-;;:.._. 
 
 CHARLES » KELSEY- GAINES 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
PS 3513. C A°29G6 UniVerS,,y Ubrary 
 
 ^VmrnnS^SL^. AthensJIIustrate 
 
 3 1924" 022" 436 830 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022436830 
 
BOUND HER IN 'MY ARMS 
 AND HELD HER FAST (.See page 27Q) 
 
G O RG O 
 
 A Romance of Old Athens 
 
 By 
 CHARLES KELSEY GAINES, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Greek in St. Lawrence University 
 
 Illustrated by 
 GEORGE VARIAN 
 
 !¥[ ^M]?rIfMr^M]?rlMi^Mf^Mf^Mi^fMf ^. 
 
 LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 BOSTON <^t 
 
I pMf^JH^J^f jtil^fr^M 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, 
 By LOTHROP 
 PUBLISHING 
 COMPANY. 
 
 Entered at 
 Stationers' Hall. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 Published August, 1903- 
 
r, 
 
 O MY DEAR SISTER 
 HELEN A. COWEN 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 Prologue . 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 FAGB 
 V 
 
 I. 
 
 The Flight . 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 II. 
 
 Under Siege 
 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 III. 
 
 The Great Pestilence 
 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 IV. 
 
 From a House of Slaves . 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 V. 
 
 Peril and Rescue 
 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 VI. 
 
 A New Friend in Need 
 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 VII. 
 
 A Walk with Socrates 
 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Schoolmates 
 
 
 
 
 93 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Demagogue . 
 
 
 
 
 108 
 
 X. 
 
 On the Road to Sparta 
 
 
 
 
 119 
 
 XI. 
 
 A Wrestling Match . 
 
 
 
 
 132 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Daughter of Brasid^ 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A School of War 
 
 
 
 
 157 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Bow of Golas . 
 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 XV. 
 
 Afteryx 
 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Sailing of the Fleei 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 I9S 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Broken Stones . 
 
 
 
 
 206 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Prison and Court 
 
 
 
 
 . 217 
 
 XIX. 
 XX. 
 
 A Waxen Riddle 
 Days of Battle . 
 
 
 
 
 231 
 
 . 244 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Turn of the Tide 
 
 
 
 
 . 256 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The Riddle Solved . 
 
 
 
 
 . 265 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 In the Grotto of Gorgo 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 27s 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 A Ride up Phounias . 
 
 
 
 
 . 284 
 
 XXV. 
 
 That Lysander . 
 
 
 
 
 • 294 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XXVI. Meletus before the Senate 
 
 XXVII. The Beginning of the End 
 
 XXVIII. The Great Disaster . 
 
 XXIX. Slave and Poet . 
 
 XXX. The Brand of the Beast 
 
 XXXI. The Traitor . 
 
 XXXII. The Arch - Conspirator 
 
 XXXIII. A Message . 
 
 XXXIV. We Three 
 
 XXXV. An Entry and an Exit 
 
 XXXVI. The Greatest Battle Yet 
 
 XXXVII. At Last .... 
 
 XXXVIII. The Last Hiss of the Snake 
 
 XXXIX. A Voice from a Meal -Tub 
 XL. The Vengeance of the Shades 
 XLI. A Last Talk with Socrates 
 XLII. A Sigh of the Wind . 
 XLIII. My Promise to Gorgo . 
 XLIV. The Viper's Sting 
 
 XLV. " Even in That Darkness " 
 
 3°3 
 3H 
 326 
 
 339 
 353 
 362 
 
 373 
 382 
 
 39° 
 399 
 407 
 416 
 424 
 438 
 447 
 457 
 465 
 
 473 
 485 
 494 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 / bound her in my arms and held her fast . Frontispiece 
 
 The man . . . kept threatening my father with the stick 18 
 
 " Kneel, boy " she repeated 143 
 
 " Keep it for me, boy" she murmured . . . .156 
 
 T cast her into his receding arms 416 
 
 He shouted harshly 495 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 I STOPPED short; I flung down the book. " It 
 is a lie," I cried, bitterly, " a cruel, hateful lie," 
 I almost shouted, — and the whole class stared 
 at me in amazement. 
 
 A strange outburst was that for the dingy, drowsy 
 Greek-room of a little New England college. I 
 was as much surprised as any ; I stood confounded 
 at myself. For then it was that I remembered. 
 
 The passage which I was translating seemed inno- 
 cent enough — to all the rest. We were reading 
 at sight — the professor's particular hobby ; and he 
 was exploiting upon us the Twelfth Oration of 
 Lysias, assigning parts here, "there, anywhere. How 
 the boys all dreaded those paper-covered Teubner 
 texts which he used to distribute for this exercise, 
 — printed in quirkish type that made the most famil- 
 iar words look new and meaningless! To many 
 of us this sight-reading was an ordeal like walking 
 blindfold over hot ploughshares. 
 
 But I had been paying scant attention to what 
 they were reading. Greek was easy to me always, 
 and the halting drone with which they turned the 
 sweet Attic into their class-room jargon wearied 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 my ears. Indeed, it fretted my nerves : " A squeak- 
 ing Illyrian would hardly haggle it worse," I mut- 
 tered to myself. And my thoughts had drifted far 
 away into I know not what region of day-dreams, 
 under a bright sky buttressed on purple hills, when 
 I heard the incisive voice of the professor : 
 
 " Leonard, you may read now, beginning with 
 the seventy-eighth section." It cut through the 
 mists of cloudland like the flash of a searchlight. 
 
 I started to my feet, found the place and began : 
 
 " ' And although he has been the author of all 
 these and still other disasters and disgraces, both 
 old and new, both small and great, some dare to 
 profess themselves his friends ; although it was not 
 for the people that Theramenes died, but because 
 of his own villainy — ' " 
 
 Then I choked and stopped. Tears swam in my 
 eyes, and a hot flush scalded my cheeks. For in 
 that instant first I understood; and in that instant 
 it seemed to me that they all understood. 
 
 But the professor, rather mortified at my un- 
 wonted hesitation, began to prompt : 
 
 " Go on, Leonard, — ' Having paid a just for- 
 feit under the oligarchy, for already he had be- 
 trayed it,' — go on, it is not hard — ' and no less 
 justly would he have died under the democracy, 
 which he twice enslaved ' — why, Leonard ! " 
 
 For there — " It is a lie," I burst forth, " a cruel, 
 hateful lie." Those words which he uttered so 
 calmly had stung me like the lashes of a scourge, 
 — so malignant, so artful, so utterly unjust. And 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 the whole world had read them — this had been be- 
 lieved for centuries, with none to contradict! 
 
 " To say it when a man was dead ! " I went on. 
 " And Lysias ! for Lysias to say it ! " I had quite 
 forgotten the class; I saw only the foppish, wasp- 
 ish little orator, declaiming before the people with 
 studied passion and hot indignation well memorised. 
 But the people had never accepted it ! They knew 
 me better. And Thrasybulus — surely he had made 
 some answer ! 
 
 " They would not listen to such as Lysias ; they 
 would make an uproar and rise from the benches. 
 How dared that alien accuse the best blood of Ath- 
 ens ! " Yet I could scarcely have told you why I 
 said it. 
 
 My classmates were too much astonished to laugh. 
 The professor laid down 'his book ; mine I flung on 
 the floor. My blood was boiling, my soul a tumult. 
 
 "What does this mean, Leonard?" I heard the 
 voice; I could not clearly see the speaker. 
 
 " I will not read it — I will not read another 
 line," I cried. " It is worse than the malice of 
 Critias, — and from Lysias ! " For the past had 
 opened like a darkness lightning-cleft; all in one 
 moment I felt the injustice of ages, the shame of an 
 aeon of scorn — and they asked me to read against 
 myself the lying record. I would die again sooner 
 than read it. I could not realise that they did not 
 comprehend. 
 
 It was not often that Professor Lalor was at a 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 loss for words, but there was a long pause before 
 he spoke. 
 
 " Young man," he said, slowly, " I always like 
 my students to manifest a living interest in what 
 they read, and this trait I have especially commended 
 in you heretofore. But there is measure, Leonard, 
 in all things, as the Greeks themselves have taught 
 us ; and this exceeds — this certainly exceeds. One 
 would fancy you claimed to know more of these 
 matters than Lysias himself, — a contemporary au- 
 thority." 
 
 And here the suppressed laughter broke loose 
 behind me. Again I had choked, but anger gave 
 me back my speech. 
 
 " Lysias an authority! " I exclaimed. " Lysias! " 
 
 My sight had cleared. The class sat quiet, star- 
 tled out of their laughter; the professor looked 
 pained and puzzled. 
 
 " There is a degree of truth in what you seem 
 to imply," he said. " It may be conceded that Lys- 
 ias was somewhat lacking in the judicial quality. 
 And as to Theramenes, Aristotle has expressed a 
 very different estimate of him ; and Xenophon, too, 
 has applauded his behaviour in that final scene. Yet 
 Lysias — " 
 
 " He was no better than a sycophant," I broke in. 
 
 " Go to your room, Leonard. You forget your- 
 self." But the truth was, I had remembered myself. 
 
 After that they nicknamed me Theramenes: I 
 was nicknamed after myself, and none suspected. 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 But when I left college the title dropped from me, 
 — which was fortunate, doubtless, for I am still 
 active in politics, and that name, with the slanders 
 that lie upon it now, is not one to be desired. You 
 may guess as you like as to who I am; I have 
 given you no real clue. 
 
 Yet I could not forget my past; the sense of the 
 wrong done my name has ever rankled. And as 
 my thoughts have dwelt amid those old experiences, 
 the memory of every minutest circumstance has 
 grown clear, — yes; clearer than the things about 
 me, just as an old man forgets yesterday, but re- 
 members all the little things of childhood. So it 
 is that I remember my life in Athens. 
 
 Forget! I have far too much to remind me. 
 What is this seething democracy in which we live 
 but Athens renewed? In a thousand ways I am 
 reminded — but I forbear. Yet — do you imagine 
 that I alone among living men have walked those 
 ancient streets? Not so: but the rest do not re- 
 member. And what but a dark cloud of things 
 unremembered is this that overshadows most of 
 us — like a sense of fate, only it lies somewhere 
 in a past as unknown and uncertain as the future! 
 They will never recall it -i— those others — unless 
 I should tell them; and I have told but one. 
 
 Could it be the same? My heart rang like a lyre 
 when all the strings are swept and sing together. 
 " Grant me, O Jove, this one thing," I began, with 
 hands uplifted; then stopped. I knew that Jove 
 was nothing — a pagan fancy. But if one has been 
 
PROLOGUE 
 
 brought up to pray, there are times when he will 
 pray — even to Jove. 
 
 No : I have not forgotten ; nor, I fear, forgiven. 
 Not even to-day can I quite live up to the teachings 
 of Socrates, — still less, those of him who came 
 after, teaching the same, and more, with a higher 
 authority. Thence should arise the chief difference 
 between that old world and the new ; yet men are 
 much the same. 
 
 I, too, am the same, — even more than others, 
 because I remember. And because I am the same, 
 and know it, the stain upon my ancient life is hard 
 to bear; I cannot die again and leave the story 
 untold — nay, mistold, which is far worse. 
 
 And of this I spoke at last to her to whom I 
 had already spoken wonderful words — fulfilling a 
 promise. 
 
 " O boy," she cried, " you shall write of that thing 
 in a book, and tell all the truth." 
 
 And this is the book. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 I. 
 
 The Flight 
 
 MY first vague memories of anything belong- 
 ing to the world are of the country — of a 
 great sunshine and a sound of bees, and of 
 playing with a big, shaggy dog that stood and cast 
 his shadow over me as I rolled naked on the sand. 
 For I was born before the evil days of the war 
 that drove us from our homes into the crowded 
 city. Yet it is mainly because of the war that I 
 remember the dog. For as I tugged at his throat, 
 clutching the loose skin with both fists, I heard 
 a sound that was like the distant bellowing of bulls 
 before the altar. And it broke the quiet into turmoil, 
 as when a stone is dashed into a pool. For the 
 dog sprang from me, barking; and the women 
 rushed forth and caught me up, and smothered me 
 in the folds of a mantle. And while I screamed 
 and struggled, there came a clatter of hoofs and 
 such another bellowing blast that I thought the 
 
12 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 bulls had broke loose and were upon us ; and words 
 that I could not understand were shouted in a 
 strange, hoarse voice. Then the clamour passed 
 on, and they hurried me inside the house. 
 
 But the quiet which was that day broken never 
 came back. I was never again to play with the 
 dog or scramble in the sand; and little enough 
 I saw of the sunshine for many a month. For the 
 sound which had frightened me from my play was 
 the trumpet sent out by Pericles to call the people 
 within the walls ; and the words that rumbled with- 
 out meaning in my ears were big with thrice nine 
 years of war, telling of the approach of the Spartan 
 Archidamus with sixty thousand men. 
 
 That night we fled, with our servants and our 
 cattle and whatever we could carry. I had my 
 last glimpse of home as I was borne away to the 
 covered wagon, crying and reaching back with my 
 hands, — though in after years I found there its 
 dead embers, sunk in the dust amid calcined stones, 
 and saw the black stumps of the orchard where 
 the bees had swarmed. But of that dark journey 
 I remember little, — only cries and confusion, and 
 much lashing of men and beasts, and an intermi- 
 nable jolting over the hills, until I sobbed myself 
 asleep in my nurse's arms. 
 
 Yet what I saw in the morning I remember very 
 clearly; it was all so new. For when I awoke the 
 wheels were running quite smoothly, crisping over 
 compacted sand, and a strange, keen odour was in 
 the air; and as the curtains flapped the sunshine 
 
G O R G O 13 
 
 flashed in and out. Then I perceived that I was 
 alone, lying upon a pile of fleeces, with many skins 
 and garments heaped about me, making a great nest 
 lined with the wool. But I was vexed at being 
 alone, and began to wail; whereupon some one 
 parted the curtains and lifted me out. And the 
 sunlight flashed in my eyes from ten thousand 
 tumbling waves, and the waters ran up the beach 
 in wide bands of gold and green and purple, break- 
 ing at our very feet, so that my face was damp 
 with the spray, and I crowed and clapped my hands, 
 until my nurse could hardly hold me, for that was 
 my first sight of the sea. My father laughed at this, 
 and said that the people of Athens had surely pro- 
 voked the anger of Dionysus, for now we were 
 all turned into dolphins from our birth, — which, of 
 course, I could not at all understand, but it im- 
 pressed me mightily, so that I lay very still, fearing 
 about the dolphins, and watching the sun-flashes 
 from my father's helmet and from his spear-point 
 as he walked. For he used the spear as a staff, 
 but the rest of his arms lay on a cart, and a boy 
 was leading his horse. 
 
 Presently we came to a huge wall, so tall that 
 it seemed to go up into the sky and stopped every- 
 thing; and this, I thought, must be the end of 
 the world, where Hercules went for the apples. 
 Then I saw that there was a gate under the wall, and 
 a great multitude waiting before it with carts and 
 cattle; and I thought that perhaps we were dead, 
 and this was the entrance to Pluto's country, and 
 
H 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I hid my face for fear of the dog with three heads. 
 And putting my lips close to my nurse's ear, I 
 asked her if indeed this was Pluto's gate, and if 
 the noise I heard within was the growling of the 
 dog. But at that she started as if I had bitten 
 her, and cried: "Apollo avert the sign! For the 
 child is ominous, and has breathed in my ear an 
 evil word at the threshold, to be a bane to us all." 
 
 Her tone terrified me, so that I screamed ; whereat 
 my mother came quickly, and beat the woman and 
 took me away. When I had told her my fear she 
 frowned a little, but kissed me, and said that this 
 was no such evil thing as I had thought, but only 
 the gate of Piraeus, and that we were going to 
 live in Athens for awhile, in our city house, until 
 the Spartans were all driven away. And she told 
 me that I must take care never to think evil thoughts, 
 nor speak them; for the gods, when they heard 
 ill words, would sometimes make them true. But 
 when she saw that I was still troubled, she said 
 that it was not likely the gods had noticed such a 
 little whisper in so loud a noise, which comforted 
 me greatly. 
 
 Yet from that hour there came into my soul a 
 dread which I had not felt before, and I specu- 
 lated much about the deep, dark underworld, though 
 I feared such thoughts were wicked and unsafe. 
 As for the nurse, she could never bear to be with 
 me afterward, nor could I abide her presence. So 
 she was set to other tasks; but not for long, for 
 
G O R G O 15 
 
 when the plague came she was the first from our 
 house that died. 
 
 But » that morning we had no thought of the 
 plague, which was still in Egypt, but only of the 
 army of Archidamus, which was already upon our 
 borders. Even while we waited, a light-armed run- 
 ner came up panting, and was let in through a little 
 door, which opened and shut quickly. I was grow- 
 ing very hungry and impatient, but at length the 
 heavy gates swung back, and we all rushed in, 
 I sitting, astride my father's shoulder because of 
 the crush, gripping hard on the crest of his helmet, 
 as if it had been indeed a horse's mane. 
 
 And within I had my first vision of a city, — 
 though, of course, I only remember what printed 
 itself upon my childish eye. Behind loomed the 
 great wall, steep and high, like an encircling preci- 
 pice. Before us rose a long slope covered with 
 houses, close packed and lying in courses, like the 
 red tiles on a roof, only between the tiers ran nar- 
 row cracks that were streets. All around us in 
 the open spaces men and women and slaves were 
 thronging, in fluttering garments of red and blue 
 and gray, and others in sheepskins, and some almost 
 naked, — such a multitude that it seemed to me 
 the whole world must be gathered there. They were 
 crowding and pressing among carts and horses and 
 oxen and mules and asses, and the clamour was 
 as when the herdsmen brought the cattle home to 
 the sheds, only ten times greater. Further away I 
 could only see a rolling field of heads, some bare and 
 
!6 G O R G O 
 
 some in leather caps, with here and there the glint 
 of a helmet; and this extended as far as I could 
 see at all. * 
 
 I suppose that we had come to Piraeus first on 
 account of the cattle, for I saw no more of them. 
 Indeed, my attention was wholly taken up with 
 the wild scene through which my father was bear- 
 ing me; but presently he halted beside a door, 
 which opened to let us in, but was hastily closed 
 and barred as soon as we had entered. The rooms 
 seemed very wide and cool and dark, and many 
 servants were going about very quietly. Here I 
 sat on a rug and had a great drink of goat's milk 
 and nibbled at a string of figs, listening the while 
 to the trampling and shouting outside, and wonder- 
 ing if the wall would not be burst in. 
 
 But we did not linger long, for after a little my 
 father got upon his horse, and I was lifted up and 
 set before him — which delighted me greatly, for 
 I had always admired my father's horse, but had 
 never been on his back; and so we forced our way 
 through many narrow streets and crowded squares, 
 some of the servants marching in front with staves 
 to open a passage. From Piraeus we must have 
 passed by the broad avenue between the Long 
 Walls all the way to the Upper Town, for I remem- 
 ber the overshadowing battlements on either side, and 
 the ranges of tents and cabins which had been set 
 up beneath them as a shelter for the fugitives ; and 
 in one place I saw women sitting in the mouths 
 of great earthen jars which had been laid side- 
 
G O R G O 17 
 
 wise in rows, with children peeping out over their 
 shoulders like puppies from a kennel. The crowds 
 were now less dense, yet the road was obstructed 
 with piles of furniture and bedding, and the people 
 were going and coming everywhere. Then we 
 passed through another gate between two towers, 
 where ranks of soldiers stood on guard with glit- 
 tering shields and heavy lances ; they looked so terri- 
 ble that I wondered if the Spartans would ever dare 
 to meet them. Thence we came again between lines 
 of houses, and the press and tumult were so great 
 that we could scarcely make any headway, until 
 at last we issued into a great square, fenced in with 
 rows of creamy columns and long painted porches; 
 and this, too, swarmed with people, tossing their 
 heads like the huddled beasts in a stock-yard, so 
 that the whole expanse quaked and weltered like 
 a pond as I looked down upon it from the horse. 
 Here something chanced beyond the understanding 
 of a child, yet such that I could not well forget it. 
 
 For as we entered this place, one of our servants, 
 vexed with pushing and buffeting, struck with his 
 stick a fellow in a leather cap who was insolent and 
 would not make way for my father. And the man 
 yelled with rage, and snatched the stick from our 
 servant and brandished it against my father, railing 
 at him for an aristocrat and an oligarch and a hater 
 of the people, — words which sounded very dreadful 
 in my ears. In a moment such a throng was gath- 
 ered around us that we could not go forward; the 
 servants dropped their staves and slunk behind us. 
 
i8 G O R G O 
 
 The man who had been struck kept threatening my 
 father with the stick, crying out that here was an 
 aristocrat riding down the common people and set- 
 ting his slaves to beat them ; I could hear my father 
 grinding his teeth above my head, but he did not 
 answer. Then some one threw a shard of a broken 
 pot, and it hit the horse and stung him, so that 
 he reared till I thought we would fall backward; 
 and others in the crowd began to grope on the 
 ground for stones. 
 
 But just as they were lifting their hands to throw, 
 a great voice came booming in our ears, like the 
 crash of a long wall falling; they paused and turned, 
 even as they were swaying back their arms. And 
 we saw a big man, with a coarse face and wide jaws 
 and a black, bushy beard, shouldering through the 
 crush; those who stood in his way he thrust aside 
 with arms that were like a pair of legs for thick- 
 ness, demanding why they were casting stones. 
 Then, before any could answer, my father, slipping 
 from the horse, caught me up and ran toward the 
 man and laid me in his arms ; and my father spoke 
 with a voice that shook as I had never heard it, 
 not even when he spoke in anger among the slaves. 
 
 " Cleon," he said, " elsewhere we may contend, 
 but here I stand as your suppliant and thank the 
 gods who have sent you for my need. This boy, 
 my only son, I lay in your hands as a' pledge, and 
 it shall well be worth your while to save him and 
 me. My servant has struck a citizen, — not at my 
 bidding, I swear it. Take the slave; he is yours 
 
HE MAN . . . KEP'T THREATENING 
 MY FA THER WITH THE STICK 
 
G O ■ R G O 19 
 
 to kill or keep, as you will, and more shall be added. 
 You know me, what I am. But quiet these mad- 
 men." 
 
 At first the man scowled and looked away, and 
 made as if he would drop me on the ground, but 
 I caught him by the beard so that he winced and 
 held me up; and I cried: " Man, my father is not 
 an aristocrat. He has come to fight the wicked 
 Spartans." 
 
 At that the big face began to pucker, and the man 
 broke into a laugh that was more like a bray; and 
 hoisting me high he strode forward, shouting: 
 
 " Citizens, are you waging war on babies while 
 the Spartans hew and burn in sight of the city walls ? 
 Is it a time to fling stones when the enemy are hurl- 
 ing spears ? I love not these knights — you know 
 it well; and some day, with the help of Father 
 Demus, I hope to pluck them off their horses to 
 walk like you and me. But what of that to-day? 
 There is war. The man is no traitor; I will stand 
 for it. By Apollo, the first that lifts his hand 
 to throw shall ride the knight's horse himself where 
 the darts are singing. As for Thraso there, let him 
 cudgel the slave that swung the staff. His master 
 yields him up; what more can you ask? Thump 
 him, then, till he howls, — but make way for the 
 knight who will battle for Athens. Did you not 
 hear the word of the child? He speaks from his 
 mother, and I will back him against twenty such 
 liars as swear by all the gods on Olympus for three 
 obols." 
 
20 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 And they fell back crying, " Cleon is right ! " and 
 " Well said, Cleon ! " I heard the stones dropping 
 from their hands, thudding upon the hard earth. 
 
 Then Cleon gave me such a squeeze that I gasped 
 for breath, and with another laugh he tossed me 
 back to my father. " Go quickly, Hagnon," he 
 said, " while the stones lie at rest ; and to-morrow 
 send the slave as you have promised, with what 
 more you will. Remember that but for the Tanner 
 you would have slept this night under a monument 
 of shards and tiles, and Athens would have 
 had another tale of Lycidas to fright aristocrats. 
 See to it that the boy's word be true, that you fight 
 for Athens, not plot against her. And let him not 
 again be laid in the track of the plough, Hagnon. 
 Our Demus is no Odysseus ; there is no feigning in 
 his fits of madness. Some day when Pericles is 
 busy with Aspasia, and Cleon is not at hand, it 
 may go hard with you. Forget not the slave." 
 
 Thus far the whole scene so lives in my memory 
 that I can even see the long shadow of a hand which 
 seemed to reach out and clutch at our servant when 
 Cleon pointed toward him. For on that day I was 
 like a child who sits for the first time in a theatre, 
 watching the actors so intently that he recalls every 
 word and gesture and mimics them afterward in his 
 play, repeating long, speeches with every cadence 
 perfect, but the meaning all awry. But after we 
 left the great square I grew very weary, and remem- 
 ber nothing more until at last we stopped at the 
 door of our city house. 
 
II. 
 
 Under Siege 
 
 EVEN from the beginning the war had taken 
 an evil bent, and the crowded town, like a 
 caldron when the fire grows hot and the lid 
 is pressed down too closely, hissed and sputtered 
 with discontent. The people were furious because 
 the generals would not lead them out to battle. 
 Cleon stormed in the market; the rabble roared 
 for an assembly; tumult filled the streets. The 
 fugitive farmers swarmed on the walls, and leaned 
 from the battlements and cursed, while the enemy 
 ravaged the fields unhindered in the plain below; 
 and the angry watchers almost leaped from the 
 turrets as they saw their hamlets blazing and their 
 fruit-trees toppling to the axe. Only Pericles sat 
 unmoved, — a very Sphinx of Egypt, cold and 
 stony, brooding over the nation's destiny. He rarely 
 spoke, but when once his lips were opened it was 
 as if Jove thundered. For him alone the applause 
 was universal silence; the people wept but found 
 no answer. 
 
 Of all this, though its echo was ever in my ears, 
 I as yet knew nothing clearly, for our doors were 
 
22 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 kept shut as tightly as the city gates. Many times 
 I crept through the long, dim passage leading out- 
 ward, and pushed with all my strength against 
 the nail-studded panels; but they never yielded, 
 and Trogon, the porter, was always lurking there, 
 spiderlike in his ambush, ready to pounce out of 
 the shadows and wrap his ugly clutches round me. 
 Then, breaking away, for sheer weariness and misery 
 of spirit I would weep till the tears refused to 
 come and my eyes were hot and dry, pining for the 
 farm and the bare earth and the open sky; for I 
 fancied that if I could only get through the door 
 I might find them again. I dragged at my mother's 
 robe, begging that I might go home; but she put 
 me off with words about the war and the Spartans 
 until my baby soul grew desperate. 
 
 " Why doesn't my father take his horse and his 
 spear," I cried, " and go out with the men in brass 
 and chase them away ? " For I thought that noth- 
 ing could withstand my father's horse, supported 
 by a line of shields and lances such as I had seen 
 under the tower. 
 
 Then my grandfather called out from his great 
 carved chair, " Well said, boy ! " and applauded 
 as if he had been listening to the orators in the 
 assembly instead of sitting bowed in a dusky corner 
 giving ear to the babble of a child. For he was 
 too old now to do anything but sit and mutter. 
 
 " Yet lay no blame on your father, boy," he 
 went on, in a voice that was like the griding of 
 steel on a stone. " Never blame the good men of 
 
G O R G O 23 
 
 the city, boy. For Athens, child, is ruled to-day by 
 a tyrant — a mighty tongue, loud among leather 
 caps, dumb before helmets. It was not so when 
 Cimon sailed the fleet, and Greece was one, and 
 the Persian feared to look upon the sea." And 
 again he fell to muttering. 
 
 Then my mother, seeing my eyes wide with won- 
 der and fearing lest I vex the old man with ques- 
 tions, explained that this was Pericles whose tongue 
 ruled Athens, and he wtfuld let none go beyond the 
 walls except such as went out in ships; whereupon 
 I decided that Pericles must be the sentinel at the 
 gate — whether man or dragon I was not sure, 
 but trembled to think that we had passed so near. 
 
 Yet I was not satisfied with my mother's gentle 
 words, considering that she was only a woman 
 and could not know ; and soon, while she was busy 
 with the maids at the loom, I stole back to my grand- 
 father, and laying hold of his bony fingers to arouse 
 him, told all that was in my heart. At first he sniffed 
 impatiently and tried to pull away his hand, but I 
 held so fast he let it lie; and presently, reaching 
 out with the other, he drew me between his knees 
 and listened. When I had finished he laughed, 
 yet so bitterly that I saw he was not really laugh- 
 ing, but in earnest. And he said I had hit the truth ; 
 that Pericles was indeed a dragon, bigger than the 
 one that Cadmus killed at Thebes; and that more 
 armed men had come out of his mouth, so that the 
 land was full of them. " And there will be no 
 peace," he cried, " till the whole dragon's brood 
 
2 4 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 is slain. Twenty and seven years," he crooned — 
 " twenty and seven years — even as the prophet 
 warned us — beginning in pestilence, ending in fam- 
 ine — and then the walls shall fall and crush the 
 last of them." 
 
 Then he fell into silence; and I crept away with 
 my heart in the bottom of my stomach and the 
 dragon gnawing at it. And this name, the noblest 
 in Athens, became such a terror to me that the serv- 
 ants presently observed it, and used Pericles instead 
 of Mormo for a bugbear when I vexed them. For 
 I had ceased to tremble at Mormo and Empusa, 
 because my father laughed at them ; but I saw that 
 he was always grave when Pericles was mentioned, 
 and this to me was the seal of truth. 
 
 Although I had fled in dismay from before my 
 grandfather's mantic passion, the very awe with 
 which I now regarded him soon drew me back. At 
 first I hung aloof and watched him from the furthest 
 corner, thinking how much he looked like old Cronus 
 on the picture vases, as he sat in his great chair, 
 white and bent and heeding nothing. Yet at last 
 the dim eyes perceived me, and a querulous voice 
 called my name : 
 
 " Hither, little Theramenes ! Of what is the son 
 of Hagnon afraid ? " And soon I was again at 
 his knees, recklessly plying my oracle with ques- 
 tions. 
 
 After that we were main comrades, my grand- 
 father and I — we were both so lonely and so help- 
 less, and so weary of the vacant hours. I tremble 
 
G O R G O 25 
 
 to think how completely I became a thing of this 
 old man's making ; for he opened his stores without 
 reserve and gave me of his best and worst. 
 
 Was I too apt a pupil ? Some, perhaps, would say 
 so, in view of what came after. And the old man's 
 blood was in my veins, though mingled with a 
 sweeter strain, — which he esteemed a taint, for 
 my mother was not of the pure Athenian stock, 
 but an islander. He had forgiven her — almost 
 — yet this was a sore spot on his calloused heart. 
 " Speak not of that," he would mutter away down in 
 his throat, " speak not of it, and who, but one old 
 man, will remember ? Thy metal is good ; thou art 
 thy father's son — what matters it of women ? " 
 
 From him — for though not untaught, I have 
 always looked more on brass than on books — 
 from him and his rambling monodies I learned 
 most of what I know of our nation's lore, both fact 
 and fable. There were days when he would do 
 little else but recite long passages from Homer — 
 Iliad, Odyssey, and much besides that I have never 
 seen" in writing, nor know if it ever was written. 
 Homer he called it all. Strange work he made of 
 it, for his chanting was like the rhythmic discords 
 of a brazier's hammer braying upon the shield- 
 plates; yet the flow and swell of the verse was 
 beyond any man's spoiling. My blood was stirred, 
 and I, too, began to recite the lines that rang out 
 most clarion-like. But it was not as a lesson that I 
 recited them. Round and round the room I would 
 
26 G O R G O 
 
 march, with measured step, to the music of those 
 opening lines : — 
 
 Sing, Muse, of the wrath of Peleus' son, of the deadly, 
 Baleful strife that oppressed with woes untold the Achaeans, — 
 
 and so on until my breath was lost in panting ; while 
 my grandfather beat with his heels and joined in 
 with raucous trumpetings, and my mother appeared 
 at the door with a flutter of snowy linen, but turned 
 away without a word. She, I think, had little 
 liking for Homer; but for him who would stand 
 in the phalanx when the psean sounds there is no 
 other poet. Then first I became a soldier, and tasted 
 in advance the wine of battle. When Diomed dared 
 the gods, when Hector shattered the gates, when 
 toiling Ajax withstood the onset at the ships and 
 with his single lance thrust back an assaulting army, 
 then a new fire was kindled in my soul and a great 
 flame mounted up within me, as when a beacon is 
 lighted on a tower; and I longed for a breastplate 
 and a spear, and an irresistible arm, and some mighty 
 foeman, a very Hector, with chariot and horses 
 and resplendent mail bearing down upon me. What 
 boy has not found such dreams in Homer — if his 
 blood runs scarlet? And how many have faced the 
 spear-points of their country's enemies the better 
 for it ! 
 
 And out of this grew my favourite play. With 
 knitted brow and labouring breath, a pot-lid firmly 
 braced upon my arm and the applauding veteran's 
 staff well levelled, shield to shield with the shades 
 
G O R G O 27 
 
 of many ancestors I charged down an imaginary 
 hill-slope straight against the foe, and having put 
 them to rout and rushed after in mad pursuit, 
 plunged into imaginary waters to lay hold of the 
 fleeing galleys — singing the while no imaginary 
 paean, for I had learned the right cadence even 
 then, and the words of it, too. And that, I re- 
 member, pleased my father when at last he came 
 in from scouting, so brown and lean from rough 
 service that I hardly knew him, and without his 
 horse, which had gone lame on the stones. 
 
 And now, with one more episode, this ominous old 
 man passes from my life. It was late in the spring of 
 the second year, and we were sitting on the house- 
 top, my grandfather and I, basking in the clear 
 sunshine; and very good it seemed after the long 
 darkness of the rooms below. Before us, not far 
 away, rose the steep crags of the Acropolis, its stern 
 brow crowned with a flowery wreath of temples, 
 the most splendid garden of the gods that earth 
 could offer, — then so new that all the richness of 
 its varied colouring shone undimmed, and even from 
 where we saw the vision, the sculptured gods and 
 demigods of frieze and pediment stood out to the 
 eye like living things. From below, from among 
 the red tiles of the city, mounted a broad stairway 
 of whitest marble, flecked with the figures of those 
 who came and went, leading up to the glories above 
 through pillared pylons that were themselves great 
 temples, more perfect than ever chisel shaped except 
 in Athens. High over all, on the topmost terrace, 
 
28 G O R G O 
 
 too mighty to be housed in any o'f her shrines, 
 towered the mail-clad goddess of war, our protecting 
 deity, with her massy spear so uplifted that its 
 shadow fell afar on the roofs of the city that she 
 loved. Its point seemed blood-stained then, but 
 this doubtless was only the glow of sunshine on 
 the ruddy bronze; yet her whole aspect seemed 
 menacing and fraught with fire, and I feared while 
 I adored her. 
 
 But soon, when I had gazed for a little while 
 and sated my eyes with these novelties of form 
 and colour, my thoughts wandered somewhat from 
 the scene before me, and because I saw many people 
 strayed back to the riot in the market, where we 
 had once so narrowly escaped from stoning. And 
 presently, as the old man sat silent, I began to urge 
 him with questions, — why the people hated us so, 
 and what was the meaning of that evil word the 
 man had spoken ; for it stuck in my heart that my 
 father had been called an aristocrat. 
 
 But my grandfather, when he had drawn in his 
 eyes and again gave heed to me, answered the last 
 question first; and he spoke sharply, with a sort 
 of petulance. * 
 
 " Boy," he cried, " that was no lie, but the truth, 
 and wrong were you to deny it. For it is not an 
 evil word, except in the mouths of slaves and the 
 sons of slaves; and such are the rabble of Clean. 
 But not of such are you. Hear me, boy, first-born 
 of a noble house in the foremost city of all Jove's 
 Hellas." 
 
G O R G O 
 
 29 
 
 And my heart grew big as I listened, and he 
 was pleased to see my breath come and go. 
 
 " Strike ever for Athens, boy," he chanted — for 
 a new tone had come to him, and he spoke with 
 the clang of an orator before the people — " strike, 
 and strike sharply, for thy native land, never against 
 her. Strike down her enemies with hand and tongue, 
 and her betrayers by what means you may; for 
 it matters little of the means if the end be true, 
 and crooked paths often lead to holy places. And 
 if in doing these things it shall come to thee to 
 die, even by the hand of those who should have 
 aided thy endeavour, speak a brave word, boy, and 
 die boldly. For many among thy ancestors have 
 died a good death for Athens. But as for Cleon 
 and his brawlers, that would make their foul breath 
 law and spit upon their betters, may it ever be 
 thy wish to cast their carcasses into the barathrum 
 to be entombed by dogs; and may Athena make 
 strong thy arm to achieve it." Here he was seized 
 with a fit of coughing that stopped him for a sea- 
 son. But he began again : " Those whom they taunt 
 as aristocrats," he cried, " are but those who have 
 possessed this city from of old, and were the best 
 of her citizens from the beginning. By them alone 
 were her glories won; by them alone can she be 
 saved ffom present shame." 
 
 As he paused, we noticed that the street below, 
 which, when he began to speak, was thronged with 
 hurrying figures, was now empty and silent. The 
 air hung thick and dead, and through it swam a 
 
3° 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 faint odour, mawkish, like the scent of decaying 
 lilies, so that I shrank to breathe. And with this 
 came a dismal tremor, the eleleu of wailing, at 
 first almost melodious in the distance, then throb- 
 bing painfully upon the ear as the cry drew nearer. 
 For as we listened, gazing up and down, a sinister 
 procession swung in view. In front were two or 
 three hired mourners, scurrying along at a very 
 unusual pace, and only at intervals shrilling a cry. 
 As we watched them, the hindmost darted down an 
 alley and disappeared. Then came the bier, borne 
 by pallid slaves, stumbling in their haste, with the 
 white shroud pulled awry, giving a glimpse of 
 hideously distorted features; but none stopped to 
 adjust it. Close behind walked a woman, her gar- 
 ments rent, her cheeks torn and streaming blood, 
 yet ashen with anguish, frantically wringing her 
 hands. Further back straggled a few more, black- 
 robed but white with fear, nearest of kin, no doubt, 
 but in space holding as far aloof as might be. Be- 
 sides the slaves and hirelings, not a man was in 
 sight. 
 
 The bier was now directly beneath us, and as it 
 passed our door the woman broke forth with a 
 shriek, the most dreadful that I had ever heard. 
 
 " Let us go down," croaked my grandfather, in 
 a changed voice. " It has reached our quarter, 
 now." 
 
III. 
 
 The Great Pestilence 
 
 THAT was the end. I learned no more lessons 
 from my grandfather, whether of good or evil. 
 The very next day he was stricken, and the 
 house rang with his cries for water and his curses 
 because it brought no relief. Only by constant 
 watching was he kept from flinging himself into the 
 water-tanks. For in his ravings he thought himself 
 Tantalus, up to the throat in the Tartarian Lake, — 
 only the waters that fled from his lips were boiling 
 hot and seethed his body; and he tried lake after 
 lake, but all were hot. Then he was Sisyphus toil- 
 ing on the Stygian mount, rolling up the accursed 
 stone that ever escaped him near the summit, — only 
 the stone was red-hot, and scorched his chest and 
 arms and thighs as he struggled against it. Last of 
 all he was Ixion, bound in a wheel of living fire that 
 whirled forever in the darkness of Cocytus ; and the 
 whirling fanned the flames, and they roared and 
 grew black and entered into his vitals and consumed 
 him utterly, leaving only an ashy shell. And indeed, 
 this was very near the truth; for when at last the 
 fever left him, all was gone. 
 
 31 
 
32 G O R G O 
 
 Of this they told me afterward, for then I was hur- 
 ried away to the furthest chambers in the women's 
 part, beyond the great room where the looms were 
 standing, unused now. But it mattered little where 
 they kept me, for the terror and the taint were every- 
 where; and I too was touched, though because I 
 was but a child, with a body so fresh and dewy that 
 it would not burn, it was the lightest touch, I 
 think, that ever fell from that skeleton hand. 
 
 But on my grandfather this dread scourge 
 wrought its worst, save death. Yet he survived all, 
 the fever with its fiercest torments and then the 
 wasting marasmus, and lived on for many years; 
 but he lived not otherwise than an ancient tree- 
 trunk lives, gnarled, bent, and leafless, without 
 sense or motion, only not quite dry and dead. 
 Much better had he died with the rest. He no 
 longer saw or heard anything, nor ever stirred from 
 his chair; even his rasping tongue lay silent in its 
 ill-closed vault. The very food was pressed against 
 his lips; then his jaws flew open and he ate. I 
 never again so much as touched his hand, not even 
 with my finger-tips. He had become a horror to 
 me. The whole man was a sepulchre, ghost- 
 haunted. 
 
 The next that was seized in our house was the 
 woman who had once been my nurse; and she died 
 screaming on the ninth day. Out of this grew an 
 ugly incident. They gave less heed to me now, for 
 they deemed me exempt, and indeed, a favourite 
 of the gods; so I went about unwatched. Soon I 
 
G O R G O 33 
 
 perceived that the servants were utterly panic- 
 stricken; something there was that they dreaded 
 more even than the plague. Not one of them would 
 go into the weaving-room, nor approach its door, — 
 especially after nightfall; and at last I drew it out 
 of them that the ghost of the woman came there. 
 Three separate times they had seen her, standing 
 beside her loom in some frightful guise of which they 
 would not tell me anything, but in some sort 
 shrouded, waving her arms and banning. Thrice, 
 they said, she had banned all in the house ; and their 
 lips went the colour of clay. 
 
 Two nights later, in the long passage leading to 
 the women's quarters — did I too meet her? I 
 know not, — neither what it was nor how to describe 
 it. I saw nothing, but something there was in that 
 darkness, — a thing full of misery and fury, most 
 like to a disincarnate curse, uttering itself without 
 lips, impotent against my body, yet floating close, 
 nay, reaching out after me as I fled on weak knees 
 to the lighted hall. 
 
 There I found my father — for he was not cam- 
 paigning now — and in my terror I told him all, 
 both what the maids had said, and this. Then was 
 my father angry in a way that was good to see. 
 He called before him all the servants, men and 
 maids; and they came in haste and stood in fear 
 as he questioned them. 
 
 " Which one of you buried this woman ? " he 
 asked them. 
 
34 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 It was Tribon that answered, " I, master, with 
 Manes." 
 
 "You buried her?" Arid Tribon quaked, but 
 did not answer. 
 
 " Who among you saw the spirit in the weaving- 
 room? " 
 
 Three maids fell on their knees before him : " We, 
 my lord, but — " and their voices sunk away be- 
 neath his eye. 
 
 " How was this spirit garbed ? " 
 
 " Still in her shroud, my lord, that we put about 
 her. That is, in a way, my lord ; but the shroud was 
 foully torn and stained with filth." 
 
 " And she — was all there? " 
 
 " O master, not all ! " And their teeth were chat- 
 tering as they answered. " The face — it was but 
 a shadow, my lord; nay, not all was there." 
 
 Then my father's eyes blazed like a dooming 
 god's as he turned upon the men. 
 
 " Curs," he cried, " of the carrion breed, ye have 
 cast out this woman unburied to your like! " 
 
 And they answered gasping, as they grovelled 
 on the ground : " We were afraid, my lord — we 
 were afraid; and she was but a slave, as we." 
 
 " And fear ye nothing now? Take what is need- 
 ful," he cried, in a voice that thundered through the 
 house, " and search her out, where ye have left her, 
 and bury her as best ye may. Then back to your 
 scourging." 
 
 And they crept away and obeyed him, even to the 
 coming back for the scourging ; for they feared him 
 
G O R G O 35 
 
 more than pestilence or spirit when his wrath was 
 full, and their hearts became like water. But before 
 the month was out they both were dead. And the 
 maids, too, died, all three" within the year. 
 
 Somehow, after that, my father seemed nearer 
 to me, and it was to him that I came with my 
 hardest questions. And they were ;ndeed hard ques- 
 tions that I asked him. For so many dying and the 
 fear and gloom that were all about us moved me to 
 much pondering on the hereafter ; and I puzzled my- 
 self greatly, as others have done. At last, after long 
 waiting, one evening when my father sat beside my 
 mother near the hearth, I clasped his knees and let 
 flow my troubles, entreating him to tell me all the 
 truth. I noticed that he first glanced sidewise 
 toward my mother, who sat with her busy hands at 
 rest, folded upon her lap, her face sad enough — 
 for none could be merry unless they were glutted 
 with wine — but with lips so sweet and eyes so full 
 of gentleness under their drooping lashes, that I 
 then began to realise that my mother was beautiful 
 beyond the rest, and my father loved her. But he 
 turned again quickly and answered me as plainly 
 as he might, though a keen note of impatience 
 sounded in his voice and he was ill at ease. For 
 I had asked him what became of those who died, arid 
 why our servant had come back to the house to 
 curse us. 
 
 " Why ask these things," he cried, " which none 
 can know and none can answer ? Whether the dead 
 are anything, or if anything have any longer memory 
 
36 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 and sense, who but the gods can tell thee? To me 
 the dead often seem but clay and bone, their life but 
 a flame that is quenched, and these phantoms no 
 more than shadows, sent up, perhaps, from the 
 caverns of the world below to augment our ills. 
 This ghost, as they call it, was more likely but some 
 malignant sprite, — for the city, doubtless, is now 
 full of them — Which took advantage of the negli- 
 gence of those sacrilegious hounds, who have now 
 paid their forfeit, to assume the aspect of thy 
 mother's maid to vex us. Such is my present judg- 
 ment," said he; " but whether these rites of burial 
 truly serve the dead, as most men hold, or whether 
 they serve them not, as being beyond all service, 
 they at least prevent these ill happenings of ghosts 
 and apparitions. And for this, or perchance for that 
 other reason, the gods themselves have imposed those 
 rites," he concluded. 
 
 Not all of this could I follow with full com- 
 prehension, but the main purport was clear. " And 
 is there truly no three-headed dog," I cried, " and no 
 ferryman with his boat, and is it not for him that 
 the obol is put in one's mouth? And do not the 
 wise and good, who were just in their lives on earth, 
 ever dance in those fields of Elysium, and are not 
 the souls of perjurers sunk in the mud?" The 
 tears gushed in my eyes, and my mother too looked 
 troubled. 
 
 "Come, come!" said my father, more lightly. 
 "I would not spoil your toys, child, not one; but 
 you adjured me so solemnly to speak true that I 
 
G O R G O 37 
 
 gave you what was topmost in my heart. Nor have 
 I said that any of these tales are lies, not I, but 
 only that I am less sure of some of them than 
 when I used to lay my ear upon the ground to hear 
 Cerberus roaring. As I told you, the great majority 
 of men believe that we still live, so to say, when 
 we are dead, and that not the gods only are immortal, 
 but we too, after a fashion, so as still to know some- 
 thing of joy and pain. Yet that death is a thing to 
 be wishful of I have never heard, unless for those 
 to whom life has become but a bane; and I would 
 have thee make good use of thy sunshine while thou 
 hast it, for that death-life yonder would seem to be 
 as scantly lighted as it is scantly known. Tis a 
 thin life at best, I fear, much like to dreaming, and 
 I make little of beings too shadowy to bear the 
 weight of armour. Yet myriads have believed in 
 this, and from the oldest times, when the gods, they 
 say, spoke clearer than Apollo's oracle nowadays; 
 and quite likely I am wrong in ever doubting. For 
 it seems impossible that all have been deceived, and 
 that, too, in the wisest ages, and that none ever 
 found it out until now. No jury in Athens would 
 allow that on any man's argument. But if this is 
 your wish, to hear what the poets have told us, 
 and not the reasonings of the philosophers, I could 
 tell you that, doubtless, — though most of it, I 
 think, you know already. 'Tis at least a pretty 
 story; but your mother, child," and again he glanced 
 that way, " your mother can tell it much better than 
 I, that am a soldier of many battles, and have slain 
 
38 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 so many men with sword and spear that I am slow 
 of belief that they are yet alive. Let her tell it, 
 and I too will listen." 
 
 Then my mother, after a little silence, lifted her' 
 eyes, that shone like the pole star in the wet sky, 
 when the mists are melting on the sea. 
 
 " It is not for me, my lord, to set my reasons 
 against thine," she said; and again her eyelids 
 drooped under his gaze. " And yet, my lord, may 
 not the same melody which has died upon the harp- 
 strings again be sounded? And though the harp 
 itself be broken, and its idle fragments burned to 
 ashes, may not the same melody be sounded on new 
 strings by him who knows its harmonies? And do 
 not the gods know all the music of our souls ? 
 
 " And do not the dead still live in memory, my 
 lord, and most of all wake when we sleep, and walk 
 before our eyes in dreams, and speak to us, so that 
 we know their voices, just as of old? And how 
 could these things be, if the dead were altogether 
 nothing? And who would refrain from crime, or 
 who would endure to live in all these troubles, if 
 death were indeed the end of all, and nothing more 
 ever came of virtue, and nothing more of wrong? 
 
 "And you, my lord, would you not weep thrice 
 as much when I too am dead, if no spirit lingered in 
 your house, and I never came again to soothe your 
 sorrow, not even in the airy substance of a dream ? " 
 
 And as my father listened to the music of her 
 voice, yet answered nothing, a tear hung in the 
 middle of his cheek, and he left it there. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 39 
 
 " But this, my lord, is not the tale you asked for, 
 that I have often told, and will tell again. For I 
 love the tale that tells how the dead are not truly 
 dead but live; and my own mother sang me parts 
 of it in far-off Ceos, when I was still so little that 
 I nestled in her arms. Whether every single word 
 is true I do not know," she said, " but I do know that 
 it is truer than the strange, unhappy teachings of 
 those philosophers." 
 
 And she fondled my face as she looked back at 
 my father, with eyes full lifted now. For I had 
 slipped from his knees and climbed upon her lap; 
 and her words had a new weight for me when I 
 Saw my father listening. 
 
 " First," she said, " I must tell you something of 
 this great world that is all around us, how it is 
 fashioned. It is vaster than you can think, and the 
 sunny earth, on which we live, is but a little part 
 of it, floating in the middle of space, borne up by 
 some sort of necessity ; for necessity, they say, is the 
 power that makes things as they are." 
 
 " But Atlas " — interrupted my father — " how 
 about Atlas? Or have you gone over 10* the phi- 
 losophers already? " 
 
 " About Atlas," she answered, " I admit that I do 
 not well understand, — unless he be but another 
 name for that necessity, upholding all. Let him 
 pass, then, as one of those fictions of the poets of 
 which you so often remind me. For they say that 
 he stands in the deeps, with his feet in the bottom of 
 the void, and upholds both earth and heaven upon 
 
4 o G O R G O 
 
 his shoulders; but I cannot persuade myself that 
 any real being is so monstrous. Jove himself -would 
 be less — much less — so that his thunderbolts would 
 be like little pebbles thrown by a child against a 
 man in armour." 
 
 Well am I answered, though from woman's lips it fell, 
 
 quoted my father, smiling; "and no philosopher 
 could expound it better. For if Atlas is but a 
 mythic saying for necessity, he is indeed greater than 
 Jove; for it is conceded by the wisest that Jove 
 himself bows to necessity." 
 
 "But the void," I cried, "where is it?" For 
 all this about necessity and the philosophers was a 
 weariness to me; and I could see no reason why 
 Atlas should not bear his load, when Hercules, who 
 was not as big, had once borne it for him while he 
 went for the apples. 
 
 " The void," said my mother, winding her arms 
 about me, " is the vast abyss called Tartarus, quite 
 beneath the earth." And she drew me closer, for 
 this was terrible even to think of. "It is so deep 
 that if a Stone should fall down all day, when evening 
 came it would still be falling, far from the bottom ; 
 only there is never any evening there, but night 
 always, and it is darker than anything we know. 
 And in that darkness, in its very lowest regions, lie 
 all things that are too evil ever to come upon the 
 earth; and the Titans have been cast down there, 
 and the giants that would have wrecked both earth 
 and sky ; and into that same place, I am sure, will go 
 
G O R G O 41 
 
 at last this dreadful plague, which is more than 
 earth can bear." 
 
 " May thy word be a prophecy ! " breathed my 
 father. 
 
 " Nay," said my mother, sadly, • " it will not go 
 until its appointed work is done. But there is some- 
 thing else which seems to me most terrible of all. 
 For those seers that can read the secrets of the gods 
 and have spent their lives interpreting the oracles 
 of Orpheus, — those hoary, holy devotees who dwell 
 in solitudes until they hear the voices of things that 
 speak not, and see the things that are not yet, and 
 the things that are forbidden " — she paused. 
 
 " Speak," commanded my father. 
 
 " They have uttered a warning so awful that it 
 almost stopped my heart." Her face was alabaster, 
 and her arms were weak around me. " For they 
 say — if those ancient oracles be true — that even 
 the souls of men, should any become so evil that 
 no good can ever reach them, they too are cast down 
 at last into the same black gulf, to lie in that dark- 
 ness always with those accursed things that writhe 
 and creep and flutter there." 
 
 Then my mother so shut her arms about me that 
 I was in pain, and my father breathed hard. / 
 
 " Woman " — and he spoke with something of 
 that sternness which made many fear him — " these 
 are new doctrines, and to me they have little savour 
 of gods' temples or of the teachings of my youth. 
 Nor did I suspect that my wife was an initiate, deep 
 
4 2 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 versed in. hidden and dubious mysteries, — which, if 
 known, are best untold." 
 
 My mother's cheeks, as she bent to kiss me, were 
 like the faint coals now sinking in ashes on the 
 hearth ; for the room had darkened, and the shadows 
 were creeping toward us from every corner. Her 
 voice had choked, and it faltered a little when she 
 spoke. 
 
 " My lord," she answered, humbly, " I began those 
 words thoughtless of where they led, and would 
 gladly have left them unuttered, for they fill my 
 soul with terror. Yet you bade me speak, and your 
 word is my law." 
 
 My father said not a word, at first, but beckoned 
 to the waiting slave to lay on fresh coals and blow 
 them to redness. And then — 
 
 " Tell on thy tale, sweet wife," he said, " nor mind 
 the quick speech of one who deals with men and 
 must ever smite them with his tongue. Tell thy 
 tale to the end ; but leave yonder crazed mystics to 
 mumble their ill words in their unkempt beards* 
 Whether their lore be holy or unholy, it suits not 
 thee, nor pleases me. Think not of them." 
 
 And my mother, with a little catch, as if this 
 were not so easy, began again as she was bid. 
 
 " Let us leave the dark gulf," she said, " for the 
 light of the sun never visits it, and I trust no soul 
 of man was ever there. Let us rather climb up into 
 heaven, which the gods have made their dwelling- 
 place and where all is good and pure. Yet this too 
 is a long way off, though it looks so near ; for the 
 
G O R G O 43 
 
 heavens are lifted as high above us as that abode 
 of evil fhings is sunk below. And if thy father 
 should shoot an arrow against the sky, and it should 
 fly on swiftly all day long, never falling back, the 
 evening would find that arrow still speeding up- 
 ward and far below the dome of heaven; yet the 
 gods are able to traverse all that space in a moment 
 of time. And the crown of this dome of the sky is 
 truly the summit of Olympus ; though doubtless the 
 mountain that leads through the clouds is the easi- 
 est way to reach it. But whence else than from the 
 loftiest summit of the sky could the gods see all that 
 men are doing, both good and bad, over all the earth ? 
 And there, upon a throne of snowy clouds, sits Jove 
 himself, as radiant as the sun; and all around him 
 dwell the other gods in golden houses, like the moon 
 and stars. And even when Jove has gathered the 
 dusky storm-clouds and spread them out like a cur- 
 tain under the vault of the sky, and the earth is 
 shadowed by them, the region above is still fair and 
 shining. For the ether is not like the air that blows 
 about the earth, heavy with fogs and rain and foul 
 with dust, and so often tainted with these deadly 
 vapours, but a purer element, instinct with light 
 like the flowing sunshine. And indeed, they say that 
 the sunshine itself is but the ether shooting down- 
 ward from the sky and mingling in the air, so that 
 men can breathe it; and that where there is light 
 there is life, and where there is no light there is 
 only death; but because on the earth there is both 
 light and darkness, here is both life and death. And 
 
44 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 in that high place of the heavens, if we could reach 
 it, we should find no souls of the dead, not even the 
 spirits of the wise and good whom the gods have 
 loved. For only the gods can live in the bright, 
 thin ether, which is like a flame to the shades of 
 mortals and would burn them to nothingness, as 
 the sun burns up the mists. No shade could exist for 
 an instant in that region of all-pervading light ; and 
 even upon the earth no ghost is ever seen in the 
 sunshine, but they hide themselves in graves and 
 ruined houses, and lurk in shadowy forests and all 
 manner of gloomy places, and walk only at night; 
 and soon they fly away to the part where sunlight 
 never comes." 
 
 " And where is that, dear mother ? " I asked, ex- 
 pectant; for now I felt that we were coming to 
 familiar places. 
 
 " In the land that lies beyond the golden sunset," 
 she answered me — and her voice was still and 
 dreamy, like a whispering of the wind — " so far 
 away that all the nations of living men lie between, 
 and mountains, and deserts, and wild forests, and 
 raging torrents. Even when one has crossed the 
 tides of ocean, whose slow stream circles round the 
 earth we know, he is only in the twilight-land where 
 all is rosy or golden, and the weary shades who are 
 seeking the shadow-country still have far to go. 
 But at last they reach a dim region that is the outer 
 edge of darkness, and there is the river Styx, and 
 Charon and his boat, of which you know." 
 
 " Yes," I cried, " I know about that." 
 
G O R G O 45 
 
 " And there a great multitude of souls are ever 
 gathered, and they hover along the shore like a pale, 
 wavering mist ; for there is still a little light in their 
 substance because they are so lately dead. And 
 some, who have been rightly dealt with by their kin- 
 dred, whose souls have been sweetened by the holy 
 rites of burial and purged of all infections of the 
 flesh by the dust or the fire, — these, when they have 
 given up to him that obol, the last token that is left 
 them of the world of men, he takes over gladly. 
 But if they will not yet give him the obol, he turns 
 them back ; and he drives away also those who have 
 not been rightly buried, about whom lingers some 
 taint of the flesh. And these wander on the winds 
 for many years, ever sighing and moaning; and 
 sometimes they come back to haunt and trouble the 
 living, and especially to punish those who have 
 neglected them. Such a spirit, as I believe thy father 
 also thinks in his heart, was she who affrighted thee 
 in the passage, yet could not harm thee because it 
 was not from thee that she had suffered wrong. But 
 at last even these pass over too, when their bones 
 are white and all is sweetened by the lapse of time." 
 
 " This, in good truth, is as I learned it," said my 
 father. 
 
 " But how," cried I, " about those who were evil 
 in their lives? " 
 
 " They," said my mother, " at least, if they were 
 very bad indeed, soon find that they can go no 
 further. For those who were guilty of any horrid 
 sacrilege, or of perjury, or of treason against their 
 
4 6 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 country and its gods, are so heavily weighted by 
 these crimes that they sink in a deep morass which 
 stretches along the further shore, some sinking only 
 to the neck, but others deep down in the slimy mud ; 
 and there they lie in misery and filth for a myriad of 
 years, as some say." 
 
 " That, indeed, seems but just," said my father. 
 
 " What ever becomes of them at last I do not 
 know " — and she shuddered. " But the rest are 
 able to cross the marsh, some not without a struggle, 
 but some more lightly, and those who were really 
 good without so much as soiling their feet. Thence 
 they pass on by winding paths, over dreary plains 
 where nothing grows but the asphodel, and through 
 cavernous places, amid precipices and dreadful 
 chasms ; and here some that were not well instructed 
 of the way fall behind and lose themselves and 
 wander long; but the light of the funeral pyre and 
 the prayers of friends are a help to them. But the 
 rest, and they too in time, come finally to the region 
 where the gods of darkness dwell and reign forever. 
 And here a great gate rises, and beside it sits 
 Minos, who will not let all pass in at once; so that 
 many wait long in the outer darkness, while the fruit 
 of their deeds is ripening on the earth ; and of these 
 some go back to the wilderness, but some at length 
 enter in. And within is light, not of the sun, but 
 soft and sweet, so that it harms them not though 
 they are only shadows. And there they ever dance 
 and sing, with what joy they may, through all the 
 
G O R G O 
 
 47 
 
 ages; or if there be anything else that comes after, 
 I know not what it is." 
 
 She ended, sighing. My father sprang to his feet. 
 
 " May they long dance their dances without thee, 
 wife of my heart! The coals are black on the 
 hearth ; it is midnight, and as dark as the paths of 
 this heavy-hearted tale. Let us have done." 
 
 Then a servant came, and with a lamp that flick- 
 ered through the draughty hall, as if it fought with 
 the shadows, led us to the inner chambers. 
 
 I am glad that I listened so intently to my mother's 
 words that night. I am glad that I left my father's 
 knee to climb upon her lap, and bore so patiently 
 with her caresses. They were the last. For she too 
 was stricken — my mother. She too — with all that 
 fiery anguish — until, like the fragrance of a wasted 
 flower, her soul was wafted whither she herself had 
 told us. So, at least, I had been ready to believe; 
 but my faith died when I saw her suffer. It came 
 into my mind that Jove, perhaps, was dead, and all 
 those evil things in Tartarus had climbed up into 
 heaven. Anyhow, the gods were of no avail in that 
 affliction. It is too much. I cannot talk of it. Any- 
 thing else but that. 
 
IV. 
 
 From a House of Slaves 
 
 AFTER my mother's funeral, when all was fin- 
 ished, and he had cried the last farewells in 
 a voice that was dry with unslaked pain, my 
 father sat bowed in the darkest corner two whole 
 days, never moving, his face like a slab of marble. 
 The servants came and went without a sound, lest 
 he break out upon them; yet he scarcely seemed more 
 alive than that other who hung- senseless in his great 
 chair by the inner door, neither grieving that any 
 were dead nor rejoicing that he himself had breath. 
 But on the third morning, as the darkness drifted 
 from the sky and the window in the roof became a 
 pale circle of light, my father started up suddenly 
 and went out, taking Pistias. A few days later we 
 learned that he had sailed for Thrace; for that was 
 where the best righting was then. 
 
 Yet he had not forgotten me — not altogether — 
 though he spoke no word. Before embarking he 
 had bought six new slaves, which he sent back to the 
 house, — one of them, a Syracusan, well instructed 
 in music and letters, who was to be my tutor. That, 
 however, proved an ill venture, for I hated this fel- 
 
 48 
 
G O R G O 49 
 
 low from the beginning. He declared that Homer 
 was too deep and too full of hidden meanings for a 
 child, and set me to learn long, dull passages from 
 Theognis and Solon. So I sat on the floor at his 
 feet, reciting in weary singsong : — 
 
 Heaven to the unjust oft doth allow long years of abundance 
 While to the just, harsh want seems to deride true worth ; 
 Yet will I ne'er choose wealth unjustly attained — 
 
 But here I broke off impatiently. " Then are the 
 just men fools," I cried, " and the gods themselves 
 love the unjust better, if they are clever." 
 
 And he told me that if I said such things as that 
 Mormo would get me; and that some day I would 
 surely lie in the mud by Styx. And I scorned him 
 to his face. 
 
