rare and voluptuous, are lavished upon abodes the splendour of which

even our idle dreams of Olympus never shadowed forth. There, instead

of the harsh and imperious helpmate to whom the joyless Spartan

confines his reluctant love, all the beauties of every clime contend

for the smile of their lord. And wherever are turned the change-loving

eyes of Passion, the Aphrodite of our poets, such as the Cytherean and

the Cyprian fable her, seems to recline on the lotus leaf or to rise

from the unruffled ocean of delight. Instead of the gloomy brows and

the harsh tones of rivals envious of your fame, hosts of friends

aspiring only to be followers will catch gladness from your smile or

sorrow from your frown. There, no jarring contests with little men,

who deem themselves the equals of the great, no jealous Ephor is

found, to load the commonest acts of life with fetters of iron custom.

Talk of liberty! Liberty in Sparta is but one eternal servitude; you

cannot move, or eat, or sleep, save as the law directs. Your very

children are wrested from you just in the age when their voices sound

most sweet. Ye are not men; ye are machines. Call you this liberty,

Pausanias? I, a Greek, have known both Grecian liberty and Persian

royalty Better be chieftain to a king than servant to a mob! But in

Eretria, at least, pleasure was not denied. In Sparta the very Graces

preside over discipline and war only."

"Your fire falls upon flax," said Pausanias, rising, and with

passionate emotion. "And if you, the Greek of a happier state, you who

know but by report the unnatural bondage to which the Spartans are

subjected, can weary of the very name of Greek, what must be the

feelings of one who from the cradle upward has been starved out of the

genial desires of life? Even in earliest youth, while yet all other

lands and customs were unknown, when it was duly poured into my ears

that to be born a Spartan constituted the glory and the bliss of

earth, my soul sickened at the lesson, and my reason revolted against

the lie. Often when my whole body was lacerated with stripes,

disdaining to groan, I yet yearned to strike, and I cursed my savage

tutors who denied pleasure even to childhood with all the madness

of impotent revenge. My mother herself (sweet name elsewhere) had no

kindness in her face. She was the pride of the matronage of Sparta,

because of all our women Alithea was the most unsexed. When I went

forth to my first crypteia, to watch, amidst the wintry dreariness of

the mountains, upon the movements of the wretched Helots, to spy upon

their sufferings, to take account of their groans, and if one more

manly than the rest dared to mingle curses with his groans, to mark

_him_ for slaughter, as a wolf that threatened danger to the fold; to

lurk, an assassin, about his home, to dog his walks, to fall on him

unawares, to strike him from behind, to filch away his life, to bury

him in the ravines, so that murder might leave no trace; when upon

this initiating campaign, the virgin trials of our youth, I first set

forth, my mother drew near, and girding me herself with my grandsire's

sword, 'Go forth,' she said, 'as the young hound to the chase, to

wind, to double, to leap on the prey, and to taste of blood. See, the

sword is bright; show me the stains at thy return,'"

"Is it then true, as the Greeks generally declare," interrupted

Gongylus, "that in these campaigns, or crypteias, the sole aim and

object is the massacre of Helots?"

"Not so," replied Pausanias; "savage though the custom, it smells not

so foully of the shambles. The avowed object is to harden the nerves

of our youth. Barefooted, unattended, through cold and storm,

performing ourselves the most menial offices necessary to life, we

wander for a certain season daily and nightly through the rugged

territories of Laconia.[11] We go as boys--we come back as men.[12]

The avowed object, I say, is increment to hardship, but with this is

connected the secret end of keeping watch on these half-tamed and

bull-like herds of men whom we call the Helots. If any be dangerous,

we mark him for the knife. One of them had thrice been a ringleader

in revolt. He was wary as well as fierce. He had escaped in three

succeeding crypteias. To me, as one of the Heraclidae, was assigned

the honour of tracking and destroying him. For three days and three

nights I dogged his footsteps, (for he had caught the scent of the

pursuers and fled,) through forest and defile, through valley and crag,

stealthily and relentlessly. I followed him close. At last, one evening,

having lost sight of all my comrades, I came suddenly upon him as I

emerged from a wood. It was a broad patch of waste land, through which

rushed a stream swollen by the rains, and plunging with a sullen roar

down a deep and gloomy precipice, that to the right and left bounded the

waste, the stream in front, the wood in the rear. He was reclining by

the stream, at which, with the hollow of his hand, he quenched his

thirst. I paused to gaze upon him, and as I did so he turned and saw

me. He rose, and fixed his eyes on mine, and we examined each other in

silence. The Helots are rarely of tall stature, but this was a giant.

His dress, that of his tribe, of rude sheep-skins, and his cap

made from the hide of a dog increased the savage rudeness of his

appearance. I rejoiced that he saw me, and that, as we were alone, I

might fight him fairly. It would have been terrible to slay the wretch

if I had caught him in his sleep."

"Proceed," said Gongylus, with interest, for so little was known of

Sparta by the rest of the Greeks, especially outside the Peloponnesus,

that these details gratified his natural spirit of gossiping

inquisitiveness.

"'Stand!' said I, and he moved not. I approached him slowly. 'Thou art

a Spartan,' said he, in a deep and harsh voice, 'and thou comest for

my blood. Go, boy, go, thou art not mellowed to thy prime, and thy

comrades are far away. The shears of the Fatal deities hover over the

thread not of my life but of thine.' I was struck, Gongylus, by

this address, for it was neither desperate nor dastardly, as I had

anticipated; nevertheless, it beseemed not a Spartan to fly from a

Helot, and I drew the sword which my mother had girded on. The Helot

watched my movements, and seized a rude and knotted club that lay on

the ground beside him.

"'Wretch,' said I, 'darest thou attack face to face a descendant of

the Heraclidae? In me behold Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus.'

"'Be it so; in the city one is the god-born, the other the

man-enslaved. On the mountains we are equals.'

"'Knowest thou not,' said I, 'that if the Gods condemned me to die

by thy hand, not only thou, but thy whole house, thy wife and thy

children, would be sacrificed to my ghost?"

"'The earth can hide the Spartan's bones as secretly as the Helot's,'

answered my strange foe. 'Begone, young and unfleshed in slaughter as

you are; why make war upon me? My death can give you neither gold nor

glory. I have never harmed thee or thine. How much of the air and sun

does this form take from the descendant of the Heraclidae?'

"'Thrice hast thou raised revolt among the Helots, thrice at thy voice

have they risen in bloody, though fruitless, strife against their

masters.'

"'Not at my voice, but at that of the two deities who are the war-gods

of slaves--Persecution and Despair.'[13] "Impatient of this parley, I

tarried no longer. I sprang upon the Helot. He evaded my sword, and

I soon found that all my agility and skill were requisite to save me

from the massive weapon, one blow of which would have sufficed

to crush me. But the Helot seemed to stand on the defensive, and

continued to back towards the wood from which I had emerged. Fearful

lest he would escape me, I pressed hard on his footsteps. My blood

grew warm; my fury got the better of my prudence. My foot stumbled;

I recovered in an instant, and, looking up, beheld the terrible club

suspended over my head; it might have fallen, but the stroke of death

was withheld. I misinterpreted the merciful delay; the lifted arm left

the body of my enemy exposed. I struck him on the side; the thick hide

blunted the stroke, but it drew blood. Afraid to draw back within

the reach of his weapon, I threw myself on him, and grappled to

his throat. We rolled on the earth together; it was but a moment's

struggle. Strong as I was even in boyhood, the Helot would have been

a match for Alcides. A shade passed over my eyes; my breath heaved

short. The slave was kneeling on my breast, and, dropping the club, he

drew a short knife from his girdle. I gazed upon him grim and mute. I

was conquered, and I cared not for the rest.

"The blood from his side, as he bent over me, trickled down upon my

face. "'And this blood,' said the Helot, 'you shed in the very moment

when I spared your life; such is the honour of a Spartan. Do you not

deserve to die?'

"'Yes, for I am subdued, and by a slave. Strike!'

"'There,' said the Helot in a melancholy and altered tone, 'there

speaks the soul of the Dorian, the fatal spirit to which the Gods have

rendered up our wretched race. We are doomed--doomed--and one victim

will not expiate our curse. Rise, return to Sparta, and forget that

thou art innocent of murder.'

"He lifted his knee from my breast, and I rose, ashamed and humbled.

"At that instant I heard the crashing of the leaves in the wood, for

the air was exceedingly still. I knew that my companions were at hand.

'Fly,' I cried; 'fly. If they come I cannot save thee, royal though I

be. Fly.'

"'And _wouldest_ thou save me!' said the Helot in surprise.

"'Ay, with my own life. Canst thou doubt it? Lose not a moment. Fly.

Yet stay;' and I tore off a part of the woollen vest that I wore.

'Place this at thy side; staunch the blood, that it may not track

thee. Now begone!'

"The Helot looked hard at me, and I thought there were tears in his

rude eyes; then catching up the club with as much ease as I this

staff, he sped with inconceivable rapidity, despite his wound, towards

the precipice on the right, and disappeared amidst the thick brambles

that clothed the gorge. In a few moments three of my companions

approached. They found me exhausted, and panting rather with

excitement than fatigue. Their quick eyes detected the blood upon the

ground. I gave them no time to pause and examine. 'He has escaped

me--he has fled,' I cried; 'follow,' and I led them to the opposite

part of the precipice from that which the Helot had taken. Heading the

search, I pretended to catch a glimpse of the goatskin ever and anon

through the trees, and I stayed not the pursuit till night grew dark,

and I judged the victim was far away."

"And he escaped?"

"He did. The crypteia ended. Three other Helots were slain, but not

by me. We returned to Sparta, and my mother was comforted for my

misfortune in not having slain my foe by seeing the stains on my

grandsire's sword, I will tell thee a secret, Gongylus"--(and here

Pausanias lowered his voice, and looked anxiously toward him)---"since

that day I have not hated the Helot race. Nay, it may be that I have

loved them better than the Dorian."

"I do not wonder at it; but has not your wounded giant yet met with

his death?"

"No, I never related what had passed between us to any one save

my father. He was gentle for a Spartan, and he rested not till

Gylippus--so was the Helot named--obtained exemption from the black

list. He dared not, however, attribute his intercession to the true

cause. It happened, fortunately, that Gylippus was related to my own

foster-brother, Alcman, brother to my nurse; and Alcman is celebrated

in Sparta, not only for courage in war, but for arts in peace. He is

a poet, and his strains please the Dorian ear, for they are stern and

simple, and they breathe of war. Alcman's merits won forgiveness for

the offences of Gylippus. May the Gods be kind to his race!"

"Your Alcman seems one of no common intelligence, and your gentleness

to him does not astonish me, though it seems often to raise a frown on

the brows of your Spartans."

"We have lain on the same bosom," said Pausanias touchingly, "and

his mother was kinder to me than my own. You must know that to those

Helots who have been our foster-brothers, and whom we distinguish by

the name of Mothons, our stern law relaxes. They have no rights

of citizenship, it is true, but they cease to be slaves;[14] nay,

sometimes they attain not only to entire emancipation, but to

distinction. Alcman has bound his fate to mine. But to return,

Gongylus. I tell thee that it is not thy descriptions of pomp and

dominion that allure me, though I am not above the love of power,

neither is it thy glowing promises, though blood too wild for a Dorian

runs riot in my veins; but it is my deep loathing, my inexpressible

disgust for Sparta and her laws, my horror at the thought of wearing

away life in those sullen customs, amid that joyless round of tyrannic

duties, in my rapture at the hope of escape, of life in a land which

the eye of the Ephor never pierces; this it is, and this alone, O

Persian, that makes me (the words must out) a traitor to my country,

one who dreams of becoming a dependent on her foe."

"Nay," said Gongylus eagerly; for here Pausanias moved uneasily,

and the colour mounted to his brow. "Nay, speak not of dependence.

Consider the proposals that you can alone condescend to offer to

the great king. Can the conqueror of Plataea, with millions for his

subjects, hold himself dependent, even on the sovereign of the East?

How, hereafter, will the memories of our sterile Greece and your

rocky Sparta fade from your mind: or be remembered only as a state of

thraldom and bondage, which your riper manhood has outgrown!"

"I will try to think so, at least," said Pausanias gloomily. "And,

come what may, I am not one to recede. I have thrown my shield into

a fearful peril; but I will win it back or perish. Enough of this,

Gongylus. Night advances. I will attend the appointment you have made.

Take the boat, and within an hour I will meet you with the prisoners

at the spot agreed on, near the Temple of Aphrodite. All things are

prepared?"

"All," said Gongylus, rising, with a gleam of malignant joy on his

dark face. "I leave thee, kingly slave of the rocky Sparta, to prepare

the way for thee, as Satrap of half the East."

So saying he quitted the awning, and motioned three Egyptian sailors

who lay on the deck without. A boat was lowered, and the sound of its

oars woke Pausanias from the reverie into which the parting words of

the Eretrian had plunged his mind.

Notes:

[11] Plat. Leg. i. p. 633. See also MŁller's Dorians, vol. ii. p. 41.

[12] Pueros puberos--neque prius in urbem redire quam viri facti

essent.--Justin, iii. 3.

[13] When Themistocles sought to extort tribute from the Andrians, he

said, "I bring with me two powerful gods--Persuasion and Force."

"And on our side," was the answer, "are two deities not less

powerful--Poverty and Despair!"

[14] The appellation of Mothons was not confined to the Helots who

claimed the connection of foster-brothers, but was given also to

household slaves.

CHAPTER III

With a slow and thoughtful step, Pausanias passed on to the outer

deck. The moon was up, and the vessel scarcely seemed to stir, so

gently did it glide along the sparkling waters. They were still within

the bay, and the shores rose, white and distinct, to his view. A group

of Spartans, reclining by the side of the ship, were gazing listlessly

on the waters. The Regent paused beside them.

"Ye weary of the ocean, methinks," said he. "We Dorians have not the

merchant tastes of the Ionians."[15]

"Son of Cleombrotus," said one of the group, a Spartan whose rank

and services entitled him to more than ordinary familiarity with the

chief, "it is not the ocean itself that we should dread, it is the

contagion of those who, living on the element, seem to share in its

ebb and flow. The Ionians are never three hours in the same mind."

"For that reason," said Pausanias, fixing his eyes steadfastly on the

Spartan, "for that reason I have judged it advisable to adopt a rough

manner with these innovators, to draw with a broad chalk the line

between them and the Spartans, and to teach those who never knew

discipline the stern duties of obedience. Think you I have done

wisely?"

The Spartan, who had risen when Pausanias addressed him, drew his

chief a little aside from the rest.

"Pausanias," said he, "the hard Naxian stone best tames and tempers

the fine steel;[16] but the steel may break if the workman be not

skilful. These Athenians are grown insolent since Marathon, and their

soft kindred of Asia have relighted the fires they took of old from

the Cecropian Prytaneum. Their sail is more numerous than ours; on the

sea they find the courage they lose on land. Better be gentle with

those wayward allies, for the Spartan greyhound shows not his teeth

but to bite."

"Perhaps you are right. I will consider these things, and appease the

mutineers. But it goes hard with my pride, Thrasyllus, to make equals

of this soft-tongued race. Why, these Ionians, do they not enjoy

themselves in perpetual holidays?--spend days at the banquet?--ransack

earth and sea for dainties and for perfumes?--and shall they be the

equals of us men, who, from the age of seven to that of sixty, are

wisely taught to make life so barren and toilsome, that we may well

have no fear of death? I hate these sleek and merry feast-givers; they

are a perpetual insult to our solemn existence."

There was a strange mixture of irony and passion in the Spartan's

voice as he thus spoke, and Thrasyllus looked at him in grave

surprise.

"There is nothing to envy in the woman-like debaucheries of the

Ionian," said he, after a pause.

"Envy! no; we only hate them, Thrasyllus Yon Eretrian tells me rare

things of the East. Time may come when we shall sup on the black broth

in Susa."

"The Gods forbid! Sparta never invades. Life with us is too precious,

for we are few. Pausanias, I would we were well quit of Byzantium. I

do not suspect you, not I; but there are those who look with vexed

eyes on those garments, and I, who love you, fear the sharp jealousies

of the Ephors, to whose ears the birds carry all tidings."

"My poor Thrasyllus," said Pausanias, laughing scornfully, "think you

that I wear these robes, or mimic the Median manners, for love of the

Mede? No, no! But there are arts which save countries as well as those

of war. This Gongylus is in the confidence of Xerxes. I desire to

establish a peace for Greece upon everlasting foundations. Reflect;

Persia hath millions yet left. Another invasion may find a different

fortune; and even at the best, Sparta gains nothing by these wars.

Athens triumphs, not Lacedaemon. I would, I say, establish a peace

with Persia. I would that Sparta, not Athens, should have that honour.

Hence these flatteries to the Persian--trivial to us who render

them, sweet and powerful to those who receive. Remember these words

hereafter, if the Ephors make question of my discretion. And now,

Thrasyllus, return to our friends, and satisfy them as to the conduct

of Pausanias." Quitting Thrasyllus, the Regent now joined a young

Spartan who stood alone by the prow in a musing attitude.

"Lysander, my friend, my only friend, my best-loved Lysander," said

Pausanias, placing his hand on the Spartan's shoulder. "And why so

sad?"

"How many leagues are we from Sparta?" answered Lysander mournfully.

"And canst thou sigh for the black broth, my friend? Come, how often

hast thou said, 'Where Pausanias is, _there_ is Sparta!'"

"Forgive me, I am ungrateful," said Lysander with warmth. "My

benefactor, my guardian, my hero, forgive me if I have added to your

own countless causes of anxiety. Wherever you are there is life, and

there glory. When I was just born, sickly and feeble, I was exposed

on Taygetus. You, then a boy, heard my faint cry, and took on me that

compassion which my parents had forsworn. You bore me to your father's

roof, you interceded for my life. You prevailed even on your stern

mother. I was saved; and the Gods smiled upon the infant whom the son

of the humane Hercules protected. I grew up strong and hardy, and

belied the signs of my birth. My parents then owned me; but still

you were my fosterer, my saviour, my more than father. As I grew up,

placed under your care, I imbibed my first lessons of war. By your

side I fought, and from your example I won glory. Yes, Pausanias, even

here, amidst luxuries which revolt me more than the Parthian bow and

the Persian sword, even amidst the faces of the stranger, I still feel

thy presence my home, thyself my Sparta."

The proud Pausanias was touched, and his voice trembled as he replied,

"Brother in arms and in love, whatever service fate may have allowed

me to render unto thee, thy high nature and thy cheering affection

have more than paid me back. Often in our lonely rambles amidst the

dark oaks of the sacred Scotitas,[17] or by the wayward waters of

Tiasa,[18] when I have poured into thy faithful breast my impatient

loathing, my ineffable distaste for the iron life, the countless and

wearisome tyrannies of custom which surround the Spartans, often have

I found a consoling refuge in thy divine contentment, thy cheerful

wisdom. Thou lovest Sparta; why is she not worthier of thy love?

Allowed only to be half men, in war we are demigods, in peace, slaves.

Thou wouldst interrupt me. Be silent. I am in a wilful mood; thou

canst not comprehend me, and I often marvel at thee. Still we are

friends, such friends as the Dorian discipline, which makes friendship

necessary in order to endure life, alone can form. Come, take up thy

staff and mantle. Thou shalt be my companion ashore. I seek one whom

alone in the world I love better than thee. To-morrow to stern duties

once more. Alcman shall row us across the bay, and as we glide along,

if thou wilt praise Sparta, I will listen to thee as the Ionians

listen to their tale-tellers. Ho! Alcman, stop the rowers, and lower

the boat."

The orders were obeyed, and a second boat soon darted towards the

same part of the bay as that to which the one that bore Gongylus had

directed its course. Thrasyllus and his companions watched the boat

that bore Pausanias and his two comrades, as it bounded, arrow-like,

over the glassy sea.

"Whither goes Pausanias?" asked one of the Spartans.

"Back to Byzantium on business," replied Thrasyllus.

"And we?"

"Are to cruise in the bay till his return.

"Pausanias is changed."

"Sparta will restore him to what he was. Nothing thrives out of

Sparta. Even man spoils."

"True, sleep is the sole constant friend the same in all climates."

Notes:

[15] No Spartan served as a sailor, or indeed condescended to any trade

or calling, but that of war.

[16] Pind. Isth. v. (vi.) 73.

[17] Paus. Lac. x.

[18] _Ib_., c. xviii.

CHAPTER IV

On the shore to the right of the port of Byzantium were at that time

thickly scattered the villas or suburban retreats of the wealthier and

more luxurious citizens. Byzantium was originally colonized by the

Megarians, a Dorian race kindred with that of Sparta; and the old

features of the pure and antique Hellas were still preserved in

the dialect,[19] as well as in the forms of the descendants of the

colonists; in their favourite deities, and rites, and traditions; even

in the names of places, transferred from the sterile Megara to that

fertile coast; in the rigid and helot-like slavery to which the native

Bithynians were subjected, and in the attachment of their masters to

the oligarchic principles of government. Nor was it till long after

the present date, that democracy in its most corrupt and licentious

form was introduced amongst them. But like all the Dorian colonies,

when once they departed from the severe and masculine mode of life

inherited from their ancestors, the reaction was rapid, the degeneracy

complete. Even then the Byzantines, intermingled with the foreign

merchants and traders that thronged their haven, and womanized by the

soft contagion of the East, were voluptuous, timid, and prone to every

excess save that of valour. The higher class were exceedingly wealthy,

and gave to their vices or their pleasures a splendour and refinement

of which the elder states of Greece were as yet unconscious. At a

later period, indeed, we are informed that the Byzantine citizens

had their habitual residence in the public hostels, and let their

houses--not even taking the trouble to remove their wives--to the

strangers who crowded their gay capital. And when their general found

it necessary to demand their aid on the ramparts, he could only secure

their attendance by ordering the taverns and cookshops to be removed

to the place of duty. Not yet so far sunk in sloth and debauch, the

Byzantines were nevertheless hosts eminently dangerous to the austerer

manners of their Greek visitors. The people, the women, the delicious

wine, the balm of the subduing climate served to tempt the senses

and relax the mind. Like all the Dorians, when freed from primitive

restraint, the higher class, that is, the descendants of the

colonists, were in themselves an agreeable, jovial race. They had that

strong bias to humour, to jest, to satire, which in their ancestral

Megara gave birth to the Grecian comedy, and which lurked even beneath

the pithy aphorisms and rude merry-makings of the severe Spartan.

Such were the people with whom of late Pausanias had familiarly mixed,

and with whose manners he contrasted, far too favourably for his

honour and his peace, the habits of his countrymen.

It was in one of the villas we have described, the favourite abode

of the rich Diagoras, and in an apartment connected with those more

private recesses of the house appropriated to the females, that two

persons were seated by a window which commanded a wide view of the

glittering sea below. One of these was an old man in a long robe that

reached to his feet, with a bald head and a beard in which some dark

hairs yet withstood the encroachments of the grey. In his well-cut

features and large eyes were remains of the beauty that characterised

his race; but the mouth was full and wide, the forehead low though

broad, the cheeks swollen, the chin double, and the whole form

corpulent and unwieldy. Still there was a jolly, sleek good humour

about the aspect of the man that prepossessed you in his favour. This

personage, who was no less than Diagoras himself, was reclining lazily

upon a kind of narrow sofa cunningly inlaid with ivory, and studying

new combinations in that scientific game which Palamedes is said to

have invented at the siege of Troy.

His companion was of a very different appearance. She was a girl who

to the eye of a northern stranger might have seemed about eighteen,

though she was probably much younger, of a countenance so remarkable

for intelligence that it was easy to see that her mind had outgrown

her years. Beautiful she certainly was, yet scarcely of that beauty

from which the Greek sculptor would have drawn his models. The

features were not strictly regular, and yet so harmoniously did each

blend with each, that to have amended one would have spoilt the whole.

There was in the fulness and depth of the large but genial eye, with

its sweeping fringe, and straight, slightly chiselled brow, more of

Asia than of Greece. The lips, of the freshest red, were somewhat

full and pouting, and dimples without number lay scattered round

them--lurking places for the loves. Her complexion was clear though

dark, and the purest and most virgin bloom mantled, now paler now

richer, through the soft surface. At the time we speak of she was

leaning against the open door with her arms crossed on her bosom, and

her face turned towards the Byzantine. Her robe, of a deep yellow, so

trying to the fair women of the North, became well the glowing colours

of her beauty--the damask cheek, the purple hair. Like those of the

Ionians, the sleeves of the robe, long and loose, descended to her

hands, which were marvellously small and delicate. Long earrings,

which terminated in a kind of berry, studded with precious stones,

then common only with the women of the East; a broad collar,

or necklace, of the smaragdus or emerald; and large clasps,

medallion-like, where the swan-like throat joined the graceful

shoulder, gave to her dress an appearance of opulence and splendour

that betokened how much the ladies of Byzantium had borrowed from the

fashions of the Oriental world. Nothing could exceed the lightness of

her form, rounded, it is true, but slight and girlish, and the high

instep, with the slender foot, so well set off by the embroidered

sandal, would have suited such dances as those in which the huntress

nymphs of Delos moved around Diana. The natural expression of her

face, if countenance so mobile and changeful had one expression more

predominant than another, appeared to be irresistibly arch and joyous,

as of one full of youth and conscious of her beauty; yet, if a cloud

came over the face, nothing could equal the thoughtful and deep

sadness of the dark abstracted eyes, as if some touch of higher and

more animated emotion--such as belongs to pride, or courage, or

intellect--vibrated on the heart. The colour rose, the form dilated,

the lip quivered, the eye flashed light, and the mirthful expression

heightened almost into the sublime. Yet, lovely as Cleonice was deemed

at Byzantium, lovelier still as she would have appeared in modern

eyes, she failed in what the Greeks generally, but especially the

Spartans, deemed an essential of beauty--in height of stature.

Accustomed to look upon the virgin but as the future mother of a race

of warriors, the Spartans saw beauty only in those proportions which

promised a robust and stately progeny, and the reader may remember

the well-known story of the opprobrious reproaches, even, it is said,

accompanied with stripes, which the Ephors addressed to a Spartan king

for presuming to make choice of a wife below the ordinary stature.

Cleonice was small and delicate, rather like the Peri of the Persian

than the sturdy Grace of the Dorian. But her beauty was her least

charm. She had all that feminine fascination of manner, wayward,

varying, inexpressible, yet irresistible, which seizes hold of the

imagination as well as the senses, and which has so often made willing

slaves of the proud rulers of the world. In fact Cleonice, the

daughter of Diagoras, had enjoyed those advantages of womanly

education wholly unknown at that time to the freeborn ladies of Greece

proper, but which gave to the women of some of the isles and Ionian

cities their celebrity in ancient story. Her mother was of Miletus,

famed for the intellectual cultivation of the sex, no less than for

their beauty--of Miletus, the birthplace of Aspasia--of Miletus,

from which those remarkable women who, under the name of Hetaerae,

exercised afterwards so signal an influence over the mind and manners

of Athens, chiefly derived their origin, and who seem to have inspired

an affection, which in depth, constancy, and fervour, approached to

the more chivalrous passion of the North. Such an education consisted

not only in the feminine and household arts honoured universally

throughout Greece, but in a kind of spontaneous and luxuriant

cultivation of all that captivates the fancy and enlivens the leisure.

If there were something pedantic in their affectation of philosophy,

it was so graced and vivified by a brilliancy of conversation, a charm

of manner carried almost to a science, a womanly facility of softening

all that comes within their circle, of suiting yet refining each

complexity and discord of character admitted to their intercourse,

that it had at least nothing masculine or harsh. Wisdom, taken lightly

or easily, seemed but another shape of poetry. The matrons of Athens,

who could often neither read nor write--ignorant, vain, tawdry, and

not always faithful, if we may trust to such scandal as has reached

the modern time--must have seemed insipid beside these brilliant

strangers; and while certainly wanting their power to retain love,

must have had but a doubtful superiority in the qualifications that

ensure esteem. But we are not to suppose that the Hetaerae (that

mysterious and important class peculiar to a certain state of society,

and whose appellation we cannot render by any proper word in modern

language) monopolized all the graces of their countrywomen. In the

same cities were many of unblemished virtue and repute who possessed

equal cultivation and attraction, but whom a more decorous life has

concealed from the equivocal admiration of posterity; though the

numerous female disciples of Pythagoras throw some light on their

capacity and intellect. Among such as these had been the mother of

Cleonice, not long since dead, and her daughter inherited and equalled

her accomplishments, while her virgin youth, her inborn playfulness

of manner, her pure guilelessness, which the secluded habits of the

unmarried women at Byzantium preserved from all contagion, gave to

qualities and gifts so little published abroad, the effect as it were

of a happy and wondrous inspiration rather than of elaborate culture.

