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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8573-8.txt b/8573-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a20c314 --- /dev/null +++ b/8573-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9109 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pausanias, the Spartan, by Lord Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pausanias, the Spartan + The Haunted and the Haunters, An Unfinished Historical Romance + +Author: Lord Lytton + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8573] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Marc D'Hooghe and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + +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 Müller'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."--Müller 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 Herè, 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-barbèd 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? Boëdromian? + Countless are thy names, Apollo, + Io Carnëe! Io Carnëe! + By the margent of Eurotas, + 'Neath the shadows of Täygetus, + Thee the sons of Lacedaemon + Name Carneus. Io, Io! + Io Carnëe! Io Carnëe! + + Io, Io Paean! quicker. Song and voice must chime together: + Io Paean! Io Paean! King Apollo, Io, Io! + Io Carnëe! + 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 Carnëe! Io Carnëe! + 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 Carnëe! Io Carnëe! + + 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, § 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. Müller 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. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The communication of Pausanias had caused an animated discussion in +the Council, and led to a strong division of opinion. But the faces of +the Ephors, rigid and composed, revealed nothing to guide the sagacity +of Lysander, as he re-entered the chamber. He himself, by a strong +effort, had recovered the disturbance into which the words of the boy +had thrown his mind, and he stood before the Ephors intent upon the +object of defending the name, and fulfilling the commands of his +chief. So reverent and grateful was the love that he bore to +Pausanias, that he scarcely permitted himself even to blame the +deviations from Spartan austerity which he secretly mourned in his +mind; and as to the grave guilt of treason to the Hellenic cause, he +had never suffered the suspicion of it to rest upon an intellect +that only failed to be penetrating, where its sight was limited by +discipline and affection. He felt that Pausanias had entrusted to +him his defence, and though he would fain, in his secret heart, have +beheld the Regent once more in Sparta, yet he well knew that it was +the duty of obedience and friendship to plead against the sentence of +recall which was so dreaded by his chief. + +With all his thoughts collected towards that end, he stood before the +Ephors, modest in demeanour, vigilant in purpose. + +"Lysander," said Periclides, after a short pause, "we know thy +affection to the Regent, thy chosen friend; but we know also thy +affection for thy native Sparta; where the two may come into conflict, +it is, and it must be, thy country which will claim the preference. We +charge thee, by virtue of our high powers and authority, to speak +the truth on the questions we shall address to thee, without fear or +favour." + +Lysander bowed his head. "I am in presence of Sparta my mother and +Agesilaus my father. They know that I was not reared to lie to +either." + +"Thou say'st well. Now answer. Is it true that Pausanias wears the +robes of the Mede?" + +"It is true." + +"And has he stated to thee his reasons? + +"Not only to me, but to others." + +"What are they?" + +"That in the mixed and half medised population of Byzantium, splendour +of attire has become so associated with the notion of sovereign +power, that the Eastern dress and attributes of pomp are essential to +authority; and that men bow before his tiara, who might rebel against +the helm and the horsehair. Outward signs have a value, O Ephors, +according to the notions men are brought up to attach to them." + +"Good," said one of the Ephors. "There is in this departure from our +habits, be it right or wrong, no sign then of connivance with the +Barbarian." + +"Connivance is a thing secret and concealed, and shuns all outward +signs." + +"But," said Periclides, "what say the other Spartan Captains to this +vain fashion, which savours not of the Laws of Aegimius?" + +"The first law of Aegimius commands us to fight and to die for the +king or the chief who has kingly sway. The Ephors may blame, but the +soldier must not question." + +"Thou speakest boldly for so young a man," said Periclides harshly. + +"I was commanded to speak the truth." + +"Has Pausanias entrusted the command of Byzantium to Gongylus the +Eretrian, who already holds four provinces under Xerxes?" + +"He has done so." + +"Know you the reason for that selection?" + +"Pausanias says that the Eretrian could not more show his faith to +Hellas, than by resigning Eastern satrapies so vast." + +"Has he resigned them?" + +"I know not; but I presume that when the Persian king knows that the +Eretrian is leagued against him with the other Captains of Hellas, he +will assign the Satrapies to another." + +"And is it true that the Persian prisoners, Ariamanes and Datis, have +escaped from the custody of Gongylus?" + +"It is true. The charge against Gongylus for that error was heard in a +council of confederate captains, and no proof against him was brought +forward. Cimon was entrusted with the pursuit of the prisoners. +Pausanias himself sent forth fifty scouts on Thessalian horses. The +prisoners were not discovered." + +"Is it true," said Zeuxidamus, "that Pausanias has amassed much +plunder at Byzantium?" + +"What he has won as a conqueror was assigned to him by common voice, +but he has spent largely out of his own resources in securing the +Greek sway at Byzantium." + +There was a silence. None liked to question the young soldier farther; +none liked to put the direct question, whether or not the Ionian +Ambassador could have cause for suspecting the descendant of Hercules +of harm against the Greeks. At length Agesilaus said: + +"I demand the word, and I claim the right to speak plainly. My son is +young, but he is of the blood of Hyllus. + +"Son--Pausanias is dear to thee. Man soon dies: man's name lives for +ever. Dear to thee if Pausanias is, dearer must be his name. In +brief, the Ionian Ambassadors complain of his arrogance towards the +Confederates; they demand his recall. Cimon has addressed a private +letter to the Spartan host, with whom he lodged here, intimating that +it may be best for the honour of Pausanias, and for our weight with +the allies, to hearken to the Ionian Embassy. It is a grave question, +therefore, whether we should recall the Regent or refuse to hear these +charges. Thou art fresh from Byzantium; thou must know more of this +matter than we. Loose thy tongue, put aside equivocation. Say thy +mind, it is for us to decide afterwards what is our duty to the +State." + +"I thank thee, my father," said Lysander, colouring deeply at a +compliment paid rarely to one so young, "and thus I answer thee: + +"Pausanias, in seeking to enforce discipline and preserve the Spartan +supremacy, was at first somewhat harsh and severe to these Ionians, +who had indeed but lately emancipated themselves from the Persian +yoke, and who were little accustomed to steady rule. But of late he +has been affable and courteous, and no complaint was urged against him +for austerity at the time when this embassy was sent to you. Wherefore +was it then sent? Partly, it maybe, from motives of private hate, not +public zeal, out partly because the Ionian race sees with reluctance +and jealousy the Hegemony of Sparta. I would speak plainly. It is not +for me to say whether ye will or not that Sparta should retain the +maritime supremacy of Hellas, but if ye do will it, ye will not recall +Pausanias. No other than the Conqueror of Plataea has a chance of +maintaining that authority. Eager would the Ionians be upon any +pretext, false or frivolous, to rid themselves of Pausanias. Artfully +willing would be the Athenians in especial that ye listened to such +pretexts; for, Pausanias gone, Athens remains and rules. On what +belongs to the policy of the State it becomes not me to proffer a +word, O Ephors. In what I have said I speak what the whole armament +thinks and murmurs. But this I may say as soldier to whom the honour +of his chief is dear.--The recall of Pausanias may or may not be wise +as a public act, but it will be regarded throughout all Hellas as a +personal affront to your general; it will lower the royalty of Sparta, +it will be an insult to the blood of Hercules. Forgive me, O venerable +magistrates. I have fought by the side of Pausanias, and I cannot dare +to think that the great Conqueror of Plataea, the man who saved Hellas +from the Mede, the man who raised Sparta on that day to a renown which +penetrated the farthest corners of the East, will receive from you +other return than fame and glory. And fame and glory will surely make +that proud spirit doubly Spartan." + +Lysander paused, breathing hard and colouring deeply--annoyed with +himself for a speech of which both the length and the audacity were +much more Ionian than Spartan. + +The Ephors looked at each other, and there was again silence. + +"Son of Agesilaus," said Periclides, "thou hast proved thy +Lacedaemonian virtues too well, and too high and general is thy repute +amongst our army, as it is borne to our ears, for us to doubt thy +purity and patriotism; otherwise, we might fear that whilst thou +speakest in some contempt of Ionian wolves, thou hadst learned the +arts of Ionian Agoras. But enough: thou art dismissed. Go to thy home; +glad the eyes of thy mother; enjoy the honours thou wilt find awaiting +thee amongst thy coevals. Thou wilt learn later whether thou return to +Byzantium, or whether a better field for thy valour may not be found +in the nearer war with which Arcadia threatens us." + +As soon as Lysander left the chamber, + +Agesilaus spoke:-- + +"Ye will pardon me, Ephors, if I bade my son speak thus boldly. I need +not say I am no vain, foolish father, desiring to raise the youth +above his years. But making allowance for his partiality to the +Regent, ye will grant that he is a fair specimen of our young +soldiery. Probably, as he speaks, so will our young men think. To +recall Pausanias is to disgrace our general. Ye have my mind. If the +Regent be guilty of the darker charges insinuated--correspondence with +the Persian against Greece--I know but one sentence for him--Death. +And it is because I would have ye consider well how dread is such a +charge, and how awful such a sentence, that I entreat ye not lightly +to entertain the one unless ye are prepared to meditate the other. As +for the maritime supremacy of Sparta, I hold, as I have held before, +that it is not within our councils to strive for it; it must pass from +us. We may surrender it later with dignity; if we recall our general +on such complaints, we lose it with humiliation." + +"I agree with Agesilaus," said another, "Pausanias is an Heracleid; my +vote shall not insult him." + +"I agree too with Agesilaus," said a third Ephor; "not because +Pausanias is the Heracleid, but because he is the victorious general +who demands gratitude and respect from every true Spartan." + +"Be it so," said Periclides, who, seeing himself thus outvoted in the +council, covered his disappointment with the self-control habitual to +his race. "But be we in no hurry to give these Ionian legates their +answer to-day. We must deliberate well how to send such a reply as may +be most conciliating and prudent. And for the next few days we have +an excuse for delay in the religious ceremonials due to the venerable +Divinity of Fear, which commence to-morrow. Pass we to the other +business before us; there are many whom we have kept waiting. +Agesilaus, thou art excused from the public table to-day if thou +wouldst sup with thy brave son at home." + +"Nay," said Agesilaus, "my son will go to his pheidition and I to +mine--as I did on the day when I lost my first-born." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +On quitting the Hall of the Ephors, Lysander found himself at once on +the Spartan Agora, wherein that Hall was placed. This was situated on +the highest of the five hills, over which the unwalled city spread its +scattered population, and was popularly called the Tower. Before the +eyes of the young Spartan rose the statues, rude and antique, of +Latona, the Pythian Apollo, and his sister Artemis;--venerable images +to Lysander's early associations. The place which they consecrated was +called Chorus; for there, in honour of Apollo, and in the most pompous +of all the Spartan festivals, the young men were accustomed to lead +the sacred dance. The Temple of Apollo himself stood a little in the +background, and near to it that of Hera But more vast than any image +of a god was a colossal statue which represented the Spartan people; +while on a still loftier pinnacle of the hill than that table-land +which enclosed the Agora--dominating, as it were, the whole +city--soared into the bright blue sky the sacred Chalcioecus, or +Temple of the Brazen Pallas, darkening with its shadow another fane +towards the left dedicated to the Lacedaemonian Muses, and receiving a +gleam on the right from the brazen statue of Zeus, which was said by +tradition to have been made by a disciple of Daedalus himself. + +But short time had Lysander to note undisturbed the old familiar +scenes. A crowd of his early friends had already collected round the +doors of the Archeion, and rushed forward to greet and welcome him. +The Spartan coldness and austerity of social intercourse vanished +always before the enthusiasm created by the return to his native city +of a man renowned for valour; and Lysander's fame had come back to +Sparta before himself. Joyously, and in triumph, the young men bore +away their comrade. As they passed through the centre of the Agora, +where assembled the various merchants and farmers, who, under the name +of Perioeci, carried on the main business of the Laconian mart, and +were often much wealthier than the Spartan citizens, trade ceased its +hubbub; all drew near to gaze on the young warrior; and now, as they +turned from the Agora, a group of eager women met them on the road, +and shrill voices exclaimed: "Go, Lysander, thou hast fought well--go +and choose for thyself the maiden that seems to thee the fairest. Go, +marry and get sons for Sparta." + +Lysander's step seemed to tread on air, and tears of rapture stood in +his downcast eyes. But suddenly all the voices hushed; the crowds +drew back; his friends halted. Close by the great Temple of Fear, and +coming from some place within its sanctuary, there approached towards +the Spartan and his comrades a majestic woman--a woman of so grand a +step and port, that, though her veil as yet hid her face, her form +alone sufficed to inspire awe. All knew her by her gait; all made way +for Alithea, the widow of a king, the mother of Pausanias the Regent. +Lysander, lifting his eyes from the ground, impressed by the hush +around him, recognised the form as it advanced slowly towards him, +and, leaving his comrades behind, stepped forward to salute the mother +of his chief. She, thus seeing him, turned slightly aside, and paused +by a rude building of immemorial antiquity which stood near the +temple. That building was the tomb of the mythical Orestes, whose +bones were said to have been interred there by the command of the +Delphian Oracle. On a stone at the foot of the tomb sate calmly down +the veiled woman, and waited the approach of Lysander. When he came +near, and alone--all the rest remaining aloof and silent--Alithea +removed her veil, and a countenance grand and terrible as that of a +Fate lifted its rigid looks to the young Spartan's eyes. Despite +her age--for she had passed into middle life before she had borne +Pausanias--Alithea retained all the traces of a marvellous and almost +preterhuman beauty. But it was not the beauty of woman. No softness +sate on those lips: no love beamed from those eyes. Stern, +inexorable--not a fault in her grand proportions--the stoutest heart +might have felt a throb of terror as the eye rested upon that pitiless +and imposing front. And the deep voice of the Spartan warrior had a +slight tremor in its tone as it uttered its respectful salutation. + +"Draw near, Lysander. What sayest thou of my son?" + +"I left him well, and--" + +"Does a Spartan mother first ask of the bodily health of an absent +man-child? By the tomb of Orestes and near the Temple of Fear, a +king's widow asks a Spartan soldier what he says of a Spartan chief." + +"All Hellas," replied Lysander, recovering his spirit, "might answer +thee best, Alithea. For all Hellas proclaimed that the bravest man at +Plataea was thy son, my chief." + +"And where did my son, thy chief, learn to boast of bravery? They tell +me he inscribed the offerings to the gods with his name as the victor +of Plataea--the battle won not by one man but assembled Greece. The +inscription that dishonours him by its vainglory will be erased. To be +brave is nought. Barbarians may be brave. But to dedicate bravery to +his native land becomes a Spartan. He who is everything against a foe +should count himself as nothing in the service of his country." + +Lysander remained silent under the gaze of those fixed and imperious +eyes. + +"Youth," said Alithea, after a short pause, "if thou returnest to +Byzantium, say this from Alithea to thy chief:--'From thy childhood, +Pausanias, has thy mother feared for thee; and at the Temple of Fear +did she sacrifice when she heard that thou wert victorious at Plataea; +for in thy heart are the seeds of arrogance and pride; and victory to +thine arms may end in ruin to thy name. And ever since that day does +Alithea haunt the precincts of that temple. Come back and be Spartan, +as thine ancestors were before thee, and Alithea will rejoice and +think the Gods have heard her. But if thou seest within thyself one +cause why thy mother should sacrifice to Fear, lest her son should +break the laws of Sparta, or sully his Spartan name, humble thyself, +and mourn that thou didst not perish at Plataea. By a temple and from +a tomb I send thee warning.' Say this. I have done; join thy friends." + +Again the veil fell over the face, and the figure of the woman +remained seated at the tomb long after the procession had passed on, +and the mirth of young voices was again released. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The group that attended Lysander continued to swell as he mounted the +acclivity on which his parental home was placed. The houses of the +Spartan proprietors were at that day not closely packed together as in +the dense population of commercial towns. More like the villas of a +suburb, they lay a little apart, on the unequal surface of the rugged +ground, perfectly plain and unadorned, covering a large space with +ample court-yards, closed in, in front of the narrow streets. And +still was in force the primitive law which ordained that doorways +should be shaped only by the saw, and the ceilings by the axe; but in +contrast to the rudeness of the private houses, at every opening in +the street were seen the Doric pillars or graceful stairs of a temple; +and high over all dominated the Tower-hill, or Acropolis, with the +antique fane of Pallas Chalcioecus. + +And so, loud and joyous, the procession bore the young warrior to the +threshold of his home. It was an act of public honour to his fair +repute and his proven valour. And the Spartan felt as proud of that +unceremonious attendance as ever did Roman chief sweeping under arches +of triumph in the curule car. + +At the threshold of the door stood his mother--for the tidings of his +coming had preceded him--and his little brothers and sisters. His step +quickened at the sight of these beloved faces. + +"Bound forward, Lysander," said one of the train; "thou hast won the +right to thy mother's kiss." + +"But fail us not at the pheidition before sunset," cried another. +"Every one of the obe will send his best contribution to the feast to +welcome thee back. We shall have a rare banquet of it." + +And so, as his mother drew him within the doors, his arm round her +waist, and the children clung to his cloak, to his knees, or sprung up +to claim his kiss, the procession set up a kind of chaunted shout, and +left the warrior in his home. + +"Oh, this is joy, joy!" said Lysander, with sweet tears in his eyes, +as he sat in the women's apartment, his mother by his side, and the +little ones round him. "Where, save in Sparta, does a man love a +home?" + +And this exclamation, which might have astonished an Ionian--seeing +how much the Spartan civilians merged the individual in the state--was +yet true, where the Spartan was wholly Spartan, where, by habit and +association, he had learned to love the severities of the existence +that surrounded him, and where the routine of duties which took him +from his home, whether for exercises or the public tables, made yet +more precious the hours of rest and intimate intercourse with his +family. For the gay pleasures and lewd resorts of other Greek cities +were not known to the Spartan. Not for him were the cook-shops and +baths and revels of Ionian idlers. When the State ceased to claim him, +he had nothing but his Home. + +As Lysander thus exclaimed, the door of the room had opened +noiselessly, and Agesilaus stood unperceived at the entrance, and +overheard his son. His face brightened singularly at Lysander's words. +He came forward and opened his arms. + +"Embrace me now, my boy! my brave boy! embrace me now! The Ephors are +not here." + +Lysander turned, sprang up, and was in his father's arms. + +"So thou art not changed. Byzantium has not spoiled thee. Thy name +is uttered with praise unmixed with fear. All Persia's gold, all the +great king's Satrapies could not medize my Lysander. Ah," continued +the father, turning to his wife, "who could have predicted the +happiness of this hour? Poor child! he was born sickly. Hera had +already given us more sons than we could provide for, ere our lands +were increased by the death of thy childless relatives. Wife, wife! +when the family council ordained him to be exposed on Taÿgetus, when +thou didst hide thyself lest thy tears should be seen, and my voice +trembled as I said 'Be the laws obeyed,' who could have guessed that +the gods would yet preserve him to be the pride of our house? Blessed +be Zeus the saviour and Hercules the warrior!" + +"And," said the mother, "blessed be Pausanias, the descendant of +Hercules, who took the forlorn infant to his father's home, and who +has reared him now to be the example of Spartan youths." + +"Ah," said Lysander, looking up into his father's eyes, "if I can ever +be worthy of your love, O my father, forget not, I pray thee, that it +is to Pausanias I owe life, home, and a Spartan's glorious destiny." + +"I forget it not," answered Agesilaus, with a mournful and serious +expression of countenance. "And on this I would speak to thee. Thy +mother must spare thee awhile to me. Come. I lean on thy shoulder +instead of my staff." + +Agesilaus led his son into the large hall, which was the main chamber +of the house; and pacing up and down the wide and solitary floor, +questioned him closely as to the truth of the stories respecting the +Regent which had reached the Ephors. + +"Thou must speak with naked heart to me," said Agesilaus; "for I tell +thee that, if I am Spartan, I am also man and father; and I would +serve him, who saved thy life and taught thee how to fight for thy +country, in every way that may be lawful to a Spartan and a Greek." + +Thus addressed, and convinced of his father's sincerity, Lysander +replied with ingenuous and brief simplicity. He granted that Pausanias +had exposed himself with a haughty imprudence, which it was difficult +to account for, to the charges of the Ionians. "But," he added, with +that shrewd observation which his affection for Pausanias rather than +his experience of human nature had taught him--"But we must remember +that in Pausanias we are dealing with no ordinary man. If he has +faults of judgment, which a Spartan rarely commits, he has, O my +father, a force of intellect and passion, which a Spartan as rarely +knows. Shall I tell you the truth? Our State is too small for him. +But would it not have been too small for Hercules? Would the laws of +Aegimius have permitted Hercules to perform his labours and achieve +his conquests? This vast and fiery nature suddenly released from the +cramps of our customs, which Pausanias never in his youth regarded +save as galling, expands itself, as an eagle long caged would +outspread its wings." + +"I comprehend," said Agesilaus thoughtfully, and somewhat sadly. +"There have been moments in my own life when I regarded Sparta as a +prison. In my early manhood I was sent on a mission to Corinth. Its +pleasures, its wild tumult of gay licence dazzled and inebriated me. +I said, 'This it is to live.' I came back to Sparta sullen and +discontented. But then, happily, I saw thy mother at the festival of +Diana--we loved each other, we married--and when I was permitted to +take her to my home, I became sobered and was a Spartan again. I +comprehend. Poor Pausanias! But luxury and pleasure, though they charm +awhile, do not fill up the whole of a soul like that of our Heracleid. +From these he may recover; but Ambition--that is the true liver of +Tantalus, and grows larger under the beak that feeds on it. What is +his ambition, if Sparta be too small for him? + +"I think his ambition would be to make Sparta as big as himself." + +Agesilaus stroked his chin musingly. + +"And how?" + +"I cannot tell, I can only guess. But the Persian war, if I may judge +by what I hear and see, cannot roll away and leave the boundaries +of each Greek State the same. Two States now stand forth prominent, +Athens and Sparta. Themistocles and Cimon aim at making Athens the +head of Hellas, Perhaps Pausanias aims to effect for Sparta what they +would effect for Athens." + +"And what thinkest thou of such a scheme?" + +"Ask me not. I am too young, too inexperienced, and perhaps too +Spartan to answer rightly." + +"Too Spartan, because thou art too covetous of power for Sparta." + +"Too Spartan, because I may be too anxious to keep Sparta what she +is." + +Agesilaus smiled. "We are of the same mind, my son. Think not that the +rocky defiles which enclose us shut out from our minds all the ideas +that new circumstance strikes from Time. I have meditated on what thou +sayest Pausanias may scheme. It is true that the invasion of the Mede +must tend to raise up one State in Greece to which the others will +look for a head. I have asked myself, can Sparta be that State? and my +reason tells me, No. Sparta is lost if she attempt it. She may become +something else, but she cannot be Sparta. Such a State must become +maritime, and depend on fleets. Our inland situation forbids this. +True we have ports in which the Perioeci flourish; but did we use them +for a permanent policy the Perioeci must become our masters. These +five villages would be abandoned for a mart on the sea-shore. This +mother of men would be no more. A State that so aspires must have +ample wealth at its command. We have none. We might raise tribute from +other Greek cities, but for that purpose we must have fleets again, +to overawe and compel, for no tribute will be long voluntary. A state +that would be the active governor of Hellas must have lives to spare +in abundance. We have none, unless we always do hereafter as we did +at Plataea, raise an army of Helots--seven Helots to one Spartan. How +long, if we did so, would the Helots obey us, and meanwhile how would +our lands be cultivated? A State that would be the centre of Greece, +must cultivate all that can charm and allure strangers. We banish +strangers, and what charms and allures them would womanize us. More +than all, a State that would obtain the sympathies of the turbulent +Hellenic populations, must have the most popular institutions. It +must be governed by a Demus, We are an Oligarchic Aristocracy--a +disciplined camp of warriors, not a licentious Agora. Therefore, +Sparta cannot assume the head of a Greek Confederacy except in the +rare seasons of actual war; and the attempt to make her the head of +such a confederacy would cause changes so repugnant to our manners and +habits, that it would be fraught with destruction to him who made the +attempt, or to us if he succeeded. Wherefore, to sum up, the ambition +of Pausanias is in this impracticable, and must be opposed." + +"And Athens," cried Lysander, with a slight pang of natural and +national jealousy, "Athens then must wrest from Pausanias the hegemony +he now holds for Sparta, and Athens must be what the Athenian ambition +covets." + +"We cannot help it--she must; but can it last?--Impossible. And woe to +her if she ever comes in contact with the bronze of Laconian shields. +But in the meanwhile, what is to be done with this great and awful +Heracleid? They accuse him of medising, of secret conspiracy with +Persia itself. Can that be possible? + +"If so, it is but to use Persia on behalf of Sparta. If he would +subdue Greece, it is not for the king, it is for the race of +Hercules." + +"Ay, ay, ay," cried Agesilaus, shading his face with his hand. "All +becomes clear to me now. Listen. Did I openly defend Pausanias before +the Ephors, I should injure his cause. But when they talk of his +betraying Hellas and Sparta, I place before them nakedly and broadly +their duty if that charge be true. For if true, O my son, Pausanias +must die as criminals die." + +"Die--criminal--an Heracleid--king's blood--the victor of Plataea--my +friend Pausanias!" + +"Rather he than Sparta. What sayest thou?" + +"Neither, neither," exclaimed Lysander, wringing his +hands--"impossible both." + +"Impossible both, be it so. I place before the Ephors the terrors of +accrediting that charge, in order that they may repudiate it. For the +lesser ones it matters not; he is in no danger there, save that of +fine. And his gold," added Agesilaus with a curved lip of disdain, +"will both condemn and save him. For the rest, I would spare him the +dishonour of being publicly recalled, and to say truth, I would save +Sparta the peril she might incur from his wrath, if she inflicted on +him that slight. But mark me, he himself must resign his command, +voluntarily, and return to Sparta. Better so for him and his pride, +for he cannot keep the hegemony against the will of the Ionians, +whose fleet is so much larger than ours, and it is to his gain if his +successor lose it, not he. But better, not only for his pride, but +for his glory and his name, that he should come from these scenes of +fierce temptation, and, since birth made him a Spartan, learn here +again to conform to what he cannot change. I have spoken thus plainly +to thee. Use the words I have uttered as thou best may, after thy +return to Pausanias, which I will strive to make speedy. But while +we talk there goes on danger--danger still of his abrupt recall--for +there are those who will seize every excuse for it. Enough of these +grave matters: the sun is sinking towards the west, and thy companions +await thee at thy feast; mine will be eager to greet me on thy return, +and thy little brothers, who go with me to my pheidition, will hear +thee so praised that they will long for the crypteia--long to be men, +and find some future Plataea for themselves. May the gods forbid it! +War is a terrible unsettler. Time saps States as a tide the cliff. War +is an inundation, and when it ebbs, a landmark has vanished." + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Nothing so largely contributed to the peculiar character of Spartan +society as the uniform custom of taking the principal meal at a public +table. It conduced to four objects: the precise status of aristocracy, +since each table was formed according to title and rank,--equality +among aristocrats, since each at the same table was held the equal of +the other--military union, for as they feasted so they fought, being +formed into divisions in the field according as they messed together +at home; and lastly, that sort of fellowship in public opinion +which intimate association amongst those of the same rank and habit +naturally occasions. These tables in Sparta were supplied by private +contributions; each head of a family was obliged to send a certain +portion at his own cost, and according to the number of his children. +If his fortune did not allow him to do this, he was excluded from the +public tables. Hence a certain fortune was indispensable to the pure +Spartan, and this was one reason why it was permitted to expose +infants, if the family threatened to be too large for the father's +means. The general arrangements were divided into syssitia, according, +perhaps, to the number of families, and correspondent to the divisions +or obes acknowledged by the State. But these larger sections were +again subdivided into companies or clubs of fifteen, vacancies being +filled up by ballot; but one vote could exclude. And since, as we have +said, the companies were marshalled in the field according to their +association at the table, it is clear that fathers of grave years and +of high station (station in Sparta increased with years) could not +have belonged to the same table as the young men, their sons. Their +boys under a certain age they took to their own pheiditia, where the +children sat upon a lower bench, and partook of the simplest dishes +of the fare. Though the cheer at these public tables was habitually +plain, yet upon occasion it was enriched by presents to the +after-course, of game and fruit. + +Lysander was received by his old comrade with that cordiality in which +was mingled for the first time a certain manly respect, due to feats +in battle, and so flattering to the young. + +The prayer to the Gods, correspondent to the modern grace, and the +pious libations being concluded, the attendant Helots served the black +broth, and the party fell to, with the appetite produced by hardy +exercise and mountain air. + +"What do the allies say to the black broth?" asked a young Spartan. + +"They do not comprehend its merits," answered Lysander. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Everything in the familiar life to which he had returned delighted the +young Lysander. But for anxious thoughts about Pausanias, he would +have been supremely blest. To him the various scenes of his early +years brought no associations of the restraint and harshness which +revolted the more luxurious nature and the fiercer genius of +Pausanias. The plunge into the frigid waters of Eurotas--the sole bath +permitted to the Spartans[1] at a time when the rest of Greece had +already carried the art of bathing into voluptuous refinement--the +sight of the vehement contests of the boys, drawn up as in battle, at +the game of football, or in detached engagements, sparing each other +so little, that the popular belief out of Sparta was that they were +permitted to tear out each other's eyes,[2] but subjecting strength to +every skilful art that gymnastics could teach--the mimic war on the +island, near the antique trees of the Plane Garden, waged with weapons +of wood and blunted iron, and the march regulated to the music of +flutes and lyres--nay, even the sight of the stern altar, at which +boys had learned to bear the anguish of stripes without a murmur--all +produced in this primitive and intensely national intelligence an +increased admiration for the ancestral laws, which, carrying patience, +fortitude, address and strength to the utmost perfection, had formed a +handful of men into the calm lords of a fierce population, and placed +the fenceless villages of Sparta beyond a fear of the external +assaults and the civil revolutions which perpetually stormed the +citadels and agitated the market-places of Hellenic cities. His was +not the mind to perceive that much was relinquished for the sake of +that which was gained, or to comprehend that there was more which +consecrates humanity in one stormy day of Athens, than in a serene +century of iron Lacedaemon. But there is ever beauty of soul where +there is enthusiastic love of country; and the young Spartan was wise +in his own Dorian way. + +The religious festival which had provided the Ephors with an excuse +for delaying their answer to the Ionian envoys occupied the city. +The youths and the maidens met in the sacred chorus; and Lysander, +standing by amidst the gazers, suddenly felt his heart beat. A boy +pulled him by the skirt of his mantle. + +"Lysander, hast thou yet scolded Percalus?" said the boy's voice, +archly. + +"My young friend," answered Lysander, colouring high, "Percalus hath +vouchsafed me as yet no occasion; and, indeed, she alone, of all the +friends whom I left behind, does not seem to recognize me." + +His eyes, as he spoke, rested with a mute reproach in their gaze on +the form of a virgin, who had just paused in the choral dance, and +whose looks were bent obdurately on the ground. Her luxuriant hair was +drawn upward from cheek and brow, braided into a knot at the crown of +the head, in the fashion so trying to those who have neither bloom +nor beauty, so exquisitely becoming to those who have both; and the +maiden, even amid Spartan girls, was pre-eminently lovely. It is true +that the sun had somewhat embrowned the smooth cheek; but the stately +throat and the rounded arms were admirably fair--not, indeed, with the +pale and dead whiteness which the Ionian women sought to obtain by +art, but with the delicate rose-hue of Hebe's youth. Her garment +of snow-white wool, fastened over both shoulders with large golden +clasps, was without sleeves, fitting not too tightly to the harmonious +form, and leaving more than the ancle free to the easy glide of the +dance. Taller than Hellenic women usually were, but about the average +height of her Spartan companions, her shape was that which the +sculptors give to Artemis. Light and feminine and virginlike, but with +all the rich vitality of a divine youth, with a force, not indeed of a +man, but such as art would give to the goddess whose step bounds over +the mountain top, and whose arm can launch the shaft from the silver +bow--yet was there something in the mien and face of Percalus more +subdued and bashful than in those of most of the girls around her; +and, as if her ear had caught Lysander's words, a smile just now +played round her lips, and gave to all the countenance a wonderful +sweetness. Then, as it became her turn once more to join in the +circling measure she lifted her eyes, directed them full upon the +young Spartan, and the eyes said plainly, "Ungrateful! I forget thee! +I!" + +It was but one glance, and she seemed again wholly intent upon the +dance; but Lysander felt as if he had tasted the nectar, and caught +a glimpse of the courts of the Gods. No further approach was made by +either, although intervals in the evening permitted it. But if on the +one hand there was in Sparta an intercourse between the youth of +both sexes wholly unknown in most of the Grecian States, and if that +intercourse made marriages of love especially more common there than +elsewhere, yet, when love did actually exist, and was acknowledged +by some young pair, they shunned public notice; the passion became +a secret, or confidants to it were few. Then came the charm of +stealth:--to woo and to win, as if the treasure were to be robbed by a +lover from the Heaven unknown to man. Accordingly Lysander now mixed +with the spectators, conversed cheerfully, only at distant intervals +permitted his eyes to turn to Percalus, and when her part in the +chorus had concluded, a sign, undetected by others, seemed to have +been exchanged between them, and, a little while after, Lysander had +disappeared from the assembly. + +He wandered down the street called the Aphetais, and after a little +while the way became perfectly still and lonely, for the inhabitants +had crowded to the sacred festival, and the houses lay quiet and +scattered. So he went on, passing the ancient temple in which Ulysses +is said to have dedicated a statue in honour of his victory in the +race over the suitors of Penelope, and paused where the ground lay +bare and rugged around many a monument to the fabled chiefs of the +heroic age. Upon a crag that jutted over a silent hollow, covered with +oleander and arbute and here and there the wild rose, the young lover +sat down, waiting patiently; for the eyes of Percalus had told him he +should not wait in vain. Afar he saw, in the exceeding clearness of +the atmosphere, the Taenarium or Temple of Neptune, unprophetic of the +dark connexion that shrine would hereafter have with him whom he then +honoured as a chief worthy, after death, of a monument amidst those +heroes: and the gale that cooled his forehead wandered to him from the +field of the Hellanium in which the envoys of Greece had taken council +how to oppose the march of Xerxes, when his myriads first poured into +Europe. + +Alas, all the great passions that distinguish race from race pass away +in the tide of generations. The enthusiasm of soul which gives us +heroes and demi-gods for ancestors, and hallows their empty tombs; the +vigour of thoughtful freedom which guards the soil from invasion, and +shivers force upon the edge of intelligence; the heroic age and the +civilized alike depart; and he who wanders through the glens of +Laconia can scarcely guess where was the monument of Lelex, or the +field of the Hellanium. And yet on the same spot where sat the young +Spartan warrior, waiting for the steps of the beloved one, may, at +this very hour, some rustic lover be seated, with a heart beating with +like emotions, and an ear listening for as light a tread. Love alone +never passes away from the spot where its footstep hath once pressed +the earth, and reclaimed the savage. Traditions, freedom, the thirst +for glory, art, laws, creeds, vanish; but the eye thrills the breast, +and hand warms to hand, as before the name of Lycurgus was heard, or +Helen was borne a bride to the home of Menelaus. Under the influence +of this power, then, something of youth is still retained by nations +the most worn with time. But the power thus eternal in nations is +shortlived for the individual being. Brief, indeed, in the life of +each is that season which lasts for ever in the life of all. From the +old age of nations glory fades away; but in their utmost decrepitude +there is still a generation young enough to love. To the individual +man, however, glory alone remains when the snows of ages have fallen, +and love is but the memory of a boyish dream. No wonder that the Greek +genius, half incredulous of the soul, clung with such tenacity to +Youth. What a sigh from the heart of the old sensuous world breathes +in the strain of Mimnermus, bewailing with so fierce and so deep a +sorrow the advent of the years in which man is loved no more! + +Lysander's eye was still along the solitary road, when he heard a low +musical laugh behind him. He started in surprise, and beheld Percalus. +Her mirth was increased by his astonished gaze, till, in revenge, +he caught both her hands, and drawing her towards him, kissed, not +without a struggle, the lips into serious gravity. + +Extricating herself from him, the maiden put on an air of offended +dignity, and Lysander, abashed at his own audacity, muttered some +broken words of penitence. + +"But indeed," he added, as he saw the cloud vanishing from her brow; +"indeed thou wert so provoking, and so irresistibly beauteous. And how +camest thou here, as if thou hadst dropped from the heavens?" + +"Didst thou think," answered Percalus demurely, "that I could be +suspected of following thee? Nay; I tarried till I could accompany +Euryclea to her home yonder, and then slipping from her by her door, +I came across the grass and the glen to search for the arrow shot +yesterday in the hollow below thee." So saying, she tripped from the +crag by his side into the nooked recess below, which was all out +of sight, in case some passenger should pass the road, and where, +stooping down, she seemed to busy herself in searching for the shaft +amidst the odorous shrubs. + +Lysander was not slow in following her footstep. + +"Thine arrow is here," said he, placing his hand to his heart. + +"Fie! The Ionian poets teach thee these compliments." + +"Not so. Who hath sung more of Love and his arrows than our own +Alcman?" + +"Mean you the Regent's favourite brother?" + +"Oh no! The ancient Alcman; the poet whom even the Ephors sanction." + +Percalus ceased to seek for the arrow, and they seated themselves on a +little knoll in the hollow, side by side, and frankly she gave him her +hand, and listened, with rosy cheek and rising bosom, to his honest +wooing. He told her truly, how her image had been with him in the +strange lands; how faithful he had been to the absent, amidst all the +beauties of the Isles and of the East. He reminded her of their early +days--how, even as children, each had sought the other. He spoke +of his doubts, his fears, lest he should find himself forgotten or +replaced; and how overjoyed he had been when at last her eye replied +to his. + +"And we understood each other so well, did we not, Percalus? Here we +have so often met before; here we parted last; here thou knewest I +should go; here I knew that I might await thee." + +Percalus did not answer at much length, but what she said sufficed to +enchant her lover. For the education of a Spartan maid did not favour +the affected concealment of real feelings. It could not, indeed, +banish what Nature prescribes to women---the modest self esteem--the +difficulty to utter by word, what eye and blush reveal--nor, perhaps, +something of that arch and innocent malice, which enjoys to taste +the power which beauty exercises before the warm heart will freely +acknowledge the power which sways itself. But the girl, though a +little wilful and high-spirited, was a candid, pure, and noble +creature, and too proud of being loved by Lysander to feel more than a +maiden's shame to confess her own. + +"And when I return," said the Spartan, "ah then look out and take +care; for I shall speak to thy father, gain his consent to our +betrothal, and then carry thee away, despite all thy struggles, to the +bridesmaid, and these long locks, alas, will fall." + +"I thank thee for thy warning, and will find my arrow in time to guard +myself," said Percalus, turning away her face, but holding up her hand +in pretty menace; "but where is the arrow? I must make haste and find +it." + +"Thou wilt have time enough, courteous Amazon, in mine absence, for I +must soon return to Byzantium." + +_Percalus._ "Art thou so sure of that?" + +_Lysander._ "Why--dost thou doubt it?" + +_Percalus._ (rising and moving the arbute boughs aside with the tip of +her sandal), "And, unless thou wouldst wait very long for my father's +consent, perchance thou mayst have to ask for it very soon--too soon +to prepare thy courage for so great a peril." + +_Lysander_ (perplexed). "What canst thou mean? By all the Gods, I pray +thee speak plain." + +_Percalus._ "If Pausanias be recalled, wouldst thou still go to +Byzantium?" + +_Lysander._ "No; but I think the Ephors have decided not so to +discredit their General." + +_Percalus._ (shaking her head incredulously). "Count not on their +decision so surely, valiant warrior; and suppose that Pausanias is +recalled, and that some one else is sent in his place whose absence +would prevent thy obtaining that consent thou covetest, and so +frustrate thy designs on--on--(she added, blushing scarlet)--on these +poor locks of mine." + +_Lysander._ (starting). "Oh, Percalus, do I conceive thee aright? +Hast thou any reason to think that thy father Dorcis will be sent to +replace Pausanias--the great Pausanias!" + +_Percalus._ (a little offended at a tone of expression which seemed to +slight her father's pretensions). "Dorcis, my father, is a warrior +whom Sparta reckons second to none; a most brave captain, and every +inch a Spartan; but--but--" + +_Lysander._ "Percalus, do not trifle with me. Thou knowest how my +fate has been linked to the Regent's. Thou must have intelligence not +shared even by my father, himself an Ephor.