 Then he turned to whining, and said that little 
 boys should respect their elders ever; if they had 
 been so unfortunate as to be sold from their native 
 country and to lose their liberty; for his soul, he 
 said, was free. And to this I answered nothing, but 
 I thought in my heart that his very soul was the soul 
 of a slave. 
 
 At last I rebelled outright; and he, with a cold 
 sweat shining on his face, lifted his stick as if he 
 would strike me. Then it was that my hand flew to 
 my bosom, and I made after him with my knife 
 while he fled among the women ; but when they held 
 out their robes against me for a shield, as if I had 
 been a little dog with his teeth snapping, I laughed 
 and put back the knife. After that he dared set 
 
50 G O R G O 
 
 me no more tasks. Except when I bade him help me 
 with the phorminx, which I rather liked, there were 
 no more lessons. As for the flute, I would none of 
 it, like Alcibiades, though I had not yet heard of 
 him. 
 
 But I soon perceived that things were going much 
 amiss. The Syracusan, who had been appointed by 
 my father to act as steward, could control the rest 
 no more than me. The servants had become very 
 disorderly and even insolent ; I was little regarded by 
 most of the household, and it was only by fierce 
 insistence that I could get any service rendered. 
 Yet a few were not wholly unfaithful, the best 
 being Trogon. He too would have his pleasure, but 
 he held to his duty and beat the others into a sort of 
 subjection, for his boar-spear was a thing to be 
 feared, and his hand was heavy even when he reeked 
 with wine. I often sat beside him when his speech 
 was thick, but he never forgot that I was his master's 
 son. I liked him well, and it was a further bond 
 between us that we both hated the Syracusan. 
 
 I decided, after a time, to flee from the house; 
 I could not suffer the insolence and neglect of slaves. 
 Like Telemachus, I would go forth and seek my 
 father. But Trogon stood in my path. Trogon 
 was ever by the bolted door. 
 
 How I should find my father I had little idea. I 
 would go to the harbour and ask for a ship with 
 twenty good rowers. Perhaps Athena herself would 
 help me, as she had aided the son of Odysseus, when 
 she saw that I too was brave and good. Anyhow, 
 
G O R G O 51 
 
 my father must be told that the servants were grown 
 riotous and were robbing him, and that the Syra- 
 cusan was worst of all. 
 
 So I set myself busily to find a device to beguile 
 Trogon, but for a long while nothing came of it. 
 First I took him strong wine, breaking open the 
 choicest jars which the servants had not yet dared 
 to touchy He drank greedily all I brought, but kept 
 his post when he could hardly keep his legs; the 
 lightest rattle at the door would start him up. Even 
 when I raised a false alarm of thieves and ran 
 through the house screaming, he was not deceived, 
 but brayed with laughter at the fright of the maids. 
 " By the hound," he cried, " 'tis better than Empusa. 
 The little master has paid them back with a cow and 
 a calf." I was amusing myself by scaring them, 
 he thought, and chuckled mightily in his drink at the 
 wit of it. 
 
 Then I tried to get him to let me keep the door 
 a little while. 
 
 " Not me," he said. " I'd go drunker'n a Mace- 
 donian, once I was free of the door. And what 
 would the master say if he came unexpected, which 
 is the way he has, and^ finds me snorting like the 
 guggle of a wine-sack somewhere down amongst 
 the jugs, a good three days from knowing what's my 
 own name? He'd hang me up, the master would, 
 and send for Strephon, the body-twister." 
 
 " What else will he do when I tell him ? For I 
 shall tell " — and the tears of anger started in my 
 eyes. 
 
52 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " No, no," he wheedled, " not you. It isn't the 
 little master that would make trouble for Trogon and 
 wants to hear his bones crack — poor old Trogon 
 that loves him, and keeps the door so good and tight, 
 and drives off the thieves." 
 
 I promised very sincerely that I would speak only 
 of his faithful service ; the others I would denounce. 
 Something in my tone appeared to sober him. The 
 leer slid from his face as he laid his hand upon my 
 shoulder and whispered, hoarsely : " Tell your father 
 when he comes, little master, and let their backs be 
 flayed ; but make no threats before them now. The 
 Syracusan will be afraid; he too has a knife, and 
 his heart is craven. Like the snakes, he will wriggle 
 away when the holes are open; but his cheeks are 
 full of poison, and when he is fretted with fear he 
 will strike." 
 
 These words startled me, for I felt that they 
 were spoken from the Delphic tripod ; but they only 
 confirmed my resolve to' run away. I was grateful to 
 Trogon, but I ceased pouring wine upon this door- 
 stone, or praying to it. I looked about me for a 
 lever. And in the end, with a lie about the Syra- 
 cusan and Lyssa, a slave-girl whom he loved, I did 
 beguile him. He surged to his feet, lurched a mo- 
 ment, steadying himself upon the boar-spear, then 
 ran out like a wounded horse, reeling but swift. 
 
 At last the great door of the world stood before 
 me unguarded. In an instant I had climbed on a 
 stool and the bolts were sliding. A cry rang from 
 within; I strained against the creaking valves, and 
 
G O R G O 53 
 
 as they parted sprang through and fled down the 
 street. I laughed as I ran, for I could still hear 
 Trogon's curses and the cries of the Syracusan and 
 the women. There was no pursuit, yet I doubled like 
 a hare, darting down the first alley, swerving to left 
 or right wherever I saw an opening, until my breath 
 was quite spent. I found myself in a close, so filthy 
 that my bare feet slipped in the slime and I fell on 
 a heap of garbage, from which I looked up in sur- 
 prise to see the cliffs and glimmering marbles of the 
 Acropolis just above me. It was a noisome hole, 
 yet I would not turn back, but squeezed out by an 
 angle between the houses, and struggled on through 
 a tangle of walls and open spaces full of rubbish; 
 and this brought me to the edge of a large enclosure 
 across which. I saw colonnades and what I took for 
 an immense stairway, with steps that ranged far up 
 the slope in widening curves. I remember thinking 
 that it looked like a great white mussel-shell leaning 
 against the hillside, for its gleaming concave lay 
 almost iridescent in the sun. Had I known that this 
 was the city theatre, where the choruses danced 
 and tragedies were acted in the festival season, I 
 might have ventured nearer ; but I feared the open 
 spaces and skirted along the edge, then followed a 
 winding lane almost under the shadow of the rocks. 
 Thus far I had met few people, and none had 
 attempted to interfere. At first some had halted to 
 gaze after me, and their eyes had lashed me to 
 swifter flight; when I ceased running the staring 
 ceased, and I passed on unnoticed. But here the 
 
54 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 street seemed empty from end to end ; nothing was 
 visible except mud-coloured walls quickly bending 
 to an illusive close which fled before me like the 
 curtains of a fog, — with tight-shut doors at un- 
 certain intervals, and above them little black windows 
 in a wavering line. At first there were some signs of 
 life: a sudden discharge of slops from a window 
 splashed at my feet ; a door flapped in my face, and 
 a dog ran out howling, chased by a hollow curse. He 
 soon lay down, twisting about like a worm, yelping 
 and snapping so that I feared to pass him; others 
 I saw lying dead. Plainly this was a district where 
 the plague was still raging. As I went on the 
 houses grew more and more like tombs, as doubtless 
 many were, though the groans that issued from 
 others showed they were not yet wholly that. Only 
 once did I see a face at a window. The doors were 
 no longer shut ; some waved in the wind and others 
 were broken in. The light was fast failing, and these 
 black holes filled me with terror, but I hurried on, 
 until presently I reached a small square with a 
 fountain and a pool. Here were more dead dogs, 
 stretched in every posture, mostly gathered about 
 the pool ; the odour was like that which blows from 
 the barathrum. Among them lay two other shapes, 
 face downward. My courage broke with a snap; 
 I fled in a whirl of terror, and all at once found 
 myself in a street where voices were heard, and men 
 stood upright and walked about. 
 
 My terror melted and flowed away in a gush of 
 tears. I leaned against a Hermes-post, and the tears 
 
G O R G O 55 
 
 still dripped from, my eyes because I was so tired 
 and hungry. But this was a mistake; it drew 
 attention to my loneliness. 
 
 " A boy; Pardocas ! yes — a fine boy, Pardocas ! 
 Why do you cry, little Greek ? " 
 
Peril and Rescue 
 
 THE voice that sounded in my ear was most 
 unpleasant; it came out with a hiss and a 
 wriggle, as if a snake had spoken. I looked 
 up and saw the hawkish beak and carrion face of 
 an old Phoenician. He was bending over me. 
 Beside him stood a huge Nubian, bearing a lamp 
 which glimmered faintly through a section of horn. 
 I turned away from this nightmare without a word. 
 But they followed me. 
 
 " Why does the brave little man stand in the street 
 crying? See, Pardocas, it is fine linen, though 
 soiled." 
 
 I felt for my knife, but it was gone. "I was 
 hungry," I answered, shortly. 
 
 " The pretty little master has perhaps lost his 
 friends. Yes — and perhaps the good merchant 
 will find them for him — perhaps he will. But the 
 little lad must have food. We will take him with 
 us, Pardocas; but first he will tell us his father's 
 name." 
 
 " I am the son of Hagnon." I announced it 
 boldly, for I thought they would fear my father. 
 
 56 
 
G O R G O 57 
 
 " Ah ! yes — a knight. I think it will be a ran- 
 som, Pardocas, and we shall not need — no, a 
 ransom is much the better. Not even the Great 
 King will spend gold upon his fancy as a father for 
 a son like this. 'Tis the heir of a noble house; he 
 speaks true, Pardocas. See, the feet are tender, and 
 the face is like their chiselled stone, and the eyes 
 flash in thy lamp like the wetted amethyst. Phar- 
 nacas would bid high — and when he came from the 
 hands of Sceblyas who would know him? Once 
 garbed as a slave — a young Lydian, Pardocas, with 
 ringed ears and plaited hair and the spirit quenched 
 — but the other is better. Oh, yes ! Hagnon is not 
 so rich as Nicias — but it is well to be moderate. 
 Hagnon shall owe me gratitude. His hand is open, 
 but he is shrewd; he is full of suspicions, and his 
 hate — it is like a black Erinnys from yonder cavern. 
 I would not have Hagnon surmise evil of me. And 
 already these prying sycophants — it shall be a 
 ransom. Come, boy. We lose time, Pardocas; 
 there are revellers abroad. Come, come: the little 
 master must go with the kind merchant, who will 
 give him food — yes — and take him to his father." 
 
 I had followed his words with fuller compre- 
 hension than he thought, yet stood fast, sick with 
 fear, like a fluttering bird while the serpent sways in 
 his coil and delays to strike. 
 
 " Quick, Pardocas ! He will raise a tumult." 
 
 His yellow claw had fastened upon my arm, and 
 my voice was loosed in shrieks. The Nubian reached 
 for my throat, but I wrenched away before he could 
 
58 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 clutch it, and fell over the feet of a stranger who 
 stood in the circle of light ; while the gloom beyond 
 was crowded with dusky figures, that whitened into 
 a ring of faces as they approached the lamp. I 
 clasped the knees of my rescuer — for I never 
 doubted that he would save me — and looked up. 
 What I saw was like a picture that shines from the 
 darkness in a dream, — the face of a young Dio- 
 nysus, flushed with excess of wine, languid with 
 sated pleasures, but in all its features the most beau- 
 tiful that I have ever seen mounted on the shoulders 
 of lusty manhood. His fingers rested lightly on my 
 head and toyed with my hair. His words fell with 
 a lazy lisp: 
 
 " Dog ! Would you kidnap a free-born child in 
 the open street? Hence, dock-rat, to your hole by 
 the harbour." 
 
 " It is my slave. Will you rob me of my slave? " 
 screamed the Syrian. 
 
 " I will, indeed ; and if you insist I'll record his 
 manumission on your hide," said the young man, 
 carelessly. A loud laugh went round the ring. 
 
 " But I am not a slave," I cried. "lam the son 
 of Hagnon." 
 
 The fair face darkened. "Hagnon! He was 
 with us in Thrace. A brave knight. And this beast 
 of Baal — " 
 
 " Kill him," called a voice from behind. " Yes, 
 kill him — he has my name on his tablets," laughed 
 another. Then others, " Trample him — at least let 
 us trample him, Alcibiades." And the ring of faces 
 
G O R G O 
 
 59 
 
 swayed and grew smaller. The eyes of the Nubian 
 rolled uneasily; the Syrian grovelled. 
 
 " Had I known it was thou — but I knew thee 
 not, noble master — no, nor him — and I have had 
 losses. Ah! spare — an old man — one that has 
 paid impositions and liturgies — so many — yes, 
 freely paid." And he gurgled with fear. 
 
 But Alcibiades — for it was he — smote him one 
 blow across the face, then flung away his stick. He 
 spoke with a sort of hot-blooded indifference. 
 
 " The banquet waits, and more of this will turn 
 my stomach. Begone, or we shall stain our sandals 
 foully with thy slime." 
 
 The Syrian wheeled like a weasel and broke from 
 the circle, not without buffets. The Nubian passed 
 unstruck; the lamp he carried flung him back in 
 monstrous shadow, then gleamed a moment far down 
 the street, and vanished. Again I looked up at 
 Alcibiades, but his face was dim against the starry 
 sky. I groped for his hand, found it, and clung fast. 
 
 " Well, little suppliant? " he said. 
 
 The world had been something of a disappoint- 
 ment thus far, but my thoughts were moving swiftly. 
 " Did Athena send you to me," I asked him, " or are 
 you too one of them ? " 
 
 He laughed like a chime of cymbals and lifted me 
 up. " Do you hear that, flatterers ? " he cried. " The 
 son of Hagnon has outshot you all ; and he meant no 
 flattery either, but spoke with mother's milk upon 
 his tongue." 
 
6o G O R G O 
 
 " If Alcibiades would pose as a god," said one, 
 loudly, " I will set up his image — " 
 
 " And pose as a fool. No, quail-catcher, thou 
 shalt still worship me with libations — poured down 
 thy hot gullet. Child," he said, " it is Jove's truth; 
 Athena loves thee. I met my sister the goddess but 
 now, by the door of the Parthenon, and she bade me 
 seek the little Telemachus who was crying to her. 
 So I leaped down and stood beside thee." 
 
 The rest were choking with laughter. 
 
 " Do not mind them," he continued, in a soft, 
 sweet drawl that I knew was half affectation. " They 
 are my devotees ; they pray to no other. I grant few 
 of their prayers, but permit them to follow me and 
 share my pleasures. It is for their sake that I merely 
 walk. They are not all divine; the best of them are 
 but fauns and satyrs, and you need not worship 
 them." 
 
 " No: only thee," I said, and hugged his neck. 
 
 Again the mirth crowed from their throats; he 
 too laughed, but not harshly. 
 
 " The young god accepts thy love," he murmured, 
 lisping close to my ear, yet so that all could hear him, 
 " and he bears thee to a banquet where thou shalt 
 drink nectar from his own cup ; thou shalt sip from 
 the very spot his lips have pressed. The rest 
 will get nothing but wine. They will hate thee out 
 of jealousy, but they shall not harm thee." 
 
 We soon stopped at a house where lights twinkled 
 and all was astir. As soon as I was set down in 
 the vestibule I was taken in charge by two servants, 
 
G O R G O 61 
 
 who bathed and dressed me with a deft gentleness 
 to which I had long been unaccustomed. Then they 
 wreathed my head and my breast with garlands, and 
 so led me to the banquet-hall. The room was unlike 
 any in my father's house, — a square corridor, the 
 centre open to the sky, with a line of columns wound 
 with flowers. Around this ran long tables, set with 
 silver plate and strange but savoury viands, bordered 
 with couches on which at least a score of guests 
 were reclining, all richly robed and with garlands like 
 my own. They turned toward me as I entered and 
 broke out with loud applause, so that I cast down my 
 eyes, more abashed than I ever had felt before. But 
 the servant led me straight to Alcibiades and set me 
 beside him on the couch; whereat there was more 
 applause and much jesting, especially when I looked 
 up shyly at my companion and could scarcely with- 
 draw my gaze. But indeed I was not the only one, 
 that night, who seemed willing to believe that the 
 pure ichor of heaven flowed in his veins. He him- 
 self behaved as if he partly believed it, but did not 
 care. The rest were ready to drag all the gods from 
 their pedestals to flatter him. 
 
 " Our Alcibiades cannot 'justly claim his inherit- 
 ance," said one, " since his true father is a citizen of 
 Olympus." 
 
 " You cannot deny that Dionysus is a good 
 Athenian," he retorted, " since he sits with the mag- 
 istrates in the theatre and gathers in taxes like old 
 Father Dermis. But give us no more of these 
 choice selections from the sophists." 
 
62 G O R G O 
 
 " Let him but mount the bema and Father Dermis 
 will become his slave," said another, " for the face 
 of Alcibiades is more eloquent than the tongue of 
 Pericles." 
 
 " Far more eloquent at present," he assented, " for 
 the tongue of Pericles is gagged with Charon's obol." 
 
 I could not help starting at the name of Pericles, 
 and he noted it. " Perhaps," he said, " you do not 
 love Pericles overmuch, little aristocrat. But speak 
 no ill of him now. He is my kinsman; and he is 
 dead. He could not persuade the plague." 
 
 " And Cleon — is he dead too? " I asked, eagerly. 
 
 " Nay : one plague does not eat another." 
 
 " I am glad," I cried; for in spite of my grand- 
 father's anger I still thought kindly of Cleon. " He 
 is big and strong, and makes them do as he says. 
 He too lifted me in his arms and would not let them 
 hurt me." 
 
 The young man's look was like the taste of bitter 
 honey. 
 
 " Am I, then, yoked with Cleon ? I had thought 
 to lead him with a silver chain — and this rosy 
 garland links us ! " 
 
 " Fling it away, Alcibiades, if it smells of the 
 tan-yard," suggested one who lay near. " All gar- 
 dens bloom for thee." 
 
 " Thy face blooms redly, Antipholus," he an- 
 swered, quickly, " but if I pluck anything there it 
 will be thy nose. There are many gardens — that is 
 true enough ; but they are mostly watered with old 
 
G O R G O 63 
 
 Chian and smell of stale vintage. My little gar- 
 land smells of dew." 
 
 I had climbed up through the roses on his breast, 
 and put my arms about his neck. He pressed my 
 face against his cheek. " I am Cleon's debtor," he 
 said. " I will send him silver, — though he will 
 wonder, and fancy that I fear him." 
 
 " My father sent him the silver," I explained. 
 
 " Thy father is wiser than a Magian ; he knows 
 the right incantation. But truly, all the gods of 
 Athens love thee, son of Hagnon. For Cleon is one 
 of them. Pan, let us call him; for his feet are 
 cloven, and he goes about roaring and breeds ter- 
 rors. But, faugh! wash Cleon from your tongue 
 with this, and I will be your taster." 
 
 He made me drink from a golden cup — wine 
 mingled with honey, I suppose, for it was very sweet. 
 I was already gorged with rich food, and my eyes 
 were thirsty for sleep. I blinked upon his shoulder 
 and saw only flashes of glowing faces and lifted 
 goblets, soon slipping down among the crushed 
 roses. I struggled to keep awake, but the noise of 
 their laughing ebbed and swelled as if a wind 
 brought it from far; and the same wind presently 
 wafted me through the land of shadows, and laid my 
 dreaming spirit on my mother's knee. 
 
VI. 
 
 A New Friend in Need 
 
 I STARTED up from the pillow of my wilted 
 wreath with a sudden sense that I was alone. 
 The caressing phantom of my dream was gone; 
 the revellers too were gone; the hall was empty. 
 From its central opening the sheen of dawn melted 
 down into the gloom as the white flow of a mountain 
 stream merges in a turbid lake, and the tables lay 
 beneath in pale confusion, like the field of a night- 
 battle dim in the morning mist, — stained, too, with 
 red splashes and crimson streaks of wine, that 
 drained in a gory drip from the edges. Evidently 
 some such fancy had appealed to my companions 
 also, for they had piled before me a trophy of cups, 
 twined with limp remnants of garlands. No doubt 
 they had ended their carousal by breaking from the 
 house on some drunken frolic such as Alcibiades 
 often led, — thinking, if they thought at all, to find 
 me still sleeping on their return. But this is retro- 
 spect ; I understood nothing of it then, and at first 
 felt quite abandoned. Yet I soon bethought me that 
 it was thus that the messengers of the gods came and 
 went always ; for the more clearly I remembered all 
 
 64 
 
G O R G O 65 
 
 that had happened, the more certain I felt that Alci- 
 biades was something more than human. His face 
 danced before my eyes like after-glimpses of the 
 sun. Of course he would come to me again if I 
 needed him; meanwhile it was for me to show 
 courage and pursue my quest. 
 
 I slid to the floor and tiptoed across its cold 
 marble, my bare feet pressing scattered fragments 
 of the feast and broken flowers. I brushed by a 
 curtain and groped along black passages, until at 
 last I emerged in the vestibule, where the outer door 
 stood ajar to the growing day. Close beside it sat 
 a porter on a stool, leaning his back against the 
 wall; he was nodding heavily, but I remembered 
 Trogon and feared to pass. I stood pondering, then 
 advanced quickly and slapped his cheek. 
 
 " Wake up," I cried. " Do you sleep at the open 
 door while thieves are taking the master's silver ? " 
 His head flopped up with a jerk and struck the wall; 
 I wrenched at his ear. " Thieves ! " I repeated. 
 " Within ! Do you not hear ? " 
 
 He stared dully at the garland on my breast. 
 " They are gone forth," he said, pushing the door 
 a little wider. " Turn left, if you would follow." 
 And his eyelids drooped again. I did not stay to 
 insist upon the thieves, but edged past him and ran 
 out, flinging the garland from my shoulder on the 
 threshold. 
 
 The sun was not yet risen ; but Athena stood clear 
 on her huge pedestal of shadow, with all her pano- 
 ply of bronze agleam in the rosy morning. I knew 
 
66 G O R G O 
 
 that her dusky face was toward the sea, 'and by that 
 guided my steps. The street was already alive with 
 hurrying artisans, and with these I drifted to the 
 market, where the booths were just opening and the 
 chatter of bargaining had begun. Thence the stream 
 was against me for a time; but as soon as I emerged 
 from between the hills, the towers of the wall came 
 in view, and I presently stood in the open gateway 
 leading to Piraeus. Here a guard stopped me, drop- 
 ping his spear across my path. 
 
 "Whither, child?" 
 
 " To Piraeus, to meet my father," I told him. 
 
 "Who is your father?" 
 
 " They call him — they call him Hermon," I 
 answered; for I had discovered that it is not per- 
 mitted to a runaway always to speak the truth. 
 
 A man with an empty sack across his shoulder spat 
 an obol from his mouth into his hand. " There is 
 a Hermon who lives near the little harbour," he said, 
 — "a rich metic. Let the lad go to his father." 
 
 " My father is a citizen," I could not help explain- 
 ing. " He has been fighting in Thrace." 
 
 " Three triremes came in yesterday," said the sol- 
 dier, " and more are expected to-day. Well, it is a 
 common name. But why are you alone? " 
 
 " I lost my slave in the market. But I know the 
 way." 
 
 He lifted his spear, arid I passed on, well pleased 
 with myself. The long channel between the walls 
 that stretched seaward lay right before me now, nar- 
 rowing almost to a point in the distance. I had not 
 
G O R G O 67 
 
 realised that it was so far, nor that the passage 
 was so wide; it was a long bow-shot from wall to 
 wall. The swarms of people that I so well remem- 
 bered had disappeared, and though many of the 
 sheds set up to shelter them were still standing in 
 crowded rows, they seemed tenantless. Indeed, 
 when I crept behind one of them as a file of hoplites 
 clanked by toward the city, I found the chinks so 
 wide that I was scarcely hidden. I met no further 
 hindrance, but my feet grew very sore before I 
 reached the end, and my back burned and my throat 
 was aglow with thirst; for the sun glared almost 
 straight along the track, with hardly a shadow. 
 
 I entered the streets of Piraeus unchallenged ; and 
 here the throng was such as I remembered when my 
 father had borne me through the press, — at the 
 thought of which I could not squeeze back my tears, 
 for now I was jostled about so roughly that I became 
 frightened, fearing the crush among the carts. Then 
 it came into my breast that I might find the house 
 where I had once been sheltered ; and the recollec- 
 tion of the food I had eaten there filled my stomach 
 with cravings. So, as the crowd opened, I ran on, 
 looking at the houses, in consequence of which I 
 was thrown down in front of a train of wagons and 
 barely escaped by crawling into a doorway, where 
 my heart began to come up in great sobs, for the 
 world was going wrong again, and Athena and all 
 the rest had forgotten me. 
 
 A woman came quickly toward me — to thrust me 
 out, I supposed, for that was the way with people. 
 
68 G O R G O 
 
 Her face was ugly enough — drawn and bony, pitted 
 with scars — her dress no better than a slave's ; but 
 instead of driving me away she spoke kindly and 
 gave me water. 
 
 " Are you not hungry, too, little one? " she asked. 
 
 I was almost afraid to say it, for I thought of the 
 Syrian; but I did say it, and she brought me a 
 cake of barley bread. 
 
 " My father will pay you," I said, when I had 
 the dry disk half-eaten. " I will tell him to send you 
 a wagonload." For I saw that she was very poor. 
 
 " The gods will repay," she answered, simply. 
 " Jove bids us help those he sends to us. And I 
 do so love little children." 
 
 She spoke no more about that ; but I looked at the 
 plague scars on her face and understood, even then. 
 
 I plunged into the street with new courage, and 
 followed the line of the northern wall down to the 
 sea. The harbour was full of bobbing corn-ships, 
 round as the husk of a nut, and many were moored 
 to the wharf, unlading. All around me were men 
 in odd costumes, many jabbering words that did not 
 sound like Greek. Some wore only a clout, and were 
 sweating under heavy baskets, moving in circling 
 streams between the ships and the waiting wagons ; 
 others, in motley groups, were obviously debating 
 prices, with high-pitched voices and excited gestures. 
 Among them passed a few officials bearing staves; 
 but altogether I had never seen any such concourse 
 of barbarians, and I drew off in some alarm to the 
 higher ground behind. Thence, looking across to 
 
G O R G O 69 
 
 the part called the Cup, I could see the waves break- 
 ing in foam against the massive piers of the ship- 
 houses, near which a sharp-nosed war-ship lay roll- 
 ing on the swell, its long side bristling like a fish- 
 bone with a triple tier of lifted oars. Other triremes 
 were just entering the harbour, creeping over the 
 water with all their oars astir like the wriggling 
 legs of a centipede. I decided at once that I would 
 go to Thrace in a trireme, though I saw that the 
 " twenty comrades " I had thus far counted on 
 would not be enough. More than a hundred would 
 be needed ; but whatever the number, Athena — or 
 Alcibiades — could readily procure them for me. 
 After a little I would go over to' the ship-houses 
 and see what could be done, but first I would rest 
 awhile if I could find shade. So I stole up a close 
 among the warehouses, and curled down in a corner. 
 I did not know that I was leaning against a slave- 
 pen. 
 
 I must have slept until late in the afternoon. I 
 woke with a creeping horror that bound me fast. A 
 cold claw was on my throat. A hissing whisper 
 dripped like poison in my ear. 
 
 "Yes — it is the little master — the son of Hag- 
 non. He has come back to us, Pardocas." 
 
 His clutch loosened a bit, and I gasped — " Let 
 me go ! Let me go, man, or they will kill you. Oh, 
 let me alone! I am going to Thrace. My father 
 is there and he will give, you money." 
 
 " Yes — Hagnon would give gold — much gold. 
 We will see." He rubbed a purple welt that seamed 
 
70 G O R G O 
 
 his yellow cheek. "Yes, the little Greek shall go 
 over the sea — as he wishes. We will send him 
 in, a ship, Pardocas — in a beautiful round ship/with 
 sails." He tightened his grip, chuckling through 
 his nose, as a vulture snuffles over a carcass. " Is 
 not the old merchant kind? And the little Greek's 
 friends would have made mire of his body — but he 
 forgets all that — yes — forgets. Take him up 
 gently, Pardocas, and wind thy mantle close about 
 his face, lest he use his voice without judgment. It 
 is not good to cry loudly so near the sea; I have 
 known it to cause spitting of blood, Pardocas." 
 
 As he turned toward the Nubian his fingers again 
 relaxed, and my choked agony burst forth in a 
 shriek : " Alcibiades ! Alcibiades ! ! " 
 
 The hard gripe of his talons shut on my wind- 
 pipe. " See, Pardocas : already the little fool cries 
 to that libertine — may his ashes rest in the maw 
 of Moloch!" 
 
 " I am not, perhaps, wise in the wisdom of 
 Moloch; but consider, Syrian, whether it is not 
 more likely that this favour is reserved for his wor- 
 shippers." 
 
 These unexpected words, although uttered in a 
 perfectly even tone, fell like a flight of arrows shot 
 from ambush. The stooping Nubian sprang back; 
 the Syrian writhed on my body and dug his talons 
 deeper, but as he twisted his head a strong arm 
 reached out and dragged him from my throat. I 
 could see no more, for I lay face upward and half- 
 blinded. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 7i 
 
 " The gods are indeed long-suffering," the quiet 
 voice continued, " and they wait till the cup is full ; 
 but it is not permitted you, Syrian, to take this boy." 
 
 " Slay him, Pardocas," hissed the broken snake. 
 
 A strange, kind, satyr-like face bent over me, and 
 I was lifted up ; I could scarcely stand, but clung in 
 the folds of the stranger's coarse tunic. I saw the 
 Nubian raise a crooked knife that gleamed with the 
 menace of murder, but -the singular being who stood 
 beneath its edge merely looked at him, showing no 
 concern. 
 
 " Is it not better," he said, " to live and let others 
 live, than to kill and die under the hands of the 
 tormentors? I try to speak within the compass of 
 your understanding, Nubian." 
 
 The slave's arm dropped. " The man have devil 
 — it is evil eye," he cried, and slunk back. 
 
 " Indeed, it is better thus," the calm, speculative 
 voice went on. " The gods, who to you and to this 
 poor Nubian seem but evil spirits, have again been 
 kind to you, Syrian. But I will speak in words less 
 foreign to your understanding. There are some not 
 far distant who love me well, as I know; but they 
 are young and not always mindful of counsel. 
 Among them is that Alcibiades of whom the child 
 but now made mention, who will have it that I 
 saved his life in battle; another is a certain Chsere- 
 phon who is very headstrong. Had you harmed me 
 I fear they wquld not have spared you, Syrian." 
 
 "Yes — and you did not call? What a man is 
 this ! " cried the Syrian in a tone of sheer disbelief. 
 
72 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Yet his jaw sunk, for there was something unac- 
 countably convincing in the stranger's utterance. 
 
 " The tongue is a quick weapon, nimbler than the 
 knife," he answered. " One good shout, I think, 
 would have outrun the stroke." 
 
 He led me past them. " Strike ! " whispered the 
 master; but the slave was cowed. Yet still the 
 Syrian rallied and called after us. 
 
 " Who are you that take from me my boy — my 
 pretty slave? There are courts — yes, courts." 
 
 My conductor turned. " There are courts, but 
 you will not invoke them, Syrian, — nor shall I. 
 The reason of this, I fear, will be too hard for you ; 
 but I will tell it. You are, I believe, of all reptiles 
 the vilest ; but since the gods, for your good, have 
 thwarted you, and little harm is done, to the gods 
 I leave you. It would be an easy thing to bring you 
 to punishment, here in the street or before the 
 courts, but not otherwise than by death. I would not 
 have that stain upon my soul. But if I should say 
 that I would sooner die than cause the death of 
 another — unless it were in open battle for my 
 country — I should speak words without meaning 
 to the ear of a Syrian. Now go! for you stand on 
 the razor's edge of peril." 
 
 Yet even this was not enough. The rabid creature 
 followed slowly almost to the corner of the alley, — 
 then fled with such a chattering of the teeth that 
 I laughed aloud with sudden relief that he was gone. 
 But I laughed foolishly, like a woman, and could not 
 stop; and in the midst of it came a sobbing that 
 
G Q R G O 73 
 
 hurt my swollen throat, and my legs began to wabble. 
 And the man, seeing my plight, took me up in his 
 arms and spoke as softly as my mother when she 
 whispered to comfort me. 
 
 A little way off in the open stood a group of 
 young men, so busy with talk that at first they did 
 not see us. 
 
 " That daemon of his has led him on an empty 
 chase," one was saying. " It is a folly — his only 
 weakness." 
 
 " Whenever he does anything quite out of reason 
 — such as bidding us wait here by the wharves — 
 it is the daemon," said another. 
 
 " You may say what you choose," replied still an- 
 other, " I would not go against its warnings for a 
 thousand drachmas. I have had experience." 
 
 " I care little for warnings of any sort," drawled 
 a languid voice. " Divine or human, it is all one 
 to me. But by the celestial gods, I like to hear him 
 talk. I wouldn't live as he does for a palace in 
 heaven, but when I listen I think I am going to. 
 He is beyond all the sophists and all the orators. 
 Good Uncle Pericles was a fool to him. He does 
 look like Hephaestus in a leather apron, but he can 
 talk like Phcebus Apollo. I tell you, I love the 
 man," he ended, laughing. 
 
 " Here he comes," they shouted, " and he heard 
 you, too, Alcibiades." 
 
 " I make no secret of my love," said the young 
 man, striding forward. " But what is this ? Have 
 I a rival? Has he too taken a baby to his heart? 
 
74 G O R G O 
 
 Gods of Olympus, it is the garland of my feast, 
 my little runaway, the son of Hagnon ! " 
 
 He demanded an explanation, which was briefly 
 given. " And you too saved that jackal from the 
 dance of sandals ! " he cried. " A curse upon my 
 dainty stomach and thy dainty conscience; these 
 swine grow wanton by our squeamishness. But 
 we shall yet send the foul beast to lie with the mud- 
 eaters of Styx. And now give me the boy. My 
 claim stands first." 
 
 " Hagnon's claim stands first," replied the other. 
 " Between you and me the boy himself shall decide." 
 
 " Come, little garland," cried Alcibiades, holding 
 out his arms. " Come again to the banquet, little 
 Telemachus, and to-morrow you shall have ships 
 and chariots if you so desire." 
 
 I looked in his beautiful face, and its smile was 
 very sweet. Then I looked up at that other. The 
 mouth was thick-lipped and wide; the nose was 
 flat, and turned upward with flaring nostrils; the 
 great gray eyes protruded as if they would look 
 sidewise; the whole face was grotesque. But I 
 could not hesitate; I clasped his neck and put my 
 lips against his cheek as if he had been my father. 
 " I will stay with you," I said. 
 
 Then a shout of mirth went up. " He has chosen 
 Socrates," they cried. " And you, Alcibiades, got 
 no kisses with all your godship." 
 
 The bright face half frowned, but only for a 
 moment. " I own that I am beaten," he said, " but 
 to yield to Socrates in a contest of persuasion is 
 
G O R G O 75 
 
 no shame to my godhead. That he is also a stout 
 spearman I have reason to know, yet with brass 
 I might vanquish him, — for he, alas ! is mortal. 
 But when the battle is fought with the tongue his 
 darts are winged words that sing in men's ears and 
 strike through every shield and never miss the 
 heart; and all know that in such a conflict neither 
 men nor gods can stand before Socrates." 
 
 And I wondered at this, for it did not seem to 
 me that the man had spoken much, nor with any 
 cunning; and if they had asked me then I should 
 have said that Alcibiades was by far the better 
 talker, but not nearly so strong. 
 
VII. 
 
 A Walk with Socrates 
 
 "AT least," Alcibiades pleaded, " come with 
 JL\. us to the banquet, Socrates. See, the gar- 
 land is already on your breast; come, just 
 as you are." 
 
 Then I noticed that his feet were bare, and his 
 one garment hung about him like a sack, travel- 
 stained at that. 
 
 " Come, Socrates," the wheedling voice persisted, 
 more earnest than I had ever heard it, " you have 
 shared my tent and you shall share my feast. What 
 need of a formal invitation? You have dragged 
 me often from my wine; I will drag you to it now. 
 Would you have me kidnap you, as I did Aga- 
 tharcus, the painter? We go to the house of Hip- 
 ponicus just up the hill — the old money-bag whose 
 face I slapped on a wager, who in sheer gratitude 
 has offered me his daughter to wife, with ten talents 
 dowry. She is really good — would you not advise 
 me to take her, Socrates, in spite of the dowry ? And 
 he has a new sophist, fresh imported to teach all the 
 parts of wisdom to his young Callias — who needs 
 it. Oh, come! The sophist will be such sport ! He 
 
 76 
 
G O R G O 
 
 77 
 
 will instruct you, Socrates; he teaches virtue and 
 the art of speaking. And he will think that you 
 fear him if you stay away." 
 
 " Do you think that there is feasting in the house 
 of Hagnon to-night ? " said the other, gravely. 
 
 " Let Hagnon wait. His proud stomach will be 
 the better for it." 
 
 " We will try that medicine first on him who pre- 
 scribes it," he retorted. " Peace, Alcibiades ; it 
 is my custom to do what I think is right. Go, and 
 waste no words in further urging." 
 
 Then I saw plainly that somehow this barefoot 
 man was greater than Alcibiades; for the young 
 god obeyed him like a child. 
 
 " Where are you taking me? " I asked, when we 
 were alone. " Will you go with me in a ship to 
 Thrace?" 
 
 " Do you not remember," he said, " that the son 
 of Odysseus did not find his father at Pylos nor at 
 Sparta, but afterward found him in his own home? " 
 
 " And shall I find my father at home? " I asked, 
 with a leaping heart. 
 
 " Whether we shall find him there to-night," he 
 said, " I cannot be sure ; but it seems not unlikely, 
 for he landed to-day from the same ship on which I 
 came. Good fortune," he continued, " is often like 
 the little birds, that come hopping to the very feet 
 of one who sits still and waits, but fly away from 
 those who chase after them. You would have gone 
 much astray had you sailed for Thrace. Athena is 
 wise. Did you think she had forgotten you?" 
 
78 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " She sent me you," I said. 
 
 " Yes, she sent me to you," he answered, and was 
 silent. 
 
 " But how can we know? " I asked him, after a 
 time. " For one should not always just sit still and 
 wait." 
 
 He drew me very close upon his shoulder. " Do 
 you not always know what is right? Think care- 
 fully, little one; do you not always know ? " 
 
 I pondered a long while. " Yes," I answered, " I 
 do know, when I stop to remember ; but how do I 
 know?" 
 
 " You have said it. You remember." 
 
 "But when did I learn?" I cried, in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 He paused, holding me out at arm's length and 
 looking in my face. " It is hard to explain," he 
 said. " It is almost too hard for a child to under- 
 stand; it is often too hard for grown men. But 
 I will do what I can to make it plain to you." 
 
 We were now between the Long Walls, and the 
 low sun cast before us far-streaming shadows and 
 tinted the battlements of the distant city. 
 
 " Do you see those walls ? " he said. " They 
 stretch far ; but you saw that they had a beginning, 
 and you know that they have an end. For all things 
 that have a beginning have an end. But that which 
 has no beginning can have no end. Can you think 
 otherwise ? " 
 
 " But is there anything like that? " I cried. 
 
 " You know the meaning of what men call 
 
G O R G O 79 
 
 ' time,' " he said. " Can you think that it had any 
 beginning ? or that it will ever have an end ? " 
 
 "No; it goes on always. But time — it isn't 
 anything at all," I persisted. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you, at least, are something; 
 for you can think and know. But can you remember 
 when first you began to be? " 
 
 " No ; I cannot remember." 
 
 " Perhaps, then, there is something within you 
 that had no beginning. And if that is so, it has had 
 plenty of time to learn. Some think," he said, " that 
 what we call learning is really only remembering. 
 Already you have much to remember, little son of 
 Hagnon." 
 
 " Yes," I cried, harking back, " and if it had no 
 beginning it hasn't any end either ; for you said so. 
 My mother thought that; but she did not explain, 
 as you do." 
 
 " And if there is something within us that was 
 not born and can never die, but is like time itself, 
 can this be anything else than that part of us which 
 thinks and knows, which men call the soul ? " 
 
 "It must be that," I said; "for they put the 
 rest in the ground or burn it up. I never understood 
 about the soul before." 
 
 " And now," said he, " which part do you think 
 is best worth caring for, — that part which we cast 
 away like a useless garment when it is torn by vio- 
 lence or grows old and worn, or that part which 
 lives always?" 
 
80 G O R G O 
 
 " It is foolish to ask me that; of course it is the 
 part that doesn't die," I answered. 
 
 "I am glad," said he, "that you think this a 
 foolish question. Yet there are many who do not 
 understand even this; for just as some care only 
 for clothes, some care only for their bodies. And 
 that, perhaps, is why people do not remember all 
 at once, but very slowly and not clearly, just as 
 one would see things through a thick veil, such as 
 the women sometimes wear before men. It is only 
 when this veil, which is our flesh, is woven very 
 light and fine, or when it has grown old and is 
 worn very thin, that we can see anything through 
 it plainly ; and even then all that we see looks misty 
 and does not seem real." 
 
 " Yes, but the women can peep over," I explained. 
 
 " And we, too, doubtless, can peep over some- 
 times," he answered, smiling. " It is better then, as 
 you think, and I certainly think so, to seek the things 
 that are good for the soul, which is your very self, 
 than to seek what seems good to the body, which 
 we keep only for a little while? " 
 
 " And that is why you wear no shoes ! " I cried. 
 
 " What need have I of shoes? " he said. 
 
 Again I pondered. " What are the things that 
 are good for the soul ? " I asked him. 
 
 " There is but one thing that is good for the soul," 
 he said. " Men call it virtue. But it is only always 
 doing what is right." 
 
 There was a long silence after that. At last I 
 spoke again. " But the gods," I said — " they do 
 
G O R G O 81 
 
 not die at all. And men die; at least, a part of 
 them dies. And I do not understand about those 
 things that have no beginning and do not come to 
 any end. I never saw anything like that. Tell me 
 more about that." 
 
 He set me down in the ruddy twilight and drew 
 a little circle in the dust. "What is that?" he 
 asked me. 
 
 " It is the letter the Syracusan called O," I said. 
 " And it really has no beginning and no end," I 
 cried, clapping my hands. " I remember now. And 
 are our souls like that?" 
 
 " I sometimes think so," he said. 
 
 " But the gods — what are they like? and why do 
 they not die, like men ? " 
 
 He looked about and picked up a dart that had 
 fallen from a wagon. This he took by the end, and 
 swinging on his heel traced with the point a larger 
 circle, wide around the little one. Then he measured 
 a handbreadth on each. " See," he said, " on the 
 little circle even this short path is much bent, while 
 on the larger it is almost straight." 
 
 " Yes," I cried, breathlessly ; for it seemed won- 
 derful, all the things that he knew. 
 
 " And if the circle were larger yet, the line that 
 makes it what it is would be still straighter." 
 
 " Yes," I answered again. 
 
 " And if it were made as great as the universe, 
 which the gods alone can compass even in thought, 
 then its path would be altogether straight in every 
 part, running on forever and never swerving or 
 
82 G O R G O 
 
 turning back, like the flight of time. Such is the 
 life of the immortals ; but the lives of men move in 
 little circles." 
 
 I drew a long breath, but made no answer. For 
 this was greater than all that my mother had told 
 me of. I could not even question him further, 
 though all was vague and dim within me. Again he 
 lifted me up and went on; and when we had gone 
 a long way, and it was now quite dark, hugging his 
 neck more closely, " Tell me who you are ? " I said. 
 
 " You heard them speak my name," he answered. 
 " And it may be that you have heard before of a 
 certain Socrates, about whom some say foolish 
 things. But what they say is not true, — neither 
 that I am very wise nor that I am more foolish than 
 others." 
 
 " No," I answered, " I never heard anything about 
 you till to-day. I did not mean what is your name, 
 but what is it that you do." 
 
 " I try to find out about the truth," he said. 
 
 " And is that all you do? "' 
 
 " I try always to do.what I think is right. Noth- 
 ing else — unless it be something else to go about 
 asking questions. I know that many dislike me, 
 because I show them that they are believing lies and 
 telling lies to others ; but I know also that the gods 
 have commanded me to live just as I do." 
 
 " The gods — those gods — they speak to you, 
 Socrates ? " I asked, with a greater awe than I had 
 ever known. 
 
 "They speak to me," he repeated, bowing his 
 
G O R G O 8s 
 
 head so that his cheek touched mine, " and I have 
 never willingly disobeyed that voice, nor ever shall. 
 It would come to others if they would listen." 
 
 " It is so strange," I said, presently, " that you 
 are not beautiful, like Alcibiades. Perhaps it is 
 only your clothes. My father is rich, and he shall 
 give you clothes and money." 
 
 " I have no use for thy father's money, son of 
 Hagnon," he answered, sharply. And then he spoke 
 softly, as if he were sorry for that one little harsh- 
 ness. " I take money from no one ; yet the thought 
 in your heart was kind, and for that I thank you. 
 But perhaps I am richer than you suppose — richer 
 even than your father. For he, I think, wants many 
 things, and I want nothing." 
 
 " Do you mean," I asked, " that those are the 
 richest who do not need anything ? " 
 
 " Yes, that is exactly what I mean," he answered. 
 " And as to my not taking money — not to speak of 
 any other reasons now, though there are other rea- 
 sons — it does not seem to me to be right for one 
 who is richer to take from those who are poorer." 
 
 I pondered over this; for to me these were new 
 ideas, and I had never seen anybody, unless it were 
 my mother, who did not seem to care for money. 
 Even those who gave it away in great purses, like 
 my father, and those who flung it about and pre- 
 tended not to care, like Alcibiades, did care and 
 set great store by it; that I saw clearly enough. 
 But this man did not care for it at all. Then my 
 thoughts went back to those still stranger things that 
 
84 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 he had said about the soul. That was the reason 
 of his not caring, — he cared only for the soul, be- 
 cause that was the only thing that lasted. All the 
 rest was to him like the things that one leaves for 
 the slaves to use. 
 
 " Tell me," I broke out, suddenly, " what is it 
 that really happens when one dies? " 
 
 " I do not know," he said. And this shocked me, 
 for I had thought that of course he would know all 
 about it. " But I do know this," he went on, " that 
 no harm can ever come to any soul that always does 
 what is right." 
 
 But I was sceptical now. " How can you know 
 that," I demanded, " when you do not know what 
 happens ? " 
 
 " Have you ever thought why it is," he asked, 
 " that some things are right and other things 
 wrong? " 
 
 I had not, but I thought hard now. " It is right," 
 I said, " when we do what the gods want us to." 
 
 " And if the gods should want us to do anything 
 that is wrong, or if they should do anything wrong 
 themselves — I do not say that they could — but 
 would that make it right? " 
 
 "No!" I cried; for I thought bitterly of my 
 mother, and how we had prayed for her in vain. 
 
 " Then right and wrong are something mightier 
 than Jove himself." 
 
 " Yes," I answered. Again my spirit was humble, 
 and now I knew why Alcibiades had spoken as he 
 did. " Tell me about it, Socrates." 
 
G O R G O 85 
 
 " I will tell you, then, how it seems to me. To 
 do right is to do what is truly wise. To do wrong 
 is to make a mistake, — wilfully, perhaps, but that 
 is because we think that we are truly wise when we 
 are not. The gods alone are truly wise in every- 
 thing, and that is why only the gods make no mis- 
 takes and never do wrong. If I say anything that 
 you do not think is so, you must stop me." 
 
 " Don't stop," I said. 
 
 " Well, then, could any real harm come to a soul 
 that is truly wise, and always does what is for the 
 best and never makes mistakes — if that were pos- 
 sible? And it is possible, if we do not forget." He 
 paused, but I did not speak. " And is not this the 
 same as saying that nothing can ever harm the soul 
 of one who does right and never does wrong, what- 
 ever may happen, now or hereafter ? I do not think 
 that we need to know just what it is that happens, 
 little son of Hagnon." 
 
 " But there are such wicked men," I cried, " and 
 if they catch you it isn't any use to be good." 
 
 " To be wicked," he said, " is the greatest of all 
 mistakes. It is as if a general should think that all 
 his friends were enemies, and all his enemies friends. 
 A man who is wicked, like the Syrian, is sure to do 
 terrible harm to himself; but he cannot harm any 
 other, not even a child, like you, unless he is able to 
 make him also wicked. And that he cannot do unless 
 you help him; for it is not wrong to suffer what 
 we cannot help, and no such thing ever really harms 
 
86 G O R G O 
 
 us. No, little one, the wicked cannot hurt the 
 good." 
 
 " But they do hurt them," I insisted. 
 
 " Let us be sure that we understand each other," 
 he said. " I do not speak altogether of what most 
 people call harm and talk about as good and evil, 
 not stopping to remember, but of what is really so. 
 I know that the Syrian thought that he could harm 
 us and meant to do it, and that you thought the same 
 thing and feared him greatly; but you were both 
 mistaken. In what way could he have hurt you ? " 
 
 " He hurt my throat ; and he might have killed 
 me." 
 
 " If he had run a knife through your tunic, would 
 that have hurt your body ? " 
 
 " No, not if it was just the cloth that he cut." 
 
 " And even if he had cut the flesh and run a sharp 
 knife right through the body, could he have hurt 
 that part of you which is yourself, and does not die, 
 and is only harmed by doing wrong ? No, little one : 
 it is very terrible to think about, but the worst that 
 he could do, without your help, would be to tear or 
 to pluck away its garment from the soul." 
 
 " And that is why you were not afraid when the 
 black man lifted up his knife?" 
 
 " That is why," he answered. 
 
 We were passing now near the place where Alci- 
 biades had rescued me. There was only the light 
 of the stars, but I remembered the very stone against 
 which I had leaned crying. 
 
 "Why did you not let them kill the Syrian?" 
 
G O R G O 87 
 
 I burst forth. " Oh, I wish they had killed him ! 
 And Alcibiades — he let him go, too] " 
 
 " Even Alcibiades does not always forget," he 
 said. " Do you think it is doing right to kill people? 
 Tell me just what you really think, son of Hag- 
 non." 
 
 " He ought to be killed," I cried, hotly. " Oh, 
 I wish they had trampled on him till he was spattered 
 about like the grapes when they make them into 
 wine! " And I gritted my teeth in sheer fury at the 
 thought of him. 
 
 " It is true that he deserves punishment," said 
 Socrates, so soberly that my pulses fell a little. " Do 
 you think that he will not be punished? Is it not 
 a frightful punishment, even now, to be just as he 
 is, with that part of him that cannot die ruined 
 and full of a dreadful poison? Yet if that does not 
 seem to you to be enough, you need not fear lest 
 that be all. Wrong always brings punishment — 
 else it would not be wrong. That is the difference 
 between things that are really wrong, and those 
 things that many think are wrong which are not." 
 
 " He ought to be killed," I repeated ; and the 
 words still had a good relish. 
 
 " Men sometimes make blunders in their killing," 
 he said ; " and these, I fear, are very sad mistakes, 
 especially for those who make them. From exile, 
 if it is found to be unjust, a man may be recalled; 
 but when the soul is driven out it cannot be called 
 back. Are you sure, little boy, that you are so wise 
 as to know always just who ought to be killed? and 
 
88 G O R G O 
 
 how he should be killed, and by whom, and when? 
 I myself should fear to say." 
 
 " He ought to be killed," I said again, rolling the 
 words on my tongue, but the flavour was not so 
 good. And I went on : " You have killed men, 
 haven't you — in battle, Socrates? " 
 
 " I obey the laws of my country. Yes, and I 
 would have killed the Syrian to prevent him from 
 killing you — or bearing you away, which would 
 have been worse — but not otherwise. And if I 
 should say to you, little one, as I said to him, that it 
 is better to die than to kill another, would you too 
 think it foolish, as he did ? Would you be so much 
 like him?" 
 
 The flavour was all gone now, but I still per- 
 sisted : " He ought to be killed." 
 
 Then Socrates breathed so wearily that I thought 
 he must be tired with carrying me so far; but he 
 did not set me down. 
 
 " Little son of Hagnon," he said, " I see that we 
 cannot agree in this; but you are only like all 
 the rest." He continued, but I felt that it was no 
 longer to me that he was speaking : " Many times 
 and in many places have I said this thing with all 
 the skill I knew — that it is never right to do 
 wrong, not even to those who do wrong to us — but 
 they are all like this little child; no one of them 
 ever understood. From words I know well that 
 none will ever learn it; and even if one should 
 proclaim this truth by deeds, and give up his own 
 life before them to those who had wronged him, 
 
G O R G O 89 
 
 and should go to his death in perfect patience, seek- 
 ing only to show them the way, still how few would 
 understand ! In all Athens, I think, not one, — not 
 my dear, slow-minded Crito, who loves me better 
 than himself, nor this keen-witted, perilous Alci- 
 biades, who at least loves my words, nor any other 
 of them all; and those who knew me best would 
 be most eager to avenge me! " He sighed. " To 
 this, no doubt, it will come at last; and perhaps, 
 when the appointed time is reached, those hours of 
 death will yet speak more truth to the souls of men 
 than all these days and years of ceaseless question- 
 ing, — to the gods I commit it. And meanwhile, not 
 without* my joy, I follow the path that lies before 
 my feet, and obey the mandate of the god, and heed 
 the voice that ever warns and guides me through all 
 the windings of the way up to the gate of death." 
 
 "Why do you talk like that, Socrates?" I 
 breathed it in his ear in that meek whisper which is 
 nearest silence; for I wanted to get close to him 
 again. 
 
 " I have reason to fear," said he, " that those who, 
 like Hagnon's son, are wise in this wisdom of kill- 
 ing, will some day decide that I too ought to be 
 killed, and will thereupon issue instructions to the 
 Eleven to do what is needful for putting to silence a 
 troublesome tongue. And the Eleven will proceed 
 in the usual manner." 
 
 " That would be dreadful, Socrates," I cried, al- 
 most sobbing. " You shall not say it — " and I 
 laid my hand across his lips. " But you are not in 
 
90 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 earnest, Socrates ; you are laughing. And you know 
 what I meant. It is only people like the Syrian that 
 ought to be killed." And in this I did not yield, not 
 even to him, but kept saying it over and over in my 
 heart, that the Syrian ought to be killed. 
 
 At length, as we passed through the darkness of 
 the narrow lanes, with only a streak of black sky 
 sprinkled with stars above us, I again opened my 
 lips. 
 
 " The gods kill people," I said. 
 
 " Do you know that the gods kill people, little 
 sophist? or do you just say it, not knowing at all? " 
 
 " I am not a sophist," I answered, thinking of the 
 Syracusan. " But they sent the plague." 
 
 " Do you really know that they sent the plague ? 
 If you should thrust your hand among the red coals, 
 would you say that the gods had burned you? " I 
 was silent. " I think it would be more just," said 
 he, " to say that Themistocles sent the plague, for 
 if we had not had so many ships the plague would 
 not have come to us; or Pericles, for if the city 
 had not been so crowded with people by the war 
 it would not have brought such desolation. But 
 if the gods do kill, they at least make no mistakes." 
 
 " But they do make mistakes," I cried. " They let 
 my mother die, when they ought to have saved her. 
 And we all prayed so hard; and she was good." 
 
 " Some might say," he began — but stopped. " I, 
 at least, will not say it, — for I do not think that 
 it is true. I believe in my soul that your mother 
 was all that you think her — as sweet and as beau- 
 
G O R G O 91 
 
 tiful, almost, as the goddesses who dwell in heaven, 
 and far better than some that the poets sing of. And 
 this question, why the gods permit these things, is 
 the hardest that any ever asked me, or can ask." 
 
 " They are cruel." And I spoke with a sense 
 of triumph even in my grief. 
 
 " They are wise. Can you not trust something to 
 the gods? We cannot know all their wisdom; 
 though afterward — yet not always — we may see 
 that what they did was best. You wished to> sail 
 to Thrace. Athena did not permit you. She was 
 the wiser." 
 
 " That is different," I said. 
 
 He began again : " Did your mother, in her very 
 love for you, never take anything from you that you 
 wanted ? " 
 
 " Yes : she took the spiced wine once from my 
 very lips; and I was angry." 
 
 " And did she never refuse you anything when 
 you begged her for it ? " 
 
 " Yes : she would not let me go out through the 
 door ; and I begged her many times and cried. She 
 was just like Athena, wasn't she? " 
 
 " But afterward you knew that she was good to 
 you; and you would believe it now, even if you 
 could not quite understand. And just so when the 
 gods take from us what we very much want, and 
 refuse what we pray for though we fall on our faces 
 before them, we often weep bitterly and grow angry, 
 and think that they are cruel and that we know better 
 than they. And all the while they know best; and 
 
92 G O R G O 
 
 they are caring for you more tenderly, if that be 
 possible, than your own mother. And but now they 
 have delivered you out of the hands of the Syrian, 
 which your own mother could hardly have done; 
 for, after all, she could not be quite so wise and 
 good, and not nearly so strong, as the immortal 
 gods. Can you not trust them ? for it is only thus 
 that we can be truly wise when other wisdom fails 
 us. Can you not trust them — even when you do 
 not understand — just as you trusted her ? O little 
 one, it is hard; it is very hard, sometimes, and 
 almost more than we can bear, — but can you not 
 remember to trust them always ? " 
 
 " I will try to, Socrates," I said, choking. And 
 still, beneath it all, that same thought was droning 
 in the bottom of my heart — the Syrian ought to 
 be killed. 
 
 And so we reached my father's house. And when 
 Trogon, already miraculously sober, had flung open 
 the door, he bawled out : 
 
 "The little master!" 
 
 And my father came with long strides. Yet my 
 soul was so full of the tumult of strange thoughts 
 that I lay in his arms like one dazed, and scarcely 
 spoke; and I slept little that night, though I was 
 very weary. 
 
VIII. 
 
 Schoolmates 
 
 THE next morning I found that the Syracusan 
 had disappeared. Pistias was again steward 
 in his stead. Trogon's back was not without 
 marks, but he accounted himself lucky; and when 
 his punishment was ended he was treated with 
 marked kindness. Most of the maids soon vanished, 
 being replaced by others, but Lyssa was kept; for 
 when I had told all my story she was given 
 to Trogon, and better quarters assigned them both. 
 Trogon got little wine now, but despite the flogging 
 he had earned, the memory of that long debauch was 
 a joy to him and he grunted gleefully at every men- 
 tion of it. " The little master bring me wine him- 
 self," he chuckled, — " gets it out of the sealed 
 jugs for Trogon. And Trogon get so drunk that the 
 roof goes round like a pot-wheel all day; but old 
 Trogon don't forget to lay across the door. The 
 little master gets Trogon at last, though — can't 
 anybody get the best of little master — and Trogon 
 gets after the Syracusan and scares the women. 
 Cha-cha-cha! And then Trogon finds the door un- 
 hapsed, and he gets so scared he drinks water. And 
 the master comes and finds little master gone, and 
 
 93 
 
94 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Trogon gets the scorpion. Then the queer beggar- 
 man brings back the little master ; and he talks to his 
 father, and old Trogon gets Lyssa. And Trogon 
 will eat the mud at little master's feet." 
 
 Of Socrates I saw little for a season, though my 
 father did a few times lead me to him, always going 
 with me himself, for he greatly disapproved of 
 Alcibiades and some others who were always pres- 
 ent, — he would never let me be alone with them. 
 
 " They are an evil sort," he said, " debauched and 
 reckless, and our Athens groans with their riot. I 
 cannot well understand why this Socrates consorts 
 with them. He himself, I think, is no bad man, 
 though his ways are strange. He was very kind to 
 you, my son, and it irks me that I cannot reward 
 him ; but he will take no gifts — positively, he will 
 accept nothing. He is the strangest fellow in 
 Athens, and goes about dressed like a menial, 
 though everybody says he could fill his chest with 
 money if he would — a man of rather good family, 
 too, though poor, of course. And really he is quite 
 an able sophist, though he doesn't look it and doesn't 
 teach for pay. He is very fixed about that last, as 
 I know by trial, for I sought to induce him to give 
 you some simple lessons, here at the house, for which 
 I would have paid him well, and he would not. He 
 seemed almost offended. On the whole I was more 
 glad than sorry, for many do not think well of him, 
 and it is probable that his doctrines are not very 
 sound — perhaps even pernicious in some particu- 
 lars. There must be something of that sort to at- 
 
G O R G O 
 
 95 
 
 tract such a wild young cub as that Alcibiades, who 
 tented with him in Thrace and follows him now nose 
 up, as if he scented rank meat of some kind. The 
 man is a good soldier I must allow, but he made 
 an ill use of valour when he saved that young whelp 
 from among the pikes. Better for Athens if the 
 brass had bitten him." 
 
 I did not try to defend Alcibiades: it did not 
 seem necessary; he did not care. Socrates cared 
 still less ; and yet — 
 
 " O father," I cried, " he is wiser than anybody " 
 — and I was vexed. 
 
 " I suspect, my son, that his wisdom is not very 
 deep; in fact, he himself admits it. Moreover, he 
 meddles too much with things that do not concern 
 him, and so gives needless offence. He provoked 
 even Pericles with foolish questions; and they tell 
 me that he asked Cleon if he thought politics like 
 tanning, where all the beasts that are taken must 
 be slaughtered for their hides. That was not so bad, 
 either. But in his own affairs he is no better than 
 a madman. Why, they say he has just wedded such 
 a wife — " He whitened and stopped short ; he 
 could not yet endure any word that recalled my 
 mother's death. He drew in a quick breath, like one 
 who has stepped upon a thorn, then resumed : 
 " That your friend Socrates is apt in turning words 
 I concede, and I have often wondered that he never 
 comes before the assembly. He would certainly 
 prove a more gracious demagogue than Cleon, if 
 only in this, that he does not extort money." 
 
9 6 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " No," I said, " and he would not kill people — 
 not even when they ought to be killed. He would 
 not let them kill the Syrian." 
 
 " We will have that Syrian yet," said my father, 
 frowning. " I perceive a clue, I think. But if our 
 good friend does not like the smell of blood, he is 
 indeed unlike Cleon. The fellow got a decree passed 
 lately for putting to the knife a full thousand of 
 those oligarchs from Mytilene — men who had led 
 in the revolt, yet even so I have doubts that this was 
 altogether wise. But that was not enough for 
 Cleon ; he was hot to cut the throats of all that were 
 found in the city, which was sheer folly — nay, 
 rankly unjust, for many of them had aided us. Yet 
 we were scarcely able to save them. Paches — poor 
 fellow — was just leading out the hoplites to begin 
 the work when the reprieve came, after a hot race 
 over the sea." 
 
 I pictured to myself a great city with blood in 
 every house. I have never been oversqueamish, yet 
 this sickened me. But the race — 
 
 " Tell me about that," I begged him. 
 