Such was the fair creature whom Diagoras, looking up from his pastime,

thus addressed:--

"And so, perverse one, thou canst not love this great hero, a proper

person truly, and a mighty warrior, who will eat you an army of

Persians at a meal. These Spartan fighting-cocks want no garlic, I

warrant you.[20] And yet you can't love him, you little rogue."

"Why, my father," said Cleonice, with an arch smile, and a slight

blush, "even if I did look kindly on Pausanias, would it not be to my

own sorrow? What Spartan--above all, what royal Spartan--may marry

with a foreigner, and a Byzantine?"

"I did not precisely talk of marriage--a very happy state, doubtless,

to those who dislike too quiet a life, and a very honourable one, for

war is honor itself; but I did not speak of that, Cleonice. I would

only say that this man of might loves thee--that he is rich, rich,

rich. Pretty pickings at Plataea; and we have known losses, my child,

sad losses. And if you do not love him, why, you can but smile and

talk as if you did, and when the Spartan goes home, you will lose a

tormenter and gain a dowry."

"My father, for shame!"

"Who talks of shame? You women are always so sharp at finding oracles

in oak leaves, that one don't wonder Apollo makes choice of your sex

for his priests. But listen to me, girl, seriously," and here Diagoras

with a great effort raised himself on his elbow, and lowering his

voice, spoke with evident earnestness. "Pausanias has life and death,

and, what is worse, wealth or poverty in his hands; he can raise or

ruin us with a nod of his head, this black-curled Jupiter. They tell

me that he is fierce, irascible, haughty; and what slighted lover is

not revengeful? For my sake, Cleonice, for your poor father's sake,

show no scorn, no repugnance; be gentle, play with him, draw not down

the thunderbolt, even if you turn from the golden shower."

While Diagoras spoke, the girl listened with downcast eyes and flushed

cheeks, and there was an expression of such shame and sadness on her

countenance, that even the Byzantine, pausing and looking up for a

reply, was startled by it.

"My child," said he, hesitatingly and absorbed, "do not misconceive

me. Cursed be the hour when the Spartan saw thee; but since the Fates

have so served us, let us not make bad worse. I love thee, Cleonice,

more dearly than the apple of my eye; it is for _thee_ I fear, for

thee I speak. Alas! it is not dishonour I recommend, it is force I

would shun."

"Force!" said the girl, drawing up her form with sudden animation.

"Fear not that. It is not Pausanias I dread, it is--"

"What then?"

"No matter; talk of this no more. Shall I sing to thee?"

"But Pausanias will visit us this very night."

"I know it. Hark!" and with her finger to her lip, her ear bent

downward, her cheek varying from pale to red, from red to pale, the

maiden stole beyond the window to a kind of platform or terrace that

overhung the sea. There, the faint breeze stirring her long hair, and

the moonlight full upon her face, she stood, as stood that immortal

priestess who looked along the starry Hellespont for the young

Leander; and her ear had not deceived her. The oars were dashing in

the wave's below, and dark and rapid the boat bounded on towards the

rocky shore. She gazed long and steadfastly on the dim and shadowy

forms which that slender raft contained, and her eye detected amongst

the three the loftier form of her haughty wooer. Presently the thick

foliage that clothed the descent shut the boat, nearing the strand,

from her view; but she now heard below, mellowed and softened in the

still and fragrant air, the sound of the cithara and the melodious

song of the Mothon, thus imperfectly rendered from the language of

immortal melody.

SONG.

Carry a sword in the myrtle bough,

Ye who would honour the tyrant-slayer;

I, in the leaves of the myrtle bough,

Carry a tyrant to slay myself.

I pluck'd the branch with a hasty hand,

But Love was lurking amidst the leaves;

His bow is bent and his shaft is poised,

And I must perish or pass the bough.

Maiden, I come with a gift to thee,

Maiden, I come with a myrtle wreath;

Over thy forehead, or round thy breast

Bind, I implore thee, my myrtle wreath.[21]

From hand to hand by the banquet lights

On with the myrtle bough passes song:

From hand to hand by the silent stars

What with the myrtle wreath passes? Love.

I bear the god in a myrtle wreath,

Under the stars let him pass to thee;

Empty his quiver and bind his wings,

Then pass the myrtle wreath back to me.

Cleonice listened breathlessly to the words, and sighed heavily as

they ceased. Then, as the foliage rustled below, she turned quickly

into the chamber and seated herself at a little distance from

Diagoras; to all appearance calm, indifferent and composed. Was it

nature, or the arts of Miletus, that taught the young beauty the

hereditary artifices of the sex?

"So it is he, then?" said Diagoras, with a fidgety and nervous

trepidation. "Well, he chooses strange hours to visit us. But he

is right; his visits cannot be too private. Cleonice, you look

provokingly at your ease."

Cleonice made no reply, but shifted her position so that the light

from the lamp did not fall upon her face, while her father, hurrying

to the threshold of his hall to receive his illustrious visitor, soon

re-appeared with the Spartan Regent, talking as he entered with the

volubility of one of the parasites of Alciphron and Athenaeus.

"This is most kind, most affable. Cleonice said you would come,

Pausanias, though I began to distrust you. The hours seem long to

those who expect pleasure."

"And, Cleonice, _you_ knew that I should come," said Pausanias,

approaching the fair Byzantine; but his step was timid, and there was

no pride now in his anxious eye and bended brow.

"You said you would come to-night," said Cleonice, calmly, "and

Spartans, according to proverbs, speak the truth."

"When it is to their advantage, yes,"[22]said but with respect to

others, they consider honourable whatever pleases them, and just

whatever is to their advantage."

Pausanias, with a slight curl of his lips; and, as if the girl's

compliment to his countrymen had roused his spleen and changed his

thoughts, he seated himself moodily by Cleonice, and remained silent.

The Byzantine stole an arch glance at the Spartan, as he thus sat,

from the corner of her eyes, and said, after a pause--

"You Spartans ought to speak the truth more than other people, for you

say much less. We too have our proverb at Byzantium, and one which

implies that it requires some wit to tell fibs."

"Child, child!" exclaimed Diagoras, holding up his hand reprovingly,

and directing a terrified look at the Spartan. To his great relief,

Pausanias smiled, and replied--

"Fair maiden, we Dorians are said to have a wit peculiar to ourselves,

but I confess that it is of a nature that is but little attractive to

your sex. The Athenians are blander wooers."

"Do you ever attempt to woo in Lacedaemon, then? Ah, but the maidens

there, perhaps, are not difficult to please."

"The girl puts me in a cold sweat!" muttered Diagoras, wiping his

brow. And this time Pausanias did not smile; he coloured, and answered

gravely--

"And is it, then, a vain hope for a Spartan to please a Byzantine?"

"You puzzle me. That is an enigma; put it to the oracle."

The Spartan raised his eyes towards Cleonice, and, as she saw the

inquiring, perplexed look that his features assumed, the ruby lips

broke into so wicked a smile, and the eyes that met his had so much

laughter in them, that Pausanias was fairly bewitched out of his own

displeasure.

"Ah, cruel one!" said he, lowering his voice, "I am not so proud of

being Spartan that the thought should console me for thy mockery."

"Not proud of being Spartan! say not so," exclaimed Cleonice. "Who

ever speaks of Greece and places not Sparta at her head? Who ever

speaks of freedom and forgets Thermopylae? Who ever burns for glory,

and sighs not for the fame of Pausanias and Plataea? Ah, yes, even in

jest say not that you are not proud to be a Spartan!"

"The little fool!" cried Diagoras, chuckling, and mightily delighted;

"she is quite mad about Sparta--no wonder!"

Pausanias, surprised and moved by the burst of the fair Byzantine,

gazed at her admiringly, and thought within himself how harshly the

same sentiment would have sounded on the lips of a tall Spartan

virgin; but when Cleonice heard the approving interlocution of

Diagoras, her enthusiasm vanished from her face, and putting out her

lips poutingly, she said, "Nay, father, I repeat only what others say

of the Spartans. They are admirable heroes; but from the little I have

seen, they are--"

"What?" said Pausanias eagerly, and leaning nearer to Cleonice.

"Proud, dictatorial, and stern as companions."

Pausanias once more drew back.

"There it is again!" groaned Diagoras. "I feel exactly as if I were

playing at odd and even with a lion; she does it to vex me. I shall

retaliate and creep away."

"Cleonice," said Pausanias, with suppressed emotion, "you trifle with

me, and I bear it."

"You are condescending. How would you avenge yourself?"

"How!"

"You would not beat me; you would not make me bear an anchor on the

shoulders, as they say you do your soldiers. Shame on you! _you_ bear

with me! true, what help for you?"

"Maiden," said the Spartan, rising in great anger, "for him who loves

and is slighted there is a revenge you have not mentioned."

"For him who _loves!_ No, Spartan; for him who shuns disgrace and

courts the fame dear to gods and men, there is no revenge upon women.

Blush for your threat."

"You madden, but subdue me," said the Spartan as he turned away. He

then first perceived that Diagoras had gone--that they were alone.

His contempt for the father awoke suspicion of the daughter. Again he

approached and said, "Cleonice, I know but little of the fables of

poets, yet is it an old maxim often sung and ever belied, that love

scorned becomes hate. There are moments when I think I hate thee."

"And yet thou hast never loved me," said Cleonice; and there was

something soft and tender in the tone of her voice, and the rough

Spartan was again subdued.

"I never loved thee! What, then, is love? Is not thine image always

before me?--amidst schemes, amidst perils of which thy very dreams

have never presented equal perplexity or phantoms so uncertain, I am

occupied but with thee. Surely, as upon the hyacinth is written the

exclamation of woe, so on this heart is graven thy name. Cleonice, you

who know not what it is to love, you affect to deny or to question

mine."

"And what," said Cleonice, blushing deeply, and with tears in her

eyes, "what result can come from such a love? You may not wed with

the stranger. And yet, Pausanias, yet you know that all other love

dishonours the virgin even of Byzantium. You are silent; you turn

away. Ah, do not let them wrong you. My father fears your power. If

you love me you are powerless; your power has passed to me. Is it not

so? I, a weak girl, can rule, command, irritate, mock you, if I will.

You may fly me, but not control."

"Do not tempt me too far, Cleonice," said the Spartan, with a faint

smile.

"Nay, I will be merciful henceforth, and you, Pausanias, come here

no more. Awake to the true sense of what is due to your divine

ancestry--your great name. Is it not told of you that, after the

fall of Mardonius, you nobly dismissed to her country, unscathed and

honoured, the captive Coan lady?[23] Will you reverse at Byzantium

the fame acquired at Plataea? Pausanias, spare us; appeal not to my

father's fear, still less to his love of gold."

"I cannot, I cannot fly thee," said the Spartan, with great emotion.

"You know not how stormy, how inexorable are the passions which

burst forth after a whole youth of restraint. When nature breaks the

barriers, she rushes headlong on her course. I am no gentle wooer;

where in Sparta should I learn the art? But, if I love thee not as

these mincing Ionians, who come with offerings of flowers and song,

I do love thee with all that fervour of which the old Dorian legends

tell. I could brave, like the Thracian, the dark gates of Hades, were

thy embrace my reward. Command me as thou wilt--make me thy slave in

all things, even as Hercules was to Omphale; but tell me only that I

may win thy love at last. Fear not. Why fear me? in my wildest moments

a look from thee can control me. I ask but love for love. Without thy

love thy beauty were valueless. Bid me not despair."

Cleonice turned pale, and the large tears that had gathered in her

eyes fell slowly down her cheeks; but she did not withdraw her hand

from his clasp, or avert her countenance from his eyes.

"I do not fear thee," said she, in a very low voice. "I told my father

so; but--but--" (and here she drew back her hand and averted her

face), "I fear myself."

"Ah, no, no," cried the delighted Spartan, detaining her, "do not fear

to trust to thine own heart. Talk not of dishonour. There are"

(and here the Spartan drew himself up, and his voice took a deeper

swell)--"there are those on earth who hold themselves above the

miserable judgments of the vulgar herd--who can emancipate themselves

from those galling chains of custom and of country which helotize

affection, genius, nature herself. What is dishonour here may be glory

elsewhere; and this hand, outstretched towards a mightier sceptre than

Greek ever wielded yet, may dispense, not shame and sorrow, but glory

and golden affluence to those I love."

"You amaze me, Pausanias. _Now_ I fear you. What mean these mysterious

boasts? Have you the dark ambition to restore in your own person that

race of tyrants whom your country hath helped to sweep away? Can you

hope to change the laws of Sparta, and reign there, your will the

state?"

"Cleonice, we touch upon matters that should not disturb the ears of

women. Forgive me if I have been roused from myself."

"At Miletus--so have I heard my mother say--there were women worthy to

be the confidants of men."

"But they were women who loved. Cleonice, I should rejoice in an hour

when I might pour every thought into thy bosom."

At this moment there was heard on the strand below a single note from

the Mothon's instrument, low, but prolonged; it ceased, and was again

renewed. The royal conspirator started and breathed hard.

"It is the signal," he muttered; "they wait me. Cleonice," he said

aloud, and with much earnestness in his voice, "I had hoped, ere we

parted, to have drawn from your lips those assurances which would give

me energy for the present and hope in the future. Ah, turn not from me

because my speech is plain and my manner rugged. What, Cleonice, what

if I could defy the laws of Sparta; what if, instead of that gloomy

soil, I could bear thee to lands where heaven and man alike smile

benignant on love? Might I not hope then?"

"Do nothing to sully your fame."

"Is it, then, dear to thee?"

"It is a part of thee," said Cleonice falteringly; and as if she had

said too much, she covered her face with her hands.

Emboldened by this emotion, the Spartan gave way to his passion and

his joy. He clasped her in his arms--his first embrace--and kissed,

with wild fervour, the crimsoned forehead, the veiling hands. Then,

as he tore himself away, he cast his right arm aloft.

"O Hercules!" he cried, in solemn and kindling adjuration, "my

ancestor and my divine guardian, it was not by confining thy labours

to one spot of earth, that thou wert borne from thy throne of fire to

the seats of the Gods. Like thee I will spread the influence of my

arms to nations whoso glory shall be my name; and as thy sons, my

fathers, expelled from Sparta, returned thither with sword and spear

to defeat usurpers and to found the long dynasty of the Heracleids,

even so may it be mine to visit that dread abode of torturers and

spies, and to build up in the halls of the Atridae a power worthier of

the lineage of the demigod. Again the signal! Fear not, Cleonice, I

will not tarnish my fame, but I will exchange the envy of abhorring

rivals for the obedience of a world. One kiss more! Farewell!"

Ere Cleonice recovered herself, Pausanias was gone, his wild and

uncomprehended boasts still ringing in her ear. She sighed heavily,

and turned towards the opening that admitted to the terraces. There

she stood watching for the parting of her lover's boat. It was

midnight; the air, laden with the perfumes of a thousand fragrant

shrubs and flowers that bloom along that coast in the rich luxuriance

of nature, was hushed and breathless. In its stillness every sound was

audible, the rustling of a leaf, the ripple of a wave. She heard the

murmur of whispered voices below, and in a few moments she recognised,

emerging from the foliage, the form of Pausanias; but he was not

alone. Who were his companions? In the deep lustre of that shining and

splendid atmosphere she could see sufficient of the outline of their

figures to observe that they were not dressed in the Grecian garb;

their long robes betrayed the Persian.

They seemed conversing familiarly and eagerly as they passed along the

smooth sands, till a curve in the wooded shore hid them from her view.

"Why do I love him so," said the girl mechanically, "and yet wrestle

against that love? Dark forebodings tell me that Aphrodite smiles not

on our vows. Woe is me! What be the end?"

Notes:

[19] "The Byzantine dialect was in the time of Philip, as we know from

the decree in Demosthenes, rich in Dorisms."--MŁller on the Doric

Dialect.

[20] Fighting-cocks were fed with garlic, to make them more fierce.

The learned reader will remember how Theorus advised Dicaeopolis to

keep clear of the Thracians with garlic in their mouths.--See the

Acharnians of Aristoph.

[21] Garlands were twined round the neck, or placed upon the bosom

(Greek: upothumiades). See the quotations from Alcaeus, Sappho, and

Anacreon in Athenaeus, book xiii. c. 17.

[22] So said Thucydides of the Spartans, many years afterwards. "They

give evidence of honour among themselves, but with respect to others,

they consider honourable whatever pleases them, and just whatever is

to their advantage."--See Thucyd. lib. v.

[23] Herod, ix.

CHAPTER V.

On quitting Cleonice, Pausanias hastily traversed the long passage

that communicated with a square peristyle or colonnade, which again

led, on the one hand, to the more public parts of the villa, and,

on the other, through a small door left ajar, conducted by a back

entrance, to the garden and the sea-shore. Pursuing the latter path,

the Spartan bounded down the descent and came upon an opening in the

foliage, in which Lysander was seated beside the boat that had been

drawn partially on the strand.

"Alone? Where is Alcman?"

"Yonder; you heard his signal?"

"I heard it."

"Pausanias, they who seek you are Persians. Beware!"

"Of what? murder? I am warned."

"Murder to your good name. There are no arms against appearances."

"But I may trust thee?" said the Regent, quickly, "and of Alcman's

faith I am convinced."

"Why trust to any man what it were wisdom to reveal to the whole

Grecian Council? To parley secretly with the foe is half a treason to

our friends."

"Lysander," replied Pausanias, coldly, "you have much to learn before

you can be wholly Spartan. Tarry here yet awhile."

"What shall I do with this boy?" muttered the conspirator as he strode

on. "I know that he will not betray me, yet can I hope for his aid? I

love him so well that I would fain he shared my fortunes. Perhaps by

little and little I may lead him on. Meanwhile, his race and his name

are so well accredited in Sparta, his father himself an Ephor, that

his presence allays suspicion. Well, here are my Persians."

A little apart from the Mothon, who, resting his cithara on a fragment

of rock, appeared to be absorbed in reflection, stood the men of the

East. There were two of them; one of tall stature and noble presence,

in the prime of life; the other more advanced in years, of a coarser

make, a yet darker complexion, and of a sullen and gloomy countenance.

They were not dressed alike; the taller, a Persian of pure blood, wore

a short tunic that reached only to the knees: and the dress fitted to

his shape without a single fold. On his round cap or bonnet glittered

a string of those rare pearls, especially and immemorially prized in

the East, which formed the favourite and characteristic ornament of

the illustrious tribe of the Pasargadae. The other, who was a Mede,

differed scarcely in his dress from Pausanias himself, except that he

was profusely covered with ornaments; his arms were decorated with

bracelets, he wore earrings, and a broad collar of unpolished stones

in a kind of filagree was suspended from his throat. Behind the

Orientals stood Gongylus, leaning both hands on his staff, and

watching the approach of Pausanias with the same icy smile and

glittering eye with which he listened to the passionate invectives

or flattered the dark ambition of the Spartan. The Orientals saluted

Pausanias with a lofty gravity, and Gongylus drawing near, said: "Son

of Cleombrotus, the illustrious Ariamanes, kinsman to Xerxes, and of

the House of the Achaemenids, is so far versed in the Grecian tongue

that I need not proffer my offices as interpreter. In Datis, the Mede,

brother to the most renowned of the Magi, you behold a warrior worthy

to assist the arms even of Pausanias."

"I greet ye in our Spartan phrase, 'The beautiful to the good,'" said

Pausanias, regarding the Barbarians with an earnest gaze. "And I

requested Gongylus to lead ye hither in order that I might confer with

ye more at ease, than in the confinement to which I regret ye are

still sentenced. Not in prisons should be held the conversations of

brave men."

"I know," said Ariamanes (the statelier of the Barbarians), in the

Greek tongue, which he spoke intelligibly indeed, but with slowness

and hesitation, "I know that I am with that hero who refused to

dishonour the corpse of Mardonius, and even though a captive I

converse without shame with my victor."

"Rested it with me alone, your captivity should cease," replied

Pausanias. "War, that has made me acquainted with the valour of the

Persians, has also enlightened me as to their character. Your king has

ever been humane to such of the Greeks as have sought a refuge near

his throne. I would but imitate his clemency."

"Had the great Darius less esteemed the Greeks he would never have

invaded Greece. From the wanderers whom misfortune drove to his

realms, he learned to wonder at the arts, the genius, the energies of

the people of Hellas. He desired less to win their territories than

to gain such subjects. Too vast, alas, was the work he bequeathed to

Xerxes."

"He should not have trusted to force alone," returned Pausanias.

"Greece may be won, but by the arts of her sons, not by the arms

of the stranger. A Greek only can subdue Greece. By such profound

knowledge of the factions, the interests, the envies and the

jealousies of each, state as a Greek alone can possess, the mistaken

chain that binds them might be easily severed; some bought, some

intimidated, and the few that hold out subdued amidst the apathy of

the rest."

"You speak wisely, right hand of Hellas," answered the Persian, who

had listened to these remarks with deep attention. "Yet had we in our

armies your countryman, the brave Demaratus."

"But, if I have heard rightly, ye too often disdained his counsel.

Had he been listened to there had been neither a Salamis nor a

Plataea.[24] Yet Demaratus himself had been too long a stranger to

Greece, and he knew little of any state save that of Sparta. Lives he

still?"

"Surely yes, in honour and renown; little less than the son of Darius

himself."

"And what reward would Xerxes bestow on one of greater influence

than Demaratus; on one who has hitherto conquered every foe, and now

beholds before him the conquest of Greece herself?"

"If such a man were found," answered the Persian, "let his thought

run loose, let his imagination rove, let him seek only how to find a

fitting estimate of the gratitude of the king and the vastness of the

service."

Pausanias shaded his brow with his hand, and mused a few moments; then

lifting his eyes to the Persian's watchful but composed countenance,

he said, with a slight smile--

"Hard is it, O Persian, when the choice is actually before him, for a

man to renounce his country. There have been hours within this very

day when my desires swept afar from Sparta, from all Hellas, and

rested on the tranquil pomp of Oriental Satrapies. But now, rude and

stern parent though Sparta be to me, I feel still that I am her son;

and, while we speak, a throne in stormy Hellas seems the fitting

object of a Greek's ambition. In a word, then, I would rise, and yet

raise my country. I would have at my will a force that may suffice to

overthrow in Sparta its grim and unnatural laws, to found amidst its

rocks that single throne which the son of a demigod should ascend.

From that throne I would spread my empire over the whole of Greece,

Corinth and Athens being my tributaries. So that, though men now,

and posterity here-after, may say, 'Pausanias overthrew the Spartan

government,' they shall add, 'but Pausanias annexed to the Spartan

sceptre the realm of Greece. Pausanias was a tyrant, but not a

traitor.' How, O Persian, can these designs accord with the policy of

the Persian king?"

"Not without the authority of my master can I answer thee," replied

Ariamanes, "so that my answer may be as the king's signet to his

decree. But so much at least I say: that it is not the custom of the

Persians to interfere with the institutions of those states with which

they are connected. Thou desirest to make a monarchy of Greece, with

Sparta for its head. Be it so; the king my master will aid thee so to

scheme and so to reign, provided thou dost but concede to him a

vase of the water from thy fountains, a fragment of earth from thy

gardens."

"In other words," said Pausanias thoughtfully, but with a slight

colour on his brow, "if I hold my dominions tributary to the king?"

"The dominions that by the king's aid thou wilt have conquered. Is

that a hard law?"

"To a Greek and a Spartan the very mimicry of allegiance to the

foreigner is hard."

The Persian smiled. "Yet, if I understand thee aright, O Chief, even

kings in Sparta are but subjects to their people. Slave to a crowd at

home, or tributary to a throne abroad; slave every hour, or tributary

for earth and water once a year, which is the freer lot?"

"Thou canst not understand our Grecian notions," replied Pausanias,

"nor have I leisure to explain them. But though I may subdue Sparta to

myself as to its native sovereign, I will not, even by a type, subdue

the land of the Heracleid to the Barbarian."

Ariamanes looked grave; the difficulty raised was serious. And here

the craft of Gongylus interposed.

"This may be adjusted, Ariamanes, as befits both parties. Let

Pausanias rule in Sparta as he lists, and Sparta stand free of

tribute. But for all other states and cities that Pausanias, aided by

the great king, shall conquer, let the vase be filled, and the earth

be Grecian. Let him but render tribute for those lands which the

Persians submit to his sceptre. So shall the pride of the Spartan be

appeased, and the claims of the king be satisfied."

"Shall it be so?" said Pausanias.

"Instruct me so to propose to my master, and I will do my best to

content him with the exception to the wonted rights of the Persian

diadem. And then," continued Ariamanes, "then, Pausanias, Conqueror

of Mardonius, Captain at Plataea, thou art indeed a man with whom the

lord of Asia may treat as an equal. Greeks before thee have offered

to render Greece to the king my master; but they were exiles and

fugitives, they had nothing to risk or lose; thou hast fame, and

command, and power, and riches, and all----"

"But for a throne," interrupted Gongylus.

"It does not matter what may be my motives," returned the Spartan

gloomily, "and were I to tell them, you might not comprehend. But so

much by way of explanation. You too have held command?"

"I have."

"If you knew that, when power became to you so sweet that it was as

necessary to life itself as food and drink, it would then be snatched

from you for ever, and you would serve as a soldier in the very ranks

you had commanded as a leader; if you knew that no matter what your

services, your superiority, your desires, this shameful fall was

inexorably doomed, might you not see humiliation in power itself,

obscurity in renown, gloom in the present, despair in the future? And

would it not seem to you nobler even to desert the camp than to sink

into a subaltern?"

"Such a prospect has in our country made out of good subjects fierce

rebels," observed the Persian.

"Ay, ay, I doubt it not," said Pausanias, laughing bitterly. "Well,

then, such will be my lot, if I pluck not out a fairer one from the

Fatal Urn. As Regent of Sparta, while my nephew is beardless, I am

general of her armies, and I have the sway and functions of her king.

When he arrives at the customary age, I am a subject, a citizen, a

nothing, a miserable fool of memories gnawing my heart away amidst

joyless customs and stern austerities, with the recollection of the

glories of Plataea and the delights of Byzantium. Persian, I am filled

from the crown to the sole with the desire of power, with the tastes

of pleasure. I have that within me which before my time has made

heroes and traitors, raised demigods to Heaven, or chained the lofty

Titans to the rocks of Hades. Something I may yet be; I know not what.

But as the man never returns to the boy, so never, never, never once

more, can I be again the Spartan subject. Enough; such as I am, I can

fulfil what I have said to thee. Will thy king accept me as his ally,

and ratify the terms I have proposed?"

"I feel well-nigh assured of it," answered the Persian; "for since

thou hast spoken thus boldly, I will answer thee in the same strain.

Know, then, that we of the pure race of Persia, we the sons of those

who overthrew the Mede, and extended the race of the mountain tribe,

from the Scythian to the Arab, from Egypt to Ind, we at least feel

that no sacrifice were too great to redeem the disgrace we have

suffered at the hands of thy countrymen; and the world itself were too

small an empire, too confined a breathing-place for the son of

Darius, if this nook of earth were still left without the pale of his

dominion."

"This nook of earth? Ay, but Sparta itself must own no lord but me."

"It is agreed."

"If I release thee, wilt thou bear these offers to the king,

travelling day and night till thou restest at the foot of his throne?"

"I should carry tidings too grateful to suffer me to loiter by the

road."

"And Datis, he comprehends us not; but his eyes glitter fiercely on

me. It is easy to see that thy comrade loves not the Greek."

"For that reason he will aid us well. Though but a Mede, and not

admitted to the privileges of the Pasargadae, his relationship to the

most powerful and learned of our Magi, and his own services in war,

have won him such influence with both priests and soldiers, that I

would fain have him as my companion. I will answer for his fidelity to

our joint object."