--What is it?" + +_Percalus._ "Thou wilt be secret, my Lysander, for what I may tell +thee I can only learn at the hearth-stone." + +_Lysander._ "Fear me not. Is not all between us a secret?" + +_Percalus._ "Well, then, Periclides and my father, as thou art aware, +are near kinsmen. And when the Ionian Envoys first arrived, it was +my father who was specially appointed to see to their fitting +entertainment. And that same night I overheard Dorcis say to my +mother, 'If I could succeed Pausanias, and conclude this war, I should +be consoled for not having commanded at Platam.' And my mother, who is +proud for her husband's glory, as a woman should be, said, 'Why not +strain every nerve as for a crown in Olympia? Periclides will aid +thee--thou wilt win.'" + +_Lysander._ "But that was the first night of the Ionian's arrival." + +_Percalus._ "Since then, I believe that thy father and others of the +Ephors overruled Periclides and Zeuxidamus, for I have heard all that +passed between my father and mother on the subject. But early this +morning, while my mother was assisting to attire me for the festival, +Periclides himself called at our house, and before I came from, home, +my mother, after a short conference with Dorcis, said to me, in the +exuberance of her joy, 'Go, child, and call here all the maidens, as +thy father ere long will go to outshine all the Grecian chiefs.' +So that if my father does go, thou wilt remain in Sparta. Then, my +beloved Lysander--and--and--but what ails thee? Is that thought so +sorrowful?" + +_Lysander_. "Pardon me, pardon; thou art a Spartan maid; thou must +comprehend what should be felt by a Spartan soldier when he thinks of +humiliation and ingratitude to his chief. Gods! the man who rolled +back the storm of the Mede to be insulted in the face of Hellas by the +government of his native city! The blush of shame upon his cheek burns +my own." + +The warrior bowed his face in his clasped hands. + +Not a resentful thought natural to female vanity and exacting +affection then crossed the mind of the Spartan girl. She felt at once, +by the sympathy of kindred nurture, all that was torturing her lover. +She was even prouder of him that he forgot her for the moment to be +so truthful to his chief; and abandoning the innocent coyness she had +before shown, she put her arm round his neck with a pure and sisterly +fondness, and, kissing his brow, whispered soothingly, "It is for +me to ask pardon, that I did not think of this--that I spoke so +foolishly; but comfort--thy chief is not disgraced even by recall. Let +them recall Pausanias, they cannot recall his glory. When, in +Sparta, did we ever hold a brave man discredited by obedience to the +government? None are disgraced who do not disgrace themselves." + +"Ah! my Percalus, so I should say; but so will not think Pausanias, +nor the allies; and in this slight to him I see the shadow of the +Erinnys. But it may not be true yet; nor can Periclides of himself +dispose thus of the Lacedaemonian armies." + +"We will hope so, dear Lysander," said Percalus, who, born to be man's +helpmate, then only thought of consoling and cheering him. + +"And if thou dost return to the camp, tarry as long as thou wilt, thou +wilt find Percalus the same." + +"The Gods bless thee, maiden!" said Lysander, with grateful passion, +"and blessed be the State that rears such women; elsewhere Greece +knows them not." + +"And does Greece elsewhere know such men?" asked Percalus, raising her +graceful head. "But so late--is it possible? See where the shadows are +falling! Thou wilt but be in time for thy pheidition. Farewell." + +"But when to meet again?" + +"Alas! when we can," She sprang lightly away; then, turning her face +as she fled, added, "Look out! thou wert taught to steal in thy +boyhood--steal an interview. I will be thy accomplice." + +Notes: + +[1] Except occasionally the dry sudorific bath, all warm bathing was +strictly forbidden as enervating. + +[2] An evident exaggeration. The Spartans had too great a regard for +the physical gifts as essential to warlike uses, to permit cruelties +that would have blinded their young warriors. And they even forbade +the practice of the pancratium as ferocious and needlessly dangerous +to life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +That night, as Agesilaus was leaving the public table at which he +supped, Periclides, who was one of the same company, but who had been +unusually silent during the entertainment, approached him, and said, +"Let us walk towards thy home together; the moon is up, and will +betray listeners to our converse should there be any." + +"And in default of the moon, thy years, if not yet mine, permit thee a +lanthorn, Periclides." + +"I have not drunk enough to need it," answered the Chief of the +Ephors, with unusual pleasantry; "but as thou art the younger man, I +will lean on thine arm, so as to be closer to thine ear." + +"Thou hast something secret and grave to say, then?" + +Periclides nodded. + +As they ascended the rugged acclivity, different groups, equally +returning home from the public tables, passed them. Though the sacred +festival had given excuse for prolonging the evening meal, and the +wine-cup had been replenished beyond the abstemious wont, still each +little knot of revellers passed, and dispersed in a sober and decorous +quiet which perhaps no other eminent city in Greece could have +exhibited; young and old equally grave and noiseless. For the Spartan +youth, no fair Hetaerae then opened homes adorned with flowers, and +gay with wit, no less than alluring with beauty; but as the streets +grew more deserted, there stood in the thick shadow of some angle, or +glided furtively by some winding wall, a bridegroom lover, tarrying +till all was still, to steal to the arms of the lawful wife, whom for +years perhaps he might not openly acknowledge, and carry in triumph to +his home. + +But not of such young adventurers thought the sage Periclides, though +his voice was as low as a lover's "hist!" and his step as stealthy as +a bridegroom's tread. + +"My friend," said he, "with the faint grey of the dawn there comes +to my house a new messenger from the camp, and the tidings he brings +change all our decisions. The Festival does not permit us as Ephors to +meet in public, or, at least, I think thou wilt agree with me it is +more prudent not to do so. All we should do now, should be in strict +privacy." + +"But hush! from whom the message--Pausanias?" + +"No--from Aristides the Athenian." + +"And to what effect?" + +"The Ionians have revolted from the Spartan hegemony, and ranged +themselves under the Athenian flag." + +"Gods! what I feared has already come to pass." + +"And Aristides writes to me, with whom you remember that he has the +hospitable ties, that the Athenians cannot abandon their Ionian allies +and kindred who thus appeal to them, and that if Pausanias remain, +open war may break out between the two divisions into which the fleet +of Hellas is now rent." + +"This must not be, for it would be war at sea; we and the +Peloponnesians have far the fewer vessels, the less able seamen. +Sparta would be conquered." "Rather than Sparta should be conquered, +must we not recall her General?" + +"I would give all my lands, and sink out of the rank of Equal, that +this had not chanced," said Agesilaus, bitterly. + +"Hist! hist! not so loud." + +"I had hoped we might induce the Regent himself to resign the command, +and so have been spared the shame and the pain of an act that affects +the hero-blood of our kings. Could not that be done yet?" + +"Dost thou think so? Pausanias resign in the midst of a mutiny? Thou +canst not know the man." + +"Thou art right--impossible. I see no option now. He must be recalled. +But the Spartan hegemony is then gone--gone for ever--gone to Athens." + +"Not so. Sparta hath many a worthy son beside this too arrogant +Heracleid." + +"Yes; but where his genius of command?--where his immense +renown?--where a man, I say, not in Sparta, but in all Greece, fit to +cope with Aristides and Cimon in the camp, with Themistocles in the +city of our rivals? If Pausanias fails, who succeeds?" + +"Be not deceived. What must be, must; it is but a little time earlier +than Necessity would have fixed. Wouldst thou take the command?" + +"I? The Gods forbid." + +"Then, if thou wilt not, I know but one man." + +"And who is he?" + +"Dorcis." + +Agesilaus started, and, by the light of the moon, gazed full upon the +face of the chief Ephor. + +"Thy kinsman, Dorcis? Ah! Periclides, hast thou schemed this from the +first?" + +Periclides changed colour at finding himself thus abruptly detected, +and as abruptly charged; however, he answered with laconic dryness,-- + +"Friend, did I scheme the revolt of the Ionians? But if thou knowest a +better man than Dorcis, speak. Is he not brave?" + +"Yes." + +"Skilful?" + +"No. Tut! thou art as conscious as I am that thou mightest as well +compare the hat on thy brow to the brain it hides as liken the stolid +Dorcis to the fiery but profound Heracleid." + +"Ay, ay! But there is one merit the hat has which the brow has not--it +can do no harm. Shall we send our chiefs to be made worse men by +Eastern manners? Dorcis has dull wit, granted; no arts can corrupt +it; he may not save the hegemony, but he will return as he went, a +Spartan." + +"Thou art right again, and a wise man, Periclides. I submit. Thou hast +my vote for Dorcis. What else hast thou designed? for I see now that +whatever thou designest that wilt thou accomplish; and our meeting on +the Archeion is but an idle form." + +"Nay, nay," said Periclides, with his austere smile, "thou givest me +a wit and a will that I have not. But as chief of the Ephors I watch +over the State. And though I design nothing, this I would counsel,--On +the day we answer the Ionians, we shall tell them, 'What ye ask, we +long since proposed to do.' And Dorcis is already on the seas as +successor to Pausanias." + +"When will Dorcis leave?" said Agesilaus, curtly. + +"If the other Ephors concur, to-morrow night." + +"Here we are at my doors, wilt thou not enter?" + +"No. I have others yet to see. I knew we should be of the same mind." + +Agesilaus made no reply; but as he entered the court-yard of his +house, he muttered uneasily,--"And if Lysander is right, and Sparta +is too small for Pausanias, do not we bring back a giant who will +widen it to his own girth, and rase the old foundations to make room +for the buildings he would add?" + + * * * * * + +(UNFINISHED.) The pages covered by the manuscript of this uncompleted +story of "Pausanias" are scarcely more numerous than those which its +author has filled with the notes made by him from works consulted with +special reference to the subject of it. Those notes (upon Greek and +Persian antiquities) are wholly without interest for the general +public. They illustrate the author's conscientious industry, but they +afford no clue to the plot of his romance. Under the sawdust, however, +thus fallen in the industrial process of an imaginative work, +unhappily unfinished, I have found two specimens of original +composition. They are rough sketches of songs expressly composed for +"Pausanias;" and, since they are not included in the foregoing portion +of it, I think they may properly be added here. The unrhymed lyrics +introduced by my father into some of the opening chapters of this +romance appear to have been suggested by some fragments of Mimnermus, +and composed about the same time as "The Lost Tales of Miletus." +Indeed, one of them has been already printed in that work. The +following verses, however, which are rhymed, bear evidence of having +been composed at a much earlier period. I know not whether it was +my father's intention to discard them altogether, or to alter them +materially, or to insert them without alteration in some later portion +of the romance. But I print them here precisely as they are written. + +L. + + * * * * * + + +FOR PAUSANIAS. + +_Partially borrowed from Aristophanes' "Peace,"_ v. 1127, etc. + + Away, away, with the helm and greaves, + Away with the leeks and cheese![1] + I have conquer'd my passion for wounds and blows, + And the worst that I wish to the worst of my foes + Is the glory and gain + Of a year's campaign + On a diet of leeks and cheese. + + * * * * * + + I love to drink by my own warm hearth, + Nourisht with logs from the pine-clad heights, + Which were hewn in the blaze of the summer sun + To treasure his rays for the winter nights + On the hearth where my grandam spun. + + I love to drink of the grape I press, + And to drink with a friend of yore; + Quick! bring me a bough from the myrtle tree + Which is budding afresh by Nicander's door. + Tell Nicander himself he must sup with me, + And along with the bough from his myrtle tree + We will circle the lute, in a choral glee + To the goddess of corn and peace. + For Nicander and I were fast friends at school. + Here he comes! We are boys once more. + + When the grasshopper chaunts in the bells of thyme + I love to watch if the Lemnian grape[2] + Is donning the purple that decks its prime; + And, as I sit at my porch to see, + With my little one trying to scale my knee, + To join in the grasshopper's chaunt, and sing + To Apollo and Pan from the heart of Spring.[3] + Listen, O list! + + Hear ye not, neighbours, the voice of Peace? + "The swallow I hear in the household eaves." + Io Aegien! Peace! + "And the skylark at poise o'er the bended sheaves," + Io Aegien! Peace! + Here and there, everywhere, hear we Peace, + Hear her, and see her, and clasp her--Peace! + The grasshopper chaunts in the bells of thyme, + And the halcyon is back to her nest in Greece! + + +IN PRAISE OF THE ATHENIAN KNIGHTS. + +_Imitated from the "Knights" of Aristophanes_, v. 505, etc. + + Chaunt the fame of the Knights, or in war or in peace, + Chaunt the darlings of Athens,[4] the bulwarks of Greece + Pressing foremost to glory, on wave and on shore, + Where the steed has no footing they win with the oar.