 " It is nothing much — some rather fine rowing, 
 however. You see the first assembly had voted to 
 kill them all — the people are very headstrong now- 
 adays, my son — and Cleon had sent out the neces- 
 sary orders. The next day the citizens thought 
 better of it, and we sent out a reprieve. It was a 
 close race, for the first trireme was already half-way 
 over at least. But we picked our crew ; each man 
 of them had the promise of silver, and they almost 
 
G O R G O 97 
 
 lifted the ship out of the water. They never once 
 rose from the rowing-benches, not even to eat, but 
 crammed wine-soaked barley into their mouths as 
 they bent forward at the oar ; and the stroke oi the 
 blades fell as steadily as the hoof-beats when a 
 good horse gallops. The other gang were not 
 straining fir por bursting oar-slings — if they were 
 paid it was not for speed ; they indeed landed first, 
 but when our boat came foaming in just after, al- 
 though, as I told you, the knives were out, no> blood 
 had been spilt. Father Demus is in an ugly mood, 
 my son, and when the rage chokes him he coughs 
 through Cleon. But the Spartans are no better; 
 they do not even respect the dead. I hear they are 
 casting them out unburied now — and that is horri- 
 ble." 
 
 "Do you think that is worse than killing?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " Far worse," he declared. " Even Socrates, I 
 presume, would grant that." 
 
 " No," I said. " He doesn't care anything at all 
 about the body." 
 
 "That is true — he does not," exclaimed my 
 father, with a sudden illumination. " One may see 
 that at a glance. But he is quite wrong. It is just 
 as I feared : the man is an innovator, and holds 
 opinions of his own devising, which are no proper 
 part either of religion or of sane philosophy." 
 
 And after that he led me no more to listen to the 
 voice of Socrates. I grieved a bit, yet soon forgot; 
 and my loss, perhaps, was not great, for when 
 
9 8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Socrates talked with others it was much harder to 
 understand. Besides, I had other business now, and 
 had ceased to abuse my hours with profitless mu- 
 sings. 
 
 " Little Theramenes," my father had said one 
 day, when I had been exploiting with unusual open- 
 ness some of my notions about Alcibiades, " my 
 little son, you are strangely ignorant of much that 
 you ought to know, and your thoughts are steeped 
 in pestilent fancies." This surprised me, for I had 
 conceived myself rather keen. He would not argue 
 the point, but went on : " You have been neglected, 
 and I blame myself. You must go to the schools and 
 the gymnasium, to meet others of your own age and 
 learn what is customary. Else," he said, smiling, 
 " the house of Hagnon will have for its heir no war- 
 rior, as of old, but a dreamy, dreary sophist, or per- 
 haps a poet." 
 
 That stung me and I flung away my speculations. 
 The schools, shut for a time by the plague, were 
 again open ; and I went out to them every day, even 
 when the snowflakes were flying, with my tunic 
 drawn close about me, and lame-old Amblys, a new 
 slave, to attend me. And I found that my father 
 was right: I was absurdly ignorant of all sorts of 
 things that everybody is supposed to know, and 
 this I could not conceal, but made myself ridiculous 
 before the others. The boys laughed at me noisily 
 at first, mocking my curious fancies and odd ways, 
 and giving me the nickname Skioides, which I 
 hated ; but with hand or tongue, they found, I was 
 
G O R G O 
 
 99 
 
 as quick as any, and I soon buffeted and blustered 
 my way to the front. 
 
 Of these schoolboy years I shall relate only a few 
 incidents, for now my life was much like that of all 
 the rest. I learned quickly the usual mixture of 
 good and evil, and grew stronger in body and more 
 rugged in spirit. What I lost in baby bloom I 
 gained, perhaps, in the ruddy glow of defiant boy- 
 hood, and my father rejoiced at the change, though 
 my mother, as I have often thought, would have 
 sighed. 
 
 There was in the school a little Plataean, called 
 Myron, who was being educated at the public ex- 
 pense because his parents had given up their home 
 for Athens, — though his father was one of those 
 who had stayed to garrison the town. I liked him 
 chiefly because he liked me, and was timid and clung 
 to me. There was another, named Thrasybulus, 
 whom I liked even better, because he was so> bold and 
 frank and cared for nobody. He was just my 1 own 
 age; I thought him rather conceited, but we got 
 along very well together. There was still another, 
 named Critias, a little older, very unruly, fierce and 
 passionate in his temper, stopping at nothing. He 
 bullied all of us, and we both hated and admired 
 him; he influenced me much, for he had the sort 
 of will that crushes others. Thrasybulus and he 
 often quarrelled, and I made peace between them. 
 "What's the use?" I would say. ."Quit it, both 
 of you, so that we can have some sport." 
 
 At last I quarrelled with him, too. He had 
 
IOO 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 thrown down Myron and sat on him, twisting his 
 arm and laughing at his cries. First Thrasybulus 
 tried to drag him off, but Critias drove him away 
 and stoned him, then returned to Myron. I began 
 to remonstrate. " Keep your teeth shut," he warned 
 me, " or I will do as much "for you, Theramenes. 
 You are always interfering." I persisted, and he 
 caught me suddenly by the throat. I struggled hard, 
 but was choked until everything swam before me, 
 and when he let go I fell flat. But I had taken 
 his strength; and when Thrasybulus came back 
 with a broken spear-shaft and struck him on the 
 head, he too fell and lay across my body. Then 
 Thrasybulus spurned him aside, laughing in tri- 
 umph, while Myron wept over me and whispered 
 soft words in my ear; but it was long before I 
 heard them. 
 
 Do you wonder why I tell of this little affray? 
 Wait — these boys became men. 
 
 It was not often that our plays were as rough as 
 that, though the hardness of the time touched even 
 the sports of the children. And in the main we 
 stood by each other, though treachery was not 
 unknown. The school, doubtless, was a good prep- 
 aration for what was to come after, for our life there 
 was full of strains and temptations, and the master 
 was as harsh as Ares, beating us with a joy like the 
 joy of battle whenever we could not repeat our 
 lessons. Then first I learned the taste of a stick ; and 
 I lied to him often, — we all lied to shield each other. 
 I liked the gymnasium better, although there too 
 
G O R G O ioi 
 
 thumps were common currency. Boxing I liked 
 especially, and our trainer permitted it with the 
 bare fists or soft wrappings, though he forbade 
 us the heavy cestus of the men. I cared little for 
 blows when it was permitted to strike back ; but the 
 other sort burnt into my soul like a branding. Yet 
 blows were the least of sorrows in those days. 
 
 One morning, I remember, little Myron came in 
 crying bitterly. He knew nothing of his task and 
 got the rod, weeping just as before. When we went 
 out together we asked him about it, and he told 
 us that his father was dead. The Spartans had 
 taken Platsea at last, and had put to death all that 
 surrendered. 
 
 " They shouldn't have surrendered," I said. 
 
 " They were starving," he answered. " They were 
 so hungry that they didn't care. And nobody came 
 from here to help them, — not even our own country- 
 men who had broken through the line and escaped." 
 
 " Why wasn't your father one of those? " asked 
 Thrasybulus. 
 
 " They told my mother that he did start with 
 them," sobbed Myron, " but when the tiles fell and 
 woke the guard he got frightened and turned back." 
 
 " Your father was a fool and has paid the pen- 
 alty," exclaimed Critias. " When I start anything 
 I always carry it through." 
 
 " But what was that about the breaking out? " I 
 asked. " I never heard of it before." 
 
 " Of course not," said Critias. " You never heard 
 of anything later than the Odyssey, Theramenes." 
 
102 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " There are things worth knowing in the Odys- 
 sey," put in Thrasybulus. " If you and I knew as 
 much of it we should know less of the cane. But 
 that was fine about the Plataeans who got away. I 
 shall always think the better of all Plataeans for 
 that." 
 
 "Tell me about it, Thrasybulus," I begged. 
 
 So he told me the whole story, while Myron sat 
 in the dust sobbing and Critias stood by and whis- 
 tled. For we had stopped in the middle of the 
 square. 
 
 " The siege had been going on more than a year," 
 he began. " You know about that ? " 
 
 " No," I confessed. " Tell me everything." 
 {He looked at me in surprise. " One wouldn't 
 think you had good wit, Theramenes, until he had 
 tried you. Well, it was this way." 
 
 He found a tile and set it up edgewise. " There, 
 that is the wall," he said. " The Plataeans were be- 
 hind it, and the whole Spartan army was camped in 
 front, Thebans and Peloponnesians, and helots, and 
 everybody they could bring. And when they tried 
 to take the town because the men inside stood by 
 Athens and wouldn't make terms, first they raised 
 a great mound up against it — so." And he heaped 
 sand against the face of the tile. " But the Plataean 
 people dug clear under, so that the mound kept 
 falling in — this way." And with a bit of stick he 
 scooped out a hole under the tile and the pile of sand. 
 " But the Spartans kept filling in," he continued — 
 " there were thousands of them, you know; and the 
 
G O R G O 
 
 103 
 
 Platseans couldn't get the dirt out fast enough, for 
 there were only four or five hundred of them. So 
 they stopped that and began to make the wall higher 
 in front of the mound, putting all sorts of things 
 on top of it." And he laid the stick along the edge 
 of the tile. " Then, when they found that wouldn't 
 do any longer, because the Spartans kept piling up 
 dirt and the thing was getting shaky, they just took 
 the bricks of their houses and built a new wall in a 
 loop, running round from the old wall on one side, 
 right in front of the mound, back to the wall again 
 on the other side : like the bow of a yoke, — see." 
 He drew a half-circle behind the tile. 
 
 " By the gods, that was stiff fighting," broke in 
 Critias. 
 
 " My father helped in all that," said Myron, who 
 was looking on eagerly now, with the tears half- 
 dried on his face. 
 
 " Yes," I cried. " I see — so that if the Spartans 
 ever got through the first wall they would only be 
 in a little yard before the new one, and would have 
 to begin all over again." 
 
 " The Spartans didn't care to try that," said 
 Thrasybulus. " It was too much like going into a 
 pen. So they filled the place up with dry tree-trunks 
 and brush, and threw on pitch and set fire to it." 
 
 " And then what happened? " 
 
 " Well, it made the hottest fire you ever heard 
 of. The flame roared way up into the sky and filled 
 the city full of sparks and brands, so that the Pla- 
 tseans didn't know what to do. I heard one of them 
 
104 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 telling about it in the cheese-market — one of those 
 that got away afterward — and he said that their 
 faces were blistered, and all through the town every- 
 thing wooden was in a blaze. It's a little place, you 
 know, not much bigger than a fort — that is, it was 
 — and there was one time when the fire blew right 
 over them, almost solid, so that they had to lie 
 down. But the Spartans couldn't get any nearer 
 than the Plataeans could while it kept so hot; and 
 toward night the wind shifted and there came a 
 great, thundering rain-storm that partly put it out. 
 When it grew dark they saw that the second wall 
 was red hot in places, and over beyond it was like 
 the inside of a charcoal pit ; but that only burned the 
 bricks harder and melted the faces of them a little, 
 and before it was half cool they were putting fresh 
 ones on the top where it had crumbled some. I 
 like that sort of thing; don't you? " 
 
 " Yes, by the infernal goddess — always stiff it 
 out to the end," said Critias, coming closer with his 
 eyes glowing. " Those Plataeans were men." 
 
 " They fought like Ajax by the ships," I cried, 
 warmly, before I had time to think, for I was almost 
 ashamed to refer to Homer. " I am glad people 
 are doing things like that nowadays. But what 
 about the escape ? " 
 
 " That's the jolliest part of it," Thrasybulus con- 
 tinued, kicking down the sand heap in his zeal. 
 " The Spartans gave up storming the place after 
 the fire — and that's just like the Spartans, to quit; 
 yet they didn't exactly quit, either — and that's like 
 
G O R G O 
 
 105 
 
 them, too. They let go and took a fresh hold, and 
 tried to strangle the town by a regular siege. I 
 suppose Thebes made them do it: those Thebans 
 hate the Platseans so. Anyhow, they set up a double 
 brick wall all round the city, with a ditch on each 
 side and towers every little way and the parts be- 
 tween roofed over. Then they marched off home, 
 just as they do every year when they've done burn- 
 ing our villages ; but they left plenty of men to 
 keep the fences. So nobody could get in and nobody 
 could get out, and after awhile there wasn't much 
 left to eat. Then about half the Platseans decided 
 they wouldn't stay any longer ; and they didn't stay, 
 though it was an awful risk to take. First they 
 made a lot of ladders just the right length — they 
 got that by counting the tiers of brick in the Spartan 
 wall — then one cold, stormy night, when there 
 wasn't any moon and everything was rattling in the 
 wind, they started out, over two hundred of them. 
 They went barefoot, and kept wide apart so as not 
 to clash their shields. The guards had all sneaked 
 under cover, for there was a driving sleet, and the 
 Platseans had got their ladders up, and a lot of them 
 were already on the roof, when somebody knocked 
 down a tile." He aimed a kick at the one he had set 
 on edge, but missed it with advantage to his toes. 
 " Then somebody yelled in the nearest tower, and 
 the alarm started. It started both ways at once and 
 went clear round the line with a regular roar ; and a 
 great crashing noise mixed in with it and chased 
 after it, as the Spartans turned out with their arms. 
 
106 G O R G O 
 
 That was the time when some of the Platseans got 
 scared and ran back to the city." 
 
 He was dancing from one foot to the other. 
 Myron began to cry again, but we did not mind 
 him. Thrasybulus went on : " It was the biggest " 
 — he almost stuttered — " the biggest mix-up ever 
 was. Everybody was yelling now, and the lights 
 flared everywhere, but nobody but the Platseans could 
 see anything, or knew what was the matter or where 
 to go. Those that were left in the city made a rush 
 for the wall on the opposite side, and set up such 
 a racket that the Spartans thought the trouble was 
 there. The others that were on the roof had got the 
 towers on both sides of them, and when anybody 
 came near with lights they let fly at him. They kept 
 swarming up the ladders and down the further side 
 and through the ditch, which was just about half 
 frozen over, and lined up on the bank with their 
 targets and throwing-spears all ready. The Spar- 
 tans didn't kill one, and only one was caught — hard 
 luck for him, wasn't it? " 
 
 " Worse luck for the fools that went back," mut- 
 tered Critias. 
 
 "Oh, go on! "I cried. 
 
 " Well, the Spartans tried to signal to Thebes, 
 but the Platseans in the city mixed them all up with 
 torches on the walls. At last a line of hoplites 
 got formed outside, but their torches kept them from 
 seeing anything, and the Plataeans let drive at them 
 a few times and then slipped off in the dark. They 
 went straight toward Thebes! And they saw the 
 
G O R G O 107 
 
 other fellows with their torches heading for the 
 Oak Knobs and the pass over Cithaaron. But the 
 Platseans only went north about a mile; a little 
 way beyond Juno's temple they turned sharp to the 
 right and made their way over the mountains into 
 Attica. The next day they were all here in the 
 city." He eased his breath a little. 
 
 " But what became of those that stayed ? " 
 " Those ? Why there wasn't much of anything 
 left to eat, and the Spartans promised them a fair 
 trial, so at last they surrendered. Then the Spar- 
 tans found them all guilty. Myron knows. But 
 some day you'll get even with them, Myron, and 
 we'll help you. Wish we could begin now ! " 
 
 Old Amblys, who had been leaning on his staff, 
 hobbled nearer. " The young master must go to 
 the gymnasium now," he said, looking at the sky, 
 " and the poor old slave will have to puff like 
 Hephaestus to keep up with him." 
 
IX. 
 
 The Demagogue 
 
 SO the stream of my life flawed on through the 
 years of boyhood, — rippling along the streets 
 of Athens like the rill from a winter storm, 
 born under the trickle of a black sky thunder-riven, 
 but sparkling now in the sunlight while the clouds 
 are breaking; for as yet my streamlet was far too 
 shallow to bear within it shadows of its own. It 
 may be that the clouds will gather again to weep 
 over a doomed city; it may be that this rill is to 
 swell at last to a turbid torrent, dark-hearted, rush- 
 ing down these same streets with the remorseless 
 fury of vengeance, and joining with others sweep 
 away all the glories of Athens, even to the under- 
 mining of her walls. Not by my will — not that — 
 never by my will or purpose! But who can resist 
 the will of fate? That which was set in train from 
 the beginning no wish of man can hinder. 
 
 And perhaps, when all is done, I would not have 
 it otherwise. Was it I — was it I indeed that 
 wrought this ruin? or did that dark and desperate 
 game I played save all that survived of Athens? 
 And when I had set my life as the final stake, and 
 he who played against me overturned the tables and 
 
 1 08 
 
G O R G O 
 
 109 
 
 snatched it from me, did I pay a just forfeit ? Has 
 my name been rightly blotted on the annals of time? 
 
 Reader, I have appointed you to be my judge. 
 To you I make my appeal — for you I have written 
 this history; and when it is finished you shall give 
 the verdict. I will tell you all the truth — even as 
 I told it to Macus at the gates of shadow. But the 
 end is still far off. The sun is shining now; let 
 us walk in the sunshine while we may. 
 
 For again there was gladness in Athens. The 
 plague had long since departed, though leaving its 
 traces in deep scars on the flesh and deeper scars 
 in memory. But the terror was gone ; the air once 
 more was sweet, and we breathed it with joy. The 
 war, too, had taken a happier turn. It was now in 
 its ninth year, and I in my thirteenth. Despite 
 some reverses, good fortune glittered on our hel- 
 mets and flashed from our prows. Especially after 
 our wonderful success at Pylos — where, in the face 
 of all the traditions, more than a hundred young 
 Spartans of the best families had yielded to save 
 their lives — the smoke of the annual ravage lifted 
 from our land and drifted far away. Our sentinels 
 still paced on the dizzy ramparts, sixty feet in air, 
 scanning the broad basin of the valley blackened 
 with fire-blots and ragged with olive stumps, but no 
 more hostile armies came in view. They dared not ; 
 we were using these noble captives as hostages, and 
 war was turned into parley. The Spartans were 
 actually begging for peace, and we were in no haste 
 to grant it. 
 
no G O R G O 
 
 This great change had come to pass in the previous 
 summer, when Archidamus, who had just arrived 
 on his usual errand, suddenly left our fields while 
 the green corn was yet standing, recalled by the 
 startled Ephors to fight in fields nearer home. Loud 
 was the bellow of rage at Sparta, but they were 
 helpless; we had them fast by the middle, and like 
 an overconfident wrestler played with their strug- 
 gles. And during this crisis I had my first glimpse 
 of that wild assembly whose tumult I was to face 
 so often. 
 
 I had been for some time house-bound by a cruel 
 wrench that Critias gave me as we fought in the 
 pancratium — it was no fair match, and forbidden, 
 too, but he had challenged me — and when at length 
 I crept out, wincing with twinges at every step, it 
 was Thrasybulus, as usual, who brought me the 
 latest news. For he was always scouting about the 
 shops on the edge of the market, listening to the 
 men's talk. He was red with excitement. 
 
 " Have you heard ? " he asked. 
 
 "About what?" 
 
 " How the fleet was sailing from Corcyra, and 
 a storm drove them into the harbour at Pylos?" 
 
 " Yes, I know." 
 
 " And how Demosthenes — the raider that did 
 such good fighting round Naupactus — persuaded 
 the men to build a fort there on the rocks? They 
 built it of rough stones," he cried, carried away by 
 his enthusiasm, " and they lugged the mud they used 
 for mortar on their bare backs, for they hadn't any 
 
G O R G O 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 proper tools. They just stooped with their arms 
 clasped behind to hold it on." 
 
 " I know. And as soon as our ships were gone 
 the whole Spartan army and the Spartan fleet came 
 up in a hurry ; but they couldn't do anything. The 
 last I heard was how Brasidas tried to force a land- 
 ing, and ran his boat right up on the beach, and 
 fought from the prow till he fainted from bleeding 
 and fell backward and lost his shield." 
 
 " He's the best man they've got," said Thrasy- 
 bulus, decisively. " The rest are so slow ; but 
 Brasidas might have been an Athenian." 
 
 I assented heartily; but I had no thought then 
 what this name might mean to me. He ran on : 
 
 " Have you heard, though, how our fleet came 
 back and caught the Spartan ships in the bay, 
 and drove them ashore, — as many as they didn't 
 take ? The Spartans did fight like boar dogs on the 
 beach." 
 
 This was new to me. " Well," he continued, 
 " you've been missing the very best of it. Curse 
 that Critias — we're not through with him. yet. 
 Never mind, I'll tell you ; I like to. You see there's 
 an island ten stades long right across the mouth 
 of the bay. The Spartans had put some men there 
 — real Lycurgus men, remember that. Well, 
 they're there yet." 
 
 "They are!" 
 
 " They're right there, and we're going to get 
 them. Hasn't been anything like it since old Pelops 
 died. Some of our war-ships keep paddling round 
 
I 12 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 and round the island all day, and lie about it, prows 
 in, every night ; and the men that are trapped there 
 are getting as hungry as all Megara. The Ephors 
 came down from Sparta to our camp, and they 
 fairly wallowed. Begged for a truce, and gave all 
 the rest of their ships — which we've kept, though 
 all Sparta is howling. Trust us to find reasons. 
 Then some of their foremost men came here in one 
 of our boats to make terms; but that bull Cleon 
 had his tail up and was pawing sand, so all the 
 satisfaction they got was the fun of hearing him 
 bellow. They went back with blue faces. They 
 got one good turn on him, though, before they left." 
 
 "How?" I asked. "Don't hurry so, Thrasy- 
 bulus ; my ankle won't stand it." 
 
 " Well, they'd been offering pretty nearly every- 
 thing between Olympus and Hades, but we wouldn't 
 hear to it. At last they just proposed to exchange 
 even, man for man. Cleon roared at that, but they 
 caught him short, and said they were glad to see 
 that he too realised that no Athenian was worth 
 a Spartan. So the assembly broke up with a laugh. 
 But now some of the people are getting worried. 
 We've been wasting too much time. The season 
 is growing late, the winter storms are coming, and 
 those Spartans are still on the island when they 
 ought to be in Athens. Think of it — if they should 
 get away after all ! " 
 
 " Hold on ! " I exclaimed, sucking my breath with 
 pain as my ankle turned. " You're killing me. 
 Where are we going, anyway? " 
 
G O R G O 
 
 ii3 
 
 " Demosthenes has sent for more soldiers. There's 
 going to be an assembly, and Cleon will dance on 
 the footstool of Pericles. Come along ! Here, take 
 my shoulder, you limping Lemnian," he said, halt- 
 ing good-naturedly, though his feet burned with 
 haste. 
 
 " They won't let us in," I objected. 
 
 " Never you fear," he answered. " We're not 
 going to Lacedaemon, to be lashed off the premises ; 
 but unless we hurry we shall arrive like a Spartan 
 fleet, just a day too late." 
 
 So I hobbled on at best speed, though the tears 
 started now and then. When we reached the Pnyx 
 he helped me to the top of a low wall, leaped up 
 himself, and there we sat, dangling our legs at 
 ease. The assembly was full, but none noticed us; 
 all eyes were turned another way. Far beyond 
 this nodding barley-field of shaggy heads, rose 
 the great stone platform of the bema, where the 
 orators and the magistrates were gathered. Busi- 
 ness had begun, and Cleon was already at the front, 
 pacing the rock with uncouth gestures and harangu- 
 ing the people in the style he had learned among 
 the beeves and drovers. His voice seemed loud 
 even where we hung on the outskirts ; nearer it must 
 have been deafening. He was on the defensive, 
 apparently. 
 
 " It is all your own fault," he was shouting. 
 " Am I to be blamed for good, honest counsel ? 
 Did I elect fools to be your generals? The gods 
 on Olympus cannot help a fool, nor save those 
 
ii4 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 who trust in fools." He pointed to a big, pursy 
 man with a blanched, unwholesome face, who sat 
 uneasily among the officials. " Your generals wear 
 victory only in their names," he cried ; " they are 
 as bold as hares; they win triumphs with choruses; 
 they think to lift sieges with hoisting-engines from 
 their silver mines; they are keen politicians in the 
 slave-market, but in the assembly liverless dotards. 
 Look at his cheesy cheeks ! " 
 
 A roar of laughter followed. " That's Nicias," 
 whispered Thrasybulus. 
 
 Cleon raised his voice to its loudest : " If your 
 generals were men," he trumpeted, " these Spar- 
 tans would to-day sit in chains before you, and 
 our only debate would be how best to use them." 
 
 "How if they were tanners?" came a voice 
 from the crowd. 
 
 " Why, if / were general," he shouted back, " I 
 would have them here in twenty days." 
 
 Again the assembly shook with laughter. " Why 
 don't you do it, Cleon? — Then go and get them, 
 Cleon ! — Try it, Cleon ! we'll give you twenty 
 days " — these were the cries that rang from every 
 quarter. 
 
 Even Cleon faltered at that. " You know that I 
 am no general," he protested. " But if I were, 
 I could do it." 
 
 The cries redoubled. It was rare sport to see 
 Cleon posed. " Make him general ! — Send him 
 out with reinforcements ! " — echoed the voices. 
 
G O R G O 115 
 
 " This goes too far," I whispered to Thrasy- 
 bulus. " The people are crazy." 
 
 " Well," he answered, " we should either get 
 the Spartans or get rid of Cleon. At least, that's 
 what Nicias thinks." 
 
 He was right. Nicias had already risen with 
 an evil smile. He spoke with ease and force, though 
 his manner was cringing.' 
 
 " Good citizens," he said, " you have uttered a 
 voice that is like Apollo's oracle. The gods have 
 spoken by your tongues; it is an omen; it cannot 
 result amiss. By all means send out this man as 
 general; let us not lose an opportunity so precious. 
 And let none imagine that I shall stand in the way. 
 I too wish to see these Spartans securely chained 
 — if it be so easy to take Spartans alive — and I 
 gladly resign my office to one so much more com- 
 petent. Make him general and send him out on 
 his own conditions; and if, perchance, you should 
 later find that he is but a liar and an empty brag- 
 gart, that lesson will prove a good purchase." 
 
 Again and again Cleon shrunk back, but the peo- 
 ple would not have it otherwise. At last he faced 
 about. 
 
 " Elect me, then," he cried, boldly, " and I will 
 make good my word. Nor do I ask for one Athe- 
 nian hoplite to lead into what he might deem 
 peril. Only give me a few of these Lemnians and 
 Imbrians for a ballast, and let Demosthenes be my 
 lieutenant, and in twenty days I will produce before 
 you every Spartan in the island, alive or dead, < — for 
 
n6 G O R G O 
 
 I cannot undertake to guarantee their health in case 
 they prove obstinate." 
 
 And so it was voted with an overwhelming 
 clamour of assenting voices: all parties joined in 
 this mad performance. Seeing the assembly about 
 to break, we slid from the wall and made off. 
 
 " Now wasn't that worth a leg, you hobbling 
 Hephaestus ? " demanded Thrasybulus, as he bent 
 his neck to the yoke of my arm. But I was too full 
 of thought to answer. Soon we were overpassed 
 by throngs of citizens, laughing and discussing the 
 chances. 
 
 " I lay you three obols — and that's a fair day's 
 wages — that he does it," one exclaimed. 
 
 " And I lay you a drachma that he doesn't — and 
 that's double," retorted another. 
 
 " Thrasybulus," I said, in a low tone as we shuf- 
 fled along, " I like Cleon the better. I spit at that 
 Nicias. If anything ill happens, he is to blame." 
 
 " Well," he answered, " Nicias is a good man, 
 able and well esteemed. He is rich, too, and gives 
 freely, and they say he's the most pious man in 
 Athens; but he hasn't the heart of a pigeon. He 
 salutes all the sycophants on the street, and they 
 just live off him. He's always dreadfully busy, but 
 never does anything. Cleon is a terrible bully and 
 as greedy as a hog; but there really is something 
 about him that one likes better." 
 
 In fact, the wonder of wonders came to pass. 
 Cleon fulfilled his promise to the letter. It was early 
 on the morning of the twentieth day when Thrasy- 
 
G O R G O 117 
 
 bulus came banging at the door. Trogon rubbed 
 his eyes, peered out, and let him in. 
 
 " He's got them," Thrasybulus shouted, when 
 he saw me. There was no need of names, for all 
 Athens had been talking of nothing else. 
 
 "Alive?" I cried. 
 
 " Alive! " he answered. " A hundred and twenty 
 Spartans of the full blood ! " 
 
 " And Cleon! How ever did he do it? " 
 
 " Yes, Cleon — or Demosthenes, perhaps. It's all 
 the same — Cleon is bringing them home. We 
 burnt the cover off the island, landed a lot of men, 
 and showered them with spindles until they flung 
 up their hands." 
 
 Together we ran down to the port — my ankle 
 was nearly well now — and reached it just in time 
 to see the dejected procession file down the plank, 
 while all Athens shouted. They were not in chains, 
 either — we used them well — fine-looking young 
 fellows, but the most shamed of any I ever saw. As 
 for Cleon, he was despot of Athens that day — if he 
 so chose. He acted like it, but simply rubbed in 
 his triumph. Nicias stood at a distance with a 
 group of friends. He always looked like cheese, 
 but that morning he even looked mouldy. I longed 
 to throw mud at him. For more than a month the 
 city was in jubilation. 
 
 Then a general truce was made for a year — 
 though there was still fighting in Thrace, where 
 Brasidas was recklessly stirring up .revolts. But 
 at home there were only embassies passing to and 
 
n8 G O R G O 
 
 fro; and as I have told you, the war was in its 
 ninth year, and I was thirteen, and the sun shone 
 bright over Athens. 
 
 My father went on some of these missions, for 
 once he had served as proxenus for Sparta and had 
 friendships there and much influence. 
 
 " Theramenes," he said, one day, " it is time that 
 you saw more of other places. Make ready to start 
 with me to-morrow. We go to Sparta." 
 
 "But can I, father?" I asked. "Will they let 
 me in ? " For I had heard queer stories of Spartan 
 customs. 
 
 " At present they will do almost anything that we 
 desire," he announced. " However, for form's sake, 
 you will go as my shield-bearer." 
 
 " Yes, I can carry your shield now, father — 
 easily." 
 
 " That will hardly be needful," said he, smiling, 
 " unless it be at the moment of our first reception. It 
 is merely a matter of ceremony, my son, and an 
 honourable office. You are still too raw; the at- 
 tendants will bear our burdens." 
 
 We set out the very next day. 
 
X. 
 
 On the Road to Sparta 
 
 THE great things of life do not come to pass 
 unheralded. I have ever thought lightly of 
 those ingenious omens which clever profes- 
 sionals read by rule from the flight of birds or the 
 bowels of beasts. It is not in such tricky fashion 
 that fate speaks to us; yet the voice of the future 
 is always sounding, and they are but fools who are 
 not warned. For who does not know that great sor- 
 rows come like the storm, with damp breath and a 
 swell of warning winds ? Death itself — unless it 
 be that mad, glad death which rushes forth from the 
 clang of trumpets, spilling the blood while it yet 
 is hot — death too comes with a forecast of out- 
 creeping shadows and deepening gloom; and per- 
 haps, to him who lifts his eyes, a brightening star. 
 But when the great joy of youth approaches, its 
 herald is like the rosy, zenith-pointing finger of the 
 dawn; the whole sky encarminates, and the violet 
 mist of ether sprays downward until all the air is 
 drenched in fiery exhalations. Then the eye makes 
 ready for the rising sun, and the nostrils tingle and 
 the heart leaps up with a perilous throb, — for this 
 
 119 
 
120 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 wine of the dawn is the very nectar of the gods, 
 and the crimson juices of the grape are as nothing 
 to it. 
 
 Such a dawn was in the sky as we set forth on 
 our journey; and such a dawn was in my heart. 
 Then, by some untraceable suggestion, the words 
 of Socrates came back to me and sang in my ear, — 
 " The soul is that part which was not born and can- 
 not die, but is your very self." Then, like an echo, 
 — " Some wonderful thing is coming to that within 
 you which was not born and never dies, but is your 
 very self." Yet for a time nothing befell other than 
 might have been expected. 
 
 The weather was cold, and a thin paste of snow 
 lay on the ground as we started; for it was still 
 winter. We filed slowly through the streets just as 
 the doors were opening, — our number about fifty, 
 including the soldiers and servants, all mounted 
 upon horses or asses. I had wondered a little that 
 we did not go by ship, since the sea was our own 
 domain; but they told me that the voyage was too 
 rough at this season, and the roads were at present 
 accounted safe. So the gates creaked open and 
 crashed behind us, and we emerged on the great 
 processional road to Eleusis just as the sun broke 
 over the hills in our rear. And now, as we crossed 
 the open plain, the sea-wind struck us with such 
 stinging buffets that it whipped my blood to mad- 
 ness. Are not these the airs that have ever made 
 our Hellas the battle-ground of freedom ? The very 
 slaves grew restless as they breathed it. As for me, 
 
G O R G O 
 
 121 
 
 with my cloak streaming like a pennant from my 
 throat, my wide hat flapping and tugging at its 
 laces, I lashed my horse to a gallop and wheeled and 
 careened on the slippery track until the stern voice 
 of my father checked me. 
 
 " I know well that you are but a lad," he said, 
 " but remember that you march with men." 
 
 The melted snow was already channelling the 
 hill-slope when we mounted the low pass leading to 
 the Eleusinian vale, where the sea again came in 
 view, rolling up the beach in rainbow curves. We 
 did not pause to enter the little town, but rode 
 straight past the ancient temple about which I had 
 heard so many whispers. Then the road grew 
 narrow and steep and winding, scarcely more than 
 a trail, as we threaded the mountains of the border. 
 The keen wind chilled me now ; I grew so stiff and 
 weary that I could scarcely sit upon my horse. 
 
 The sun was already low when we descended into 
 the Megarian country, — a mere desert now, for 
 here we had avenged all that our fields had suf- 
 fered from torch and axe. Twice every year from 
 the war's beginning, we had ravaged this little 
 land with the bitterness of pent-up hate. Not a 
 tree was standing, nor a house; and in all that 
 desolate plain we saw but a single man, lean and 
 fierce, skulking among the stumps. Doubtless the 
 dark circuit of the city walls which now rose before 
 us contained many such, full of rage and hunger, 
 with no welcome for either friend or foe. We did 
 not seek shelter there, but after fording a swollen 
 
122 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 stream turned leftward to the fortress at Nisaea, the 
 port captured the year before and still held by our 
 forces. There was no delay at the gate, and we were 
 presently quartered in a large caravansary, thawing 
 and steaming before a fire of logs in the open court ; 
 for they had no coals. Our couches were spread 
 on the floor within, and as soon as I had eaten I 
 relaxed my sore joints under the blankets; but I 
 lay awake for a time, listening to the talk of the 
 men, for the captain of the garrison had come 
 down and was plying my father with questions. I 
 heard the name of Brasidas repeated many times : he 
 had thwarted their plans against Megara, it seems, 
 while on his way to Thrace, where he was now 
 making further trouble. 
 
 " There can be no peace till that fellow is dead," 
 exclaimed the captain loudly ; and with those words 
 in my ears I fell asleep. 
 
 The strange dream that followed was meaning- 
 less, perhaps; yet I will tell it. Brasidas himself 
 stood before me. In one hand he held a city, full 
 of people; in the other a rose, bright with dew- 
 drops ; " Choose," he said — " one, but not both." 
 I snatched the rose, for in my dream it seemed to 
 me fragrant and beautiful beyond all price: where- 
 upon he flung the city at my feet, and it broke in 
 pieces; and his face was changed. I stooped to 
 gather up the fragments, but as I strove to lay them 
 together the rose fell from my hand and lay with 
 scattered petals; yet the fragrance was sweeter 
 than before. Then a darkness came, and through it 
 
G O R G O 
 
 123 
 
 white faces scowled at me ; a great horror was upon 
 me, and my limbs grew numb. I awoke in an 
 agony of grief and fear. The darkness and the tears 
 were real enough; and so was the numbness, for I 
 had flung off my blanket. As for those faces — I 
 cannot assume to .say whether dreams are prophetic, 
 — but I have seen them since. 
 
 I slept little after that, but lay shivering; and 
 when I arose it was like the morning after wine. 
 Yet the day's ride called for a firm hand with a 
 steady eye to guide it ; for we followed the seashore 
 road which runs like a narrow shelf along the face 
 of the cliffs, so that to one looking landward across 
 the waves we must have appeared like a moving 
 group of statues set in a pediment. For at times 
 if a pebble glanced from a horse's hoof it fell in 
 the surf that crashed beneath, while above us the 
 crags jutted out like a cornice and overhung the 
 track ; only here and there was it possible for those 
 who met to pass in safety. But we encountered 
 few. Once, at a dizzy, projecting angle, a stolid 
 Megarian flattened himself against the rock as we 
 brushed by. As I passed I shuddered and thought 
 of Sciron ; for one strong push would have set my 
 horse on a path of air. But that was the climax; 
 at length the road widened and descended, a culti- 
 vated plain opened before us on the right, and the 
 mountain citadel of Corinth came in view. We 
 soon crossed the great ship-road where the galleys 
 were dragged across the isthmus from sea to sea, but 
 it was nightfall when we halted at the closed gate 
 
124 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 of the town. Only after a long and wrangling 
 parley were we admitted. Within, money secured 
 us food and lodging, but black looks were our chief 
 entertainment. It was easy to see that these people 
 were greatly vexed about the truce, and when we 
 rode forth in the morning we were almost mobbed. 
 Painted women screamed insults from roofs and 
 windows, while the gathering rabble pursued us 
 with threats and curses. My father wheeled and 
 faced them. 
 
 " Take heed what you do," he shouted, " for we 
 travel under the safe-conduct of your own allies." 
 
 " Your allies — not ours," called back one of 
 them. 
 
 " Since Pylos, Sparta's iron is turned to lead," 
 growled another. 
 
 " The Spartan oaks have been shedding shields," 
 bawled a third. " Perhaps they will come and teach 
 us how to surrender ! " 
 
 " Or how to betray allies ! and a sneaking Thes- 
 salian could do as much." 
 
 " Have these brave words yet been uttered in 
 Sparta, — or do you wish me to report them there? " 
 retorted my father. But already they had begun to 
 slink away, for the gate with its armoured guard 
 was near; and we passed out unscathed, though 
 our cheeks were hot. 
 
 Before us and on the right rose mountains 
 sheathed in shining snow far down their slopes ; yet 
 the breezes were soft and springlike. At first I 
 fancied that I saw snow on the low hills near us 
 
G O R G O 125 
 
 also, but this was only the gleam from sunlit patches 
 of bare, white earth. We moved swiftly now, amid 
 planted fields and through valleys where the sheep 
 were grazing, easily reaching Argos before a man's 
 shadow would exceed a spear's length. Here again 
 we heard taunts against the Spartans, whose name 
 was fast losing its magic; but we were ourselves 
 received with marked courtesy, and well entertained 
 by a citizen who professed much friendship for 
 Athens. 
 
 " It can be done," I overheard him saying to my 
 father — " it can and shall be done. But we must 
 still be cautious; we must wait." 
 
 The next day I had a new taste of the hardships 
 of a winter march. In the morning our course lay 
 along the coast, — a mere margin of plain, notched 
 by encroaching mountain spurs and cut through 
 by the streams which rushed down between them. 
 The fords were by no means at their worst, yet the 
 crossing was perilous business; at least, it seemed 
 so to me. More than once I cried out with fear 
 as my stout beast swayed in the current and I felt 
 the ice-cold water lapping my thighs. 
 
 Then, as our shadows shortened with the approach 
 of noon, our path bent upward, and our horses' 
 hoofs began to rattle on the stones. A camp ap- 
 peared on the right, but when we had showed our. 
 tokens to the captain he let us pass. So we climbed 
 on through ravines dark with pines, struggling up 
 steep stairways of twisted roots. Often we extorted 
 a track from the grudging banks of torrents, and 
 
i 2 6 G O R G O 
 
 when they grew shallower even made their plashing 
 beds our road. My ^father kept as near me as he 
 could. 
 
 "This is worse than I thought," he said. "I 
 was wrong to choose so rough a route. A Spartan 
 lad of your age would make little of it, but you have 
 been bred more softly." 
 
 " No," I told him, " I am glad we came this 
 way. I like it better so." 
 
 Yet I shuddered at every stumble, and my eyes 
 were blurred with giddiness, and my chest ached 
 with the strain of my bated breath before that sheer 
 ascent was finished. I was only a boy, and a green 
 horseman. 
 
 We were now far up the heights in a region 
 of glens, riding amid a growth of gnarled and 
 stubby oaks, unlike any that I had ever seen. 
 Their trunks were as weather-worn as the rocks, 
 and in the same way mottled with silvery lichen 
 and green mosses; while the limbs, bare of leaves, 
 waved weirdly with streamers of the grassy golden 
 mistletoe. Often we crunched through snowbanks, 
 still mounting aloft against gusts of icy wind, until 
 at last we attained a bleak, flat summit which my 
 father told me was the scene of the famous duel 
 between the Argives and the Spartans; and he 
 pointed out the spot where the brave Othryades slew 
 himself beside his trophy because he was ashamed 
 to survive his comrades. 
 
 " They fall on their swords no longer," growled 
 Laches, who had halted near us. " They have 
 
G O R G O 127 
 
 learned to fall on their faces instead, else our mis- 
 sion were an idle one." His teeth chattered. " This 
 is no place to delay, even if the tale be false that 
 the silly shades still battle here in the moonlight. 
 Let us hurry on." 
 
 The day was spent, and the billowy ridges below 
 us lay pale in twilight, but we plunged downward 
 through the dangerous gloom. At times I shut 
 my eyes and left all to my horse, with a trembling 
 trust. Thus we groped in black shadow, while the 
 moon rose slowly behind until its rays glinted down 
 the slope from ledge to ledge; then we came upon 
 a sheepfold sunk in a hollow, where the dogs 
 which rushed out at us baying, were beaten off 
 with spear-butts. The shepherds themselves clam- 
 oured almost as loudly ; yet we forced our welcome 
 and passed the night with fleas and helots. 
 
 I was roused by a jargon of curses and a scuffle 
 that set the sheep bleating. Our guards had seized 
 one of the men to serve as guide, — a savage-look- 
 ing fellow, dressed in foul, woolly hides, surly as 
 the dogs at first, but soon brought to reason by the 
 sight of money. He led us through the mists down 
 the channel of a stream which he called Phounias : 
 its waters sucked at my legs as we crossed from 
 side to side, and I could well believe that its heart 
 was murderous in flood-time. At last we emerged 
 on the brow of a long declivity. The mist was 
 now full of light, but still hung about us like a shin- 
 ing veil. Then it shook in the wind, and parted, 
 
128 G O R G O 
 
 and blew away in gray shreds, scudding along the 
 ridges. 
 
 "There!" said the helot. 
 
 The wide Laconian valley lay before us, streaked 
 with streams, dotted with hamlets, its fields already 
 green with the springing grain. Beyond rose the 
 jagged crests of Taygetus, helmeted in ice which 
 flashed back the morning sun. Far down to the left 
 we caught a glimmer of the sea; but on our right 
 the head of the valley lifted itself in a tumult of 
 hills and mountains more lofty than those behind us. 
 These were the walls of Sparta, that needed no 
 other : the whole land was a fortress. 
 
 " Now I go to my sheep," said our guide. 
 
 We needed him no longer, and he clambered back 
 up the ravine with his silver. Soon we were canter- 
 ing over the plain, breathing air that was like sum- 
 mer in its softness. The birds were twittering in 
 busy flocks among the clods; the lowing of cattle 
 was all about us; the very helots were laughing 
 as they issued from the villages. Here the Spartan 
 had lived in peace, while his armies had trampled 
 down our vineyards and left no shade of roof or 
 bough in all Attica. I thought of the ashes of 
 our home. 
 
 " Is there no other road — no easier pass ? " I 
 cried out, angrily. 
 
 " There are other roads, but none is easy," replied 
 my father. " No enemy has ever entered by any 
 one of them since the Dorian made this place his 
 citadel. My son, do not think vain thoughts." 
 
G O R G O 
 
 129 
 
 " Yet they yielded at Pylos," I persisted. 
 
 " They yielded ; and all men wondered. Cut off 
 on a rock and assailed by twenty times their num- 
 ber they yielded; and even so our task was not 
 easy." 
 
 " But they flee before our ships — eighty of theirs 
 against twenty, and they fled from Phormio," I 
 cried. 
 
 " Athens is the mother of ships," he answered, 
 " and the sea, with all its coasts and islands, is 
 hers. But where the phalanx ranges Sparta rules. 
 Think no vain thoughts, my son." 
 
 We rode on in silence. Sparta itself was now 
 in sight, — a mere straggle of villages stretched 
 along the low hills that rose beyond the distant 
 river. It seemed unworthy of its fame — indeed, 
 scarcely worthy to be called a city; for it lay like 
 an overgrown hamlet, open on every side, without 
 wall or tower or symmetry. Here and there great 
 buildings appeared, some of them quite imposing 
 and in a rude way magnificent; there was one in 
 particular that glittered on the highest crest in a 
 sheen of brazen plates. But to me they all seemed 
 uncouth and out of place; the whole effect was 
 disappointing. 
 
 Soon we were met by a convoy of hoplites, led 
 by a grizzled old taxiarch called Rhyzon, between 
 whose house and ours, as my father told me, there 
 was an ancient guest-bond. His face was full of 
 hard lines, but he greeted us with gruff civility. At 
 me, however, he stared with unconcealed contempt. 
 
130 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Very pretty," he growled, " but is it a lad or 
 a lass? If these be your soldiers, Hagnon, a Spar- 
 tan girl could master them." 
 
 " I fear not the match," I answered, hotly. 
 
 " It should be an evil match for you," he an- 
 swered. " In what sort of contest, young man, do 
 you profess this skill ? " 
 
 " I can wrestle," I cried, for I had learned many 
 trips from Critias. 
 
 He frowned blackly. My father's lips twitched 
 with a smile. 
 
 " At least, I have never yet flung up my hands," 
 I added. 
 
 He raised his stick. " Hold, Rhyzon," exclaimed 
 my father. "It is my son; and if, in thoughtless- 
 ness, he spoke below his breeding, it was not without 
 provocation." 
 
 The Spartan lowered his arm and smote his staff 
 upon the ground. " If he be your son he is my 
 guest," he said. " I knew him not, and old eyes do 
 not love new faces. But let me tell you, Hagnon, 
 he is too presuming. No Spartan youth would 
 thus wag a saucy tongue at age." 
 
 " Aye," responded my father. " A Spartan's 
 spear is sharp, but his tongue is blunt." 
 
 " It is not too big to lie behind his teeth," said 
 Rhyzon. 
 
 This certainly seemed true of our escort, to whom 
 I now turned my attention lest I give more offence. 
 They were handsome young fellows, strong-limbed 
 and splendidly equipped, but they marched in silence, 
 
G O R G O 131 
 
 never swerving their eyes from the track, with a 
 tramp as steady as the beat of oars. They did not 
 even clash their arms; every shield and spear was 
 set at the same angle, and the interspaces never 
 varied. I longed to question them, but dared not. 
 Here was a tension of discipline that was new 
 to me. 
 
 We crossed the Eurotas on an ancient bridge, 
 leaving behind us our soldiers and servants, for 
 none of them were allowed to enter the city. On 
 the further bank we also parted from our associates, 
 who were led away to be entertained in different 
 quarters. We alone continued with Rhyzon; and 
 after passing through various streets we at length 
 came out on the brow of a hill-slope facing the 
 river. The Spartan turned toward me with a 
 singular air. 
 
 " Look, young Athenian boaster," he said. 
 " Look, before you defy the maids of Sparta." 
 
XI. 
 
 A Wrestling Match 
 
 THE slope on the verge of which we were 
 standing was crowded with men and women ; 
 all Sparta, I think, was there. At its foot 
 lay a race-course, traced by barriers on the flat 
 floor of the hollow, and toward this all eyes were 
 bent. My gaze went with theirs; and I beheld 
 a spectacle which only Sparta could offer and which 
 few except Spartans ever looked upon. For those 
 who contended were maidens, — the fairest in 
 Hellas, — and at that very moment a bevy of them 
 hung in a little white cloud at the furthest limit 
 of the track. Then, with a flitter of shining feet 
 and a streaming glow of ruddy faces, a flock of 
 these lissome nymphs broke from the line and sped 
 over the sand like quail darting to cover. They ran 
 with wonderful grace and swiftness, and their dress, 
 though simple and closely gathered, was in no way 
 immodest, — this I caught at a glance. One seemed 
 to loiter; she will lose, I thought, and somehow I 
 was sorry; but as they neared the goal she passed 
 all with the swoop of a swallow, and the hillside 
 rang with the name of Gorgo. 
 
 132 
 
G O R G O 133 
 
 " Who is she ? " I exclaimed. 
 
 The Spartan looked at me keenly. " You have 
 heard of a certain Brasidas," he said, " whom they 
 call the firebrand? He is my brother, though 
 younger by twenty years. Him Gorgo calls father 
 — a stout enemy to thee and thine." 
 
 I remembered my dream with a sudden heart- 
 quake, and was silent. I looked down toward 
 .Gorgo, but fierce faces came between. 
 
 Three more races were quickly run by different 
 bands ; then the four winners were matched for the 
 final contest. Two soon fell to the rear ; but Gorgo, 
 not venturing to linger now, ran side by side with 
 the swiftest of her rivals until the goal was within 
 a spear's length, when she leaped forward as if the 
 wind had lifted her, crossing at one bound; while 
 the other, crimson and gasping, stumbled in a full 
 pace behind — so distressed that she would have 
 fallen had not the flushed victor turned to support 
 her. Again the voice of the multitude went up in 
 cheers for Gorgo. 
 
 " How now, young wrestler ? " sneered the Spar- 
 tan in my ear. " You Athenians were swift of foot 
 at Delium; perhaps you would even race with 
 these?" 
 
 " I would match with Gorgo for Atalanta's 
 prize," I answered, boldly, " but not without golden 
 apples." 
 
 He scowled; I perceived that somehow my ran- 
 dom words had hit home. 
 
 " I like not these shows of well-born women," said 
 
134 G O R G O 
 
 my father. " Your boast is empty, Rhyzon ; you know 
 that this thing cannot be. Yet the boy, too, is swift, 
 and he shall not be taunted. If it were not un- 
 seemly, I would back him for a talent." 
 
 " You jest," said the Spartan. 
 
 " I was hasty," smiled my father. " I had forgot 
 that the sons of Lycurgus care nothing for money." 
 
 The Spartan laughed aloud, then glanced hastily 
 about him; we were standing somewhat apart,. 
 " Athenian," said he, stepping closer, " of all the 
 idle tales that are told in the name of Lycurgus, this 
 is the most absurd, that we of Sparta know not 
 the uses of money. Show me the house that has 
 no hoard beneath its hearthstone, and I will show 
 you the home of a fool. That talent of yours would 
 serve me well ; but in public — you say true, it can- 
 not be." 
 
 " But have you none of that money made of iron 
 and hardened in vinegar ? " I asked. 
 
 " A peck of meal may be bought with it," he 
 answered. 
 
 "And the sack goes to market heavier than it 
 returns," added my father. 
 
 " Gold alone buys power, arid gold alone buys 
 safety," muttered Rhyzon. " Come." 
 
 " Are there no more contests ? " I asked. 
 
 " Not for you, wrestler," he answered, shortly. 
 " Come: will you wait for the floggers?" 
 
 L cast a long look at Gorgo, who now stood 
 waving the palm branch of victory; then turned, 
 reluctantly enough. 
 
G O R G O 135 
 
 " Cherish no idle fancies, dreamer," whispered my 
 father as we passed on. 
 
 " What do you mean? " I asked him; but he did 
 not explain. 
 
 The house to which Rhyzon conducted us stood 
 in a wide yard girt with a wall. It was large but 
 low, built of rough-hewn timbers ashen with age. 
 
 " It was standing in the time of Charilaus, and 
 Alcander dwelt in it," announced the Spartan, rather 
 pompously. " Few strangers have loosed their 
 sandals at its door." 
 
 "Hospitality is not a Spartan vice," remarked 
 my father. 
 
 " I will not say that you are welcome," he re- 
 torted bluntly. " But enter : you shall have the 
 best in a plain house." 
 
 Once inside, it struck me that this plainness was 
 largely affectation. The walls, indeed, were as 
 rough within as without; but the furnishings were 
 not altogether such as coins of iron would purchase, 
 — a half-barbarous mingling of the rude and the 
 costly. 
 
 " My brother has been much abroad and brought 
 home a brood of follies," grumbled Rhyzon, with 
 uneasy glances. 
 
 "Including Gorgo?" ventured my father. 
 
 " The tongue that says it shall be torn from its 
 rootage," cried the Spartan, fiercely. " Repeat it 
 not, Athenian. She was born abroad, but the blood 
 is pure." Then his lips were locked like a miser's 
 chest. 
 
136 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Enough, Rhyzon," said my father, soothingly. 
 " I am rightly rebuked, and the more to blame be- 
 cause I have seen the proof. For who but a Spartan 
 born could contend with the maids of Sparta, and 
 vanquish all, as did Gorgo to-day ? " 
 
 The old man's face was still purple, but he turned 
 from us to the grim-faced helots in waiting. 
 
 " Tables and couches," he shouted, harshly, " and 
 he who lags races with the lash." 
 
 The two men reclined, but I sat upright beside 
 my father. " Come," said the Spartan, unbending 
 a little, " this is better. I had heard that your'up- 
 start boys would make no scruple to lie down before 
 their elders. The son of Hagnon is better bred." 
 
 " It is not of Sparta alone that fables are told," 
 responded my father. 
 
 The sun had set and the hall was dark, but helots 
 with lighted torches stood behind us. The supper 
 was coarse but hearty, with an unexpected abun- 
 dance of wine, of which our host drank freely. His 
 face flamed as he discussed old campaigns and told 
 rude stories of the camp, and even my father's 
 tongue grew looser than was its wont. Of this, I 
 suppose, he presently became conscious, for he 
 stopped in the midst of a tale of sack and pillage, 
 and bade me retire. 
 
 " Aye, lead the lad to his chamber," said Rhyzon, 
 rolling on his couch. " And make soft his bed in 
 the place I bade you," he snorted, with a laugh. 
 " The old men of Sparta do not pillow their heads 
 
G O R G O 
 
 137 
 
 upon a stone, and these ambassadors must have the 
 privilege of age." 
 
 A torch-bearer went before me, crossing an open 
 court. The room into which I was ushered, though 
 like all the rest in ruggedness of construction, was 
 hung with tapestry and rather daintily furnished. 
 A brazen mirror hung on the wall; I knew in a 
 moment that this was some part of the women's 
 quarters, and I the victim of a Spartan jest. 
 Further inspection disclosed a Persian collar and 
 bracelets. I turned in anger; the helot grinned, 
 but would not let me pass. I was helpless ; and the 
 bed, at least, was inviting, piled high on the planks. 
 I flung myself upon it, sinking deep in the clean, 
 sweet linen, while the fellow bolted the door and 
 departed. 
 
 I was soon very drowsy, yet found my fancy too 
 busy for slumber, and for a long time lay awake 
 gazing at dreams. That was no new experience, but 
 an old plague of my childhood ; it had abated some- 
 what, but I still dreaded its recurrent seasons. For 
 I lay like one under a spell, and whether I closed 
 my eyes or held them wide open, all manner of 
 gleaming figures streamed across the darkness, — 
 terrible, beautiful, familiar, fantastic, in ceaseless 
 procession. My mother smiled from her shroud; 
 my grandfather glared from his chair, and women 
 raved beside corpses; the eyes of Alcibiades glit- 
 tered amid the lamps; and the Syrian came, and 
 the Nubian with his lantern, and the homely face 
 of Socrates hlotted out both. And over these spec- 
 
138 G O R G O 
 
 tral shapes I had no control ; they flushed and faded 
 as boding lights dance in the northern sky. 
 
 But that night they were changed; and chiefly 
 the maids of Sparta raced on the dusky horizon, with 
 Gorgo ever in the lead. Then, as I lost my sense of 
 place, I too was racing ; she turned, with a mocking 
 laugh ; her face came so close that it filled my sight, 
 yet I saw nothing clearly — and suddenly I was sit- 
 ting with outstretched arms in darkness and silence. 
 Yet I could have sworn that I heard her. Some 
 voice I certainly heard, between sleeping and wak- 
 ing, — rippling forth with a brook-like gurgle of 
 laughter not far away. 
 
 I had intended to insist on a change of quarters ; 
 but in the morning, although the Spartan eyed me 
 curiously and let fly an ambiguous scoff, I made 
 no reference to the matter. Instead, I watched 
 eagerly for Gorgo, and caught one glimpse as she 
 flitted across the courtyard like a sun-flash from a 
 broken cloud. Then, for three days, nothing. It 
 was not until our stay was almost ended that I 
 finally met her, face to face. 
 
 On the morning of the day before our departure 
 my father called me aside. Our mission, he told me, 
 had ended only in postponements, like all the rest. 
 Then he hesitated. 
 
 " We have been drinking a good deal of late," 
 he said, at length. " This Spartan wine is hotter 
 than ours. You will do well, my son, to drink spar- 
 ingly of it." 
 
G O R G O 
 
 139 
 
 " Yes," I answered. " I do not care for the 
 wine." 
 
 " This Rhyzon," he went on, in an embarrassed 
 way, " drinks like a sand-pit and shows it as little. 
 He is a strange fellow, and very avaricious. He 
 insists that I have wagered with him to match you 
 against Gorgo, for a talent." 
 
 " I will meet her," I said. 
 
 " I do not like it," continued my father, uneasily ; 
 " but he declares that I swore by the shrine of Apollo. 
 I shall be more heedful hereafter." 
 
 " I shall win," I cried. For I made sure the 
 laugh would be mine this time, and it pleased me 
 to think of wresting silver from the surly Spartan. 
 
 " It is not so much the talent that I care for," 
 explained my father, " though it is a great sum to 
 cast upon the sand. But the whole affair is un- 
 seemly. If you win, it is not a thing to boast of, 
 and defeat is disgraceful." 
 
 " I shall win," I repeated. 
 
 " Well, it will never be heard of in Athens — nor 
 elsewhere. Rhyzon will not be so rash as to mention 
 it, nor shall we. So unless this girl — " 
 
 " Gorgo will never tell," I announced, positively. 
 
 " Have you had words with her ? " he asked, 
 sternly. 
 
 " No," I answered, — but blushed. " When do 
 we race? " 
 
 " The match will be made to-day, toward even- 
 ing. It is not to be a race, after all ; that would be 
 too public. Besides, the Spartan wishes to see you 
 
140 
 
 GORGO 
 
 beaten at your best, and you remember what you 
 told him. However," he- added, hastily, "it will 
 be civilly managed." 
 
 I stared. " I have cast Myron six paces backward 
 over my shoulder," I exclaimed. " I would not 
 harm her ! " 
 
 " It is merely this. Whichever of the two is first 
 brought to the knee or forced back across a line is 
 vanquished. Do not be too confident, son; that 
 folly is the bane of Athens. These Spartans are 
 shrewder with their hands than with their heads, 
 and even the girl may have arts that are new to 
 you." 
 
 " She shall kneel at my feet." Already I seemed 
 to see her so, and the picture was marvellously 
 attractive. Her good uncle should see it. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when we finally faced 
 each other in the courtyard, my father and Rhyzon 
 the only spectators. The gates were locked; the 
 helots, after drawing the circle of ashes within which 
 we stood, had been dismissed. Gorgo — but neither 
 words nor wax can ever paint Gorgo. Her dress 
 was the same as at the race-course, and shining 
 white. Her feet were bare, and her arms, — which 
 did not look very formidable, though the muscles 
 swelled in soft curves. Her dark brown hair was 
 twined in a massive coil, with loose tendrils flying. 
 And her face — I looked once in her eyes, then 
 dropped mine in a dazzle of rosy flame and violet 
 sparkles. At that moment I hated her, for I felt that 
 I was lost; who could contend with living fire? 
 
G O R G O 141 
 
 I glanced at my father: it was not at me that he 
 was looking, but at Gorgo. The Spartan was shak- 
 ing with laughter. 
 
 " Well, Athenian boy," she said, her red lips 
 pouting a little, " is it so you do at Athens? Aren't 
 you going to look at me ? When you meet an enemy 
 do you fight without looking? " 
 
 I had again lifted my gaze for an instant, but 
 dropped it hastily with a sense of hot sunshine beat- 
 ing upon my brow; and though I felt myself very 
 bitterly her enemy, the word from her lips hurt me. 
 I stood in the midst of the court like a stony 
 Hermes, without a syllable, while her voice flowed 
 on in the mellow Dorian. 
 
 " My uncle told me that you were a -terrible 
 fighter. I thought you'd be ever so big, and dread- 
 fully ugly.. But you're not either one." I felt her 
 look roaming over me with critical approval. The 
 Spartan was frowning, but she gave not the small- 
 est heed. " You are rather good-looking for a 
 boy," she remarked, " if you were not so stupid. I 
 don't believe you can fight at all, but I thought that 
 any Athenian could talk." 
 
 " The girl can do nothing else," exclaimed my 
 father. 
 
 " If the stripling will not contend, I claim the 
 wager as forfeit," growled Rhyzon. 
 
 " I pay no silver for magpie chatter," retorted 
 my father — " yet the sight of her is perhaps worth 
 a talent. But, Hercules! begin quickly, my son; 
 you discredit me." 
 
i 4 2 G O R G O 
 
 But it was Gorgo who made the beginning. " I 
 could have taken you twenty times at unawares," she 
 cried. " See ! " Her swift hand smote my cheek. 
 " Twenty times I could have flung you from the 
 circle; and you would have lain a long time, very 
 still. And now they sneer because I spare you. 
 Boy, with the sulky eyes and folded arms, — you 
 shame me, boy." And again her scornful . fingers 
 stung my cheek. 
 
 Then anger burned away the spell. " You shall 
 kneel for that," I shouted, and sprang to seize her ; 
 but her lithe arms cast me off at every turn. I 
 could as easily have grasped the jet of a fountain; 
 she but sported with my efforts. Conscious of this, 
 I grew wary, feigning awkwardness to put her 
 the more off guard ; until at last, in sheer bravado, 
 she clasped her hands above her head, and the same 
 mocking laugh that had floated through the dark- 
 ness warbled in her throat. 
 
 " Catch me, boy, if you can," she dared me. 
 
 In an instant my arms were locked about her. 
 Her elbows dropped against my shoulders; her 
 hands were upon my cheeks ; for a long breath we 
 both exerted all our force. Then the stark strain 
 relaxed. She lay on my heart quite unresisting, and 
 her arms slid helplessly about my neck. 
 
 " Oh ! " she sighed, " you are strong." And her 
 warm breath poured against my throat. 
 
 " Now ! " called my father, shaken from his usual 
 calm. 
 
 She raised her head, which had sunk upon my 
 
" ZS-NEEL, BOY, KNEEL," 
 ■"■ SHE REPEA TED 
 
G O R G O 143 
 
 shoulder. My eyes lost themselves in hers; my 
 sinews slackened. A quick shift brought her hands 
 beneath my chin ; with an upward thrust she sprang 
 free. In a flash, as I reeled, she had caught my lifted 
 fingers, and turning shut my arm beneath her own. 
 She looked back at me over her shoulder with the 
 smile of Aurora. 
 
 " Sulky boy, you are mine," she cried. " Kneel, 
 boy; it is yours to kneel." 
 
 Unconscious of my plight, I almost laughed aloud, 
 her boast that the battle was ended seemed so absurd. 
 With both hands she had pinioned a single arm, 
 while 'the other — I made a movement, but checked 
 with a gasp of pain. 
 