"Enough; ye are both free. Gongylus, you will now conduct our friends

to the place where the steeds await them. You will then privately

return to the citadel, and give to their pretended escape the probable

appearances we devised. Be quick, while it is yet night. One word

more. Persian, our success depends upon thy speed. It is while the

Greeks are yet at Byzantium, while I yet am in command, that we should

strike the blow. If the king consent, through Gongylus thou wilt have

means to advise me. A Persian army must march at once to the Phrygian

confines, instructed to yield command to me when the hour comes to

assume it. Delay not that aid by such vast and profitless recruits

as swelled the pomp, but embarrassed the arms, of Xerxes. Armies too

large rot by their own unwieldiness into decay. A band of 50,000,

composed solely of the Medes and Persians, will more than suffice.

With such an army, if my command be undisputed, I will win a second

Plataea, but against the Greek."

"Your suggestions shall be law. May Ormuzd favour the bold!"

"Away, Gongylus. You know the rest."

Pausanias followed with thoughtful eyes the receding forms of Gongylus

and the Barbarians.

"I have passed for ever," he muttered, "the pillars of Hercules. I

must go on or perish. If I fall, I die execrated and abhorred; if I

succeed, the sound of the choral flutes will drown the hootings. Be it

as it may, I do not and will not repent. If the wolf gnaw my entrails,

none shall hear me groan." He turned and met the eyes of Alcman, fixed

on him so intently, so exultingly, that, wondering at their strange

expression, he drew back and said haughtily, "You imitate Medusa, but

I am stone already."

"Nay," said the Mothon, in a voice of great humility, "if you are of

stone, it is like the divine one which, when borne before armies,

secures their victory. Blame me not that I gazed on you with triumph

and hope. For, while you conferred with the Persian, methought the

murmurs that reached my ear sounded thus: 'When Pausanias shall rise,

Sparta shall bend low, and the Helot shall break his chains.'"

"They do not hate me, these Helots?"

"You are the only Spartan they love."

"Were my life in danger from the Ephors--"

"The Helots would rise to a man."

"Did I plant my standard on Taygetus, though all Sparta encamped

against it--"

"All the slaves would cut their way to thy side. O Pausanias, think

how much nobler it were to reign over tens of thousands who become

freemen at thy word, than to be but the equal of 10,000 tyrants."

"The Helots fight well, when well led," said Pausanias; as if to

himself. "Launch the boat."

"Pardon me, Pausanias. but is it prudent any longer to trust Lysander?

He is the pattern of the Spartan youth, and Sparta is his mistress. He

loves her too well not to blab to her every secret."

"O Sparta, Sparta, wilt thou not leave me one friend?" exclaimed

Pausanias. "No, Alcman, I will not separate myself from Lysander, till

I despair of his alliance. To your oars! be quick."

At the sound of the Mothon's tread upon the pebbles, Lysander, who had

hitherto remained motionless, reclining by the boat, rose and advanced

towards Pausanias. There was in his countenance, as the moon shining

on it cast over his statue-like features a pale and marble hue, so

much of anxiety, of affection, of fear, so much of the evident,

unmistakable solicitude of friendship, that Pausanias, who, like most

men, envied and unloved, was susceptible even of the semblance of

attachment, muttered to himself, "No, thou wilt not desert me, nor I

thee."

"My friend, my Pausanias," said Lysander, as he approached, "I have

had fears--I have seen omens. Undertake nothing, I beseech thee, which

thou hast meditated this night."

"And what hast thou seen?" said Pausanias, with a slight change of

countenance.

"I was praying the Gods for thee and Sparta, when a star shot suddenly

from the heavens. Pausanias, this is the eighth year, the year in

which on moonless nights the Ephors watch the heavens."

"And if a star fall they judge their kings," interrupted Pausanias

(with a curl of his haughty lip) "to have offended the Gods, and

suspend them from their office till acquitted by an oracle at Delphi,

or a priest at Olympia. A wise superstition. But, Lysander, the night

is not moonless, and the omen is therefore nought."

Lysander shook his head mournfully, and followed his chieftain to the

boat, in gloomy silence.

Note:

[24] After the action at Thermopylae, Demaratus advised Xerxes to send

three hundred vessels to the Laconian coast, and seize the island of

Cythera, which commanded Sparta. "The profound experience of Demaratus

in the selfish and exclusive policy of his countrymen made him argue

that if this were done the fear of Sparta for herself would prevent

her joining the forces of the rest of Greece, and leave the latter a

more easy prey to the invader."--_Athens, its Rise and Fall_. This

advice was overruled by Achaemenes. So again, had the advice of

Artemisia, the Carian princess, been taken--to delay the naval

engagement of Salamis, and rather to sail to the Peloponnesus--the

Greeks, failing of provisions and divided among themselves, would

probably have dispersed.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

At noon the next day, not only the vessels in the harbour presented

the same appearance of inactivity and desertion which had

characterised the preceding evening, but the camp itself seemed

forsaken. Pausanias had quitted his ship for the citadel, in which

he took up his lodgment when on shore: and most of the officers

and sailors of the squadron were dispersed among the taverns and

wine-shops, for which, even at that day, Byzantium was celebrated.

It was in one of the lowest and most popular of these latter resorts,

and in a large and rude chamber, or rather outhouse, separated from

the rest of the building, that a number of the Laconian Helots were

assembled. Some of these were employed as sailors, others were the

military attendants on the Regent and the Spartans who accompanied

him.

At the time we speak of, these unhappy beings were in the full

excitement of that wild and melancholy gaiety which is almost peculiar

to slaves in their hours of recreation, and in which reaction of

wretchedness modern writers have discovered the indulgence of a native

humour. Some of them were drinking deep, wrangling, jesting, laughing

in loud discord over their cups. At another table rose the deep voice

of a singer, chanting one of those antique airs known but to these

degraded sons of the Homeric Achaean, and probably in its origin

going beyond the date of the Tale of Troy; a song of gross and rustic

buffoonery, but ever and anon charged with some image or thought

worthy of that language of the universal Muses. His companions

listened with a rude delight to the rough voice and homely sounds, and

now and then interrupted the wassailers at the other tables by cries

for silence, which none regarded. Here and there, with intense and

fierce anxiety on their faces, small groups were playing at dice; for

gambling is the passion of slaves. And many of these men, to whom

wealth could bring no comfort, had secretly amassed large hoards at

the plunder of Plataea, from which they had sold to the traders of

Aegina gold at the price of brass. The appearance of the rioters was

startling and melancholy. They were mostly stunted and undersized,

as are generally the progeny of the sons of woe; lean and gaunt with

early hardship, the spine of the back curved and bowed by habitual

degradation; but with the hard-knit sinews and prominent muscles which

are produced by labour and the mountain air; and under shaggy and

lowering brows sparkled many a fierce, perfidious, and malignant eye;

while as mirth, or gaming, or song, aroused smiles in the various

groups, the rude features spoke of passions easily released from the

sullen bondage of servitude, and revealed the nature of the animals

which thraldom had failed to tame. Here and there however were to be

seen forms, unlike the rest, of stately stature, of fair proportions,

wearing the divine lineaments of Grecian beauty. From some of these a

higher nature spoke out, not in mirth, that last mockery of supreme

woe, but in an expression of stern, grave, and disdainful melancholy;

others, on the contrary, surpassed the rest in vehemence, clamour,

and exuberant extravagance of emotion, as if their nobler physical

development only served to entitle them to that base superiority.

For health and vigour can make an aristocracy even among Helots. The

garments of these merrymakers increased the peculiar effect of their

general appearance. The Helots in military excursions naturally

relinquished the rough sheep-skin dress that characterised their

countrymen at home, the serfs of the soil. The sailors had thrown off,

for coolness, the leathern jerkins they habitually wore, and, with

their bare arms and breasts, looked as if of a race that yet shivered,

primitive and unredeemed, on the outskirts of civilization.

Strangely contrasted with their rougher comrades, were those who,

placed occasionally about the person of the Regent, were indulged with

the loose and clean robes of gay colours worn by the Asiatic slaves;

and these ever and anon glanced at their finery with an air of

conscious triumph. Altogether, it was a sight that might well have

appalled, by its solemn lessons of human change, the poet who would

have beheld in that embruted flock the descendants of the race over

whom Pelops and Atreus, and Menelaus, and Agamemnon the king of men,

had held their antique sway, and might still more have saddened the

philosopher who believed, as Menander has nobly written, 'That Nature

knows no slaves.'

Suddenly, in the midst of the confused and uproarious hubbub, the door

opened, and Alcman the Mothon entered the chamber. At this sight the

clamour ceased in an instant. The party rose, as by a general impulse,

and crowded round the new comer.

"My friends," said he, regarding them with the same calm and frigid

indifference which usually characterised his demeanour, "you do well

to make merry while you may, for something tells me it will not last

long. We shall return to Lacedaemon. You look black. So, then, is

there no delight in the thought of home?"

"_Home!_" muttered one of the Helots, and the word, sounding drearily

on his lips, was echoed by many, so that it circled like a groan.

"Yet ye have your children as much as if ye were free," said Alcman.

"And for that reason it pains us to see them play, unaware of the

future," said a Helot of better mien than his comrades.

"But do you know," returned the Mothon, gazing on the last speaker

steadily, "that for your children there may not be a future fairer

than that which your fathers knew?"

"Tush!" exclaimed one of the unhappy men, old before his time, and

of an aspect singularly sullen and ferocious. "Such have been your

half-hints and mystic prophecies for years. What good comes of them?

Was there ever an oracle for Helots?"

"There was no repute in the oracles even of Apollo," returned Alcman,

"till the Apollo-serving Dorians became conquerors. Oracles are the

children of victories."

"But there are no victories for us," said the first speaker

mournfully.

"Never, if ye despair," said the Mothon loftily. "What," he added

after a pause, looking round at the crowd, "what, do ye not see that

hope dawned upon us from the hour when thirty-five thousand of us were

admitted as soldiers, ay, and as conquerors, at Plataea? From that

moment we knew our strength. Listen to me. At Samos once a thousand

slaves--mark me, but a thousand,--escaped the yoke--seized on arms,

fled to the mountains (we have mountains even in Laconia), descended

from time to time to devastate the fields and to harass their

ancient lords. By habit they learned war, by desperation they grew

indomitable. What became of these slaves? were they cut off? Did they

perish by hunger, by the sword, in the dungeon or field? No; those

brave men were the founders of Ephesus."[25]

"But the Samians were not Spartans," mumbled the old Helot.

"As ye will, as ye will," said Alcman, relapsing into his usual

coldness. "I wish you never to strike unless ye are prepared to die or

conquer."

"Some of us are," said the younger Helot.

"Sacrifice a cock to the Fates, then."

"But why, think you," asked one of the Helots, "that we shall be so

soon summoned back to Laconia?"

"Because while ye are drinking and idling here--drones that ye

are--there is commotion in the Athenian bee-hive yonder. Know that

Ariamanes the Persian and Datis the Mede have escaped. The allies,

especially the Athenians, are excited and angry; and many of them are

already come in a body to Pausanias, whom they accuse of abetting the

escape of the fugitives."

"Well?"

"Well, and if Pausanias does not give honey in his words,--and few

flowers grow on his lips--the bees will sting, that is all. A trireme

will be despatched to Sparta with complaints. Pausanias will be

recalled--perhaps his life endangered."

"Endangered!" echoed several voices.

"Yes. What is that to you--what care you for his danger? He is a

Spartan."

"Ay," cried one; "but he has been kind to the Helots."

"And we have fought by his side," said another.

"And he dressed my wound with his own hand," murmured a third.

"And we have got money under him," growled a fourth.

"And more than all," said Alcman, in a loud voice, "if he lives, he

will break down the Spartan government. Ye will not let this man die?"

"Never!" exclaimed the whole assembly. Alcman gazed with a kind of

calm and strange contempt on the flashing eyes, the fiery gestures of

the throng, and then said, coldly,

"So then ye would fight for one man?"

"Ay, ay, that would we."

"But not for your own liberties, and those of your children unborn?"

There was a dead silence; but the taunt was felt, and its logic was

already at work in many of these rugged breasts.

At this moment, the door was suddenly thrown open; and a Helot, in the

dress worn by the attendants of the Regent, entered, breathless and

panting.

"Alcman! the gods be praised you are here. Pausanias commands your

presence. Lose not a moment. And you too, comrades, by Demeter, do you

mean to spend whole days at your cups? Come to the citadel; ye may be

wanted."

This was spoken to such of the Helots as belonged to the train of

Pausanias.

"Wanted--what for?" said one. "Pausanias gives us a holiday while he

employs the sleek Egyptians."

"Who that serves Pausanias ever asks that question, or can foresee

from one hour to another what he may be required to do?" returned the

self-important messenger, with great contempt.

Meanwhile the Mothon, all whose movements were peculiarly silent and

rapid, was already on his way to the citadel. The distance was not

inconsiderable, but Alcman was swift of foot. Tightening the girdle

round his waist, he swung himself, as it were, into a kind of run,

which, though not seemingly rapid, cleared the ground with a speed

almost rivalling that of the ostrich, from the length of the stride

and the extreme regularity of the pace. Such was at that day the

method by which messages were despatched from state to state,

especially in mountainous countries; and the length of way which was

performed, without stopping, by the foot-couriers might startle the

best-trained pedestrians in our times. So swiftly indeed did the

Mothon pursue his course, that just by the citadel he came up with the

Grecian captains who, before he joined the Helots, had set off for

their audience with Pausanias. There were some fourteen or fifteen

of them, and they so filled up the path, which, just there, was not

broad, that Alcman was obliged to pause as he came upon their rear.

"And whither so fast, fellow?" said Uliades the Samian, turning round

as he heard the strides of the Mothon.

"Please you, master, I am bound to the General."

"Oh, his slave! Is he going to free you?"

"I am already as free as a man who has no city can be."

"Pithy. The Spartan slaves have the dryness of their masters. How,

sirrah! do you jostle me?"

"I crave pardon. I only seek to pass."

"Never! to take precedence of a Samian. Keep back."

"I dare not."

"Nay, nay, let him pass," said the young Chian, Antagoras; "he will

get scourged if he is too late. Perhaps, like the Persians, Pausanias

wears false hair, and wishes the slave to dress it in honour of us."

"Hush!" whispered an Athenian. "Are these taunts prudent?"

Here there suddenly broke forth a loud oath from Uliades, who,

lingering a little behind the rest, had laid rough hands on the

Mothon, as the latter once more attempted to pass him. With a

dexterous and abrupt agility, Alcman had extricated himself from the

Samian's grasp, but with a force that swung the captain on his knee.

Taking advantage of the position of the foe, the Mothon darted onward,

and threading the rest of the party, disappeared through the

neighbouring gates of the citadel.

"You saw the insult?" said Uliades between his ground teeth as he

recovered himself. "The master shall answer for the slave; and to me,

too, who have forty slaves of my own at home!"

"Pooh! think no more of it," said Antagoras gaily; "the poor fellow

meant only to save his own hide."

"As if that were of any consequence! my slaves are brought up from the

cradle not to know if they have hides or not. You may pinch them by

the hour together and they don't feel you. My little ones do it, in

rainy weather, to strengthen their fingers. The Gods keep them!"

"An excellent gymnastic invention. But we are now within the citadel.

Courage! the Spartan greyhound has long teeth."

Pausanias was striding with hasty steps up and down a long and narrow

peristyle or colonnade that surrounded the apartments appropriated to

his private use, when Alcman joined him.

"Well, well," cried he, eagerly, as he saw the Mothon, "you have

mingled with the common gangs of these worshipful seamen, these new

men, these Ionians. Think you they have so far overcome their awe

of the Spartan that they would obey the mutinous commands of their

officers?"

"Pausanias, the truth must be spoken--Yes!"

"Ye Gods! one would think each of these wranglers imagined he had a

whole Persian army in his boat. Why, I have seen the day when, if in

any assembly of Greeks a Spartan entered, the sight of his very hat

and walking-staff cast a terror through the whole conclave." "True,

Pausanias; but they suspect that Sparta herself will disown her

General."

"Ah! say they so?"

"With one voice."

Pausanias paused a moment in deep and perturbed thought.

"Have they dared yet, think you, to send to Sparta?"

"I hear not; but a trireme is in readiness to sail after your

conference with the captains."

"So, Alcman, it were ruin to my schemes to be

recalled--until--until--"

"The hour to join the Persians on the frontier--yes."

"One word more. Have you had occasion to sound the Helots?"

"But half an hour since. They will be true to you. Lift your right

hand, and the ground where you stand will bristle with men who fear

death even less than the Spartans."

"Their aid were useless here against the whole Grecian fleet; but in

the defiles of Laconia, otherwise. I am prepared then for the worst,

even recall."

Here a slave crossed from a kind of passage that led from the outer

chambers into the peristyle.

"The Grecian captains have arrived to demand audience."

"Bid them wait," cried Pausanias, passionately.

"Hist! Pausanias," whispered the Mothon. "Is it not best to soothe

them--to play with them--to cover the lion with the fox's hide?"

The Regent turned with a frown to his foster-brother, as if surprised

and irritated by his presumption in advising; and indeed of late,

since Pausanias had admitted the son of the Helot into his guilty

intrigues, Alcman had assumed a bearing and tone of equality which

Pausanias, wrapped in his dark schemes, did not always notice, but at

which from time to time he chafed angrily, yet again permitted it,

and the custom gained ground; for in guilt conventional distinctions

rapidly vanish, and mind speaks freely out to mind. The presence of

the slave, however, restrained him, and after a momentary silence his

natural acuteness, great when undisturbed by passion or pride, made

him sensible of the wisdom of Alcman's counsel.

"Hold!" he said to the slave. "Announce to the Grecian Chiefs that

Pausanias will await them forthwith. Begone. Now, Alcman, I will

talk over these gentle monitors. Not in vain have I been educated in

Sparta; yet if by chance I fail, hold thyself ready to haste to Sparta

at a minute's warning. I must forestall the foe. I have gold, gold;

and he who employs most of the yellow orators, will prevail most with

the Ephors. Give me my staff; and tarry in yon chamber to the left."

Note:

[25] Malacus ap. Athen. 6.

CHAPTER II

In a large hall, with a marble fountain in the middle of it, the

Greek captains awaited the coming of Pausanias. A low and muttered

conversation was carried on amongst them, in small knots and groups,

amidst which the voice of Uliades was heard the loudest. Suddenly the

hum was hushed, for footsteps were heard without. The thick curtains

that at one extreme screened the door-way were drawn aside, and,

attended by three of the Spartan knights, amongst whom was Lysander,

and by two soothsayers, who were seldom absent, in war or warlike

council, from the side of the Royal Heracleid, Pausanias slowly

entered the hall. So majestic, grave, and self-collected were the

bearing and aspect of the Spartan general, that the hereditary awe

inspired by his race was once more awakened, and the angry crowd

saluted him, silent and half-abashed. Although the strong passions,

and the daring arrogance of Pausanias, did not allow him the exercise

of that enduring, systematic, unsleeping hypocrisy which, in relations

with the foreigner, often characterised his countrymen, and which,

from its outward dignity and profound craft, exalted the vice into

genius; yet trained from earliest childhood in the arts that hide

design, that control the countenance, and convey in the fewest words

the most ambiguous meanings, the Spartan general could, for a brief

period, or for a critical purpose, command all the wiles for which the

Greek was nationally famous, and in which Thucydides believed that,

of all Greeks, the Spartan was the most skilful adept. And now, as,

uniting the courtesy of the host with the dignity of the chief, he

returned the salute of the officers, and smiled his gracious welcome,

the unwonted affability of his manner took the discontented by

surprise, and half propitiated the most indignant in his favour.

"I need not ask you, O Greeks," said he, "why ye have sought me.

Ye have learnt the escape of Ariamanes and Datis--a strange and

unaccountable mischance."

The captains looked round at each other in silence, till at last every

eye rested upon Cimon, whose illustrious birth, as well as his known

respect for Sparta, combined with his equally well-known dislike of

her chief, seemed to mark him, despite his youth, as the fittest

person to be speaker for the rest. Cimon, who understood the mute

appeal, and whose courage never failed his ambition, raised his head,

and, after a moment's hesitation, replied to the Spartan:

"Pausanias, you guess rightly the cause which leads us to your

presence. These prisoners were our noblest; their capture the reward

of our common valour; they were generals, moreover, of high skill and

repute. They had become experienced in our Grecian warfare, even by

their defeats. Those two men, should Xerxes again invade Greece, are

worth more to his service than half the nations whose myriads crossed

the Hellespont. But this is not all. The arms of the Barbarians we can

encounter undismayed. It is treason at home which can alone appal us."

There was a low murmur among the Ionians at these words. Pausanias,

with well-dissembled surprise on his countenance, turned his eyes from

Cimon to the murmurers, and from them again to Cimon, and repeated:

"Treason! son of Miltiades; and from whom?"

"Such is the question that we would put to thee, Pausanias--to thee,

whose eyes, as leader of our armies, are doubtless vigilant daily and

nightly over the interests of Greece."

"I am not blind," returned Pausanias, appearing unconscious of the

irony; "but I am not Argus. If thou hast discovered aught that is

hidden from me, speak boldly."

"Thou hast made Gongylus, the Eretrian, governor of Byzantium; for

what great services we know not. But he has lived much in Persia."

"For that reason, on this the frontier of her domains, he is better

enabled to penetrate her designs and counteract her ambition."

"This Gongylus," continued Cimon, "is well known to have much

frequented the Persian captives in their confinement."

"In order to learn from them what may yet be the strength of the king.

In this he had my commands."

"I question it not. But, Pausanias," continued Cimon, raising his

voice, and with energy, "had he also thy commands to leave thy galley

last night, and to return to the citadel?"

"He had. What then?"

"And on his return the Persians disappear--a singular chance, truly.

But that is not all. Last night, before he returned to the citadel,

Gongylus was perceived, alone, in a retired spot on the outskirts of

the city."

"Alone?" echoed Pausanias.

"Alone. If he had companions they were not discerned. This spot was

out of the path he should have taken. By this spot, on the soft soil,

are the marks of hoofs, and in the thicket close by were found these

witnesses," and Cimon drew from his vest a handful of the pearls, only

worn by the Eastern captives.

"There is something in this," said Xanthippus, "which requires at

least examination. May it please you, Pausanias, to summon Gongylus

hither?"

A momentary shade passed over the brow of the conspirator, but the

eyes of the Greeks were on him; and to refuse were as dangerous as to

comply. He turned to one of his Spartans, and ordered him to summon

the Eretrian.

"You have spoken well, Xanthippus. This matter must be sifted."

"With that, motioning the captains to the seats that were ranged round

the walls and before a long table, he cast himself into a large chair

at the head of the table, and waited in silent anxiety the entrance of

the Eretrian. His whole trust now was in the craft and penetration of

his friend. If the courage or the cunning of Gongylus failed him--if

but a word betrayed him--Pausanias was lost. He was girt by men who

hated him; and he read in the dark fierce eyes of the Ionians--whose

pride he had so often galled, whose revenge he had so carelessly

provoked--the certainty of ruin. One hand hidden within the folds of

his robe convulsively clinched the flesh, in the stern agony of his

suspense. His calm and composed face nevertheless exhibited to the

captains no trace of fear.

The draperies were again drawn aside, and Gongylus slowly entered.

Habituated to peril of every kind from his earliest youth, the

Eretrian was quick to detect its presence. The sight of the silent

Greeks, formally seated round the hall, and watching his steps and

countenance with eyes whose jealous and vindictive meaning it required

no Oedipus to read, the grave and half-averted brow of Pausanias, and

the angry excitement that had prevailed amidst the host at the news of

the escape of the Persians--all sufficed to apprise him of the nature

of the council to which he had been summoned.

Supporting himself on his staff, and dragging his limbs tardily along,

he had leisure to examine, though with apparent indifference, the

whole group; and when, with a calm salutation, he arrested his steps

at the foot of the table immediately facing Pausanias, he darted

one glance at the Spartan so fearless, so bright, so cheering, that

Pausanias breathed hard, as if a load were thrown from his breast, and

turning easily towards Cimon, said--

"Behold your witness. Which of us shall be questioner, and which

judge?"

"That matters but little," returned Cimon. "Before this audience

justice must force its way."

"It rests with you, Pausanias," said Xanthippus, "to acquaint the

governor of Byzantium with the suspicions he has excited."

"Gongylus," said Pausanias, "the captive Barbarians, Ariamanes and

Datis, were placed by me especially under thy vigilance and guard.

Thou knowest that, while (for humanity becomes the victor) I ordered

thee to vex them by no undue restraints, I nevertheless commanded thee

to consider thy life itself answerable for their durance. They have

escaped. The captains of Greece demand of thee, as I demanded--by what

means--by what connivance? Speak the truth, and deem that in falsehood

as well as in treachery, detection is easy, and death certain."

The tone of Pausanias, and his severe look, pleased and re-assured all

the Greeks, except the wiser Cimon. who, though his suspicions were a

little shaken, continued to fix his eyes rather on Pausanias than on

the Eretrian.

"Pausanias," replied Gongylus, drawing up his lean frame, as with the

dignity of conscious innocence, "that suspicion could fall upon me, I

find it difficult to suppose. Raised by thy favour to the command

of Byzantium, what have I to gain by treason or neglect? These

Persians--I knew them well. I had known them in Susa--known them

when I served Darius, being then an exile from Eretria. Ye know, my

countrymen, that when Darius invaded Greece I left his court and

armies, and sought my native land, to fall or to conquer in its cause.

Well, then, I knew these Barbarians. I sought them frequently; partly,

it may be, to return to them in their adversity the courtesies shown

me in mine. Ye are Greeks; ye will not condemn me for humanity and

gratitude. Partly with another motive. I knew that Ariamanes had the

greatest influence over Xerxes. I knew that the great king would

at any cost seek to regain the liberty of his friend. I urged upon

Ariamanes the wisdom of a peace with the Greeks even on their

own terms. I told him that when Xerxes sent to offer the ransom,

conditions of peace would avail more than sacks of gold. He listened

and approved. Did I wrong in this, Pausanias? No; for thou, whose deep

sagacity has made thee condescend even to appear half Persian, because

thou art all Greek--thou thyself didst sanction my efforts on behalf

of Greece."

Pausanias looked with a silent triumph round the conclave, and

Xanthippus nodded approval.

"In order to conciliate them, and with too great confidence in their

faith, I relaxed by degrees the rigour of their confinement; that was

a fault, I own it. Their apartments communicated with a court in which

I suffered them to walk at will. But I placed there two sentinels in

whom I deemed I could repose all trust--not my own countrymen--not

Eretrians--not thy Spartans or Laconians, Pausanias. No; I deemed that

if ever the jealousy (a laudable jealousy) of the Greeks should demand

an account of my faith and vigilance, my witnesses should be the

countrymen of those who have ever the most suspected me. Those

sentinels were, the one a Samian, the other a Plataean. These men

have betrayed me and Greece. Last night, on returning hither from the

vessel, I visited the Persians. They were about to retire to rest, and

I quitted them soon, suspecting nothing. This morning they had fled,

and with them their abetters, the sentinels. I hastened first to send

soldiers in search of them; and, secondly, to inform Pausanias in his

galley. If I have erred, I submit me to your punishment. Punish my

error, but acquit my honesty."

"And what," said Cimon, abruptly, "led thee far from thy path, between

the Heracleid's galley and the citadel, to the fields near the temple

of Aphrodite, between the citadel and the bay? Thy colour changes.

Mark him, Greeks. Quick; thine answer."

The countenance of Gongylus had indeed lost its colour and hardihood.

The loud tone of Cimon--the effect his confusion produced on the

Greeks, some of whom, the Ionians less self-possessed and dignified

than the rest, half rose, with fierce gestures and muttered

exclamations--served still more to embarrass and intimidate him. He

cast a hasty look on Pausanias, who averted his eyes. There was a

pause. The Spartan gave himself up for lost; but how much more was

his fear increased when Gongylus, casting an imploring gaze upon the

Greeks, said hesitatingly--

"Question me no farther. I dare not speak;" and as he spoke he pointed

to Pausanias.