[5] + + On their bosoms the battle splits, wasting its shock. + If they charge like the whirlwind, they stand like the rock. + Ha! they count not the numbers, they scan not the ground, + When a foe comes in sight on his lances they bound. + + Fails a foot in its speed? heed it not. One and all[6] + Spurn the earth that they spring from, and own not a fall. + O the darlings of Athens, the bulwarks of Greece, + Wherefore envy the lovelocks they perfume in peace! + + Wherefore scowl if they fondle a quail or a dove, + Or inscribe on a myrtle, the names that they love? + Does Alcides not teach us how valour is mild? + Lo, at rest from his labours he plays with a child. + + When the slayer of Python has put down his bow, + By his lute and his lovelocks Apollo we know. + Fear'd, O rowers, those gallants their beauty to spoil + When they sat on your benches, and shared in your toil! + + When with laughter they row'd to your cry "Hippopai," + "On, ye coursers of wood, for the palm wreath, away!" + Did those dainty youths ask you to store in your holds + Or a cask from their crypt or a lamb from their folds? + + No, they cried, "We are here both to fight and to fast, + Place us first in the fight, at the board serve us last! + Wheresoever is peril, we knights lead the way, + Wheresoever is hardship, we claim it as pay. + + "Call us proud, O Athenians, we know it full well, + And we give you the life we're too haughty to sell." + Hail the stoutest in war, hail the mildest in peace, + Hail the darlings of Athens, the bulwarks of Greece! + + +Notes: + +[1] [Greek: Turou te kai kromuon]. Cheese and onions, the rations +furnished to soldiers in campaign. + +[2] It ripened earlier than the others. The words of the Chorus are, +[Greek: tas Laemnias ampelous ei pepainousin aedae]. + +[3]: Variation--"What a blessing is life in a noon of Spring." + +[4] Variation--"The adorners of Athens, the bulwarks of Greece." + +[5] Variation--"Keenest racers to glory, on wave or on shore, By the +rush of the steed or the stroke of the oar!" + +[6] Variation--"Falls there one? never help him! Our knights one and +all." + + + + +THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: + +OR, THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN + + +[This tale first appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_, August, 1859. A +portion of it as then published is now suppressed, because encroaching +too much on the main plot of the "Strange Story." As it stands, +however, it may be considered the preliminary outline of that more +elaborate attempt to construct an interest akin to that which our +forefathers felt in tales of witchcraft and ghostland, out of ideas +and beliefs which have crept into fashion in the society of our own +day. There has, perhaps, been no age in which certain phenomena +that in all ages have been produced by, or upon, certain physical +temperaments, have excited so general a notice,--more perhaps among +the educated classes than the uneducated. Nor do I believe that there +is any age in which those phenomena have engendered throughout a wider +circle a more credulous superstition. But, on the other hand, there +has certainly been no age in which persons of critical and inquisitive +intellect--seeking to divest what is genuine in these apparent +vagaries of Nature from the cheats of venal impostors and the +exaggeration of puzzled witnesses--have more soberly endeavoured +to render such exceptional thaumaturgia of philosophical use, +in enlarging our conjectural knowledge of the complex laws of +being--sometimes through physiological, sometimes through metaphysical +research. Without discredit, however, to the many able and +distinguished speculators on so vague a subject, it must be observed +that their explanations as yet have been rather ingenious than +satisfactory. Indeed, the first requisites for conclusive theory are +at present wanting. The facts are not sufficiently generalized, and +the evidences for them have not been sufficiently tested. + +It is just when elements of the marvellous are thus struggling between +superstition and philosophy, that they fall by right to the domain of +Art--the art of poet or tale-teller. They furnish the constructor +of imaginative fiction with materials for mysterious terror of a +character not exhausted by his predecessors, and not foreign to the +notions that float on the surface of his own time; while they allow +him to wander freely over that range of conjecture which is favourable +to his purposes, precisely because science itself has not yet +disenchanted that debateable realm of its haunted shadows and goblin +lights.] + + +A friend of mine, who is a man of letters and a philosopher, said to +me one day, as if between jest and earnest,--" Fancy! since we last +met, I have discovered a haunted house in the midst of London." + +"Really haunted?--and by what? ghosts?" + +"Well, I can't answer that question; all I know is this--six weeks ago +my wife and I were in search of a furnished apartment. Passing a quiet +street, we saw on the window of one of the houses a bill, 'Apartments +Furnished.' The situation suited us: we entered the house--liked the +rooms--engaged them by the week--and left them the third day. No power +on earth could have reconciled my wife to stay longer; and I don't +wonder at it." + +"What did you see?" + +"Excuse me--I have no desire to be ridiculed as a superstitious +dreamer--nor, on the other hand, could I ask you to accept on my +affirmation what you would hold to be incredible without the evidence +of your own senses. Let me only say this, it was not so much what we +saw or heard (in which you might fairly suppose that we were the dupes +of our own excited fancy, or the victims of imposture in others) that +drove us away, as it was an undefinable terror which seized both of us +whenever we passed by the door of a certain unfurnished room, in which +we neither saw nor heard anything. And the strangest marvel of all +was, that for once in my life I agreed with my wife, silly woman +though she be--and allowed, after the third night, that it was +impossible to stay a fourth in that house. Accordingly, on the fourth +morning I summoned the woman who kept the house and attended on us, +and told her that the rooms did not quite suit us, and we would not +stay out our week. She said, dryly, 'I know why; you have stayed +longer than any other lodger. Few ever stayed a second night; none +before you a third. But I take it they have been very kind to you.' + +"'They--who?' I asked, affecting to smile. + +"'Why, they who haunt the house, whoever they are. I don't mind them; +I remember them many years ago, when I lived in this house, not as a +servant; but I know they will be the death of me some day. I don't +care--I'm old, and must die soon anyhow; and then I shall be with +them, and in this house still.' The woman spoke with so dreary +a calmness, that really it was a sort of awe that prevented my +conversing with her further. I paid for my week, and too happy were my +wife and I to get off so cheaply." + +"You excite my curiosity," said I; "nothing I should like better than +to sleep in a haunted house. Pray give me the address of the one which +you left so ignominiously." + +My friend gave me the address; and when we parted, I walked straight +towards the house thus indicated. + +It is situated on the north side of Oxford Street, in a dull but +respectable thoroughfare. I found the house shut up--no bill at +the window, and no response to my knock. As I was turning away, a +beer-boy, collecting pewter pots at the neighbouring areas, said to +me, "Do you want any one at that house, sir?" + +"Yes, I heard it was to be let." + +"Let!--why, the woman who kept it is dead--has been dead these three +weeks, and no one can be found to stay there, though Mr. J---- offered +ever so much. He offered mother, who chars for him, £1 a week just to +open and shut the windows, and she would not." + +"Would not!--and why?" + +"The house is haunted; and the old woman who kept it was found dead in +her bed, with her eyes wide open. They say the devil strangled her." + +"Pooh!--you speak of Mr. J----. Is he the owner of the house?" + +"Yes." + +"Where does he live?" + +"In G---- Street, No. --." + +"What is he?--in any business?" + +"No, sir--nothing particular; a single gentleman." + +I gave the pot-boy the gratuity earned by his liberal information, and +proceeded to Mr. J----, in G---- Street, which was close by the street +that boasted the haunted house. I was lucky enough to find Mr. +J---- at home--an elderly man, with intelligent countenance and +prepossessing manners. + +I communicated my name and my business frankly. I said I heard the +house was considered to be haunted--that I had a strong desire to +examine a house with so equivocal a reputation--that I should be +greatly obliged if he would allow me to hire it, though only for a +night. I was willing to pay for that privilege whatever he might be +inclined to ask. "Sir," said Mr. J----, with great courtesy, "the +house is at your service, for as short or as long a time as you +please. Rent is out of the question--the obligation will be on my side +should you be able to discover the cause of the strange phenomena +which at present deprive it of all value. I cannot let it, for I +cannot even get a servant to keep it in order or answer the door. +Unluckily the house is haunted, if I may use that expression, not only +by night, but by day; though at night the disturbances are of a more +unpleasant and sometimes of a more alarming character. The poor old +woman who died in it three weeks ago was a pauper whom I took out of +a workhouse, for in her childhood she had been known to some of my +family, and had once been in such good circumstances that she had +rented that house of my uncle. She was a woman of superior education +and strong mind, and was the only person I could ever induce to remain +in the house. Indeed, since her death, which was sudden, and the +coroner's inquest, which gave it a notoriety in the neighbourhood, I +have so despaired of finding any person to take charge of the house, +much more a tenant, that I would willingly let it rent-free for a year +to any one who would pay its rates and taxes." + +"How long is it since the house acquired this sinister character?" + +"That I can scarcely tell you, but very many years since. The old +woman I spoke of said it was haunted when she rented it between thirty +and forty years ago. The fact is, that my life has been spent in the +East Indies, and in the civil service of the Company. I returned to +England last year, on inheriting the fortune of an uncle, among +whose possessions was the house in question. I found it shut up and +uninhabited. I was told that it was haunted, that no one would inhabit +it. I smiled at what seemed to me so idle a story. I spent some money +in repairing it--added to its old-fashioned furniture a few modern +articles--advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He was a +colonel retired on half-pay. He came in with his family, a son and a +daughter, and four or five servants: they all left the house the next +day; and, although each of them declared that he had seen something +different from that which had scared the others, a something still was +equally terrible to all. I really could not in conscience sue, nor +even blame, the colonel for breach of agreement. Then I put in the +old woman I have spoken of, and she was empowered to let the house in +apartments. I never had one lodger who stayed more than three days. +I do not tell you their stories--to no two lodgers have there been +exactly the same phenomena repeated. It is better that you should +judge for yourself, than enter the house with an imagination +influenced by previous narratives; only be prepared to see and to +hear something or other, and take whatever precautions you yourself +please." + +"Have you never had a curiosity yourself to pass a night in that +house?" + +"Yes. I passed not a night, but three hours in broad daylight alone in +that house. My curiosity is not satisfied, but it is quenched. I have +no desire to renew the experiment. You cannot complain, you see, +sir, that I am not sufficiently candid; and unless your interest be +exceedingly eager and your nerves unusually strong, I honestly add, +that I advise you not to pass a night in that house." + +"My interest _is_ exceedingly keen," said I, "and though only a coward +will boast of his nerves in situations wholly unfamiliar to him, yet +my nerves have been seasoned in such variety of danger that I have the +right to rely on them--even in a haunted house." + +Mr. J---- said very little more; he took the keys of the house out +of his bureau, gave them to me,--and, thanking him cordially for his +frankness, and his urbane concession to my wish, I carried off my +prize. + +Impatient for the experiment, as soon as I reached home, I summoned my +confidential servant--a young man of gay spirits, fearless temper, and +as free from superstitious prejudice as any one I could think of. + +"F----," said I, "you remember in Germany how disappointed we were at +not finding a ghost in that old castle, which was said to be haunted +by a headless apparition? Well, I have heard of a house in London +which, I have reason to hope, is decidedly haunted. I mean to sleep +there to-night. From what I hear, there is no doubt that something +will allow itself to be seen or to be heard--something, perhaps, +excessively horrible. Do you think if I take you with me, I may rely +on your presence of mind, whatever may happen?" + +"Oh, sir! pray trust me," answered F----, grinning with delight. + +"Very well; then here are the keys of the house--this is the address. +Go now,--select for me any bedroom you please; and since the house +has not been inhabited for weeks, make up a good fire--air the bed +well--see, of course, that there are candles as well as fuel. Take +with you my revolver and my dagger--so much for my weapons--arm +yourself equally well; and if we are not a match for a dozen ghosts, +we shall be but a sorry couple of Englishmen." + +I was engaged for the rest of the day on business so urgent that I had +not leisure to think much on the nocturnal adventure to which I had +plighted my honour. I dined alone, and very late, and while dining, +read, as is my habit. I selected one of the volumes of Macaulay's +Essays. I thought to myself that I would take the book with me; there +was so much of healthfulness in the style, and practical life in the +subjects, that it would serve as an antidote against the influences of +superstitious fancy. + +Accordingly, about half-past nine, I put the book into my pocket, +and strolled leisurely towards the haunted house. I took with me +a favourite dog,--an exceedingly sharp, bold, and vigilant +bull-terrier,--a dog fond of prowling about strange ghostly corners +and passages at night in search of rats--a dog of dogs for a ghost. + +It was a summer night, but chilly, the sky somewhat gloomy and +overcast. Still there was a moon--faint and sickly, but still a +moon--and if the clouds permitted, after midnight it would be +brighter. I reached the house, knocked, and my servant opened with a +cheerful smile. + +"All right, sir, and very comfortable." + +"Oh!" said I, rather disappointed; "have you not seen nor heard +anything remarkable?" + +"Well, sir, I must own I have heard something queer." + +"What?--what?" + +"The sound of feet pattering behind me; and once or twice small noises +like whispers close at my ear--nothing more." + +"You are not at all frightened?" + +"I! not a bit of it, sir;" and the man's bold look reassured me on one +point--viz. that happen what might, he would not desert me. + +We were in the hall, the street-door closed, and my attention was +now drawn to my dog. He had at first run in eagerly enough, but had +sneaked back to the door, and was scratching and whining to get out. +After patting him on the head, and encouraging him gently, the dog +seemed to reconcile himself to the situation, and followed me and +F---- through the house, but keeping close at my heels instead of +hurrying inquisitively in advance, which was his usual and normal +habit in all strange places. We first visited the subterranean +apartments, the kitchen and other offices, and especially the cellars, +in which last there were two or three bottles of wine, still left in +a bin, covered with cobwebs, and evidently, by their appearance, +undisturbed for many years. It was clear that the ghosts were not +winebibbers. For the rest we discovered nothing of interest. There was +a gloomy little backyard, with very high walls. The stones of this +yard were very damp; and what with the damp, and what with the dust +and smoke-grime on the pavement, our feet left a slight impression +where we passed. And now appeared the first strange phenomenon +witnessed by myself in this strange abode. + +I saw, just before me, the print of a foot suddenly form itself, as +it were. I stopped, caught hold of my servant, and pointed to it. In +advance of that footprint as suddenly dropped another. We both saw it. +I advanced quickly to the place; the footprint kept advancing before +me, a small footprint--the foot of a child: the impression was too +faint thoroughly to distinguish the shape, but it seemed to us both +that it was the print of a naked foot. This phenomenon ceased when we +arrived at the opposite wall, nor did it repeat itself on returning. +We remounted the stairs, and entered the rooms on the ground floor, a +dining parlour, a small back-parlour, and a still smaller third room +that had been probably appropriated to a footman--all still as death. +We then visited the drawing-rooms, which seemed fresh and new. In the +front room I seated myself in an arm-chair. F---- placed on the table +the candlestick with which he had lighted us. I told him to shut the +door. As he turned to do so, a chair opposite to me moved from the +wall quickly and noiselessly, and dropped itself about a yard from my +own chair, immediately fronting it. + +"Why, this is better than the turning-tables," said I, with a +half-laugh; and as I laughed, my dog put back his head and howled. + +F----, coming back, had not observed the movement of the chair. He +employed himself now in stilling the dog. I continued to gaze on the +chair, and fancied I saw on it a pale blue misty outline of a human +figure, but an outline so indistinct that I could only distrust my own +vision. The dog now was quiet. + +"Put back that chair opposite to me," said I to F----; "put it back to +the wall." + +F---- obeyed. "Was that you, sir?" said he, turning abruptly. + +"I!