 " Kneel, boy," she repeated ; and though she bore 
 down but lightly on my straining elbow, tendons 
 and ligaments could bear no more. I sunk to my 
 knees like a horse reined in with the curb. 
 
 " I've won," she proclaimed. " Athenian boy, 
 I've won." 
 
 " Gorgo has won," echoed both the men. 
 
 I am no Spartan. A tear of the bitterest brine 
 straggled down my cheek. Another followed. She 
 bent toward me ; I was still upon my knees. 
 
 " I'm sorry, boy," she said, very softly. " Don't 
 — they will laugh. It seems so queer that you cry. 
 Is it just because you had to kneel ? Well, then — 
 we'll make that even. There ! " 
 
 Impetuous Gorgo! She dropped on her knees 
 and kissed away my tear — then leaped up like a 
 crimson flame. It was swift as a gleam from 
 
144 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Athena's aegis ; but they saw it. Her uncle rent the 
 air with an oath. My father stared and laughed- 
 
 " Be still, wager-maker," he said — " you shall 
 not trouble them. The lad has need of comfort; 
 and that kiss, belike, was as sweet to him as the 
 glitter of gold to thee. Remember, they are but 
 children; they will not meet again, — and that, 
 doubtless, is well." 
 
 Again her kinsman cursed. 
 
 " Listen ! " My father spoke sharply. " You 
 have seen the lad vanquished and weeping; I have 
 seen him kissed by the fairest maid in Sparta, — the 
 son of Hagnon by the daughter of Brasidas ! Shall 
 the pretty tale be told? Would you have it sung 
 at the wine in Athens? Enough! Blow no more 
 blasts from your throat, but bring scales, and we 
 will tell out the coin while daylight serves." 
 
 The scales were brought, and a table. 
 
 " Six thousand drachmas ! " muttered my father, 
 opening the bag. " It is the price of a chariot and 
 a full team, koppa-marked ; I have been more reck- 
 less than Alcibiades himself. But, Spartan, your 
 maids undo your wagers." He glanced toward 
 Gorgo. " By the heavenly Eros, she has given him 
 better than. a talent. Rhyzon, the silver is yours, 
 twice over." 
 
XII. 
 
 The Daughter of Brasidas 
 
 THE men sat on a bench just under the porch, 
 wholly absorbed in the weighing of the 
 silver; Rhyzon biting a coin now and then, 
 or ringing it on a slab of stone. I had risen now, 
 and we were standing face to face, — Gorgo and 
 I. She glowed like a rose in the sun, while I, more 
 at my ease, gazed with the blunt admiration of boy- 
 hood. Indeed, the tables were turned. For a mo- 
 ment her eyes bore up against mine; then the long, 
 dark lashes fell. A little smile dimpled at the cor- 
 ners of her mouth, like the curling volutes of an 
 Ionic capital. She clapped her hands over her face. 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried, " I wouldn't ever have done it 
 — only I was sorry. I never did that before for 
 anybody. But I'd hurt you and I felt so sorry." 
 
 " It was good," I said, gulping a little but con- 
 strained by the truth. 
 ■m "Was it?" She let fall her hands. "You puck- 
 ered your face like a baby, Athenian boy." 
 
 " Your uncle was vexed," I remarked, with super- 
 fluous awkwardness. 
 
 Again she peered through the veil of her ringers, 
 
 '45 
 
146 
 
 O R G^ O 
 
 but rather saucily now. " It isn't that I care about 
 my uncle. He. always scolds, and I always do just 
 as I please. But I oughtn't to have done that." 
 
 " It was good," I repeated. This fact had sur- 
 prised me greatly, and I felt she had a right to 
 know. " Take down your hands, Gorgo." 
 
 She kept them up. " I wasn't meaning to make 
 you kneel," she explained. " At first I meant to, 
 but after you caught me I was going to let you win. 
 Don't you know it, boy ? Then your father shouted 
 
 — and all at once it seemed as if I must make you 
 kneel. It was just a trick ; you are ever so much the 
 strongest." 
 
 " It was a wager ; it wouldn't be honest not to 
 win if you could. I don't mind any more about 
 the kneeling. Take away your hands; it's silly 
 to behave like that." 
 
 The pink clouds parted a little, but closed again. 
 " You mustn't think it was because I liked you the 
 least bit," she protested, needlessly. 
 
 I reflected — for the first time since meeting her. 
 The rules of interpretation for boys didn't seem to 
 apply. " You mean you do like me," I exclaimed. 
 " You can't say you don't; you just say I mustn't 
 think so. You like me, Gorgo. If you don't, say 
 you don't." 
 
 " Oh, that's not fair," she cried, in angry panic, 
 half wheeling. " I can say it. I — maybe I did 
 
 — a little — but I don't now." 
 
 " You like me," I insisted, with a wonderful sense 
 of triumph, though I didn't at all understand it. 
 
G O R G O 147 
 
 " Why do you act so ? Put down your hands ; I 
 want to see you." 
 
 " Why would I put them down ? You wouldn't 
 look at me a while ago. You must have thought 
 I was Medusa. There, then! — " and she flooded 
 me with her rosy light. 
 
 The spell of Medusa can never have equalled 
 Gorgo's; but Gorgo melted, while Medusa froze. 
 Like Semele, I had asked my own undoing. The 
 odds were as suddenly turned as in our combat. 
 
 " You are the loveliest that ever was," I stam- 
 mered. " I didn't know girls could be like you." 
 
 She clapped her hands. " They all talk like 
 that," she said ; " the old men, the women, — 
 everybody. ' Our Gorgo,' they say, ' will be like 
 our Helen ' — she was Spartan, too, you know. 
 Then they shake their heads. I'm as tired of hear- 
 ing that I'm pretty as if it wasn't true." 
 
 " But it is true. You are lovelier than Alcibiades. 
 I thought he was handsomer than anybody ; but he 
 isn't." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! It's true, of course. Do you mean 
 that Alcibiades — I won't say what I was going to. 
 Whatever else you've got, I don't think you've 
 got good wit, Athenian boy. But your Athens must 
 be a wonderful place." 
 
 " I think Sparta is more wonderful ; but I'd rather 
 live in Athens. I wish you lived there." 
 
 " I believe I would like to," said she. " But, boy, 
 if I lived in Athens your city would not long be 
 free. Do you not know that my father is Brasidas ? " 
 
148 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " I like a man who is quick and clever and can 
 fight," I answered. 
 
 " Well, the men here can fight, but they're mostly 
 dull. I don't like that old Lycurgus of theirs, nor 
 his laws. He had only one eye, and he couldn't 
 see everything." 
 
 " That's just what your uncle said to my father." 
 
 She glanced toward the men. A wine-flask lay 
 between them now, but Rhyzon was still eagerly 
 fingering my father's coin, testing every piece. 
 
 " The Ephors have two eyes," she said, " and if 
 once they saw him — " 
 
 "They would kill him?" 
 
 " They would make him divide, — and oh, how 
 he would hate to! My father isn't a bit like him, 
 and my mother was still more different. She liked 
 gold, though, but only for jewels. I like it that 
 way, too," she confessed, with an air that savoured 
 of defiance. 
 
 " You ought to have it that way, then — lots of 
 it. You've a right to, if anybody has." 
 
 She looked pleased. " You are not a Spartan," she 
 said, " and you don't care about Lycurgus either. 
 I forgot. But here they keep vexing me always, 
 just because I'm so pretty and like pretty things. 
 It is hardly worth while to be pretty here in Sparta." 
 
 She was vain, perhaps, but she spoke of her 
 beauty with perfect simplicity. The fact was so 
 obvious; why should she feign? 
 
 " I'm not saying that I'd want to be anything 
 else," she added, hastily. " But they trouble me 
 
G O R G O 
 
 149 
 
 so — even boys. The worst is the one they call 
 Lysander. He can do almost anything, but he's 
 a dreadful boy, and he swears he'll make me marry 
 him some day whether I want to or not. He's not a 
 pure Spartan, either, — just what we call a mothax, 
 and that means slave blood. I hate him — oh, how 
 I hate him! But he's the one I'm afraid of." 
 
 " He never shall have you." And I swelled with 
 sudden anger. 
 
 " Indeed, he shall not ; but I don't see how you 
 could stop him. He's a terrible enemy — so strong 
 and fierce and crafty. He swears that he'll have 
 your Athens, too. I'd like my father to take it, but 
 I don't want him to have it." 
 
 " I shall meet him," I cried. " Gorgo, he is our 
 enemy, yours and mine." And I was glad that at 
 least we had a common enemy. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " but don't try to meet him." 
 She went on, hurriedly : " He's the worst, but he 
 isn't the only one that plagues me. There's an- 
 other — my own cousin, too — that stole a cheese 
 and wanted to give me half." She laughed, and 
 so did I. " My uncle beat him. I don't like cheese 
 anyway — nor boys." 
 
 " I don't like the cheeses you have here," I 
 admitted, frankly. " Nor the broth ; but I like you 
 better than any girl or any boy." 
 
 She looked relieved. " Well," she exclaimed, 
 " I should think it was time you said that. I 
 thought I'd never forgive you for making me say 
 
i 5 o G O R G O 
 
 it first. It was true, though ; I simply couldn't say 
 right out that I didn't like you." 
 
 " You said you didn't like boys." 
 
 " I don't like boys," she declared, speaking very 
 precisely, " but perhaps there's one boy that I like 
 — just a little. Isn't it strange, when we have to 
 be enemies, that we really like each other ? " 
 
 "They call you like Helen," I ventured, "and 
 Helen ran away with an enemy." 
 
 "You don't think" — she began. "Wouldn't 
 it be fun, though ! " she concluded, again clapping 
 her hands. 
 
 The men looked up, but we were still standing 
 just as they left us, almost a spear's length apart. 
 They resumed their counting and drinking. 
 
 " I'm not quite like Helen," she resumed. " I 
 might run from Lysander, but I'd have stayed with 
 the good Menelaus. I wouldn't have run away with 
 Paris." 
 
 " I'm not in the least like Paris," I protested, 
 resentfully. " I didn't mean that." 
 
 " Yet he was the handsomest man in all the 
 world," quoth she, with her eyes on my sandals. 
 
 " He was a rogue." 
 
 "And you — are not you an Athenian?" 
 
 " If you were a boy — but you are like the beau- 
 tiful Athena in the new temple," I ended. 
 
 She laughed out like sweet water falling in a 
 fountain. " Am I so? " she said. " I am glad, 
 for I like Athena the best of all." Then her voice 
 
G O R G O 151 
 
 fell. " You mustn't say such things," she whis- 
 pered. " The goddess will be angry." 
 
 " She will not be angry," I answered. 
 
 And at that Gorgo lifted her eyes, full against 
 mine. I could think of nothing but sunshine and 
 roses. " If I am to be your Athena," she said, 
 softly, " we can never again be enemies, you brave, 
 sweet boy, no matter what these foolish cities do." 
 
 " No," I repeated after her, " we cannot be ene- 
 mies; we can never be enemies, Gorgo." And I 
 tried to say more but could not, for the words 
 seemed too heavy to lift out of my throat. 
 
 She shot a quick glance in my face, then looked 
 down ; and she spoke very fast, like an orator when 
 the water-clock is almost empty. " We shall have 
 to be friends, then, forever; yes, boy, forever 
 and ever. And I'm glad we're to be such good 
 friends. For what I was weary of hearing from all 
 the rest I love to hear from you. And I wish you 
 could see me dressed in the Ionian fashion, with all 
 the beautiful ornaments of my mother, that came 
 from Ephesus ; for then you might think that I was 
 like the goddess indeed. But it isn't thought seemly 
 to wear such things in Sparta ; so I only put them 
 on now and then in my chamber. Now listen, 
 Athenian boy. For you are only a boy, and I am 
 just a girl ; but that will soon be past. Already the 
 women vex me every day, and keep saying, ' Our 
 Gorgo will soon be of age to marry,' and ' Our 
 Gorgo must make a great marriage.' I know they 
 will try before long to betroth me to some old man 
 
152 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 who has been an Ephor, or to some stupid boy 
 who hunts foxes and steals cheese, but belongs, per- 
 haps, to the house of Procles. I don't wish to 
 marry; but if I must, I'm sure I'd like best to be 
 married to you. I don't believe I could marry any- 
 body else. Only you must come and ask — or at 
 least come and take me — when I am ready." 
 
 Then I stepped nearer, glancing over my shoulder 
 at the men. " Gorgo," I said " O Gorgo," — and 
 her queer Spartan name clung like honey on my 
 tongue, — " do you truly promise, and will you 
 swear? " 
 
 " Yes," she answered, " I swear it by your 
 Athena and ours; and so may I still be like her, 
 and breaking my promise may I become like Me- 
 dusa. There — is not that enough ? " Once more 
 she laughed, but the tinkle in her laugh was gone. 
 " Truly there was no need to make me swear. I 
 rather like your being an Athenian, for my mother 
 was of the blood of Ion — though my uncle swears 
 it is not so. And I don't feel as I did about marry- 
 ing." Her voice had sunk to a murmur; though 
 she held aloof, it was as if our cheeks had touched. 
 " But remember this, Athenian boy. You will go 
 to your home and perhaps forget; you have not 
 sworn. But if you find that you don't forget — 
 if you really want me — you must come to me 
 quickly when I call. O boy from a stranger city, 
 how can _ we ever meet? All our friends are ene- 
 mies ! all the world will be against us ! " 
 
 I had stood motionless and dumb, thrilling with 
 
G O R G O 153 
 
 exultation, yet half-dismayed, — this thought of 
 marrying was so new to me. But now my heart 
 gave a throb like the heave of a great horse stum- 
 bling beneath his rider. "Hear me, Gorgo! Did 
 I not swear? I swear by the gods who look down 
 from the sky and the gods who reign in the dark- 
 ness below : when you call I will come, though 
 mountains and storm and battle lie between us ; and 
 no Athenian shall hold me back, and no Spartan 
 shall stop me." 
 
 She paled a little, as if my tone frightened her; 
 yet her eyes met mine with a sort of terrified glad- 
 ness, and a look that was beyond all vows. " Do 
 not boast," she whispered — for I was very near 
 her now — "do not boast nor swear by the gods 
 as if you defied them, or they will grow jealous; 
 and it is hard to fight against the gods. We shall 
 need their aid, I think: I shall pray to them every 
 day to help us. And I will wait, even though it 
 be for always. They shall marry me to no other; 
 and when it is time I will surely call you." 
 
 Then I forgot myself utterly, and strove to take 
 her in my arms; but she pushed me back with a 
 movement as soft and resistless as when the sea- 
 swell tosses a boat. The men, who had finished 
 their tale of the silver, were looking straight at us. 
 Both were flushed, and the leather flask lay flat. 
 Rhyzon reared heavily, and strode toward me with 
 uneven steps; his thick staff was lifted to strike. 
 But Gorgo with an arrowy rush caught his wrist, 
 and my father thrust his tall form between us. 
 
154 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Spartan," he said — and the clang of brass 
 was in his voice — " you had best leave the dis- 
 cipline of my son to me. I do not depute it to 
 others." 
 
 " But the cub grows wanton with my brother's 
 child," snarled the old taxiarch. 
 
 " Whether the boy was wanton, or the girl, or 
 both, I cannot say," answered my father, still in 
 the tones of battle, " for your Spartan Amazons 
 and their fashions are something strange to me. 
 But it is well for you, Rhyzon, that your cudgel 
 hung in mid-air, for had it reached the shoulders 
 of my son the voice of one railer against the peace 
 might perchance have been silenced." And his 
 fingers twitched as they clung on his sword-hilt. 
 
 " Then might Athens send us a second embassy 
 to ask burial for the first," sneered Rhyzon. 
 
 " They would carry back ill tidings for the 
 hundred and odd noble Spartans who still, in de- 
 spite of the laws of Lycurgus, eat bread in the city 
 of their captors," retorted my father. " Is not 
 your own son among them, Rhyzon ? " 
 
 " They had better have died," growled the Spar- 
 tan; but he lowered his staff. 
 
 " Among those idle tales that are told of Sparta," 
 said my father, smiling as he glanced at the heaped- 
 up coin, " is doubtless this, that your sons will 
 die but not yield. It is but a slander; they are not 
 less wise than others. Come, this wine of yours 
 is mixed too strong, and we grow forgetful." 
 
 The old man looked at me and laughed. " Let 
 
G O R G O 
 
 155 
 
 it pass then. The young wrestler is harmless; our 
 Gorgo can subdue him with a wave of the hand. 
 Has she not proved it — and to your cost ? The 
 wine indeed makes us forgetful." 
 
 " It appears to me," said my father, " that she 
 can subdue him by the glance of her eyes alone. 
 In good truth, she is fair beyond all others, and 
 even though he sought more of her kisses the boy 
 must be forgiven. But of your wine, Rhyzon, we 
 have had too much or too little. It has made you 
 forget that we are guests ; more will make us forget 
 that we are enemies." 
 
 We passed in. The Spartan, trusting no helot 
 with his treasure, vanished but soon returned. A 
 great bowl was mixed, tempered with snow from 
 Taygetus, and the odd-looking earthen cups, that 
 held back the lees, were filled many times. " Even 
 the water from a puddle is good from a Spartan 
 cup," said Rhyzon. " Athenian, you have well paid 
 your score; drink a talent's worth if you can." 
 
 Of Gorgo I saw no more that evening — or 
 rather, I saw nothing else all night; for again I 
 lay restless, gazing upon the painted darkness, see- 
 ing, not visions, but a vision. There was now but 
 one. 
 
 Aind when morning came I had a vision of her 
 very self, brief as a sun-flash on the ripples, yet 
 remembered like the face that bends over us in 
 babyhood. I was crossing the courtyard: a whis- 
 per fell and I turned. A small round window 
 opened from an upper chamber, and from its edge, 
 
i 5 6 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 like the moon not quite at full, peeped the face of 
 Gorgo. Jewels flashed from her brow and her 
 neck, and sparkled through her hair; a great circle 
 of pearls lustred against her cheek; she had put 
 on all for me. She blushed like the dawn upon the 
 mountain snow, and was gone; but a bracelet, warm 
 from her wrist, dropped at my feet. " Keep it for 
 me, boy," she murmured — "my boy" — out of 
 the shadow. 
 
 A moment later I was with my father. Our 
 horses were at the gate, and we rode forth from 
 the streets of Sparta. The whole sky was now 
 blushing, like Gorgo; the perfume of spring was 
 in my nostrils, its riot in my blood. 
 
 " Just hear the birds singing 1 " 
 
 My father looked at me doubtfully. "I was 
 better pleased to hear the crowing of the cocks," he 
 said. Then, with slow emphasis — " The birds, 
 my son, are but a frivolous and flighty matter, and 
 their speech is but chatter. Listen not to the birds. 
 But if, being young, you must, listen to the Attic 
 birds, not these." 
 
" JSEEP IT FOR ME, 
 - /V BOY," SHE MURMURED 
 
XIII. 
 
 A School of War 
 
 WE had returned with all possible haste, and 
 reached Athens just in time for the great 
 spring carnival. The city — nothing was 
 changed, . yet it seemed unfamiliar, as if we had 
 been away for a period of years. I felt much older; 
 and I was older. 
 
 The pearls that had once encircled Gorgo's wrist 
 I kept ever near me, but showed them to no one, 
 — not even to Thrasybulus. He cared little for 
 girls; and Critias, when he spoke of them, vexed 
 me. 
 
 On the day of the grand procession I watched the 
 maidens with new interest, as they paced by with 
 slow and stately grace, bearing high their baskets. 
 Pale-cheeked, still-eyed, and voiceless, they seemed 
 in no way different from the carvings on Athena's 
 temple, — beautiful, undoubtedly, but I would just 
 as soon have looked upon the marble. 
 
 " This is flat," said Thrasybulus, at my elbow, 
 " and I don't care much for that dithyrambic busi- 
 ness, either. But to-morrow the plays begin. The 
 comedies are all sorts of fun. Let's go. They say 
 
 '57 
 
i 5 8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 there's going to be a good one by Aristophanes, — 
 the fellow that gave Cleon such a ripping-up last 
 year. ' He's after Socrates now, — the snub-nosed 
 man, that plagues people with questions and puzzles 
 the sophists." 
 
 " He's a good man," I protested, " and wiser than 
 any of them." 
 
 " Good soldier," assented Thrasybulus, lightly, 
 " but not wise enough to mind his own business. 
 All the more fun, if you know him. Let's go. Got 
 an obol? I've three." 
 
 " I can't go ; my father won't let me see come- 
 dies." 
 
 "That's just a caning; what of it?" 
 
 " When he's angry it's his tongue he strikes with, 
 not a cane; but it hurts worse than even those 
 limber ones that come down with a squish." 
 
 That evening, however, my father himself pro- 
 posed this very thing, and gave me the money. 
 
 We started before sunrise, Thrasybulus and I, 
 to get good seats, yet found ourselves crowded far 
 back and rather too near the side wall. Already 
 the dusky hollow was filling fast and hummed with 
 voices. Then, as the sky grew brighter, great bas- 
 kets of gold and silver were brought to the centre 
 of the orchestra, and poured out in shining heaps 
 beside the altar. 
 
 " Tribute," said Thrasybulus, tersely. " Five 
 hundred and sixty talents, this year." 
 
 Then the crowns of honour were announced by 
 the herald and laid beside the treasure. I almost 
 
G O R G O 
 
 159 
 
 leaped from my seat with delight to hear one pro- 
 claimed for my father, — " for his good will and 
 good service, and because he contributed all the 
 expenses of the embassy and has asked no account- 
 ing. 
 
 At last, when these and other ceremonies were 
 concluded, the trumpet sounded, the doors of the 
 palace of Priam flew open, and the plays began. 
 I do not remember very clearly about the tragedies. 
 Those presented that day were the " Arrow of 
 Paris," the " Pyrrhus," and the " Sack of Troy," 
 with the " Horse " for an afterpiece. They all 
 seemed intended to magnify the horrors of war, and 
 I found the sentiments rather dull. But the splen- 
 did declamation of the actors, ringing to the very 
 limits of the theatre, pleased my ear ; and their huge 
 masked figures — grouped as if Phidias himself 
 had ranged them, yet ever shifting to some new 
 pose — held fast my eyes. Better still was the 
 chorus of Trojan soldiers, which marched in with 
 sounding foot-beats in perfect time, chanting a 
 psean. The melody of their full-toned Doric bore 
 me away to Sparta; and I angrily kicked the back 
 of a cobbler who sat in front of me chattering about 
 the price of corn. The spectators in general were 
 none too attentive. Now and then they applauded 
 a little, but spent much of their time nibbling cakes 
 and fruit. Yet a sudden flurry of snow that whi- 
 tened the air and chilled our cheeks drove not one 
 from his seat. The actors never paused, and before 
 
160 G O R G O 
 
 the second play was finished the sun was beating 
 down upon us as warm as summer. 
 
 It was deep in the afternoon when the " Clouds " 
 of Aristophanes was called, — no such comedy then 
 as that given out by its author the following year, 
 but far more offensive. I was disappointed from 
 the first. The vile little distortions who now flung 
 antics where the sombre gods and heroes of tragedy 
 had just been stalking did not attract me, and as 
 the foul mud of carnival license was daubed over 
 a made-up thing called Socrates, my indignation 
 burned. 
 
 " That's a pretty good hit," commented Thrasy- 
 bulus. It was the passage about measuring flea- 
 tracks. 
 
 " You don't know him," I cried. " It is the steps 
 of the soul that he measures. And they laugh him 
 to scorn, and accuse him of everything stupid and 
 vile ! " I almost wept with vexation. 
 
 " Well, this isn't a law court," retorted Thrasy- 
 bulus. 
 
 But in fact the laughter was not very hearty. 
 Even the irrepressible cobbler shook his head. " Yon 
 Socrates came to my shop one day," he muttered, 
 confidentially. " He talked with me about my 
 trade. He's no fool, like that. I've got on better 
 ever since." 
 
 Ranker and ranker grew the orgy of the actors; 
 and I know, from words uttered long afterward, 
 that Socrates was cruelly hurt. It is so hard to 
 live down a clever caricature, no matter how false! 
 
G O R G O 161 
 
 He was not the man to harbour resentment, but to 
 his dying hour he felt the crippling of this wanton 
 injury. 
 
 Yet, for the day at least, he turned the insult 
 into triumph. The scene in the " thinking-factory " 
 had been reached, and the mimic Socrates, perched 
 in his swinging basket, was bawling : — 
 
 I walk on the air, and take good care of the sun in heaven — 
 
 A murmur arose. A ripple of movement ran 
 through the audience as when water is struck by 
 a sudden gust; in an instant all eyes were turned 
 from the wretched parody. Far up in the theatre, in 
 the part where the seats are cut in the living rock, 
 the true Socrates had risen to his feet. For a mo- 
 ment he stood alone, in silent protest, looking about 
 him with that serenity which nothing could disturb. 
 Then Alcibiades, who had striven to hold him down, 
 rose beside him with defiant glances. Critobulus, 
 scarcely less fair of face, sprang up also; old Crito 
 rose, and little black Chserephon, and ragged Antis- 
 thenes, and many another. And at that we all rose 
 with one motion, and turning our backs on the 
 actors cheered for Socrates. 
 
 The play went on after a little, but it was dead. 
 Its failure, as everybody knows, was chiefly due to 
 this act of Socrates; and finally old Cratinus, in 
 spite of his purple nose, won the prize with his 
 " Wine-Flask." Some of the judges, they say, were 
 pledged to Aristophanes, but the " Clouds ""got none 
 of the ballots. 
 
162 G O R G O 
 
 This incident brought me again to the feet of 
 Socrates, and from that time forth I was often 
 in his company. My father was not greatly 
 pleased at this. 
 
 " My son, you would do better to leam of the 
 regular instructors." 
 
 " They are useless. They can teach me nothing 
 that I do not know already." 
 
 " It is absurd," he exclaimed. " Since when are 
 you become so wise ? " 
 
 " It is not that I am wise ; yet what I say is true. 
 Consider, father. If I had never known — well, for 
 example, what we call redness, could they teach 
 me its nature? " 
 
 " No," he said, presently, " they could not teach 
 that to a man born blind." 
 
 " No more can they teach the colours of right 
 and wrong to a soul that has never known them; 
 nor of truth and of falsehood." 
 
 " But how is Socrates any better ? " 
 
 " He alone can make the soul remember." 
 
 My father paused, so long that I feared he was 
 offended. " You have the best of it, lad," he said, 
 at last. " Some new tricks of the tongue you have 
 certainly learned — or, perchance, ' remembered.' 
 Go, then, to your Socrates ; for if, like the youngster 
 in the play, you return to beat your father, it will 
 not be with a club, I think." 
 
 I thanked him. 
 
 " But, my son, along with your other remember- 
 ings, remember this. These conceits of the sophists 
 
G O R G O 163 
 
 are like wine. A little may be taken with profit 
 and makes keen the understanding, but they who 
 take too much are made fools. You are not to 
 infer," he concluded, " that I hear these quirks and 
 phrases now for the first time, though I think but 
 lightly of them." 
 
 So I joined the company that followed the great 
 converser through the streets and markets, or drew 
 around him with eager questionings under the 
 porticos. Many a strutting sophist I saw tripped 
 by his simple-seeming words, and many a citizen 
 striding away in anger while we laughed in chorus. 
 Others there were who did not refuse to knOw their 
 own hearts, — who learned to love with supreme 
 devotion the tongue that always asked for truth 
 and the words that searched the soul as rain searches 
 the soil. Few loved, and many hated, but all were 
 astonished; the charm of his speech was such that 
 even wounded pride came back to listen. So his 
 fame went abroad; an oracle proclaimed his wis- 
 dom; he was better known than Nicias or Alci- 
 biades. Those who came to our city asked to be 
 shown the way to Socrates no less than to the thea- 
 tre and the temples. And I — although I have 
 heard from his lips far more than has ever been 
 recorded, to tell it is a task too heavy for me. Some 
 little part I may — I must — essay hereafter. Not 
 now. 
 
 And of the events that were passing in those years 
 I shall say but little, for as yet I had little share in 
 them. They are all set down in the history writ- 
 
164 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 ten by surly Thucydides, — whom Cleon had ban- 
 ished, not long before, for watching his gold mines 
 so closely that he forgot to watch Amphipolis. So 
 Brasidas stole a march — and the town at the end 
 of it. And now Brasidas had fallen before that 
 same Amphipolis ; and Cleon, too, victim of his own 
 presumption. It was a strange turn of fate that has 
 linked those names together: Cleon, the brawler, 
 and Brasidas, the — to me, the father of Gorgo. I 
 thought often of her grief. 
 
 " The fires are out," said my father, when the 
 news came. " We shall have peace." And the peace 
 was soon made, Nicias getting much more credit 
 than he deserved. Then Alcibiades tried his hand 
 at politics, and of course there was fighting forth- 
 with. He fretted the Spartans to madness with his 
 tricks, and raced all over Peloponnesus making 
 trouble. Our treaty, I believe, was to hold for fifty 
 years ! I doubt that it held in strictness for as many 
 days; and soon we had concluded another, quite 
 at odds with it, allying ourselves with Argos. 
 That was for a hundred years, I believe! and it 
 lasted near a third as many months before it was 
 interrupted — long enough to get the war well 
 under way again, anyhow. 
 
 Meanwhile my military training had begun ; for 
 of course I was to be a soldier. First I served with 
 others of my age in the frontier forts, raiding over 
 the mountains until my limbs were as hard as bone, 
 arid I could tramp all day under heavy arms yet 
 charge at a full run for the finish. I learned to 
 
G O R G O 165 
 
 watch at night and march at dawn; to drink from 
 a pool and eat what I could get ; to sleep on the 
 rocks, and love it better than a bed. Old Lamachus 
 was our trainer, — mounted on a borrowed horse, 
 too poor to own his boots, but a right good captain. 
 He drilled us in phalanx, four deep, until we stepped 
 and struck as one man, even on rough ground. 
 He massed us in column and made us charge full 
 tilt against timber barricades, until we could drive 
 our lances through heavy plank and endure the 
 shock. He taught us to wheel, to reverse, to fall in 
 or out, to open or close, until such acts became like 
 an instinct. It was my father who trained me in 
 horsemanship, but Lamachus made me a hoplite. 
 The order of a sea-fight I learned later. 
 
 After that I served under Alcibiades in Achsea 
 and elsewhere. I was now eighteen, and had been 
 in training about eighteen months. We mastered 
 our trade quickly in those days, and young blood 
 was oftenest spilled. Mantinea was my first pitched 
 battle. 
 
 Ours was a motley array, mostly Argives and 
 Mantineans ; we of Athens numbered but a thousand 
 hoplites, with a troop of horse. We stood massed 
 on a rugged hill : it was madness to attack us there ; 
 but King Agis was under heavy censures and eager 
 to blot out his shame. Already the Spartan front 
 was within a stone's throw, and our lances quivered 
 with expectation. Then the advancing column 
 shook ; the pipes whistled discords ; we were so near 
 
166 G O R G O 
 
 that I knew the harsh voice of old Rhyzon as it 
 broke forth from behind the wall of shields: 
 
 " King, will you heal one hurt by another ? " 
 
 A murmur of passing signals ran through the 
 line. They drew back, step by step ; they wheeled ; 
 they were in full retreat. We almost burst from the 
 ranks to rush upon them, but the officers held us in 
 check. As the Spartans crossed the level field and 
 passed from view, a loud outcry arose from among 
 the Argives : our commanders were fools, cowards, 
 traitors ! 
 
 Surely the soldiers were right. One sharp charge 
 down the slope and the enemy were routed — unless 
 we lost our formation ! That was the danger. No, 
 our generals were merely cautious, — but it was 
 hard to bear. And caution is so often a capital 
 mistake in war! 
 
 It was evident now that the enemy would never 
 meet us here, and the generals, cowed by clamour, 
 led us into the plain below. All day and all night 
 we stood under arms, but we saw no Spartans. 
 Then, as the mists were melting and the sun toiled 
 up from behind the mountains, we suddenly saw 
 them before us. But they were much more surprised 
 than we. They were in marching order : they had 
 no thought of finding us there. Yet there was no 
 confusion; no panic. The pipes began to sound, 
 and almost under our spears they fell into line 
 like the pieces on a draught-board. I admired them 
 then, as never before. 
 
 We should have charged on the instant, but our 
 
G O R G O 167 
 
 officers, all along the front, wasted time in speeches. 
 " For the ancient sovereignty of Argos " — echoed 
 in my ears from the right centre. " Soldiers of 
 Athens," shouted our own Nicostratus, — standing 
 so near his death, — "already you rule the sea; 
 break the line before you and the land also is 
 yours." 
 
 Even then the enemy's phalanx was not fully 
 closed. A gap showed in the part that faced the 
 Mantineans, and two or three platoons were counter- 
 marching in the rear. Whatever this movement 
 meant it was never completed. We were close upon 
 them, charging with a fury that tossed our dense 
 array. I noted, too, that we had swerved to the 
 right, so that they much outflanked us, for each 
 man hugged the shelter of his neighbour's shield; 
 and the caution of Lamachus flashed through my 
 mind, — always to aim a running charge somewhat 
 leftward. 
 
 Then shields and lances crashed, with a shock 
 like the meeting of triremes. A splintering shaft 
 gashed my cheek; a pike-head ground through my 
 buckler and grided past my side; the man behind 
 me shrieked. We hung straining, like bulls with 
 locked horns. We were ranked eight deep — I in 
 the second line — and the thrust from behind and 
 before so shut the files that the rim of my shield 
 was jammed against my throat and my body crushed 
 into its hollow. The wounded man writhed on my 
 shoulders but could not fall ; his blood flowed down 
 my limbs ; and all the while I was gripping my spear 
 
168 G O R G O 
 
 like a vise, and felt its unseen point, ten feet distant, 
 crunching on flesh. With a mighty impulse we 
 surged forward, — then back; we were losing 
 ground. 
 
 Cries of triumph were sounding from our Manti- 
 neans on the right ; but for us there was no victory. 
 The Argives next us were fleeing before the Spartan 
 pikes; the flash of iron was on both our flanks. 
 Then came the rattle of charging hoofs, and I 
 heard my father's war-shout ringing above the 
 battle. The Spartans checked ; we drew back ; they 
 did not pursue. Breathless, reeking with sweat and 
 blood, convulsed with the agony of conflict, still 
 holding our formation though with ragged ranks, 
 we retired from before those unconquerable pikes, 
 the iron wall of Sparta. Well were we guarded 
 by the knights of Athens, who won new laurels that 
 day. 
 
 Under the burial truce we took up more than a 
 thousand corpses, — two hundred belonging to our 
 own division, with both our generals, Nicostratus 
 and old Laches. Such was the price of defeat. 
 What the Spartans had paid for victory we never 
 knew; for when we repaired to the field with our 
 carts and mattocks, their dead were gone. But 
 Sparta was herself again. Men sneered no more 
 about the braves at Pylos. 
 
XIV. 
 
 The Bow of Golas 
 
 ^IVE minas? It is no better than to sell him 
 to the mines. It will be twelve minas — 
 yes. Does the noble Greek desire a present? 
 See ! he is strong — he is like a bull of the moun- 
 tains. And he shoots with the bow — so well." 
 
 I was lounging through the slave-market in 
 Piraeus, with others of my kind, — quite gaily 
 dressed and with a bubble of wine in the blood. For 
 I was leading a rather fast life just now ; after my 
 hard campaigning I felt the need of relaxation. 
 And I had found myself, without much reason, a bit 
 of a hero on my return. Alcibiades had given me 
 good words, far beyond my deserts; and it was 
 something to be my father's son after that cavalry 
 charge at Mantinea. Nor did my father frown 
 very sternly on my pleasures ; he gave me plenty of 
 money and few rebukes. " The wine is good to 
 wash away blood and sweat," he said, — " only 
 do not drown yourself." 
 
 So I was spending freely on horses and banquets, 
 and even diced a little, though I found that a witless 
 sport. I liked the cottabos better, and at eight 
 
 169 
 
ijo G O R G O 
 
 paces could make the brass tinkle and ring with 
 every cast of the wine, — which pleased me, for this 
 was the omen of luck in love, and I thought of 
 Gorgo. To the rest it seemed but wasted skill, 
 for I was utterly careless of the women they raved 
 or jested over ; the beauty of Gorgo had so dazzled 
 me that if ever I looked on others her dancing, glow- 
 ing image blotted them out. I have always been 
 glad of that. Yet, though I now and then glanced 
 at her bracelet and wondered vaguely as to its 
 fellow, she had little place in my thoughts in those 
 days. I would have made small scruple, I pre- 
 sume, at any pleasure, but happily not all things 
 pleased me. High-bred horses were my pet ex- 
 travagance. If Socrates chanced to turn a sharp- 
 edged comment on my follies, I looked at his bare 
 feet and smiled. I loved him, but I did not love 
 his way of life; and he was certainly no judge of 
 horse-flesh. 
 
 Well, I had come from the racing-stables of 
 Pasias and was strolling through the slave-market, 
 as I have said, when I heard that reptile voice. I 
 would have known it in Babylon or Memphis; yet 
 when I looked up, the speaker seemed so mean and 
 withered and insignificant that I doubted my ears. 
 Only an instant, though; for at his side stood 
 the Nubian, big and ugly, just as I remembered him, 
 — not himself on sale, as was my first impression, 
 but shaking a heavy whip. The creature on the 
 selling-block was white-skinned, though sun- 
 scorched and shaggy. He stood bowed like an ape, 
 
G O R G O 
 
 171 
 
 with long arms drooping below his knees. His legs 
 were set in thick gyves; his eyes glared with un- 
 tamable fierceness ; on his back was a weave of 
 scars like the print of a fisher's net on the sand. 
 
 " Yes — it will be twelve minas," repeated the 
 Syrian, — " with the bow. It is wonderful, the 
 bow — not like those you see." 
 
 " Hercules ! " simpered Callias, in his affected 
 way — for he was the bargainer. " It is but a 
 herald's staff. Twelve minas! Do you think you 
 are selling me a right-trace-horse for the races ? " 
 
 I stepped nearer. " If he shoots let us see his 
 shooting," I said. " Knock off those fetters." 
 
 The Syrian did not know me; I had quite out- 
 grown his recollection. But he turned the colour 
 of dead grass at the mere suggestion. " You would 
 unchain Golas ! The young citizen is rash — he 
 does not know. It is a peril; he is so fierce, this 
 Golas. It is terrible to see. And with his bow 
 — he would kill all here, all." 
 
 " A fine purchase! " I sneered — "A wild beast, 
 with barbed arrows by way of claws ! " 
 
 " I will not take him at twelve obols," cried Cal- 
 lias, drawing back. 
 
 "Of what breed is the slave?" I asked the 
 Syrian. 
 
 " It is a Carduchian. They are of the mountains 
 beyond Tigris. The Great King cannot subdue that 
 people. Many were killed at his taking; and he has 
 burst his bond — yes, twice; but he had not the 
 bow." 
 
i 7 2 G O R G O 
 
 " Let me see it — the bow." 
 
 It was indeed more like a staff: a thick rod, 
 almost straight and longer than a man. It was of 
 unknown wood, yellowed with use like old ivory. 
 At the grasp it was cased with a section of snake- 
 skin, drawn on tightly; but for this and the cord, 
 which hung loose with a sliding loop, I should never 
 have thought it a bow. I tried to strain it: the 
 limbs, though scantly tapered, were very elastic, 
 yet as stiff as steel. It sprung from my hands and 
 rapped me sharply. The slave eyed it hungrily. 
 
 " Syrian," I exclaimed, " I will buy — at your 
 price, twelve minas. But first I will see this bow 
 bent and an arrow darted from it ; and no slave of 
 mine shall drag a chain." 
 
 It happened that I had with me Seuthas, a Scyth 
 of my father's troop, skilful with the bow after 
 the manner of his nation ; I had summoned him that 
 day because he was also a clever judge of the points 
 of horses. " If this savage of yours can outshoot 
 my archer here, it is a saie," I said, "not other- 
 wise." 
 
 " I would sell," the trader answered, slowly, 
 " for it is my price ; but I dare not break the fetter. 
 To give him the bow — it is madness." 
 
 " None will buy without proof. You have been 
 lying : the bow is not a bow, and the savage is not 
 an archer. Come: give proof, or I will have you 
 beaten from the market. Why fear? Is not Par- 
 docas by you ? " 
 
 He recoiled like a stag when it scents an ambush. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 173 
 
 "You have the name? You have been before at 
 the market; but the old merchant has forgotten." 
 
 " We" have met," I said. 
 
 " Who are you? " he cried. " It was surely long 
 ago — yes, long. For the name, it is changed. He 
 is not now Pardocas; he is Ephaltas now." 
 
 " Loose me the slave. I will see a shot." 
 
 " That Golas ! It is even a peril that he has 
 his hands! " 
 
 " Has he any knowledge of our tongue? " 
 
 " Like a dog : he can understand a little, but 
 when he would speak it is barking." 
 
 I turned : " Golas," I said, speaking very 
 quietly, " will you come to me and be my slave, and 
 go with me always where I lead you? Will you 
 take the bow and keep it, but shoot only as I say, 
 and kill no one unless I bid you? " Our eyes met, 
 — his no longer angry, but full of . question and 
 like a dog's indeed. Then he fell prone, crawled to 
 my foot and kissed it. 
 
 " Hail, King of the Carduchians ! " laughed Cal- 
 lias ; and the rest joined. " A bold stroke and a good 
 venture," Critias added. " The fellow will obey him 
 utterly. Such servants are useful. Callias, you have 
 lost." 
 
 I gave the bow to Golas, who clutched and stroked 
 it lovingly. I called a smith to unrivet the fetters. 
 
 " The bow goes not with the slave," said the 
 Syrian. " It is a wonderful bow ; it will be three 
 minas for the bow." 
 
 " But you offered all to Callias for twelve minas ! " 
 
174 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Yes — but not to you." 
 
 I glanced at the smith. " It is but a stick. If 
 you claim it, take it." Golas stepped free; we all 
 smiled. 
 
 " I have yet the arrows," said the trader, craftily. 
 
 " Bring them, then," I broke forth. " It shall be 
 three minas more for the bow, and the cord, and the 
 arrows, and the feathers that are upon them. But 
 if you still raise a quibble about the points and the 
 barbs, Golas himself shall reason with you." 
 
 The arrows were brought. They were full two 
 cubits long, curiously feathered and headed with 
 hammered iron. Golas caught them up joyfully 
 and shook them from the snake-skin quiver. He 
 sunk on his knees before them and poised each shaft 
 on his finger, rolling it under his thumb, here and 
 there fingering a point or smoothing a plume. Then, 
 rising, he pointed to my knife, — a keen, thin blade 
 of Tyrian temper. Some drew back at that; but 
 though puzzled, I gave it up at once. He lifted it 
 to his face, and with quick strokes slashed the ragged 
 tangle from his cheeks and chin. 
 
 " Now," said I, " let them shoot, — first for 
 strength of cast. Aim high and toward the sea." 
 
 The bow of Seuthas was of horn, short but stout, 
 with a double crook. He fitted his shaft, drew to 
 his breast, and let fly with a stinging snap; the 
 arrow soared against the blue. For an instant 
 Golas watched its flight, — then, dropping the bow- 
 heel to his foot, set the cord with an upward thrust. 
 The weapon purred in his grasp; a long shaft lay 
 
G O R G O 175 
 
 across it. Suddenly he stood erect, his huge arm rose 
 at full stretch, the straining thong met his cheek. 
 The great arc pulsed, and the springing string sang 
 like a lyre, but all in one deep note; and with that 
 came a whisper, but we saw no bolt. We lifted 
 our eyes. The arrow of Seuthas had reached its 
 height, hovering just at the turn ; and there it splin- 
 tered in the sky, tumbling in fragments from mid-air 
 to the harbour's edge; while, after an interval, a 
 white spurt leaped up far out on the water. 
 
 We were all panting, short of breath; I had 
 bitten my lip to bleeding. " A chance," cried Cal- 
 lias, " a mere chance! " and others echoed it. 
 
 " A shrewd purchase," said Critias, — " the slave 
 that commits such an accident. It might chance 
 again." 
 
 " Will any one of you back his doubt with a 
 wager? " I demanded. 
 
 " Yes : the price against the slave," said Callias. 
 
 " Not I : but a simple talent? or two, if you like? " 
 He was silent. 
 
 " Wager no wagers on this vile horn," cried 
 Seuthas, flinging down his bow. " There it may 
 lie till it bleaches; I will not shoot another shot. 
 The ill-made ox-yoke jarred as I loosed, and the 
 arrow clapped and wagged as it left the string, — 
 enough to crack any shaft." We laughed. " Well," 
 he said, crossly, " that is not all. There is magic, 
 doubtless; I have heard of the like on the plains. 
 I will shoot no more matches with a dumb wizard 
 ■ — not with any bow, nor at any price." 
 
176 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " There needs none," I answered. " Golas has 
 proved all in one, — strength, swiftness, sureness, 
 eye and arm, bow and shaft. I ask no more." 
 
 " Take your Golas, then. But remember, young 
 man, the tricks of jugglers are of no avail in fight. 
 One good horse-archer is worth ten croaking magi- 
 cians." 
 
 " Unstring your tongue, Seuthas," I said, " and 
 shut your words in their quiver. No one questions 
 that you are as good as any centaur to ride or shoot, 
 or brawl. You will not lack service in these days. 
 My purchase is my own affair. I am satisfied." 
 
 " My money — I have not yet the silver," whined 
 the Syrian. " Bel ! I have but thrown him away 
 — that Golas. May Moloch burn me for a child of 
 folly ! Had I known, it should have been three tal- 
 ents — three for the asking." 
 
 " Cowards learn little and brutes less," I said, 
 " and the smoke of Moloch is in your eyes already. 
 But it is true, — you are getting less than your dues. 
 I may be minded to give you more. Come." 
 
 We went together to the money-tables of Arches- 
 tratus, then managed by Pasion, his slave, whom 
 he afterward set free. There my father had a 
 large credit, and I paid the Syrian in full before 
 witnesses. 
 
 " But you promised more," he complained. 
 
 " In three days I will keep my promise — if you 
 care to wait. Syrian, a debt is always paid. The 
 gods keep strict accounts. They are usurers, too, 
 and after a long time there is interest." 
 
G O R G O 177 
 
 " I think you talk like the sophist ; it is empty 
 words. But I will wait — yes — three days; but 
 now I have other business." 
 
 " Not yet : your business is with me. This 
 Moloch — you are his servant ? He dwells in your 
 land?" 
 
 " Yes, Moloch is of Syria. He is my god. But 
 I spoke no disrespect of the others," he added, un- 
 easily. " I have even made a gift to your Apollon, 
 for an oracle." 
 
 " And what was his word? " 
 
 " I will not tell you that ; the oracle is not to be 
 told." 
 
 " Moloch is angry ; he has blinded you, Syrian." 
 
 "It cannot be: I have done service to Moloch. 
 Yes — three infants, still of the milk — " 
 
 "Be silent! the gods of Greece will hear you. 
 How many were slain by Golas at his first taking? 
 But I will tell you. There are nine arrows in the 
 quiver, and one in the harbour." 
 
 " There were twelve : one was broken, and one 
 passed through and was lost ; it was the last of all. 
 But what is this ? " 
 
 " In three days I will send Golas with what, is 
 due you." 
 
 " Golas ! You are speaking some treacheries. I 
 will go." 
 
 " Do not run — unless you can outrun an arrow. 
 Look into my eyes. Have you no remembrance of 
 the little son of Hagnon? " 
 
i 7 8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 "You are that one!" His jaw sunk, and his 
 mouth hung open like an idiot's. 
 
 " Three times we have met, Syrian, and each time 
 you have done me service. It was not your wish but 
 the god so willed it, — not Moloch — he is far away 
 and cannot aid you — but that mightier god who 
 holds the skies of Hellas. For each friend that you 
 have brought me I give a day, — and on the third 
 day, Golas. He will come with quiver and bow, free 
 of hand and foot. He knows your den : I doubt you 
 will decide to wait. And if ever again I see your 
 face in Athens — Golas asks but a sign." 
 
 The fellow fled with the terror of arrows sting- 
 ing at his back, clutching his pouch yet spilling silver 
 as he ran. The Nubian was gone already. Again 
 they appeared for a moment, close by the harbour. 
 Golas glanced after them; then at me. He stood 
 bow in hand, with fingers nestling in the plumes 
 that crowned his quiver; but he made no move- 
 ment. 
 
 On the third day, at noon, I led him to the door. 
 " Go," I said. " Seek the Syrian in all his holes." 
 And I laid my finger on an arrow. 
 
 His face brightened ; but he paused. " Gola 
 come back? " he grunted. 
 
 " You will come back. You are to serve me 
 always." 
 
 He cast off the mantle I had given him, and ran 
 down the street with a crouching lope. Late that 
 evening he again stood before me, impassive, not 
 an arrow gone from his sheaf. 
 
G O R G O 179 
 
 " Speak," I commanded. 
 
 That was harder to him than any miracle of the 
 bow. " Not find," he managed to articulate. 
 " Well," I said, " we will wait." 
 
XV. 
 
 Apteryx 
 
 APTERYX was the only man, of all I ever 
 knew, who could make any stand against 
 Socrates. In sarcasm I believe he excelled 
 him. In boldness of thought and speech — a merci- 
 less probing of all that men hold true — he was 
 somewhat like him. But Socrates, though great in 
 question, was great in faith ; and Apteryx had faith 
 in nothing. The sweet sanity of Socrates he lacked 
 altogether. Apart from the weird and sinister elo- 
 quence which sometimes gushed from his lips he had 
 no charm, nor was he in any way lovable or help- 
 ful. Sophist, cynic, poet, madman — I know not 
 "what to call him. But the manner of our meeting 
 was this. 
 
 I had just parted from Alcibiades, newly returned 
 from the massacre at Melos. We had almost quar- 
 relled. 
 
 " Men will think us the foes of mankind," I had 
 exclaimed. " First Mytilene barely escapes ; then 
 all that bloody business at Corcyra; then Scione, 
 and now Melos ! It is not even politic." 
 
 " It is war," he said, impatiently. " Come, I am 
 180 
 
G O R G O 181 
 
 the most magnanimous fellow in Athens. I have 
 taken one of their women to wife." 
 
 " After killing her husband ! " 
 
 " Do you hold with Socrates against killing? " he 
 sneered. 
 
 " No ; I would kill for need, not for greed." 
 
 " Well, there was need, then. We had to make 
 room for our own colonists somehow. You are un- 
 practical, Theramenes." 
 
 I turned from him in some disgust. 
 
 " Must we dispute over a few hundred wretched 
 islanders ? " he cried, with unwonted forbearance 
 in his tone. 
 
 "No," I answered, "we will not dispute; but 
 leave me alone awhile." 
 
 " We didn't kill quite all of them," he called after 
 me. "There goes one now; don't tread on him, 
 soft-heart. Pray for me, if you are going to the 
 temple." 
 
 I had almost tripped upon a shabby little distor- 
 tion who was just beginning to climb the long 
 stairway of the Acropolis. He was less than three 
 cubits in height, bent like a wrestler's scraping- 
 hook; he made slow progress, crawling past my 
 legs much as a crippled bug drags himself along the 
 sand. I looked down on his hump with loathing; 
 yet with pity, too — the more, if he was really a 
 Melian. 
 
 "Who are you?" I asked, drawing back till 
 my mantle swung clear of him. 
 
 He stopped and looked up edgewise. " Nothing," 
 
182 G O R G O 
 
 he panted. " Nothing at all, and unlucky enough 
 to know it. Hence, like your modest Socrates, I 
 have been accounted wise." 
 
 " Has nothing, then, a name? " 
 
 " It has nothing else. Must you of Athens have 
 that too? " The voice was high-pitched, but rather 
 musical. 
 
 " Only as one takes the hand." 
 
 " Just so : you would not keep it. I, therefore, 
 will keep it." 
 
 " It is a convenience for one who would talk." 
 
 " What — a name? Quite the contrary: it is at 
 times most inconvenient. In Athens, especially: 
 your Socrates may yet discover that." He resumed 
 his hobble upward. "Why talk? It is but the 
 shadow of smoke. Still, there is nothing better: 
 to talk is amusing. What you call acting is no more 
 real, and your men of action cause an illusion of 
 pain; of such is that fair phantom Alcibiades who 
 left you but now. For the sake of talk, then, you 
 may call me Apteryx." 
 
 I smiled. " Had you wings they would doubtless 
 be of much service, — and light their load. But 
 since you are wingless my slave shall assist you." 
 For I felt that we owed the man some show of 
 kindness. 
 
 " I shall see the aspect of the temple sooner so," 
 he replied, " but there will be no thanks. For, 
 indeed, I shall still be where I was." 
 
 " The Sphinx ! What riddle for the revels is 
 this?" 
 
G O R G O 183 
 
 " All places are one," he responded, " and the 
 things that come and go move not and are not. 
 So, at least, some of those reputed wise have told 
 me. For myself, I hold that anywhere is nowhere." 
 
 I bit my lip to keep from laughing; I thought 
 him crazed, as perhaps he was. " And is to-day yes- 
 terday, and also to-morrow? " 
 
 " No day ever passed that was not all three. Or 
 rather, it does not pass. The visions pass, but time 
 is changeless. Do you not know that it is always 
 now ? " And here I laughed aloud. " Try that 
 for a riddle at your revels, young man. But no 
 reveller ever guessed it, though what is seen in 
 wine is like the faces that grin and wrinkle at us 
 from troubled water." 
 
 "The solid earth is perhaps a delusion also?" 
 
 " That least of anything. I love to lie upon it 
 and clutch it with my hands when my brow is hot 
 and I am weary of thinking. Yet I have stood 
 upon it in dreams, and with the dream it flew away ; 
 and it will again fly away with the dream which you, 
 I presume, call life. The earth? It will be noth- 
 ing to me then; it is nothing to me now." He had 
 ceased his clambering, damp with sweat. " The 
 aid you promised," he added, " is, I conceive, still 
 more a delusion." 
 
 I signed to Golas, who lifted him in his arms. 
 The dwarf, with a sigh of relief, sunk back and 
 gazed at the sky. " It gives room to the eyes," he 
 said. " I do not see it often. It is good for the 
 eyes." 
 
1 84 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " That too is doubtless a delusion," I remarked. 
 
 " The sky and all that dwell therein," he an- 
 swered. And at this I was truly shocked. 
 
 " You speak as an atheist ! " 
 
 " I have told you already that I am nothing. Are 
 you offended? Let the slave cast me down this 
 marble ladder, and I shall be less than a seeming." 
 
 But Golas made no move to set him down until 
 we were within the great hall of the temple, breath- 
 ing the fragrant fumes of the altar in full view of 
 the resplendent goddess whose golden helmet almost 
 touched the panels of the ceiling. I looked upon 
 her, as I always did, with loving awe, — and a 
 memory of Gorgo. At length Apteryx spoke. 
 
 " Well," he -said, querulously, " the pavement is 
 of good stone justly fitted, but I care not to inspect 
 it further." 
 
 Then Golas again took him up. He lay curled like 
 a ball, resting his head against the slave's shoulder, 
 and so gazed long and earnestly. 
 
 " Fine gold and fair ivory, well wrought," he 
 said, at last, " and a face to remember. I shall pray 
 to her to look upon me often." 
 
 " Pray to her ! " I exclaimed. " Do you believe, 
 then, in Athena?" 
 
 " I believe in visions," he answered, " and as I 
 walk I shall often see her face painted upon the 
 gravel." 
 
 As we came out, that other image of Athena — 
 the brazen goddess whose temple was the sky — 
 blazed in our eyes like a figure carved in fire; while 
 
G O R G O 185 
 
 the columns all about us glowed and trembled in the 
 sunset. It seemed unreal ; the spell of this man was 
 upon me. I looked down on the city; it lay in a 
 stain of crimson, blotted with shadows. A sea- 
 eagle sailed on the left, dusky against the horizon ; 
 the air chilled as it gloomed; I felt the forebode 
 of evil. Then came, the impulse of prayer ; I lifted 
 my hands to the towering statue. 
 
 " Goddess," I cried, " Protectress of this ancient 
 city of thy name, forget not thy people." 
 
 " You pray amiss : he prospers whom the gods 
 forget." The cold, thin voice fell on my ear like 
 the stroke of a knife. " Yet let him not prosper too 
 greatly, or they shall again take heed of him." 
 
 "Scoffer and sceptic! Would you bar me from 
 the grace of Athena with impious words unseason- 
 ably uttered ? " 
 
 " Pray, then, for justice on your city. Dare any 
 in Athens make that prayer ? But the undue favour 
 of the gods is ever a curse to mortals, and the land 
 that is too much blessed of heaven shall lie deso- 
 late." 
 
 "You are mad. You speak blasphemous con- 
 tradictions. Have you not denied the gods alto- 
 gether?" 
 
 " I have thought better of it. I find that I must 
 needs believe in gods, for I cannot conceive that 
 men should be such fools unless there are gods to 
 dement them. Besides, even though the gods be 
 shadows they sometimes send bad dreams. I have 
 not denied that they afflict us with dreams." 
 
186 G O R G O 
 
 "You are mad indeed; yet only Socrates can 
 answer you." 
 
 " That is my wish. Take me now to your won- 
 derful sophist," he commanded; and I obeyed as 
 if I had been his bond-servant. 
 
 I knew, as it happened, that Socrates had prom- 
 ised Callias to sit at wine that night in the great 
 house built by Hipponicus in Piraeus. Golas car- 
 ried the dwarf all the way, grunting a little, for the 
 distance was more than forty stades. I was certain 
 that the affair was quite informal, else the chief 
 guest would have shunned it ; so I threw a drachma 
 to the porter, who, recognising me, made no 
 scruple to let us pass. Six or eight were at table, 
 and the wine was already pouring. Callias, always 
 prepared for the uninvited when Socrates was pres- 
 ent, was profuse in his welcome and at once divined 
 that I had brought a curiosity of some sort. He 
 called for cushions, and Apteryx was sq propped 
 in a chair that he could lean back and see the 
 company. For a moment all stared at him, then 
 courteously turned away their glances. The wine 
 flowed again, but the flow of words was checked. 
 
 " What weather is Jove making ? " asked Callias, 
 presently, to relieve the silence, — " fair or foul? " 
 
 " He gathers clouds and will rain before morn- 
 ing," I answered. 
 
 " They are fools who speak thus," broke in Ap- 
 teryx. " For me, it rains and all is said. It is the 
 nature of rain to fall, even as it is the nature of wind 
 
G O R G O 187 
 
 to blow, or of men to utter nonsense; and Jove is 
 useless." 
 
 " It is only a form of speech," I said. But none 
 heeded me; all were looking at Socrates. 
 
 " I hear," said he, " that our friend Theramenes 
 has lately bought a slave, and paid a great price 
 because the fellow was skilful with the bow. He 
 was foolish; for since it is the nature of the bow 
 to shoot there needed no archer. The Athenians, 
 too, are doubtless foolish to enact laws and appoint 
 officers for their enforcement; or are the laws of 
 the gods so different from these that they need no 
 author?" 
 
 " I deny those laws," piped the dwarf. " What 
 you call the law of the gods is but the nature of 
 things, — nature itself. And all things act accord- 
 ing to their nature. I say again, Jove is useless." 
 
 " It rather appears to me," said Socrates, " that 
 you have given Jove a new name. He is now, as 
 it seems, become a goddess, and we must hereafter 
 bow the knee to Nature. But tell me this: in all 
 the wonderful frame of the universe, so perfect in 
 every part, so far excelling anything ever devised 
 by men, do you see no evidence of wisdom ? " And 
 here he fell into his usual manner of questioning. 
 " What, pray, would you regard as the marks of 
 intelligence in anything planned by men ? " 
 
 " I have observed no such marks of intelligence," 
 said Apteryx. 
 
 " Well," said Socrates, smiling, " setting aside 
 the works of men, since you hold them in such con- 
 
188 G O R G O 
 
 tempt, is not the body at least a contrivance worthy 
 of admiration, ingeniously planned, as if by some 
 one meaning good to man ? " 
 
 " Mine is not." He looked up with his sidelong 
 glance. " And yours, perhaps, might admit of 
 improvement," he added, sourly. 
 
 A sudden laugh sputtered round the table. " You 
 have scored upon me," said Socrates, joining 
 heartily. " Yet if the gods have been unkind to 
 us in this, to you at least they have made some 
 amends by the gift of wit; and I doubt much that 
 you would exchange it even for the beauty of Alci- 
 biades." 
 
 " I have had a surfeit of your Alcibiades. Yet I 
 commend him : unless he dies too soon of luxury or 
 rashness, he shall be an avenger. Alcibiades ! trail- 
 ing his robes of purple dabbled in blood! I would 
 not be such as he for the graces of Apollo," screamed 
 the little Melian. And as he spoke I perceived that 
 his face had, after all, a sort of blasted beauty, most 
 unlike the wholesome homeliness of Socrates, — 
 who resumed : 
 
 " I was wrong in seeking to lead you thus, by 
 questions. You have turned them well, but I fear 
 we are learning nothing. Speak your message; we 
 will listen without interruption." 
 
 " Do you mean that you would listen to a sceptic's 
 creed?" he said, sullenly. "Then call the Eleven 
 and make ready the hemlock. You will hear blas- 
 phemies." 
 
G O R G O 189 
 
 The face of Socrates was full of pain, — but, 
 " Speak," he said, " whatever you think is true." 
 
 The dwarf flung back among the cushions for a 
 clearer view. " You are honest," he cried, — " by 
 all the phantom gods, you are honest, and yet no 
 fool. I will speak the sheer truth as I see it ; and for 
 a contrast, I will begin like the poet. In the begin- 
 ning was Nothing. And of Nothing, Nothing was 
 brought forth; of the Father of Nothing, Nothing 
 was begotten. That is the only true theogony; 
 Hesiod was crazy with the word-madness." 
 
 We were choking over our cups ; the eyes of Soc- 
 rates twinkled. " Before we proceed further in 
 this matter," he said, " let us send to Delos." 
 
 " For an oracle, Socrates ? " asked Callias. 
 
 " For a man to do the diving. They are said to 
 be very competent, and our occasion demands the 
 best. The oracle we have already." 
 
 " It is the only rational cosmos," insisted Apteryx. 
 " Nothing alone requires no explanation." 
 
 " Existence is the problem, I think. Nothing 
 indeed explains — nothing. Enough, or we shall 
 all have need of hellebore." 
 
 " I worship the Shadow god, and none other. As 
 for Jove, I deem him less than Homer, who was his 
 creator; but Jove created not Homer, nor aught 
 else, save vapours in the minds of priests and poets, 
 — whence, perhaps, he is justly called ' cloud-com- 
 pelling.' " 
 
 " Tell us more of your cosmos," I entreated him. 
 " What is it that we see on every side? " 
 
190 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " A tissue of dreams and shadow, embroidered 
 with follies, stitched with pain. It hangs before us 
 like a luminous veil, lighted by a lamp that will soon 
 be darkened : see, the flame flutters in the wind 
 already. Then all is dark." 
 
 " God forbid ! " exclaimed Socrates. " The soul 
 that speaks thus is sick with death." And Callias 
 signed to a slave, who pricked up the wick. 
 