"It was the dread of thy resentment, Pausanias," said Cimon coldly,

"that withheld his confession. Vouchsafe to re-assure him."

"Eretrian," said Pausanias, striking his clenched hand on the table,

"I know not what tale trembles on thy lips; but, be it what it may,

give it voice, I command thee." "Thou thyself, thou wert the cause

that led me towards the temple of Aphrodite," said Gongylus, in a low

voice.

At these words there went forth a general deep-breathed murmur. With

one accord every Greek rose to his feet. The Spartan attendants in the

rear of Pausanias drew closer to his person; but there was nothing

in their faces--yet more dark and vindictive than those of the other

Greeks--that promised protection. Pausanias alone remained seated and

unmoved. His imminent danger gave him back all his valour, all his

pride, all his passionate and profound disdain. With unbleached cheek,

with haughty eyes, he met the gaze of the assembly; and then waving

his hand as if that gesture sufficed to restrain and awe them, he

said--

"In the name of all Greece, whose chief I yet am, whose protector I

have once been, I command ye to resume your seats, and listen to the

Eretrian. Spartans, fall back. Governor of Byzantium, pursue your

tale."

"Yes, Pausanias," resumed Gongylus, "you alone were the cause that

drew me from my rest. I would fain be silent, but----"

"Say on," cried Pausanias fiercely, and measuring the space between

himself and Gongylus, in doubt whether the Eretrian's head were within

reach of his scimitar; so at least Gongylus interpreted that freezing

look of despair and vengeance, and he drew back some paces. "I place

myself, O Greeks, under your protection; it is dangerous to reveal the

errors of the great. Know that, as Governor of Byzantium, many things

ye wot not of reach my ears. Hence, I guard against dangers while ye

sleep. Learn, then, that Pausanias is not without the weakness of his

ancestor, Alcides; he loves a maiden--a Byzantine--Cleonice, the

daughter of Diagoras."

This unexpected announcement, made in so grave a tone, provoked a

smile amongst the gay Ionians; but an exclamation of jealous anger

broke from Antagoras, and a blush partly of wounded pride, partly of

warlike shame, crimsoned the swarthy cheek of Pausanias. Cimon, who

was by no means free from the joyous infirmities of youth, relaxed his

severe brow, and said, after a short pause--

"Is it, then, among the grave duties of the Governor of Byzantium to

watch over the fair Cleonice, or to aid the suit of her illustrious

lover?"

"Not so," answered Gongylus; "but the life of the Grecian general is

dear, at least, to the grateful Governor of Byzantium. Greeks, ye know

that amongst you Pausanias has many foes. Returning last night from

his presence, and passing through the thicket, I overheard voices at

hand. I caught the name of Pausanias. 'The Spartan,' said one voice,

'nightly visits the house of Diagoras. He goes usually alone. From the

height near the temple we can watch well, for the night is clear;

if he goes alone, we can intercept his way on his return.' 'To the

height!' cried the other. I thought to distinguish the voices, but the

trees hid the speakers. I followed the footsteps towards the temple,

for it behoved me to learn who thus menaced the chief of Greece. But

ye know that the wood reaches even to the sacred building, and the

steps gained the temple before I could recognize the men. I

concealed myself, as I thought, to watch; but it seems that I was

perceived, for he who saw me, and now accuses, was doubtless one of

the assassins. Happy I, if the sight of a witness scared him from the

crime. Either fearing detection, or aware that their intent that night

was frustrated--for Pausanias, visiting Cleonice earlier than his

wont, had already resought his galley--the men retreated as they

came, unseen, not unheard. I caught their receding steps through the

brushwood. Greeks, I have said. Who is my accuser? in him behold the

would-be murderer of Pausanias!"

"Liar," cried an indignant and loud voice amongst the captains, and

Antagoras stood forth from the circle.

"It is I who saw thee. Darest thou accuse Antagoras of Chios?"

"What at that hour brought Antagoras of Chios to the temple of

Aphrodite?" retorted Gongylus.

The eyes of the Greeks turned toward the young captain, and there

was confusion on his face. But recovering himself quickly, the Chian

answered, "Why should I blush to own it? Aphrodite is no dishonourable

deity to the men of the Ionian Isles. I sought the temple at that

hour, as is our wont, to make my offering, and record my prayer."

"Certainly," said Cimon. "We must own that Aphrodite is powerful at

Byzantium. Who can acquit Pausanias and blame Antagoras?"

"Pardon me--one question," said Gongylus. "Is not the female heart

which Antagoras would beseech the goddess to soften towards him that

of the Cleonice of whom we spoke? See, he denies it not. Greeks, the

Chians are warm lovers, and warm lovers are revengeful rivals."

This artful speech had its instantaneous effect amongst the younger

and more unthinking loiterers. Those who at once would have

disbelieved the imputed guilt of Antagoras upon motives merely

political, inclined to a suggestion that ascribed it to the jealousy

of a lover. And his character, ardent and fiery, rendered the

suspicion yet more plausible. Meanwhile the minds of the audience had

been craftily drawn from the grave and main object of the meeting--the

flight of the Persians--and a lighter and livelier curiosity had

supplanted the eager and dark resentment which had hitherto animated

the circle. Pausanias, with the subtle genius that belonged to him,

hastened to seize advantage of this momentary diversion in his favour,

and before the Chian could recover his consternation, both at the

charge and the evident effect it had produced upon a part of the

assembly, the Spartan stretched his hand, and spake.

"Greeks, Pausanias listens to no tale of danger to himself. Willingly

he believes that Gongylus either misinterpreted the intent of some

jealous and heated threats, or that the words he overheard were not

uttered by Antagoras. Possible is it, too, that others may have sought

the temple with less gentle desires than our Chian ally. Let this

pass. Unworthy such matters of the councils of bearded men; too much

reference has been made to those follies which our idleness has

given birth to. Let no fair Briseis renew strife amongst chiefs and

soldiers. Excuse not thyself, Antagoras; we dismiss all charge against

thee. On the other hand, Gongylus will doubtless seem to you to have

accounted for his appearance near the precincts of the temple. And

it is but a coincidence, natural enough, that the Persian prisoners

should have chosen, later in the night, the same spot for the steeds

to await them. The thickness of the wood round the temple, and the

direction of the place towards the east, points out the neighbourhood

as the very one in which the fugitives would appoint the horses. Waste

no further time, but provide at once for the pursuit. To you, Cimon,

be this care confided. Already have I despatched fifty light-armed men

on fleet Thessalian steeds. You, Cimon, increase the number of the

pursuers. The prisoners may be yet recaptured. Doth aught else remain

worthy of our ears? If so, speak; if not, depart."

"Pausanias," said Antagoras, firmly, "let Gongylus retract, or not,

his charge against me, I retain mine against Gongylus. Wholly false

is it that in word or deed I plotted violence against thee, though of

much--not as Cleonice's lover, but as Grecian captain--I have good

reason to complain. Wholly false is it that I had a comrade. I was

alone. And coming out from the temple, where I had hung my chaplet,

I perceived Gongylus clearly under the starlit skies. He stood in

listening attitude close by the sacred myrtle grove. I hastened

towards him, but methinks he saw me not; he turned slowly, penetrated

the wood, and vanished. I gained the spot on the soft sward which the

dropping boughs make ever humid. I saw the print of hoofs. Within the

thicket I found the pearls that Cimon has displayed to you. Clear,

then, is it that this man lies--clear that the Persians must have fled

already--although Gongylus declares that on his return to the citadel

he visited them in their prison. Explain this, Eretrian!"

"He who would speak false witness," answered Gongylus, with a firmness

equal to the Chian's, "can find pearls at whatsoever hour he pleases.

Greeks, this man presses me to renew the charge which Pausanias

generously sought to stifle. I have said. And I, Governor of

Byzantium, call on the Council of the Grecian Leaders to maintain my

authority, and protect their own Chief."

Then arose a vexed and perturbed murmur, most of the Ionians siding

with Antagoras, such of the allies as yet clung to the Dorian

ascendancy grouping round Gongylus. The persistence of Antagoras had

made the dilemma of no slight embarrassment to Pausanias. Something

lofty in his original nature urged him to shrink from supporting

Gongylus in an accusation which he believed untrue. On the other hand,

he could not abandon his accomplice in an effort, as dangerous as it

was crafty, to conceal their common guilt.

"Son of Miltiades," he said after a brief pause, in which his

dexterous resolution was formed, "I invoke your aid to appease a

contest in which I foresee no result but that of schism amongst

ourselves. Antagoras has no witness to support his tale, Gongylus none

to support his own. Who shall decide between conflicting testimonies

which rest but on the lips of accuser and accused? Hereafter, if the

matter be deemed sufficiently grave, let us refer the decision to the

oracle that never errs. Time and chance meanwhile may favour us in

clearing up the darkness we cannot now penetrate.

For you, Governor of Byzantium, it behoves me to say that the escape

of prisoners entrusted to your charge justifies vigilance if not

suspicion. We shall consult at our leisure whether or not that course

suffices to remove you from the government of Byzantium. Heralds,

advance; our council is dissolved."

With these words Pausanias rose, and the majesty of his bearing, with

the unwonted temper and conciliation of his language, so came in aid

of his high office, that no man ventured a dissentient murmur.

The conclave broke up, and not till its members had gained the outer

air did any signs of suspicion or dissatisfaction evince themselves;

but then, gathering in groups, the Ionians with especial jealousy

discussed what had passed, and with their native shrewdness ascribed

the moderation of Pausanias to his desire to screen Gongylus and avoid

further inquisition into the flight of the prisoners. The discontented

looked round for Cimon, but the young Athenian had hastily retired

from the throng, and, after issuing orders to pursue the fugitives,

sought Aristides in the house near the quay in which he lodged.

Cimon related to his friend what had passed at the meeting, and

terminating his recital, said:

"Thou shouldst have been with us. With thee we might have ventured

more." "And if so," returned the wise Athenian with a smile, "ye would

have prospered less Precisely because I would not commit our country

to the suspicion of fomenting intrigues and mutiny to her own

advantage, did I abstain from the assembly, well aware that Pausanias

would bring his minion harmless from the unsupported accusation of

Antagoras. Thou hast acted with cool judgment, Cimon. The Spartan is

weaving the webs of the Parcae for his own feet. Leave him to weave

on, undisturbed. The hour in which Athens shall assume the sovereignty

of the seas is drawing near. Let it come, like Jove's thunder, in a

calm sky."

CHAPTER III.

Pausanias did not that night quit the city. After the meeting, he held

a private conference with the Spartan Equals, whom custom and the

government assigned, in appearance as his attendants, in reality as

witnesses if not spies of his conduct. Though every pure Spartan, as

compared with the subject Laconian population, was noble, the republic

acknowledged two main distinctions in class, the higher, entitled

Equals, a word which we might not inaptly and more intelligibly render

Peers; the lower, Inferiors. These distinctions, though hereditary,

were not immutable. The peer could be degraded, the inferior could

become a peer. To the royal person in war three peers were allotted.

Those assigned to Pausanias, of the tribe called the Hylleans, were

naturally of a rank and influence that constrained him to treat them

with a certain deference, which perpetually chafed his pride and

confirmed his discontent; for these three men were precisely of

the mould which at heart he most despised. Polydorus, the first in

rank--for, like Pausanias, he boasted his descent from Hercules--was

the personification of the rudeness and bigotry of a Spartan who had

never before stirred from his rocky home, and who disdained all that

he could not comprehend. Gelon, the second, passed for a very wise

man, for he seldom spoke but in monosyllables; yet, probably, his

words were as numerous as his ideas. Cleomenes, the third, was as

distasteful to the Regent from his merits as the others from their

deficiencies. He had risen from the grade of the Inferiors by his

valour; blunt, homely, frank, sincere, he never disguised his

displeasure at the manner of Pausanias, though, a true Spartan

in discipline, he never transgressed the respect which his chief

commanded in time of war.

Pausanias knew that these officers were in correspondence with Sparta,

and he now exerted all his powers to remove from their minds any

suspicion which the disappearance of the prisoners might have left in

them.

In this interview he displayed all those great natural powers which,

rightly trained and guided, might have made him not less great in

council than in war. With masterly precision he enlarged on the

growing ambition of Athens, on the disposition in her favour evinced

by all the Ionian confederates. "Hitherto," he said truly, "Sparta has

uniformly held rank as the first state of Greece; the leadership of

the Greeks belongs to us by birth and renown. But see you not that the

war is now shifting from land to sea? Sea is not our element; it is

that of Athens, of all the Ionian race. If this continue we lose our

ascendancy, and Athens becomes the sovereign of Hellas. Beneath the

calm of Aristides I detect his deep design. In vain Cimon affects the

manner of the Spartan; at heart he is Athenian. This charge against

Gongylus is aimed at me. Grant that the plot which it conceals

succeed; grant that Sparta share the affected suspicions of the

Ionians, and recall me from Byzantium; deem you that there lives one

Spartan who could delay for a day the supremacy of Athens? Nought

save the respect the Dorian Greeks at least attach to the General

at Plataea could restrain the secret ambition of the city of the

demagogues. Deem not that I have been as rash and vain as some hold me

for the stern visage I have shown to the Ionians. Trust me that it was

necessary to awe them, with a view to maintain our majesty. For Sparta

to preserve her ascendancy, two things are needful: first, to continue

the war by land; secondly, to disgust the Ionians with their sojourn

here, send them with their ships to their own havens, and so leave

Hellas under the sole guardianship of ourselves and our Peloponnesian

allies. Therefore I say, bear with me in this double design; chide me

not if my haughty manner disperse these subtle Ionians. If I bore with

them to-day it was less from respect than, shall I say it, my fear

lest you should misinterpret me. Beware how you detail to Sparta

whatever might rouse the jealousy of her government. Trust to me,

and I will extend the dominion of Sparta till it grasp the whole

of Greece. We will depose everywhere the revolutionary Demos, and

establish our own oligarchies in every Grecian state. We will Laconize

all Hellas."

Much of what Pausanias said was wise and profound. Such statesmanship,

narrow and congenial, but vigorous and crafty, Sparta taught in later

years to her alert politicians. And we have already seen that, despite

the dazzling prospects of Oriental dominion, he as yet had separated

himself rather from the laws than the interests of Sparta, and still

incorporated his own ambition with the extension of the sovereignty of

his country over the rest of Greece.

But the peers heard him in dull and gloomy silence; and, not till he

had paused and thrice asked for a reply, did Polydorus speak.

"You would increase the dominion of Sparta, Pausanias. Increase of

dominion is waste of life and treasure. We have few men, little gold;

Sparta is content to hold her own." "Good," said Gelon, with impassive

countenance. "What care we who leads the Greeks into blows? the fewer

blows the better. Brave men fight if they must, wise men never fight

if they can help it."

"And such is your counsel, Cleomenes?" asked Pausanias, with a

quivering lip.

"Not from the same reasons," answered the nobler and more generous

Spartan. "I presume not to question your motives, Pausanias. I leave

you to explain them to the Ephors and the Gerusia. But since you press

me, this I say. First, all the Greeks, Ionian as well as Dorian,

fought equally against the Mede, and from the commander of the Greeks

all should receive fellowship and courtesy. Secondly, I say if Athens

is better fitted than Sparta for the maritime ascendancy, let Athens

rule, so that Hellas be saved from the Mede. Thirdly, O Pausanias, I

pray that Sparta may rest satisfied with her own institutions, and

not disturb the peace of Greece by forcing them upon other States and

thereby enslaving Hellas. What more could the Persian do? Finally,

my advice is to suspend Gongylus from his office; to conciliate the

Ionians; to remain as a Grecian armament firm and united, and so

procure, on better terms, peace with Persia. And then let each State

retire within itself, and none aspire to rule the other. A thousand

free cities are better guard against the Barbarian than a single State

made up of republics overthrown and resting its strength upon hearts

enslaved."

"Do you too," said Pausanias, gnawing his nether lip, "Do you too,

Polydorus; you too, Gelon, agree with Cleomenes, that, if Athens is

better fitted than Sparta for the sovereignty of the seas, we should

yield to that restless rival so perilous a power?"

"Ships cost gold," said Polydorus. "Spartans have none to spare.

Mariners require skilful captains; Spartans know nothing of the sea."

"Moreover," quoth Gelon, "the ocean is a terrible element. What can

valour do against a storm? We may lose more men by adverse weather

than a century can repair. Let who will have the seas. Sparta has her

rocks and defiles."

"Men and peers," said Pausanias, ill repressing his scorn, "ye little

dream what arms ye place in the hands of the Athenians. I have done.

Take only this prophecy. You are now the head of Greece. You surrender

your sceptre to Athens, and become a second-rate power."

"Never second rate when Greece shall demand armed men," said Cleomenes

proudly.

"Armed men, armed men!" cried the more profound Pausanias. "Do you

suppose that commerce--that trade--that maritime energy--that fleets

which ransack the shores of the world, will not obtain a power greater

than mere brute-like valour? But as ye will, as ye will."

"As we speak our forefathers thought," said Gelon.

"And, Pausanias," said Cleomenes gravely, "as we speak, so think the

Ephors."

Pausanias fixed his dark eye on Cleomenes, and, after a brief pause,

saluted the Equals and withdrew. "Sparta," he muttered as he regained

his chamber, "Sparta, thou refusest to be great; but greatness is

necessary to thy son. Ah, their iron laws would constrain my soul! but

it shall wear them as a warrior wears his armour and adapts it to his

body. Thou shalt be queen of all Hellas despite thyself, thine Ephors,

and thy laws. Then only will I forgive thee."

CHAPTER IV.

Diagoras was sitting outside his door and giving various instructions

to the slaves employed on his farm, when, through an arcade thickly

covered with the vine, the light form of Antagoras came slowly in

sight.

"Hail to thee, Diagoras," said the Chian, "thou art the only wise man

I meet with. Thou art tranquil while all else are disturbed; and,

worshipping the great Mother, thou carest nought, methinks, for the

Persian who invades, or the Spartan who professes to defend."

"Tut," said Diagoras, in a whisper, "thou knowest the contrary: thou

knowest that if the Persian comes I am ruined; and, by the gods, I am

on a bed of thorns as long as the Spartan stays."

"Dismiss thy slaves," exclaimed Antagoras, in the same undertone; "I

would speak with thee on grave matters that concern us both."

After hastily finishing his instructions and dismissing his slaves,

Diagoras turned to the impatient Chian, and said:

"Now, young warrior, I am all ears for thy speech."

"Truly," said Antagoras, "if thou wert aware of what I am about to

utter, thou wouldst not have postponed consideration for thy daughter,

to thy care for a few jars of beggarly olives."

"Hem!" said Diagoras, peevishly. "Olives are not to be despised; oil

to the limbs makes them supple; to the stomach it gives gladness. Oil,

moreover, bringeth money when sold. But a daughter is the plague of

a man's life. First, one has to keep away lovers; and next to find

a husband; and when all is done, one has to put one's hand in one's

chest, and pay a tall fellow like thee for robbing one of one's own

child. That custom of dowries is abominable. In the good old times a

bridegroom, as was meet and proper, paid for his bride; now we poor

fathers pay him for taking her. Well, well, never bite thy forefinger,

and curl up thy brows. What thou hast to say, say."

"Diagoras, I know that thy heart is better than thy speech, and that,

much as thou covetest money, thou lovest thy child more. Know, then,

that Pausanias--a curse light on him!--brings shame upon Cleonice.

Know that already her name hath grown the talk of the camp. Know that

his visit to her the night before last was proclaimed in the Council

of the Captains as a theme for jest and rude laughter. By the head

of Zeus, how thinkest thou to profit by the stealthy wooings of this

black-browed Spartan? Knowest thou not that his laws forbid him to

marry Cleonice? Wouldst thou have him dishonour her? Speak out to him

as thou speakest to men, and tell him that the maidens of Byzantium

are not in the control of the General of the Greeks."

"Youth, youth," cried Diagoras, greatly agitated, "wouldst thou bring

my grey hairs to a bloody grave? wouldst thou see my daughter reft

from me by force--and--"

"How darest thou speak thus, old man?" interrupted the indignant

Chian. "If Pausanias wronged a virgin, all Hellas would rise against

him."

"Yes, but not till the ill were done, till my throat were cut, and my

child dishonoured. Listen. At first indeed, when, as ill-luck would

have it, Pausanias, lodging a few days under my roof, saw and admired

Cleonice, I did venture to remonstrate, and how think you he took it?

'Never,' quoth he, with his stern quivering lip, 'never did conquest

forego its best right to the smiles of beauty. The legends of

Hercules, my ancestor, tell thee that to him who labours for men,

the gods grant the love of women. Fear not that I should wrong thy

daughter--to woo her is not to wrong. But close thy door on me; immure

Cleonice from my sight; and nor armed slaves, nor bolts, nor bars

shall keep love from the loved one,' Therewith he turned on his heel

and left me. But the next day came a Lydian in his train, with a

goodly pannier of rich stuffs and a short Spartan sword. On the

pannier was written '_Friendship_,' on the sword '_Wrath_,' and Alcman

gave me a scrap of parchment, whereon, with the cursed brief wit of a

Spartan, was inscribed '_Choose_!' Who could doubt which to take? who,

by the Gods, would prefer three inches of Spartan iron in his stomach

to a basketful of rich stuffs for his shoulders? Wherefore, from that

hour, Pausanias comes as he lists. But Cleonice humours him not, let

tongues wag as they may. Easier to take three cities than that child's

heart."

"Is it so indeed?" exclaimed the Chian, joyfully; "Cleonice loves him

not?"

"Laughs at him to his beard: that is, would laugh if he wore one."

"O Diagoras!" cried Antagoras, "hear me, hear me. I need not remind

thee that our families are united by the hospitable ties; that amongst

thy treasures thou wilt find the gifts of my ancestors for five

generations; that when, a year since, my affairs brought me to

Byzantium, I came to thee with the symbols of my right to claim thy

hospitable cares. On leaving thee we broke the sacred die. I have one

half, thou the other. In that visit I saw and loved Cleonice. Fain

would I have told my love, but then my father lived, and I feared lest

he should oppose my suit; therefore, as became me, I was silent. On

my return home, my fears were confirmed; my father desired that I, a

Chian, should wed a Chian. Since I have been with the fleet, news has

reached me that the urn holds my father's ashes." Here the young Chian

paused. "Alas, alas!" he murmured, smiting his breast, "and I was not

at hand to fix over thy doors the sacred branch, to give thee the

parting kiss, and receive into my lips thy latest breath. May Hermes,

O father, have led thee to pleasant groves!"

Diagoras, who had listened attentively to the young Chian, was touched

by his grief, and said pityingly:

"I know thou art a good son, and thy father was a worthy man, though

harsh. It is a comfort to think that all does not die with the dead.

His money at least survives him."

"But," resumed Antagoras, not heeding this consolation,--"but now I

am free: and ere this, so soon as my mourning garment had been lain

aside, I had asked thee to bless me with Cleonice, but that I feared

her love was gone--gone to the haughty Spartan. Thou reassurest me;

and in so doing, thou confirmest the fair omens with which Aphrodite

has received my offerings. Therefore, I speak out. No dowry ask I with

Cleonice, save such, more in name than amount, as may distinguish the

wife from the concubine, and assure her an honoured place amongst my

kinsmen. Thou knowest I am rich; thou knowest that my birth dates

from the oldest citizens of Chios. Give me thy child, and deliver her

thyself at once from the Spartan's power. Once mine, all the fleets of

Hellas are her protection, and our marriage torches are the swords of

a Grecian army. O Diagoras, I clasp thy knees; put thy right hand in

mine. Give me thy child as wife!"

The Byzantine was strongly affected. The suitor was one who, in birth

and possessions, was all that he could desire for his daughter; and at

Byzantium there did not exist that feeling against intermarriages with

the foreigner which prevailed in towns more purely Greek, though in

many of them, too, that antique prejudice had worn away. On the other

hand, by transferring to Antagoras his anxious charge, he felt that he

should take the best course to preserve it untarnished from the fierce

love of Pausanias, and there was truth in the Chian's suggestion. The

daughter of a Byzantine might be unprotected; the wife of an Ionian

captain was safe, even from the power of Pausanias. As these

reflexions occurred to him, he placed his right hand in the Chian's,

and said:

"Be it as thou wilt; I consent to betroth thee to Cleonice. Follow me;

thou art free to woo her."

So saying, he rose, and, as if in fear of his own second thoughts, he

traversed the hall with hasty strides to the interior of the mansion.

He ascended a flight of steps, and, drawing aside a curtain suspended

between two columns, Antagoras, who followed timidly behind, beheld

Cleonice.

As was the wont in the domestic life of all Grecian states, her

handmaids were around the noble virgin. Two were engaged on

embroidery, one in spinning, a fourth was reading aloud to Cleonice,

and that at least was a rare diversion to women, for few had the

education of the fair Byzantine. Cleonice herself was half reclined

upon a bench inlaid with ivory and covered with cushions; before her

stood a small tripod table on which she leant the arm, the hand of

which supported her cheek, and she seemed listening to the lecture

of the slave with earnest and absorbed attention, so earnest, so

absorbed, that she did not for some moments perceive the entrance of

Diagoras and the Chian.

"Child," said the former--and Cleonice started to her feet, and stood

modestly before her father, her eyes downcast, her arms crossed upon

her bosom--"child, I bid thee welcome my guest-friend, Antagoras of

Chios. Slaves, ye may withdraw."

Cleonice bowed her head; and an unquiet, anxious change came over her

countenance.

As soon as the slaves were gone, Diagoras resumed--

"Daughter, I present to thee a suitor for thy hand; receive him as I

have done, and he shall have my leave to carve thy name on every tree

in the garden, with the lover's epithet of 'Beautiful,' attached to

it. Antagoras, look up, then, and speak for thyself."

But Antagoras was silent; and a fear unknown to his frank hardy nature

came over him. With an arch smile, Diagoras, deeming his presence no

longer necessary or expedient, lifted the curtain, and lover and maid

were left alone.

Then, with an effort, and still with hesitating accents, the Chian

spoke--

"Fair virgin,--not in the groves of Byzantium will thy name be first

written by the hand of Antagoras. In my native Chios the myrtle trees

are already eloquent of thee. Since I first saw thee, I loved. Maiden,

wilt thou be my wife?"

Thrice moved the lips of Cleonice, and thrice her voice seemed to fail

her. At length she said,--"Chian thou art a stranger, and the laws of

the Grecian cities dishonour the stranger whom the free citizen stoops

to marry."

"Nay," cried Antagoras, "such cruel laws are obsolete in Chios. Nature

and custom, and love's almighty goddess, long since have set them

aside. Fear not, the haughtiest matron of my native state will not be

more honoured than the Byzantine bride of Antagoras."

"Is it in Sparta only that such laws exist?" said Cleonice, half

unconsciously, and to the sigh with which she spoke a deep blush

succeeded.

"Sparta!" exclaimed Antagoras, with a fierce and jealous pang--"Ah,

are thy thoughts then upon the son of Sparta? Were Pausanias a Chian,

wouldst thou turn from him scornfully as thou now dost from me?"

"Not scornfully, Antagoras," answered Cleonice (who had indeed averted

her face, at his reproachful question; but now turned it full

upon him, with an expression of sad and pathetic sweetness), "not

scornfully do I turn from thee, though with pain; for what worthier

homage canst thou render to woman, than honourable love? Gratefully do

I hearken to the suit that comes from thee; but gratitude is not the

return thou wouldst ask, Antagoras. My hand is my father's; my heart,

alas, is mine. Thou mayst claim from him the one; the other, neither

he can give, nor thou receive."

"Say not so, Cleonice," cried the Chian; "say not, that thou canst not

love me, if so I am to interpret thy words. Love brings love with the

young. How canst thou yet know thine own heart? Tarry till thou hast

listened to mine. As the fire on the altar spreads from offering to

offering, so spreads love; its flame envelops all that are near to it.

Thy heart will catch the heavenly spark from mine."