--what?" + +"Why, something struck me. I felt it sharply on the shoulder--just +here." + +"No," said I. "But we have jugglers present, and though we may not +discover their tricks, we shall catch _them_ before they frighten +_us_." + +We did not stay long in the drawing-rooms--in fact, they felt so damp +and so chilly that I was glad to get to the fire upstairs. We locked +the doors of the drawing-rooms--a precaution which, I should observe, +we had taken with all the rooms we had searched below. The bedroom my +servant had selected for me was the best on the floor--a large one, +with two windows fronting the street. The four-posted bed, which took +up no inconsiderable space, was opposite to the fire, which burnt +clear and bright; a door in the wall to the left, between the bed and +the window, communicated with the room which my servant appropriated +to himself. This last was a small room with a sofa-bed, and had no +communication with the landing-place--no other door but that which +conducted to the bedroom I was to occupy. On either side of my +fireplace was a cupboard, without locks, flush with the wall, and +covered with the same dull-brown paper. We examined these cupboards +--only hooks to suspend female dresses--nothing else; we sounded the +walls--evidently solid--the outer walls of the building. Having +finished the survey of these apartments, warmed myself a few moments, +and lighted my cigar, I then, still accompanied by F----, went forth +to complete my reconnoitre. In the landing-place there was another +door; it was closed firmly. "Sir," said my servant, in surprise, "I +unlocked this door with all the others when I first came; it cannot +have got locked from the inside, for--" + +Before he had finished his sentence, the door, which neither of us +then was touching, opened quietly of itself. We looked at each other a +single instant. The same thought seized both--some human agency might +be detected here. I rushed in first, my servant followed. A small +blank dreary room without furniture--a few empty boxes and hampers +in a corner--a small window--the shutters closed--not even a +fire-place--no other door but that by which we had entered--no carpet +on the floor, and the floor seemed very old, uneven, worm-eaten, +mended here and there, as was shown by the whiter patches on the wood; +but no living being, and no visible place in which a living being +could have hidden. As we stood gazing round, the door by which we had +entered closed as quietly as it had before opened: we were imprisoned. + +For the first time I felt a creep of undefinable horror. Not so my +servant. "Why, they don't think to trap us, sir; I could break that +trumpery door with a kick of my foot." + +"Try first if it will open to your hand," said I, shaking off the +vague apprehension that had seized me, "while I unclose the shutters +and see what is without." + +I unbarred the shutters--the window looked on the little back yard I +have before described; there was no ledge without--nothing to break +the sheer descent of the wall. No man getting out of that window would +have found any footing till he had fallen on the stones below. + +F----, meanwhile, was vainly attempting to open the door. He now +turned round to me and asked my permission to use force. And I should +here state, in justice to the servant, that, far from evincing any +superstitious terrors, his nerve, composure, and even gaiety amidst +circumstances so extraordinary, compelled my admiration, and made me +congratulate myself on having secured a companion in every way fitted +to the occasion. I willingly gave him the permission he required. But +though he was a remarkably strong man, his force was as idle as his +milder efforts; the door did not even shake to his stoutest kick. +Breathless and panting, he desisted. I then tried the door myself, +equally in vain. As I ceased from the effort, again that creep of +horror came over me; but this time it was more cold and stubborn. I +felt as if some strange and ghastly exhalation were rising up from +the chinks of that rugged floor, and filling the atmosphere with a +venomous influence hostile to human life. The door now very slowly and +quietly opened as of its own accord. We precipitated ourselves into +the landing-place. We both saw a large pale light--as large as the +human figure, but shapeless and unsubstantial--move before us, and +ascend the stairs that led from the landing into the attics. I +followed the light, and my servant followed me. It entered, to the +right of the landing, a small garret, of which the door stood open. +I entered in the same instant. The light then collapsed into a small +globule, exceedingly brilliant and vivid; rested a moment on a bed in +the corner, quivered, and vanished. We approached the bed and examined +it--a half-tester, such as is commonly found in attics devoted to +servants. On the drawers that stood near it we perceived an old faded +silk kerchief, with the needle still left in a rent half repaired. The +kerchief was covered with dust; probably it had belonged to the old +woman who had last died in that house, and this might have been her +sleeping room. I had sufficient curiosity to open the drawers: there +were a few odds and ends of female dress, and two letters tied round +with a narrow ribbon of faded yellow. I took the liberty to possess +myself of the letters. We found nothing else in the room worth +noticing--nor did the light reappear; but we distinctly heard, as we +turned to go, a pattering footfall on the floor--just before us. +We went through the other attics (in all four), the footfall still +preceding us. Nothing to be seen--nothing but the footfall heard. I +had the letters in my hand: just as I was descending the stairs I +distinctly felt my wrist seized, and a faint soft effort made to draw +the letters from my clasp. I only held them the more tightly, and the +effort ceased. + +We regained the bedchamber appropriated to myself, and I then remarked +that my dog had not followed us when we had left it. He was thrusting +himself close to the fire, and trembling. I was impatient to examine +the letters; and while I read them, my servant opened a little box in +which he had deposited the weapons I had ordered him to bring; took +them out, placed them on a table close at my bed-head, and then +occupied himself in soothing the dog, who, however, seemed to heed him +very little. + +The letters were short--they were dated; the dates exactly thirty-five +years ago. They were evidently from a lover to his mistress, or a +husband to some young wife. Not only the terms of expression, but a +distinct reference to a former voyage, indicated the writer to have +been a seafarer. The spelling and handwriting were those of a man +imperfectly educated, but still the language itself was forcible. In +the expressions of endearment there was a kind of rough wild love; but +here and there were dark unintelligible hints at some secret not of +love--some secret that seemed of crime. "We ought to love each other," +was one of the sentences I remember, "for how every one else would +execrate us if all was known." Again: "Don't let any one be in the +same room with you at night--you talk in your sleep." And again: +"What's done can't be undone; and I tell you there's nothing against +us unless the dead could come to life." Here there was underlined in a +better handwriting (a female's), "They do!" At the end of the letter +latest in date the same female hand had written these words: "Lost at +sea the 4th of June, the same day as----." + +I put down the letters, and began to muse over their contents. + +Fearing, however, that the train of thought into which I fell might +unsteady my nerves, I fully determined to keep my mind in a fit state +to cope with whatever of marvellous the advancing night might bring +forth. I roused myself--laid the letters on the table--stirred up the +fire, which was still bright and cheering--and opened my volume of +Macaulay. I read quietly enough till about half-past eleven. I then +threw myself dressed upon the bed, and told my servant he might retire +to his own room, but must keep himself awake. I bade him leave open +the door between the two rooms. Thus alone, I kept two candles burning +on the table by my bed-head. I placed my watch beside the weapons, and +calmly resumed my Macaulay. Opposite to me the fire burned clear; +and on the hearthrug, seemingly asleep, lay the dog. In about twenty +minutes I felt an exceedingly cold air pass by my cheek, like a sudden +draught. I fancied the door to my right, communicating with the +landing-place, must have got open; but no--it was closed. I then +turned my glance to my left, and saw the flame of the candles +violently swayed as by a wind. At the same moment the watch beside +the revolver softly slid from the table--softly, softly--no visible +hand--it was gone. I sprang up, seizing the revolver with the one +hand, the dagger with the other: I was not willing that my weapons +should share the fate of the watch. Thus armed, I looked round the +floor--no sign of the watch. Three slow, loud, distinct knocks were +now heard at the bed-head; my servant culled out, "Is that you, sir?" + +"No; be on your guard." + +The dog now roused himself and sat on his haunches, his ears moving +quickly backwards and forwards. He kept his eyes fixed on me with a +look so strange that he concentred all my attention on himself. Slowly +he rose up, all his hair bristling, and stood perfectly rigid, and +with the same wild stare. I had no time, however, to examine the dog. +Presently my servant emerged from his room; and if ever I saw horror +in the human face, it was then. I should not have recognised him had +we met in the street, so altered was every lineament. He passed by me +quickly, saying in a whisper that seemed scarcely to come from his +lips, "Run--run! it is after me!" He gained the door to the landing, +pulled it open, and rushed forth. I followed him into the landing +involuntarily, calling him to stop; but, without heeding me, he +bounded down the stairs, clinging to the balusters, and taking several +steps at a time. I heard, where I stood, the street-door open--heard +it again clap to. I was left alone in the haunted house. + +It was but for a moment that I remained undecided whether or not to +follow my servant; pride and curiosity alike forbade so dastardly a +flight. I reentered my room, closing the door after me, and proceeded +cautiously into the interior chamber. I encountered nothing to justify +my servant's terror. I again carefully examined the walls, to see if +there were any concealed door. I could find no trace of one--not even +a seam in the dull-brown paper with which the room was hung. How, +then, had the THING, whatever it was, which had so scared him, +obtained ingress except through my own chamber? + +I returned to my room, shut and locked the door that opened upon the +interior one, and stood on the hearth, expectant and prepared. I now +perceived that the dog had slunk into an angle of the wall, and was +pressing himself close against it, as if literally striving to force +his way into it. I approached the animal and spoke to it; the poor +brute was evidently beside itself with terror. It showed all its +teeth, the slaver dropping from its jaws, and would certainly have +bitten me if I had touched it. It did not seem to recognise me. +Whoever has seen at the Zoological Gardens a rabbit fascinated by a +serpent, cowering in a corner, may form some idea of the anguish which +the dog exhibited. Finding all efforts to soothe the animal in vain, +and fearing that his bite might be as venomous in that state as in the +madness of hydrophobia, I left him alone, placed my weapons on the +table beside the fire, seated myself, and recommenced my Macaulay. + +Perhaps, in order not to appear seeking credit for a courage, or +rather a coolness, which the reader may conceive I exaggerate, I may +be pardoned if I pause to indulge in one or two egotistical remarks. + +As I hold presence of mind, or what is called courage, to be precisely +proportioned to familiarity with the circumstances that lead to it, +so I should say that I had been long sufficiently familiar with all +experiments that appertain to the Marvellous. I had witnessed many +very extraordinary phenomena in various parts of the world--phenomena +that would be either totally disbelieved if I stated them, or ascribed +to supernatural agencies. Now, my theory is that the Supernatural +is the Impossible, and that what is called supernatural is only +a something in the laws of nature of which we have been hitherto +ignorant. Therefore, if a ghost rise before me, I have not the right +to say, "So, then, the supernatural is possible," but rather, "So, +then, the apparition of a ghost is, contrary to received opinion, +within the laws of nature--i.e., not supernatural." + +Now, in all that I had hitherto witnessed, and indeed in all the +wonders which the amateurs of mystery in our age record as facts, a +material living agency is always required. On the Continent you will +find still magicians who assert that they can raise spirits. Assume +for the moment that they assert truly, still the living material form +of the magician is present; and lie is the material agency by which, +from some constitutional peculiarities, certain strange phenomena, are +represented to your natural senses. + +Accept, again, as truthful, the tales of Spirit Manifestation in +America--musical or other sounds--writings on paper, produced by no +discernible hand--articles of furniture moved without apparent human +agency--or the actual sight and touch of hands, to which no bodies +seem to belong--still there must be found the MEDIUM or living being, +with constitutional peculiarities capable of obtaining these signs. In +fine, in all such marvels, supposing even that there is no imposture, +there must be a human being like ourselves by whom, or through whom, +the effects presented to human beings are produced. It is so with the +now familiar phenomena of mesmerism or electro-biology; the mind of +the person operated on is affected through a material living agent. +Nor, supposing it true that a mesmerised patient can respond to +the will or passes of a mesmeriser a hundred miles distant, is the +response less occasioned by a material being; it may be through a +material fluid--call it Electric, call it Odic, call it what you +will--which has the power of traversing space and passing obstacles, +that the material effect is communicated from one to the other. Hence +all that I had hitherto witnessed, or expected to witness, in this +strange house, I believed to be occasioned through some agency or +medium as mortal as myself; and this idea necessarily prevented the +awe with which those who regard as supernatural, things that are not +within the ordinary operations of nature, might have been impressed by +the adventures of that memorable night. + +As, then, it was my conjecture that all that was presented, or would +be presented to my senses, must originate in some human being gifted +by constitution with the power so to present them, and having some +motive so to do, I felt an interest in my theory which, in its way, +was rather philosophical than superstitious. And I can sincerely say +that I was in as tranquil a temper for observation as any practical +experimentalist could be in awaiting the effects of some rare, though +perhaps perilous, chemical combination. Of course, the more I kept my +mind detached from fancy, the more the temper fitted for observation +would be obtained; and I therefore riveted eye and thought on the +strong daylight sense in the page of my Macaulay. + +I now became aware that something interposed between the page and