 But Apteryx talked on : " Is not this wine which 
 you have set before me solid to the eye, yet yielding 
 to the touch ? Is it not biting upon the tongue, yet 
 sweet in the nostrils? Does it not cool the lips, yet 
 heat the blood ? And that which is one thing, yet 
 of which every sense tells a different tale, cannot 
 truly exist." 
 
 " At least," said Socrates, " we do not know it 
 as it truly is, but only as it appears ; so much may 
 be conceded." 
 
 " Apteryx, tell us more," I said. 
 
 " Are you not yet satisfied ? Would you study the 
 pattern of a world of phantoms ? " 
 
 " I would learn the pattern." 
 
 " Know, then, that every seeming is exactly 
 as it seems. It cannot be otherwise; and so, in 
 their hearts, all men believe, however much they 
 profess other doctrines. The philosophers are fools." 
 
 " Do you not hold with Anaxagoras that the 
 figure of the earth is round? For he says that he 
 has seen its shadow on the moon." 
 
 " Do olives grow treeless, and do men gather 
 them spinning in the air? It is more absurd "than 
 
G O R G O 
 
 191 
 
 to deem that a certain Atlas bears this bubble uni- 
 verse upon his much deluded shoulders, himself 
 without foothold ; or that Jove swings all by a golden 
 chain from the airy pinnacle of heaven. Yet down 
 and up are not more manifest than is the truth. 
 For this semblance of earth is altogether bound- 
 less, even as time and space that are its elements, 
 extending ever downward without end. However 
 deep thou diggest thou shalt find but clay and rock 
 and gravel; though thou burrow on forever, thou 
 shalt find naught else. How, then, hath it need 
 of anything to rest upon, resting ever upon itself, — 
 itself the base of all? For to look upon the earth 
 and think otherwise is not only to dream, but to 
 dream emptiness." 
 
 " I find little profit in these speculations," said 
 Socrates wearily. " In what way do they lead us 
 to a better life ? " But Apteryx fluted on as if he 
 had not heard, his head sunk in his breast, his voice 
 like that of one reciting verses. 
 
 " Nor hath this earth any verge or limit, as some 
 allege, babbling in words void of meaning. Go 
 where thou wilt, thou shalt still find the figment of 
 hills and plains and waters, and the phantom sun 
 and the stars shall appear to rise and set, and the 
 changing shapes of cloud shall drift over thee. 
 Many spectres thou mayest see, of strange monsters 
 and men yet stranger, and new plumage of birds, 
 and herbs of unknown growth. These, and such as 
 these, mayest thou find in variety infinite, — not 
 even the wind-flitting wings of Hermes might show 
 
192 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 thee all their aspects. But though thou wander amid 
 these visions for countless aeons, becoming death- 
 less while nations pass from nothingness to nothing- 
 ness and forests lose themselves beneath their drop- 
 ping leaves, still shalt thou find the earth beneath and 
 the sky above. From under the sky thou mayest not 
 flee out, nor from off the earth. Dream not of it; 
 for even dreams are chained to the earth from which 
 they spring." He paused. Not a cup was lifted; 
 no voice was raised. 
 
 " And all this," he continued, " may every man 
 prove for himself when he will, making trial accord- 
 ing to his strength and ever finding it thus ; but the 
 contrary none has ever proved by any test, nor ever 
 may. And herein these fancies of a vain philosophy 
 are like that other phantasy of a life after death, 
 which some prate about." 
 
 " Do you deny that also ? " said Socrates. 
 
 " I do not wish it for myself," he answered. " I 
 should surely weary." His tone was again dry and 
 hard. 
 
 " But for others — those who desire it." 
 
 " To fools I concede it ; for all know that folly 
 is immortal." 
 
 " What, then, becomes of us? " I asked. It was 
 my old, unanswered question. 
 
 " Have you never looked in the blazing pyre? A 
 white crumble of bone and evil odours." 
 
 " That is the body ; what of the rest? " 
 
 The lamp, as it chanced, stood near; he drew it 
 toward him and blew it out. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 193 
 
 " The rest is darkness," he cried, shrilly, through 
 the gloom; and we heard the tinkle of his goblet. 
 His voice again sounded : 
 
 " This to you, Socrates, true seeker for the truth, 
 — may you never be so cursed as to find it. And 
 this to you, son of Hagnon, that sought to befriend 
 me, — may the phantom gods bestow upon your 
 phantom soul the delusion that it is blessed." Then,, 
 the voice rose in anger. " And to you who have 
 laughed me to scorn and to you who have slaugh- 
 tered my people, — may dreams of disaster and 
 nightmare terrors and all the black spectres of Cocy- 
 tus be about you ; and would that you might indeed 
 become immortal, to enjoy these dreams forever." 
 
 The goblet crashed on the board ; Callias shouted 
 loudly to his servants ; but when lights were brought 
 the sinister guest was gone. 
 
 We all turned to Socrates. The wine in our cups 
 was flavourless, and what we had drunk lay cold 
 within us. 
 
 " Speak to us, Socrates," I said. " Speak some 
 good word and break this spell of evil; for we sit 
 among his phantoms." 
 
 " I know well," he answered, humbly, " that I 
 understand nothing of the things above and the 
 ways of the gods, nor yet of the things below, nor 
 even of what I touch; of matters such as these no 
 true knowledge has been granted me. And many 
 times, when I think upon the fables that men tell and 
 upon philosophy, the gods themselves seem dim and 
 lost in clouds. But that in and above and behind them 
 
194 G O R G O 
 
 there is a power which makes right better than 
 wrong, and stronger and certain to prevail, and 
 shapes all for good, — that I know beyond any 
 word of priest or seer or prophet. And I know that 
 a world thus ruled by law is not a dream, and the 
 soul that is subject to this law is not a phantom; 
 but falsehood and curses are phantoms, harmless ex- 
 cept to him who utters them. If we or our city have 
 done injustice — and so I fear — we shall suffer 
 what is due; but not because of curses. All this I 
 know; and that by which I know is a voice that 
 speaks within the soul. It rings out in the hour of 
 trouble like the rescue-cry in battle, ever loudest 
 when I am most beset ; I can no more doubt what it 
 tells me than doubt my being. Where it bids me 
 walk I walk, though it be among shadows, and with 
 it I fear not even the shadow men call death. The 
 rest, good friends, may perhaps be darkness, — but 
 it is surely peace." 
 
XVI. 
 
 The Sailing of the Fleet 
 
 THRASYBULUS, bending over the sand, was 
 drawing a figure of some sort, with quite a 
 company gathered round him. When I had 
 pressed through to his side, I saw that he was tracing 
 a map in rough outline on the dust. 
 
 " There," he said, straightening up and pointing 
 with his stick, " that is Sicily ; and Syracuse is right 
 here, fronting us. Those Egesta people, that are 
 asking us to help them, live across on the other side; 
 but that doesn't count for much, though it seems 
 they've got money. Italy comes down here, close to 
 Syracuse; and Carthage is just over yonder in 
 Africa. See, it isn't far. We'll get the whole of it 
 if we have any sort of luck. And then — look out, 
 Spartans ! " 
 
 " There'll be no such luck for us with Alcibiades 
 in command," said Gritias, coldly. " Have you no 
 better business, Thrasybulus, than helping rascals 
 cheat this crazy people with lying pictures?." He 
 stamped out the map. Several lifted their hands to " 
 strike, but he sneered in their faces and walked 
 away. 
 
 '95 
 
196 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 For these were the days when our city was all in 
 a nutter over the great Sicilian project. The gath- 
 ering troops paraded in the streets; the markets 
 hummed with talk. Piraeus rang with the clamour 
 of hammer and adze; the harbour was dense with 
 shipping and alive with dancing boats. Great bags 
 of silver were carried about openly, and the money- 
 changers' tables were piled high. 
 
 " Do you embark ? " I asked Thrasybulus, in an 
 undertone. 
 
 " My mother weeps and cries out at any speech of 
 it," he answered, regretfully. " She imagines that 
 Sicily is somewhere away beyond the Pillars; she 
 can't understand a map. Of course, while she feels 
 so, I can't leave her here alone, — though my uncle 
 is willing to manage the property. But isn't it slave's 
 luck?" 
 
 " It is my father that will hinder me," I said. 
 " Still, I shall ask him." 
 
 But I found my father less positive than I had 
 expected. His look was troubled and full of doubt ; 
 he did not answer at once. " I will not say that 
 I approve the plan," he said, finally. " It is a boys' 
 war; I have no confidence in Alcibiades, as you 
 know. Yet it may prove a great opportunity, after 
 all; and with so good a man as Nicias joined 
 in command — " 
 
 " Lamachus, too," I interrupted. " Lamachus is 
 the best soldier I ever knew — except you, father." 
 
 " Yes," he said, " Lamachus is a stout, practical 
 fighter, and a campaigner of great experience, — 
 
G O R G O 
 
 197 
 
 though somewhat headlong, in his youth at least. 
 I have often wondered that so able an officer should 
 remain so poor." 
 
 I laughed. " They say he has just sent a bill to 
 the city auditors for the price of a pair of shoes and 
 a woollen cloak — and he had it marked ' urgent ! ' " 
 
 My father frowned. " It is disgraceful : such a 
 fellow is unfit for office. Yet even your ragged 
 Lamachus is better than your reckless debauchee, 
 whose dragging purple is a shame to manhood and 
 a menace to the state. I grieve, my son, that you 
 so often compromise yourself in such company." 
 
 " You don't know him, father. He can do what 
 no other in Athens can do." 
 
 " He can, indeed ! But with the good Nicias in 
 charge to prevent hasty action there can be no 
 serious disaster." 
 
 " It is the finest armament we have ever mustered. 
 A hundred of our own best triremes, with picked 
 crews, and more from the allies — it cannot fail." 
 
 " Not without gross mismanagement ; and the 
 very unwillingness of Nicias, and his refusal to sail 
 with fewer ships, show a prudence which ensures 
 victory from the outset. I have little liking for these 
 far-off ventures, — but you must make your own 
 decision." 
 
 And then, to my surprise, I found that I was 
 myself undecided. So it was with many others : we 
 were shouting down all doubts, from doubting 
 hearts. At length, vexed with my own fruitless 
 debating, I staked the issue on the cast of an obol, 
 
198 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 — the owl for Athens, the head of Athena for en- 
 listment. Yet when the helmeted head 'fell upper- 
 most I could not accept the result. I repeated the 
 cast with a drachma: again Athena smiled from 
 her helmet, and still I wavered. 
 
 In this mood I met Socrates, — for a wonder 
 standing quite alone on the edge of the market, his 
 eyes fixed on the ground. I wasted no words in 
 needless explanations, but let fly my question. 
 
 " Tell me, Socrates, — how will it be ? " I asked 
 him twice before he heeded me. " How will it be? 
 I don't know what to do." 
 
 Then he looked up. " Well," he said, " before 
 doing it is quite needful to know what to do. Wait, 
 then, until you know." 
 
 "But how will it be?" 
 
 His eyes had dropped again; he stood like one 
 listening. " Few will return. It is not your destiny, 
 I think, to die elsewhere than at Athens." 
 
 Alcibiades had joined us. " See," he said, " if this 
 croaker speaks true, you have only to keep away 
 from Athens and you are nothing less than immortal. 
 Come with me: I will make you a ruler of cities. 
 Come : the love of Alcibiades is no light matter. 
 Come, garland," he ended, with sudden reminiscence. 
 
 But I turned to Socrates. " Did the voice tell 
 you that? " 
 
 " The voice spoke." 
 
 " And did the voice also bid me wait? " 
 
 " That was only the voice of reason." 
 
 "But you yourself would counsel me to wait?" 
 
G O R G O 
 
 199 
 
 " Then wait on me," broke in Alcibiades, " and 
 fortune shall wait on both of us. Frog," he cried, 
 turning sharply on Socrates, " have you any evil to 
 croak of me? " 
 
 The answer was not to be forgotten. It came, 
 not as Socrates was wont to speak, but in a slumber- 
 ous monotone, more like the droning of a bombyx : 
 
 " Thou shalt return in triumph, but not from 
 Sicily. There shall be disaster, but defeat shall never 
 look thee in the face. Thou art not to be trusted ; t 
 yet, woe to those who trust thee not. Thy life shall 
 be spent in doing and undoing; and this is not my 
 word, but the voice." 
 
 He ceased speaking, but stood as rigid as a shape 
 of stone, his look lost in space. I had never seen the 
 like before. 
 
 " The fit is on him now," said Alcibiades. " You 
 could scarcely rouse him with a trumpet. He is 
 often so. Once in Thrace he stood thus from night- 
 fall to daybreak, never moving, — then went to his 
 tent with the morning in his face and Apollo only 
 knows what new wisdom in his heart." 
 
 " He has spoken an oracle." 
 
 " An oracle indeed : when he speaks thus it is 
 Apollo's truth. Jove! the meaning is somewhat 
 beyond me, but I accept it. And truly, it sounds more 
 auspicious than most of those we hear. I shall re- 
 turn triumphant, but not from Sicily — from Car- 
 thage, more likely. My face shall bring victory — 
 what care I for the luck of others ? My enemies shall 
 have their fill of woe — these are words of good 
 
200 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 import ; and by the Internals, I have enemies enough 
 to fill the air with howling. I shall make and unmake 
 as I will — perhaps even to the unmaking of Father 
 Demus, Theramenes. Those of my blood once ruled 
 the city better than he. Come with me, Theramenes ; 
 you shall be second only to Alcibiades. Even by the 
 warning of Socrates — against whom none shall 
 breathe a whisper when I rule — you are safe with 
 me, while Athens holds your death." 
 
 " Where better could I die ? Besides, I know he 
 did not mean to-morrow, nor the day after. Alci- 
 biades, you have been speaking treason in my ears. 
 There will be no echo of those words, for I love you 
 better than a brother; but I will not cast my lot 
 with one who dreams of tyranny." 
 
 " How long have you been so devoted to old 
 Father Demus, always a dullard, now deep in his 
 dotage?" 
 
 " I think of the many as you do. The few, who 
 alone make any show of sanity, should rule — if 
 they will rule with honesty and moderation. So 
 Socrates thinks, and so think all men of sense. But 
 for one alone to lord it over all is monstrous. I 
 will not see my countrymen made slaves; nor will 
 I myself be a slave, even to Alcibiades." 
 
 " For your sake," he cried, gaily, " I here and 
 now renounce all thought of tyranny. I will rule by 
 the breath of the mob, as heretofore. We will be 
 tyrants only in foreign cities. You have no longer 
 any excuse." 
 
 It was hard — it was very hard — to resist his 
 
G O R G O 201 
 
 entreaties; but I knit my heart and faced him. 
 " Hear me, Alcibiades. Once before, long ago, you 
 held out your hands to me like that, and bade me 
 choose between you and Socrates. As I chose then 
 I choose now. It is decided : I will not go." 
 
 This was my final word ; yet as I walked away he 
 kept beside me, still urging. As we turned the corner 
 I looked back. Socrates had not stirred : except the 
 light quiver of his tunic in the wind, he stood as 
 motionless as the mantic figure of Cassandra that 
 rose on the painted wall just behind, — and so we 
 left him. But Alcibiades begged in vain. 
 
 A few days later I chanced upon Andocides near 
 the Rotunda. With him were Phrynichus, Critias, 
 Taureas, and several others of the rabid sort, press- 
 ing about Charmides. They halted in their talk 
 as I approached, and stared at me curiously. I 
 turned aside: I did not even salute them; but 
 Andocides, shaking off the hand which Critias laid 
 on his shoulder, made after me. I disliked him, and 
 he knew it; but now he made up to me. 
 
 " I hear that you have broken with Alcibiades," 
 he began. ' 
 
 " I shall not sail, if that is what you mean." 
 
 " But he is angry. They say that he threatens 
 you." 
 
 I stood silent and sullen. 
 
 " I think you are wise," he pursued. " You need 
 not fear him. There are others who will not sail 
 — with Alcibiades." 
 
202 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " I doubt he will miss you," I exclaimed, impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 " Perhaps not. We shall see. Perhaps Alcibiades 
 himself will not sail." 
 
 "You cannot stop him. What do you mean?" 
 
 He peered at me keenly, and seemed to hesitate. 
 He was thin and sallow, with long, lank hair and 
 wavering eyes; I observed that he carried a staff, 
 in the Spartan fashion. " Come," he said, appar- 
 ently changing the subject, " if you stay in Athens 
 you will need amusement. Have you ever heard 
 of our Laconian club? " . 
 
 " Possibly : but how do you amuse yourselves? " 
 
 " Oh, for one thing we study the institutions of 
 Sparta." He laughed. " We rather admire them; 
 they are more to our liking than those of Athens. 
 We even call our officers Ephors. But — Holy 
 Hermes! that is one of our secrets, and you are 
 not yet initiated ! " 
 
 " Safe enough, with me." 
 
 " I was sure of it : you will join us ; you are not 
 of the rabble. It was only because of Alcibiades 
 that we distrusted you. He has**cast you off : you 
 now belong with us." I was gulping with rage 
 and disgust, but he did not perceive it. " You shall 
 soon see changes. Father Demus we scorn. Alci- 
 biades we hate and thwart. Then, too, we have our 
 religious amusements, and to-night — " 
 
 But here anger broke loose from judgment, — 
 perhaps on the verge of revelation. " You amuse 
 yourselves with treason," I cried, " and sacrilege, 
 
G O R G O 203 
 
 doubtless, is your pet diversion. You mimic the 
 Spartans, and are the more like apes. You are 
 jealous of Alcibiades, yet can only imitate his worst 
 faults, — such manikins are you. I will at least 
 consort with men ; and if ever I see fit to turn traitor 
 it will sooner be with him than with you." 
 
 The eyes of Andocides flashed green, like a cat's. 
 " As you please," he said, " but have a care of your 
 tongue. We carry knives as well as canes, and use 
 them to teach the Pythagorean silence." 
 
 " I do not doubt it. Among your Spartan studies 
 the crypteian murder gangs would not be neglected." 
 
 His lips were drawn ; he had come so close that 
 the reek of his wine was in my nostrils. As I pushed 
 him back I heard the low moan of the cord as Golas 
 set his bow. 
 
 " We have learned all that is needful," snapped 
 the Laconiser. " Fool, I would not strike you here. 
 Yet I tell you frankly, there are knives that do our 
 bidding." Then he smoothed his face, and his 
 manner changed. " Come, I will not leave you in 
 such a mood. Our interests are one : we shall need 
 you, and you will need us. I have spoken too soon. 
 You are full of childish scruples and not yet ready ; 
 Critias was right. Still, there is merry riot in your 
 veins. Like myself, you fear nothing and have some 
 tang of wit about you. Well, you are missing sport, 
 but you will come to us later ; you cannot do other- 
 wise." 
 
 " Indeed ! Then hear my answer. When I cannot 
 
204 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 do otherwise I will join you — not one day sooner. 
 Shall I swear it — by all the gods you mock? " 
 
 " Shining Apollo and All-seeing Eye of Jove! 
 You still believe in the gods ? and doubtless in a cer- 
 tain rattle of syllables called ' justice,' often in the 
 mouth of that old rogue Socrates, but less than the 
 breath that utters it? ■ Dear child, are you not also 
 afraid of Mormo? Now don't be angry; you will 
 soon grow older. You were not present, I fancy, 
 when your worshipful Alcibiades, in his drink, 
 showed up the sacred mysteries for a jest ! Such a 
 happy, fruitful jest! and so like him! But in poli- 
 tics you will find it as I have said. With your 
 darling Alcibiades you have quarrelled. With the 
 swinish populace you have neither sympathy nor 
 credit. They grunt ' aristocrat ' after you even now 
 — both at you and your father. Stand, then, by 
 those of your own sort, and don't flinch at a little 
 necessary crime. We are only setting our knives 
 against the tusks of swine before they gore us. You 
 are our novitiate; you have gone too far to recede. 
 Think of this, my virtuous friend. Watch the signs, 
 and take your time, — but meanwhile walk by the 
 rule of Pythagoras, or you will learn more of that 
 crypteian service than you wish to know." He 
 glanced toward Golas. " Let your fellow there slack 
 his bow. Hercules ! but he is swift. By the Twin 
 Archers in Heaven, if the tales they tell of him 
 are true he will be of use to us some day." 
 
 " He is worth your whole crypteian regiment. 
 Should you have occasion to murder his master you 
 
G O R G O 205 
 
 will need a new band. Listen, Andocides. When 
 the ships of Athens are vanquished on the sea ; when 
 Alcibiades is praised in Sparta ; and when — well — 
 when Father Demus himself begins to listen to your 
 proposals to put him out of business, — then I will 
 cast my lot with you, and Golas shall serve you. 
 Till then, no more words." 
 
 " You are rather exacting," he answered, coolly, 
 " but stranger things have happened." 
 
 Boldly as I had answered — and the loudness of 
 my tone had sent his eyes uneasily roving — I went 
 home heavy-hearted. 
 
XVII. 
 
 Broken Stones 
 
 THE next morning all Athens was in an up- 
 roar. Roused by the clamour in the street, 
 I sprang from my bed and ran out just as the 
 sky was lighting. I could scarcely push open the 
 door; an angry, jabbering crowd filled the roadway 
 from wall to wall. I pressed through to learn the 
 cause. 
 
 Nearly opposite our main entrance had stood an 
 ancient Hermes-post. It was like a hundred others 
 in different parts of the city, — a low, square col- 
 umn, carved at the top to represent a head. It was 
 not artistic: the coarse features grinned inanely 
 from a weather-worn frill of spiral curls; the face 
 that was meant for a god's was more like a satyr's. 
 But there the rude stone had stood unharmed from 
 the earliest days, staring with hollow eyes upon 
 the passing throngs of many generations, the cher- 
 ished guardian of the street. Even the Persians 
 had spared it; for all that any one knew it might 
 be older than Theseus. The sacred olives, whose 
 very stumps are fenced about with walls and penal- 
 ties, were not more inviolable; the fairest statues 
 in the temples were scarcely so hallowed. 
 
 206 
 
G O R G O 207 
 
 The space about this figure appeared to be the 
 centre of excitement, and toward it I forced my 
 way; but I found there only a spire of battered 
 marble, rising amid a white shatter of chips and 
 fragments. Every trace of carving had been 
 pounded off with heavy hammers. 
 
 I turned on the crowd and out-shouted its tumult. 
 " Who among, you has dared this sacrilege? " 
 
 " None here! " The answer echoed in from all 
 quarters, mingled with oaths and protestations. " It 
 was done in the night ! A plot — some sedition — 
 a scheme of the godless oligarchs ! We are lost — - 
 our gods will abandon us. Every Hermes in Athens 
 is broken ! " 
 
 " All broken? " I paled with a sudden suspicion. 
 
 " No," said a man near me. " As I passed the 
 house of Andocides I saw one Untouched, — that 
 new one, set up by the /Egeians." 
 
 " The house of Andocides ?" I fancied I knew the 
 reason. But I stood bewildered, making an ill 
 show of myself. 
 
 Then came a voice from a distance. " Is not this 
 Theramenes, the son of Hagnon, who lives oppo- 
 site ? Perhaps he himself could answer — on the 
 wheel ! or that old aristocrat, his father ! " But 
 others cried, — "Hush! Be still, Thraso! These 
 are no traitors. They fight too well for Athens." 
 
 " It is most like Alcibiades," a new voice sug- 
 gested. " No ! No ! " exclaimed many, — " not 
 Alcibiades ! " 
 
208 G O R G O 
 
 " Why should he? " I cried. " He last of all men, 
 for he has most at stake." 
 
 " I suspect that Andocides," shouted another. 
 And while they bawled and brawled, even to blows, 
 I made my way back to the house. 
 
 My father was still in bed. He had slept late, 
 dreaming away the wine, which he used of late more 
 freely than formerly. But he sat up aghast when 
 I told him. 
 
 " The gods will be terribly angered ! Unless these 
 wretches are quickly punished, Athens herself will 
 pay the penalty. And the people — they will run 
 mad. Why did you seek to defend Alcibiades? It 
 was rash; and I think him guilty." 
 
 " Father," I pleaded, " does he not truly wish 
 to sail?" 
 
 " Of course : he wishes to win more races at 
 Olympia, and must buy new horses. His chest is 
 empty; therefore the ships must sail." 
 
 " Would he, then, call down the curses of gods 
 and men at such a moment, to blast his own best 
 hopes ? " 
 
 " He regards neither gods nor men." My father 
 lifted his hand to his brow. " But you are right. 
 He scruples at nothing, but this he did not do — 
 neither he nor those who serve him." 
 
 "But his enemies? and those who wish to stay 
 the ships? " 
 
 " Those most like him, who hate him, would do 
 anything. Call me the servants. I will go out." 
 
 The fleet was now on the eve of sailing; the 
 
G O R G O 
 
 209 
 
 trireme of Lamachus hung on the edge of the outer 
 harbour, and part of the troops were already em- 
 barked. Yet even so AJcibiades could not escape 
 public impeachment. Those whom I most suspected 
 "lay as silent as adders in the dust, but all the dema- 
 gogues and loud-mouthed orators broke out upon 
 him. That he had any shUfe in the wrecking of 
 the statues there was not the slightest evidence, 
 but they denounced him in open assembly with 
 frantic charges — a scorner of the gods, a be- 
 trayer of the people — fiercely accusing him of that 
 old violation of the mysteries of which there were 
 then so many rumours. 
 
 " Shall such a man, perjured in the holiest oaths, 
 doomed by the curse of the Mother of the Queen 
 of Death, lead your armies to certain destruction ? " 
 So railed one of them ; and the priests of the temple 
 foamed at the lips and writhed on their seats. 
 
 Then the officers cleared the assembly of all who 
 were not admitted to the mysteries, and Pythonicus 
 brought in a slave, who, he said, had seen Alcibi- 
 ades and his drunken crew mimic the sacred scenes 
 of the initiation as the sport of a revel, — in proof 
 of which the fellow repeated many secrets and holy 
 words that no slave should know. This I did not 
 hear myself, for I was among those thrust out ; but 
 when we flocked back, just as I reached my place, 
 Alcibiades leaped upon the platform. 
 
 " It is false," he shouted ; and his voice rang 
 nobly, for he was shaken out of all his affectations. 
 " Both the charge and the evidence are false, — 
 
2IO 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 the desperate invention of enemies seeking to 
 wreck my hopes and yours. They, not I, are the 
 traitors; they, too, are the blasphemers. What 
 have you heard? A slave, repeating forbidden 
 words! Who taught him those words? I, Alcibi- 
 ades? Never! Even those who call me traitor do 
 not call me fool : have you put your trust in a fool ? 
 No: the slave learned his lesson from those who 
 needed his evidence — slave's evidence, impiously 
 forged against Alcibiades and Athens. Theirs is 
 the sacrilege; they have betrayed the mysteries. 
 And who else, so likely as they and others of their 
 kind, have defiled our streets and incensed our 
 gods?" 
 
 Here he paused; and the hush that fell on the 
 assembly was like the stillness of a chamber. Then 
 came a rumble of applause, which grew to such 
 a roar of feet and voices that the whole hill seemed 
 to tremble. For the people still loved Alcibiades : 
 who could hear his words, who could look upon 
 his face, and doubt him? And now, within no 
 longer space than an arrow might live in flight, 
 the aspect of the case had changed. His enemies 
 slunk and cowered like hounds when the sky is 
 full of thunder. 
 
 He, himself, stood smiling on the bema, more 
 beautiful than any marble god. He flung open his 
 mantle and bared his shining breast. " Judge be- 
 tween them and me," he cried, " and since the 
 time is pressing, make no delay. If you believe me 
 innocent, let me sail against Sicily with a name un- 
 
G O R G O 211 
 
 stained; if you find me guilty, let me die to 
 morrow. Come: put me on trial at once; it is 
 yours to give the verdict. Shall I go with the 
 fleet to win victories for a city that trusts its chosen 
 leader? or, shall I stay, to drink hemlock on the 
 word of a slave, while another sails my trireme? " 
 And at this there «arose a great cry, for the soldiers 
 would follow no other. 
 
 But Pythonicus, rallying somewhat, demanded 
 that the slave be examined under torture, — which, 
 indeed, was no more than his right. So the fel- 
 low was given over to the tormentors; and though 
 he shrieked in his pain, for they showed him no 
 mercy, he held fast to his story. Whereupon there 
 was great confusion; for all knew that a slave 
 speaks from the rack like the Pythia from the 
 Delphic tripod, and even Alcibiades blanched. 
 Again he pleaded for instant trial; but the priests 
 rose up in a body to demand that there be no 
 hasty action in a case such as this, while all the 
 soldiers and most of the citizens murmured against 
 delay. In the upshot nothing was settled except 
 that Alcibiades must sail with the fleet: black or 
 white, he could get no other verdict then. 
 
 Three days later the triremes sailed, — and who 
 was not there to see? All the people, and all above 
 them or below them — all who hoped or feared, or 
 loved or hated. Mothers, whose sons were on the 
 decks, proud yet tearful, with veils flung back and 
 straining eyes; fathers, leaning on canes, grieving 
 that age had so crippled them ; merchants, grumbling 
 
212 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 at the cost, yet with rich trading ventures in the 
 convoy; traitors, with a smiling sneer and ambig- 
 uous phrases; labourers, hoarse with shouting; 
 officials, full of pomp and bustle; image-breakers 
 and priests, alike with pious faces. Citizens, 
 aliens, even slaves, — all were there; not a hand- 
 breadth of space was left vacant. 
 
 Thrasybulus and I had locked arms; we were 
 almost thrust over the edge of the wharf. " I 
 shall always hate my mother for this," he said 
 between laughing and crying, as he looked at the 
 ships. 
 
 The whole fleet was now heaving on the swell, 
 the oars lifted and ready to strike, the decks aflash 
 with armed men in full metal. Then the captains 
 advanced, each with his golden cup, and at a sig- 
 nal all poured such libations of rich, red wine that 
 for a moment the green waves beneath them ran 
 gory, while all the people raised their voices in a 
 mighty prayer; yet from the very multitude, and 
 the lack of unison, the paean moaned in our ears 
 and died away with a wailing ululation. But its 
 echo was suddenly pierced by the shrilling of the 
 pipes from every galley; the poised oars swung 
 against the water, and the keen beaks darted for- 
 ward like a line of spears. The fleet started as if 
 for a race; and the triremes did race all the way 
 to ^Egina, — Lamachus leading, which must have 
 vexed Alcibiades, while even Nicias could not keep 
 his crew from competing. Yet when the war-ships 
 were dim in the distance, the transports and mer- 
 
G O R G O 
 
 213 
 
 chantmen were still streaming out of the harbour, 
 stretching after them over the sea in a cloudy band 
 that dwindled and glimmered to the very offing. 
 
 " Look at them ! " exclaimed Thrasybulus. " Ath- 
 ens will be the richest city in Hellas when all those 
 come freighting back, full of slaves and the spoil of 
 cities." 
 
 " It is win or lose everything, now," I said. 
 " We shall win all cities or lose our own." 
 
 " Don't croak, Theramenes." He turned upon 
 me almost savagely. " Before the gods, don't 
 croak just as the fleet is sailing. As for losing our 
 city, look at those walls; you and I alone could 
 save the city. And as for this Sicilian business, 
 Nicias will hold down Alcibiades, and Alcibiades 
 will spur up Nicias, and Lamachus will give a good 
 push now and then, and talk common sense to both 
 of them. That three could take Babylon; they 
 will scoop up Syracuse like a rabbit in a net. Those 
 islanders can't fight; they're mostly traders and 
 don't know how. But if they try it, Lamachus will 
 drive them in, and Nicias will wall them up, and 
 Alcibiades will persuade them to throw open their, 
 gates." 
 
 " I believe he could do it — he if any one." 
 
 " Then the rest will come to us on the run. I've 
 learned all about those Sicilians. They can't make 
 a union; they hate each other like Thebans and 
 Platseans." 
 
 We were now between the Long Walls, and 
 
214 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Canon had joined us; he was not exactly of our 
 set, but we both liked him. 
 
 " See here, Conon," said Thrasybulus, still 
 vexed. " Theramenes has black bile to-day. He 
 is afraid these walls are going to be battered down 
 like the Hermae." 
 
 Conon glanced up at them and laughed. " If 
 ever they are, I'll undertake to build them again 
 myself. Does he fancy that the Hermes gang have 
 not yet had a surfeit of smashing? " 
 
 " He has had a surfeit himself — of Bceotian 
 eels, I should think. He listens for voices and 
 watches the crows." 
 
 " By the way, have you heard the last ? They 
 have found new evidence. A fellow named 
 Teucrus, a metic, who ran away the morning after 
 the sacrilege, has come back to claim the reward. 
 He tells a great story; it hits Alcibiades and two 
 or three senators. The whole investigation is 
 started again." 
 
 " Ten thousand drachmas will always buy a 
 story," I answered, crossly. 
 
 " Yes," said Thrasybulus, " from those metics, 
 especially. -What do they care for Athens? I de- 
 spise an informer." 
 
 " The money has bought a fine panic, anyhow," 
 said Conon. " Your lucky Alcibiades got off just 
 in time. Some of the others have run for it; they 
 didn't even wait to see the ship-muster. What's 
 that?" 
 
 We stopped, startled. Shrill shrieks were is- 
 
O O R G O 215 
 
 suing from within the city; then the melancholy 
 cadences of a dirge, mingled with women's cries. 
 
 " The gods avert it, that we meet a funeral," 
 said Thrasybulus in a fallen voice. " I don't 
 study entrails and puzzle over oracles, like Nicias; 
 but an omen like that would scare old Lamachus. 
 If it's a funeral all Athens will meet it, coming up 
 from the harbour." 
 
 " The funeral of Syracuse, perhaps," sug- 
 gested Conon. 
 
 " If it were, the mourning wouldn't be in 
 Athens. That's a good turn, though, worth remem- 
 bering to use with soldiers." 
 
 It was so good, in fact, that it eased our minds 
 considerably. We went on — for there was no 
 other way — and presently met a fantastic pro- 
 cession of women, wailing, waving their arms and 
 plucking at their hair. In the midst was borne 
 a bier, and on it — no corpse of flesh and blood, 
 but a corpse-like waxen effigy, which somehow 
 seemed more gruesome than the thing it suggested. 
 We stood close against a house-front to let it 
 pass; and so many who were behind us did the 
 same that the bier moved through an avenue of 
 men. 
 
 " It is the Adonia," whispered Thrasybulus, — 
 " the unluckiest day in all the year. What pos- 
 sessed them to sail to-day? The women are 
 mourning the death of Adonis in his prime." 
 
 We started on, driven forward by the press, but 
 
216 G O R G O 
 
 the cries still jarred our ears. Conon spoke as 
 if thinking aloud. 
 
 " It is worse than any ordinary funeral — much 
 worse. That might be mere accident; this looks 
 like fate." 
 
 " I am almost glad I did not sail," said Thrasy- 
 bulus. 
 
 " I wish I had chanced it," said I, " with Al- 
 cibiades. It may be that I could have helped him." 
 
 " He admits — so they say — that you saved 
 him from mistakes in Achaea." 
 
 " Conon, did he say that? " and I felt a pang. 
 Then — for I, too, had been pondering on the omen 
 — " was not that Adonis afterward restored to 
 life? " I asked. 
 
 " Yes," they answered, 'both in a breath — 
 Thrasybulus and Conon. 
 
 " It is fated, I think, that Athens shall celebrate 
 the Adonia, — and the corpse will not be waxen." 
 
 " But the city will not perish ! " 
 
 " Athens can never perish utterly," I cried. 
 " The gods love her, as they loved Adonis. She 
 would even rise from her scattered stones." 
 
XVIII. 
 
 Prison and Court 
 
 BUT " what had befallen Gorgo — radiant 
 Gorgo? How fared it, through all these 
 years, with the wonderful rose-glowing 
 maid who had kissed my lips in Sparta? What 
 word had come from my plighted love — my sud- 
 den, oath-bound bride — who had sworn to call me, 
 and to wait? 
 
 No tidings had ever come, — and none were 
 expected. The drumming rap of a messenger upon 
 our panels no longer shook my heart and tripped 
 its steady oar-strokes; on the casket in which my 
 pearly token lay, a dust-bloom had gathered. Eight 
 years had passed without a whisper: it is hard to 
 believe it now, — but Gorgo was almost forgotten. 
 Her face still shone in my dreams — I have never 
 lost her from my dreams; but it rose no more by 
 day to blur the faces of others, and when the rare 
 thought came I thought of her only so — as a 
 dream. And who would keep faith with a dream? 
 
 Indeed, it was at the house of Myrinna that I 
 first learned of my danger. 
 
 " Go away, you great, clumsy hoplite," she had 
 217 
 
218 G O R G O 
 
 said to Thrasybulus, who was with me. " You 
 are in no danger ; but go and polish up your shield. 
 I have something important to say to this haughty 
 young aristocrat." 
 
 " Indeed, he will be safer elsewhere," I re- 
 marked. For Thrasybulus was always too much 
 in earnest in his trifling. 
 
 " I don't care for his danger," she pouted. " He 
 wearies me; and he's such a rank democrat. I'm 
 an aristocrat myself, even if I am a foreigner. It's 
 my nature." 
 
 " You want Theramenes all to yourself," he said, 
 jealously; but which of the two he was really most 
 jealous of I cannot say. 
 
 "Of course I do: go away now, and get me 
 the news," she commanded him. And he went. 
 
 She was reclining on a couch, while I sat stiffly 
 on a chair; for I did not more than half like her. 
 A tabouret of wine and fruit was at her elbow. 
 She was luxuriously arrayed from her embroidered 
 slipper to her heavily perfumed hair. It was an 
 open secret that she admired me; but to me the 
 whole situation was rather sickish, and I shoved 
 my feet uneasily on the floor. 
 
 " You are so cross," she said, with a pretty little 
 assumption of childish simplicity. " First drink 
 my health — both from one cup : see, it is here 
 that my lips have touched the rim." 
 
 " Oh, tell it out, whatever it is," I cried roughly. 
 
 She set down the goblet with a ringing jar. 
 " You are a great brute, Theramenion. Any one 
 
G O R G O 
 
 219 
 
 else would have taken it upon his knees. But 
 you " — she grew serious instantly — " you are 
 right. It is no time to toss kisses and throw cot- 
 tabos when the hemlock cup is brewing. Come — 
 you shall thank me, at least." 
 
 "The hemlock!" 
 
 " Yes, you cold marble Eros, the hemlock. But 
 don't be afraid; it can't chill a heart like yours. 
 But, truly, it is in sight. You are suspected; your 
 name has been mentioned." • 
 
 I sprang from my chair. " About the Hermse ? " 
 
 " I don't know. Yes — the Hermae, the mys- 
 teries, anything sacrilegious; it is like all the rest. 
 You have been intimate with Alcibiades; isn't that 
 enough — for some of them ? I don't blame you ; 
 I admire him. I think that you and he look alike, 
 only he's rather taller — and not made of stone." 
 
 I stamped my foot. " Is that all? What else? " 
 
 " That's the reason, but of course it isn't all 
 they say. You needn't get angry; you won't see 
 me again very soon — if you ever do. You'll have 
 to leave Athens, my Theramenion; if you don't 
 choose some other gate you'll go out by the Dipy- 
 lon, — and you know where that leads to." 
 
 " But what is it they say ? Tell me quickly all 
 you know of this." And to hasten the matter I 
 stooped to kiss her, but almost checked in the 
 mawkish reek of perfumes that hung about her hair. 
 She caught my head in her hands, held it fast for 
 a moment, then pushed it away. 
 
 " Oh, that isn't worth half an obol ! " she cried — 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
222 G O R G O 
 
 some on the merest suspicion. Not that all were 
 innocent — far from it ; but innocent or guilty, as 
 things were going, we stood about equal chances 
 for the hemlock. 
 
 And here, for more than a month, we lay huddled 
 in a gathering ferment of anger and despair. Often 
 the women came, for they alone had free access — 
 mothers and sisters and wives — wetting the dingy 
 pavement with tears we were too proud to shed; 
 but most of us wept with them before the thing was 
 ended. 
 
 Each night we were fettered, since the place was 
 not otherwise sufficiently secure; and each morn- 
 ing, when our shackles were loosed, our limbs were 
 so numb from the stark clamping that we could 
 scarcely stand. For by day we were allowed to 
 move about as we liked; and our chief occupation 
 was to hunt out new prisoners and learn the latest 
 developments. This was almost our only means of 
 information, as few of the women could tell us 
 anything intelligible; they could only make every- 
 thing worse by their heart-breaking lamentations, 
 bewailing us as if we were already dead. And in 
 such a search, one evening, just before the fettering, 
 I found him I least desired -to see, — my father, 
 sitting against the wall, his knees drawn up under 
 his chin and his white beard flowing over them. He 
 had been too zealous, it seems, for his son ; and that, 
 in an obvious aristocrat, savoured of treason. So 
 a vile informer, disappointed in a brazen demand for 
 hush-money, had marked him as a notable victim; 
 
G O R G O 
 
 223 
 
 our city swarmed with these fellows. They had 
 even dared to talk of torture ; but that, because many 
 murmured, was spared. 
 
 Then it was that the hate implanted by my grand- 
 father rushed up from the depths of my soul, and I 
 cursed the people. Had I not just cause? The 
 more wonder is that I ever again could find it in 
 my heart to trust them. Yet they were not wholly 
 without excuse; there were traitors enough among 
 us. But we all grew ripe for treason, and full of 
 the rage and bitterness of murder, as we lay in that 
 prison. Is it so strange that we began to dream of 
 revolution — that we watched and prayed and 
 plotted for our day of vengeance? 
 
 The suspense had grown quite intolerable. At 
 last, after I had held a long debate with Charmides, 
 he and I went together to Andocides, his cousin. 
 
 " Andocides," I said, " you, if any one, know the 
 facts about this deadly business of the Hermse." 
 
 " I was helpless in bed by a fall from my horse," 
 he protested, violently. " I have slaves who will 
 prove it under torment." His eyes wavered more 
 than ever ; his face was gaunt and wild, with sudden 
 writhings, like that of a madman. But we were used 
 to these things. 
 
 " I know that you know, and you know how I 
 know," I insisted, coolly. " We have not, however, 
 selected you, Andocides, as a man who could easily 
 be persuaded to sacrifice himself for the common 
 good. No : this is our plan. Turn informer : you 
 can do that, and we all ask it of you. By this course 
 
224 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 you will save your beloved self, to begin with ; it is 
 not a very sweet path, but you can tread it, and we 
 are none of us dainty now. Then testify what you 
 like — lies or truth, it doesn't much matter, only 
 testify, and satisfy the people. Denounce yourself, 
 of course — you'll be quite immune — and ten or 
 twelve others, as many as may be necessary. Make 
 your own selection: guilty or innocent, sacrifice 
 whom you will ; only get the rest of us out of this. 
 Better that a few drink the hemlock and done with 
 it, than that all of us rave and rot here." 
 
 This and much more I said to him, urging the 
 matter with strenuous insistence, while Charmides 
 supported me with his utmost influence; and in the 
 end we prevailed. I had selected Andocides because 
 I believed him the only man of all in that den who 
 would consent to play the part; and I was right. 
 Even he was very reluctant; but he did it. How 
 much truth he told only he and his victims knew; 
 but those whom he indicated presently went out 
 feet foremost, and the rest walked free, — my 
 father among them. I myself was detained some- 
 what longer because the charge against me was a 
 separate issue, but the public excitement was now 
 so much allayed that I was confident I could vin- 
 dicate myself. 
 
 The delay was hard to bear. I was growing thin 
 and weak, my hair was ragged, my cheeks were 
 bleached with prison pallor; but at length the day 
 of my trial came and I was led before the dicastery. 
 The free air lifted my spirit like wine, yet I walked 
 
G O R G O 225 
 
 with half-closed eyes, and my feet so faltered that 
 I leaned on the arm oi Nicanor. 
 
 " Put a bold front on it, young man," he whis- 
 pered, in my ear," but speak good words and don't 
 be ashamed to beg a little. You are coming out of 
 this business better than I feared." 
 
 As we entered the court I observed that the lintel 
 was blue, which I thought a good sign. The place 
 seemed strangely light. The jury were already 
 arriving, giving up their painted staves and receiving 
 their leaden checks. Soon the whole five hundred 
 were sworn and on the benches. Behind them a 
 great crowd pressed against the rail. Nicanor kept 
 close by me, but my father quickly had me in his 
 arms and many friends gathered round us. Then 
 the Royal Archon, who presided in cases such as 
 this, opened the roll which lay on the table before 
 him and signalled to the herald. 
 
 It was the first time that I had ever stood within 
 the bar of a law court ; but there is no such novelty 
 about a trial in Athens that I need tell all that was 
 said and done that day. Pisander, I found, was my 
 chief accuser; and I was rather glad of this, for 
 although he was a clever speechmaker I thought 
 that so notorious a liar and coward might easily be 
 discredited. But I was mistaken : who, indeed, ever 
 could predict the humour or the judgment of a 
 democratic jury? 
 
 Pisander, of course, spoke first. He proved 
 readily enough the facts of the banquet — which I 
 did not deny ; for the rest, he dealt mainly in proba- 
 
226 G O R G O 
 
 bilities. He dwelt heavily on my associates, — 
 especially Alcibiades. It grieved him, no doubt, that 
 he could not show that this " mystery-profaning 
 profligate " was one of the company on that night, 
 but he made the best of it. " I have learned," he 
 declared, " that it was no other than Alcibiades who 
 introduced that god-detested wretch, Diagoras, to 
 the culprit." The idea that I did not know who the 
 man was he utterly scouted. " As well might the 
 impious mutilators of your gods, with whom this 
 excellent youth was so familiar, deny that they knew 
 their deed was a heaven-defying sacrilege ! " For 
 he must needs bring in the Hermse ! He even made 
 the fact of my imprisonment a presumption against 
 me. Then he sneered at my politics — though his 
 own were not above suspicion — and pointed scorn- 
 fully toward my father and our friends. 
 
 " Of such origin and with such intimates," he 
 said, in conclusion, " a rioter by night, a haunter 
 of the chambers of sophists by day, an enemy of the 
 people always — is it anything strange that he also 
 consorts with an atheist whom the gods have cursed 
 with the visible marks of their anger and the city 
 has justly banned? Together they mounted the 
 stairway of your sacred Acropolis — the hideous 
 foreign dwarf upon whom the gods have visited 
 their execration, and this son of aristocrats. To- 
 gether they stood in the holy temple of Athena, be- 
 neath the very eyes of your protecting deity; and 
 together they jeered and denied her godhead! Be- 
 hold him now, — his hollow eye, his shaking limbs, 
 
G O R G O 227 
 
 his pallid, guilt-confessing face? Has not the wrath 
 of Heaven already begun its work upon him ? Take 
 heed, citizens of Athens, lest the vengeance of gods 
 already hotly incensed fall upon you too, and upon 
 this city — if you too shield an atheist and acquit 
 this scoffer." 
 
 He demanded death as the penalty; and it was 
 easy to see that he had made a deep impression. 
 In that mad time an accuser's task was light, for 
 any charge of ~ sacrilege, however baseless, seemed 
 instantly to horrify the hearer into belief. 
 
 My defence, I suppose, was weak. I protested 
 that I knew neither the man's name nor his character. 
 I denied that I had participated in any impiety. I 
 showed that the stranger, who called himself Ap- 
 teryx, had left the banquet alone, and that I had 
 never been seen with him since. For proof I called 
 back some of my accuser's own witnesses, — he who 
 served me best being Socrates. 
 
 "Apteryx! a likely name!" blustered Pisander. 
 " How dare you testify before this court that you 
 saw no evidence of their complicity? " he demanded, 
 in a rage. " Beware, old sceptic, lest you too be 
 brought before the Royal Archon." 
 
 " And are you," said Socrates, " who thus accuse 
 others of impiety," looking him steadily in the eye, 
 " yourself so wanting in reverence for the gods that 
 you seek by threats to perjure a witness who has 
 sworn to the gods? Take care, my friend, lest, 
 while professing this zeal for religion, you be guilty 
 
228 G O R G O 
 
 of the greater blasphemy." And at that Pisander 
 dropped him hastily, for the topic was perilous. 
 
 But if I had gained any advantage I soon cast it 
 away. The constant slurring reference to Alcibiades 
 had provoked me, and I made, as I thought, a clever 
 turn. " He taunts me," I cried, " with the friendship 
 of the foremost citizen of Athens ! Well, I avow it. 
 Is it a crime to be the friend oi him whom the whole 
 people trust? Is he whom you have honoured 
 beyond all others an outcast whom none may touch 
 without pollution? Will you listen while dastards 
 revile your chosen leader as if he were a branded 
 criminal ? " 
 
 But as I spoke their faces grew black, and a great 
 hubbub arose; some even pressed forward as if to 
 pluck me from the platform. But my father was 
 before them all, springing to my side, explaining 
 with swift words in my astonished ear how Alci- 
 biades had been recalled for trial, had fled to the 
 enemy, had been condemned in absence, and was 
 now a traitorous exile, his country's worst foe. I 
 was quite overcome; I could not recover myself. 
 My tongue was silenced; my thoughts were all in 
 disarray, like a broken phalanx. 
 
 Then my father stood forth, and as soon as he 
 could get a hearing pleaded in my stead, excusing 
 my ignorance, urging his services and mine in the 
 war, beseeching them with tears; but they listened 
 coldly. Others followed in much the same strain, 
 praying the dicasts not to be too harsh with what 
 they called my youthful follies. But when the jury 
 
G O R G O 229 
 
 had voted and the ballots were poured from the urn 
 and counted, more than three hundred were for con- 
 viction. The cup of hemlock seemed almost at my 
 lips. 
 
 But the imminence of the peril had brought me to 
 myself again. It was now my privilege to propose 
 an alternative penalty, — which the jury might ac- 
 cept if so inclined. My father wished to speak for 
 me — to propose a fine of ten talents — exile — 
 anything short of death. But I brushed him aside. 
 
 " Men of Athens," I said, " this contest of oratory 
 is now ended. You have given my opponent the 
 verdict. You have decided rightly. He made the 
 better speech." A hum of surprise arose, but I con- 
 tinued without a pause. " He has made the better 
 speech, but he has lied. You all know that as well 
 as I do." They almost broke out upon me there, 
 but I raced on. " I am no orator : lying is his regu- 
 lar business." Some one laughed. " He has made 
 the better speech because he is the better liar. 
 Gentlemen, every one of you knows it." The laugh 
 became general : the thing had caught their fancy. 
 I took a deep breath and went on. 
 
 " Still, you have condemned me : you could not 
 well do otherwise. But now that the question of 
 the penalty is reached, I am sure that you will listen 
 to plain, fair words, and do no injustice." 
 
 The jury were listening with all their ears : the 
 crowd beyond almost broke down the bar in their 
 eagerness to hear. My father's eyes stood wide 
 
230 G O R G O 
 
 with amazement ; Pisander's were snapping mustard. 
 But pisander had ceased to signify. 
 
 " I accept the penalty : let it be death." The 
 assembly groaned; my father paled; Pisander 
 looked stunned. " I accept the penalty : but, fellow 
 citizens, let the enemy inflict it — if they can." A 
 cheer started, but I cut it short. " If I am to die 
 let it be in the service of my city. You need — 
 and there never was greater need — men who can 
 fight for Athens. This glib Pisander can't help 
 you — the poltroon ! " There were mingled shouts 
 and laughter. His craven temper was well enough 
 known. 
 
 " Or, if you choose, let it be exile, — only let 
 it be where I can still serve my country. My father 
 whispers that Nicias has sent for more men — horse- 
 men especially." I faced the dicastery. " Gentle- 
 men of the jury, I propose as my penalty that I be 
 exiled — to Syracuse ; and that I sail with the next 
 detachment." 
 
 Then the cheers broke loose; dicasts and spec- 
 tators alike stood up and tossed their arms and 
 shouted. When the great waxen tablet had been 
 passed through the jury there was scarcely a long 
 line on it. All were short; my proposal had been 
 accepted. 
 
 Then suddenly my strength was gone, and the 
 court-room grew darker than my prison. But I felt 
 myself in my father's arms ; and we wept together 
 like comrades after a hard-fought battle. 
 
XIX. 
 
 A Waxen Riddle 
 
 THRASYBULUS remonstrated with me. 
 " There's no need of your leaving home now 
 unless you choose. There wasn't any penalty, 
 really ; they just meant to acquit you. You've made 
 a great hit with them." 
 
 But I insisted on keeping my word to the letter. 
 Even my father approved of this. 
 
 " Go, my son," he said. " The camp before Syra- 
 cuse, I think, will be a safer place than Athens in 
 these days." 
 
 Almost a year had passed since the sailing of the 
 fleet, and little, it seemed, had been accomplished. 
 The people were fretful and restless; their impa- 
 tience grew with each dispatch. Thrasybulus voiced 
 it in his own way. 
 
 " We should have had all Sicily by this time, if 
 Alcibiades had stayed. If they were going to offer 
 him poison they might at least have waited till he 
 had taken Syracuse. It's a great mistake; I 
 wouldn't go now if I could. I don't mean any dis- 
 respect to the Hermae " — and he lowered his tone 
 — " but I wish they had been smashed in the time 
 
 231 
 
232 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 of Solon. And those priests, — they are not half so 
 holy as they think. You'll probably meet the pious 
 Nicias coming back," he concluded, " with an oracle 
 for an excuse." 
 
 But the mass of the people still trusted Nicias, — 
 a really honest man was so rare; and though they 
 murmured when he wrote demanding cavalry and 
 more money, six triremes were made ready at once. 
 Two hundred and fifty of us climbed the ladders, 
 carrying our bridles; the horses were to be found 
 for us in Sicily, where they were said to be abundant 
 and of uncommon size and strength. There was 
 also a troop of horse-archers embarked with us, 
 mostly mercenaries and slaves, among whom I en- 
 rolled Golas, though I had my doubts about his 
 riding. 
 
 And now, with our waving fins of fir outspread, 
 we were swinging and balancing over the heaving 
 purple, which ran so smoothly that no oar missed its 
 stroke. The bird-winds, I remember, were blowing, 
 the light gusts now and then flinging back the spray- 
 spurts tossed from our prow; and just as the last 
 white gleam of Sunium was dying in the offing, a 
 long stream of storks flickered between us and the 
 sun, their black shadows swimming across our planks 
 like a shoal of strange fishes. This was the first 
 of all my voyaging, yet I found the soft roll of 
 the swell most soothing; and never since, even 
 in the stormiest weather, have I lost my love of the 
 lift and fall of the waves, or been in any way 
 troubled by it, unless I lay in chains. So I kept the 
 
G O R G O 233 
 
 open deck and gave my body to its spring as a rider 
 gives to the stride of a galloping horse — eagerly 
 asking of those about me the name of each peaked 
 islet or cloudy promontory or nestling town. For 
 here stretched the empire of Athens, and I wished 
 to know its unmarked watery courses as I knew the 
 passes of Attica. 
 
 But still more I observed the ship itself and studied 
 its ways, and especially, when the screens were off, 
 loved to look down into the rowers' gallery, watch- 
 ing the triple ranges of sinewy backs as they swayed 
 and strained to the rhythm of the pipe. It was like 
 a deep trough full of eels, so astir with the bobbing 
 of heads and the wriggle of arms and legs that I 
 could scarcely distinguish those on the lower 
 thwarts. Golas had at first been placed in the second 
 bank, where he plucked his oar through the water 
 with incredible strength, but without willingness or 
 skill, clashing his blade against the others and some- 
 times striking the face of the man behind him with 
 his close-cropped skull. At last he burst both the 
 fir and the strap with one fell wrench, and still 
 grasping the. splintered handle plunged backward 
 through the frightened thalamites to the bottom 
 of the pit, throwing the rest into such disorder that 
 the whole ship jarred and veered. 
 
 After that I had him excused from such service; 
 .and during the rest of the voyage he mainly sat in 
 the hold shaping long arrows from spar-timber — 
 when he was not too ill — and grinding to proper 
 form and balance the hard steel heads with which 
 
234 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I had furnished him. These tempered heads were 
 the only improvement he ever would accept; and 
 even these he would not use as they came from the 
 hammer of the smith, but rubbed each one upon a 
 stone till it was fashioned exactly to his taste, — on 
 what principle I know not. 
 
 We made great progress that first day, reach- 
 ing Cythera at nightfall; and there we sheltered. 
 The Spartans were stirring again on the coast, they 
 told us. When we put out in the morning the snowy 
 peaks of Taygetus were in plain view, up the valley, 
 and the dawn-glow which I so well remembered was 
 upon them. With that came a sense of the nearness 
 of Gorgo. I had not thought of her thus for years ; 
 it was as if she stood upon the hills and beckoned. 
 In Athens she had always seemed remote, like fig- 
 ures seen across a wide expanse of water, which ap- 
 pear no bigger than clay puppets, too small to be 
 alive and real. But now I felt her very presence; 
 the warm sunshine was full of it. 
 
 As we rounded the rocky cape — where a school 
 of Arion's dolphins leaped to the sound of our pipes, 
 though the music was none of the sweetest — the 
 sea grew much rougher, and the choppy waves, 
 squelching among the oar-blades, made the rowing 
 very difficult; but it was still broad day when we 
 reached the harbour at Pylos. Here we put in, both 
 for shelter and to deliver instructions to the garri- 
 son, sailing close past the island where the Spartans 
 had been taken and beaching on the very sand-spit 
 where Brasidas had lost his shield. Many landed, 
 
G O R G O 
 
 235 
 
 but I remained on shipboard ; and just at dusk, as 
 I sat on the ledge of the after gangway gazing 
 back at Taygetus, one of the under-officers of 
 the fort came toward me down the slope. 
 
 " Do any among you know of a certain fair 
 young Athenian called the son of Hagnon? " 
 
 I sprang up. " I am Hagnon's son, and my age 
 is what you see ; but I lay no claim to fairness." 
 
 He laughed. " I follow the phrase as it was given 
 to me," he said, " with this, which has come through 
 much peril for that same son of Hagnon, fair or 
 otherwise." He held up a sealed diptych of cypress- 
 wood, wound about with fine linen threads. 
 
 " It was brought by a fugitive helot, who would 
 tell us nothing of the sender, but swore by the Car- 
 neian god he would bear it to Athens, if need be, 
 for faithful delivery. We preferred that he bear a 
 shield, as we are short-handed ; so, to content him, 
 I gave my oath to forward it in some way." 
 
 "The name?" 
 
 " Names are cheap, remember. Botas he called 
 himself." 
 
 But the name was not feigned. I knew it as that 
 of the helot who had served me in the house of 
 Rhyzon. My blood surged. 
 
 " Can I see him? " 
 
 " No : he is absent on a raid. He will be away 
 three days at least; and, as doubtless you under- 
 stand, many never get back to us. But my duty ends 
 here." He came beneath the stern and passed up 
 the tablet. 
 
236 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 It was sealed with white clay, indented by the 
 pressure of a double row of pearls ; Gorgo had laid 
 her wrist upon it for a signet. I set my knife 
 against the threads and parted the panels with 
 trembling hands; but although I could see that 
 letters were traced on the black surface of the wax, 
 the gloom had become too deep for reading. So I 
 was forced to wait, having no light nor any means 
 of procuring one; and before the sun had risen the 
 next morning we were far out upon the sea. Then, 
 lying upon my face in the shadow of the great square 
 sail — for the wind favoured us now — I forgot the 
 wide sparkle around me and the distant, drifting 
 coast, quite lost in the message of Gorgo. 
 
 It was written with a skilless hand, in odd, angu- 
 lar Laconian characters and Dorian idiom. The 
 purport at first seemed disappointing, and the word- 
 ing strange. For after some study thus I read it : — 
 
 This she of Sparta writes — that zvas called — 
 such a perilous thing to say — like the beautiful 
 Athena ■ — but he said she would not be offended — 
 to him who called her so, whose name she knows not 
 — nor if he lives. For he did not tell his name — 
 but surely he lives. It is Hagnon's son, of Athena's 
 city — and he is like Paris of Troy to look upon. If 
 the one reading is not like that let him not read — 
 for it is not he. But if it is truly he — then between 
 him and this maid were rash words spoken — which 
 it was better, perhaps, to forget. But it is for him 
 to do the forgetting. And if he has forgotten let 
 
G O R G O 237 
 
 him not read — for why should he read? Yet if he 
 can, let him forget — for to have promised and al- 
 ways to remember is so terrible. But if he shall do 
 that he swore to do it is more terrible — and if his 
 life is of any use to him as things are now, he must 
 not. But if life is not good to him so, and he will, 
 it is soon the time. And she who is writing writes 
 thus and not in another way because of fear. Per- 
 haps — if you are he — you will think there is some- 
 thing beneath all this — these words are so shallow 
 
 — and perhaps, if they seem too cold, you can find 
 some way to warm them. But unless you remember 
 
 — or if you are sorry — do not try to understand 
 
 — put all on the fire quickly, wax and wood. And 
 what you took from Sparta put also in the fire — 
 for if ever another should have it those words zvhich 
 were spoken would cling and be a curse to that 
 woman. 
 
 I puzzled long over this. Surely the gods had 
 dulled my understanding. That something lay hid- 
 den here I saw plainly, but I could not make it out 
 
 — not then. 
 
 Yet not all was a riddle. She had kept her troth ; 
 she had not forgotten. And I — I read and read 
 again, with burning cheeks, till the shape of each 
 letter was clearer in my heart than on the wax, 
 and the more I pondered those hesitating, halting 
 phrases the more deeply I was moved. She was 
 calling me ; this was her summons. And I, who had 
 sworn by all the gods — what could I do? I 
 
2 3 8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 looked back over the interminable tumble of the 
 waves, but even love could find no bridge. For I 
 loved — I had never ceased to love her. My spirit 
 groaned with the straining timbers as the ship 
 laboured onward. I renewed my oath : I cursed 
 my helplessness. At last, in the sheer desperation 
 of one who thrusts down a goading memory and 
 buries it in the darkest nook of his soul, I crept 
 far forward through the shadows of the hold where 
 the sheathing narrows to the ram, and hiding my 
 tablet in a cavity among the braces, there I left it. 
 
 So the sun went down on Gorgo's message. We 
 did not put to shore that night, but sailed on through 
 the moonlight, while I paced the deck and watched 
 the dancing lights, holding down my thoughts like 
 one who fights with madness. At last, with a mind 
 as cold and vacant as the paling sky, I stumbled 
 down to my cot. 
 
 When I woke we were moored in the harbour at 
 Corcyra ; the market was already full, and we were 
 taking on supplies. Then we launched out into the 
 open. The shore sunk in the mists of the offing ; the 
 clouds ran low, and though the noonday sun was 
 burning a great tawny hole through the midst of 
 them it seemed as if setting in mid-course. The 
 men grew restless; few had ever before been out 
 of sight of land. The ship quaked and jarred on 
 those uneasy waters like a wagon on a stony road. 
 I stood by the pilot and helped him with the steering- 
 oars. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 239 
 
 " Did you hear what they were saying in Cor- 
 cyra? " I asked him. 
 
 " Hear them," he grunted, pulling hard on the 
 sweeps as we wallowed through a wave-trough, — 
 " I heard and saw and smelt. I can smell out the 
 weather on any sea. Steady there. We have saved 
 a day to lose seven, if not ships and men. So I told 
 your horse-trierarch, but the landsman was too 
 wise for me. Now hold hard." 
 