"Chian," said Cleonice, gently withdrawing the hand that he sought to

clasp, "when as my father's guest-friend thou wert a sojourner within

these walls, oft have I heard thee speak, and all thy words spoke the

thoughts of a noble soul. Were it otherwise, not thus would I now

address thee. Didst thou love gold, and wooed in me but the child of

the rich Diagoras, or wert thou one of those who would treat for

a wife, as a trader for a slave, invoking HerŤ, but disdaining

Aphrodite, I should bow my head to my doom. But thou, Antagoras,

askest love for love; this I cannot give thee. Spare me, O generous

Chian. Let not my father enforce his right to my obedience."

"Answer me but one question," interrupted Antagoras in a low voice,

though with compressed lips: "Dost thou then love another?"

The blood mounted to the virgin's cheeks, it suffused her brow,

her neck, with burning blushes, and then receding, left her face

colourless as a statue. Then with tones low and constrained as his

own, she pressed her hand on her heart, and replied, "Thou sayest it;

I love another."

"And that other is Pausanias? Alas, thy silence, thy trembling, answer

me."

Antagoras groaned aloud and covered his face with his hands; but after

a short pause, he exclaimed with great emotion, "No, no--say not that

thou lovest Pausanias; say not that Aphrodite hath so accurst thee:

for to love Pausanias is to love dishonour."

"Hold, Chian! Not so: for my love has no hope. Our hearts are not our

own, but our actions are."

Antagoras gazed on her with suspense and awe; for as she spoke her

slight form dilated, her lip curled, her cheek glowed again, but

with the blush less of love than of pride. In her countenance, her

attitude, there was something divine and holy, such as would have

beseemed a priestess of Diana.

"Yes," she resumed, raising her eyes, and with a still and mournful

sweetness in her upraised features. "What I love is not Pausanias, it

is the glory of which he is the symbol, it is the Greece of which he

has been the Saviour. Let him depart, as soon he must--let these eyes

behold him no more; still there exists for me all that exists now--a

name, a renown, a dream. Never for me may the nuptial hymn resound, or

the marriage torch be illumined. O goddess of the silver bow, O

chaste and venerable Artemis! receive, protect thy servant; and ye,

O funereal gods, lead me soon, lead the virgin unreluctant to the

shades."

A superstitious fear, a dread as if his earthly love would violate

something sacred, chilled the ardour of the young Chian; and for

several moments both were silent.

At length, Antagoras, kissing the hem of her robe, said,--

"Maiden of Byzantium,--like thee then, I will love, though without

hope. I will not, I dare not, profane thy presence by prayers which

pain thee, and seem to me, having heard thee, almost guilty, as

if proffered to some nymph circling in choral dance the moonlit

mountain-tops of Delos. But ere I depart, and tell thy father that my

suit is over, O place at least thy right hand in mine, and swear to

me, not the bride's vow of faith and troth, but that vow which a

virgin sister may pledge to a brother, mindful to protect and to

avenge her. Swear to me, that if this haughty Spartan, contemning

alike men, laws, and the household gods, should seek to constrain thy

purity to his will; if thou shouldst have cause to tremble at power

and force; and fierce desire should demand what gentle love would but

reverently implore,--then, Cleonice, seeing how little thy father can

defend thee, wilt thou remember Antagoras, and through him, summon

around thee all the majesty of Hellas? Grant me but this prayer, and I

leave thee, if in sorrow, yet not with terror."

"Generous and noble Chian," returned Cleonice as her tears fell upon

the hand he extended to her,--"why, why do I so ill repay thee? Thy

love is indeed that which ennobles the heart that yields it, and her

who shall one day recompense thee for the loss of me. Fear not the

power of Pausanias: dream not that I shall need a defender, while

above us reign the gods, and below us lies the grave. Yet, to appease

thee, take my right hand, and hear my oath. If the hour comes when

I have need of man's honour against man's wrong, I will call on

Antagoras as a brother."

Their hands closed in each other; and not trusting himself to speech,

Antagoras turned away his face, and left the room.

CHAPTER V.

For some days, an appearance at least of harmony was restored to the

contending factions in the Byzantine camp.

Pausanias did not dismiss Gongylus from the government of the

city; but he sent one by one for the more important of the Ionian

complainants, listened to their grievances, and promised redress. He

adopted a more popular and gracious demeanour, and seemed, with a

noble grace, to submit to the policy of conciliating the allies.

But discontent arose from causes beyond his power, had he genuinely

exerted it, to remove. For it was a discontent that lay in the

hostility of race to race. Though the Spartan Equals had preached

courtesy to the Ionians, the ordinary manner of the Spartan warriors

was invariably offensive to the vain and susceptible confederates of

a more polished race. A Spartan, wherever he might be placed,

unconsciously assumed superiority. The levity of an Ionian was ever

displeasing to him. Out of the actual battle-field, they could have no

topics in common, none which did not provoke irritation and dispute.

On the other hand, most of the Ionians could ill conceal their

disaffection, mingled with something of just contempt at the notorious

and confessed incapacity of the Spartans for maritime affairs, while a

Spartan was yet the commander of the fleet. And many of them, wearied

with inaction, and anxious to return home, were willing to seize any

reasonable pretext for desertion. In this last motive lay the real

strength and safety of Pausanias. And to this end his previous policy

of arrogance was not so idle as it had seemed to the Greeks, and

appears still in the page of history. For a Spartan really anxious to

preserve the preeminence of his country, and to prevent the sceptre of

the seas passing to Athens, could have devised no plan of action more

sagacious and profound than one which would disperse the Ionians, and

the Athenians themselves, and reduce the operations of the Grecian

force to that land warfare in which the Spartan pre-eminence was

equally indisputable and undisputed. And still Pausanias, even in his

change of manner, plotted and intrigued and hoped for this end. Could

he once sever from the encampment the Athenians and the Ionian allies,

and yet remain with his own force at Byzantium until the Persian army

could collect on the Phrygian frontier, the way seemed clear to his

ambition. Under ordinary circumstances, in this object he might easily

have succeeded. But it chanced that all his schemes were met with

invincible mistrust by those in whose interest they were conceived,

and on whose co-operation they depended for success. The means adopted

by Pausanias in pursuit of his policy were too distasteful to the

national prejudices of the Spartan government, to enable him to elicit

from the national ambition of that government sufficient sympathy

with the object of it. The more he felt himself uncomprehended and

mistrusted by his countrymen, the more personal became the character,

and the more unscrupulous the course, of his ambition. Unhappily for

Pausanias moreover, the circumstances which chafed his pride, also

thwarted the satisfaction of his affections and his criminal ambition

was stimulated by that less guilty passion which shared with it the

mastery of a singularly turbulent and impetuous soul. Not his the love

of sleek, gallant, and wanton youth; it was the love of man in his

mature years, but of man to whom love till then had been unknown. In

that large and dark and stormy nature all passions once admitted took

the growth of Titans. He loved as those long lonely at heart alone can

love; he loved as love the unhappy when the unfamiliar bliss of the

sweet human emotion descends like dew upon the desert. To him Cleonice

was a creature wholly out of the range of experience. Differing in

every shade of her versatile humour from the only women he had known,

the simple, sturdy, uneducated maids and matrons of Sparta, her

softness enthralled him, her anger awed. In his dreams of future

power, of an absolute throne and unlimited dominion, Pausanias beheld

the fair Byzantine crowned by his side. Fiercely as he loved, and

little as the _sentiment_ of love mingled with his _passion_, he yet

thought not to dishonour a victim, but to elevate a bride. What though

the laws of Sparta were against such nuptials, was not the hour

approaching when these laws should be trampled under his armed heel?

Since the contract with the Persians, which Gongylus assured him

Xerxes would joyously and promptly fulfil, Pausanias already felt, in

a soul whose arrogance arose from the consciousness of powers that had

not yet found their field, as if he were not the subject of Sparta,

but her lord and king. In his interviews with Cleonice, his language

took a tone of promise and of hope that at times lulled her fears, and

communicated its sanguine colourings of the future to her own dreams.

With the elasticity of youth, her spirits rose from the solemn

despondency with which she had replied to the reproaches of Antagoras.

For though Pausanias spoke not openly of his schemes, though his

words were mysterious, and his replies to her questions ambiguous

and equivocal, still it seemed to her, seeing in him the hero of all

Hellas, so natural that he could make the laws of Sparta yield to the

weight of his authority, or relax in homage to his renown, that she

indulged the belief that his influence would set aside the iron

customs of his country. Was it too extravagant a reward to the

conqueror of the Mede to suffer him to select at least the partner of

his hearth? No, Hope was not dead in that young breast. Still might

she be the bride of him whose glory had dazzled her noble and

sensitive nature, till the faults that darkened it were lost in the

blaze. Thus insensibly to herself her tones became softer to her stern

lover, and her heart betrayed itself more in her gentle looks. Yet

again were there times when doubt and alarm returned with more than

their earlier force--times when, wrapt in his lurid and absorbing

ambition, Pausanias escaped from his usual suppressed reserve--times

when she recalled that night in which she had witnessed his interview

with the strangers of the East, and had trembled lest the altar should

be kindled upon the ruins of his fame. For Cleonice was wholly,

ardently, sublimely Greek, filled in each crevice of her soul with

its lovely poetry, its beautiful superstition, its heroic freedom. As

Greek, she had loved Pausanias, seeing in him the lofty incarnation of

Greece itself. The descendant of the demigod, the champion of

Plataea, the saviour of Hellas--theme for song till song should be no

more--these attributes were what she beheld and loved; and not to have

reigned by his side over a world would she have welcomed one object

of that evil ambition which renounced the loyalty of a Greek for the

supremacy of a king.

Meanwhile, though Antagoras had, with no mean degree of generosity,

relinquished his suit to Cleonice, he detected with a jealous

vigilance the continued visits of Pausanias, and burned with

increasing hatred against his favoured and powerful rival. Though,

in common with all the Greeks out of the Peloponnesus, he was very

imperfectly acquainted with the Spartan constitution, he could not be

blinded, like Cleonice, into the belief that a law so fundamental in

Sparta, and so general in all the primitive States of Greece, as that

which forbade intermarriage with a foreigner, could be cancelled for

the Regent of Sparta, and in favour of an obscure maiden of Byzantium.

Every visit Pausanias paid to Cleonice but served, in his eyes, as a

prelude to her ultimate dishonour. He lent himself, therefore, with

all the zeal of his vivacious and ardent character, to the design

of removing Pausanias himself from Byzantium. He plotted with the

implacable Uliades and the other Ionian captains to send to Sparta a

formal mission stating their grievances against the Regent, and urging

his recall. But the altered manner of Pausanias deprived them of their

just pretext; and the Ionians, more and more under the influence of

the Athenian chief, were disinclined to so extreme a measure without

the consent of Aristides and Cimon. These two chiefs were not passive

spectators of affairs so critical to their ambition for Athens--they

penetrated into the motives of Pausanias in the novel courtesy of

demeanour that he adopted, and they foresaw that if he could succeed

in wearing away the patience of the allies and dispersing the fleet,

yet without giving occasion for his own recall, the golden opportunity

of securing to Athens the maritime ascendancy would be lost. They

resolved, therefore, to make the occasion which the wiles of the

Regent had delayed; and towards this object Antagoras, moved by his

own jealous hate against Pausanias, worked incessantly. Fearless and

vigilant, he was ever on the watch for some new charge against the

Spartan chief ever relentless in stimulating suspicion, aggravating

discontent, inflaming the fierce, and arguing with the timid. His less

exalted station allowed him to mix more familiarly with the various

Ionian officers than would have become the high-born Cimon, and the

dignified repute of Aristides. Seeking to distract his mind from the

haunting thought of Cleonice, he flung himself with the ardour of his

Greek temperament into the social pleasures, which took a zest from

the design that he carried into them all. In the banquets, in the

sports, he was ever seeking to increase the enemies of his rival,

and where he charmed a gay companion, there he often enlisted a bold

conspirator.

Pausanias, the unconscious or the careless object of the Ionian's

jealous hate, could not resist the fatal charm of Cleonice's presence;

and if it sometimes exasperated the more evil elements of his nature,

at other times it so lulled them to rest, that had the Fates given him

the rightful claim to that single treasure, not one guilty thought

might have disturbed the majesty of a soul which, though undisciplined

and uncultured, owed half its turbulence and half its rebellious pride

to its baffled yearnings for human affection and natural joy. And

Cleonice, unable to shun the visits which her weak and covetous

father, despite his promised favour to the suit of Antagoras, still

encouraged; and feeling her honour, at least, if not her peace, was

secured by that ascendancy which, with each successive interview

between them, her character more and more asserted over the Spartan's

higher nature, relinquished the tormenting levity of tone whereby

she had once sought to elude his earnestness, or conceal her own

sentiments. An interest in a fate so solemn, an interest far deeper

than mere human love, stole into her heart and elevated its instincts.

She recognized the immense compassion which was due to the man so

desolate at the head of armaments, so dark in the midst of glory.

Centuries roll, customs change, but, ever since the time of the

earliest mother, woman yearns to be the soother.

CHAPTER VI.

It was the hour of the day when between the two principal meals of the

Greeks men surrendered themselves to idleness or pleasure; when groups

formed in the market-place, or crowded the barbers' shops to gossip

and talk of news; when the tale-teller or ballad-singer collected

round him on the quays his credulous audience; when on playgrounds

that stretched behind the taverns or without the walls the more active

youths assembled, and the quoit was hurled, or mimic battles waged

with weapons of wood, or the Dorians weaved their simple, the Ionians

their more intricate or less decorous, dances. At that hour Lysander,

wandering from the circles of his countrymen, walked musingly by the

sea-shore.

"And why," said the voice of a person who had approached him

unperceived, "and why, O Lysander, art thou absent from thy comrades,

thou model and theme of the youths of Sparta, foremost in their manly

sports, as in their martial labours?"

Lysander turned and bowed low his graceful head, for he who accosted

him was scarcely more honoured by the Athenians, whom his birth, his

wealth, and his popular demeanour dazzled, than by the plain sons

of Sparta, who, in his simple garb, his blunt and hasty manner, his

professed admiration for all things Spartan, beheld one Athenian at

least congenial to their tastes.

"The child that misses its mother," answered Lysander," has small joy

with its playmates. And I, a Spartan, pine for Sparta."

"Truly," returned Cimon, "there must be charms in thy noble country of

which we other Greeks know but little, if amidst all the luxuries

and delights of Byzantium thou canst pine for her rugged hills. And

although, as thou knowest well, I was once a sojourner in thy city

as ambassador from my own, yet to foreigners so little of the inner

Spartan life is revealed, that I pray thee to satisfy my curiosity and

explain to me the charm that reconciles thee and thine to institutions

which seem to the Ionians at war with the pleasures and the graces of

social life."[26]

"Ill can the native of one land explain to the son of another why he

loves it," returned Lysander. "That which the Ionian calls pleasure

is to me but tedious vanity; that which he calls grace, is to me but

enervate levity. Me it pleases to find the day, from sunrise to night,

full of occupations that leave no languor, that employ, but not

excite. For the morning, our gymnasia, our military games, the

chace--diversions that brace the limbs and leave us in peace fit for

war--diversions, which, unlike the brawls of the wordy Agora, bless us

with the calm mind and clear spirit resulting from vigorous habits,

and ensuring jocund health. Noon brings our simple feast, shared in

public, enlivened by jest; late at eve we collect in our Leschae, and

the winter nights seem short, listening to the old men's talk of our

sires and heroes. To us life is one serene yet active holiday. No

Spartan condescends to labour, yet no Spartan can womanise himself by

ease. For us, too, differing from you Ionian Greeks, for us women are

companions, not slaves. Man's youth is passed under the eyes and in

the presence of those from whom he may select, as his heart inclines,

the future mother of his children. Not for us your feverish and

miserable ambitions, the intrigues of demagogues, the drudgery of the

mart, the babble of the populace; we alone know the quiet repose

of heart. That which I see everywhere else, the gnawing strife of

passion, visits not the stately calm of the Spartan life. We have the

leisure, not of the body alone, but of the soul. Equality with us is

the all in all, and we know not that jealous anguish--the desire to

rise one above the other. We busy ourselves not in making wealth,

in ruling mobs, in ostentatious rivalries of state, and gaud, and

power--struggles without an object. When we struggle it is for an

end. Nothing moves us from our calm, but danger to Sparta, or woe to

Hellas. Harmony, peace, and order--these are the graces of our social

life. Pity us, O Athenian!"

Cimon had listened with profound attention to a speech unusually

prolix and descriptive for a Spartan; and he sighed deeply as it

closed. For that young Athenian, destined to so renowned a place in

the history of his country, was, despite his popular manners, no

favourer of the popular passions. Lofty and calm, and essentially an

aristocrat by nature and opinion, this picture of a life unruffled by

the restless changes of democracy, safe and aloof from the shifting

humours of the multitude, charmed and allured him. He forgot for the

moment those counter propensities which made him still Athenian--the

taste for magnificence, the love of women, and the desire of rule. His

busy schemes slept within him, and he answered:

"Happy is the Spartan who thinks with you. Yet," he added, after a

pause, "yet own that there are amongst you many to whom the life you

describe has ceased to proffer the charms that enthrall you, and

who envy the more diversified and exciting existence of surrounding

States. Lysander's eulogiums shame his chief Pausanias."

"It is not for me, nor for thee, whose years scarce exceed my own, to

judge of our elders in renown," said Lysander, with a slight shade

over his calm brow. "Pausanias will surely be found still a Spartan,

when Sparta needs him; and the heart of the Heracleid beats under the

robe of the Mede."

"Be frank with me, Lysander; thou knowest that my own countrymen often

jealously accuse me of loving Sparta too well. I imitate, say they,

the manners and dress of the Spartan, as Pausanias those of the Mede.

Trust me then, and bear with me, when I say that Pausanias ruins the

cause of Sparta. If he tarry here longer in the command he will render

all the allies enemies to thy country. Already he has impaired his

fame and dimmed his laurels; already, despite his pretexts and

excuses, we perceive that his whole nature is corrupted. Recall him

to Sparta, while it is yet time--time to reconcile the Greeks with

Sparta, time to save the hero of Plataea from the contaminations of

the East. Preserve his own glory, dearer to thee as his special friend

than to all men, yet dear to me, though an Athenian, from the memory

of the deeds which delivered Hellas."

Cimon spoke with the blunt and candid eloquence natural to him, and to

which his manly countenance and earnest tone and character for truth

gave singular effect.

Lysander remained long silent. At length he said, "I neither deny nor

assent to thine arguments, son of Miltiades. The Ephors alone can

judge of their wisdom."

"But if we address them, by message, to the Ephors, thou and the

nobler Spartans will not resent our remonstrances?"

"All that injures Pausanias Lysander will resent. Little know I of the

fables of poets, but Homer is at least as familiar to the Dorian as to

the Ionian, and I think with him that between friends there is but one

love and one anger."

"Then are the frailties of Pausanias dearer to thee than his fame, or

Pausanias himself dearer to thee than Sparta--the erring brother than

the venerable mother."

Lysander's voice died on his lips; the reproof struck home to him.

He turned away his face, and with a slow wave of his hand seemed to

implore forbearance. Cimon was touched by the action and the generous

embarrassment of the Spartan; he saw, too, that he had left in the

mind he had addressed thoughts that might work as he had designed, and

he judged by the effect produced on Lysander what influence the same

arguments might effect addressed to others less under the control of

personal friendship. Therefore, with a few gentle words, he turned

aside, continued his way, and left Lysander alone.

Entering the town, the Athenian threaded his path through some of the

narrow lanes and alleys that wound from the quays towards the citadel,

avoiding the broader and more frequented streets. The course he took

was such as rendered it little probable that he should encounter any

of the higher classes, and especially the Spartans, who from their

constitutional pride shunned the resorts of the populace. But as he

came nearer the citadel stray Helots were seen at times, emerging from

the inns and drinking houses, and these stopped short and inclined low

if they caught sight of him at a distance, for his hat and staff, his

majestic stature, and composed step, made them take him for a Spartan.

One of these slaves, however, emerging suddenly from a house close by

which Cimon passed, recognized him, and retreating within abruptly,

entered a room in which a man sat alone, and seemingly in profound

thought; his cheek rested on one hand, with the other he leaned upon a

small lyre, his eyes were bent on the ground, and he started, as a man

does dream-like from a reverie, when the Helot touched him and said

abruptly, and in a tone of surprise and inquiry,--

"Cimon, the Athenian, is ascending the hill towards the Spartan

quarter."

"The Spartan quarter! Cimon!" exclaimed Alcman, for it was he. "Give

me thy cap and hide."

Hastily enduing himself in these rough garments, and drawing the cap

over his face, the Mothon hurried to the threshold, and, seeing the

Athenian at the distance, followed his footsteps, though with the

skill of a man used to ambush he kept himself unseen--now under the

projecting roofs of the houses, now skirting the wall, which, heavy

with buttresses, led towards the outworks of the citadel. And with

such success did he pursue his track that when Cimon paused at last

at the place of his destination, and gave one vigilant and searching

glance around him, he detected no living form.

He had then reached a small space of table-land on which stood a few

trees of great age--all that time and the encroachments of the citadel

and the town had spared of the sacred grove which formerly surrounded

a rude and primitive temple, the grey columns of which gleamed through

the heavy foliage. Passing, with a slow and cautious step, under the

thick shadow of these trees, Cimon now arrived before the open door of

the temple, placed at the east so as to admit the first beams of the

rising sun. Through the threshold, in the middle of the fane, the

eye rested on the statue of Apollo, raised upon a lofty pedestal and

surrounded by a rail--a statue not such as the later genius of the

Athenian represented the god of light, and youth, and beauty; not

wrought from Parian marble, or smoothest ivory, and in the divinest

proportions of the human form, but rude, formal, and roughly hewn from

the wood of the yew-tree--some early effigy of the god, made by the

simple piety of the first Dorian colonisers of Byzantium. Three forms

stood mute by an altar, equally homely and ancient, and adorned with

horns, placed a little apart, and considerably below the statue.

As the shadow of the Athenian, who halted at the threshold, fell long

and dark along the floor, the figures turned slowly, and advanced

towards him. With an inclination of his head Cimon retreated from the

temple; and, looking round, saw abutting from the rear of the building

a small cell or chamber, which doubtless in former times had served

some priestly purpose, but now, doorless, empty, desolate, showed the

utter neglect into which the ancient shrine of the Dorian god had

fallen amidst the gay and dissolute Byzantians. To this cell Cimon

directed his steps; the men he had seen in the temple followed him,

and all four, with brief and formal greeting, seated themselves,

Cimon on a fragment of some broken column, the others on a bench that

stretched along the wall.

"Peers of Sparta," said the Athenian, "ye have doubtless ere this

revolved sufficiently the grave matter which I opened to you in a

former conference, and in which, to hear your decision, I seek at your

appointment these sacred precincts."

"Son of Miltiades," answered the blunt Polydorus, "you inform us that

it is the intention of the Athenians to despatch a messenger to Sparta

demanding the instant recall of Pausanias. You ask us to second that

request. But without our aid the Athenians are masters to do as they

will. Why should we abet your quarrel against the Regent?"

"Friend," replied Cimon, "we, the Athenians, confess to no quarrel

with Pausanias; what we demand is to avoid all quarrel with him or

yourselves. You seem to have overlooked my main arguments. Permit me

to reurge them briefly. If Pausanias remains, the allies have resolved

openly to revolt; if you, the Spartans, assist your chief, as methinks

you needs must do, you are at once at war with the rest of the Greeks.

If you desert him you leave Hellas without a chief, and we will choose

one of our own. Meanwhile, in the midst of our dissensions, the towns

and states well affected to Persia will return to her sway; and Persia

herself falls upon us as no longer an united enemy but an easy prey.

For the sake, therefore, of Sparta and of Greece, we entreat you to

co-operate with us; or rather, to let the recall of Pausanias be

effected more by the wise precaution of the Spartans than by the

fierce resolve of the other Greeks. So you save best the dignity of

your State, and so, in reality, you best serve your chief. For less

shameful to him is it to be recalled by you than to be deposed by us."

"I know not," said Gelon, surlily, "what Sparta hath to do at all with

this foreign expedition; we are safe in our own defiles."

"Pardon me, if I remind you that you were scarcely safe at

Thermopylae, and that had the advice Demaratus proffered to Xerxes

been taken, and that island of Cithera, which commands Sparta itself,

been occupied by Persian troops, as in a future time, if Sparta desert

Greece, it may be, you were undone. And, wisely or not, Sparta is now

in command at Byzantium, and it behoves her to maintain, with the

dignity she assumes, the interests she represents. Grant that

Pausanias be recalled, another Spartan can succeed him. Whom of your

countrymen would you prefer to that high post, if you, O Peers, aid us

in the dismissal of Pausanias?[27]

Notes:

[26] Alexander, King of Macedon, had visited the Athenians with

overtures of peace and alliance from Xerxes and Mardonius. These

overtures were confined to the Athenians alone, and the Spartans

were fearful lest they should be accepted. The Athenians, however,

generously refused them. Gold, said they, hath no amount, earth no

territory how beautiful soever that could tempt the Athenians to

accept conditions from the Mede for the servitude of Greece. On this

the Persians invaded Attica, and the Athenians, after waiting in vain

for promised aid from Sparta, took refuge at Salamis. Meanwhile, they

had sent messengers or ambassadors to Sparta, to remonstrate on the

violation of their agreement in delaying succour. This chanced at the

very time when, by the death of his father Cleombrotus, Pausanias

became Regent. Slowly, and after much hesitation, the Spartans sent

them aid under Pausanias. Two of the ambassadors were Aristides and

Cimon.

[27] This chapter was left unfinished by the author; probably with the

intention of recasting it. Such an intention, at least, is indicated

by the marginal marks upon the MS.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

The fountain sparkled to the noonday, the sward around it was

sheltered from the sun by vines formed into shadowy arcades, with

interlaced leaves for roof. Afar through the vistas thus formed

gleamed the blue of a sleeping sea.

Under the hills, or close by the margin of the fountain, Cleonice was

seated upon a grassy knoll, covered with wild flowers. Behind her, at

a little distance, grouped her handmaids, engaged in their womanly

work, and occasionally conversing in whispers. At her feet reposed the

grand form of Pausanias. Alcman stood not far behind him, his hand,

resting on his lyre, his gaze fixed upon the upward jet of the

fountain.

"Behold," said Cleonice, "how the water soars up to the level of its

source!"

"As my soul would soar to thy love," said the Spartan, amorously.

"As thy soul should soar to the stars. O son of Hercules, when I hear

thee burst into thy wild nights of ambition, I see not thy way to the

stars."

"Why dost thou ever thus chide the ambition which may give me thee?"

"No, for thou mightest then be as much below me as thou art now above.

Too humble to mate with the Heracleid, I am too proud to stoop to the

Tributary of the Mede."

"Tributary for a sprinkling of water and a handful of earth. Well,

my pride may revolt, too, from that tribute. But, alas! what is the

tribute Sparta exacts from me now?--personal liberty--freedom of soul

itself. The Mede's Tributary may be a king over millions; the Spartan

Regent is a slave to the few."

"Cease--cease--cease. I will not hear thee," cried Cleonice, placing

her hands on her ears.

Pausanias gently drew them away; and holding them both captive in

the large clasp of his own right hand, gazed eagerly into her pure,

unshrinking eyes.

"Tell me," he said, "for in much thou art wiser than I am, unjust

though thou art. Tell me this. Look onward to the future with a gaze

as steadfast as now meets mine, and say if thou canst discover any

path, except that which it pleases thee to condemn, which may lead

thee and me to the marriage altar!"

Down sank those candid eyes, and the virgin's cheek grew first rosy

red, and then pale, as if every drop of blood had receded to the

heart.

"Speak!" insisted Pausanias, softening his haughty voice to its

meekest tone.

"I cannot see the path to the altar," murmured Cleonice, and the tears

rolled down her cheeks.

"And if thou seest it not," returned Pausanias, "art thou brave enough

to say--Be we lost to each other for life? I, though man and Spartan,

am not brave enough to say that!"

He released her hands as he spoke, and clasped his own over his face.

Both were long silent.