the +light--the page was over-shadowed: I looked up, and I saw what I shall +find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe. + +It was a Darkness shaping itself forth from the air in very undefined +outline. I cannot say it was of a human form, and yet it had more +resemblance to a human form, or rather shadow, than to anything else. +As it stood, wholly apart and distinct from the air and the light +around it, its dimensions seemed gigantic, the summit nearly touching +the ceiling. While I gazed, a feeling of intense cold seized me. An +iceberg before me could not more have chilled me; nor could the cold +of an iceberg have been more purely physical. I feel convinced that +it was not the cold caused by fear. As I continued to gaze; I +thought--but this I cannot say with precision--that I distinguished +two eyes looking down on me from the height. One moment I fancied that +I distinguished them clearly, the next they seemed gone; but still two +rays of a pale-blue light frequently shot through the darkness, as from +the height on which I half believed, half doubted, that I had +encountered the eyes. + +I strove to speak--my voice utterly failed me; I could only think to +myself, "Is this fear? it is _not_ fear!" I strove to rise--in vain; +I felt as if weighed down by an irresistible force. Indeed, my +impression was that of an immense and overwhelming Power opposed to my +volition;--that sense of utter inadequacy to cope with a force beyond +man's, which one may feel _physically_ in a storm at sea, in a +conflagration, or when confronting some terrible wild beast, or +rather, perhaps, the shark of the ocean, I felt _morally_. Opposed to +my will was another will, as far superior to its strength as storm, +fire, and shark are superior in material force to the force of man. + +And now, as this impression grew on me--now came, at last, +horror--horror to a degree that no words can convey. Still I retained +pride, if not courage; and in my own mind I said, "This is horror, but +it is not fear; unless I fear I cannot be harmed; my reason rejects +this thing; it is an illusion--I do not fear." With a violent effort I +succeeded at last in stretching out my hand towards the weapon on +the table: as I did so, on the arm and shoulder I received a strange +shock, and my arm fell to my side powerless. And now, to add to my +horror, the light began slowly to wane from the candles--they were +not, as it were, extinguished, but their flame seemed very gradually +withdrawn: it was the same with the fire--the light was extracted from +the fuel; in a few minutes the room was in utter darkness. The dread +that came over me, to be thus in the dark with that dark Thing, whose +power was so intensely felt, brought a reaction of nerve. In fact, +terror had reached that climax, that either my senses must have +deserted me, or I must have burst through the spell. I did burst +through it. I found voice, though the voice was a shriek. I remember +that I broke forth with words like these--"I do not fear, my soul does +not fear;" and at the same time I found the strength to rise. Still +in that profound gloom I rushed to one of the windows--tore aside the +curtain--flung open the shutters; my first thought was--LIGHT. And +when I saw the moon high, clear, and calm, I felt a joy that almost +compensated for the previous terror. There, was the moon, there, was +also the light from the gas-lamps in the deserted slumberous street. I +turned to look back into the room; the moon penetrated its shadow +very palely and partially--but still there was light. The dark Thing, +whatever it might be, was gone--except that I could yet see a dim +shadow, which seemed the shadow of that shade, against the opposite +wall. + +My eye now rested on the table, and from under the table (which was +without cloth or cover--an old mahogany round table) there rose a +hand, visible as far as the wrist. It was a hand, seemingly, as much +of flesh and blood as my own, but the hand of an aged person--lean, +wrinkled, small too--a woman's hand. That hand very softly closed on +the two letters that lay on the table: hand and letters both vanished. +There then came the same three loud measured knocks I had heard at the +bed-head before this extraordinary drama had commenced. + +As those sounds slowly ceased, I felt the whole room vibrate sensibly; +and at the far end there rose, as from the floor, sparks or globules +like bubbles of light, many-coloured--green, yellow, fire-red, azure. +Up and down, to and fro, hither, thither, as tiny Will-o'-the-Wisps, +the sparks moved, slow or swift, each at its own caprice. A chair (as +in the drawing-room below) was now advanced from the wall without +apparent agency, and placed at the opposite side of the table. +Suddenly, as forth from the chair, there grew a shape--a woman's +shape. It was distinct as a shape of life--ghastly as a shape of +death. The face was that of youth, with a strange mournful beauty; the +throat and shoulders were bare, the rest of the form in a loose robe +of cloudy white. It began sleeking its long yellow hair, which fell +over its shoulders; its eyes were not turned towards me, but to the +door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting. The shadow of the shade +in the background grew darker; and again I thought I beheld the eyes +gleaming out from the summit of the shadow--eyes fixed upon that +shape. + +As if from the door, though it did not open, there grew out another +shape, equally distinct, equally ghastly--a man's shape--a young +man's. It was in the dress of the last century, or rather in a +likeness of such dress (for both the male shape and the female, +though defined, were evidently unsubstantial, impalpable--simulacra +--phantasms); and there was something incongruous, grotesque, yet +fearful, in the contrast between the elaborate finery, the courtly +precision of that old-fashioned garb; with its ruffles and lace and +buckles, and the corpse-like aspect and ghost-like stillness of the +flitting wearer. Just as the male shape approached the female, the +dark Shadow started from the wall, all three for a moment wrapped in +darkness. When the pale light returned, the two phantoms were as if in +the grasp of the Shadow that towered between them; and there was a +blood-stain on the breast of the female; and the phantom male was +leaning on its phantom sword, and blood seemed trickling fast from the +ruffles, from the lace; and the darkness of the intermediate Shadow +swallowed them up--they were gone. And again the bubbles of light shot, +and sailed, and undulated, growing thicker and thicker and more wildly +confused in their movements. + +The closet door to the right of the fireplace now opened, and from the +aperture there came the form of an aged woman. In her hand she held +letters,--the very letters over which I had seen _the_ Hand close; and +behind her I heard a footstep. She turned round as if to listen, and +then she opened the letters and seemed to read; and over her shoulder +I saw a livid face, the face as of a man long drowned--bloated, +bleached--seaweed tangled in its dripping hair; and at her feet lay a +form as of a corpse, and beside the corpse there cowered a child, a +miserable squalid child, with famine in its cheeks and fear in its +eyes. And as I looked in the old woman's face, the wrinkles and lines +vanished, and it became a face of youth--hard-eyed, stony, but still +youth; and the Shadow darted forth, and darkened over these phantoms +as it had darkened over the last. + +Nothing now was left but the Shadow, and on that my eyes were intently +fixed, till again eyes grew out of the Shadow--malignant, serpent +eyes. And the bubbles of light again rose and fell, and in their +disordered, irregular, turbulent maze, mingled with the wan moonlight. +And now from these globules themselves, as from the shell of an egg, +monstrous things burst out; the air grew filled with them; larvae so +bloodless and so hideous that I can in no way describe them except +to remind the reader of the swarming life which the solar microscope +brings before his eyes in a drop of water--things transparent, supple, +agile, chasing each other, devouring each other--forms like nought +ever beheld by the naked eye. As the shapes were without symmetry, so +their movements were without order. In their very vagrancies there +was no sport; they came round me and round, thicker and faster and +swifter, swarming over my head, crawling over my right arm, which was +outstretched in involuntary command against all evil beings. Sometimes +I felt myself touched, but not by them; invisible hands touched me. +Once I felt the clutch as of cold soft fingers at my throat. I was +still equally conscious that if I gave way to fear I should be in +bodily peril; and I concentred all my faculties in the single focus of +resisting, stubborn will. And I turned my sight from the Shadow--above +all, from those strange serpent eyes--eyes that had now become +distinctly visible. For there, though in nought else around me, I was +aware that there was a WILL, and a will of intense, creative, working +evil, which might crush down my own. + +The pale atmosphere in the room began now to redden as if in the air +of some near conflagration. The larvae grew lurid as things that live +in fire. Again the room vibrated; again were heard the three measured +knocks; and again all things were swallowed up in the darkness of +the dark Shadow, as if out of that darkness all had come, into that +darkness all returned. + +As the gloom receded, the Shadow was wholly gone. Slowly as it had +been withdrawn, the flame grew again into the candles on the table, +again into the fuel in the grate. The whole room came once more +calmly, healthfully into sight. + +The two doors were still closed, the door communicating with the +servant's room still locked. In the corner of the wall, into which he +had so convulsively niched himself, lay the dog. I called to him--no +movement; I approached--the animal was dead; his eyes protruded; his +tongue out of his mouth; the froth gathered round his jaws. I took him +in my arms; I brought him to the fire; I felt acute grief for the loss +of my poor favourite--acute self-reproach; I accused myself of his +death; I imagined he had died of fright. But what was my surprise on +finding that his neck was actually broken. Had this been done in the +dark?--must it not have been by a hand human as mine?--must there not +have been a human agency all the while in that room? Good cause to +suspect it. I cannot tell. I cannot do more than state the fact +fairly; the reader may draw his own inference. + +Another surprising circumstance--my watch was restored to the table +from which it had been so mysteriously withdrawn; but it had stopped +at the very moment it was so withdrawn; nor, despite all the skill +of the watchmaker, has it ever gone since--that is, it will go in a +strange erratic way for a few hours, and then come to a dead stop--it +is worthless. + +Nothing more chanced for the rest of the night. Nor, indeed, had I +long to wait before the dawn broke. Nor till it was broad daylight +did I quit the haunted house. Before I did so, I revisited the +little blind room in which my servant and myself had been for a +time imprisoned. I had a strong impression--for which I could not +account--that from that room had originated the mechanism of the +phenomena--if I may use the term--which had been experienced in my +chamber. And though I entered it now in the clear day, with the sun +peering through the filmy window, I still felt, as I stood on its +floor, the creep of the horror which I had first there experienced the +night before, and which had been so aggravated by what had passed in +my own chamber. I could not, indeed, bear to stay more than half a +minute within those walls. I descended the stairs, and again I heard +the footfall before me; and when I opened the street door, I thought I +could distinguish a very low laugh. I gained my own home, expecting to +find my runaway servant there. But he had not presented himself; nor +did I hear more of him for three days, when I received a letter from +him, dated from Liverpool, to this effect:-- + +"HONOURED SIR,--I humbly entreat your pardon, though I can scarcely +hope that you will think I deserve it, unless--which Heaven +forbid!--you saw what I did. I feel that it will be years before I +can recover myself; and as to being fit for service, it is out of the +question. I am therefore going to my brother-in-law at Melbourne. The +ship sails to-morrow. Perhaps the long voyage may set me up. I do +nothing now but start and tremble, and fancy IT is behind me. I humbly +beg you, honoured sir, to order my clothes, and whatever wages are +due to me, to be sent to my mother's, at Walworth,--John knows her +address." + +The letter ended with additional apologies, somewhat incoherent, and +explanatory details as to effects that had been under the writer's +charge. + +This flight may perhaps warrant a suspicion that the man wished to go +to Australia, and had been somehow or other fraudulently mixed up +with the events of the night. I say nothing in refutation of that +conjecture; rather, I suggest it as one that would seem to many +persons the most probable solution of improbable occurrences. My +belief in my own theory remained unshaken. I returned in the evening +to the house, to bring away in a hack cab the things I had left there, +with my poor dog's body. In this task I was not disturbed, nor did any +incident worth note befall me, except that still, on ascending and +descending the stairs, I heard the same footfall in advance. On +leaving the house, I went to Mr. J's. He was at home. I returned him +the keys, told him that my curiosity was sufficiently gratified, and +was about to relate quickly what had passed, when he stopped me, and +said, though with much politeness, that he had no longer any interest +in a mystery which none had ever solved. + +I determined at least to tell him of the two letters I had read, as +well as of the extraordinary manner in which they had disappeared, and +I then inquired if he thought they had been addressed to the woman who +had died in the house, and if there were anything in her early history +which could possibly confirm the dark suspicions to which the letters +gave rise. Mr. J---- seemed startled, and, after musing a few moments, +answered, "I am but little acquainted with the woman's earlier +history, except, as I before told you, that her family were known to +mine. But you revive some vague reminiscences to her prejudice. I will +make inquiries, and inform you of their result. Still, even if we +could admit the popular superstition that a person who had been either +the perpetrator or the victim of dark crimes in life could revisit, as +a restless spirit, the scene in which those crimes had been committed, +I should observe that the house was infested by strange sights and +sounds before the old woman died--you smile--what would you say?" + +"I would say this, that I am convinced, if we could get to the bottom +of these mysteries, we should find a living human agency." + +"What! you believe it is all an imposture? for what object?" + +"Not an imposture in the ordinary sense of the word. If suddenly I +were to sink into a deep sleep, from which you could not awake me, but +in that sleep could answer questions with an accuracy which I could +not pretend to when awake--tell you what money you had in your +pocket--nay, describe your very thoughts--it is not necessarily an +imposture, any more than it is necessarily supernatural. I should be, +unconsciously to myself, under a mesmeric influence, conveyed to me +from a distance by a human being who had acquired power over me by +previous _rapport_." + +"But if a mesmeriser could so affect another living being, can you +suppose that a mesmeriser could also affect inanimate objects: move +chairs--open and shut doors?" + +"Or impress our senses with the belief in such effects--we never +having been _en rapport_ with the person acting on us? No. What is +commonly called mesmerism could not do this; but there may be a power +akin to mesmerism, and superior to it--the