 For some moments we struggled with the steer- 
 ing-gear. He laughed as I gasped in the spray. 
 " You'll be well seasoned, lad, if ever we ground 
 our keels in Sicily." 
 
 " You smell a storm, then." 
 
 " Smell it — a water-jug would smell it unless 
 its nose was broken off. So I told yon land-loper, 
 but he thought he smelt a bigger storm in Athens. 
 Said I, ' My name's Meletus, but I don't care. My 
 name's Meletus, but steering' s my business, and I'll 
 pilot you down Styx and Phlegethon, too, if that's 
 the orders. But,' said I, ' this isn't like cruising 
 round among the islands. There's a big barbarian 
 wind coming down right out of Illyria, and it'll blow 
 you to Africa if it doesn't blow you to Acheron.' 
 That's what I told him." 
 
 And Meletus spoke no lying oracle ; his nose was 
 infallible. Soon the ship was rolling like a log, and 
 four strong men were needed at the helm. The 
 water rushed in at the ports, and we closed them 
 — first the lower tier, then all — and set up the 
 storm screens. The long sweeps were brought out 
 
240 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 and worked from the deck to aid the pilot ; but even 
 so we could scarcely hold our course. The day went 
 out on our right ; the lanterns too went out, drowned 
 in the smother of brine; and still we rushed on 
 through Stygian night and the roar of Cocytus, with 
 rearings on unseen waves and reeling plunges down 
 slopes of darkness. Below all was tumult. We 
 lurched from wall to wall with groans and curses; 
 not even the sick could keep their beds. The ballast- 
 stones swayed and ground ; the swash of the bilge 
 drenched everything. As many as could keep their 
 feet toiled in relays with the bailing-buckets, but 
 more rolled helpless amid the sliding debris. Then 
 a great wave roared across the deck with a shock 
 like the fall of a leaden dolphin ; then another, and 
 still another. The ship writhed on its billowy 
 rack; the water gushed down from every crevice 
 and rose till it swirled about our ankles; but after 
 a shuddering pause we lifted, heaved upon a crest, 
 and felt again the steady gallop of the swell. The 
 motion was smoother now, yet little hope was left 
 in that black hold. The vows that went up from 
 its reek would have bankrupted Ecbatana, but some 
 who prayed the less bailed the harder. 
 
 At last, when morning glimmered in the chinks 
 of the storm-guards and hatches', I groped my way to 
 the deck. The wind had fallen, but the very first 
 glance made me giddy, for the ship was bound- 
 ing skyward and toppling downward amid hills 
 and chasms such as I had never seen on water. 
 At the stern stood Meletus, still plying the sweeps, 
 
G O R G O 241 
 
 belted with a section of rope made fast to a 
 stanchion. His helpers were gone; his action was 
 wooden and his face as empty of expression as 
 a sheep's. 
 
 " Bring wine," he called. 
 
 I finally reached him with a leather flagon, and 
 held the oars while he drained the contents undi- 
 luted. 
 
 " What, water ! Nay, lad, I am full of it. The 
 mixing-bowl is within me. I am already a tank for 
 fishes." But his face grew red. " Mother of Bac- 
 chus ! " he muttered, presently, " that was no drink 
 for frogs, but Nissean hot from the pitch. It has 
 calked my ribs like a coat of tar." 
 
 He did not relieve me at the helm, but sunk back 
 on his bench directing every turn. I could not 
 choose; I obeyed in a sweat of terror. At length 
 he broke into a laugh. 
 
 " Isn't this better than jogging on a nag ? Here's 
 a sea-horse worth riding." 
 
 I too was beginning to feel the wonderful thrill of 
 it. But after a little, " Where are those that were 
 with you?" I asked. 
 
 " Diving among the dolphins." He spoke grumly. 
 " What would you have ? Every sport has its haz- 
 ard. The sea takes toll." 
 
 " And the rest of the ships ? " 
 
 He pointed out two of them tossing in the dis- 
 tance. " They'll all find Catana if they're afloat," 
 he said. " They can't miss such a beacon asiEtna." 
 
 The men from below were now crawling into 
 
242 G O R G O 
 
 view. They cried to all the gods as they saw the 
 sea. 
 
 " Hush and hide yourselves," roared Meletus. 
 " Dolts ! have you no discretion ? Would you bawl 
 to the gods to founder us for a shipload of liars ? " 
 Then, turning, " Stay by me, lad. You have legs 
 and a heart, — too good a man to consort with 
 prancing beasts that steer by the snout. Stay by, 
 and I'll teach you to wag the tail of a ship ; before 
 we reach port you shall curb the sea-horse." 
 
 He kept his promise. I did not cast away my 
 bridle, but am ever in doubt which steed I like the 
 better. 
 
 Four days we steered by the sun and stars; it 
 was still so rough that we used but a single bank of 
 oars. Our water was scant, our food spoiled by the 
 sea; the hold was full of murmurs. Even Meletus 
 chafed when the wine ran low, though he answered 
 all complaints in his usual fashion : 
 
 " Hitch on with your horses if you want to tow. 
 I'm only a pilot. We're headed landward, for I 
 smell the fume, but I can't reef up a thousand stades 
 of sea." 
 
 During the fourth night he roused me. A red 
 banner hung on the edge of the sky. 
 
 " Is it dawn already ? " I asked, still in a daze 
 of dream-fog. 
 
 He sniffed his contempt. " Do you seek dawn 
 where you saw the sunset ? The brute you ride has 
 better wit. 'Tis the chimney of the earth-god, light- 
 
G O R G O 243 
 
 ing upward. Nearer, you may hear the hissing of 
 his forge." 
 
 " Tis jEtna," I cried. 
 
 Its dark cone rose on the horizon as the morning 
 brightened behind us; the ruddy glow paled to a 
 pennant of smoke, and this first caught the sunlight. 
 Then the vast mass cast its shadow far inland, snow- 
 streaked at the summit, belted with green below, 
 sloping down to the cliffs that beat back the sea 
 along ten leagues of coast. Leftward, close at its 
 foot, lay Catana, like a nest full of eggs, — a low 
 wall ringing a jumble of whited houses. The bight 
 of the shore was lined with war-ships; the whole 
 fleet of Nicias was moored there. 
 
 Thither we sailed; but when we had landed the 
 earth seemed less steady than the deck. All that 
 day the island heaved beneath my feet, and the fum- 
 ing mountain wavered like a swaying mast. 
 
 " Is it always thus in Sicily? " I asked. " Is it 
 the rage of Typhon? " 
 
 Meletus grinned broadly. " 'Tis in the eyes," he 
 said. " To such as stomach well the sea the god 
 sends this land-sickness. I too am rolling, and my 
 feet hit not well on the pavement. 'Tis the mark 
 of a sailor born, and wine is the cure of it. Let us 
 drink, lad, before we part." 
 
XX. 
 
 Days of Battle 
 
 "/^VOKOOK," said Golas, "not, not" — and 
 \^y repeated it many times. Never before had 
 I seen Golas frightened, not even on ship- 
 board, though what his dumb soul suffered I know 
 not. Now he cowered abjectly and grew rebellious 
 in sheer terror. I had ordered him to mount his 
 horse. 
 
 For Nicias, when we reached Catana, was away 
 on an inland raid with most of the troops. I at 
 once procured horses — the best money would buy 
 — and tried to avail of the interval by teaching 
 Golas to ride. A hard task I found it; the horse 
 feared Golas even as Golas feared the horse. Once 
 astride he fell forward and clutched the animal about 
 the neck, so that she bounded off like a deer ; but 
 his frantic throttling soon brought her to the ground. 
 Then, while she stood quivering under the hand of 
 the groom, Golas would crawl at my feet and flatten 
 himself in the dust. I did not spare him. Again 
 and again I forced him to mount; and at last, in 
 a measure, I gained my end. Not that he ever 
 became a true horse-archer; shoot from a horse's 
 
 244 
 
G O R G O 
 
 245 
 
 back he never would. When it came to that he 
 would always spring down, set his foot on the bridle, 
 and so let fly his arrows. Yet in time he learned 
 to ride quite boldly, though in apish attitudes, with 
 both hands almost on the bit. Two good steeds he 
 spoiled with fright and wresting at the jaw, but 
 the third took kindly to him. She would follow 
 at call; a sort of love grew between them; and 
 finally I believe he valued himself more on his rid- 
 ing than on the wonderful bowmanship which in 
 him seemed mere instinct. For whatever mark he 
 chose, within the wide compass of his weapon, he 
 hit as surely and easily as when an artist stretches 
 out his hand and touches here or there on a painted 
 panel. 
 
 One day, when we were thus engaged with our 
 horses on the plain before the wall, a great dust- 
 cloud grew in the south, and out of it flashed the 
 spears and helmets of the Syracusan cavalry. They 
 bore down on us swiftly, but we made the gate in 
 time; then, as we thronged the wall, their leader 
 rode forth as if to parley. 
 
 " We hear," he called, " that you are merely 
 come to settle in Catana. The city is small. We 
 invite you to Syracuse." 
 
 Our captain stood near me. " We shall pay you 
 a visit," he bellowed back in a flush of anger. 
 " When we rap on the gates you may hear more." 
 
 The fellow put a hand to his ear. " We shall all 
 troop out to welcome you," he cried, " but I did not 
 catch the date. Is it this year or next ? " 
 
246 G O R G O 
 
 Our captain, too hot for words, signed to the 
 men. In an instant the air was so clouded with 
 missiles that the figure of the horseman blurred 
 behind them; but all fell short. Even the leaden 
 slugs of the slingers only beat up the dust before 
 him and rolled about his horse's hoofs. He turned 
 his back upon us in derision. 
 
 " Shoot," I whispered to Golas, " but not to 
 kill." 
 
 I had scarcely finished when the mellow bow- 
 string sounded. The raider flung up both hands 
 to his helmet, whence the horsehair plume leaped 
 off in a flurry of shreds. He scoffed no more; he 
 spurred away like one who flees an ambush. Al- 
 ready another shaft was on his track, sailing high, 
 so long in flight that I thought it fallen, — when, 
 with a spurt from his scored flank, the scurrying 
 horse sheered so sharply that the rider pitched head- 
 long, yet leaped up without pause and ran on the 
 sandals of Hermes. Indeed, he almost outran his 
 steed. The whole troop gathered round him as he 
 reached them. 
 
 We were shaking with laughter, and the bow 
 laughed with us. It sprung like a mainstay plucked 
 by the storm; a shimmer shot upward from the 
 string. I found myself counting slowly; at six- 
 teen the distant horses reared and plunged. And 
 still the mirthful paean of the bow rang out, its 
 stinging jests still droned on the air ; and the Syra- 
 cusans, no longer feeling safe at any range, scat- 
 tered from the plain in dusty panic. 
 
G O R G O 247 
 
 After this the praise of Golas was upon all 
 tongues. The troopers swore by Golas and Apollo 
 in a breath; wherever we passed he was stared 
 at with an admiration which he heeded no more 
 than a hound at his master's heel. And chiefly 
 because of Golas, who stood stock-still and grunted 
 like a pig if any other bade him ride or shoot, I 
 myself was made captain of the mounted bows. 
 
 The town was aswarm with soldiers now, for 
 Nicias had returned; his pallid face glistened with 
 anger, they told me, when he learned of the in- 
 solence of the Syracusans. He was convinced, at 
 last, that it was time to strike; and when Nicias 
 did strike he struck shrewdly, a quick, hard blow, 
 like a boxer, who, after a weary while of idle fend- 
 ing, has caught his opponent off guard. Much, 
 doubtless, was due to old Lamachus, whose burn- 
 ing eyes and grizzled hair ever reminded me of 
 a pit of coals that glows the hotter for its crust 
 of ashes. He hastened from man to man and ship 
 to ship; he beat the laggards Jike a Spartan; a 
 slave who attempted to signal the enemy he struck 
 dead. In three days all was ready. 
 
 We boarded our galleys at nightfall, and the 
 great fleet, crowded with men, moved silently down 
 the coast. At midnight we beached our keels on 
 a headland close above Syracuse, and while the 
 seamen fenced the isthmus with vine-stakes the 
 army deployed on the plain. With the first clear 
 light we struck out for the heights that rise behind 
 the city. 
 
248 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Already the Syracusans were astir : faces showed 
 on the walls ; a watcher waved frantic signals from 
 the cliffs.- But we had a long start and the shorter 
 course. I raced up the steep at the head of my 
 Scythians; the foot-soldiers followed at a steady 
 run. I gained the summit through a rocky gap; 
 my whole troop scrambled after with slipping hoofs. 
 Thus far none had opposed us ; yet the enemy, too, 
 were coming fast. I could see them plainly now, 
 rushing up from the marshes that border the bay, 
 a long line of plunging cavalry and hurrying foot, 
 winding toward us in a mottled streak like an angry 
 snake. Their foremost horsemen had climbed the 
 southern slope and were upon us before our main 
 column had passed the defile in our rear. 
 
 Then was the bow of Golas first proved in battle. 
 The leader of the advancing battalion paused on 
 the hillside to form his line — out of range, as he 
 thought. To him I pointed : the ever-ready weapon 
 beside me lifted and leaped with one motion; the 
 Syracusan bowed on the shaft and fell among the 
 stones with crashing arms, while his horse sprang 
 wildly down the track. But the rest — they had 
 not yet learned their lesson. They charged us 
 hotly, — a mere drove without order or command, 
 but my archers never could have stood the brunt. 
 
 " Shoot ! " I shouted. " Drain your quivers ! 
 Beat back their spears or we are spitted meat ! " 
 
 The hill rang with the clang of bows and the 
 rattle of falling bolts. Yet the charging horse 
 came close; their javelins hurtled through our ar- 
 
G O R G O 
 
 249 
 
 rows; but for Golas we could not have held them 
 off. He swayed with his bow like a holm-oak puls- 
 ing in the wind. He chuckled with delight. His 
 deadly barbs sped humming from the cord like a 
 stream of wasps when they fly to sting. No armour 
 could stay them. When we were hardest pressed, he 
 shot through shield and breastplate, man and horse ; 
 and no Syracusan reached us. Then, as Lamachus 
 mounted the crest with his labouring hoplites, the 
 onset slackened, the assaulting spears drew back, 
 and, pelted still with arrows, the enemy broke in 
 tumult down the hill. Lamachus, sweeping the 
 field with one wide glance, rode to my side and 
 smote my shoulder with his palm. 
 
 " Well wrought, young soldier," he said, heart- 
 ily. " You, at least, were worth the teaching. You 
 and your fifty bows have "won the wedge that will 
 split Syracuse." He turned to Golas, whose shafts 
 had not yet ceased to fly; they soared up with 
 steep slant and seemed lost. 
 
 " Waste no good arrows, fellow. That bow of 
 yours peals loud, but no mortal arm can strike at 
 three stades." 
 
 Even as he spoke a Syracusan sunk prone on 
 his horse's neck, and hung there while the steed 
 dashed onward. 
 
 " Firebolts of Apollo!" cried Lamachus, "your 
 stick has pinned him ! " He swore the oath again 
 in sheer amazement. " Son of Hagnon, the fellow 
 is a prodigy. Let a stout shield attend him, and 
 
250 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 a runner with sheaves of arrows. See, they are 
 rallying yonder ; they will try us with pikes." 
 
 For while we talked a dense array of Syracusan 
 infantry had been gathering below as a pool fills 
 from a running stream. They formed in phalanx, 
 with deep files and narrow front. The trumpet 
 brayed ; they advanced with much tossing of brass. 
 
 Lamachus laughed. He had deployed his men 
 on the brow of the hill, my bows in the rear with 
 the slings and darts. " Begin at sure range," he 
 said to me, " and volley them till we come within 
 spear-touch. Then, down on their flank with your 
 horse." 
 
 He rode back to his post. They were now so 
 near that I could see the rivets of their shields. 
 Their pace quickened; they surged up swiftly, but 
 with swaying ranks. I signalled : a sleet of mingled 
 missiles drove in their faces ; their whole formation 
 shook, but they ran on blindly under lifted shields. 
 Then Lamachus roared to his hoplites : their paean 
 swelled; their steady line swept down the slope, 
 each levelled lance as rigid as a trireme's beak. 
 The wavering mass before them could not withstand 
 the shock; the foremost fell; the hindmost broke 
 and fled. And at that we, too, charged, galloping 
 close on the flank of the fleeing mob, shooting 
 them down with arrows as they ran from the spears, 
 — until Lamachus, seeing much cavalry swarming 
 up from the plain, called us back lest we be cut off. 
 So ended that day's battle. The rest of the army, 
 with Nicias, now was on the hilltop, and the Syra- 
 
G O R G O 251 
 
 cusans slunk away to their city. We marched down 
 to their very walls and defied them, but they dared 
 not fight. 
 
 The post we had seized was the crest of a long 
 plateau, which sloped and widened toward the town 
 at its base, the edges dropping sheer on either side, 
 with here and there a defile through which a rough 
 track struggled up. It lay like a Titan's arm reach- 
 ing out, palm downward, from the inland heights; 
 while we, perched on the bony wrist, gazed down 
 on a city spread, as it were, across the fingers, with 
 a wall at the knuckles. The left hand I called it in 
 my fancy; for the broad expanse of the southern 
 bay filled the hollow between the extended index 
 and the rocky ridge that formed the monster's 
 thumb. We were soon to writhe in the gripe of 
 that thumb and finger; but when we looked sea- 
 ward on that second morning the view was fair to 
 the eyes, and our hearts were beating martial 
 measures. 
 
 If only I could have forgotten Gorgo! and I did, 
 — there were hours when I did forget. This was 
 one. 
 
 "What next?" I asked Lamachus, who stood 
 near me. " Shall we storm their gates ? " 
 
 " Nay," he said, with suppressed impatience, 
 " we shall take to building fences. The rest is to 
 him." He waved his hand toward Nicias, who 
 was busily inspecting the ground below us. " He 
 is minded to fight with baked mud and pointed 
 stakes; I can only fight with spears. See, he is 
 
252 G O R G O 
 
 planning- to take them like hares in a mesh of his 
 enginery. He is dainty of blood; he would open 
 their gates with a Melian famine." 
 
 " It will spend the summer," I cried. And here 
 the thought of Gorgo struck through me like a 
 spinning dart. She had called ; she waited ! 
 
 " Aye," said he, " all summer and a thousand 
 odd talents. The spear is swifter than the spade, 
 and blood is cheaper than mortar; but Syracuse 
 shall pay us back." 
 
 And she did, but not according to our hope. In 
 words like these the gods let fall their warnings, 
 but who can read them in the hour of action ? They 
 are not meant to save; the course of fate is not 
 turned by oracles. 
 
 I must own that Nicias knew his craft. Not in" 
 vain had he worked the mines at Laureion; none 
 could do more with wood and stone. First a castle 
 went up on the heights to shield our rear; it hung 
 like a sea-eagle's nest on the northern cliff, and 
 was piled as quickly. Then, descending toward the 
 town, he planted our camp in the middle of the slope 
 and fenced it in a single day. Thence he laid his 
 lines : our walls shot out on either side with embrac- 
 ing arms, which reached seaward so swiftly that the 
 Syracusans were astounded. We could observe their 
 tumult as one watches a chorus from the upper 
 benches: they darkened the streets; they were 
 massing behind the gates. The valves opened : their 
 whole force swarmed from its hive as if to dash 
 in our faces; but when Lamachus moved against 
 
G O R G O 253 
 
 them with sunlit shields and the rhythmic clash of 
 brass, they shrunk away and streamed back without 
 a battle. Only the cavalry lingered to harass our 
 convoys. Lamachus called me. 
 
 " This is yours ; you must give them a run. Take 
 all the horse and what you will of the foot. Teach 
 them to keep their hoofs off the rocks." 
 
 I set a spearman beside each horse, his left hand 
 in the mane; I bade the archers aim low. One 
 sharp charge did the work, for we caught them 
 close by the cliffs, and our arrows crazed their 
 mounts. Some went over the edge; the rest broke 
 for the gates, while we all reined up and laughed 
 to see how Golas kept them running. Their track 
 was well blazoned with his trophies, each with a 
 shaft between the shoulders; and after this our 
 wagon-trains ran free. 
 
 The enemy fought no more in the open field. 
 Henceforth they met Nicias with tactics like his 
 own, crossing our line to the south with a stout 
 stockade, while we were piling stone northward. 
 But no fence of logs could stop Lamachus. Choos- 
 ing the hour of noon, when many were napping, he 
 charged them with a rush that bore down their 
 stakes and sent the defenders in headlong flight. 
 We pursued so hotly that some of our men pressed 
 through the gate with the fugitives — and re- 
 mained within. If the gods were good to them 
 their period was short. The logs we threw down, 
 and Nicias carted them off for better uses. He 
 turned now to the southern wall, and soon brought 
 
254 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 it to the point where the rocks pitch to the lower 
 levels, rearing a tower against the face of the cliff 
 to make good the junction. Thence we started 
 across the marshes toward the harbour with a double 
 wall of baked brick. 
 
 But here a new obstruction rose against us. The 
 Syracusans again crossed our path, running a pal- 
 isade through the swamp, cutting us off from the 
 bay. This they reinforced with a moat, and the 
 quaking morass in front was scarcely better. The 
 space behind bristled with spears; the position 
 seemed unassailable. Not even so was Lamachus 
 daunted. He conferred with Nicias ; he raided the 
 villages, stripping the houses of planks and doors. 
 With these we marched out in eager silence, dim in 
 the morning mist, and flinging them down on the 
 mud where the clay was stiff est, charged swiftly 
 over the marsh; even horse could pass thus. The 
 ditch we spanned with long ladders; the rattle 
 of the iron hooks upon their fence was the enemy's 
 first warning. They met us with desperate spears, 
 but the column behind pushed us on. The great 
 stakes tottered in the soggy soil : they fell ; we 
 rushed through ; the panic-stricken guards fled be- 
 fore us. The moat was a gory clot of mud and 
 blood; the corpses lay in its slime like mangled 
 frogs : but the post was ours. 
 
 It was quite too soon to shout victory; that was 
 yet to cost us dear — too dear. We had scarcely 
 made firm our footing when all Syracuse was upon 
 us; foaming horsemen, panting hoplites, darters 
 
G O R G O 255 
 
 stripped for a race with death, all were there, 'surg- 
 ing against us with the fury of a failing hope. But 
 we were of Athens, and Lamachus was still our 
 leader. Our press of lances bore them back; their 
 feet slipped in blood; shields swayed and sunk; 
 steeds reared and screamed on the goading brass. 
 " Forward ! Plunge with the pikes ! " 
 We drove hard and our points bit deep. Their 
 whole line quailed beneath the stroke: yelling with 
 wounds and rage they thrust back fiercely, but their 
 unison was lost; once more they broke in flight. 
 And still the victory was not yet won, nor its price 
 paid. 
 
XXI. 
 
 The Turn of the Tide 
 
 "F I ^HE horse ! Mass horse and bows ! Trumpet 
 J[ them up and follow close!" So shouted 
 Lamachus — for me the grizzled veteran's 
 last command. 
 
 The routed foot were herding toward the town; 
 already their van was tumbling through the postern ; 
 but the cavalry, cut off by our onset, had made for 
 the bridge over reedy Anapus, which pours its deep 
 tide through the swale to the bay. Here they had 
 rallied : our best spears, disordered in the swift 
 pursuit, were turned. The peril was instant, and 
 Lamachus spurred to the rescue with scarce twenty 
 behind him, crying to me as I have said. 
 
 My troop was dispersed in the riot of the chase : 
 I formed them with all haste; but before we were 
 fairly headed our rash commander, far in advance, 
 was splashing up from the pools of the marsh 
 on the flank of the foe. And there, as I plunged, 
 bitter-hearted, through the clogging mire, I beheld 
 a combat worthy of the Trojan plain. 
 
 A great horseman, with arms that blazed in the 
 rising sun like Hector's own, rode forth against 
 
 256 
 
G O R G O 
 
 257 
 
 him, shouting defiance and calling his name. Our 
 general — again I see it and my heart is bursting 
 — the graybeard was still too young; not yet would 
 old Lamachus stomach a challenge. I could hear 
 his stern accent as he ordered back his men. Both 
 sides stood fast, while the champions flashed to- 
 gether with stark spears levelled. 
 
 "Golas!" I cried. "Oh, Golas!" And then 
 only did Golas shoot from a horse; and then only, 
 and once again, did he miss. " Gods ! " I ended, 
 groaning. 
 
 The two steeds crashed and recoiled — riderless, 
 for each lance was driven home through plate and 
 bone; both spearmen fell, impaled on bloody ash. 
 
 " Upon them ! " I thundered, in a voice like his 
 that was silent. " Kill every man ! " 
 
 We had reached the hard ground now and charged 
 with souls that ached for vengeance, shooting as we 
 galloped and from bowstrings that shrieked with 
 rage. But our quarry did not_await us ; they dashed 
 over the bridge to safety, bearing our dead and 
 their own. To these Golas made additions, even 
 then. 
 
 Again the day seemed won, but we lifted no 
 psean. My spirit had grown as dull and cold as his 
 whose eyes see victory, but whose thoughts are all 
 with the spear-blade sunk in his vitals. I slipped 
 down from my horse and leaned upon his neck ; and 
 if there were tears — 
 
 The distant murmur of reviving battle roused me ; 
 it swelled from the heights we had left. I glanced 
 
258 G O R G O 
 
 up : the whole space between the city and our line 
 of wall sparkled with moving- arms. All the hordes 
 of Syracuse were mounting for a fresh assault, — 
 and who was there to meet them? Only Nicias, 
 grievously sick, with a train of slaves and builders, 
 — Nicias, who had lain that morning prone on his 
 bed, moaning, unable as it seemed to rise. My trum- 
 pet rang the alarm in jarring blasts. Again we 
 floundered through the mud. 
 
 But this man who would sit and wrinkle his brow 
 while others acted, could lift his anguished body 
 when others faltered and guide a battle from a bed 
 of pain. This the Syracusans soon discovered. 
 They had almost reached him now. They were 
 passing his outworks, flinging down the undefended 
 hedge of pickets. If they paused before the wall 
 it was only to wait for the ladders that trailed behind 
 them. 
 
 " They are within : they have fired the camp," 
 I exclaimed in dismay. 
 
 But the smoke that I saw was not from within. 
 It curled all along the wall-front, darting out red 
 flame-blades at the slanted ladders, set already and 
 already worse than worthless. The men leaped from 
 the rungs like creatures caught on a grate, and still 
 as the fire grew fiercer shrunk away, reluctant, 
 wrathful, blistered in their brass. It was plain 
 enough now. Between our outer pickets and the 
 wall lay a mass of enginery, — stacked timbers, log 
 piles, wagons, pitch, and cordage, with all the chips 
 and splinters from the shaping axe. Amid these 
 
G O R G O 259 
 
 Nicias had cast torches; he had reared a new pal- 
 isade of flame, — a beacon, too, for our scattered 
 troops, whose clamour grew loud in my rear as 
 they gathered and ran. 
 
 We rode fast and the rising cliffs soon hid both 
 fire and foe. When we gained the top the flames 
 had fallen, but a rampart of embers glowed against 
 the wall, and the stormers still held aloof in a wide 
 crescent. Then, while we deployed for a dash on 
 their flank, a great shout went up : they were turn- 
 ing ; v all eyes sought the bay. I also turned : the 
 great harbour was flecked with ships, and through 
 its narrow throat yet more were pouring in. Our 
 whole fleet had joined us ; sea and land were ours. 
 The city, too, — it was doomed. What city ? Even 
 then, on the changeless roll of fate, the gods had 
 written it, — Athens. But we said, Syracuse; and 
 so said all men. 
 
 The very Syracusans had no better thought. 
 They fled behind their gates and sallied forth no 
 more. They watched us idly as we carried our 
 double wall across the marsh, from the cliff to the 
 bay. Not a spear was lifted when we raised a 
 fortress close by the harbour's mouth, to rivet their 
 fetter. Their only talk was of terms of surrender. 
 Nothing could save the city now. 
 
 Thus it was noised through Greece; and of men, 
 none doubted. The end was so near that we left 
 the stones of the northern wall unpiled as they 
 lay in heaps on the slope to the sea; why build 
 to-day and pull down to-morrow? Alas, that it 
 
2 6o G O R G O 
 
 seemed so sure! In that hour the wheel of fate 
 was turning. 
 
 For while those stones lay loose and the mortar 
 was not yet mixed to bind them, four ships were 
 slowly beating toward us from the shores of Greece. 
 Only four ships. 
 
 " Pirates," said Nicias, briefly, when the word 
 was brought. " Mere pirates, to harry Italian vil- 
 lages. My task is here." 
 
 Only four ships; but on one was a Spartan. 
 Gylippus he was called. A small man, mean of 
 aspect — but a Spartan, A miserly fellow, in a 
 tunic short and patched and not too clean — but a 
 leader of men. Well, old Boreas, ever friendly to 
 his kindred in Athens, wrought his best to amend 
 the neglect of Nicias. He smote hard on their 
 sails and drove them over stormy courses; but 
 at last they put in at Tarentum. Great was the 
 interest of the Spartan when he heard of those stone 
 heaps down by the sea. 
 
 " I hear that Gylippus has given us the slip and 
 gone inland," said Nicias; for at last he had sent 
 an intercepting squadron — too late. 
 
 " They say he is raising troops for Syracuse," 
 I answered, — vexed, for this might mean delay. 
 
 " Yes, and Syracuse knows it," said Nicias. He 
 was paler than usual, and a cold sweat gleamed on 
 his brow as the pain clutched his vitals. " A boat 
 stole through last night with the news. But for 
 that, the gates would have opened for us to-day> 
 Yesterday all was arranged; now they whet their 
 
G O R G O 261 
 
 spears. I have ever feared the gods were against 
 us in this," he concluded. 
 
 "Finish the wall," I cried hotly. "With our 
 circle locked I would defy the very gods." 
 
 His look was severe. " Such words invite their 
 anger; such words, rash youth, have brought ruin 
 to cities." 
 
 " Then let them bring ruin to Syracuse. My 
 words on my head! Build the wall." 
 
 " Lamachus, too, would provoke them by hasty 
 speech," he went on, mournfully. " And that Alci- 
 biades ! But I — I have never neglected the smallest 
 point of duty." He bowed his head. " They are 
 unforgiving. They rack me with agonies; they 
 beset me with troubles for the fault of others. Yet 
 the wall " — he groaned — " shall be built. There 
 is time enough." 
 
 There was time. But the workmen fled and a 
 remnant of stones still lay scattered when the Spar- 
 tan paraded by with his motley three thousand, 
 culled from all over Sicily. They passed us in battle 
 array, marshalled under the forms of Lycurgus; 
 they had been well drilled on the march. The 
 whole force of the city trained out to meet them 
 with pipes and paeans, while Nicias writhed on 
 his bed. Not a blow was struck. 
 
 Then a trumpet came forth. " The clemency 
 tendered by Sparta to the men of Athens ! " He 
 proclaimed it loudly, that all might hear. " Five 
 days Gylippus grants them to leave Sicily with 
 
262 G O R G O 
 
 ships and arms. But his mercy extends no further ; 
 from the fifth day it is war to the death." 
 
 To this insolence we made no answer, — not even 
 a scoff. Among ourselves, perhaps, we sneered, but 
 with bated breath. Sparta ! the name was daunting, 
 even to us. And thenceforth all went awry ; it seems 
 beyond belief that things could go so ill. But the 
 moment when Athens might have seized the empire 
 of the world had passed unused, and our fortunes 
 ever slanted downward. Of this it seemed the vis- 
 ible symbol when we slipped from our point of 
 vantage on the hill to camp in the foggy marsh 
 below. Yet that soon came. 
 
 For Gylippus was certainly a man of conduct; 
 his hand reached out at once to grasp the key- of 
 the siege. First, holding our forces in play by a 
 show of spears before the wall, he himself with 
 his bravest climbed against our castle on the heights. 
 The surprise was perfect; not a man of the garri- 
 son was spared. Then, crossing our uncompleted 
 wall with a traverse to the northern cliff, he blocked 
 it forever, using the very stones that should have 
 stopped him. Some sharp fighting there was, 
 wherein I bore my part and took my first wound; 
 but the rabble of islanders fought with Spartan 
 tactics now, and Spartan discipline — for Gylippus 
 would have no other — and they held us off with 
 steady shields. 
 
 " The siege is ended." So I cried in my heart, 
 — half-glad. So Nicias also thought, though far 
 from gladness ; for then it was that he led us quite 
 
G O R G O 263 
 
 off the heights, down to our lines by the bay. We 
 were both deceived: the siege was not ended, but 
 reversed. 
 
 The foul reek of the swamp was about us; even 
 water was hard to get. To find fuel and forage 
 was yet harder; the Syracusan horse infested all 
 the plain. Every day they swooped at us, — for 
 venture out we must ; and here I got a new wound, 
 which healed but slowly. Like our commander we 
 were sick in soul and body. Our allies were de- 
 serting; the enemy even vexed our corn-ships on 
 the sea. So the winter closed in upon us. 
 
 Nicias had called me to his tent. A dark rain 
 was pouring without; the rugs which his slaves 
 had spread were damp. He had been writing a 
 letter, and sat on the edge of his pallet with the 
 unsealed tablets at his knee. 
 
 " This must go to Athens," he said, heavily. " I 
 have need of a trusty messenger." 
 
 My heart bounded. He eyed me with a searching 
 look. " You are young," he continued, " young, 
 and I fear profane — like the rest. But I know 
 that Lamachus trusted you." His eyes had grown 
 moist. " That is something. Lamachus, though 
 he judged ill of risks, was no mean judge of men." 
 
 " He taught me all I know of fighting. I loved 
 him." 
 
 " He is with Persephone; I trust he was a true 
 initiate and faithful to his vows. But the question 
 is not of Lamachus. By his death I am left sick 
 and alone. My burden is too great for me." His 
 
264 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 look was woeful. " I must be recalled, son of 
 Hagnon." 
 
 " Let all be recalled," I cried. " Why fight longer 
 against the Spartans and the gods ? " 
 
 " That is the tenor of it. But the city will not 
 listen; you know the people. I need not a mes- 
 senger, but an advocate." 
 
 " I will plead — as we plead before them for our 
 lives." 
 
 " It is no less : you will plead for many lives ; 
 you will plead for Athens. But you know how to 
 talk to them. You have a tongue; your words hit 
 straight. I have heard, you see, of your bout with 
 Pisander." He smiled wanly. " But my envoy 
 must return. He must swear it, — by the dark gods 
 and the three avengers he must swear." 
 
 I startled at that ; but there was no retreat. He 
 led me to a little shrine beside his bed and I swore 
 as he bade me. He read me the letter, sealed it, 
 and laid the tablets in my hands. 
 
 " Now go : your trireme is manned and on the 
 water. You will meet rough weather t but one 
 Meletus will be your pilot, — a sure rudder." He 
 sunk back faint, for his spasm had come and the 
 pain was cruel. 
 
 " Nicias," I exclaimed, " sail with me. Let all 
 sail with me, and absolve my oath." 
 
 His smile was ghastly. " Have you, then, a fair 
 mistress in Athens? But the people would never 
 endure it. Go : tell them of this." 
 
 His physician rushed in with the slaves; and I 
 sailed alone. 
 
XXII. 
 
 The Riddle Solved 
 
 'TI TELL, lad," said Meletus, as we swung on 
 
 VV tne sea with full banks beating against 
 a light head-wind, " have you had enough 
 of them?" 
 
 " What ? " I answered, bewildered ; for I was 
 deep in thought. 
 
 " Those brute nags. Those dancing caravels that 
 make a tempest with their own four legs and pitch 
 in a dead calm. They make me seasick — those 
 ground-hoppers." 
 
 " What do you know about them ? " I asked, with 
 some interest. 
 
 " I know all about them. I've been on deck. 
 Those fellows at Catana ran me up the ladder, — 
 the god's fire-fork split them ! " 
 
 "You!" 
 
 " Yes, me ! By all the little gods that perch be- 
 hind our rudders, me! Am I a lying walker on 
 mud to mis-steer with the tongue? Oh, be sure, 
 I had a fine freight of vintage in the hold, stowed 
 away good and dry. They'd got me started up 
 that cursed JEtnz to see where the fire came from." 
 His eyes sought mine with a furtive squint. 
 
 265 
 
266 G O R G O 
 
 " You climbed to the chimney of Typhon ! " 
 
 " Not so far, lad. Not above half a league — 
 or a league and a half — I know not. 'Twas prow 
 up all the way, and choppy ; the wind trailed out, too, 
 and I tired of such hard pulling. Then they laid 
 alongside with this nag, — stilted up, mind you, 
 like a hulk in the yards; but they lent me a hoist 
 and I swung aboard by the fore cables. Then all 
 at once she was plunging on a stiff sea." 
 
 " You mean that they got you drunk and led you 
 up a precipice and put you on a Sicilian horse? " 
 
 " Well, doubtless I was as drunk as needful, 
 as you might know. But I blame them not for that. 
 'Twas much as you say, I surmise; I think I told 
 them I could steer such a cockle down Phlegethon. 
 But the tackle was not to my mind ; the rigging was 
 all clumped about the beak, and when I reached 
 back for the rudder the sweeps wouldn't bite. Then 
 I reached both ways; 'twas the stern-post I had 
 hold of, I fancy." Again he leered, as I laughed. 
 
 " Anyhow, we ran down the roughest course 
 I ever pointed. I was seasick, I tell you — right 
 sick; the lift of the swell would have sickened 
 Poseidon. A tangle of brailing lines whipped at 
 my face in the gale; 'twas an ill-trimmed craft. 
 I think I had what they call spurs at the cat-heads, 
 and I sent them aft for anchors." 
 
 " And still you are alive," I choked. 
 
 " I was none so sure of that, my lad, when I 
 flipped over the bulwarks and splashed in the dust. 
 I had lost my bearings; I conceived I had gotten 
 
G O R G O 267 
 
 a fall to the deck. 'Twas no soft brine I struck." 
 He paused. " The Lord of Olympus blast those 
 fellows! They said I was stretched for swimming 
 when they hauled me in. But a flagon mends all." 
 
 I knew well what he wanted. The sea was low, 
 and we made a sailor's night of it. 
 
 But I could not drown my restlessness in wine. 
 Something lay in my soul, just beneath the groping 
 fingers of my thoughts. In my sleep I am sure it 
 rose clearly ; but when I awoke I had lost it. Yet 
 something lingered. Some faint impression deeper 
 than the eyeball; a filmy flush as of remembered 
 roses, not seen but felt, and with it such a sense 
 of sweetness, beyond all roses ! It must be — noth- 
 ing else was like that. Gorgo! my soul had felt 
 her kiss. Then, as the rose-light faded — yet the 
 sweetness was still around me — on a dusky back- 
 ground, traced with curves and angles, I read — 
 
 I started up, cleared my eyes and looked about. 
 The ship shook with the even pulse of the oars; 
 the shadow of the pennant quivered on the deck : 
 it was almost noon. The sail, now set, was clouted 
 with a patch ; the swinging ladder showed a broken 
 step; the very planking seemed familiar. I noted 
 the knot beside which I had lain as I pored upon 
 Gorgo's letter. Her letter! It still lay in the tim- 
 bered gloom at the roots of the ram. I soon had it 
 forth. 
 
 But grievous was my disappointment. I could 
 scarcely force open the tablet. The hot Sicilian 
 sun had made the place an oven, and the wax had 
 
268 G O R G O 
 
 run; not a dint was left of all that Gorgo's hand 
 had printed. " Yet " — after a sigh — " it matters 
 little," I thought. " I have only to close my eyes 
 to see it as it was, — every stroke of the stylus." 
 Then, suddenly, where the wax had left the wood 
 I perceived faint markings. 
 
 "Fool!" I cried in my heart. "Oh, thick- 
 skulled Boeotian! Was this the keen Athenian wit 
 to which she trusted? " For the words that were 
 melted from the diptych flashed up within me in 
 characters that flamed with light. A child could 
 read their meaning : — 
 
 Perhaps — if you are he — you will think there 
 is something beneath all this — these words are so 
 shallow. Perhaps, if they seem too cold, you can 
 find a way to warm them. 
 
 The sun-god had solved my riddle ; I had found 
 the way — at last. With a heated strigil I scraped 
 the clotted wax from the cypress; and a maze of 
 letters lay before me, pricked deep in its substance 
 in crowded lines, close-packed. I read them slowly : 
 my heart was throbbing with the flutter of a sprung 
 bowstring : — 
 
 Yes, it is I, Gorgo — she that once — so strange 
 a thing for her to do — the same Gorgo that kissed 
 you, boy, on the lips. But you know already, and 
 you do remember ■■ — else you would never have 
 found me here, my very self, under the wax. And 
 — / love you, Athenian boy — boy, more than 
 ever — for that comes first and is most of all. And 
 
G O R G O 269 
 
 / keep my promise, and will always. But whether 
 I can always keep it and keep this Gorgo too I do 
 not know. Yet I would not call had I not sworn. 
 For if I call you will come, and then, I think, we 
 will soon both be dead. Myself, I would not care so 
 much then. We would just go together, wherever it 
 is — and I would much rather be there with you 
 than anywhere with Lysander. But I will maybe 
 have to go there alone — unless you can find another 
 way. boy — if you really do love that Gorgo 
 and know of any way, come now and save me. Yet 
 if you don't see a way, don't come. Don't come to 
 die. For I will wait yonder just as I promised here 
 — and after a long time you will come and find me, 
 even in that darkness. 
 
 But know that I that write am writing truly and 
 am truly Gorgo — with whom such words were 
 spoken — since for this she learned writing, and not 
 for the accounts, as she told some one. Yet she does 
 keep the accounts, for he is old and cannot see 
 clearly, and will trust no other. And if you will 
 come in spite of all, this is the beginning: 
 
 At the place they call Malea, where the waves 
 beat so loud — and some say that hewho goes there 
 must bid farewell to home and friends, but I hope it 
 is not so — at that place is a shelf of the rock, high 
 over the sea. And there this Gorgo has stood some- 
 times, watching for a ship that might come — but 
 she cannot go often, for it is far and so hard to 
 make excuses. On that shelf is a hut where a helot 
 sleeps, and the wife of the helot is a servant to 
 
270 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Gorgo. He is true and has been told, and if he be 
 there he will come down quickly when you wave 
 your arms with fingers clasped about the wrist — 
 or if any one speaks to him of pearls he will know 
 surely. But if that man is not there, it is thus: 
 
 The face of the cliff you cannot climb, but for 
 one who creeps forward a little, close under the 
 shadow of the rock if it be morning, for him there 
 is presently a path — and this you must climb with 
 bare feet, lest you slip. Do not hasten because you 
 think that Gorgo may be there, lest you slip. And 
 do not linger in the hut, lest another come, for he 
 too has been in that place — Lysander. But look 
 about quickly and by the edge you will see a great 
 stone, that looks as if it might fall, yet a strong 
 man cannot move it. From that stone a rope hangs 
 behind bushes — and by the rope one may reach a 
 path, and by the path a little cave under the rock 
 — which Lysander does not know, but only the 
 helot and Gorgo. There wait — or if you cannot 
 wait leave a writing, and Gorgo will surely see those 
 words. 
 
 But do not come unless you see another way 
 than to iight with Lysander. He is so terrible, that 
 Lysander, when he may not have his wish, and Rhy- 
 zon has told him — but not what Rhyzon did not 
 know. For Gorgo has never told anything, nor 
 forgotten — not one least word, Athenian boy. 
 
 I arose with trembling knees and set teeth. I 
 seemed again to feel that kiss upon my lips, and 
 
G O R G O 271 
 
 with it the bite of Spartan spears. But my mind 
 was made up. It might be too late, it might cost 
 me all the blood that -Syracuse had spared, but I 
 never would pass that ominous Malean headland 
 without a trial. Oath or not, I would make the trial ; 
 not to Nicias only nor Nicias first had I sworn. I 
 would keep both oaths if I might, — but death 
 absolves. 
 
 I strode aft. " Meletus," I said, without preface, 
 " you must make room in the hold for two horses." 
 
 " Horses ! " he roared, " by god's trident I had 
 thought the lad was mending, and he is seized with 
 a fit of horses in mid-sea. But take wine, lad : it will 
 pass." 
 
 " Be still. You must find me space for two horses 
 under deck." 
 
 " I must find him space for two horses! It shall 
 be hellebore, not wine. Horses! and naught but 
 good water down the offing. But I myself have 
 seen those beasts after much wine. The lad is not 
 yet seasoned." 
 
 " For two horses," I repeated, " to be taken on 
 at Corcyra. Cease your bellowing and mind the 
 rudder." 
 
 " The lad mends a little. He no longer thinks 
 to have his horses from the stables of Poseidon. 
 I am loath to pour hellebore down his throat, and 
 a flagon may serve. But two — he said tWo — yea, 
 two horses! Can it run in the poor lad's fancy 
 that I, Meletus, as having lately learned to ride — " 
 
 " Never think it," I cried. " My companion will 
 
272 G O R G O 
 
 be no mellow old pilot, whooping about Phlegethon, 
 crossing- his legs for a better hold on the ground 
 and viewing his steed as a thing on a line of stilts 
 in the dazzle of his wine." 
 
 " How else would I mount the rigging of a horse? 
 and as for the number of props, they do vary with 
 time and circumstance. Yet why do I reason with 
 the lad? He has turned red from pale: it is but 
 the wine; his long mispractice gives his conceit this 
 aspect. Lad, there is no horse near you. Doubtless 
 he, too, thinks to nag it up a mountain side and see 
 Typhon blow fire from his nostrils." 
 
 " Yes," I said, " I shall ride straight up a moun- 
 tain and hope to see there the reddest fjre that ever 
 glowed; but I ride not with anchored spurs nor 
 gripping the tail." And I turned on my heel. 
 
 " I mind not," he muttered, " but thus- it is to 
 ride horses. The god af the centaurs nags him still 
 for past follies." 
 
 Despite the dismay of Meletus we put in at Cor- 
 cyra. Good chargers were scarce, but gold will buy 
 bread from famine, and I presently had on a noble 
 pair, — deep-chested, wide in the hoof_, such as gal- 
 lop the sands about Cyrene and will run all day 
 without rest or drink. They would both come at 
 call and turn at a touch; their eyes were like a 
 girl's. I made love to them even on shipboard, 
 and soorf they would lay their soft muzzles caress- 
 ingly on my shoulder. 
 
 And now at last, after much ill weather, the Ma- 
 lean cape rose in view. It was just at sunset, but 
 
G O R G O 273 
 
 I could easily descry the goatherd's hut ; no human 
 figure was visible. That night, not without hazard, 
 we landed the horses; and while Golas held them 
 just beyond the surf, — 
 
 " Meletus," I said, " stand out with safe seaway 
 until noon to-morrow. Watch the rock, and if 
 you see my signal put in quickly with a tender and 
 the best oars. Nay, old sea-hound, it will be no 
 matter of horses.; rare chargers they are, those 
 two — but if fortune serves so well I will even leave 
 them on the Spartan plain as a ransom for her I 
 bear away." 
 
 I heard him slap his thigh. " By the fifty loves 
 of Father Jove, this is better. A lass — I might 
 have known ; but my wits made some shift of ballast 
 on yon .^tna. I will stand by, and at signal take 
 you off though it were the black coast of Acheron. 
 But how then, lad, if you signal not? The gods 
 defend you, Theramenes — is it in your thought to 
 run before a Spartan tempest on such craft as the 
 mares ? " 
 
 " If by midday you see no signal, make on for 
 Athens with quick pipes and full banks. There 
 deliver the letter that lies under my pallet. And 
 mix no wine with public business." 
 
 " Never sheer for that : I am no way minded to 
 mix my wine with a grinding of the hemlock. But 
 you, lad? In this affair of a lass, if by taking 
 passage with you — " 
 
 " You must speed the letter. As for myself, I 
 have sworn. It shall be as it may." 
 
274 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Swear not too deeply, lad, and choose well your 
 oaths. With a lass a sweet, soft, harmless oath 
 serves every need. I myself, in these matters of 
 lasses, swear mainly by the gods of Egypt, within 
 whose grasp I seldom come. In truth, I now sail 
 wide of that coast. Or swear by the goose of the 
 prow, lad — it is a gentle, wooden thing ; or, if 
 that suits not, by the fan of Aphrodite, which blows 
 up no gales to founder ships." 
 
 " Make no lurch on the letter," I called after him. 
 And so we parted. 
 
 With Golas, who could see in the night like a 
 prowling fox, I led back from the shore a little 
 and stabled the horses under a thicket. Then, as 
 the mist began to whiten, I groped out the path 
 and climbed upward alone. It was well that I 
 had heeded Gorgo's caution, for the steep track was 
 glazed with dew; soon I hung in a cloud, all gray 
 above me and beneath. Lizard-like, flattened against 
 the rock, I crawled on until the fog rolled far below ; 
 and here the path turned and led seaward, edging 
 the cliffs and almost halting my heart with its nar- 
 rowings. Yet the end of this goatish scramble 
 was indeed the shelf of rock. The hut was empty; 
 I swung down by the perilous rope, found footing 
 and presently the cave. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 In the Grotto of Gorgo 
 
 THE cavern, too, was empty. It was no deep 
 vault — scarcely more than a balcony beneath 
 an overhang of rock, fronted and shielded 
 from eyes below by a lift of wall like a balustrade, 
 in part natural and partly piled of rough stone. In 
 the deepest recess lay a pile of fleeces, and behind 
 them several jars of wine; also a number of La- 
 conian cheeses in willow crates, well gnawed by 
 mice, and barley cakes nibbled about the edges. Of 
 Gorgo I saw no trace. I made, however, a hearty 
 meal — for my stomach pined — then turned to the 
 front. 
 
 The ship of Meletus lay heaving just under me 
 — so it seemed; yet doubtless the distance was 
 many stades. Her oars were out, but they merely 
 swung with a light plash backward to hold away 
 from the rocks. In an instant all was commotion; 
 the pipes blew shrilly and the prow leaped forward. 
 I almost cried out: it still lacked much of noon. 
 Then, glancing westward, I saw three Spartan gal- 
 leys bearing down with all the impetus of bending 
 spruce. Meletus fled before them, drawing far out 
 
 275 
 
276 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 from land. I laughed in my heart, for the spaces 
 widened, — then sighed — the horses were now my 
 only hope. I could not in fairness blame Meletus 
 — but while my thoughts excused him his galley 
 wheeled in a foaming circle ; a swift swoop sheared 
 from the foremost Spartan half her oars; a sharp 
 turn cleft the second amidship. The third, rearing 
 on the sudden back-thrust of her oafs, put about 
 and made good flight; though I have learned since 
 that she was taken off Cythera. But Meletus did 
 not pursue; while one of his victims sunk with all 
 on board and another drifted toward the rocks with 
 broken pinions, he swung back to his post. He 
 glanced up : I noted that now the deck-shadows lay 
 straight toward me. Three times he gazed; I 
 fancied that he even saw me^ but he shook his 
 head and turned. Yet again he faced the rock, and 
 his hoarse voice floated up faintly. 
 
 " I go, lad, — but this blows in the teeth of my 
 liking. I know not if I bawl to aught but ears of 
 stone; but the gods defend thee, lad, from man and 
 beast." 
 
 The oars dipped, the ship glided from before me ; 
 it was soon far down the eastern water-slope. I 
 drew back rather drearily, cast myself on the fleeces 
 to meditate, and slept. 
 
 I dreamed of the Syrian. Again I was a child: 
 his claw was on my throat, his hissing whisper in 
 my ear. I awoke with a scream, — which swelled 
 in my breast and ebbed away without sound. A 
 broad hand was over my mouth ; a swart face looked 
 
G O R G O 277 
 
 into mine; behind, all was dark^ but a lamp-horn, 
 set on the ground, shone up faintly. " Best not 
 make noise," said the lips. 
 
 " Pardocas ! " I gurgled through his fingers : they 
 relaxed. 
 
 " What that ? Best not make loud oath. Spartans 
 down yonder — their ship break up on rocks. But 
 give word, or perhaps I call them." 
 
 The face was not black, though dusky with tan 
 and shadow. The look was kindly. 
 
 " Botas ! " I whispered. 
 
 " Yes, Botas. I think you know word. Best 
 give word." 
 
 I was sitting up now. " Is it not pearls, Botas ? I 
 am come to take them, Botas, — all my pearls. Yet 
 some I have already; and of others I have lately 
 seen the print — on the wax, Botas." 
 
 His rugged visage melted into something child- 
 like. He clasped my knees. 
 
 " She will be glad. It has been much time. I am 
 her helot — I am Botas, that bore the wax. She will 
 be glad. My wife, too, is hers, in Sparta — not 
 like me — more beautiful, like her." 
 
 I felt the wrinkle of a frown but lost it in a 
 smile. 
 
 " Your helot too I will be. She said it — Botas, 
 helot of Hagno's son of Athens, where they beat not. 
 I will tend your goats. Lysander's helot I will not 
 be. She will be glad: it was near time. But she 
 said, ' He will come, Botas — he that speak of 
 pearls — Hagno's son. He with eyes like mine,' 
 
278 G O R G O 
 
 she said — so it is, master — ' for we both,' she 
 said, ' of Ion. Or perhaps he lift arm, thus. Watch, 
 Botas,' she said, ' and serve him.' But Lysander she 
 hate. It was time." 
 
 "Lead me," I cried, "to Sparta — to Gorgo. 
 Lead me the nearest way." 
 
 " No, no ! she said not lead to Sparta, but Botas 
 bring word quickly — and to keep very far from 
 Lysander. I am her helot : I obey her." 
 
 I thought a moment. " Can you ride," I asked, 
 " and lead a horse? " 
 
 " I ride my donkey," he answered, " till she die. 
 Yes, I can lead. But you stay in cave." 
 
 " I too obey her. I will furnish you with better 
 than a donkey, yet as kind. Take the lamp and 
 guide me down the path." 
 
 Never before, I think, nor ever in all the ages 
 since, was helot goatherd so mounted. I grieved, 
 at first, for the horses — they too have their pride 
 of birth — but he used them humbly. 
 
 " I been groom once," he said. 
 
 Yet even Golas gave them up to him rather grudg- 
 ingly. Indeed, Golas seemed suspicious of the whole 
 affair — almost sullen. He had an old stone-headed 
 arrow, which he always carried in his quiver but 
 never shot; this he drew out, and muttered over it. 
 
 " Botas," I said, " ride fast. Bring her quickly, 
 and you shall be no more a helot; return without 
 her, and you shall be a helot no more." 
 
 " Best wait in cave," he called back. 
 
 I turned toward Golas. He had fitted his arrow 
 
G O R G O 279 
 
 on the string. " Put it away," I cried sharply, — 
 " what do you mean ? " And it rattled back into the 
 quiver. 
 
 I led him up the hill to the hut, and there we 
 rested, for I dared not venture the rope without 
 light; already I had stumbled twice in the dark- 
 ness, and but for Golas would have fallen. Not until 
 almost daybreak, though the mist still veiled the 
 valley, did we defy the precipice and creep to the 
 cavern; where I watched all day and deep into the 
 night. Then — 
 
 I sprang up. A red sun-shaft was streaming 
 across the balcony ; and in its rosy radiance, yet with 
 a glow far brighter — 
 
 " Athenian boy " — it was like the uncertain 
 warble of a brook. " Oh ! this is not — yes, you are, 
 that same boy, but — oh, what can I call you now ? " 
 
 She had shrunk a little, but I bound her in my 
 arms and held her fast. For a moment she fluttered 
 like a bird when a sudden hand is laid upon it ; she 
 glanced swiftly into my eyes ; with a long, soft sigh 
 she hid her face on my shoulder. And a wee voice 
 close beneath my ear, — " You frightened me, boy," 
 it said. " But you have come, and I am the gladdest 
 maid in this Hellas. For at least, if it is only for 
 a little while, we shall live and die both together 
 now." Our hearts were beating close, as once before. 
 I could not yet utter one word. And right here — 
 it was a grim interruption. 
 
 Golas, too, had leaped up. He stood gazing; he 
 saw that I loved her; the wild beast in his soul 
 
2 8o GORGO 
 
 crouched and roared. But he paused ; still he gazed, 
 
 — for her beauty was of that sort which quenches 
 the rage of lions. He hung in doubt whether to 
 slay or to fall at her feet. He snatched from his 
 quiver that old stone-pointed arrow; he strained it 
 to the head, his fingers shaking on the string. 
 
 She. had started from me as water flows from the 
 grasp ; she stood out before him in the crimson glory 
 of the sunrise, blushing with love and morning light. 
 " Then kill me, fellow," she panted, in breathless 
 tones, that only quaked with joy, " kill me, if so 
 the gods have willed it — now." 
 
 The string slipped — but while the murmuring 
 flint rushed with unsteady flight against the clouds, 
 Golas, prone on the rock, lifted her buskined foot 
 in both his hands, and set it on his bow and wor- 
 shipped her. 
 
 " Helot, too — Gola," he whined. My knife was 
 at his neck; she plucked me back. " You shall not 
 harm him, Hagnon's soil. See, he is mine. You 
 have lost — " 
 
 " A slave — a helot to your dowry, Gorgo. A 
 beast — a forfeit to my dagger. I have lost more 
 
 — all that was mine. But I have gained — " and 
 I finished with sweet revenge upon her lips. " Be- 
 loved " — and I repeated it, like one insisting — 
 " Beloved, I have gained a city. I no longer serve 
 the many, as at Athens, but am become a tyrant, 
 more jealous than Hippias. Gorgo my city is called 
 
 — the fairest in Hellas, well peopled with two souls, 
 mine and thine. Its walls are of the Parian marble, 
 
G O R G O 281 
 
 Gorgo; and its battlements shall be crowned with 
 gold and its citadel looped with pearls — it shall 
 be my Ecbatana. There will I reign ever, in wealth 
 that shall shame the Persian ; and this have I wrested 
 from Sparta." 
 
 " Not yet," she sighed. But again I used my 
 tyranny upon her lips. 
 
 " Boy ! boy ! " she murmured. " But, indeed, it 
 was this maid that first begun it. And who knows if 
 to-morrow — " but the rest was left unspoken. 
 " Is this truly that Golas," she cried, " of whom 
 such rumour has been in Sparta? For they say he 
 can shoot the stars off the sky ! Yet he missed, and 
 his bow was beneath this foot ! I felt it purr under 
 my foot — the great bow that was going to kill 
 me!" 
 
 " If ever again he lifts his bow against the stars 
 of heaven no sudden helotry will save him. But 
 when you stood before him, Gorgo, like Athena 
 sprung down from Olympus, he could not slay an 
 immortal goddess." 
 
 " Oh, boy ! it is sweet to say, but such words 
 could never have saved me. That was a terrible 
 arrow, so sharp and jagged, and when it screamed 
 at me the sound was like no other I ever heard. It 
 would have gone through that shield of Heracles, 
 I think. But am I indeed still like her — to you, 
 Hagnon's son ? " 
 
 " No, Gorgo ; the goddess has meanwhile aged. 
 She was new that day." 
 
282 G O R G O 
 
 "Don't!" She lifted her sweet, shocked face 
 in the sunlight. " Dear goddess," she prayed, " do 
 not be angry. And hear me, beautiful goddess. 
 Grant me that I may still be like you, just a little, 
 in the eyes of Hagnon's son, because he loves me; 
 for I am only a mortal, and the time is so short." 
 
 " Best go now to horses," said Botas. 
 
 The first to reach the shelf was Gorgo. I followed 
 and was half-way up the rope, but dropped back 
 at the sound of Golas tuning his weapon. The arrow 
 was already sped. 
 
 " Man down yonder going to shoot," explained 
 Botas. " He not shoot now." 
 
 I peered out through the bush. A little party of 
 Spartans were hurrying along the beach,, bearing an 
 idle burden. 
 
 " Slave, you shot without signal," I cried. 
 
 "Shoot for Gorka — Gola helot," he stuttered, 
 with unwonted loquacity, his eyes turned upward. 
 
 " Come! " she called. 
 
 We made for the plain with all the hazards of 
 haste. We reached the horses : a score of Spartans 
 were running toward us, but not eagerly; only one 
 was mounted. 
 
 " Botas," I said, and filled his palm with gold, 
 " take this ; buy freedom or what you will. Escape 
 to Athens when you may." Then to Golas : " Hold 
 them off till they scatter too widely ; strike the horse 
 if he comes within shot. That done, follow trail." 
 
 " You ride well ? " I asked, as I lifted Gorgo. 
 
G O R G O 283 
 
 " Not well, but as I must," she answered. " And, 
 indeed," as we bounded forth from the thicket, " in 
 this hour I would even fly, if you set me on wings. 
 For he that is on the horse is that Lysander." 
 
XXIV. 
 
 A Ride up Phounias 
 
 AFTER we had galloped for a space I looked 
 back. The Spartans, less numerous now, were 
 holding far aloof ; the horseman was making 
 a wide circuit. 
 
 " Gorgo," I asked, leaning toward her as our 
 horses ran neck and neck, " do you know the way 
 that leads by Cynuria to Argos? " 
 
 " By the place of the slain? Only to the foot- 
 hills," she gasped, tossed by the swift stride of her 
 steed. " Must we pass by the field of the dead ? 
 That is an awful spot; the shades, they say, come 
 out each night, and fight in armour that shines in 
 the moonlight but makes no sound. And the way 
 that leads up from the plain is to and fro on the 
 edge of a dreadful torrent. That I have seen, — 
 white-plumed and black-hearted; it will be so now. 
 Its very name is murder." 
 
 " Phounias," I cried. " Twice have I been by that 
 road; and the good gods be thanked for it." 
 
 We had not abated our speed, but thundered 
 through the little villages, while the helots fled from 
 before our plunging hoofs. She was riding more 
 easily now. 
 
G O R G O 285 
 
 " It is quite the very next thing to flying," she 
 panted. " I did not know there were such horses. 
 Lysander will have no such horse as these. You are 
 wonderful at finding ways, Hagnoii's son. And I 
 think you are braver than any Spartan," she added. 
 " I too will be brave when we come to that place." 
 Then, after a little, as we raced across the crackling 
 fields of stubble, — " What name shall I call you, 
 Athenian boy, that are grown so big and wise? 
 What name shall I call my — oh, I cannot say it! 
 You are grown a man — as masterful as Lysander 
 
 — and you ride much better. I would not dare now 
 to be the first to kiss — and how did I ever ? I am 
 scared to look at you, boy, this day. But tell me 
 whose — no, I cannot ! " 
 
 I reached for a flickering kiss. " I can say it, 
 Gorgo, — his plighted bride, and soon his wedded 
 wife! And the name — what other than just as 
 before? But they call me Theramenes; and that 
 it is truly time for you to know." 
 
 " Theramenes ! Indeed, it was like some great 
 wild beast that you seized me, jumping out of the 
 cave. But I never shall call you that ; it trickles too 
 lightly over the tongue. I shall call you Theramnas, 
 
 — and the sound of that is sweeter, like a kiss. So, 
 Theramnas ! " 
 
 Our pace had fallen to a soft lope; we almost 
 stopped as we leaned for the kiss. Then, roused by 
 a pat on the shoulder, our steeds leaped onward. 
 Soon the roar of Phounias was in our ears. 
 