Alcman had for some moments watched the lovers with deep interest, and

had caught into his listening ears the purport of their words. He now

raised his lyre, and swept his hand over the chords. The touch was

that of a master, and the musical sounds produced their effect on

all. The handmaids paused from their work. Cleonice turned her eyes

wistfully towards the Mothon. Pausanias drew his hands from his face,

and cried joyously, "I accept the omen. Foster-brother, I have heard

that measure to a Hymeneal Song. Sing us the words that go with the

melody."

"Nay," said Alcman, gently, "the words are not those which are sung

before youth and maiden when they walk over perishing flowers to

bridal altars. They are the words which embody a legend of the land in

which the heroes of old dwell, removed from earth, yet preserved from

Hades."

"Ah," said Cleonice--and a strange expression, calmly mournful,

settled on her features--"then the words may haply utter my own

thoughts. Sing them to us, I pray thee."

The Mothon bowed his head, and thus began:--

THE ISLE OF SPIRITS.

Many wonders on the ocean

By the moonlight may be seen;

Under moonlight on the Euxine

Rose the blessed silver isle,

As Leostratus of Croton,

At the Pythian God's behest,

Steer'd along the troubled waters

To the tranquil spirit-land.

In the earthquake of the battle,

When the Locrians reel'd before

Croton's shock of marching iron,

Strode a Phantom to their van:

Strode the shade of Locrian Ajax,

Guarding still the native soil,

And Leostratus, confronting,

Wounded fell before the spear.

Leech and herb the wound could heal not

Said the Pythian God, "Depart,

Voyage o'er the troubled Euxine

To the tranquil spirit-land.

"There abides the Locrian Ajax,

He who gave the wound shall heal;

Godlike souls are in their mercy

Stronger yet than in their wrath."

While at ease on lulled waters

Rose the blessed silver isle,

Purple vines in lengthening vistas

Knit the hill-top to the beach.

And the beach had sparry caverns,

And a floor of golden sands,

And wherever soared the cypress,

Underneath it bloomed the rose.

Glimmered there amid the vine trees,

Thoro' cavern, over beach,

Lifelike shadows of a beauty

Which the living know no more,

Towering statures of great heroes,

They who fought at Thebes and Troy;

And with looks that poets dream of

Beam'd the women heroes loved.

Kingly, forth before their comrades,

As the vessel touch'd the shore,

Came the stateliest Two, by Hymen

Ever hallowed into One.

As He strode, the forests trembled

To the awe that crowned his brow:

As She stepp'd, the ocean dimpled

To the ray that left her smile.

"Welcome hither, fearless warrior!"

Said a voice in which there slept

Thunder-sounds to scatter armies,

As a north-wind scatters leaves.

"Welcome hither, wounded sufferer,"

Said a voice of music low

As the coo of doves that nestle

Under summer boughs at noon.

"Who are ye, O shapes of glory?"

Ask'd the wondering living man:

Quoth the Man-ghost, "This is Helen,

And the Fair is for the Brave.

"Fairest prize to bravest victor;

Whom doth Greece her bravest deem?"

Said Leostratus, "Achilles:"

"Bride and bridegroom then are we."

"Low I kneel to thee, Pelides,

But, O marvel, she thy bride,

She whose guilt unpeopled Hellas,

She whose marriage lights fired Troy?"

Frown'd the large front of Achilles,

Overshadowing sea and sky,

Even as when between Olympus

And Oceanus hangs storm.

"Know, thou dullard," said Pelides,

"That on the funereal pyre

Earthly sins are purged from glory,

And the Soul is as the Name."

If to her in life--a Paris,

If to me in life--a slave,

Helen's mate is _here_ Achilles,

Mine--the sister of the stars.

Nought of her survives but beauty,

Nought of me survives but fame;

Here the Beautiful and Famous

Intermingle evermore."

Then throughout the Blessed Island

Sang aloud the Race of Light,

"Know, the Beautiful and Famous

Marry here for evermore!"

"Thy song bears a meaning deeper than its words," said Pausanias; "but

if that meaning be consolation, I comprehend it not."

"I do," said Cleonice. "Singer, I pray thee draw near. Let us talk of

what my lost mother said was the favourite theme of the grander sages

of Miletus. Let us talk of what lies afar and undiscovered amid waters

more troubled than the Euxine. Let us speak of the Land of Souls."

"Who ever returned from that land to tell us of it?" said Pausanias.

"Voyagers that never voyaged thither save in song."

"Son of Cleombrotus," said Alcman, "hast thou not heard that in one of

the cities founded by thine ancestor, Hercules, and named after his

own name, there yet dwells a Priesthood that can summon to living eyes

the Phantoms of the Dead?"

"No," answered Pausanias, with the credulous wonder common to

eager natures which Philosophy has not withdrawn from the realm of

superstition.

"But," asked Cleonice, "does it need the Necromancer to convince us

that the soul does not perish when the breath leaves the lips? If

I judge the burthen of thy song aright, thou art not, O singer,

uninitiated in the divine and consoling doctrines which, emanating, it

is said, from the schools of Miletus, establish the immortality of the

soul, not for Demigods and Heroes only, but for us all; which imply

the soul's purification from earthly sins, in some regions less

chilling and stationary than the sunless and melancholy Hades."

Alcman looked at the girl surprised.

"Art thou not, maiden," said he, "one of the many female disciples

whom the successors of Pythagoras the Samian have enrolled?"

"Nay," said Cleonice, modestly; "but my mother had listened to great

teachers of wisdom, and I speak imperfectly the thoughts I have heard

her utter when she told me she had no terror of the grave."

"Fair Byzantine," returned the Mothon, while Pausanias, leaning his

upraised face on his hand, listened mutely to themes new to his mind

and foreign to his Spartan culture. "Fair Byzantine, we in Lacedaemon,

whether free or enslaved, are not educated to the subtle learning

which distinguishes the intellect of Ionian Sages. But I, born and

licensed to be a poet, converse eagerly with all who swell the stores

which enrich the treasure-house of song. And thus, since we have left

the land of Sparta, and more especially in yon city, the centre of

many tribes and of many minds, I have picked up, as it were, desultory

and scattered notions, which, for want of a fitting teacher, I bind

and arrange for myself as well as I may. And since the ideas that now

float through the atmosphere of Hellas are not confined to the great,

nay, perhaps are less visible to them, than to those whose eyes are

not riveted on the absorbing substances of ambition and power, so I

have learned something, I know not how, save that I have listened and

reflected. And here, where I have heard what sages conjecture of a

world which seems so far off, but to which we are so near that we may

reach it in a moment, my interest might indeed be intense. For what is

this world to him who came into it a slave!"

"Alcman," exclaimed Pausanias, "the foster-brother of the Heracleid is

no more a slave."

The Mothon bowed his head gratefully, but the expression on his face

retained the same calm and sombre resignation.

"Alas," said Cleonice, with the delicacy of female consolation, "who

in this life is really free? Have citizens no thraldom in custom and

law? Are we not all slaves?"

"True. All slaves!" murmured the royal victor. "Envy none, O Alcman.

Yet," he continued gloomily, "what is the life beyond the grave which

sacred tradition and ancient song holds out to us? Not thy silver

island, vain singer, unless it be only for an early race more

immediately akin to the Gods. Shadows in the shade are the dead; at

the best reviving only their habits when on earth, in phantom-like

delusions; aiming spectral darts like Orion at spectral lions; things

bloodless and pulseless; existences followed to no purpose through

eternity, as dreams are through a night. Who cares so to live again?

Not I."

"The sages that now rise around, and speak oracles different from

those heard at Delphi," said Alcman, "treat not thus the Soul's

immortality. They begin by inquiring how creation rose; they seek to

find the primitive element; what that may be they dispute; some say

the fiery, some the airy, some the ethereal element. Their language

here is obscure. But it is a something which forms, harmonizes, works,

and lives on for ever. And of that something is the Soul; creative,

harmonious, active, an element in itself. Out of its development here,

that soul comes on to a new development elsewhere. If here the beginning

lead to that new development in what we call virtue, it moves to light

and joy:--if it can only roll on through the grooves it has here made

for itself, in what we call vice and crime, its path is darkness and

wretchedness."

"In what we call virtue--what we call vice and crime? Ah," said

Pausanias, with a stern sneer, "Spartan virtue, O Alcman, is what a

Helot may call crime. And if ever the Helot rose and shouted freedom,

would he not say, This is virtue? Would the Spartan call it virtue,

too, my foster-brother?"

"Son of Cleombrotus," answered Alcman, "it is not for me to vindicate

the acts of the master; nor to blame the slave who is of my race. Yet

the sage definers of virtue distinguish between the Conscience of

a Polity and that of the Individual Man. Self-preservation is the

instinct of every community, and all the ordinances ascribed to

Lycurgus are designed to preserve the Spartan existence. For what are

the pure Spartan race? a handful of men established as lords in the

midst of a hostile population. Close by the eyrie thine eagle fathers

built in the rocks, hung the silent Amyclae, a city of foes that cost

the Spartans many generations to subdue. Hence thy State was a camp,

its citizens sentinels; its children were brought up from the cradle

to support the stern life to which necessity devoted the men. Hardship

and privation were second nature. Not enough to be brave; vigilance

was equally essential. Every Spartan life was precious; therefore came

the cunning which characterises the Spartan; therefore the boy is

permitted to steal, but punished if detected; therefore the whole

Commonwealth strives to keep aloof from the wars of Greece unless

itself be threatened. A single battle in a common cause might suffice

to depopulate the Spartan race, and leave it at the mercy of the

thousands that so reluctantly own its dominion, Hence the ruthless

determination to crush the spirit, to degrade the class of the

enslaved Helots; hence its dread lest the slumbering brute force of

the Servile find in its own masses a head to teach the consciousness,

and a hand to guide the movements, of its power. These are the

necessities of the Polity, its vices are the outgrowth of its

necessities; and the life that so galls thee, and which has sometimes

rendered mad those who return to it from having known another, and the

danger that evermore surrounds the lords of a sullen multitude, are

the punishments of these vices. Comprehendest thou?"

"I comprehend."

"But individuals have a conscience apart from that of the Community.

Every community has its errors in its laws. No human laws, how

skilfully soever framed, but give to a national character defects as

well as merits, merits as well as defects. Craft, selfishness, cruelty

to the subdued, inhospitable frigidity to neighbours, make the defects

of the Spartan character. But," added Alcman, with a kind of reluctant

anguish in his voice, "the character has its grand virtues, too, or

would the Helots not be the masters? Valour indomitable; grand scorn

of death; passionate ardour for the State which is so severe a mother

to them; antique faith in the sacred altars; sublime devotion to what

is held to be duty. Are these not found in the Spartan beyond all

the Greeks, as thou seest them in thy friend Lysander; in that soul,

stately, pure, compact in its own firm substance as a statue within

a temple is in its Parian stone? But what the Gods ask from man is

virtue in himself, according as he comprehends it. And, therefore,

here all societies are equal; for the Gods pardon in the man the

faults he shares with his Community, and ask from him but the good and

the beautiful, such as the nature of his Community will permit him to

conceive and to accomplish. Thou knowest that there are many kinds of

music--for instance, the Doric, the Aeolian, the Ionian--in Hellas.

The Lydians have their music, the Phrygians theirs too. The Scyth and

the Mede doubtless have their own. Each race prefers the music it

cultivates, and finds fault with the music of other races. And yet a

man who has learned melody and measure, will recognize a music in them

all. So it is with virtue, the music of the human soul. It differs in

differing races. But he who has learned to know what virtue is can

recognize its harmonies, wherever they be heard. And thus the soul

that fulfils its own notions of music, and carries them up to its idea

of excellence, is the master soul; and in the regions to which it goes,

when the breath leaves the lips, it pursues the same are set free from

the trammels that confined, and the false judgments that marred it here.

For then the soul is no longer Spartan, or Ionian, Lydian, Median, or

Scythian. Escaped into the upper air, it is the citizen of universal

freedom and universal light. And hence it does not live as a ghost in

gloomy shades, being merely a pale memory of things that have passed

away; but in its primitive being as an emanation from the one divine

principle which penetrates everywhere, vivifies all things, and enjoys

in all. This is what I weave together from the doctrines of varying

schools; schools that collect from the fields of thought flowers of

different kinds which conceal, by adorning it, the ligament that

unites them all: this, I say, O Pausanias, is my conception of the

soul."

Cleonice rose softly, and taking from her bosom a rose, kissed it

fervently, and laid it at the feet of the singer.

"Were this my soul," cried she, "I would ask thee to bind it in the

wreath."

Vague and troubled thoughts passed meanwhile through the mind of the

Heracleid; old ideas being disturbed and dislodged, the new ones did

not find easy settlement in a brain occupied with ambitious schemes

and a heart agitated by stormy passions. In much superstitious, in

much sceptical, as education had made him the one, and experience but

of worldly things was calculated to make him the other, he followed

not the wing of the philosophy which passed through heights not

occupied by Olympus, and dived into depths where no Tartarus echoed to

the wail of Cocytus.

After a pause he said in his perplexity,

"Well mayst thou own that no Delphian oracle tells thee all this. And

when thou speakest of the Divine Principle as One, dost thou not, O

presumptuous man, depopulate the Halls of Ida? Nay, is it not Zeus

himself whom thou dethronest; is not thy Divine Principle the Fate

which Zeus himself must obey?"

"There is a young man of Clazomenae," answered the singer, "named

Anaxagoras, who avoiding all active life, though of birth the noblest,

gives himself up to contemplation, and whom I have listened to in the

city as he passed through it, on his way into Egypt. And I heard

him say, 'Fate is an empty name.'[28] Fate is blind, the Divine is

All-seeing."

"How!" cried Cleonice. "An empty name--she! Necessity the

All-compelling."

The musician drew from the harp one of the most artful of Sappho's

exquisite melodies.

"What drew forth that music?" he asked, smiling. "My hand and my will

from a genius not present, not visible. Was that genius a blind fate?

no, it was a grand intelligence. Nature is to the Deity what my hand

and will are to the unseen genius of the musician. They obey an

intelligence and they form a music. If creation proceed from an

intelligence, what we call fate is but the consequence of its laws.

And Nature operates not in the external world alone, but in the core

of all life; therefore in the mind of man obeying only what some

supreme intelligence has placed there: therefore in man's mind

producing music or discord, according as he has learned the principles

of harmony, that is, of good. And there be sages who declare that

Intelligence and Love are the same. Yet," added the Mothon, with an

aspect solemnly compassionate, "not the love thou mockest by the name

of Aphrodite. No mortal eye hath ever seen that love within the known

sphere, yet all insensibly feel its reign. What keeps the world

together but affection? What makes the earth bring forth its fruits,

but the kindness which beams in the sunlight and descends in the dews?

What makes the lioness watch over her cubs, and the bird, with all air

for its wanderings, come back to the fledglings in its nest? Strike

love, the conjoiner, from creation, and creation returns to a void.

Destroy love the parental, and life is born but to perish. Where stop

the influence of love or how limit its multiform degrees? Love guards

the fatherland; crowns with turrets the walls of the freeman. What but

love binds the citizens of States together, and frames and heeds the

laws that submit individual liberty to the rule of the common good?

Love creates, love cements, love enters and harmonises all things. And

as like attracts like, so love attracts in the hereafter the loving

souls that conceived it here. From the region where it summons them,

its opposites are excluded. There ceases war; there ceases pain. There

indeed intermingle the beautiful and glorious, but beauty purified

from earthly sin, the glorious resting from earthly toil. Ask ye how

to know on earth where love is really presiding? Not in Paphos, not

in Amathus. Wherever thou seest beauty and good; wherever thou seest

life, and that life pervaded with faculties of joy, there thou seest

love; there thou shouldst recognize the Divinity."

"And where I see misery and hate," said the Spartan, "what should I

recognize there?"

"Master," returned the singer, "can the good come without a struggle?

Is the beautiful accomplished without strife? Recall the tales of

primeval chaos, when, as sang the Ascraean singer, love first darted

into the midst; imagine the heave and throe of joining elements;

conjure up the first living shapes, born of the fluctuating slime and

vapour. Surely they were things incomplete, deformed ghastly fragments

of being, as are the dreams of a maniac. Had creative Love stopped

there, and then, standing on the height of some fair completed world,

had viewed the warring portents, wouldst thou not have said--But these

are the works of Evil and Hate? Love did not stop there, it worked on;

and out of the chaos once ensouled, this glorious world swung itself

into ether, the completed sister of the stars. Again, O my listeners,

contemplate the sculptor, when the block from the granite shaft first

stands rude and shapeless before him. See him in his earlier strife

with the obstinate matter--how uncouth the first outline of limb and

feature; unlovelier often in the rugged commencements of shape, than

when the dumb mass stood shapeless. If the sculptor had stopped there,

the thing might serve as an image for the savage of an abominable

creed, engaged in the sacrifice of human flesh. But he pauses not, he

works on. Stroke by stroke comes from the stone a shape of more beauty

than man himself is endowed with, and in a human temple stands a

celestial image.

"Thus is it with the soul in the mundane sphere; it works its way on

through the adverse matter. We see its work half completed; we cry,

Lo, this is misery, this is hate--because the chaos is not yet a

perfected world, and the stone block is not yet a statue of Apollo.

But for that reason must we pause?--no, we must work on, till the

victory brings the repose.

"All things come into order from the war of contraries--the elements

fight and wrestle to produce the wild flower at our feet; from a wild

flower man hath striven and toiled to perfect the marvellous rose of

the hundred leaves. Hate is necessary for the energies of love, evil

for the activity of good; until, I say, the victory is won, until Hate

and Evil are subdued, as the sculptor subdues the stone; and then

rises the divine image serene for ever, and rests on its pedestal

in the Uranian Temple. Lift thine eyes; that temple is yonder. O

Pausanias, the sculptor's work-room is the earth."

Alcman paused, and sweeping his hand once more over his lyre, chanted

as follows:

"Dewdrop that weepest on the sharp-barbŤd thorn,

Why didst thou fall from Day's golden chalices?

'My tears bathe the thorn,' said the Dewdrop,

'To nourish the bloom of the rose.'

"Soul of the Infant, why to calamity

Comest thou wailing from the calm spirit-source?

'Ask of the Dew,' said the Infant,

'Why it descends on the thorn!'

"Dewdrop from storm, and soul from calamity

Vanish soon--whither? let the Dew answer thee;

'Have not my tears been my glory?

Tears drew me up to the sun.'

"What were thine uses, that thou art glorified?

What did thy tears give, profiting earth or sky?

'There, to the thorn-stem a blossom,

Here, to the Iris a tint.'"

Alcman had modulated the tones of his voice into a sweetness so

plaintive and touching, that, when he paused, the hand-maidens had

involuntarily risen and gathered round, hushed and noiseless. Cleonice

had lowered her veil over her face and bosom; but the heaving of

its tissue betrayed her half-suppressed, gentle sob; and the proud

mournfulness on the Spartan's swarthy countenance had given way to a

soft composure, melancholy still--but melancholy as a lulled, though

dark water, over which starlight steals through disparted cloud.

Cleonice was the first to break the spell which bound them all.

"I would go within," she murmured faintly.

"The sun, now slanting, strikes through the vine-leaves, and blinds me

with its glare."

Pausanias approached timidly, and taking her by the hand, drew her

aside, along one of the grassy alleys that stretched onwards to the

sea.

The handmaidens tarried behind to cluster nearer round the singer.

They forgot he was a slave.

Note:

[28] Anaxagoras was then between 20 and 30 years of age.--See Ritter,

vol. ii., for the sentiment here ascribed to him, and a general view

of his tenets.

CHAPTER II.

"Thou art weeping still, Cleonice!" said the Spartan, "and I have not

the privilege to kiss away thy tears."

"Nay, I weep not," answered the girl, throwing up her veil; and her

face was calm, if still sad--the tear yet on the eyelids, but the

smile upon the lip--[Greek: dakruoen gelaoisa]. "Thy singer has

learned his art from a teacher heavenlier than the Pierides, and its

name is Hope."

"But if I understand him aright," said Pausanias, "the Hope that

inspires him is a goddess who blesses us little on the earth."

As if the Mothon had overheard the Spartan, his voice here suddenly

rose behind them, singing:

"_There_ the Beautiful and Glorious

Intermingle evermore."

Involuntarily both turned. The Mothon seemed as if explaining to the

handmaids the allegory of his marriage song upon Helen and Achilles,

for his hand was raised on high, and again, with an emphasis, he

chanted:

"There, throughout the Blessed Islands,

And amid the Race of Light,

Do the Beautiful and Glorious

Intermingle evermore."

"Canst thou not wait, if thou so lovest me?' said Cleonice, with more

tenderness in her voice than it had ever yet betrayed to him; "life is

very short. Hush!" she continued, checking the passionate interruption

that burst from his lips; "I have something I would confide to thee:

listen. Know that in my childhood I had a dear friend, a maiden a few

years older than myself, and she had the divine gift of trance which

comes from Apollo. Often, gazing into space, her eyes became fixed,

and her frame still as a statue's; then a shiver seized her limbs, and

prophecy broke from her lips. And she told me, in one of these hours,

when, as she said, 'all space and all time seemed spread before her

like a sunlit ocean,' she told me of my future, so far as its leaves

have yet unfolded from the stem of my life. Spartan, she prophesied

that I should see thee--and--" Cleonice paused, blushing, and then

hurried on, "and she told me that suddenly her eye could follow my

fate on the earth no more, that it vanished out of the time and the

space on which it gazed, and saying it she wept, and broke into

funeral song. And therefore, Pausanias, I say life is very short for

me at least--"

"Hold," cried Pausanias; "torture not me, nor delude thyself with the

dreams of a raving girl. Lives she near? Let me visit her with thee,

and I will prove thy prophetess an impostor."

"They whom the Priesthood of Delphi employ throughout Hellas to find

the fit natures for a Pythoness heard of her, and heard herself. She

whom thou callest impostor gives the answer to perplexed nations from

the Pythian shrine. But wherefore doubt her?--where the sorrow? I feel

none. If love does rule the worlds beyond, and does unite souls who

love nobly here, yonder we shall meet, O descendant of Hercules, and

human laws will not part us there."

"Thou die! die before me! thou, scarcely half my years! And I be left

here, with no comfort but a singer's dreamy verse, not even mine

ambition! Thrones would vanish out of earth, and turn to cinders in

thine urn."

"Speak not of thrones," said Cleonice, with imploring softness, "for

the prophetess, too, spake of steps that went towards a throne, and

vanished at the threshold of darkness, beside which sate the Furies.

Speak not of thrones, dream but of glory and Hellas--of what thy soul

tells thee is that virtue which makes life an Uranian music, and thus

unites it to the eternal symphony, as the breath of the single flute

melts when it parts from the instrument into the great concord of the

choir. Knowest thou not that in the creed of the Persians each mortal

is watched on earth by a good spirit and an evil one? And they who

loved us below, or to whom we have done beneficent and gentle deeds,

if they go before us into death, pass to the side of the good spirit,

and strengthen him to save and to bless thee against the malice of the

bad, and the bad is strengthened in his turn by those whom we have

injured. Wouldst thou have all the Greeks whose birthright thou

wouldst barter, whose blood thou wouldst shed for barbaric aid to thy

solitary and lawless power, stand by the side of the evil Fiend?

And what could I do against so many? what could my soul do," added

Cleonice with simple pathos, "by the side of the kinder spirit?"

Pausanias was wholly subdued. He knelt to the girl, he kissed the hem

of her robe, and for the moment ambition, luxury, pomp, pride fled

from his soul, and left there only the grateful tenderness of the man,

and the lofty instincts of the hero. But just then--was it the evil

spirit that sent him?--the boughs of the vine were put aside, and

Gongylus the Eretrian stood before them. His black eyes glittered keen

upon Pausanias, who rose from his knee, startled and displeased.

"What brings thee hither, man?" said the Regent, haughtily.

"Danger," answered Gongylus, in a hissing whisper. "Lose not a

moment--come."

"Danger!" exclaimed Cleonice, tremblingly, and clasping her hands, and

all the human love at her heart was visible in her aspect. "Danger,

and to _him_!"

"Danger is but as the breeze of my native air," said the Spartan,

smiling; "thus I draw it in and thus breathe it away. I follow thee,

Gongylus. Take my greeting, Cleonice--the Good to the Beautiful. Well,

then, keep Alcman yet awhile to sing thy kind face to repose, and this

time let him tune his lyre to songs of a more Dorian strain--songs

that show what a Heracleid thinks of danger." He waved his hand, and

the two men, striding hastily, passed along the vine alley, darkened

its vista for a few minutes, then vanishing down the descent to the

beach, the wide blue sea again lay lone and still before the eyes of

the Byzantine maid.

Chapter III.

Pausanias and the Eretrian halted on the shore.

"Now speak," said the Spartan Regent. "Where is the danger?"

"Before thee," answered Gongylus, and his hand pointed to the ocean.

"I see the fleet of the Greeks in the harbour--I see the flag of

my galley above the forest of their masts. I see detached vessels

skimming along the waves hither and thither as in holiday and sport;

but discipline slackens where no foe dares to show himself. Eretrian,

I see no danger."

"Yet danger is there, and where danger is thou shouldst be. I have

learned from my spies, not an hour since, that there is a conspiracy

formed--a mutiny on the eve of an outburst. Thy place now should be in

thy galley."

"My boat waits yonder in that creek, overspread by the wild shrubs,"

answered Pausanias; "a few strokes of the oar, and I am where thou

seest. And in truth, without thy summons, I should have been on board

ere sunset, seeing that on the morrow I have ordered a general review

of the vessels of the fleet. Was that to be the occasion for the mutiny?"

"So it is supposed."

"I shall see the faces of the mutineers," said Pausanias, with a calm

visage, and an eye which seemed to brighten the very atmosphere. "Thou

shakest thy head; is this all?"

"Thou art not a bird--this moment in one place, that moment in

another. There, with yon armament, is the danger thou canst meet. But

yonder sails a danger which thou canst not, I fear me, overtake."

"Yonder!" said Pausanias, his eye following the hand of the Eretrian.

"I see naught save the white wing of a seagull--perchance, by its dip

into the water, it foretells a storm."

"Farther off than the seagull, and seeming smaller than the white spot

of its wing, seest thou nothing!"

"A dim speck on the farthest horizon, if mine eyes mistake not."

"The speck of a sail that is bound to Sparta, It carries with it a

request for thy recall."

This time the cheek of Pausanias paled, and his voice slightly

faltered as he said,

"Art thou sure of this?"

"So I hear that the Samian captain, Uliades, has boasted at noon in

the public baths."

"A Samian!--is it only a Samian who hath ventured to address to Sparta

a complaint of her General?"

"From what I could gather," replied Gongylus, "the complaint is

more powerfully backed. But I have not as yet heard more, though I

conjecture that Athens has not been silent, and before the vessel

sailed Ionian captains were seen to come with joyous faces from the

lodgings of Cimon."

The Regent's brow grew yet more troubled. "Cimon, of all the Greeks

out of Laconia, is the one whose word would weigh most in Sparta. But

my Spartans themselves are not suspected of privity and connivance in

this mission?"

"It is not said that they are."

Pausanias shaded his face with his hand for a moment in deep thought.

Gongylus continued--"If the Ephors recall thee before the Asian army

is on the frontier, farewell to the sovereignty of Hellas!"

"Ha!" cried Pausanias, "tempt me not. Thinkest thou I need other

tempter than I have here?"--smiting his breast.

Gongylus recoiled in surprise. "Pardon me, Pausanias, but temptation

is another word for hesitation. I dreamed not that I could tempt; I

did not know that thou didst hesitate."

The Spartan remained silent.

"Are not thy messengers on the road to the great king?--nay, perhaps

already they have reached him. Didst thou not say how intolerable to

thee would be life henceforth in the iron thraldom of Sparta--and

now?"

"And now--I forbid thee to question me more. Thou hast performed thy

task, leave me to mine."

He sprang with the spring of the mountain goat from the crag on which

he stood--over a precipitous chasm, lighted on a narrow ledge, from

which a slip of the foot would have been sure death, another bound yet

more fearful, and his whole weight hung suspended by the bough of the

ilex which he grasped with a single hand; then from bough to bough,

from crag to crag, the Eretrian saw him descending till he vanished

amidst the trees that darkened over the fissures at the foot of the

cliff.