power that in the old +days was called Magic. That such a power may extend to all inanimate +objects of matter, I do not say; but if so, it would not be against +nature--it would be only a rare power in nature which might be given +to constitutions with certain peculiarities, and cultivated by +practice to an extraordinary degree. That such a power might extend +over the dead--that is, over certain thoughts and memories that the +dead may still retain--and compel, not that which ought properly to +be called the SOUL, and which is for beyond human reach, but rather a +phantom of what has been most earth-stained on earth, to make itself +apparent to our senses--is a very ancient though obsolete theory, upon +which I will hazard no opinion. But I do not conceive the power would +be supernatural. Let me illustrate what I mean from an experiment +which Paracelsus describes as not difficult, and which the author of +the _Curiosities of Literature_ cites as credible:--A flower perishes; +you burn it. Whatever were the elements of that flower while it lived +are gone, dispersed, you know not whither; you can never discover nor +re-collect them. But you can, by chemistry, out of the burnt dust of +that flower, raise a spectrum of the flower, just as it seemed in +life. It may be the same with the human being. The soul has as much +escaped you as the essence or elements of the flower. Still you +may make a spectrum of it. And this phantom, though in the popular +superstition it is held to be the soul of the departed, must not be +confounded with the true soul; it is but the eidolon of the dead form. +Hence, like the best-attested stories of ghosts or spirits, the thing +that most strikes us is the absence of what we hold to be soul; that +is, of superior emancipated intelligence. These apparitions come for +little or no object--they seldom speak when they do come; if they +speak, they utter no ideas above those of an ordinary person on earth. +American spirit-seers have published volumes of communications in +prose and verse, which they assert to be given in the names of the +most illustrious dead--Shakespeare, Bacon--heaven knows whom. Those +communications, taking the best, are certainly not a whit of higher +order than would be communications from living persons of fair +talent and education; they are wondrously inferior to what Bacon, +Shakespeare, and Plato said and wrote when on earth. Nor, what is more +noticeable, do they ever contain an idea that was not on the earth +before. Wonderful, therefore, as such phenomena may be (granting them +to be truthful), I see much that philosophy may question, nothing that +it is incumbent on philosophy to deny--viz., nothing supernatural. +They are but ideas conveyed somehow or other (we have not yet +discovered the means) from one mortal brain to another. Whether, in so +doing, tables walk of their own accord, or fiend-like shapes appear in +a magic circle, or bodyless hands rise and remove material objects, +or a Thing of Darkness, such as presented itself to me, freeze our +blood--still am I persuaded that these are but agencies conveyed, as +by electric wires, to my own brain from the brain of another. In some +constitutions there is a natural chemistry, and these constitutions +may produce chemic wonders--in others a natural fluid, call it +electricity, and these may produce electric wonders. But the wonders +differ from Normal Science in this--they are alike objectless, +purposeless, puerile, frivolous. They lead on to no grand results; and +therefore the world does not heed, and true sages have not cultivated +them. But sure I am, that of all I saw or heard, a man, human as +myself, was the remote originator; and I believe unconsciously to +himself as to the exact effects produced, for this reason: no two +persons, you say, have ever told you that they experienced exactly the +same thing. Well, observe, no two persons ever experience exactly the +same dream. If this were an ordinary imposture, the machinery would +be arranged for results that would but little vary; if it were a +supernatural agency permitted by the Almighty, it would surely be +for some definite end. These phenomena belong to neither class; my +persuasion is, that they originate in some brain now far distant; that +that brain had no distinct volition in anything that occurred; that +what does occur reflects but its devious, motley, ever-shifting, +half-formed thoughts; in short, that, it has been but the dreams of +such a brain put into action and invested with a semi-substance. That +this brain is of immense power, that it can set matter into movement, +that it is malignant and destructive, I believe; some material force +must have killed my dog; the same force might, for aught I know, have +sufficed to kill myself, had I been as subjugated by terror as +the dog--had my intellect or my spirit given me no countervailing +resistance in my will." + +"It killed your dog! that is fearful! indeed it is strange that no +animal can be induced to stay in that house; not even a cat. Rats and +mice are never found in it." + +"The instincts of the brute creation detect influences deadly to their +existence. Man's reason has a sense less subtle, because it has +a resisting power more supreme. But enough; do you comprehend my +theory?" + +"Yes, though imperfectly--and I accept any crotchet (pardon the word), +however odd, rather than embrace at once the notion of ghosts and +hobgoblins we imbibed in our nurseries. Still, to my unfortunate house +the evil is the same. What on earth can I do with the house?" + +"I will tell you what I would do. I am convinced from my own internal +feelings that the small unfurnished room at right angles to the door +of the bedroom which I occupied, forms a starting-point or receptacle +for the influences which haunt the house; and I strongly advise you to +have the walls opened, the floor removed--nay, the whole room pulled +down. I observe that it is detached from the body of the house, built +over the small back-yard, and could be removed without injury to the +rest of the building." + +"And you think, if I did that----" + +"You would cut off the telegraph wires. Try it, I am so persuaded that +I am right, that I will pay half the expense if you will allow me to +direct the operations." + +"Nay, I am well able to afford the cost; for the rest, allow me to +write to you." + +About ten days afterwards I received a letter from Mr. J----, telling +me that he had visited the house since I had seen him; that he had +found the two letters I had described, replaced in the drawer from +which I had taken them; that he had read them with misgivings like my +own; that he had instituted a cautious inquiry about the woman to whom +I rightly conjectured they had been written. It seemed that thirty-six +years ago (a year before the date of the letters) she had married, +against the wish of her relations, an American of very suspicious +character; in fact, he was generally believed to have been a pirate. +She herself was the daughter of very respectable tradespeople, and had +served in the capacity of a nursery governess before her marriage. She +had a brother, a widower, who was considered wealthy, and who had one +child of about six years old. A month after the marriage, the body of +this brother was found in the Thames, near London Bridge; there seemed +some marks of violence about his throat, but they were not deemed +sufficient to warrant the inquest in any other verdict than that of +"found drowned." + +The American and his wife took charge of the little boy, the deceased +brother having by his will left his sister the guardian of his only +child--and in event of the child's death, the sister inherited. The +child died about six months afterwards--it was supposed to have been +neglected and ill-treated. The neighbours deposed to have heard it +shriek at night. The surgeon who had examined it after death, said +that it was emaciated as if from want of nourishment, and the body was +covered with livid bruises. It seemed that one winter night the child +had sought to escape--crept out into the back-yard--tried to scale the +wall--fallen back exhausted, and been found at morning on the stones +in a dying state. But though there was some evidence of cruelty, +there was none of murder; and the aunt and her husband had sought to +palliate cruelty by alleging the exceeding stubbornness and perversity +of the child, who was declared to be half-witted. Be that as it may, +at the orphan's death the aunt inherited her brother's fortune. Before +the first wedded year was out, the American quitted England abruptly, +and never returned to it. He obtained a cruising vessel, which was +lost in the Atlantic two years afterwards. The widow was left in +affluence: but reverses of various kinds had befallen her: a bank +broke--an investment failed--she went into a small business and became +insolvent--then she entered into service, sinking lower and lower, +from housekeeper down to maid-of-all-work--never long retaining a +place, though nothing decided against her character was ever alleged. +She was considered sober, honest, and peculiarly quiet in her ways; +still nothing prospered with her. And so she had dropped into the +workhouse, from which Mr. J---- had taken her, to be placed in charge +of the very house which she had rented as mistress in the first year +of her wedded life. + +Mr. J---- added that he had passed an hour alone in the unfurnished +room which I had urged him to destroy, and that his impressions of +dread while there were so great, though he had neither heard nor seen +anything, that he was eager to have the walls bared and the floors +removed as I had suggested. He had engaged persons for the work, and +would commence any day I would name. + +The day was accordingly fixed. I repaired to the haunted house--we +went into the blind dreary room, took up the skirting, and then +the floors. Under the rafters, covered with rubbish, was found a +trap-door, quite large enough to admit a man. It was closely nailed +down, with clamps and rivets of iron. On removing these we descended +into a room below, the existence of which had never been suspected. +In this room there had been a window and a flue, but they had been +bricked over, evidently for many years. By the help of candles +we examined this place; it still retained some mouldering +furniture--three chairs, an oak settle, a table--all of the fashion of +about eighty years ago. There was a chest of drawers against the wall, +in which we found, half-rotted away, old-fashioned articles of a man's +dress, such as might have been worn eighty or a hundred years ago by a +gentleman of some rank--costly steel buckles and buttons, like those +yet worn in court-dresses, a handsome court sword--in a waistcoat +which had once been rich with gold-lace, but which was now blackened +and foul with damp, we found five guineas, a few silver coins, and +an ivory ticket, probably for some place of entertainment long since +passed away. But our main discovery was in a kind of iron safe fixed +to the wall, the lock of which it cost us much trouble to get picked. + +In this safe were three shelves, and two small drawers. Ranged on the +shelves were several small bottles of crystal, hermetically stopped. +They contained colourless volatile essences, of the nature of which +I shall only say that they were not poisons-- phosphor and ammonia +entered into some of them. There were also some very curious glass +tubes, and a small pointed rod of iron, with a large lump of +rock-crystal, and another of amber--also a loadstone of great power. + +In one of the drawers we found a miniature portrait set in gold, and +retaining the freshness of its colours most remarkably, considering +the length of time it had probably been there. The portrait was that +of a man who might be somewhat advanced in middle life, perhaps +forty-seven or forty-eight. + +It was a remarkable face--a most impressive face. If you could fancy +some mighty serpent transformed into man, preserving in the human +lineaments the old serpent type, you would have a better idea of that +countenance than long descriptions can convey: the width and flatness +of frontal--the tapering elegance of contour disguising the strength +of the deadly jaw--the long, large, terrible eye, glittering and green +as the emerald--and withal a certain ruthless calm, as if from the +consciousness of an immense power. + +Mechanically I turned round the miniature to examine the back of it, +and on the back was engraved a pentacle; in the middle of the pentacle +a ladder, and the third step of the ladder was formed by the date +1765. Examining still more minutely, I detected a spring; this, on +being pressed, opened the back of the miniature as a lid. Within-side +the lid were engraved, "Marianna to thee--Be faithful in life and in +death to----." Here follows a name that I will not mention, but it +was not unfamiliar to me. I had heard it spoken of by old men in my +childhood as the name borne by a dazzling charlatan who had made a +great sensation in London for a year or so, and had fled the country +in the charge of a double murder within his own house--that of his +mistress and his rival. I said nothing of this to Mr. J----, to whom +reluctantly I resigned the miniature. + +We had found no difficulty in opening the first drawer within the iron +safe; we found great difficulty in opening the second: it was not +locked, but it resisted all efforts, till we inserted in the chinks +the edge of a chisel. When we had thus drawn it forth, we found a very +singular apparatus in the nicest order. Upon a small thin book, or +rather tablet, was placed a saucer of crystal; this saucer was filled +with a clear liquid--on that liquid floated a kind of compass, with a +needle shifting rapidly round; but instead of the usual points of a +compass were seven strange characters, not very unlike those used by +astrologers to denote the planets. A peculiar, but not strong nor +displeasing odour, came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood +that we afterwards discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this +odour, it produced a material effect on the nerves. We all felt +it, even the two workmen who were in the room--a creeping tingling +sensation from the tips of the fingers to the roots of the hair. +Impatient to examine the tablet, I removed the saucer. As I did so the +needle of the compass went round and round with exceeding swiftness, +and I felt a shock that ran through my whole frame, so that I dropped +the saucer on the floor. The liquid was spilt--the saucer was +broken--the compass rolled to the end of the room--and at that instant +the walls shook to and fro, as if a giant had swayed and rocked them. + +The two workmen were so frightened that they ran up the ladder by +which we had descended from the trap-door; but seeing that nothing +more happened, they were easily induced to return. + +Meanwhile I had opened the tablet: it was bound in plain red leather, +with a silver clasp; it contained but one sheet of thick vellum, and +on that sheet were inscribed, within a double pentacle, words in old +monkish Latin, which are literally to be translated thus: "On all that +it can reach within these walls--sentient or inanimate, living or +dead--as moves the needle, so work my will! Accursed be the house, and +restless be the dwellers therein." + +We found no more. Mr. J---- burnt the tablet and its anathema. He +razed to the foundations the part of the building containing the +secret room with the chamber over it. He had then the courage +to inhabit the house himself for a month, and a quieter, +better-conditioned house could not be found in all London. +Subsequently he let it to advantage, and his tenant has made no +complaints. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pausanias, the Spartan, by Lord Lytton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUSANIAS, THE SPARTAN *** + +This file should be named 8573-8.txt or 8573-8.zip + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Marc D'Hooghe and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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