 Well that it was so near ! The whole country-side 
 
286 G O R G O 
 
 was now astir : shields lifted in the sunlight, flashed 
 signals from post to post ; a beacon waved its smoky 
 banner from the hills. Already I saw a troop of 
 light-armed runners hastening to cross our track. 
 
 " Cling ! " I cried, and smote the horse of Gorgo 
 sharply on the flank, touching my own with the 
 spur; they both broke away like the wind. The 
 runners paused ; their arms swayed toward us : loud 
 was the murmur of thong-darts as we passed, but 
 the distance was too great. We clambered the slope; 
 we dashed up the defile, beside the foaming waters. 
 
 The track was but the selvage of the stream, 
 lapped by its surge. It narrowed ; the wall of rock 
 rose sheer from black eddies; but our chargers 
 rushed through without pause, and again found 
 margin for their steady hoofs. This too fell away 
 before the encroaching cliffs ; five times we struggled 
 through from bank to bank. Then the rocks spread 
 back; the current brawled wide and thin on the 
 upper levels : the peril was past. 
 
 Gorgo was white as the foam. " I shall never 
 again be quite the same after that," she whispered. 
 But we still fled on through a labyrinth of glens 
 and glades, though the sides of our horses were 
 heaving and I softened the pace. But this would 
 not do: their straining tendons could not endure 
 forever — nor could Gorgo, who drooped as she 
 rode, wan as the lichened oaks. 
 
 I drew rein at the door of a herdsman's hut and 
 burst the hinges. The place was deserted, but well 
 stored with food; we ate and drank in its gloom, 
 
G O R G O 287 
 
 then fed our quivering steeds with barley cakes and 
 gave them water mingled with wine. 
 
 " I just love them," said Gorgo, again growing 
 buoyant. " None in Sparta will ever believe it, that 
 any creature could pass up Phounias when the water 
 cries; and while they are watching to take us out 
 below we may yet escape. I can now almost think 
 we shall escape, Theramnas." 
 
 I held her hand tightly. " You must now give 
 back my pearls," she said, suddenly. " You will 
 need them no more, for you will have the very Gorgo 
 that wore them." 
 
 " Yes," I answered, vaguely. 
 
 "For don't you remember? I only gave you 
 those to keep for me — till now. See, boy ! " and 
 she drew from under her mantle a small embroid- 
 ered bag. " I have brought them with me — all the 
 rest. Those only I took away from Sparta — the 
 jewels that were my mother's, in Ionia." 
 
 I thought with a pang of the dusty casket left in 
 my chamber. But what did it matter, when Gorgo 
 herself — 
 
 " Lycurgus did not approve of them," she went 
 on, gaily, " and I think it was like an old man with 
 just one eye not to. Least of all did he like the kind 
 a certain maid's ears are pricked with dimples for 
 the wearing of — and that thing the Ionian women 
 did for this Gorgo, not waiting to be asked. But 
 I think it would never have been her wish to deny 
 them. I do not agree with Lycurgus, but like that 
 kind the best of any ; and what else the little round 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
290 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " You need not listen. But the horse you will 
 have to loan to me. again. I will ride the poor beast 
 very slowly now, and I will surely send her back to 
 you from Sparta, — unless that Phounias — but 
 I cannot think Phounias will be so kind." 
 
 " Gods of Olympus! " 
 
 " Is it those that you swear by ? I would not dare 
 myself; but perhaps it is not true that they punish. 
 Or if you think they did not hear you or have for- 
 gotten, you need not fear that Gorgo will ever re- 
 mind them. But this I would advise you, Hagnon's 
 son, to ride on quickly and not wait in these hills 
 for Lysander ; and that is good counsel." 
 
 " It is Lysander, then ! " My face burned ; my 
 voice' jarred like an ill-blown trumpet. 
 
 She searched my face, but would not meet my 
 eyes. " I hate Lysander," she said. " But in Sparta 
 they do not think of women as at Athens ; they vex 
 but they do not scorn them. And Lysander is of 
 Sparta ; he would never have given my pearls to any 
 other — not one pearl." 
 
 Then first I became aware of certain possibilities 
 of rage in my nature. I cursed Lysander foully, 
 and all Sparta, — and the folly of men and the mad- 
 ness of women. I swore by the Stygian lake, and the 
 rivers that roll in darkness, and the dusky shapes 
 that lie blotted in Tartarus. 
 
 " I think it was black enough before," she said, 
 coldly. " Will you loan me the horse? " 
 
 I. curbed my anger with such effort as flings a 
 steed on his haunches in full charge. " Gorgo " — 
 
G O R G O 291 
 
 and I felt my own voice quivering in a deep, hushed 
 note — "I swear no more by any god or any daemon ; 
 for if Gorgo's love is not enough to believe my 
 simple word in this, I never will try to convince it." 
 
 "Oh!" she said. 
 
 " That I sailed without those pearls is true ; but I 
 sailed' for war, and as I thought for death. I 
 deemed that yon Lysander had already taken Gorgo." 
 She started and turned. " For nine years no word 
 had come from Sparta; the wax was not yet. But 
 that ever I gave your token to another, or showed it 
 to any eyes but my own, — that, Gorgo, is so false 
 that I will never trust my tongue to speak of it 
 again." 
 
 " Boy! boy! " she began, " if only — " 
 
 " Hush, Gorgo ! or you will relent — and that 
 would shame a Spartan. Mount hastily, Gorgo — 
 for the horse is yours — and go while the pride of 
 Sparta serves you; I shall not speak another word 
 to hinder or convince." 
 
 "Oh, boy! if only — " 
 
 " Only this, — for the fault I own to I will ask 
 you to forgive me, Gorgo, before you ride away 
 to drown in Phounias and I go to meet Lysander." 
 
 " No, no, Theramnas ! " She had clasped my 
 knees and shook me with her sobs. " It is for you to 
 forgive this Gorgo — and she never will vex you in 
 that way again." 
 
 " That, Gorgo, I do not quite believe ; nor am I 
 sure I would even wish it. Yet before this hour I 
 
292 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 would have believed you in anything, Gorgo — un- 
 less you had told me of this cabin." 
 
 " It is terrible — worse than Phounias. I love 
 that Phounias now. But let us leave this place — 
 forever." 
 
 " It is time. But this I must tell you, Gorgo. I 
 have feared your Lysander. For I think that if 
 Hagnon's son had not come to Sparta it would have 
 been Lysander. And then Lysander would have 
 been less terrible, and I should have served only 
 Athens. But I do not fear Lysander now. That 
 fear I leave shut in this cabin." I lifted the door 
 to its place. 
 
 " And that is a rickety door," she laughed, " to 
 hold back such a fear ; but I think now it will serve 
 us, Theramnas." 
 
 The day was waning fast as we galloped off, 
 threading our way through the oaks. The trailing 
 mistletoe brushed in our faces. 
 
 " My poor helot," she said, as we rose on the 
 higher slopes, — " that strange-speaking Golas ! I 
 fear I have lost my helot — that I won from you, 
 Theramnas, at peril of my very life." 
 
 " And for that he might well die, Gorgo ; if he 
 dies to save you I may perhaps pardon him. But I 
 think him safe. None is likely to come near enough 
 to harm him. And though he lacks speech he has 
 the knees of a stag and all the senses of a fox. It 
 may be long, but he will follow. Phounias only 
 will give him check, for he likes not water." 
 
 The sun had set; it was moonlight when we 
 
G O R G O 293 
 
 reached the topmost level, — the plain of the dead. 
 My horse neighed shrilly; Gorgo reined back with 
 a scream, half-uttered. For just before us an ar- 
 moured horseman sat motionless, his pale plates 
 glinting amid the moonbeams. 
 
XXV. 
 
 That Lysander 
 
 IT is a risen ghost ! " She breathed it with the 
 whisper of a creeping wind. " He has come 
 from beneath those stones." She pointed 
 numbly toward a glimmering mound. " It is that 
 Othryadas — he died here once — on his sword, for 
 Sparta's laws, so long ago. He forbids us, Theram- 
 nas — forbids the way to Athens." 
 
 I was eying the spectre closely, — both the horse 
 and the shape that was on it. " If it be ghost," I 
 said, aloud, " then I think Lysander has eaten an 
 arrow for Golas." 
 
 " Indeed it is Lysander," she cried, " and that 
 is worse." 
 
 I loosened my knife. " If it be Lysander living, 
 a ghost in truth shall rise in this place at our part- 
 ing." 
 
 " Have you so good a spear? " It came in broad 
 Dorian out of the moonlit brass. 
 
 "You shall not fight," pleaded Gorgo. "We 
 may circle and pass ; his horse is not like these. To 
 fight is to lose all, Theramnas. Save me, and do 
 not fight." 
 
 " Now that is wise tactics," I muttered. " We 
 294 
 
G O R G O 295 
 
 will charge and swerve sharply, like cavalry con- 
 voying booty past the foe." I lifted my voice. " I 
 have with me no spear at this time," I called back, 
 " but yours, Spartan, is much too short. You will 
 need the Macedonian sarissa if you think to touch 
 us." 
 
 His lance clanked on the ground; he raised a 
 Cretan bow. " It is not the weapon of my choice," 
 he said, " but it reaches somewhat further. Stir 
 a hoof, and I shoot: it is Gorgo's horse that falls. 
 Then, Athenian thief, you may spur alone into 
 which ambush you will. Or remain, if you like that 
 better, and we will fight here with even tools." 
 
 " We must venture it," murmured Gorgo. " He 
 may miss ; and at least it can be no worse. Listen ! 
 was that a harp? " 
 
 The strained bow flew in fragments from his 
 grasp. Again that harp-note — the charger fell 
 beneath him and lay still. Golas panted beside me. 
 " Kill horse," he gasped — " Man too? " He gazed 
 in my face for a sign. 
 
 " The man too : " I pointed to Lysander, just 
 rising from the ground. So near was he to death 
 — Lysander. 
 
 " No," screamed Gorgo. " You shall not kill 
 Lysander." 
 
 And with that word the walls of Athens fell, 
 though to the eye still firm. For the slave's bow 
 dropped with string half-drawn. 
 
 " Gork' — helot," he said, and looked at me stol- 
 idly. " Ookook — not kill." 
 
296 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I smiled, rather grimly. " At least you shall trim 
 his casque with feathers, Golas. That, I trust, the 
 goddess Gorka will permit." 
 
 " Yes," she said, " but not to kill or terribly 
 maim. But he may hear that bow, as I heard it. 
 I think Lysander too should hear that sound." 
 
 " Shoot," I commanded, " as when you made 
 sport at Catana. Stand fast there, you that would 
 cripple horses, for the launched shaft swerves not." 
 
 The great barbarian bow pealed out with savage 
 glee: it shook and roared with Thracian laughter. 
 The mocking shafts flew unseen, but fiery sparkles 
 danced about the Spartan's bitten crest, and his face 
 was whiter than the moonlight. The feathers 
 brushed his cheek and sneered in his ear ; once only 
 he flinched. You have heard of the scar on Ly- 
 sander's brow : it was so that he got it. 
 
 " Gods ! Have done, and make an end." 
 
 I stilled the bow ; it droned with a disappointed 
 whine. " Do you yield yourself? " I called. 
 
 " No," he answered. " I am Spartan. But- be 
 at least a Greek. Try me no more with Medish 
 torments." 
 
 There was little pity in my heart, but I admired 
 the man. And Golas was Gorka's helot now; he 
 would not strike home. " Will you swear to an 
 honest truce ? " I asked, — " such as Sparta swore 
 with Argos on this very spot? " 
 
 " Aye : for I cannot choose. I will swear by any 
 god with any curse." 
 
 " Cast down your knife, then, and come near. 
 
G O R G O 297 
 
 Stand ready, Golas ; and if I call again, look not 
 at Gorka." 
 
 He grunted as of old. His blood was hot with 
 the shooting. But she — 
 
 " Do not trust any oath of Lysander," she cried; 
 "he regards no oath, Theramnas." 
 
 " Is it so? " I asked him. He looked at Gorgo. 
 " I do not lie for sport," he said. " Oaths — they 
 are bugbears for boys: at two cubits, Mormo; at 
 four, Apollo and his shrine. They may have served 
 my uses, but will no longer." 
 
 " And since they are useless ? " 
 
 " Shoot," he cried, impatiently, " but split the 
 heart." 
 
 " Yet there is always one." I studied his proud, 
 hard face. " Swear by the fortunes of Lysander," 
 I said, suddenly. He blenched. 
 
 Then Gorgo clapped her hands. " It is that ! it is 
 surely that ! You are wonderful, boy — for how 
 could you know? I myself did not know." 
 
 " I will not swear it." 
 
 " As you like : but this is the wisdom of a bull." 
 
 " I would pledge to fight you fairly, — the victor 
 to bear away his prize unhindered. But the arrow 
 that burst my bow has pierced my hand." He raised 
 it ; . the blood was trickling from his finger-tips, but 
 we had not noticed. 
 
 He staunched the gushing wound with thumb and 
 finger. " If I should fight you with one hand," he 
 continued, " would Gorgo hold back the Parthian 
 when I bore you down? " 
 
298 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " No," she cried. " I would not. If one must 
 die, it is you, Lysander. Unless you will swear, he 
 may shoot." 
 
 The Spartan scowled. " What terms ? " he asked. 
 
 " That you put no further hindrance in Gorgo's 
 path or mine, in word or deed, but leave us to our 
 will." 
 
 " There must be some limit," he growled. " I 
 will not swear to the ends of time and space. But 
 this I offer. In thirty months my age will be thirty 
 years ; and that is the age of marriage for a Spartan 
 of the mess-table. Thirty months I will swear to 
 — but no more." 
 
 " It is enough," I said. He laid his right hand 
 in mine and swore by the fortunes of Lysander. 
 
 " But take note," he said, " I swear for none but 
 myself." 
 
 " In word or deed," I repeated. 
 
 " Word or deed — for thirty months I hinder 
 not, but leave you to your fate. For by fate I 
 have sworn, the one god of power, in whose hand 
 the rest are a jigging chorus of puppets. And 
 perhaps I think not all so ill of you, Athenian, as 
 once I did. If not Lysander, then let it be the son 
 of Hagnon; for our fates have crossed, and his 
 that can scar me thus has at least some edge of 
 temper. We must all pay fortune's forfeit some- 
 where; and if at last I choose to fling away this 
 ruby gem, may no fish of the sea bring it back to 
 me. But you too " — and his gashed brow knotted 
 till it bled afresh — " you too shall pay your fated 
 
G O R G O 299 
 
 forfeit. If fortune indeed shall grant it to you to 
 bear the daughter of Brasidas to Athens, and there 
 to wed Lysander's chosen bride, to me she shall 
 grant it to set my spears on your very Acropolis. 
 Now, victor, ride forth with your prize where you 
 deem that the way lies open, and in thirty months 
 reach Athens if you may." 
 
 We galloped on, with echoing hoof-beats. As 
 we passed the crest I looked back: Lysander fol- 
 lowed slowly, with trailing spear; between us, far 
 more swiftly, ran the crouching shadow that was 
 Golas. The moon was at zenith when we reached 
 the verge of that rugged steep I so well remembered. 
 Ten years ago I had climbed it with bated breath 
 — on my way to GorgO'. And now — 
 
 As our horses braced their hoofs down the slope, 
 a din of voices broke from the thickets. Darts 
 whistled and clattered about us ; the steed of Gorgo 
 plunged downward like a loosened boulder, and was 
 lost in the gloom. With clenched spurs and the 
 leaps of a squirrel I bolted after, — and but for the 
 lifting finger of some god, I know not how any 
 charger's sinews could have borne that strain. We 
 slid in foaming sluices on the polished rock ; we ran 
 down ladders of knotted root; and still from each 
 wild bound we rose with the heave of a foundering 
 ship, till the sudden level almost smote in our faces. 
 We recoiled reeling, as from a reef. My steed stood 
 shuddering; the hot blood surged in my veins with 
 a rumble like Phounias, and the moonlight grew 
 dim. Yet I knew the rude wall that overhung the 
 
300 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 way, — the nest of a Spartan garrison ; while across 
 the track before me lay a bar of shields, with link- 
 ing edges, picketed with pikes. These wavered 
 mistily, but one shape rose clear. Gorgo! She 
 shone above them like a painted Iris limned in 
 lucent wax, — her throne foam-filleted now, herself 
 adroop, as a rose too roughly handled. 
 
 " Do you yield ? " a hoarse voice shouted. 
 
 " You must yield, Theramnas," a sweeter voice 
 called, faintly. 
 
 But they led her behind the wall ; they would not 
 let me speak to her. And yet, " Oh, Theramnas ! 
 you will find a way, Theramnas," she cried, as they 
 dragged her through the gate. It clanged and 
 grated. 
 
 Me they pulled from my horse. I lay on the spot 
 where I fell, giddy and shaking with weariness, 
 weak as a figure piled of sand. 
 
 " Is it ransom or the sword? " The harsh tone 
 entered my ear, but I .could not speak. 
 
 " Neither ! " I saw only a blur, but knew that 
 Lysander had dragged his spear within the circle. 
 " Neither, Clearchus. You will presently set him 
 on his horse and let him go. Or will this be deemed 
 an interference, Hagnon's son ? " he asked, bending 
 over me. And still I could not answer. 
 
 " I think it will be within my oath. He who 
 scars Lysander and leaps the precipice unscathed 
 shall not be carved like a bullock in the dust. As 
 for the ransom, it is yonder." He pointed toward 
 the wall. 
 
G O R G O 301 
 
 "But the Ephors?" The man spoke sourly. 
 
 " Do the thing I tell you. I will answer the 
 Ephors. Give him wine." 
 
 " My rule is strict," grumbled the phylarch. 
 
 " Mine is stricter. Would you defy me, beater of 
 helots? You exceed your office." 
 
 " I hold by the Ephors." 
 
 " When it suits your crabbed humour — rarely 
 else. The Ephors change, — but not Lysander. Is 
 not the king's own brother my backer ? Shall I tell 
 a tale of lawless raids, or lie for you, Clearchus? 
 Will you have a better command, or a worse? " 
 
 " I would go to Asia with Astyochus. The 
 Ephors will there be remote. Truth, I like not their 
 meddling. I would lead a file." 
 
 "You have it." 
 
 " And you have this." He thrust at me with his 
 foot, but Lysander jammed it with the pike. 
 
 The wine revived me; I sat up. Lysander 
 leaned upon his spear above me. " She will be safe 
 enough," he said, " for thirty months. I have sworn 
 the one oath ; win if you may ; I shall not trouble 
 her. I will also deal with the others; they shall 
 not greatly vex her." 
 
 " It is more than the oath. I shame that I doubted 
 you." 
 
 " You doubted well, son of Hagnon. But that 
 is past. Hereafter we will deal with open words 
 and open weapons." 
 
 " But what of Golas? I would grieve to lose my 
 slave." 
 
302 G O R G O 
 
 He laughed — but the laugh was cold. " I too 
 have grieved for him — if it be that fiend of the 
 bow that you speak of. No Heracles ever shot such 
 shafts. I left him above, by the ambush, treating 
 at double thong-cast with those helots. No dart 
 will prick bis hide, I think, while his arrows last. 
 But I make no truce for the Parthian." 
 
 I rode forth with the morning; but there was 
 now no moming in my heart. Even Golas, it 
 seemed — but as I rounded a jutting crag he stood 
 before me. I almost took him in my arms. 
 
 " How did you pass the Spartan line," I asked, — 
 "the men in full brass, Golas?" 
 
 He shook his empty quiver. He lifted up both 
 hands, then a single finger. 
 
 And I thought, : — "If that deadly quiver were 
 not empty, I would even now turn back." 
 
XXVI. • 
 
 Meletus before the Senate 
 
 I FOUND Meletus in the wine-shop kept by the 
 Chalcidian. I knew I should find him there, for 
 the wine of the place had the proper tang of resin 
 that he loved. 
 
 I felt uneasy about the letter. So much was at 
 stake. That, first, must be attended to. I did not 
 even wait to go to my father's house, but entered 
 Piraeus by the Marsh-gate and rode quickly through 
 the streets without once dismounting. I perceived, 
 however, that something quite out of the common 
 was in the air. Everybody was talking ; men slapped 
 each other on the back and roared with laughter. 
 I had rarely seen the city in such good humour. 
 
 When I reached the wine-shop, the Chalcidian 
 seemed strangely reticent. He assumed an air of 
 mystery; at first he would tell me nothing of Mel- 
 etus. But finally, when I mentioned my name and 
 explained the urgency of my errand, he led me to 
 an inner room and flung open the door. 
 
 Meletus was sitting upon a stool, propping him- 
 self against the wall. His condition was some- 
 what advanced. He sprang to his feet with a til- 
 
 3°3 
 
3<M 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 ler-stick and a volley of oaths, but knew me in- 
 stantly. 
 
 " Is it you, lad ? Then I will sit, for this deck 
 is right unsteady and grows worse as the wind 
 rises; it is only by deep drink that I can hold my 
 footing." He lurched back on the stool and sat 
 with legs wide spread. " Buckle down the hatches 
 again," he roared at the Chalcidian, — " but first 
 fetch in a fresh flagon of the vintage." 
 
 His face was rich violet and his tones rather 
 raucous, but otherwise his speech flowed on much 
 as usual. His look was singularly sheepish. 
 
 " I will bear no more messages of state, lad, — 
 neither for you nor for Nicias. It is not a pilot's 
 business." 
 
 " I fear it is not, indeed. What have you done? 
 What drunken folly now ? " 
 
 " I had in scarce half a flagon ; my wits were at 
 their keenest. I told them it was an allegory, like 
 Homer — a sort of oracle, mind you — a writing 
 after the manner of Orpheus, as it were — what you 
 might call an enigma. But they would not have it 
 so. One old fellow asked me to recite it to the lyre. 
 I had forgot that those cursed things go jigging." 
 
 " Are you talking about the letter ? " 
 
 " What else ? In my view of it Nicias was drunk 
 at the writing of it, and no better than the rest of 
 us, either. It was all about some bedizened hetaera, 
 with more or less mention of you. Those things, 
 no doubt, are all well enough at odd times, but in 
 my way of thinking they should have no place in a 
 
G O R G O 305 
 
 letter of state. They become a source of trouble 
 to such as bear official messages." He looked deeply 
 aggrieved. 
 
 "Shrine of Apollo! Do you mean that you 
 opened the letter of Nicias and attempted to ex- 
 pound it yourself with the wisdom of half a 
 flagon?" 
 
 " It was already open, lad. And as to expound- 
 ing, mind you, I had no choice. They had me be- 
 fore the full senate to expound the matter, — and 
 I would sooner have expounded ScyUa and Charyb- 
 dis, but I did my best, lad. Yet they laughed 
 at me, as if Meletus were some sort of a fool. 
 I mind not your laughing, lad, for you laugh mainly 
 at the wit of things ; but it runs in my mind it was 
 me they were laughing at." 
 
 " The Harpies snatch you and your expositions ! 
 You have somehow made them merry over a very 
 grave affair. If not you, what fool read the 
 letter?" 
 
 " I could never unwind such a twisted tangle 
 of little lines. I think it was that kind of lister of 
 the cargo they call a secretary that read it. First 
 he read, and they stared; then he read, and they 
 roared; then they had up Meletus. At the last I 
 counseled them to bear it to Delphi — which I 
 hold was a shrewd turn. I had no wish to speak 
 my thought of Nicias — for it is a mischance that 
 might come to any — nor yet to reflect on you, lad. 
 So I bade them go to Delphi, where the god would 
 
306 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 doubtless be discreet and might render them some 
 prophecy of value." 
 
 " Was there, then, so much about me? I did not 
 expect it, Meletus." 
 
 " Aye, lad. Considerable, I would say — though 
 not always in terms of the plainest — and the less 
 about Nicias himself. It is not often a man is so 
 modest in his drink." 
 
 " Nicias, then, was kind. I have misjudged the 
 man." 
 
 " I would think it likely. But a thought too kind, 
 as 'twere, in places. Yet in my interpretation, lad, 
 I ever gave it the better turn, as being in the way 
 of a parable of your good services." 
 
 "There was but little, then, about Nicias?" 
 
 " Less than little, lad — unless it might be by a 
 sort of implication." 
 
 " And of Lamachus ? " 
 
 " Not a syllable. But it is likely he was jealous." 
 
 " Did he not entreat to be relieved ? Was there 
 no call for aid ? " 
 
 " I would say there was some matter of that char- 
 acter. But what cast me off my course was this, 
 — to the best of my judgment it must needs mean 
 help for Syracuse. ' She ' would most likely enig- 
 matise a city — would it not be so, think you, enig- 
 matically spoken?" 
 
 " You are crazy. Or some enemy has changed 
 the tablet. It was opened, you say ? " 
 
 " Split wide. There was also mention of one 
 Lysander, which I took to signify the army before 
 
G O R G O 307 
 
 Syracuse. But it may be as you surmise. It has 
 wrought like the work of an enemy. They were 
 some of them minded to lay me in chains against 
 your coming ; but that I avoided with some clever- 
 ness, passing out quite suddenly." 
 
 "Quick, Meletus! What was that tablet like? 
 and where did you find it ? " 
 
 " On your pallet, lad, even as you told me. I 
 cannot read those keel tracks, as I have once owned 
 to you ; yet I thought it a strange affair of a letter, 
 with the marks tattooed, as it were, in the wood. 
 But I know not the customary form of a document 
 of state." 
 
 " Meletus, you have made a blunder past belief. 
 I would not have had this thing happen for twenty 
 talents. I shall be the laughing-stock of all Athens." 
 
 " Meletus, too, lad : I mean myself. And I think 
 I had the longer oar and the shorter cramp of the 
 handle. But it is true, lad : we have met a certain 
 accession of reputation. I cannot pass the street 
 but they follow me, as it were, with hymns of praise, 
 as if I were a new divinity — me that am ever care- 
 less of worship. But it is fame, lad, and that all 
 men seek. Yet I think it were as well to make back 
 soon for Syracuse, for the draught may stale on 
 our palates. Now tell me, lad, what manner of 
 thing was it that has raised us to this height ? " 
 
 " It was hers, Meletus — my own love's letter. 
 And you, with wine-wise leers and a swelling swag- 
 ger, have, laid it before the senate — with an exposi- 
 
308 G O R G O 
 
 tion ! I shall slay myself for very shame. And she 
 
 — I am almost glad she is still in Sparta." 
 
 He whistled until I heard the passers-by halting 
 in the street. " But, lad, I think you were de- 
 ceived. I have heard nothing like it, — and I am 
 no priest of Cybebe, mind you. You were deceived, 
 and therefore sped not. It is the true Orphic ; there 
 is the very ring of Bacis in it. Now mark " — and 
 he waved an unsteady finger. " That much men- 
 tion of a certain symbol set forth in the figure of 
 Gorgo, which as I receive it implies a manner of 
 turning into stone, — that might well express this 
 same Nicias — " 
 
 " Silence ! Is it not enough that you spoke these 
 things before the senate ? " 
 
 " Who by the turning of stones — " 
 
 " I will hear no more of it," I cried, and fled 
 from the chamber. 
 
 " You will hear much more of it, lad," he bel- 
 lowed after me, " but from such as interpret with 
 no gentleness or judgment." 
 
 I did hear much of it. For a space of days I 
 was the jest of the market, the mirth of every ban- 
 quet. Yet it passed — like all else after a little 
 
 — and I was but the better liked and better known 
 for this. Alas! no jest is a jest to the gods, — 
 unless all be a jest. Even here they were shaping 
 the city's doom : out of comedy came tragedy. 
 
 I went to the ship, where it lay in the dock; I 
 found the letter of Nicias deep in my pallet. I laid 
 it before the senate; it was read to the people in 
 
G O R G O 309 
 
 full assembly. A pathetic thing it was to hear, 
 
 — that cry of Nicias out of his waning camp in the 
 marshes. But they only laughed and called back, 
 
 — "That other was better, Gorgon hunter. Read 
 that, and let the pilot expound it for us." And 
 Meletus hooded his face and hid in a harness- 
 shop. 
 
 " I thought them the less likely to seek me in 
 that place," he explained, afterward. " But the flat 
 leather cordage hung all about me, and I know not 
 but I had a sort of curbing rope on me. Do you 
 know lad, — I whinnowed over my wine that 
 night!" 
 
 I was true to my promise. I pleaded for Nicias, 
 and yet more I pleaded for the army ; but say what 
 I would, I could not make them take me seriously. 
 " You are too impatient, Gorgon queller," they cried. 
 " You shall back to> Syracuse; and when that is 
 taken, Sparta shall give you this Gorgon as part of 
 the price of peace." Their spirits ran so high that 
 even the disappointment of their hopes could not 
 daunt them. Nicias they would not recall, nor the 
 army; but they voted a second armament as great 
 as the first, naming Demosthenes to lead the hoplites 
 and Eurymedon for the ships. Again the city rang 
 with preparation. 
 
 " It is indeed all or nothing, now," I said to 
 my father. " Would that they had recalled 
 Nicias! Would that they had never banished 
 Alcibiades ! " 
 
310 G O R G O 
 
 He answered only with the words of Theognis : — 
 
 He whose soul wishes weal oft is a means of abasement, 
 Whiles who had wrought to do bale proves but a craftsman of 
 weal. 
 
 " Do you mean Nicias and Alcibiades ? " 
 
 " Nicias is a good man, devout and prudent. I 
 have great confidence in Nicias, my son. Of Alci- 
 biades I expect no good. I have never trusted 
 him — the traitor ! " 
 
 This answer puzzled me somewhat. If so he 
 meant it, my father had uttered an oracle in those 
 lines he recited, — an oracle it proved ; yet whether 
 the wisdom on his lips was from the heart I cannot 
 say. There are times when the gods play strange 
 tricks with the tongue. 
 
 Of Gorgo I somehow could not talk to my 
 father. Much less to others; it would have been 
 to invite a jeer. I had been assigned to Eurymedon, 
 who was to sail with ten picked triremes in advance 
 of the main fleet, bearing money and instructions. 
 I was kept very busy ; I felt, too, that I was watched. 
 Still, Gorgo was ever in my thoughts. Of the thirty 
 months one had already passed ; could I spare four 
 more for Syracuse? For three or four, I thought, 
 would surely make or mar in Sicily, — and then 
 I would be free to win or die in Sparta. My oath 
 to Nicias troubled me; already I had played with 
 it. There was but one man in Athens with whom 
 I could_ debate this thing or who could in any way 
 help me. To him at last I went — to Socrates. 
 
G O R G O 311 
 
 It was early morning. I found him sitting beside 
 his own door, a child upon his knee. A querulous 
 voice from within called it. " Go, little son," he 
 said, " to your mother ; and see that you do as 
 she bids." The child went slowly, looking back; a 
 gaunt arm reached out and seized it. 
 
 I almost turned away. How could a man such 
 as this advise the lover of Gorgo? But the tranquil 
 strength of his soul reached out and drew me to 
 him as surely as that other had dragged in the 
 child; and while the harsh voice behind the wall 
 rated the wailing babe, I stood before Socrates 
 and told him all my trouble. 
 
 " Let us walk together," he said. " These noises 
 jar upon the thoughts. And I suppose that you 
 wish to reason of this matter and decide it accord- 
 ing to reason; for otherwise you would not have 
 come to me." 
 
 " Socrates " — I could not forbear the question 
 as we passed from the strident clamour of his door 
 — " Socrates, did the spirit never warn you of this 
 trouble?" 
 
 " In that alone," he said, " I did not heed the 
 voice. I bear the penalty with such patience as 
 I may. She loves me, after her fashion, and the 
 children." His face clouded for a moment as he 
 spoke of the children ; but quickly, " I am a great 
 trial to Xanthippe," he continued, smiling. " But, 
 indeed, all things are a trial to her. Enough of 
 that. She cannot make her peace with the gods of 
 little things." 
 
312 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Socrates," I cried, " does the spirit forbid me 
 Gorgo? " And I held my breath. 
 
 " The voice forbids not Gorgo," he said, slowly. 
 I sighed like a diver as he rises from his plunge. 
 Yet I had noted a certain accent in that answer, as 
 of surprise. 
 
 " You yourself would not have said it, Socrates ? " 
 
 " The spirit is the wiser. Let us obey the spirit." 
 
 " The spirit is greater than Delphi. Yet I would 
 not have obeyed." 
 
 " You would still have fulfilled your fate, The- 
 ramenes." 
 
 " What is my fate? " 
 
 " I know not. The voice speaks nothing of that. 
 But this I may say to you : your soul is ever better 
 than your thought; your death is better than your 
 life." 
 
 " It is a hard word, Socrates." 
 
 " And your life shall be better than your fame." 
 
 " That is an evil word — a cruel word." For 
 in that moment I felt the pang of an age-long con- 
 tumely — the brand of a lying record ever burning 
 on my brow. " I will not fulfil this fate. I will 
 go to my death in Sparta — it shall not find me 
 in Athens, as once you said. To Syracuse I will 
 not go. What matters it of an oath when fame is 
 lost?" 
 
 " Your fate will be fulfilled, and I myself shall 
 live to see it, though soon to follow by the same 
 hard-beaten path." 
 
 " The hemlock ! You, too, Socrates ? " 
 
G O R G O 313 
 
 "The hemlock. Do you think to avoid it? Do 
 you think to find your Gorgo on the road of a 
 broken oath ? Your fate will be fulfilled — and 
 mine. But the soul we might slay." 
 
 " For Gorgo I will do anything." 
 
 " Then for Gorgo keep your oath. Wait, and 
 all things shall come to you." 
 
 " I must sail ? past the prison of Gorgo ? " 
 
 " The thirty months shall not have passed before 
 you see her face." 
 
 "Is it the voice?" 
 
 "The voice." 
 
 " I will sail back to the marshes." 
 
 " And dally not again by the way. The gods 
 will not bless a broken oath ; have you not already 
 tried it?" 
 
 At the corner of the market I met Meletus. A 
 mob of boys was about him, and one, who had 
 brought a papyrus of Homer from his school, was 
 asking if the tale of Thersites had any reference to 
 Syracuse. " It might chance that the symbol Odys- 
 seus enigmatises Meletus," roared the pilot, and 
 swung his stick. But as I approached, he flung them 
 off and strode toward me. 
 
 " Lad," he cried, " I have the news. We sail 
 to-morrow where I trust it may be permitted to 
 walk without an escort. By the bones of all that 
 have met a good death by drowning, I am weary of 
 this hero-worship. But," he added, " you shall 
 deliver the letters of state. I will none of it: I 
 would sooner ride a horse." 
 
XXVII. 
 
 The Beginning of the End 
 
 THE voyage was ended. Sparta, with its lure 
 of love and death, lay far behind. The grotto 
 of Gorgo had been passed without a sign. The 
 great Sicilian city mounted up before us until we 
 saw the rolling waves break white beneath its sea- 
 wall. Beyond, a new castle sat on the heights, far 
 up the slope, and from this ran down a line of wall, 
 with many angles and thrice with clustered turrets, 
 until at length it met the city's bar of buttressed 
 masonry below. 
 
 " Nicias will have no more use for his ballast- 
 stones laid in tar," remarked Meletus. 
 
 " No," I said, " our eagle now nests in the 
 swamp." 
 
 " Eagle, say you ! the bird is an owl, and I would 
 counsel it to hunt by night according to its nature." 
 
 I turned in some astonishment. " Meletus, there 
 is surely wit in wine. It is shrewd advice." 
 
 " Any good pilot," he answered, rather pom- 
 pously, " could steer an army if they would give 
 him the sweeps. It is much the same: you must 
 never be so unhandy as to strike bows on and burst 
 
 314 
 
G O R G O 315 
 
 your beak; the trick is to double and swing in on 
 them." 
 
 We dropped our sail and rode between the 
 giant's nipping thumb and finger at the harbour's 
 entrance, into the hollow of his grasp. He had us 
 fast now, but as yet none guessed it. 
 
 Most of our ships were lying in the shallows 
 close to the camp ; to reach them we steered through 
 a palisade of stout pickets planted in the mud. This 
 gave me a shock : when before had the ships of 
 Athens, with water under them, needed other pickets 
 than their own sharp prows ? Meletus, too, noted it ; 
 but his glance swung round the harbour. 
 
 " Old Nicias is a hindersome creature," he said, 
 " better at ballasting than making seaway. But here 
 he reefs up with some sense of the weather. Who 
 could rightly order a sea-fight in this mixing-bowl ? " 
 
 He looked toward the city. There, too, the water 
 lapped on a palisade of sunken logs, behind which 
 was gathered an array of ships that seemed still 
 greater than our own. " Corinthians mostly," he 
 commented. " Too thick in the snout for grace or 
 speed, and heavy on the sweeps, — but had I the 
 handling of them it should go~~hard with us, lad, 
 in this hole. Their main lack is of a sufficient pilot, 
 lad." 
 
 " I heard at Corcyra that they have now one 
 Ariston." 
 
 " Ariston of Corinth ? Then shall Nicias see good 
 sport, lad. That man is a very artist of the craft r 
 though his boats are but logs. This is better than 
 
3i6 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 wine. I will run in upon him with such an exposi- 
 tion of devices for cramped encounter as shall burst 
 his ribs with some profit to his skill, — unless he 
 should lack due leisure through bodily mischance. 
 But I trust he swims well, for I would shame to 
 leave so worthy a pilot bobbing in no depth of water. 
 Lad, it is twice the pleasure to apply the art to a 
 receptive judgment." And Meletus alone was merry 
 in all the camp. 
 
 Within a few days of our arrival a great disaster 
 befell. The Syracusans sailed with all their fleet 
 to the mouth of the harbour, — to close it, we feared, 
 and went against them with fewer ships. At the 
 first we were hard pressed, and the soldiers in our 
 fortress on the headland thronged to the water-front 
 and cheered us with cries. For this Gylippus had 
 waited. Three thousand ambushed hoplites rushed 
 upon our undefended wall, and it was ours no more. 
 The men, indeed, escaped, fleeing in boats through 
 the thick of the sea-fight, which at this very moment 
 turned in our favour. The enemy's craft, ill-steered, 
 fell foul, and Meletus, with others of his kind, darted 
 among them making havoc: eleven they took or 
 sunk. But though we still maintained our access 
 to the sea, our convoys passed in peril bringing 
 scanty corn. The giant's grip had tightened and we 
 felt its pinch. 
 
 Of all our fighting on and in and round about 
 those accursed waters I shall not attempt to tell; 
 something there was each day. But of our assault on 
 the line of piles which shielded their inner harbour, 
 
G O R G O 317 
 
 almost under the city's walls, of that I must speak, 
 for it was out of the common. And as this was a 
 matter of enginery, Nicias, of course, was the plan- 
 ner. 
 
 He had received the letters from Athens with little 
 comment; though disappointed he seemed not at 
 all surprised. " The responsibility will at least be 
 divided now," he said, " and with such an armament, 
 if we may not take the city we may at least with- 
 draw with safety and credit. May the Holy Goddess 
 of the Mysteries grant that we go not to her before 
 this aid arrives! But was there no word of with- 
 drawal, under certain conditions and after a sea- 
 son?" 
 
 " Not a syllable," I told him. " They account 
 Syracuse as taken. If it comes to withdrawal, you 
 yourself must make the order, Nicias." 
 
 " I will take no chances of the hemlock. Better 
 to die in this swamp." 
 
 " But the army? and Athens? " 
 
 " It lies in the lap of the gods," he answered. 
 " I shall do my duty and obey to the very letter." 
 
 But his health seemed much improved, and his 
 mind was full of new schemes of enginery. He 
 procured a merchant vessel of heaviest burden, and 
 fitted it with cranes and turrets. 
 
 " Give me of your best bows," he said, " for the 
 summits. Below I will have darters. Slingers I 
 cannot use for lack of space to swing the cord." 
 
 " Does he think to grub for sunken treasure ? " 
 grumbled Meletus. Yet he undertook the steering 
 
3'8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 i 
 
 of this floating fortress without much protest; and 
 the thing worked beyond expectation. 
 
 As we swung down toward the piles the Syra- 
 cusans came out against us in small boats, with which 
 they almost paved the water. But they did not press 
 close, — they scarcely reached the fringe of our fall- 
 ing missiles; for Golas, whom I had placed on the 
 highest top, ever smote the foremost till none dared 
 invite his shaft. Some of their lesser craft he even' 
 sunk, shooting high in air and striking through 
 the bottoms with falling arrows. Meanwhile our 
 cranes were busy plucking up the logs. Some were 
 stubborn, but our divers plunged in boldly and sawed 
 them off beneath the water; we did not stop till 
 all were out. Yet but for Meletus we should have 
 missed some of them. As we were moving off he 
 swung suddenly. 
 
 " See that swirl," he cried. " Those Sicilian ot- 
 ters have been setting snags to rip good bottoms 
 under the water-line." And he swore by the rivers 
 of hell. 
 
 We turned back. These, too, we sawed off, Mele- 
 tus pointing out each one. Yet little came of it. A 
 cow that was opened lacked liver, — and so did 
 Nicias; he would not strike. Syracuse was not 
 idle, and soon the low swell foamed on a new 
 barrier of piles. 
 
 "What are they doing over yonder?'' I asked 
 Meletus one day. 
 
 " They have caught the trick of Nicias now," he 
 growled. " As well as I can descry it, lad, at long 
 
G O R G O 319 
 
 eye-cast, they are turning good ships into bunting- 
 engines, — the sort of thing you use to ram a gate. 
 They have braced their cat-heads and brought them 
 to fore, after a manner of bull's horns; I would 
 surmise they are thinking to meet us with bull's 
 tactics. It is a coarse device, lad, but it suits the 
 cast of the coast. It is likely to be the contrivance 
 of that same Ariston, who slipped me with a foul 
 turn in the coil by yonder gut, where those fellows 
 rubbed off their own fins by sheer misdirection. 
 Three times I was cramped between shorn hulks," 
 he added, disgustedly. " You cannot count on them ; 
 the running of such raw pilots would puzzle Posei- 
 don." 
 
 Again Meletus was right. Indeed, the enemy 
 presently became so bold with their new equipment 
 that they drew out and dared us before our own 
 enclosure. That we could not take tamely. We led 
 against them, though Gylippus was giving Nicias 
 hot work along the walls behind. All that day 
 we held them in check, but with little result, for 
 they stood together too close for a circuit and would 
 only meet us full on the bow. 
 
 After supper Meletus, who had drunk less heavily 
 than his wont, rose up and demanded that I lead 
 him to Nicias. I could not doubt that he had his 
 reasons, but I did the thing reluctantly. The gen- 
 eral started up from before his silver shrine and 
 faced us. 
 
 " Nicias, lad," began Meletus — but stopped sud- 
 
320 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 denly. " The god's fire-fork, but I am off my bear- 
 ings," he said, hoarsely. 
 
 Nicias scowled. " Is this a season for unseemly 
 jesting? " His eyes were fixed on me. " But this is 
 what comes of our mistaken policy of turning honest 
 citizen hoplites into blasphemous sailors. We may 
 thank Pericles for this." 
 
 " The god's fire-fork ! " broke in Meletus, " in my 
 view of it he could never make a pilot of a hoplite. 
 It is the sort they have over yonder. But now they 
 have taken counsel of a pilot of the craft, — and, 
 you see, they are even tossing their horns in our 
 faces. And I thought, ' Our old Nicias here is a 
 sufficient land-pilot, mind you, but he, too, in these 
 matters of shipping, might well take counsel with 
 a master of the craft.' So I cast down the flagon 
 I was sipping at, and steered a straight course." 
 
 " Sir," I said, " he is rough, but he knows his 
 business. He has some word." 
 
 " That's it, sir. . Meletus knows his business and 
 has a good word for old Nicias. And I thought, 
 it being after the manner of his enginery, he may 
 well grasp it. I think they are minded to bunt us." 
 
 " I fear it," said Nicias. 
 
 " They will bunt hard now. It is in my thought 
 they may bunt us clean off the harbour 2 for this 
 pond gives no«eaway, and their bows are too stiff 
 for our beaks. Now in case we should be pressed 
 back behind the stocks — in some dismay, it might 
 happen, and ill trim to fight further in no space at 
 
G O R G O 321 
 
 all — what - hinders them to follow in and make 
 splinters of us ? " 
 
 " It is well thought of." 
 
 " In my manner of thinking a landsman should 
 ever counsel with some sufficient pilot. Now this 
 is the way of it. There is a thing called a dolphin, 
 made of lead beaked with iron; it is swung from 
 a spar, and may be dropped through deck and bot- 
 tom if any come too near. The lubberly merchants 
 use it against pirates. It is unseamanly, but suits 
 here. Let certain of these dolphins be set on grain- 
 barges and moored close by the openings. If it 
 needs we shall pass through to safety, while of those 
 who follow you will see some snared and the rest 
 will turn. And I thought, as being a manner of 
 enginery — " 
 
 " You shall see to the mounting of them to-mor- 
 row. Are you not that Meletus who steered this 
 youth to Athens, and lately discovered the hidden 
 piles?" 
 
 " The very man," I cried, " but his modesty kept 
 it back." 
 
 " Now by the god's — " 
 
 " Say not that thing again," exclaimed Nicias. 
 
 " Well — it indeed lacks the needful variety — but 
 may the fires of Phlegethon roll down my throat 
 if ever I was thus accused, even at Athens, where 
 babes unborn leap with fear at mention of charges. 
 It is but a land fashion in my view of it, this pride 
 of modesty. On the sea we brag in plain, set terms, 
 as you shall hear me when I have rightly nipped 
 
322 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 that Ariston. But the snags I had merely forgot. 
 It is no special matter for a pilot to mark the mean- 
 ing of a riffle, and I would account the main credit 
 to them that dived." 
 
 " I find the son of Hagnon right in his rating of 
 you," said Nicias. " But curb your tongue, Meletus, 
 and deal lightly with the flagon." 
 
 " Yet it was out of the flagon that I had it," 
 he muttered, as we left the tent. " It slipped from 
 my hand; then I thought of those dolphins. And 
 as for the fire-fork, it has been on my tongue devils 
 often and no harm of it." 
 
 The next day was wholly spent in preparation 
 on both sides of the bay; but the morning after 
 saw their full fleet ranged against us, while Gylippus 
 pressed on our wall with redoubled din. Yet at 
 first it was just as before: as long as the shadows 
 fell inland both fleets held aloof like cautious boxers ; 
 and when at last they pointed toward the city with 
 short, black fingers, the enemy drew away to their 
 harbour. We also landed and made ready for dinner. 
 
 " The sun was too hot for them to-day," remarked 
 Meletus, draining a huge flagon. " They have been 
 soon satisfied, but I am the more content." He 
 flung down the empty leather with a roar. " Fires 
 of Phlegethon, they are at us again ! They have had 
 their meat by the sea; it is the very trick of that 
 Ariston." 
 
 We rushed back to our boats, unfed; with fierce 
 haste we manned them and led out, yet in time. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 323 
 
 Again the combat hung; the shadows drifted sea- 
 ward ; none would venture. 
 
 But the head of Meletus hummed with wine, and 
 his stomach grew impatient; his ship swung back 
 and forth with reversing oars. A wind had arisen; 
 the line before us swayed, and some of the prows 
 were flung far forward. The pilot could resist 
 no longer. His cry to the oars rang out ; the spruce 
 bent like a bow, the beak shot forth like the arrow : 
 before any could hinder he had cleft the nearest 
 galley just behind the cat-head. Others rushed upon 
 him; he reversed, drew back, reversed again, and 
 cut the foremost through the side. The battle was 
 on. 
 
 Would that Meletus might have stood at every 
 helm ! but such skill as his was rare even on Athe- 
 nian decks. The heavy-headed galleys thronged 
 upon our line, driven by tug of oar and drift of 
 wind ; it was like the rush of a drove of boars upon 
 herdsmen armed with light javelins. Their hard 
 tusks thrust us back with cruel gorings: beaks 
 bent and broke away; our very prows were 
 crushed; few ships were sunk, but all our fleet 
 was crippled. We fled behind our pickets, hotly 
 chased, — Meletus last, steering with a loose oar 
 snatched from the upper bank, and smearing the 
 air with curses. He passed the gap, the enemy close 
 upon his stern : " Let loose ! " he yelled. The spar 
 creaked and sprung ; the huge dolphin dived to the 
 bottom through splintering timbers and shrieking 
 crew. Another dolphin crashed; the Syracusans 
 
324 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 swam like rats, but none escaped. The pursuing 
 herd sheered off with much clashing of horns ; Mel- 
 etus would still have made out at them, but none 
 would follow. He strode his battered deck in a rage 
 which not even the rivers of hell could assuage, 
 though he called on them. 
 
 " He pinched me — that Ariston," he foamed. 
 " That son of Pyrrichus by the night hag nipped 
 off both my sweeps. My beak was fouled in one of 
 their barges, and another had jammed me. It lacked 
 little that son of a shark had swallowed me whole, 
 but we wrenched free with push-poles and drove 
 through." He paused to speak of Phlegethon and 
 Styx. 
 
 "Well?" I said. For my station had been by 
 the dolphins at his own request, and I had seen but 
 a part. 
 
 "Well, is it? And that expresses the shortness 
 of your wit. In my thinking it lacked little of ill. 
 For there was Meletus behind them, with staved 
 bows and tailless sweeps and broken banks, and that 
 eater of wood prodding at the stern-post. Twice I 
 evaded the ripping of his tusks with close rubs 
 and further loss of oars. I steered through with 
 this deck-swab." And he cast down the oar. " I 
 had hope he would take the dolphin, but he left that 
 to the heady fools. I will brace my bows for the 
 ramming of stone-barges. I will split his bull's 
 head through the very teeth. He shall swim for it 
 yet — the Corinthian carpenter ! " 
 
 But the camp was pale with dismay. We had 
 
G O R G O 325 
 
 suffered defeat on the sea ; the talk was all of flight ; 
 even Nicias wavered. Whatever the course we 
 chose, our broken bows must be mended; so we 
 rose with the dawn and toiled all day with hammer 
 and axe, while the ships of Syracuse hovered at the 
 mouth of the bay. 
 
 I viewed them uneasily. " Can it be their thought 
 to bar us from the sea ? " And then first I was 
 frightened. 
 
 " I would credit them with it/' answered Meletus, 
 glancing up from the timber he was shaping. " They 
 are guided now by a pilot, lad. It will be most 
 like that slave of a blacksmith to seek to chain the 
 gut." He dropped his adze and gazed intently. 
 " There are sea-eagles on the wing, lad. The gulls 
 are scattering." 
 
 So it seemed. The Syracusan craft were hurrying 
 toward the inner port. Soon the pennant of Athens 
 fluttered between the battlemented promontories; 
 her paean sounded across the bay. A mighty pha- 
 lanx of ships was marching in, with oars that stepped 
 true to the pipes and a brazen gleam from the 
 crowded decks. Five abreast they came, and their 
 column was fifteen deep. 
 
 My fear breathed away in a sigh. " We shall yet 
 win Syracuse." 
 
 " And I will yet sink that Ariston," responded 
 Meletus. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 The Great Disaster 
 
 THEN it was that Demosthenes planned the 
 night attack. The coming of this man had 
 cheered us more than the force he brought. 
 His presence was like a fresh wind from the sea 
 blowing over the marshes; again we felt the thrill 
 of true leadership. 
 
 The Syracusans raided on the plain no longer. 
 Gylippus lay close behind his own walls now, and 
 our dinted fence had peace. The harbour, too, was 
 ours, to the very pickets of the inner port, and the 
 sea beyond was again but part of the flowing mantle 
 of Attica. Yet while the fortress of the Spartan 
 stood on the shoulder of the heights, and convoys 
 of grain and arms, and troops of new allies still 
 passed by the winding wall down to the city, Syra- 
 cuse could never be taken ; its siege was not begun. 
 
 The night attack was bitterly opposed by Nicias : 
 the plan was too bold, the hazard too great. 
 
 " Shall we waste again the prestige and the terror 
 of our coming?" pleaded Demosthenes. "Shall 
 we lie in the swamp with rotting planks and a rotting 
 army till the rank fogs and the gods' impatience 
 of sluggards do the work of Syracuse? " 
 
 326 
 
G O R G O 327 
 
 Then Nicias, at mention of the gods, began a 
 homily. They had never favoured our project; they 
 would still cast down our hope. But there were 
 other voices now : he was overruled. 
 
 " Have a care," said Eurymedon, " lest we think 
 you loath to let another win and hold the prize that 
 Nicias won and lost." 
 
 " That Nicias won ! " interrupted Menander. " It 
 was Lamachus rather that won it, and this son of 
 Hagnon with his devil archer. Nicias here but piled 
 the stone." 
 
 I begged of Demosthenes a place in the ranks, — 
 quickly granted. I put on the full armour of a 
 hoplite and buckled up my heavy shield ; I chose for 
 use a square-headed pike, not likely to bend at the 
 point. The moon rode high at our starting, but had 
 sunk far down the sky before we reached the pass ; 
 for we made a wide circuit. 
 
 Strict even to death was the order of silence: a 
 faint crisping of armour and a low thud of buskined 
 feet could alone be heard. We climbed the narrow 
 defile, deep in shadow; we found the stockade un- 
 watched, and our mechanics — for a train of them 
 attended — cut through with saws dipped in oil. We 
 stood by the fortress gate ; there was still no alarm. 
 We rammed with an olive trunk and burst in; the 
 guard sprang to arms with loud cries, but made no 
 stand. Some we slew, but many fled down the line 
 of wall spreading panic ; the clash of brass swelled 
 from below. 
 
 " On ! " shouted our leader. " Lose not a mo- 
 
328 G O R G O 
 
 ment." And we charged down the hill. They still 
 fled before us. We took the first turreted camp with 
 little resistance. Our workmen were already pulling 
 down the wall behind. 
 
 A Dorian psean sounded in our front; another 
 rang out in our rear. We halted in blank dismay, 
 — I, too, flinched with the rest; our whole line 
 was disordered and wavering. 
 
 " On ! " called Menander, out of the glimmer. 
 " The Argives — it is but the cry of our own Ar- 
 gives behind." 
 
 We rallied and again plunged forward. Before 
 us tossed a lake of glinting shields — a broad lake 
 it seemed in the moonlight. Gylippus himself was 
 leading up against us ; yet we routed him — even 
 Gylippus — and followed the clanging fugitives with 
 unabated, breathless pace. Few were overtaken : but 
 a new psean swelled on the slope, and as we turned 
 an angle a dense phalanx of Theban hoplites rippled 
 moonlight full in our faces. 
 
 We paused for a better formation, yet charged 
 them with but a fraction of our strength. There was 
 the reef on which our fortune broke at last; for 
 they met us like some dark, deep-rooted reef over 
 whose sullen rocks the water sparkles. Their dogged 
 Boeotian pikes thrust us back; my shield I left im- 
 paled; we turned in dismay, clashing with the tide 
 that pressed behind us: the long line heaved with 
 panic. 
 
 All was lost. We strove to rally in vain. We 
 ran this way and that in aimless squads, uncertain 
 
G O R G O 329 
 
 of friend or foe; we fell by our own spears. The 
 enemy, too, were in confusion. They had rallied 
 from every side ; the hosts were mingled ; we heard 
 about us all the dialects of Greece. Our pass-word 
 was shouted until all had it, — and thus it became 
 a snare. 
 
 "The word?" I called to a huge spearman 
 on the incline above me. He gave it. " To the 
 front ! " I cried, seizing his arm, — and reeled from 
 his blow. A black shadow loomed over me; I 
 seemed to feel a knife across my throat. 
 
 As I fell the peal of a bow-string had mingled 
 with the singing in my head. I had lost all track 
 of Golas, but now found myself borne swiftly in 
 his arms. He ran straight for the verge of the 
 cliffs, and when we reached it I had my senses but no 
 strength. A stream of men, wide but thin, was 
 pouring over it ; a crashing and moaning rose from 
 below. He scarcely paused, but with one arm for 
 me and another for the rocks, using his bare feet 
 in the fashion of an ape, he swung down by juts 
 and crevices and narrow ledges, safely to the bottom. 
 He laid me over his shoulder as he carried me 
 through the marsh. I looked back; I could see 
 quite clearly, for the sky was reddening and the 
 mist but slight; the flashing stream still poured 
 from the precipice and writhed below. Yet from 
 that soughing pool many rose and ran on : some 
 across the flats, like Golas, and these were saved; 
 while others, newly arrived, turning inland to avoid 
 
33Q 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 the marsh — I saw the dust-cloud of the Syracusan 
 horse, and knew the fate of wanderers. 
 
 Demosthenes had led his own detachment down 
 the defile and fought his way back to the camp. His 
 spirit was broken; he hoped no more. 
 
 " Let us leave this deadly spot while we may," 
 he said, when the generals met. " I was wrong, 
 perhaps, — but that is past. Athens needs us ; a 
 Spartan army sits on the hills of Attica. The ships 
 are ready ; the way lies open ; let us make no more 
 mistakes." 
 
 But again the counsels of Nicias were uppermost. 
 He had won great credit by his foresight ; he almost 
 triumphed in our defeat. 
 
 " I warned you of this," he answered. " And 
 now, because you have failed in one rash venture, 
 will you fling away the success that waits on wiser 
 methods? I tell you, Syracuse is almost spent. I 
 have messages; we have friends within her walls. 
 Wait: you will soon be listening to proposals for 
 surrender. You are newly come and raw in this 
 place. Will you sooner face the assembly of Athens 
 than the enemy? The very soldiers who now 
 clamour for retreat will turn and denounce us." 
 
 " I will sooner die by their voices than betray 
 their lives," said Demosthenes. But his will was 
 overborne. 
 
 We waited: Nicias still had his messages; but 
 the enemy grew more insolent day by day. Once 
 more they ranged themselves before our prows and 
 taunted us until we could refrain no longer. But 
 
G O R G O 331 
 
 the squadron led by Eurymedon was forced upon the 
 shoals; and there, they say, he died, crushed amid 
 his broken timbers. For I was not with him, but 
 fought on the shore among those who beat back the 
 charge of Gylippus. Eighteen ships we lost; the 
 rest we saved by mighty efforts on sea and land, 
 for many were grounded. A second time we were 
 worsted : we — with ships ! And neither defeat nor 
 victory brought any respite; the night brought no 
 rest. 
 
 Meletus sat in the gloom gnawing a morsel of 
 dried fish. " We are in hard case, lad," he said, 
 sulkily. 
 
 "We are." 
 
 " Curse their drovers' tactics ! I could not reach 
 him; I see no mending of it. And, lad, there is 
 scarce a flagon in all the stores. Meletus is heeding 
 the counsels of old Nicias now, mind you. It was 
 not my thought, but hard luck ever betters disci- 
 pline, and there is a sort of urgency of persuasion 
 in lacking. Fish — washed down with a flow of the 
 element the creature swims in — I am cold as a 
 fish myself, lad — Phlegethon ! " 
 
 A red light shone on the water ; the camp was in 
 sudden uproar. f 
 
 " God's fork ! they are at us again. That sweep- 
 smashing son of the bellows is blowing fire on the 
 fleet. He would burn what is left of us." 
 
 We ran to the shore and leaped into a boat. A 
 fire-ship, crackling with tar and fagots, was bear- 
 ing down with the wind directly toward the gap. 
 
332 G O R G O 
 
 Other boats were already about it, thrusting back 
 with poles, but the drift was too strong and the heat 
 beyond endurance. Meletus, who had called to his 
 seamen as he ran, made for the nearest barge of 
 dolphins, cut the moorings, manned deck-oars, and 
 swung out. The fire roared close on the bow. 
 
 " Steady, there! " he cried. 
 
 The long spar trembled in the mounting flames. 
 It blazed; the cordage parted; the heavy missile 
 broke down through fire and keel. The drowning 
 embers hissed, and the red light dimmed in clouds 
 of steam. 
 
 " Push off athwart the wind," he shouted to the 
 boats ; and the sagging hulk lay lodged against our 
 piles, still flaming in the upper parts, but harmless. 
 
 " There is a certain system about it," remarked 
 Meletus, fanning his blistered face with a rag of 
 sail. " For every play of action there is a way 
 of counter, — if you know the turn of it, and our 
 old Nicias hinders not. It was no discreditable 
 performance, as I would think, for one called 
 hastily from a fish diet." 
 
 But Meletus, whether he uttered it in jest or ear- 
 nest, was wrong in that word about better discipline 
 under privation. The camp was almost insurgent: 
 so loud was the call for retreat that Nicia's him- 
 self at last gave the command, though muttering 
 still of messages ; he could never withstand the cry 
 of many voices. Our ships were trimmed for flight, 
 our last stores laid in the hold, and we were to sail 
 with the break of the morning. 
 
G O R G O 333 
 
 The moon was again at full, but seemed strangely 
 dim; there was scarcely a cloud in the sky, yet it 
 waned until it seemed a pallid film. 
 
 Meletus laid a cold hand on my shoulder. " It 
 is a portent, lad, if I can read the signs. That 
 moon is dead, and yonder thing is but a sky-ghost, 
 as it were. I have seen them : dead men rise from 
 the ooze after it. Old Nicias had the right of it, 
 lad." He spoke in hoarse tones, and abated of his 
 oaths. 
 
 A black blot grew on the edge of the disk, — 
 which passed through all its phases in an hour. 
 
 " The time is dying, too, lad. It is already the 
 old and new day of the month — or the ghost of 
 it — and I fear it portends a manner of payment 
 of debts." His voice was hollow, as if he spoke 
 from under the hatches. " I will heed old Nicias 
 henceforth to the end of it." 
 
 The moon had left the sky ; a moan of fear filled 
 the darkness. True, the stars were there, but they 
 shone with portentous brightness yielding little light, 
 and hung low, as if about to fall. 
 
 " It is but natural," I protested, faintly. " Anax- 
 agoras has written of it." 
 
 His broad hand shut on my mouth ; I thought 
 he would have choked me. " Speak not here of 
 such a spyer upon god's mysteries," he gasped in 
 my ear. " I account him little else but an atheist, 
 lad. It is a perilous profane babble, that book- 
 writing of prying sophists ; far worse, by god's fire- 
 f — and there is what comes of starting ill speeches 
 
334 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 out of season," he concluded, angrily. I was almost 
 of the same mind at that moment. 
 
 " It is still aloft there," he said, presently, " but 
 in some sort buried, I would say; and that is a 
 sign to us, lad. Its look is most like to a shield 
 that has lain long under brine. It is drowned, lad : 
 there is water up yonder, as you may have heard 
 — a great sea that the dead ships sail on, and when 
 the wind tosses it there is rain." 
 
 A thin margin of light appeared, and brightened, 
 until the full moon shone out once more amid the 
 paling stars, and its sheen grew dazzling; yet it 
 brought small comfort. 
 
 " The time is stark dead," repeated Meletus. " A 
 month is dead in a night, and I am as ill as dead with 
 the thought. There is nothing done but dying in 
 dead days, lad. We cannot sail; the day is past. 
 It confounds me, lad. I shall hold by old Nicias ; 
 he has a nose for the weather signs of things to 
 come, and will take the right meaning of it." 
 