And before Gongylus had recovered his amaze at the almost preterhuman

agility and vigour of the Spartan, and his dizzy sense at the

contemplation of such peril braved by another, a boat shot into the

sea from the green creek, and he saw Pausanias seated beside Lysander

on one of the benches, and conversing with him, as if in calm

earnestness, while the ten rowers sent the boat towards the fleet with

the swiftness of an arrow to its goal.

"Lysander," said Pausanias, "hast thou heard that the Ionians have

offered to me the insult of a mission to the Ephors demanding my

recall?"

"No. Who would tell me of insult to thee?"

"But hast thou any conjecture that other Spartans around me, and

who love me less than thou, would approve, nay, have approved, this

embassy of spies and malcontents?"

"I think none have so approved. I fear some would so approve. The

Spartans round thee would rejoice did they know that the pride of

their armies, the Victor of Plataea, were once more within their

walls."

"Even to the danger of Hellas from the Mede?"

"They would rather all Hellas were Medised than Pausanias the

Heracleid."

"Boy, boy," said Pausanias, between his ground teeth, "dost thou not

see that what is sought is the disgrace of Pausanias the Heracleid?

Grant that I am recalled from the head of this armament, and on the

charge of Ionians, and I am dishonoured in the eyes of all Greece.

Dost thou remember in the last Olympiad that when Themistocles, the

only rival now to me in glory, appeared on the Altis, assembled

Greece rose to greet and do him honour? And if I, deposed, dismissed,

appeared at the next Olympiad, how would assembled Greece receive

me? Couldst thou not see the pointed finger and hear the muttered

taunt--That is Pausanias, whom the Ionians banished from Byzantium.

No, I must abide here; I must prosecute the vast plans which shall

dwarf into shadow the petty genius of Themistocles. I must counteract

this mischievous embassy to the Ephors. I must send to them an

ambassador of my own. Lysander, wilt thou go, and burying in thy bosom

thine own Spartan prejudices, deem that thou canst only serve me by

proving the reasons why I should remain here; pleading for me, arguing

for me, and winning my suit?"

"It is for thee to command and for me to obey thee," answered

Lysander, simply. "Is not that the duty of soldier to chief? When

we converse as friends I may contend with thee in speech. When thou

sayest, Do this, I execute thine action. To reason with thee would be

revolt."

Pausanias placed his clasped hands on the young man's shoulder, and

leaving them there, impressively said--

"I select thee for this mission because thee alone can I trust. And of

me hast thou a doubt?--tell me."

"If I saw thee taking the Persian gold I should say that the Demon

had mocked mine eyes with a delusion. Never could I doubt,

unless--unless--"

"Unless what?"

'Thou wert standing under Jove's sky against the arms of Hellas."

"And then, if some other chief bade thee raise thy sword against me,

thou art Spartan and wouldst obey?"

"I am Spartan, and cannot believe that I should ever have a cause, or

listen to a command, to raise my sword against the chief I now serve

and love," replied Lysander.

Pausanias withdrew his hands from the young man's broad shoulder. He

felt humbled beside the quiet truth of that sublime soul. His own

deceit became more black to his conscience. "Methinks," he said

tremulously, "I will not send thee after all--and perhaps the news may

be false."

The boat had now gained the fleet, and steering amidst the crowded

triremes, made its way towards the floating banner of the Spartan

Serpent. More immediately round the General's galley were the vessels

of the Peloponnesian allies, by whom he was still honoured. A

welcoming shout rose from the seamen lounging on their decks as they

caught sight of the renowned Heracleid. Cimon, who was on his own

galley at some distance, heard the shout.

"So Pausanias," he said, turning to the officers round him, "has

deigned to come on board, to direct, I suppose, the manoeuvres for

to-morrow."

"I believe it is but the form of a review for manoeuvres," said

an Athenian officer, "in which Pausanias will inspect the various

divisions of the fleet, and if more be intended, will give the

requisite orders for a subsequent day. No arrangements demanding much

preparation can be anticipated, for Antagoras, the rich Chian, gives

a great banquet this day--a supper to the principal captains of the

Isles."

"A frank and hospitable reveller is Antagoras," answered Cimon. "He

would have extended his invitation to the Athenians--me included--but

in their name I declined."

"May I ask wherefore?" said the officer who had before spoken. "Cimon

is not held averse to wine-cup and myrtle-bough."

"But things are said over some wine-cups and under some

myrtle-boughs," answered Cimon, with a quiet laugh, "which it is

imprudence to hear and would be treason to repeat. Sup with me here on

deck, friends--a supper for sober companions--sober as the Laconian

Syssitia, and let not Spartans say that _our_ manners are spoilt by

the luxuries of Byzantium."

CHAPTER IV.

In an immense peristyle of a house which a Byzantine noble, ruined by

lavish extravagance, had been glad to cede to the accommodation of

Antagoras and other officers of Chios, the young rival of Pausanias

feasted the chiefs of the Aegean. However modern civilization may in

some things surpass the ancient, it is certainly not in luxury and

splendour. And although the Hellenic States had not, at that period,

aimed at the pomp of show and the refinements of voluptuous pleasure

which preceded their decline; and although they never did carry luxury

to the wondrous extent which it reached in Asia, or even in Sicily,

yet even at that time a wealthy sojourner in such a city as Byzantium

could command an entertainment that no monarch in our age would

venture to parade before royal guests, and submit to the criticism of

tax paying subjects.

The columns of the peristyle were of dazzling alabaster, with their

capitals richly gilt. The space above was roofless; but an immense

awning of purple, richly embroidered in Persian looms--a spoil of some

gorgeous Mede--shaded the feasters from the summer sky. The couches on

which the banqueters reclined were of citron wood, inlaid with ivory,

and covered with the tapestries of Asiatic looms. At the four corners

of the vast hall played four fountains, and their spray sparkled to a

blaze of light from colossal candelabra, in which burnt perfumed oil.

The guests were not assembled at a single table, but in small groups;

to each group its tripod of exquisite workmanship. To that feast

of fifty revellers no less than seventy cooks had contributed the

inventions of their art, but under one great master, to whose care

the banquet had been consigned by the liberal host, and who ransacked

earth, sky, and sea for dainties more various than this degenerate age

ever sees accumulated at a single board. And the epicure who has but

glanced over the elaborate page of Athenaeus, must own with melancholy

self-humiliation that the ancients must have carried the art of

flattering the palate to a perfection as absolute as the art which

built the Parthenon, and sculptured out of gold and ivory the Olympian

Jove. But the first course, with its profusion of birds, flesh, and

fishes, its marvellous combinations of forced meats, and inventive

poetry of sauces, was now over. And in the interval preceding that

second course, in which gastronomy put forth its most exquisite

masterpieces, the slaves began to remove the tables, soon to be

replaced. Vessels of fragrant waters, in which the banqueters dipped

their fingers, were handed round; perfumes, which the Byzantine marts

collected from every clime, escaped from their precious receptacles.

Then were distributed the garlands. With these each guest crowned

locks that steamed with odours; and in them were combined the flowers

that most charm the eye, with bud or herb that most guard from the

bead the fumes of wine: with hyacinth and flax, with golden asphodel

and silver lily, the green of ivy and parsley leaf was thus entwined;

and above all the rose, said to convey a delicious coolness to the

temples on which it bloomed. And now for the first time wine came to

heighten the spirits and test the charm of the garlands. Each, as the

large goblet passed to him, poured from the brim, before it touched

his lips, his libation to the good spirit. And as Antagoras, rising

first, set this pious example, out from the further ends of the

hall, behind the fountains, burst a concert of flutes, and the great

Hellenic Hymn of the Paean.

As this ceased, the fresh tables appeared before the banqueters,

covered with all the fruits in season, and with those triumphs in

confectionery, of which honey was the main ingredient, that well

justified the favour in which the Greeks held the bee.

Then, instead of the pure juice of the grape, from which the libation

had been poured, came the wines, mixed at least three parts with

water, and deliciously cooled.

Up again rose Antagoras, and every eye turned to him.

"Companions," said the young Chian, "it is not held in free States

well for a man to seize by himself upon supreme authority. We deem

that a magistracy should only be obtained by the votes of others.

Nevertheless, I venture to think that the latter plan does not always

ensure to us a good master. I believe it was by election that we

Greeks have given to ourselves a generalissimo, not contented, it

is said, to prove the invariable wisdom of that mode of government;

wherefore this seems an occasion to revive the good custom of tyranny.

And I propose to do so in my person by proclaiming myself Symposiarch

and absolute commander in the Commonwealth here assembled. But if ye

prefer the chance of the die--"

"No, no," cried the guests, almost universally; "Antagoras, the

Symposiarch, we submit. Issue thy laws."

"Hearken then, and obey. First, then, as to the strength of the wine.

Behold the crater in which there are three Naiades to one Dionysos. He

is a match for them; not for more. No man shall put into his wine more

water than the slaves have mixed. Yet if any man is so diffident of

the god that he thinks three Naiades too much for him, he may omit one

or two, and let the wine and the water fight it out upon equal terms.

So much for the quality of the drink. As to quantity, it is a question

to be deliberated hereafter. And now this cup to Zeus the Preserver."

The toast went round.

"Music, and the music of Lydia!" then shouted Antagoras, and resumed

his place on the couch beside Uliades.

The music proceeded, the wines circled.

"Friend," whispered Uliades to the host, "thy father left thee wines,

I know. But if thou givest many banquets like this, I doubt if thou

wilt leave wines to thy son."

"I shall die childless, perhaps," answered the Chian; "and any friend

will give me enough to pay Charon's fee across the Styx."

"That is a melancholy reflection," said Uliades, "and there is no

subject of talk that pleases me less than that same Styx. Why dost

thou bite thy lip, and choke the sigh? By the Gods! art thou not

happy?"

"Happy!" repeated Antagoras, with a bitter smile. "Oh, yes!"

"Good! Cleonice torments thee no more. I myself have gone through thy

trials; ay, and oftentimes. Seven times at Samos, five at Rhodes,

once at Miletus, and forty-three times at Corinth, have I been an

impassioned and unsuccessful lover. Courage; I love still."

Antagoras turned away. By this time the hall was yet more crowded,

for many not invited to the supper came, as was the custom with the

Greeks, to the Symposium; but these were all of the Ionian race.

"The music is dull without the dancers," cried the host. "Ho, there!

the dancing girls. Now would I give all the rest of my wealth to see

among these girls one face that yet but for a moment could make me

forget--" "Forget what, or whom?" said Uliades; "not Cleonice?"

"Man, man, wilt thou provoke me to strangle thee?" muttered

Antagoras.

Uliades edged himself away.

"Ungrateful!" he cried. "What are a hundred Byzantine girls to one

tried male friend?"

"I will not be ungrateful, Uliades, if thou stand by my side against

the Spartan."

"Thou art, then, bent upon this perilous hazard?"

"Bent on driving Pausanias from Byzantium, or into Hades--yes."

"Touch!" said Uliades, holding out his right hand. "By Cypris, but

these girls dance like the daughters of Oceanus; every step undulates

as a wave."

Antagoras motioned to his cup-bearer. "Tell the leader of that dancing

choir to come hither." The cupbearer obeyed.

A man with a solemn air came to the foot of the Chian's couch, bowing

low. He was an Egyptian--one of the meanest castes.

"Swarthy friend," said Antagoras, "didst thou ever hear of the Pyrrhic

dance of the Spartans?"

"Surely, of all dances am I teacher and preceptor."

"Your girls know it, then?"

"Somewhat, from having seen it; but not from practice. 'Tis a male

dance and a warlike dance, O magnanimous, but, in this instance,

untutored, Chian!"

"Hist, and listen." Antagoras whispered. The Egyptian nodded his head,

returned to the dancing girls, and when their measure had ceased,

gathered them round him.

Antagoras again rose.

"Companions, we are bound now to do homage to our masters--the

pleasant, affable and familiar warriors of Sparta."

At this the guests gave way to their applauding laughter.

"And therefore these delicate maidens will present to us that flowing

and Amathusian dance, which the Graces taught to Spartan sinews. Ho,

there! begin."

The Egyptian had by this time told the dancers what they were expected

to do; and they came forward with an affectation of stern dignity, the

burlesque humour of which delighted all those lively revellers. And

when with adroit mimicry their slight arms and mincing steps mocked

that grand and masculine measure so associated with images of Spartan

austerity and decorum, the exhibition became so humorously ludicrous,

that perhaps a Spartan himself would have been compelled to laugh at

it. But the merriment rose to its height, when the Egyptian, who had

withdrawn for a few minutes, reappeared with a Median robe and mitred

cap, and calling out in his barbarous African accent, "Way for the

conqueror!" threw into his mien and gestures all the likeness to

Pausanias himself, which a practised mime and posture-master could

attain. The laughter of Antagoras alone was not loud--it was low and

sullen, as if sobs of rage were stifling it; but his eye watched the

effect produced, and it answered the end he had in view.

As the dancers now, while the laughter was at its loudest roar,

vanished behind the draperies, the host rose, and his countenance was

severe and grave--

"Companions, one cup more, and let it be to Harmodius and Aristogiton.

Let the song in their honour come only from the lips of free citizens,

of our Ionian comrades. Uliades, begin. I pass to thee a myrtle bough;

and under it I pass a sword."

Then he began the famous hymn ascribed to Callistratus, commencing

with a clear and sonorous voice, and the guests repeating each stanza

after him with the enthusiasm which the words usually produced among

the Hellenic republicans:

I in a myrtle bough the sword will carry,

As did Harmodius and Aristogiton;

When they the tyrant slew,

And back to Athens gave her equal laws.

Thou art in nowise dead, best-loved Harmodius;

Isles of the Blessed are, they say, thy dwelling,

There swift Achilles dwells,

And there, they say, with thee dwells Diomed.

I in a myrtle bough the sword will carry,

As did Harmodius and Aristogiton,

When to Athene's shrine

They gave their sacrifice--a tyrant man.

Ever on earth for both of you lives glory,

O loved Harmodius, loved Aristogiton,

For ye the tyrant slew,

And back to Athens ye gave equal laws.

When the song had ceased, the dancers, the musicians, the attendant

slaves had withdrawn from the hall, dismissed by a whispered order

from Antagoras.

He, now standing up, took from his brows the floral crown, and first

sprinkling them with wine, replaced the flowers by a wreath of

poplar. The assembly, a little while before so noisy, was hushed into

attentive and earnest silence. The action of Antagoras, the expression

of his countenance, the exclusion of the slaves, prepared all present

for something more than the convivial address of a Symposiarch.

"Men and Greeks," said the Chian, "on the evening before Teucer led

his comrades in exile over the wide waters to found a second Salamis,

he sprinkled his forehead with Lyaean dews, being crowned with the

poplar leaves--emblems of hardihood and contest; and, this done, he

invited his companions to dispel their cares for the night, that their

hearts might with more cheerful hope and bolder courage meet what the

morrow might bring to them on the ocean. I imitate the ancient hero,

in honour less of him than of the name of Salamis. We, too, have a

Salamis to remember, and a second Salamis to found. Can ye forget

that, had the advice of the Spartan leader Eurybiades been adopted,

the victory of Salamis would never have been achieved? He was for

retreat to the Isthmus; he was for defending the Peloponnese, because

in the Peloponnesus was the unsocial selfish Sparta, and leaving the

rest of Hellas to the armament of Xerxes. Themistocles spoke against

the ignoble counsel; the Spartan raised his staff to strike him. Ye

know the Spartan manners. 'Strike if you will, but hear me,' cried

Themistocles. He was heard, Xerxes was defeated, and Hellas saved.

"I am not Themistocles; nor is there a Spartan staff to silence free

lips. But I too say, Hear me! for a new Salamis is to be won. What

was the former Salamis?--the victory that secured independence to the

Greeks, and delivered them from the Mede and the Medising traitors.

Again we must fight a Salamis. Where, ye say, is the Mede?--not at

Byzantium, it is true, in person; but the Medising traitor is here."

A profound sensation thrilled through the assembly.

"Enough of humility do the maritime Ionians practise when they accept

the hegemony of a Spartan landsman; enough of submission do the free

citizens of Hellas show when they suffer the imperious Dorian to

sentence them to punishments only fit for slaves. But when the Spartan

appears in the robes of the Mede, when the imperious Dorian places in

the government of a city, which our joint arms now occupy, a recreant

who has changed an Eretrian birthright for a Persian satrapy; when

prisoners, made by the valour of all Hellas, mysteriously escape the

care of the Lacedaemonian, who wears their garb, and imitates their

manners--say, O ye Greeks, O ye warriors, if there is no second

Salamis to conquer!"

The animated words, and the wine already drunk, produced on the

banqueters an effect sudden, electrical, universal. They had come to

the hall gay revellers; they were prepared to leave the hall stern

conspirators.

Their hoarse murmur was as the voice of the sea before a storm.

Antagoras surveyed them with a fierce joy, and, with a change of tone,

thus continued: "Ye understand me, ye know already that a delivery

is to be achieved. I pass on: I submit to your wisdom the mode of

achieving it. While I speak, a swift-sailing vessel bears to Sparta

the complaints of myself, of Uliades, and of many Ionian captains here

present, against the Spartan general. And although the Athenian chiefs

decline to proffer complaints of their own, lest their State, which has

risked so much for the common cause, be suspected of using the

admiration it excites for the purpose of subserving its ambition, yet

Cimon, the young son of the great Miltiades, who has ties of friendship

and hospitality with families of high mark in Sparta, has been persuaded

to add to our public statement a private letter to the effect, that

speaking for himself, not in the name of Athens, he deems our complaints

justly founded, and the recall of Pausanias expedient for the discipline

of the armament. But can we say what effect this embassy may have upon a

sullen and haughty government; against, too, a royal descendant of

Hercules; against the general who at Plataea flattered Sparta with a

renown to which her absence from Marathon, and her meditated flight from

Salamis, gave but disputable pretensions?"

"And," interrupted Uliades, rising, "and--if, O Antagoras, I may crave

pardon for standing a moment between thee and thy guests--and this is

not all, for even if they recall Pausanias, they may send us another

general as bad, and without the fame which somewhat reconciles our

Ionian pride to the hegemony of a Dorian. Now, whatever my quarrel

with Pausanias, I am less against a man than a principle. I am a

seaman, and against the principle of having for the commander of the

Greek fleet a Spartan who does not know how to handle a sail. I am an

Ionian, and against the principle of placing the Ionian race under the

imperious domination of a Dorian. Therefore I say, now is the moment

to emancipate our blood and our ocean--the one from an alien, the

other from a landsman. And the hegemony of the Spartan should pass

away."

Uliades sat down with an applause more clamorous than had greeted the

eloquence of Antagoras, for the pride of race and of special calling

is ever more strong in its impulses than hatred to a single man. And

despite of all that could be said against Pausanias, still these

warriors felt awe for his greatness, and remembered that at Plataea,

where all were brave, he had been proclaimed the bravest.

Antagoras, with the quickness of a republican Greek, trained from

earliest youth to sympathy with popular assemblies, saw that Uliades

had touched the right key, and swallowed down with a passionate gulp

his personal wrath against his rival, which might otherwise have been

carried too far, and have lost him the advantage he had gained.

"Rightly and wisely speaks Uliades," said he. "Our cause is that of

our whole race; and clear has that true Samian made it to you all, O

Ionians and captains of the seas, that we must not wait for the lordly

answer Sparta may return to our embassage. Ye know that while night

lasts we must return to our several vessels; an hour more, and we

shall be on deck. To-morrow Pausanias reviews the fleet, and we may be

some days before we return to land, and can meet in concert. Whether

to-morrow or later the occasion for action may present itself, is a

question I would pray you to leave to those whom you entrust with the

discretionary power to act."

"How act?" cried a Lesbian officer.

"Thus would I suggest," said Antagoras, with well dissembled humility;

"let the captains of one or more Ionian vessels perform such a deed of

open defiance against Pausanias as leaves to them no option between

death and success; having so done, hoist a signal, and sailing at once

to the Athenian ships, place themselves under the Athenian leader; all

the rest of the Ionian captains will then follow their example. And

then, too numerous and too powerful to be punished for a revolt, we

shall proclaim a revolution, and declare that we will all sail back

to our native havens unless we have the liberty of choosing our own

hegemon."

"But," said the Lesbian who had before spoken, "the Athenians as yet

have held back and declined our overtures, and without them we are not

strong enough to cope with the Peloponnesian allies."

"The Athenians will be compelled to protect the Ionians, if the

Ionians in sufficient force demand it," said Uliades. "For as we are

nought without them, they are nought without us. Take the course

suggested by Antagoras: I advise it. Ye know me, a plain man, but

I speak not without warrant. And before the Spartans can either

contemptuously dismiss our embassy or send us out another general, the

Ionian will be the mistress of the Hellenic seas, and Sparta, the land

of oligarchies, will no more have the power to oligarchize democracy.

Otherwise, believe me, that power she has now from her hegemony, and

that power, whenever it suit her, she will use."

Uliades was chiefly popular in the fleet as a rough good seaman, as a

blunt and somewhat vulgar humourist. But whenever he gave advice, the

advice carried with it a weight not always bestowed upon superior

genius, because from the very commonness of his nature, he reached at

the common sense and the common feelings of those whom he addressed.

He spoke, in short, what an ordinary man thought and felt. He was a

practical man, brave but not over-audacious, not likely to run himself

or others into idle dangers, and when he said he had a warrant for

his advice, he was believed to speak from his knowledge of the course

which the Athenian chiefs, Aristides and Cimon, would pursue if the

plan recommended were actively executed.

"I am convinced," said the Lesbian. "And since all are grateful to

Athens for that final stand against the Mede, to which all Greece owes

her liberties, and since the chief of her armaments here is a man of

so modest a virtue, and so clement a justice, as we all acknowledge

in Aristides, fitting is it for us Ionians to constitute Athens the

maritime sovereign of our race."

"Are ye all of that mind?" cried Antagoras, and was answered by the

universal shout, "We are---all!" or if the shout was not universal,

none heeded the few whom fear or prudence might keep silent. "All that

remains then is to appoint the captain who shall hazard the first

danger and make the first signal. For my part, as one of the electors,

I give my vote for Uliades, and this is my ballot." He took from his

temples the poplar wreath, and cast it into a silver vase on the

tripod placed before him.

"Uliades by acclamation!" cried several voices.

"I accept," said the Ionian, "and as Ulysses, a prudent man, asked for

a colleague in enterprises of danger, so I ask for a companion in the

hazard I undertake, and I select Antagoras."

This choice received the same applauding acquiescence as that which

had greeted the nomination of the Ionian.

And in the midst of the applause was heard without the sharp shrill

sound of the Phrygian pipe.

"Comrades," said Antagoras, "ye hear the summons to our ships? Our

boats are waiting at the steps of the quay, by the Temple of Neptune.

Two sentences more, and then to sea. First, silence and fidelity;

the finger to the lip, the right hand raised to Zeus Horkios. For a

pledge, here is an oath. Secondly, be this the signal: whenever ye

shall see Uliades and myself steer our triremes out of the line in

which they may be marshalled, look forth and watch breathless, and the

instant you perceive that beside our flags of Samos and Chios we hoist

the ensign of Athens, draw off from your stations, and follow the wake

of our keels, to the Athenian navy. Then, as the Gods direct us. Hark,

a second time shrills the fife."

CHAPTER V

At the very hour when the Ionian captains were hurrying towards their

boats, Pausanias was pacing his decks alone, with irregular strides,

and through the cordage and the masts the starshine came fitfully on

his troubled features. Long undecided he paused, as the waves sparkled

to the stroke of oars, and beheld the boats of the feasters making

towards the division of the fleet in which lay the navy of the isles.

Farther on, remote and still, anchored the ships of Athens. He

clenched his hand, and turned from the sight.

"To lose an empire," he muttered, "and without a struggle; an empire

over yon mutinous rivals, over yon happy and envied Athens: an

empire--where its limits?--if Asia puts her armies to my lead, why

should not Asia be Hellenized, rather than Hellas be within the

tribute of the Mede? Dull--dull stolid Sparta! methinks I could

pardon the slavery thou inflictest on my life, didst thou but leave

unshackled my intelligence. But each vast scheme to be thwarted, every

thought for thine own aggrandisement beyond thy barren rocks, met and

inexorably baffled by a selfish aphorism, a cramping saw--'Sparta is

wide eno' for Spartans.'--'Ocean is the element of the fickle.'--'What

matters the ascendancy of Athens?--it does not cross the

Isthmus.'--'Venture nothing where I want nothing.' Why, this is the

soul's prison! Ah, had I been born Athenian, I had never uttered a

thought against my country. She and I would have expanded and aspired

together."

Thus arguing with himself, he at length confirmed his resolve, and

with a steadfast step entered his pavilion. There, not on broidered

cushions, but by preference on the hard floor, without coverlid, lay

Lysander calmly sleeping, his crimson warlike cloak, weather-stained,

partially wrapt around him; no pillow to his head but his own right

arm.

By the light of the high lamp that stood within the pavilion,

Pausanias contemplated the slumberer.

"He says he loves me, and yet can sleep," he murmured bitterly. Then

seating himself before a table he began to write, with slowness and

precision, whether as one not accustomed to the task or weighing every

word.

When he had concluded, he again turned his eyes to the sleeper. "How

tranquil! Was, my sleep ever as serene? I will not disturb him to the

last."

The fold of the curtain was drawn aside, and Alcman entered

noiselessly.

"Thou hast obeyed?" whispered Pausanias.

"Yes; the ship is ready, the wind favours. Hast thou decided?"

"I have," said Pausanias, with compressed lips.

He rose, and touched Lysander, lightly, but the touch sufficed;

the sleeper woke on the instant, casting aside slumber easily as a

garment.

"My Pausanias," said the young Spartan, "I am at thine orders--shall I

go? Alas! I read thine eye, and I shall leave thee in peril."

"Greater peril in the council of the Ephors and in the babbling lips

of the hoary Gerontes, than amidst the meeting of armaments. Thou wilt

take this letter to the Ephors. I have said in it but little; I have

said that I confide my cause to thee. Remember that thou insist on

the disgrace to me--the Heracleid, and through me to Sparta, that

my recall would occasion; remember that thou prove that my alleged

harshness is but necessary to the discipline that preserves armies,

and to the ascendancy of Spartan rule. And as to the idle tale of

Persian prisoners escaped, why thou knowest how even the Ionians could

make nothing of that charge. Crowd all sail, strain every oar, no ship

in the fleet so swift as that which bears thee. I care not for the few

hours' start the talebearers have. Our Spartan forms are slow; they

can scarce have an audience ere thou reach. The Gods speed and guard

thee, beloved friend. With thee goes all the future of Pausanias."

Lysander grasped his hand in a silence more eloquent than words, and

a tear fell on that hand which he clasped. "Be not ashamed of it," he

said then, as he turned away, and, wrapping his cloak round his face,

left the pavilion. Alcman followed, lowered a boat from the side, and

in a few moments the Spartan and the Mothon were on the sea. The boat

made to a vessel close at hand--a vessel builded in Cyprus, manned by

Bithynians; its sails were all up, but it bore no flag. Scarcely had

Lysander climbed the deck than it heaved to and fro, swaying as the

anchor was drawn up, then, righting itself, sprang forward, like a

hound unleashed for the chase. Pausanias with folded arms stood on the

deck of his own vessel, gazing after it, gazing long, till shooting

far beyond the fleet, far towards the melting line between sea and

sky, it grew less and lesser, and as the twilight dawned, it had faded

into space.

The Heracleid turned to Alcman, who, after he had conveyed Lysander to

the ship, had regained his master's side.

"What thinkest thou, Alcman, will be the result of all this?"

"The emancipation of the Helots," said the Mothon quietly. "The

Athenians are too near thee, the Persians are too far. Wouldst thou

have armies Sparta can neither give nor take away from thee, bind to

thee a race by the strongest of human ties--make them see in thy power

the necessary condition of their freedom."

Pausanias made no answer. He turned within his pavilion, and flinging

himself down on the same spot from which he had disturbed Lysander,

said, "Sleep here was so kind to him that it may linger where he left

it. I have two hours yet for oblivion before the sun rise."

CHAPTER VI.

If we were enabled minutely to examine the mental organization of men

who have risked great dangers, whether by the impulse of virtue, or

in the perpetration of crime, we should probably find therein a large

preponderance of hope. By that preponderance we should account for

those heroic designs which would annihilate prudence as a calculator,

did not a sanguine confidence in the results produce special energies

to achieve them, and thus create a prudence of its own, being as it

were the self-conscious admeasurement of the diviner strength which

justified the preterhuman spring. Nor less should we account by the

same cause for that audacity which startles us in criminals on a

colossal scale, which blinds them to the risks of detection, and often

at the bar of justice, while the evidences that ensure condemnation

are thickening round them, with the persuasion of acquittal or escape.

Hope is thus alike the sublime inspirer or the arch corrupter; it is

the foe of terror, the defier of consequences, the buoyant gamester

which at every loss doubles the stakes, with a firm hand rattles the

dice, and, invoking ruin, cries within itself, "How shall I expend the

gain?"

In the character, therefore, of a man like Pausanias, risking so

much glory, daring so much peril, strong indeed must have been this

sanguine motive power of human action. Nor is a large and active

development of hope incompatible with a temperament habitually grave

and often profoundly melancholy. For hope itself is often engendered

by discontent. A vigorous nature keenly susceptible to joy, and

deprived of the possession of the joy it yearns for by circumstances

that surround it in the present, is goaded on by its impatience

and dissatisfaction; it hopes for the something it has not got,

indifferent to the things it possesses, and saddened by the want which

it experiences. And therefore it has been well said by philosophers,

that real happiness would exclude desire; in other words, not only at

the gates of hell, but at the porch of heaven, he who entered would

leave hope behind him. For perfect bliss is but supreme content. And

if content could say to itself,--"But I hope for something more," it

would destroy its own existence.

From his brief slumber the Spartan rose refreshed. The trumpets were

sounding near him, and the very sound brightened his aspect, and

animated his spirits.

Agreeably to orders he had given the night before, the anchor was

raised, the rowers were on their benches, the libation to the Carnean

Apollo, under whose special protection the ship was placed, had been

poured forth, and with the rising sea and to the blare of trumpets the

gorgeous trireme moved forth from the bay.

It moved, as the trumpets ceased, to the note of a sweeter, but not

less exciting music. For, according to Hellenic custom, to the rowers

was allotted a musician, with whose harmony their oars, when first

putting forth to sea, kept time. And on this occasion Alcman

superseded the wonted performer by his own more popular song and the

melody of his richer voice. Standing by the mainmast, and holding

the large harp, which was stricken by the quill, its strings being

deepened by a sounding-board, he chanted an Io Paean to the Dorian god

of light and poesy. The harp at stated intervals was supported by a

burst of flutes, and the burthen of the verse was caught up by the

rowers as in chorus. Thus, far and wide over the shining waves, went

forth the hymn.

Io, Io Paean! slowly. Song and oar must chime together:

Io, Io Paean! by what title call Apollo!

Clarian? Xanthian? BoŽdromian?

Countless are thy names, Apollo,

Io CarnŽe! Io CarnŽe!

By the margent of Eurotas,

'Neath the shadows of Tšygetus,

Thee the sons of Lacedaemon

Name Carneus. Io, Io!

Io CarnŽe! Io CarnŽe!

Io, Io Paean! quicker. Song and voice must chime together:

Io Paean! Io Paean! King Apollo, Io, Io!

Io CarnŽe!

For thine altars do the seasons

Paint the tributary flowers,

Spring thy hyacinth restores,

Summer greets thee with the rose,

Autumn the blue Cyane mingles

With the coronals of corn,

And in every wreath thy laurel

Weaves its everlasting green.

Io CarnŽe! Io CarnŽe!

For the brows Apollo favours

Spring and winter does the laurel

Weave its everlasting green.

Io, Io Paean! louder. Voice and oar must chime together:

For the brows Apollo favours

Even Ocean bears the laurel.

Io CarnŽe! Io CarnŽe!

Io, Io Paean! stronger. Strong are those who win the laurel.

As the ship of the Spartan commander thus bore out to sea, the other

vessels of the armament had been gradually forming themselves into a

crescent, preserving still the order in which the allies maintained

their several contributions to the fleet, the Athenian ships at the

extreme end occupying the right wing, the Peloponnesians massed

together at the left.

The Chian galleys adjoined the Samian; for Uliades and Antagoras had

contrived that their ships should be close to each other, so that they

might take counsel at any moment and act in concert.

And now when the fleet had thus opened its arms as it were to receive

the commander, the great trireme of Pausanias began to veer round, and

to approach the half moon of the expanded armament. On it came, with

its beaked prow, like a falcon swooping down on some array of the

lesser birds.

From the stern hung a gilded shield and a crimson pennon. The

heavy-armed soldiers in their Spartan mail occupied the centre of the

vessel, and the sun shone full upon their armour.

"By Pallas the guardian," said Cimon, "it is the Athenian vessels that

the strategus honours with his first visit."

And indeed the Spartan galley now came alongside that of Aristides,

the admiral of the Athenian navy.

The soldiers on board the former gave way on either side. And a murmur

of admiration circled through the Athenian ship, as Pausanias

suddenly appeared. For, as if bent that day on either awing mutiny or

conciliating the discontented, the Spartan chief had wisely laid aside

the wondrous Median robes. He stood on her stern in the armour he had

worn at Plataea, resting one hand upon his shield, which itself rested

on the deck. His head alone was uncovered, his long sable locks

gathered up into a knot, in the Spartan fashion, a crest as it were

in itself to that lofty head. And so imposing were his whole air and

carriage, that Cimon, gazing at him, muttered, "What profane hand will

dare to rob that demigod of command?"

CHAPTER VII

Pausanias came on board the vessel of the Athenian admiral, attended

by the five Spartan chiefs who have been mentioned before as the

warlike companions assigned to him. He relaxed the haughty demeanour

which had given so much displeasure, adopting a tone of marked

courtesy. He spoke with high and merited praise of the seaman-like

appearance of the Athenian crews, and the admirable build and

equipment of their vessels.

"Pity only," said he, smiling, "that we have no Persians on the ocean

now, and that instead of their visiting us we must go in search of

them."

"Would that be wise on our part?" said Aristides. "Is not Greece large

enough for Greeks?"

"Greece has not done growing," answered the Spartan; "and the Gods

forbid that she should do so. When man ceases to grow in height he

expands in bulk; when he stops there too, the frame begins to stoop,

the muscles to shrink, the skin to shrivel, and decrepit old age

steals on. I have heard it said of the Athenians that they think

nothing done while aught remains to do. Is it not truly said, worthy

son of Miltiades?"

Cimon bowed his head. "General, I cannot disavow the sentiment. But if

Greece entered Asia, would it not be as a river that runs into a sea?

it expands, and is merged."

"The river, Cimon, may lose the sweetness of its wave and take the

brine of the sea. But the Greek can never lose the flavour of the

Greek genius, and could he penetrate the universe, the universe would

be Hellenized. But if, O Athenian chiefs, ye judge that we have now

done all that is needful to protect Athens, and awe the Barbarian, ye

must be longing to retire from the armament and return to your homes."

"When it is fit that we should return, we shall be recalled," said

Aristides quietly.

"What, is your State so unerring in its judgment? Experience does not

permit me to think so, for it ostracised Aristides."

"An honour," replied the Athenian, "that I did not deserve, but an

action that, had I been the adviser of those who sent me forth, I

should have opposed as too lenient. Instead of ostracising me, they

should have cast both myself and Themistocles into the Barathrum."

"You speak with true Attic honour, and I comprehend that where, in

commonwealths constituted like yours, party runs high, and the State

itself is shaken, ostracism may be a necessary tribute to the very

virtues that attract the zeal of a party and imperil the equality ye

so prize. But what can compensate to a State for the evil of depriving

itself of its greatest citizens?"

"Peace and freedom," said Aristides. "If you would have the young

trees thrive you must not let one tree be so large as to overshadow

them. Ah, general at Plataea," added the Athenian, in a benignant

whisper, for the grand image before him moved his heart with a mingled

feeling of generous admiration and prophetic pity, "ah, pardon me if I

remind thee of the ring of Polycrates, and say that Fortune is a queen

that requires tribute. Man should tremble most when most seemingly

fortune-favoured, and guard most against a fall when his rise is at

the highest."

"But it is only at its highest flight that the eagle is safe from the

arrow," answered Pausanias.

"And the nest the eagle has forgotten in her soaring is the more

exposed to the spoiler."

"Well, my nest is in rocky Sparta; hardy the spoiler who ventures

thither. Yet, to descend from these speculative comparisons, it seems

that thou hast a friendly and meaning purpose in thy warnings. Thou

knowest that there are in this armament men who grudge to me whatever

I now owe to Fortune, who would topple me from the height to which I

did not climb, but was led by the congregated Greeks, and who, while

perhaps they are forging arrowheads for the eagle, have sent to place

poison and a snare in its distant nest. So the Nausicaa is on

its voyage to Sparta, conveying to the Ephors complaints against

me--complaints from men who fought by my side against the Mede."

"I have heard that a Cyprian vessel left the fleet yesterday, bound

to Laconia. I have heard that it does bear men charged by some of the

Ionians with representations unfavourable to the continuance of thy

command. It bears none from me as the Nauarchus of the Athenians.

But--"

"But--what?"

"But I have complained to thyself, Pausanias, in vain."

"Hast thou complained of late, and in vain?"

"Nay."

"Honest men may err; if they amend, do just men continue to accuse?"

"I do not accuse, Pausanias, I but imply that those who do may have a

cause, but it will be heard before a tribunal of thine own countrymen,

and doubtless thou hast sent to the tribunal those who may meet the

charge on thy behalf."

"Well," said Pausanias, still preserving his studied urbanity and

lofty smile, "even Agamemnon and Achilles quarrelled, but Greece took

Troy not the less. And at least, since Aristides does not denounce me,

if I have committed even worse faults than Agamemnon, I have not made

an enemy of Achilles. And if," he added after a pause, "if some of

these Ionians, not waiting for the return of their envoys, openly

mutiny, they must be treated as Thersites was." Then he hurried

on quickly, for observing that Cimon's brow lowered, and his lips

quivered, he desired to cut off all words that might lead to

altercation.

"But I have a request to ask of the Athenian Nauarchus. Will you

gratify myself and the fleet by putting your Athenian triremes into

play? Your seamen are so famous for their manoeuvres, that they might

furnish us with sports of more grace and agility than do the Lydian

dancers. Landsman though I be, no sight more glads mine eye, than

these sea lions of pine and brass, bounding under the yoke of their

tamers. I presume not to give thee instructions what to perform. Who

can dictate to the seamen of Salamis? But when your ships have

played out their martial sport, let them exchange stations with the

Peloponnesian vessels, and occupy for the present the left of the

armament. Ye object not?"

"Place us where thou wilt, as was said to thee at Plataea," answered

Aristides.

"I now leave ye to prepare, Athenians, and greet ye, saying, the Good

to the Beautiful" "A wondrous presence for a Greek commander!" said

Cimon, as Pausanias again stood on the stern of his own vessel, which

moved off towards the ships of the islands.

"And no mean capacity," returned Aristides. "See you not his object in

transplacing us?"

"Ha, truly; in case of mutiny on board the Ionian ships, he separates

them from Athens. But woe to him if he thinks in his heart that an

Ionian is a Thersites, to be silenced by the blow of a sceptre.

Meanwhile let the Greeks see what manner of seamen are the Athenians.

Methinks this game ordained to us is a contest before Neptune, and for

a crown."

Pausanias bore right on towards the vessels from the Aegaean Isles.

Their masts and prows were heavy with garlands, but no music sounded

from their decks, no welcoming shout from their crews.

"Son of Cleombrotus," said the prudent Erasinidas, "sullen dogs bite.

Unwise the stranger who trusts himself to their kennel. Pass not to

those triremes; let the captains, if thou wantest them, come to thee."

Pausanias replied, "Dogs fear the steady eye and spring at the

recreant back. Helmsman, steer to yonder ship with the olive tree on

the Parasemon, and the image of Bacchus on the guardian standard. It

is the ship of Antagoras the Chian captain."

Pausanias turned to his warlike Five. "This time, forgive me, I go

alone." And before their natural Spartan slowness enabled them to

combat this resolution, their leader was by the side of his rival,

alone in the Chian vessel, and surrounded by his sworn foes.

"Antagoras," said the Spartan, "a Chian seaman's ship is his dearest

home. I stand on thy deck as at thy hearth, and ask thy hospitality; a

crust of thy honied bread, and a cup of thy Chian wine. For from

thy ship I would see the Athenian vessels go through their nautical

gymnastics."

The Chian turned pale and trembled; his vengeance was braved and

foiled. He was powerless against the man who trusted to his honour,

and asked to break of his bread and eat of his cup. Pausanias did not

appear to heed the embarrassment of his unwilling host, but turning

round, addressed some careless words to the soldiers on the raised

central platform, and then quietly seated himself, directing his eyes

towards the Athenian ships Upon these all the sails were now lowered.

In nice manoeuvres the seamen preferred trusting to their oars.

Presently one vessel started forth, and with a swiftness that seemed

to increase at every stroke.

A table was brought upon deck and placed before Pausanias, and the

slaves began to serve to him such light food as sufficed to furnish

the customary meal of the Greeks in the earlier forenoon.

"But where is mine host?" asked the Spartan. "Does Antagoras himself

not deign to share a meal with his guest?"

On receiving the message, Antagoras had no option but to come forward.

The Spartan eyed him deliberately, and the young Chian felt with

secret rage the magic of that commanding eye.

Pausanias motioned to him to be seated, making room beside himself.

The Chian silently obeyed.

"Antagoras," said the Spartan in a low voice, "thou art doubtless one

of those who have already infringed the laws of military discipline

and obedience. Interrupt me not yet. A vessel without waiting my

permission has left the fleet with accusations against me, thy

commander; of what nature I am not even advised. Thou wilt scarcely

deny that thou art one of those who sent forth the ship and shared in

the accusations. Yet I had thought that if I had ever merited thine

ill will, there had been reconciliation between us in the Council

Hall. What has chanced since? Why shouldst thou hate me? Speak

frankly; frankly have I spoken to thee."

"General," replied Antagoras, "there is no hegemony over men's hearts;

thou sayest truly, as man to man, I hate thee. Wherefore? Because

as man to man, thou standest between me and happiness. Because thou

wooest, and canst only woo to dishonour, the virgin in whom I would

seek the sacred wife."

Pausanias slightly recoiled, and the courtesy he had simulated, and

which was essentially foreign to his vehement and haughty character,

fell from him like a mask. For with the words of Antagoras, jealousy

passed within him, and for the moment its agony was such that the

Chian was avenged. But he was too habituated to the stateliness of

self control, to give vent to the rage that seized him. He only said

with a whitened and writhing lip, "Thou art right; all animosities may

yield, save those which a woman's eye can kindle. Thou hatest me--be

it so--that is as man to man. But as officer to chieftain, I bid thee

henceforth beware how thou givest me cause to set this foot on the

head that lifts itself to the height of mine."

With that he rose, turned on his heel, and walked towards the stern,

where he stood apart gazing on the Athenian triremes, which by this

time were in the broad sea. And all the eyes in the fleet were turned

towards that exhibition. For marvellous was the ease and beauty with

which these ships went through their nautical movements; now as in

chase of each other, now approaching as in conflict, veering off,

darting aside, threading as it were a harmonious maze, gliding in

and out, here, there, with the undulous celerity of the serpent. The

admirable build of the ships; the perfect skill of the seamen; the

noiseless docility and instinctive comprehension by which they seemed

to seize and to obey the unforeseen signals of their Admiral--all

struck the lively Greeks that beheld the display, and universal was

the thought if not the murmur, There was the power that should command

the Grecian seas.

Pausanias was too much accustomed to the sway of masses, not to have

acquired that electric knowledge of what circles amongst them from

breast to breast, to which habit gives the quickness of an instinct.

He saw that he had committed an imprudence, and that in seeking to

divert a mutiny, he had incurred a yet greater peril.

He returned to his own ship without exchanging another word with

Antagoras, who had retired to the centre of the vessel, fearing to

trust himself to a premature utterance of that defiance which the last

warning of his chief provoked, and who was therefore arousing the

soldiers to louder shouts of admiration at the Athenian skill.

Rowing back towards the wing occupied by the Peloponnesian allies, of

whose loyalty he was assured, Pausanias then summoned on board their

principal officer, and communicated to him his policy of placing the

Ionians not only apart from the Athenians, but under the vigilance and

control of Peloponnesian vessels in the immediate neighbourhood.

"Therefore," said he, "while the Athenians will occupy this wing, I

wish you to divide yourselves; the Lacedaemonian ships will take the

way the Athenians abandon, but the Corinthian triremes will place

themselves between the ships of the Islands and the Athenians. I shall

give further orders towards distributing the Ionian navy. And thus I

trust either all chance of a mutiny is cut off, or it will be put down

at the first outbreak. Now give orders to your men to take the places

thus assigned to you. And having gratified the vanity of our friends

the Athenians by their holiday evolutions, I shall send to thank and

release them from the fatigue so gracefully borne."

All those with whom he here conferred, and who had no love for Athens

or Ionia, readily fell into the plan suggested. Pausanias then

despatched a Laconian vessel to the Athenian Admiral, with

complimentary messages and orders to cease the manoeuvres, and then

heading the rest of the Laconian contingent, made slow and stately way

towards the station deserted by the Athenians. But pausing once more

before the vessels of the Isles, he despatched orders to their several

commanders, which had the effect of dividing their array, and placing

between them the powerful Corinthian service. In the orders of the

vessels he forwarded for this change, he took especial care to

dislocate the dangerous contiguity of the Samian and Chian triremes.

The sun was declining towards the west when Pausanias had marshalled

the vessels he headed, at their new stations, and the Athenian ships

were already anchored close and secured. But there was an evident

commotion in that part of the fleet to which the Corinthian galleys

had sailed. The Ionians had received with indignant murmurs the

command which divided their strength. Under various pretexts each

vessel delayed to move; and when the Corinthian ships came to take

a vacant space, they found a formidable array,--the soldiers on the

platforms armed to the teeth. The confusion was visible to the Spartan

chief; the loud hubbub almost reached to his ears. He hastened towards

the place; but anxious to continue the gracious part he had so

unwontedly played that day, he cleared his decks of their formidable

hoplites, lest he might seem to meet menace by menace, and drafting

them into other vessels, and accompanied only by his personal

serving-men and rowers, he put forth alone, the gilded shield and the

red banner still displayed at his stern.

But as he was thus conspicuous and solitary, and midway in the space

left between the Laconian and Ionian galleys, suddenly two ships from

the latter darted forth, passed through the centre of the Corinthian

contingent, and steered with the force of all their rowers, right

towards the Spartan's ship.

"Surely," said Pausanias, "that is the Chian's vessel. I recognize the

vine tree and the image of the Bromian god; and surely that other one

is the Chimera under Uliades, the Samian. They come hither, the Ionian

with them, to harangue against obedience to my orders."

"They come hither to assault us," exclaimed Erasinidas; "their beaks

are right upon us."

He had scarcely spoken, when the Chian's brass prow smote the gilded

shield, and rent the red banner from its staff. At the same time, the

Chimera, under Uliades, struck the right side of the Spartan ship, and

with both strokes the stout vessel reeled and dived. "Know, Spartan,"

cried Antagoras, from the platform in the midst of his soldiers, "that

we Ionians hold together. He who would separate, means to conquer,

us. We disown thy hegemony. If ye would seek us, we are with the

Athenians."

With that the two vessels, having performed their insolent and daring

feat, veered and shot off with the same rapidity with which they had

come to the assault; and as they did so, hoisted the Athenian ensign

over their own national standards. The instant that signal was given,

from the other Ionian vessels, which had been evidently awaiting it,

there came a simultaneous shout; and all, vacating their place and

either gliding through or wheeling round the Corinthian galleys,

steered towards the Athenian fleet.

The trireme of Pausanias, meanwhile, sorely damaged, part of its side

rent away, and the water rushing in, swayed and struggled alone in

great peril of sinking.

Instead of pursuing the Ionians, the Corinthian galleys made at once

to the aid of the insulted commander.

"Oh," cried Pausanias, in powerless wrath, "Oh, the accursed element!

Oh that mine enemies had attacked me on the land!"

"How are we to act?" said Aristides.

"We are citizens of a Republic, in which the majority govern,"

answered Cimon. "And the majority here tell us how we are to act. Hark

to the shouts of our men, as they are opening way for their kinsmen of

the Isles."

The sun sank, and with it sank the Spartan maritime ascendancy over

Hellas. And from that hour in which the Samian and the Chian insulted

the galley of Pausanias, if we accord weight to the authority on which

Plutarch must have based his tale, commenced the brief and glorious

sovereignty of Athens. Commence when and how it might, it was an epoch

most signal in the records of the ancient world for its results upon a

civilization to which as yet human foresight can predict no end.

END OF VOLUME I.

PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN

VOLUME II.

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

We pass from Byzantium, we are in Sparta. In the Archeion, or office

of the Ephoralty, sate five men, all somewhat advanced in years. These

constituted that stern and terrible authority which had gradually,

and from unknown beginnings,[1] assumed a kind of tyranny over the

descendants of Hercules themselves. They were the representatives of

the Spartan people, elected without reference to rank or wealth,[2]

and possessing jurisdiction not only over the Helots and Laconians,

but over most of the magistrates. They could suspend or terminate any

office, they could accuse the kings and bring them before a court in

which they themselves were judges upon trial of life and death. They

exercised control over the armies and the embassies sent abroad; and

the king, at the head of his forces, was still bound to receive his

instructions from this Council of Five. Their duty, in fact, was to

act as a check upon the kings, and they were the representatives

of that Nobility which embraced the whole Spartan people, in

contradistinction to the Laconians and Helots.

The conference in which they were engaged seemed to rivet their

most earnest attention. And as the presiding Ephor continued the

observations he addressed to them, the rest listened with profound and

almost breathless silence.

The speaker, named Periclides, was older than the others. His frame,

still upright and, sinewy, was yet lean almost to emaciation, his face

sharp, and his dark eyes gleamed with a cunning and sinister light

under his grey brows.

"If," said he, "we are to believe these Ionians, Pausanias meditates

some deadly injury to Greece. As for the complaints of his arrogance,

they are to be received with due caution. Our Spartans, accustomed

to the peculiar discipline of the Laws of Aegimius, rarely suit the

humours of Ionians and innovators. The question to consider is not

whether he has been too imperious towards Ionians who were but the

other day subjected to the Mede, but whether he can make the command

he received from Sparta menacing to Sparta herself. We lend him iron,

he hath holpen himself to gold."

"Besides the booty at Plataea, they say that he has amassed much

plunder at Byzantium," said Zeuxidamus, one of the Ephors, after a

pause.

Periclides looked hard at the speaker, and the two men exchanged a

significant glance.

"For my part," said a third, a man of a severe but noble countenance,

the father of Lysander, and, what was not usual with the Ephors,

belonging to one of the highest families of Sparta, "I have always

held that Sparta should limit its policy to self-defence; that, since

the Persian invasion is over, we have no business with Byzantium. Let

the busy Athenians obtain if they will the empire of the sea. The sea

is no province of ours. All intercourse with foreigners, Asiatics

and Ionians, enervates our men and corrupts our generals. Recall

Pausanias--recall our Spartans. I have said."

"Recall Pausanias first," said Periclides, "and we shall then hear the

truth, and decide what is best to be done."

"If he has medised, if he has conspired against Greece, let us accuse

him to the death," said Agesilaus, Lysander's father.

"We may accuse, but it rests not with us to sentence," said

Periclides, disapprovingly.

"And," said a fourth Ephor, with a visible shudder, "what Spartan dare

counsel sentence of death to the descendant of the Gods?"

"I dare," replied Agesilaus, "but provided only that the descendant of

the Gods had counselled death to Greece. And for that reason, I say

that I would not, without evidence the clearest, even harbour the

thought that a Heracleid could meditate treason to his country."

Periclides felt the reproof and bit his lips.

"Besides," observed Zeuxidamus, "fines enrich the State."

Periclides nodded approvingly.

An expression of lofty contempt passed over the brow and lip of

Agesilaus. But with national self-command, he replied gravely, and

with equal laconic brevity, "If Pausanias hath committed a trivial

error that a fine can expiate, so be it. But talk not of fines till ye

acquit him of all treasonable connivance with the Mede."

At that moment an officer entered on the conclave, and approaching the

presiding Ephor, whispered in his ear.

"This is well," exclaimed Periclides aloud. "A messenger from

Pausanias himself. Your son Lysander has just arrived from Byzantium."

"My son!" exclaimed Agesilaus eagerly, and then checking himself,

added calmly, "That is a sign no danger to Sparta threatened Byzantium

when he left."

"Let him be admitted," said Periclides.

Lysander entered; and pausing at a little distance from the council

board, inclined his head submissively to the Ephors; save a rapid

interchange of glances, no separate greeting took place between son

and father.

"Thou art welcome," said Periclides. "Thou hast done thy duty since

thou hast left the city. Virgins will praise thee as the brave man;

age, more sober, is contented to say thou hast upheld the Spartan

name. And thy father without shame may take thy hand."

A warm flush spread over the young man's face. He stepped forward with

a quick step, his eyes beaming with joy. Calm and stately, his father

rose, clasped the extended hand, then releasing his own placed it an

instant on his son's bended head, and reseated himself in silence.

"Thou camest straight from Pausanias?" said Periclides.

Lysander drew from his vest the despatch entrusted to him, and gave it

to the presiding Ephor. Periclides half rose as if to take with more

respect what had come from the hand of the son of Hercules.

"Withdraw, Lysander," he said, "and wait without while we deliberate

on the contents herein."

Lysander obeyed, and returned to the outer chamber.

Here he was instantly surrounded by eager, though not noisy groups.

Some in that chamber were waiting on business connected with the civil

jurisdiction of the Ephors. Some had gained admittance for the purpose

of greeting their brave countryman, and hearing news of the distant

camp from one who had so lately quitted the great Pausanias. For men

could talk without restraint of their General, though it was but with

reserve and indirectly that they slid in some furtive question as to

the health and safety of a brother or a son.

"My heart warms to be amongst ye again," said the simple Spartan

youth. "As I came thro' the defiles from the sea-coast, and saw on the

height the gleam from the old Temple of Pallas Chalcioecus, I said to

myself, 'Blessed be the Gods that ordained me to live with Spartans or

die with Sparta!'"

"Thou wilt see how much we shall make of thee, Lysander," cried a

Spartan youth a little younger than himself, one of the superior tribe

of the Hylleans. "We have heard of thee at Plataea. It is said that

had Pausanias not been there thou wouldst have been called the bravest

Greek in the armament."

"Hush," said Lysander, "thy few years excuse thee, young friend. Save

our General, we were all equals in the day of battle."

"So thinks not my sister Percalus," whispered the youth archly; "scold

her as thou dost me, if thou dare."

Lysander coloured, and replied in a voice that slightly trembled, "I

cannot hope that thy sister interests herself in me. Nay, when I left

Sparta, I thought--" He checked himself.

"Thought what?"

"That among those who remained behind Percalus might find her

betrothed long before I returned."

"Among those who remained _behind!_ Percalus! How meanly thou must

think of her."

Before Lysander could utter the eager assurance that he was very far

from thinking meanly of Percalus, the other bystanders, impatient

at this whispered colloquy, seized his attention with a volley of

questions, to which he gave but curt and not very relevant answers,

so much had the lad's few sentences disturbed the calm tenor of his

existing self-possession. Nor did he quite regain his presence of mind

until he was once more summoned into the presence of the Ephors.

Notes:

[1] K. O. Miller (Dorians), Book 3, c. 7, ß 2. According to

Aristotle, Cicero and others, the Ephoralty was founded by Theopompus

subsequently to the mythical time of Lycurgus. To Lycurgus itself it

is referred by Xenophon and Herodotus. MŁller considers rightly that,

though an ancient Doric institution, it was incompatible with the

primitive constitution of Lycurgus and had gradually acquired its

peculiar character by causes operating on the Spartan Slato alone.

[2] Aristot. Pol. ii.