 The morning passed ; not a ship was moved. All 
 waited for Nicias ; and after long consultation with 
 his diviners he came forth alone. For thrice nine 
 days we must hold the camp, he told us : a full 
 circle of the moon must pass without action. 
 " This," he said, " is the manifest will of the gods, 
 and none shall call it in question." And with that 
 he looked toward his colleagues, who stood apart 
 in a dejected group. " There has been too much 
 of debate and too little of devotion in this place, 
 as the god himself has witnessed to us. But with 
 
G O R G O 335 
 
 due obedience to the sign thus shown from above 
 to check our folly, I have great hope." 
 
 Few shared his hope, but none disputed his present 
 judgment. We sat in the reek of the swamp, silent, 
 watching the oily ripples that swirled by our soaking 
 keels. The very sky was hostile; the hot sunshine 
 glared cheerlessly. We pined for the bright air of 
 Attica; and with the sickness of our hearts the 
 sickness of our bodies grew, until half the men lay 
 groaning. 
 
 The enemy had learned of all our plans, — there 
 are traitors everywhere and always, and they, too, 
 had their messages. But a little while before they 
 would have been too happy to see our sterns sink 
 down the offing; now they must see them sunk in 
 the bay. The long stress of the siege, with its 
 ever renewing perils, had raised their resentment to 
 fury; and when they perceived that our thoughts 
 were of retreat, theirs leaped to annihilation. No 
 corn-ships passed them now. Soon they sailed to 
 the harbour mouth with all their force, and linked 
 the fronting forts with a chain of barges. 
 
 Then a cry went up. There was no more talk of 
 the moon — even by Nicias. We rushed to our 
 ships. But Meletus stood on the shore with folded 
 arms ; he would not budge. 
 
 " This is not the way of it," he said to Nicias, 
 who came in person to urge him, well knowing 
 his value. " It may be, my — Nicias, I would say — 
 it may be I have a better thought of you than once ; 
 and you may see I am heeding that about the flagon 
 
336 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 and ill words. But think you, old lad — Nicias, I 
 would say, but the tongue kinks on it — think you 
 yon bar of the gut will not lie there to-morrow, that 
 you rush upon it thus, without order or preparation ? 
 I tell you, we are in no plight." 
 
 He prevailed. Nicias glanced at the galleys : many 
 were beakless ; scarce one had full oars. The stam- 
 pede was checked ; that day and the next were spent 
 in making ready. We repaired the gaping wounds, 
 cut new oars from any timber, and finally set iron 
 grapnels on the prows. 
 
 " They will have it a land fight on water," grum- 
 bled Meletus. " They have given me fifty Acarna- 
 nian slingers for my deck, to whack each other's 
 heads with swung stones. They will swaggle at 
 every pull of the oars, — if so chance they sicken 
 not, which may the god avert! I shall be sunk to 
 the lower ports, with water swilling in at every 
 lurch; yet I have a thought to turn those animals 
 to some utility." 
 
 " The grapples may help," I said. 
 
 " The tongs? They will catch no fish, lad. That 
 Corinthian cobbler has seen them, and is shoeing 
 his toes with hard hides ; those claws of old Nicias 
 will but scratch on cowskin. 'Twill be a queer man- 
 ner of fight, lad ; the gods in heaven will laugh." 
 
 Perhaps there was laughing on Olympus; there 
 was none among men. We climbed to our places 
 with tears and prayers. Demosthenes and Menander 
 were to lead, but Nicias stood by the ladders and 
 exhorted us, each one. Our gods, our native city, 
 
G O R G O 337 
 
 mothers, children, wives — there was nothing he did 
 not say ; and as we drew off, heavy with the burden 
 on our decks, he still called after us. All Syracuse 
 was gathered on the sea-walls, gazing down upon 
 the bay, and all our army, sick or well, stretched 
 along the shore. Their faces were strained and 
 white; their bodies swayed to the swing of our 
 oars; they cheered us with shaking voices. 
 
 I was not on the ship of Meletus, and presently 
 lost sight of him; but I noted that he had a false 
 beak set under his ram, projecting by at least a 
 cubit, close to the water. He seemed to avoid en- 
 counter, slipping in and out like an eel, and soon 
 vanished in the press. For the enemy met us in 
 mid-harbour. I had been assigned to Demosthenes, 
 and stood by the bow in full panoply. We, too, 
 avoided encounter as best we could, and made for 
 the chain of boats. We reached it; we beat upon 
 the barges, some of which we foundered, but the 
 chain bore them up. And now the hostile galleys 
 closed in on every side: their horns were grinding 
 in our ribs ; missiles fell everywhere ; no voice could 
 be heard a ship-length, for all the tumult of battle 
 was blended in a roar that stunned the ear and be- 
 wildered the heart. Our grapples slipped, but it 
 scarcely mattered; two hundred ships lay crushed 
 together like a disordered raft. Yet scores of little 
 boats from the docks dashed through every opening, 
 breaking our blades with axes or shooting in at the 
 ports; and it was against these that Golas proved 
 of most service, though he also swept the decks of 
 
338 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 triremes with arrows that fell bloodstained on the 
 further side, — for he shot at close quarters. Gang- 
 ways crashed, bridging ship with ship ; and on these 
 the charging hoplites met and strove, until the heave 
 of the sea flung down both bridge and men, and the 
 gleam of sinking brass filled the waters. Twice T 
 sprang back barely in time ; darts hung in my shield ; 
 my sight was dull with blood and sweat and buffets, 
 my thoughts were mere turmoil. 
 
 Then a great wail came from the shore. The 
 press behind us loosened ; we, too, were borne back ; 
 the remnant of our fleet was in flight. We ran with 
 the rest ; but the blunted beaks in chase were hard 
 on our sterns as we leaped to land, leaving the 
 stranded galley where it lay. The howl of triumph 
 from the ships and walls of Syracuse drowned the 
 moan of the camp. 
 
XXIX. 
 
 Slave and Poet 
 
 NIGHT had fallen : shouts and drunken songs 
 echoed across the bay; the city was mad 
 with wine and triumph, and the air above it 
 rosy with the glow of torches. In the camp all was 
 dark, and its sounds were in another note: the 
 groans of the wounded and the sick, the low curse 
 of despair, and prayers that breathed as little hope. 
 The generals sat in dismal council. 
 
 " We have still some sixty ships," said Nicias, 
 slowly, " and the enemy, I think, have hardly so 
 many fit for use. Let us strike again at sunrise; 
 there is nothing else." 
 
 Demosthenes and all the rest assented. They 
 called Meletus. 
 
 " It might be, old lads," he said, cheerfully. 
 " They are lacking an adequate pilot now, and we, 
 mind you, have no such deficiency. But the men 
 will not board, neither mine nor any. I will print 
 your wish on their backs with a tiller-stick if such 
 is your advisement, but nothing will come of it save 
 a strain on the wood and a manner of pain to the 
 ears of old Nicias there." And this they soon 
 found to be the truth. 
 
 339 
 
34° 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " We must flee by land, then," said Demosthenes. 
 " We may still win to Catana by a circuit through 
 the hills." 
 
 " Not to-night," exclaimed Nicias. " It is use- 
 less to start to-night. We are ill equipped and the 
 ways are beset; I have a sure message." 
 
 The uproar rising from behind the city walls did 
 not suggest it; but he was insistent. We lingered 
 the whole day following. And while we waited, — 
 
 " It pinched my heart, lad, too," said Meletus, 
 " but I did it." 
 
 "Did what?" I asked, gloomily. 
 
 " Sunk him — trireme and all. It is a bitter 
 loss to the craft — the more that he was of the 
 enemy, who lack — but I needs must." 
 
 I looked up with a show of interest. 
 
 " I forgive him, lad — everything. He met me 
 fairly in the upshot of it, and in some reasonable 
 space of water. But I made the less of that ; there 
 would be no catching him behind o>r beside, and I 
 knew it well. He ever turned on me, like that snake 
 of Egypt who sits in a coil of his own cordage, as 
 it were, and swings his reared head in the manner 
 of a mast. So I ran straight at him ; for I thought, 
 ' He is hard above with his horns and bracements, 
 but below the lap of the swell it is likely he has made 
 no provision, for his art is mere Corinthian when 
 all is told.' You marked, perhaps, the rig I had 
 set for him. Those slingers I had massed in the 
 waist, with their sling-stones in ballast, and at the 
 word I ran them forward, so that we dipped with 
 
G O R G O 
 
 34i 
 
 the strike of the beak. They went with no judg- 
 ment, lad, and near foundered us; we had in a 
 swashing cargo of water, but hit where 'twas soft. 
 There is nothing more of it, lad; yet Meletus 
 would give a full sack, so he had it, to see that 
 Ariston dry again and warm with wine. 'Twill be 
 but clumsy fighting now, — if ever we reach the 
 good brine." And with that thought even Meletus 
 sighed heavily. 
 
 The ways were indeed beset when we started on 
 the third morning. Such of the sick as were not 
 quite helpless trailed after us; the rest we left 
 there, wailing, crying to every god. That almost 
 burst our hearts — but how did it matter ? They 
 would only die the sooner, and by an easier course 
 of death than most of us. 
 
 I was one of the last to go; and as I stumbled 
 over a prostrate body it half rose and clasped my 
 legs, while a weak voice whispered my name, 
 " Theramenes ! " I looked down ; it was my school- 
 mate, Myron. "Save me," he moaned, — " do not 
 leave me to die here, Menion." 
 
 I commanded Golas to take him up. The slave 
 bore him until we had crossed the river, then set 
 him down, puffing : " Ookook — carry master — 
 carry Gorka — not carry this." 
 
 I myself could scarcely carry my panoply; we 
 had eaten no breakfast. And we could not pause; 
 the Syracusan cavalry was close upon us. We ran 
 on with what strength we had, through a straggle of 
 crawling cripples whose strength was ever less; 
 
342 G O R G O 
 
 I did not pause when I heard a cry — there were 
 many cries. 
 
 I shall not — cannot — tell the story of that 
 dreadful march. It seems to me now but a night- 
 mare, eight days long; I cannot even remember 
 it clearly. That time is but a blur of hunger, weari- 
 ness, weakness, heat, and thirst; of hostile spears, 
 cries, wounds, and hopeless terror, such as never 
 comes except in dreams and when the sick soul 
 reels toward madness. If the road led up a hill, 
 there was the enemy; if we entered a wood the 
 place became a labyrinth, with a Minotaur at the 
 end of every path; if we crossed a plain, horse 
 danced amid wavering dust-clouds on front and 
 flank and rear; at night, if any slept, he still was 
 marching; none even dreamed of home. Yet 
 through this black despair a voice kept crying in 
 my heart, — " Not here, but at Athens ; not now, but 
 after Gorgo, won and wed." And this alone bore 
 me up. 
 
 We had left the camp with forty thousand men; 
 we still numbered some thousands. Of the fate of 
 Demosthenes we knew nothing; he had fallen be- 
 hind with all his host. Our way was lost; we were 
 drifting southward with little plan or aim, not 
 where we would but as we might. At last we halted 
 on the high, steep bank of a stream, and here Gylip- 
 pus overtook us. He demanded instant surrender; 
 Demosthenes, he said, had already yielded. 
 
 But this Nicias could not believe; he no longer 
 gave credit to any messages. And we — we be- 
 
G O R G O 343 
 
 lieved anything ill, but cared not ; our thoughts were 
 all on the water that boiled in the channel below, for 
 we were crazed with thirst. Down the slope we 
 poured, while the enemy's line of lances urged from 
 the rear. We plunged our faces in the turbid eddies 
 like trampling beasts, filling our gullets with mud 
 and slime, and soon with a redder flow; for the 
 ravine was quickly filled from brink to brink, and 
 those above were spitted by hundreds on the pikes 
 that bristled from beneath. Some were crushed, 
 some drowned, deep under the press; many more 
 the torrent swept away, to be shot like fishes in the 
 water by the archers who lined the shore. Spears 
 rained on our struggling mass, and these, striking 
 downward, impaled us by twos and threes. I wonder 
 that any could breathe that air, so full of ghosts ; in 
 no battle had so many died. 
 
 Then Nicias cast down his shield before Gylippus. 
 " Deal with me as you will," he said, " but stop this 
 slaughter. Yet was Nicias honoured in Sparta once, 
 and esteemed her friend." 
 
 Gylippus looked on him with eyes that triumphed 
 not unkindly. " I would save if I might the man 
 who was once a friend of Sparta; but I think it 
 not easy. They will wish to slay, and they love 
 me little. Yet should a better wit prevail, surely 
 the ransom of Nicias will be worthy of his name 
 and wealth ? " 
 
 " Any ransom, if ever Nicias should see his own. 
 But end this killing." 
 
 The trumpet sounded; the storm of missiles 
 
344 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 ceased to beat upon our unresisting flesh. They 
 dragged the living from among the dead; they 
 shackled us two by two, and drove us captive. 
 Some mistakes they made; the wounded Imbrian 
 with whom I was linked soon fell, but they cut him 
 loose and left him in the dust ; the dogs from every 
 village followed us. We were brought to the city in 
 one long march, — so small was the distance we 
 had covered in all our wanderings; yet the night 
 was upon us long before we reached the gates, and 
 the moon, now crescent, ploughed the cloud-foam 
 like a merchant bark with lifted peaks, giving light 
 that was wind-tossed and shadow-broken. 
 
 We were near the bridge of Anapus, clanking 
 along the Helorine way. We had been much beset 
 since night-fall by a sort of brigands ; half Syracuse, 
 it seemed, was out on a slave-hunt. Our guards 
 heeded it little; they were few along the flanks, 
 though a great force marched behind, and none was 
 close when I felt myself suddenly snatched from the 
 line and dragged away into the darkness amid the 
 thickets that edged the stream. I did not resist ; if 
 I had become a slave, what matter whom I served? 
 My captors were masked, but the hair of one showed 
 white, and something in his figure seemed familiar. 
 They threw me into a boat, ran softly down the 
 river, crossed the bay, and entered by the port. 
 The water-front and the broader streets were ablaze 
 with riot, but they led me through devious lanes 
 to a house in a rather secluded quarter. Here they 
 entered; they used me kindly enough, offering 
 
G O R G O 345 
 
 food and drink-, after which they thrust me into an 
 empty store-room, where I slept like an ox on the 
 pallet of a slave. At last some one shook me 
 by the shoulder ; I roused dully and sat up. 
 
 "Is it, then, already morning?" I asked. For 
 the place was windowless and dark. 
 
 " It is broad day, — but not as I conjecture you 
 conjecture; for my conjecture is that you conjecture 
 wrongly." And he smacked his lips on the phrase. 
 " It is the morning of the second day; two nights 
 and one full day has the child of mischance drowned 
 from his life in the deep oblivion of the shadow- 
 sweet waters of gently flowing Lethe." Again he 
 smacked his lips with the relish of it. Somewhere 
 I had heard that voice before : the accent was almost 
 Attic, though he chanted this last with the swaying 
 cadence of a rhapsodist. " Yet I blame you not 
 at all, for you were spent utterly, and the soul of 
 woe lay drunken under the skinny thatch of its 
 bone-propped tenement. It is a notable incident, 
 and I shall utilise it for a play. Alcinous shall 
 speak these words to Odysseus when I have set 
 them in proper metres and fittingly led up to it. 
 I must have a note of them while the melody lingers. 
 Can you write, boy ? " 
 
 "As a soldier may; but mainly with the spear- 
 point in red characters on untanned hides, — and 
 most of my books, I think, are burned." 
 
 " Now that is notable — a notable answer. It 
 shall be spoken by Odysseus to Alcinous at sight 
 of a parchment. What it lacks in the grace of the 
 
34^ 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 finishing touch of art I shall add ; it will doubtless 
 come with the trip of the metre. You will be of 
 service to me, boy. Perhaps you are not wont to 
 be called boy, but you are aware it is the customary 
 term for one speaking thus to his slave." 
 
 Boy! I had indeed been called so — but with 
 what a difference! 
 
 " Come forth, boy. I would scan your face. I 
 have hope you are much above your station." 
 
 I stood in the light — before my master. I 
 blenched — as I have rarely blenched at any sight. 
 For this master — it was our Syracusan slave of 
 long ago ! and I — the slave of a slave ! He sur- 
 veyed me with evident satisfaction, and quite with- 
 out recognition as I quickly perceived. 
 
 " Yes, you are truly of Athens ; it is evidenced 
 by tongue and feature alike. Of good blood, I 
 would judge ; I have seen something of your better 
 families. And that conceit of yours about the spear 
 — it was worthy of your own Euripides, only lack- 
 ing the polish of a more perfect art. I shall put 
 you to the higher uses, Glyphon. For I shall call 
 you Glyphon, boy." 
 
 " Call me what you will." At the least I was 
 glad he had not chosen to call me some such thing 
 as Manes. 
 
 " That tod is good. ' Call me what you will ' — 
 it is no such notable conceit as the other, but it has 
 the true ring of a tragic answer. You shall guide 
 me in the proper Attic phrasing; this outlandish 
 gabble of .pur Syracusan streets harms the delicate 
 
G O R G O 347 
 
 taste in phrasing. Yet I myself have been in Athens, 
 Glyphon; you may easily know it by my speech. 
 I have taught in that city; I have been somewhat 
 of a sophist in my rawer time, and my name is not 
 wholly unknown there." 
 
 The liar ! yet all he had said was after a fashion 
 true. 
 
 " That name, however, you may not readily 
 recall," he continued, " as being but a hurtler of the 
 spear, though seemingly of good understanding. 
 Philolerus I am called; it is needful that my slave 
 should be apprised of it. You will speak of me 
 always — especially when you go to buy papyrus 
 at the book mart — as Philolerus the poet, whom 
 you serve as scribe; that incidental matter of the 
 aid in phrasing you need not mention. For under- 
 stand, I am now a rising poet of the tragedy; my 
 ' Vengeance of Cronus ' would have been exhibited 
 but for jealousy. I had in it speeches above two 
 hundred lines in length, richly embroidered with 
 flowers of sentiment plucked from the gardens of 
 Theognis. For I flit from blossom to blossom, and 
 gather honey like the wandering bee." 
 
 His familiarity with the tiresome maxim-maker 
 I only too well remembered. But this bee, I hoped, 
 would prove stingless; for though I might easily 
 crush such an insect with one blow, I could not 
 escape the whole Syracusan hive. What followed 
 was less reassuring. 
 
 " When I am composing a play," he said, with a 
 smirk of infinite vanity, " I ever enact the leading 
 
348 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 part in my mitid; I become, as it were, that I por- 
 tray. Of late I was Cronus himself, and you might 
 well have fared ill with me. ' Might well -have 
 fared ill' — is it not a neat and artful phrasing? 
 But I am now writing a play of which Odysseus is 
 the hero, and you will find me courteous but very 
 cunning. Yet should I chance to strike you, remem- 
 ber, I am but smiting Thersites. It is quite likely 
 I shall strike you at times ; there is a sort of frenzy 
 in the act of poetastic composition." 
 
 A frenzy in devising frigid quibbles and appro- 
 priating proverbs from Theognis ! I almost laughed ; 
 yet if indeed he should lift that puffy hand against 
 me, it would be no laughing matter. But the pru- 
 dence of Odysseus prevailed ; he harangued unceas- 
 ingly, like the bullying schoolmaster he was, but 
 never struck. Perhaps he read a warning in my 
 eye that I too had my moments of frenzy : he was 
 ever a coward. 
 
 I shall not detail those days of my extraordinary 
 servitude: the humiliation is too great. For this 
 I had come to Syracuse ! Yet I laughed each night 
 as I lay on my pallet at the sheer absurdity of this 
 fling of fate; but for that, I believe, I should have 
 driven the stylus through my heart and ended it. 
 My main employment was to write from dictation, 
 sitting hour by hour with a heavy tablet on my knee, 
 rubbing the wax unceasingly to make erasures, as 
 he revised each silly sentence to a more studied bad- 
 ness. Then would come the copying of this 
 wretched stuff upon the papyrus, in the which I tried 
 
G O R G O 
 
 349 
 
 his patience greatly, for I was but clumsy with the 
 reeds and he could ill afford to waste the sheets. 
 Well, it could not last forever, and the crisis came 
 thus. 
 
 He often took me with him when he walked, — 
 still with the tablets, lest any precious quirk of 
 speech escape the wax. One day he led me past the 
 quarries — by design, I think — the deep sinks and 
 caverns in the native rock where the remnant of 
 our captive army lay entombed. For a tomb it 
 seemed, — at least, they had no other, and there 
 the dead of weeks lay heaped among the living ; the 
 stench as I approached the brink was horrible. Only 
 the soul could escape from such a dungeon; and 
 . their souls were flitting fast. ' Their fever-stricken 
 bodies, such as had life, sweltered under the noon- 
 day sun and chilled in the night-frosts; the air 
 they breathed was corruption; few would breathe 
 it long. Though a scanty portion of corn and 
 scantier water-sacks were from time to time let 
 down to them, it seemed the last malice of cruelty 
 to feed their misery. No charnel-pit was ever like 
 this place. 
 
 " So 'deal the gods with those who thought to 
 deal thus with others," said the Syracusan, grandly. 
 " So rots the lust of conquest. Behold from what 
 I have saved you, boy." 
 
 May the gods forgive me if I felt a sort of grati- 
 tude! 
 
 " In the hour of pride the avengers set their snare. 
 Write it down, boy. Their bait is the deadly delu- 
 
350 G O R G O 
 
 sion of arrogance. We are meshed in the web we 
 have woven of the threads of folly." 
 
 A herald stood on the opposite verge of the 
 chasm. " Hear, all ye accursed ! " he proclaimed ; 
 and some of the dying wretches raised their heads. 
 " Hear the magnanimous edict of the sovereign 
 people of Syracuse, in behalf of the Spartan Gylip- 
 pus, who came within their walls in the hour of de- 
 spondency, and though little aid was needed wrought 
 what he might to fling you where you lie. And he 
 shall have his reward, for the people of Syracuse are 
 not ungenerous. The lives of Nicias and others in 
 chief command they could not justly grant; and 
 these are long since dead. But this they bestow : 
 ten captives of rank and good estate from Athens, 
 to be his for ransom or death. Give ear, and if 
 any thus elect lie in the den below, let them crawl 
 to the place of the rope." 
 
 He began the reciting of names ; mine was third 
 on the list. I sprang forward. 
 
 " I am he; I am Hagnon's son," I cried. 
 
 " It cannot be — not the son of that Hagnon ! " 
 yelled my master. 
 
 The officer eyed him coldly. " There has been 
 some thieving here, old fellow; no native Athenian 
 has yet been sold. But what proof have you ? " he 
 asked me. " We know well that a slave will say 
 anything." 
 
 " Yes, he lies ; he is lying ; they all are liars. Rob 
 me not of my slave. I am a poet, harmless and 
 poor." 
 
G O R G O 351 
 
 " I see no brand-mark," said the officer, lifting the 
 hair from my brow. For I had run to him. 
 
 " I was kind. It was an error, but I did not 
 brand," persisted my kidnapper. 
 
 " Fool," said the other, " it was not yours to do 
 branding." 
 
 " Take me before Gylippus," I besought him. " I 
 will bear any scrutiny. Surely some among you 
 have seen me in fight, with Golas, my slave." 
 
 " The devil archer ? Yes, that beast was ever 
 with Hagnon's son; it is common report. Bring 
 him before the examiners to-morrow at early 
 market; and mind that you tell a straight story, 
 poet." The man would listen to no more, but 
 turned to those who moaned at the foot of the rope. 
 " Haul up him who claims to be the son of Meton," 
 he commanded his servants. 
 
 My frightened master led me back to the house, 
 bewailing himself with every step. " Why did you 
 not tell me? I have used you well; I have been 
 kind. Why did I not think to brand? The son 
 of that terrible Hagnon! It is heaven's justice. 
 Yet I cannot keep him. He will surely betray; 
 already he has brought me into peril. My slave! 
 Not mine by mechanical process of purchase, but 
 the god had long willed me this, and I but took my 
 own. I cannot lose my slave. And it is Hagnon's 
 son, — that little viper's spawn who would have 
 struck me with a knife. He should be scourged for 
 that — scourged. The gods be merciful ! I know 
 not whether they send me this for a curse or a 
 
352 G O R G O 
 
 blessing. Hagnon's son! it is most just. Yet I 
 cannot keep 'him even though they should believe 
 me. I have lived days of peril, and knew not. I 
 have warmed that snake in my bosom when I might 
 have had vengeance. The gods have blessed me with 
 a slave; and he goes from me — unlashed. You 
 have robbed me, boy. I am a poet, and poor; I 
 cannot endure this loss. But I am now Odysseus : 
 I will be swift and crafty." 
 
 He locked me fast in my chamber ; but I heeded 
 him so little that I slept, and my dreams were of 
 Gorgo. I awoke with a strangling gripe about my 
 throat, and just beyond the door, — 
 
 " It shall be three minas," said a voice, " and even 
 so it is but to throw away ; it is a loss. Yes, it shall 
 be three minas, because it is the noble Syracusan, 
 who is poor and wishes the silver; but it is loss. 
 They are so many now, and for the slave of Syra- 
 cuse there is little market. If he be not quite sound 
 it shall be less; and you have yourself said the 
 slave is not submissive. Yes, he shall have the 
 brand, but it is risk. Oh, yes ! it is best to brand, 
 — but at sea, where they hear not the cry. Bind 
 him quickly, Pardocas, and smother well the face." 
 
 I was wound with rope from neck to heel, my 
 head muffled in a leathern sack; and so they bore 
 me through the midnight streets. 
 
XXX. 
 
 The Brand of the Beast 
 
 I LAY in the gloom of the hold and listened to 
 the crashing of the waves; I felt the throb of 
 my fetters with each pulse of the oars, until 
 every stroke was like the falling of a lash. My 
 heart was sick with dread ; I knew neither my port 
 nor my doom : yet at last the stark weariness of 
 this bondage proved worst. of all, and the torture of 
 the hours grew insupportable. Then it is that men 
 writhe in their irons and beat their clashing limbs 
 against" the planks, and cry to the heavens they can- 
 not see for shipwreck, though they sink in chains! 
 I too — I raved with the rest ; for the hold was full 
 of this agony. I suppose I had long been frantic: 
 all sense of day or night was lost ; in that darkness 
 and delirium I did not even note what lay beside 
 me. At last the dim form rolled over and spoke. 
 
 " I doubt not we are headed for Styx as you say, 
 lad. But by the three throats of him who will bay 
 at our coming, strive to hold more steady on the 
 keel. My wrist is near broke with your comfortless 
 pitchings; and mind you, the use of the wrist is 
 necessary to a pilot, even at the breach of Styx." 
 
 353 
 
354 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Gods ! " I groaned. " Is it you ? Oh, the gods ! 
 it is the branding; he will brand us, Meletus, full 
 on the brow. And then he will sell us to the 
 Persian." 
 
 " I would think it likely, lad ; such, at least, is 
 the usual manner of it. Yet mark you, there is 
 ever a straight course open down to Styx; they 
 cannot close it, lad. But by the good god of the 
 flagon, I am glad you are by me. Hold fast to 
 Meletus, lad, and he will get you across. I would 
 shame to think that a pilot of any experience could 
 not contrive the passage of a channel like yonder 
 Styx, even though we should come there lacking the 
 obol. I will rig an acation of such wreckage as may 
 lie there; and if yon Charon, whose craft, I surmise, 
 is not of the newest, should attempt to hinder, I will 
 practise upon that old god a sequel of sudden de- 
 vices from the navy of Athens." 
 
 With this he made me laugh in spite of all. 
 " How came you here? " I asked. 
 
 " Well, lad, Meletus but fared like the rest. 
 I was taken in one of their hovels rummaging 
 among the cargo; for as you might know, the thirst 
 I was under was something quelling. It was a sort 
 of admiral of goats that got me; they set me to 
 the herding of goats, lad — me, Meletus. I lost 
 those two-pronged beasts quite hastily, the whole 
 convoy of them, for there was a manner of other 
 beasts about; and then it behooved me, mind you, 
 to lose myself with a sort of hastiness, too. And for 
 where would I steer but the sea, lad? It was 3 
 
G O R G O 355 
 
 difficult navigation, but I made over a heavy ground- 
 swell to the beach, having with me a flagon obtained 
 by violent entreaty of a country sort of a fellow on 
 the way. May the fire-fork split me if I can tell 
 more of it ; but here I remembered myself and noted 
 that you were by me, which I presently knew by the 
 dig of your anchor flukes when they tossed on the 
 cat-heads." 
 
 It may have been the next day — I cannot be 
 sure; but we were far out on the sea. They led 
 us up to the deck by fours, loosing the shackles that 
 held our legs to the stanchions, but leaving our 
 arms bound with cords. In the middle of the deck 
 glowed a brazier, and in it lay branding-irons; a 
 slave was fanning the coals, while the grim Nubian, 
 stripped almost naked, stood ready. The Syrian, 
 too, was there, — as shrunk and sallow as a shriv- 
 elled date which has hung on the tree until nothing 
 is left but skin and pith. His eyes ran over us with 
 a searching appraisement, but when they rested on 
 me — he sprang back so suddenly that his gown 
 swept the fire. 
 
 " Bel ! It is Hagnon's son. It is he that took 
 from me my archer, and smiled in the Syrian's face 
 and threatened him with arrows." And he spoke 
 not another word until he had made certain that 
 Golas was nowhere near. Then, — " Just is Bel, 
 and true is his promise: I will proclaim his kind- 
 ness. For this has the Syrian prayed and made 
 offerings of captives. Just is Bel, and liberal to 
 the wish of him that worships." 
 
356 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 1 leaped at a hope. " Syrian, you know well my 
 estate. Redeem me and one other; have your will 
 of the rest. I — ■ my father will pay any ransom." 
 
 " If he will ransom after the brand it is well. 
 It is not in all cases that we ransom; it is not all 
 of silver. Bel is gracious ; I will not cast away the 
 grace of Bel. I will brand; I will have my wish 
 that Bel has granted me for prayers and gifts : we 
 will then have speech of the ransom." 
 
 " I will never live branded." 
 
 " In the fetters there will be no choice. The 
 Syrian will heed the counsels of the sophist — and 
 may Bel grant me that one also. I will not kill; 
 I will devise pleasures; I will greatly honour Bel. 
 But at the last, when Tissaphernas has paid the 
 golden darics, the Syrian cares not. Yet the mer- 
 chant will be kind, as Bel is kind. This he will grant 
 to the noble Athenian, whose father would pay much 
 ransom, — he shall be last." 
 
 He spoke sibilant words in some strange tongue. 
 The man beside me was seized and flung down ; the 
 Nubian stooped, the sun-white metal hissed; the 
 shrieking victim sat erect, with the yellow fume 
 still wreathing on his brow. They were laying hold 
 of Meletus. 
 
 " Fires of the roasting-place under Phlegethon ! " 
 he howled, with a wrench so furious that no cords 
 could withstand it. "It is a horse! me branded 
 with a horse! a horse on the brow of Meletus!" 
 
 For an instant they stood confounded. That 
 served : he snatched the scintillating iron from Par- 
 
G O R G O 357 
 
 docas, swayed it in their faces, then turning burnt 
 the ropes that bound me till they snapped and my 
 arms flew free. They were rushing upon us, but he 
 beat them back with his unapproachable weapon, 
 and as they gave before him bounded upon the 
 Syrian. I had caught up a riveting hammer and 
 swung it with all my strength on the skull of 
 Pardocas, while the red die sunk to the bone in the 
 brow of his master, and its sputter merged in a 
 yell that I trust was sweet to the ears of Moloch. 
 Meletus sprang back with a vicious flirt of the 
 brand at the nearest, kicking over the brazier as 
 he passed. 
 
 " It will give them a manner of employment," he 
 observed, " and since we are now for Phlegethon we 
 may as well go blazing, in my view of it." 
 
 We fled to the stern : they pressed after us along 
 the narrowing lift of thetdeck, but none came within 
 stroke. They were slaves, who ever prefer the 
 chances of the lash to the brunt of iron in the hands 
 of freemen. One, indeed, brought a bow and let 
 fly an arrow which crashed against the fan behind 
 us; but the planks amidship were already flaming, 
 and they soon drew off to fight the fire. The Nubian 
 had not arisen ; the Syrian, half-blinded, raged like 
 all the furies, but to no purpose. The great sail 
 flashed up and was gone. 
 
 " If any ship is within view that will signal it," 
 I said. 
 
 " I descried three bearing toward us from the 
 north," Meletus answered, " before the smoke came 
 
358 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 in my eyes." He swung the sweeps so that the 
 flames drifted forward. " War-ships, mind you. 
 But they will scarcely reach us. I had no thought 
 that these cattle would let the coals I spilled eat 
 up the ship." 
 
 The shrieks from below grew terrible. " Gods ! " 
 I cried. " They will burn in chains." 
 
 " Only the gods can avert it, lad : it is a chance 
 of the traffic. I see not that our case is better, save 
 by freer choice of death, unless we can win to that 
 trailer." For a light boat ran behind at the end 
 of a cable. 
 
 But other eyes were upon it, and they too saw 
 there all that was left of hope. When we strove to 
 lay hold of the rope, the whole crew rushed upon 
 us with the fierceness of desperation. I clubbed 
 my hammer at short grasp; Meletus bent his 
 branding-iron with savage lashings. Three fell and 
 another went over the rail ; the rest fell back, but not 
 far, for the fire was close. 
 
 " They will rush again," I cried. " They will 
 bear us down." 
 
 " It is likely. They still stand ten against two, 
 and the heat has warmed their bowels. Listen, 
 dogs ! " he shouted. " You shall have yon trailer 
 under compact of truce. But cease your ramming 
 and lay alongside gently. If you ram us again I cast 
 loose." 
 
 We passed them the rope ; they cared for nothing 
 else. We were soon alone on the ship; even the 
 hold was silent\ and the black smoke that filled it 
 
G O. R G O 359 
 
 oozed from the cracks by our feet. The planks 
 were growing hot. 
 
 " Let us keep the deck while we may," said the 
 pilot. " It is a close venture, but I had a better 
 thought than be trampled by swine." 
 
 The water wheezed in the coals beneath us ; the 
 ship swung round and round ; we were scorched by 
 gushes of flame : but the plash of oars came on the 
 wind. Meletus unlashed the sweeps and gave me 
 one. 
 
 " Hold fast -with the plunge," he said. And we 
 leaped. 
 
 When we had our breath again we kicked hard 
 and made out of the glare as fast as we were able. 
 We were none too soon ; the ship went down behind 
 us with a squelching roar and a gasp of steam. But 
 the peril was less than it had seemed. The sea 
 rolled low ; the foremost trireme was near ; we were 
 soon on its deck. 
 
 The men who crowded around us were Dorian; 
 no Athenian ship was on these waters now. " What 
 officer commands?" I asked. 
 
 " Gylippus," they answered. " Who else? " 
 
 " Make it known to Gylippus that Hagnon's son, 
 Theramenes, would speak to him." 
 
 I stood before the sordid, able little captain who 
 had ruined Athens. His sea-gown, soiled and 
 rumpled, hung about him gracelessly; his hair 
 streamed long and ragged; his eye was harsh but 
 not cruel. 
 
 " Well? " he said. " I think I know you, Hag- 
 
360 G O R G O 
 
 non's son. And that will save argument. Do you 
 know me ? " 
 
 " Listen, and you will discover. I was your cap- 
 tive even in Syracuse, of the ten that generous people 
 granted you out of thousands." 
 
 " It is thus far true; and that old Syracusan fool 
 who was scourged for it made away with you. It 
 may be there was a substitute; but again you are 
 mine." 
 
 " Yours, Gylippus, and gladly, if a captive to 
 any. Now mark if I know you. My father, Hag- 
 non, has gold. The Spartan has no use for that, — 
 but it glitters." 
 
 " It glitters," he said. And his eyes glittered, 
 too. 
 
 " For myself and one other, who was drawn from 
 the sea after me." 
 
 " You mean the pilot. He was known by his 
 oaths. It is he who sunk Ariston. He is danger- 
 ous ; he has been laid in chains. It cannot be less 
 than two talents for the pilot." 
 
 " Two talents and thirty minas more, if you set 
 him on friendly land." 
 
 " It shall be done. Him I can easily convey 
 ashore; that he should escape will seem plausible. 
 And when all is said, the name is but a guess. Many 
 swear by Phlegethon and that fire-fork, though few 
 so heartily." 
 
 "And for myself?" 
 
 " For the son of Hagnon it will be five talents — 
 no less. And you must go on to Sparta. You were 
 
G O R G O 361 
 
 proclaimed in Syracuse, and the name has been 
 spoken openly. But fear nothing: I will see you 
 freed. I shall have influence now ; nor is it in the 
 eyes of Gylippus only that gold has a glitter. Not 
 all that is paid will come to Gylippus." 
 
 To this we swo^e with binding oaths ; and so far 
 as might be he was true to his word. Meletus was 
 set on the beach in the dead of night, not far from 
 Naupactus, where they told me Conon was in 
 command. But I sailed on toward Sparta. 
 
XXXI. 
 
 The Traitor 
 
 " TJ Y the glory of Apollo, it is Hagnonidas ! " 
 
 J3 he cried. 
 
 We had met in the streets of Sparta, face 
 to face, — and there was no face in all Hellas that 
 I less expected to see. He was dressed in a coarse 
 gown, after the Spartan fashion; his silky beard 
 was untrimmed, his hair fell to his shoulders; he 
 even spoke with a Laconian accent. But the face — 
 nothing could ever disguise its arrogant yet win- 
 some beauty; no shame could dim the reckless, 
 imperious light of those eyes. I knew him the 
 traitor of traitors now; yet I could not hate — I 
 still loved him. 
 
 " Alcibiades ! " 
 
 " Nay," he laughed, " I am Alcibiadas for the 
 present. See you not that I am become a Spartan 
 — and have a good hope that my line shall some- 
 time reign amid the brood of Lycurgus. Is it not 
 a noble ambition ? " 
 
 Gylippus scowled. " If I were King Agis," he 
 said, " your line should reign in black Cocytus." 
 
 " Never blame him, Gylippus. It will be no fault 
 362 
 
G O R G O 363 
 
 of Agis if I delay my passage thither ; but the good 
 king is now harvesting in the fields of Attica. It 
 was my own suggestion, dear brother in Lycurgus, 
 like your own little pleasure trip to Syracuse." 
 
 The Spartan, pale with rage, muttered an oath. 
 
 " Dear brother of the mess-table, I deem you 
 most ungrateful ; I hear you have prospered. And 
 how coarsely you swear! but an Athenian strain 
 will presently amend these rude manners. I would 
 gladly gratify your wish about Cocytus, which will 
 doubtless be the brighter for my presence; but first 
 I am pledged to sail in quite the opposite direction, 
 eastward to Asia, — in the service of our common 
 country, Gylippus. The wise Endius; who is my 
 friend, has commanded it, and our Ephors, you 
 know, must be obeyed." 
 
 " When the year is out that Endius will be no 
 mightier than others," foamed the Spartan. 
 
 " True, Gylippus ; you have uttered a Delphic 
 truth. But then your recreant countryman, Alci- 
 biadas, will be in Asia, where the rule, of Lycurgus 
 runs less strictly. And to answer truth with truth, 
 I go not wholly in the interest of our revered 
 Lycurgus. I would make it manifest to my loving 
 kinsmen in Athens, who so justly voted me dead 
 on lying charges, that my ghost still walks, and is 
 dangerous. You cannot blame me, son of Hag- 
 non," he cried, turning. " You, too, have cause 
 to hate them." 
 
 " I will not call the betrayer of Athens my 
 friend," I answered. But the words came hard. 
 
364 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " They voted their own destruction," he retorted, 
 hotly. " The gods are my witnesses, they forced 
 me to it; nor can Athens ever be a fit dwelling- 
 place for men while Demus rules and the dema- 
 gogue is his minister. But call me what you 
 choose," he broke out, in a voice that echoed his 
 mingled passions, " I hate not Athens herself. And 
 I will befriend my friend, though, like my ven- 
 geance, it should cost new wars and wreck cities." 
 
 And with that he put his arms about me in spite 
 of the Spartan, while a new hope rose in my soul. 
 
 " Who knows ? " he continued. " Did not our 
 own Socrates, whose wortl is beyond Apollo's, de- 
 clare that I would make as well as unmake? I 
 will yet return in triumph to a city saved from it- 
 self. But tell me of him. When did you see him 
 last? I am hungry for the gossip of the painted 
 porch." 
 
 But I told him of other things — of Gorgo. We 
 walked arm in arm through the village-like streets, 
 while Gylippus followed sullenly. We made little 
 account of Gylippus, whose influence, as I soon per- 
 ceived, was less than he had boasted. The barracks 
 were full of men who could execute; Alcibiades, 
 who could plan, had the ear of the Ephors. And 
 presently, crossing the wide square of the market, 
 we stood in the judgment-hall before that dreaded 
 five who were the true sovereigns of Sparta. Plain 
 citizens they seemed, with hard, set faces, but the 
 glances from beneath their shaggy eyebrows were 
 keen enough. 
 
G O R G O 365 
 
 " I bring Hagnon's son, of a name once honoured 
 in Sparta," said Alcibiades, quite ignoring Gylippus, 
 who fell back much cowed. My ransom was easily 
 arranged, — three talents to the state. But this 
 was the smallest part of what I meditated now. 
 
 " Your just claim shall be satisfied," I assured 
 them, " and gratitude will be added. But I also 
 have my claim : I demand my plighted bride." I 
 announced it with an assurance worthy of Alci- 
 biades himself. 
 
 " What is this ? " exclaimed Endius. 
 
 " He demands Gorgo, ward of the miserly Rhy- 
 zon," interposed my champion. " They have long 
 been betrothed; they were pledged in the days of 
 the peace. I maintain his right. His father was 
 long the proxenus of Sparta, and I claim- for his 
 son the right of intermarriage." 
 
 " We have heard," said Taurus, " that she is 
 pledged to Lysander, the son of Aristoclitus, a 
 youth of promise." 
 
 " Let her be summoned," said Endius, " and 
 Rhyzon." 
 
 " Lysander also," added Taurus. 
 
 It was Gorgo who entered first, with downcast 
 look and cheeks as pale as the gray of morning. 
 But when she lifted her eyes — " Boy ! boy ! " she 
 cried, " you have come ; again you have come." 
 And the dawn tints glowed as of old. 
 
 "Boy!" exclaimed Taurus, gruffly. "Is the 
 young Athenian, then, your slave?" 
 
366 G O R G O 
 
 " Ask him," she began, defiantly. " But no : I 
 will not hear him called so even by himself." 
 
 " Be not presuming, Ionian Gorgo," said Endius, 
 coldly. " Is it true that you are plighted to this 
 Athenian ? " 
 
 " By all the oaths that ever maid was plighted 
 by, this maid is plighted," she said, softly. " And 
 he bears my " — but here she stopped suddenly. 
 " O Ephor, surely you revere the gods." 
 
 " An oath is a most sacred thing," said Alcibi- 
 ades, solemnly. I looked at him; at another time 
 I might have laughed. 
 
 " An oath is binding on the maker of it, not on 
 others," broke in Taurus. " It is ill to let a woman 
 of her will ; but as being a Spartan born and prom- 
 ised to another — " 
 
 " She is no true Spartan," said Endius, inter- 
 rupting. 
 
 " It is false," came a harsh roar from across the 
 hall. " May the hound devour the tongue that 
 utters it." 
 
 " Be silent," said Endius. " Rhyzon already has 
 too much to answer for. The law of Lycurgus shall 
 this day be vindicated." 
 
 " Give the maid to her plighted choice," pleaded 
 Alcibiades. "Old Lycurgus had a heart; I will 
 answer for him. Look in her eyes, Endius." 
 
 " She is mine : I will wed her in spite of gods or 
 Ephors," I burst forth, unable to be prudent longer. 
 
 " So you shall ; but defy neither to-day," whis- 
 pered my advocate. 
 
G O R G O 367 
 
 " We will hear Lysander," said Taurus ; and 
 my old enemy came forward with reluctant steps. 
 At his side walked another, no taller than Gylippus, 
 and limping slightly, but with shrewd, firm, rather 
 noble features, over which played the easy smile of 
 habit. It was Agesilaus, a prince of the house of 
 Procles. The two were close friends, and were talk- 
 ing together in low tones. Yet as they passed where 
 I stood, " Accept no clog," I overheard. " Strain 
 neither law nor oath. Weigh not a woman against 
 ambition." 
 
 " Speak," commanded Endius. " Do you lay 
 claim to this maid?" 
 
 Lysander's face was ashen, — all but the livid 
 scar that streaked his brow. " I claim her by her 
 uncle's promise," he answered, in a lifeless voice. 
 " I claim her after twenty months. I will say no 
 more." 
 
 " I will sooner wed my grave, Lysander," cried 
 Gorgo. 
 
 " It is too much," said Taurus. " Lead no un- 
 willing wife, Lysander. It is not the Spartan 
 custom." 
 
 " Listen," said Alcibiades. " I would not wed 
 the goddess Aphrodite in this humour. And I 
 speak not without knowledge. A maid will utter 
 many idle words, but this is meant." 
 
 " Ally the fortunes of Lysander to no alien 
 blood." The voice of Agesilaus rang sternly, and 
 his smile was gone. " He who would rise must 
 heed the Spartan law. Say I not well, Endius?" 
 
3 68 G O R G O 
 
 "Aye, by the Carneian god. She is Ionian or 
 I know not what. Daughter of Brasidas she doubt- 
 less is, but by no marriage that the state will sanc- 
 tion." 
 
 " Yes," said Gorgo, proudly, " I am of Ion. I 
 was born where the violets bloom ; I will be no more 
 a shame to my father's house. I will go to my own ; 
 or, if I may not, I will seek my father in that land 
 where no Ephor can deny him his own daughter. 
 I renounce your Sparta from this day." 
 
 " It is enough. Her blood shall taint no Spartan 
 family. An Ephor has spoken." 
 
 " We confirm it," assented the others. " The 
 word that is spoken is ours also. You shall not 
 do yourself this injury, Lysander." 
 
 " Choose," said Agesilaus, " between friendship 
 and love. Not even Lysander may have both. 
 Choose between passion and power. Is the blood of 
 Lysander so pure that he would further mingle it ? " 
 
 " I am chained and you hunt me with hounds," 
 cried Lysander, his face moist with the sweat of 
 his struggle. " May the laws of that dotard Ly- 
 curgus be stricken with the spear-blight, and may 
 you, Agesilaus, live to see it, for a cold and treach- 
 erous friend. Yet my friend you still must be, 
 and before the spear of Sparta trails in the dust I 
 will so wield it that all Hellas shall cower. Like 
 Achilles, it has come to me to choose joy or fame; 
 and his choice is mine. I cast her from me." 
 
 " And for the wisdom of that choice, we pardon 
 the rashness of the word," said Endius. 
 
G O R G O 369 
 
 " But the walls that shelter her shall fall," cried 
 Ly sander, still raging. " And this rosy flame that 
 should have lighted my house shall be a consuming 
 torch to yours, Athenian." 
 
 " Nay," I said. " Let us settle our quarrel point 
 to point. What need of other spears and many 
 victims ? " 
 
 " Not here," said Endius. " He shall not fight 
 a captive under ransom." Yet the Ephor looked 
 upon me with approval. " It was boldly spoken." 
 
 " Truth," said Lysander. " He is worthy of my 
 spear. To the son of Hagnon I surrender Gorgo: 
 it is fortune's forfeit; but I take all else." 
 
 " Will you give my brother's daughter to a for- 
 eigner?" screamed Rhyzon. 
 
 " Did we not enjoin you to silence? " shouted 
 Taurus. 
 
 " Peace," said Endius. " All in due season. It 
 is the fault of your own neglect, Rhyzon. They 
 were plighted, it seems, in your own hall; and 
 strange things, we have heard, were done there. 
 They were pledged, we must think, with Rhyzon' s 
 consent, for it was done, we learn, before his eyes. 
 Dare you deny it ? " 
 
 But Rhyzon could only curse beneath his breath. 
 
 " They swore with binding oaths," said the 
 Spartan, judicially. " It was but the act of children, 
 yet they made the gods their witnesses; and Alci- 
 biadas, who has rendered Sparta great services, 
 demands the fulfilment. It shall now be done in 
 proper form." 
 
370 G O R G O 
 
 And there they plighted us, before witnesses, a 
 formal contract of marriage, jeven to the naming of 
 the dowry. 
 
 " You have robbed me of my ward," stormed 
 Rhyzon, helpless to restrain his anger. " It is rank 
 injustice, and beyond your right. Shall the Ephors 
 break the law and suffer nothing? " 
 
 " Fool," exclaimed Alcibiades, " have you lived 
 so long in Sparta and know not yet that the Ephors 
 are the law ? " 
 
 " We but confirm your own act," said Endius. 
 " We rob you not of your ward. But there is now 
 another matter, Rhyzon. For this and many an- 
 other violation of the Spartan law you go from 
 Sparta, a banished man. An Ephor has spoken it." 
 
 " The Ephors have decreed it," chimed the 
 others. " He has long been a rank offender; it has 
 not escaped us." 
 
 " Go, Rhyzon," repeated Endius. " Let not to- 
 morrow's sun see you in Sparta ; and tarry not for 
 that unlawful hoard, unless you prize gold more 
 than life. This Ionian whom you brought for the 
 defilement of our noblest blood take with you. The 
 secret of her birth has long been known. Death 
 is your due, but the Ephors are merciful." 
 
 " She is mine," I cried, loudly. 
 
 " Not yet. Betrothed to you she is, and none 
 shall question it. But until she has attained the 
 age of marriage no Spartan law can take her from 
 her guardian." 
 
G O R G O 371 
 
 " Then I will go with her. I will not be parted 
 from her." 
 
 " Athenian captive, when you are free go where 
 you will. You are now held under ransom." 
 
 " Let him go ; I will be his surety," said Alci- 
 biades. 
 
 " Such were not the terms," said the Spartan. 
 " It is done, and may not be changed." 
 
 " Gods of Olympus ! all men change," he cried. 
 " I will not have it so." 
 
 " Silence ! Presume not too far. An Ephor has 
 spoken." 
 
 " Alcibiadas," said Agesilaus, " if you are Spar- 
 tan enough to share our councils, you must also 
 be a Spartan to obey." 
 
 For a time not one of us could speak. At last, 
 " Hagnonidas, there is still a way," said he who 
 never would admit defeat. He laid his hands upon 
 my shoulders and fixed his eyes upon my face. 
 " Renounce that rabble of Athens. They are my 
 enemy and thine; they are doomed. Cast thy lot 
 with me. There will then be no question of ransom ; 
 for this even the laws of Sparta will relax. Again 
 I ask you : for Gorgo's sake — " 
 
 But all my soul surged up. I could not reason 
 of this ; it was not a thing of choice. " Not even 
 for Gorgo will I be a traitor to my country," I 
 cried. 
 
 " And that is well said, Theramnas," she mur- 
 mured, close beside me. " Not for any oath — 
 
372 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 not even for Theramnas, would this Gorgo wed a 
 traitor." 
 
 " By god's word spoken from the Delphic brass," 
 exclaimed Agesilaus ; " I think she is true Spartan." 
 
 " It is her father's strain, — but the law is still 
 the same," said Endius. " Yet we would not be 
 harsh — within the Spartan law." 
 
 " Thus, then, it shall be," proclaimed Alcibiades. 
 " Rhyzon shall this night to Cythera, taking Gorgo. 
 In three days I sail; certain helpers of mine will 
 bring them off in boats, and I will take both to 
 Ionia. With me they will be safe, and the rest is 
 easy." 
 
 " I will go with the friend of Theramnas," said 
 Gorgo, simply. And Rhyzon, glad of any protector, 
 made no protest. 
 
 The eyes of Alcibiades gleamed. " Look at me, 
 Gorgo," he demanded suddenly, planting himself 
 before her. " Am I not more fair than Hagnon's 
 son?" 
 
 " Oh, be silent," she cried. " You have been so 
 kind: I do not wish to hate you." Then to me: 
 " It is my turn after this day, Theramnas. Three 
 times you have come to this Gorgo, and twice 
 through peril. She will come to you now; for 
 now she may, since all men know. Wait, Theram- 
 nas, and kiss no other lips; for Gorgo will surely 
 come to you." 
 
 And so her light passed from me. 
 
XXXII. 
 
 The Arch-Conspirator 
 
 AGAIN I was in Athens. To Gylippus, who 
 had brought me to the border, I paid the 
 full ransom of Meletus, though I knew noth- 
 ing of his fate; but for the influence which had 
 proved so weak in Sparta I would pay no price. 
 He grumbled, but dared not detain me. I had good 
 reason not to be lavish : my father's fortune was 
 much impaired; there was little silver anywhere. 
 
 I stood again in Athens, — but it was not the 
 city I had left. Its hope was gone; its docks were 
 almost empty; its citizens scarcely served to man 
 the walls : and this Alcibiades had wrought. A 
 Spartan fortress frowned from a distant hill; the 
 ravagers ranged all over Attica, and no field gave 
 harvest: this also was his work. Of Gorgo no 
 word had come; yet every day brought news of 
 failing tribute and fresh seditions on the coast of 
 Asia, — still at the traitor's prompting. Under his 
 potent influence even the gold of Persia was cast 
 in the scale against us. 
 
 But at that we roused. We stripped the very 
 temples of their treasures; we borrowed from the 
 
 373 
 
3 74 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 gods, and spent all on ships. We set on the benches 
 any who could draw an oar — no questions were 
 asked — and while our enemies waited for em- 
 bassies, and the Spartans lagged on the hot trail 
 of Alcibiades, we astonished the eyes of Greece 
 with yet another mighty fleet sent out to save the 
 empire of Athens. 
 
 " We'll show them what Athenian beaks can do 
 on open water," said Thrasybulus, confidently. 
 He was a trierarch now. " We'll teach them that 
 the city wasn't sunk in the harbour of Syracuse. 
 They're no true seamen, and sea-craft doesn't come 
 in one campaign ; they need a lesson. Hermes, but 
 I wish Alcibiades were with us instead of against 
 us! We would drive them off the sea in a month." 
 
 Thrasybulus sailed with the rest, but I remained, 
 by my father's command; he was so insistent that 
 I could not refuse. 
 
 " Let the reckless democrat go ; the more the 
 better. Your duty lies here, my son. The time 
 is ripe; you shall see great things brought to pass, 
 and you must share in the work. There is but 
 one way that Athens can be saved. I have been 
 reluctant, but Antiphon has convinced me." 
 
 A committee of public safety had been appointed 
 with extraordinary powers, and my father was a 
 leading member. His reputation had never stood 
 higher, but to me he seemed much changed. He 
 was continually quoting the words of this Anti- 
 phon. 
 
 "Who, pray, is Antiphon?" I demanded. "Is 
 
G O R G O 375 
 
 it not the rhetorician? I thought that you held 
 him in low esteem, and now one would fancy he 
 spoke from the fume of Apollo's oracle." 
 
 " He has been misjudged. He is the most won- 
 derful man in Athens, my son, and the most elo- 
 quent, though he will not deign to go before the 
 commons. Yet to such as lead them by the nose 
 he supplies wit." 
 
 " A miserable sophist ! " I exclaimed. " A closet 
 demagogue, who devises wickedness and lays the 
 risk on others ! There is none in all the city who 
 so deserves the bitter cup." 
 
 Then my father's anger flared. " Have I in- 
 deed such a son ! " he cried. " Since when have 
 you grown too wise to bow to your father's judg- 
 ment?" 
 
 " When I see the judgment," I began, — but 
 repented instantly. 
 
 He strove to control himself. " You speak like 
 a child. You are still but a boy. I hold a high 
 place in the state, and seek the good of Athens 
 and my son's advancement." 
 
 " Seek it not through Antiphon." 
 
 " I seek it where I must. Do you not see that we 
 are in desperate straits ? Whatever fools may dream, 
 we cannot fight all Hellas mailed in Persian gold. 
 Only Antiphon saw the way and dared to speak. 
 He is a greater statesman than Pericles, and far 
 more right-minded. He is no demagogue, but his 
 word is law in all our secret councils. He rules the 
 clubs ; do not make him your enemy." 
 
376 G O R G O 
 
 " Some new treason, then, is hatching." 
 " Athens is traitor to herself. She must be saved 
 against her will, if at all; but first our city must 
 be purged of clamorous voices and the voting-urns. 
 The novelties we seek are but the older fashion." 
 " Yes ; treason is older than Attica." 
 His face burned with wine and passion. " Bab- 
 ble not to thy father." But he checked himself. 
 " Be not unfilial, son. Has not our own Sophocles 
 written it truly? — 
 
 Walk, son, in every act behind thy father's will. 
 
 And says he not again? — 
 
 Obey in all things, small or great, and right or wrong. 
 
 " Then let us both obey the laws of our country, 
 right or wrong." 
 
 " The ancient laws, — but. not the breath of 
 ragged Demus. A usurper has no rights : Antiphon 
 has made the matter plain to me. There is no 
 treason in just vengeance. And is it not writ- 
 ten?— 
 
 Refuse not healing from the hand that struck the blow. 
 
 And again, — 
 
 Who, erring, makes amendment, foils the blighting curse. 
 
 You should study the poets, my son, and com- 
 mit to memory some passage every day. Your 
 
G O R G O 377 
 
 mother greatly loved the poets. But indeed, I sup- 
 posed that you were friendly to Alcibiades." 
 
 " Alcibiades ! " I exclaimed, in amaze. "What 
 is in your thought ? " 
 
 He would tell me no more. " Go to Antiphon," 
 he commanded. " I dare not speak further even 
 to you. Go to Antiphon: he will make it very 
 lucid." 
 
 Not even for my father would I go to this man ; 
 but he sought me out. He sat down beside me 
 and talked in low, strong tones. 
 
 " Theramenes," he said, " you think of me, per- 
 haps, as a sophist, but I shall deal very frankly with 
 you. I know all that you said to Andocides, and 
 think the better of you for it. None the less, what 
 he said was true: we have need of you, and you 
 of us. You must go with your own, — the more 
 now, because of Alcibiades, whom we know to be 
 your friend. Do you suppose that we have put 
 your father forward thus for his own sake? that 
 our hearts are hungry for Hagnon's wisdom ? You 
 see what he has become." 
 
 " I see that he has become Antiphon's echo," I 
 said, bitterly. 
 
 " Mine and the moral poets'," he retorted, with a 
 faint sneer. " He classes us together, as you may 
 have observed. But you see the truth. I have such 
 control of your ship that I can steer it against wind 
 and tide, and any protests of yours will only serve 
 to bring down anger and quotations. Already 
 Hagnon has gone far. In short, he is quite in my 
 
378 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 power; and a son who cares for his father will not 
 leave him to walk alone where the daggers bristle 
 when his sight is dim. For there are daggers. In 
 that, too, Andocides was right, though I fancy he 
 spoke of it too crassly for a man of your type. 
 I know that you are not afraid of pointed steel. 
 But daggers there are, and they are likely to be 
 used. Understand me: I myself care nothing for 
 Hagnon." 
 
 What could I say? Yet ; "Into what treason 
 would you drag me?" I asked. 
 
 He laughed. " Would you have me confess to 
 treason? " 
 
 " I would have you speak plain. My father is 
 your hostage — for my silence, at least." 
 
 " I will speak it plain enough. There is no sal- 
 vation for Athens except by the recall of Alcibiades. 
 Fools may fancy otherwise, but you have wit to 
 see the truth. We have already had overtures." 
 
 " He will now betray Sparta also ? " 
 
 " If it serves his purpose. Do you not know 
 him ? But he has quarrelled with them. King Agis, 
 is his deadly enemy, and Endius is out of office. 
 So much the better for us. He stands in high 
 favour with Tissaphernes, and will ballast our fleet 
 with Persian gold. Then we may dictate terms. 
 It is poverty that destroys us, — and the folly of the 
 mob." 
 
 " But will the people consent to recall him — even 
 for this?" 
 
 " He would not come if they did. He fears them ; 
 
G O R G O 379 
 
 some roaring voice might bray to them again of the 
 mysteries. But to us he will come." 
 
 " Can you trust his promises ? Can you or any 
 others trust Alcibiades again ? " 
 
 " We can trust his interest and his wit to see it 
 — we, or any others. You know him well : do 
 you not trust him — with certain reservations ? " 
 
 I was silent. Had I not trusted him indeed? 
 And almost without my knowledge another motive 
 budded in my heart. 
 
 " Listen," said Antiphon. " The most dangerous 
 voices are out of hearing on the fleet. Such as 
 remain we will hush with daggers if need be. Your 
 father's committee will do our bidding. Old Demus 
 is much cowed; we will frighten him further with 
 lies and arguments, and perhaps with a show of 
 force. He will then cast one more vote at our 
 dictation, and march down from the Pnyx to as- 
 cend no more. There will be no treason; Demus 
 himself shall sanction our authority." His lip 
 curled. " Four hundred, whose names are already 
 listed, will then rule Athens ; and you are to serve 
 with the rank of general. Alcibiades asks it." 
 
 The whole black plot lay bare. I thought of my 
 father. Yet, " I cannot," I groaned. I thought 
 of Alcibiades ; I thought of Gorgo. And still, " I 
 cannot, Antiphon," I repeated. 
 
 " What flaw do you find, young man ? " 
 
 " I will have no part in this cold-blooded scheme 
 of murder." 
 
 " There will be no coldness," he laughed. " Your 
 
3 8o 
 
 G O R -G O 
 
 old friend Critias, who leads the dagger-band, is 
 hot enough. And when it comes to killing, Demus 
 has done his share. Has the son of Hagnon no 
 wrongs to avenge ? At least you would not bar the 
 dagger to a scoundrel informer like Teucrus, nor 
 stand between justice and such a seducer of Athens 
 as Hyperbolus ? " 
 
 " No," I said, slowly, " they deserve the worst." 
 
 " I respect your sentiments, though they are 
 youthful. I had meant to offer you Pisander, 
 though he has joined us; but I see it would not 
 suit. You shall have your way; I will keep the 
 killing within due bounds, — and that is my own 
 better judgment. Much killing breeds bitterness 
 and discontent. Now observe: you may share our 
 councils and save many lives; but unless I gain 
 the support of men like you, I must humour such 
 as Critias. For carry it through now we must and 
 will. What more?" 
 
 " Four hundred alone can never hold mastery 
 in Athens. When Demus sees so few, his courage 
 will revive." 
 
 "What would you have? Do you favour the 
 rule of the rabble? " And his face darkened. 
 
 "The rabble? Never!" Remembered wrongs 
 and the whole tradition of my house swelled within 
 me. " But I would hold as citizens the sane and 
 the brave — all who come with a panoply to fight 
 in the phalanx for Athens. It is nothing more than 
 justice; and so only can we stand." 
 
 " How many ? " 
 
G O R G O 381 
 
 " Three years ago I would have said ten thou- 
 sand; but as it is to-day, five thousand. Without 
 these we but build on blood-wet sand." 
 
 He frowned : again his lip curled. " Well," he 
 said, at last, " so be it. Five thousand citizens, 
 and no more, — r so they bear each a panoply and 
 are loyal. But for this you must wait until we 
 are fairly established." 
 
 " Yet we may announce it even from the begin- 
 ning. So we shall gain support." 
 
 " You are right. It shall be announced — the 
 names to be selected later." He smiled. " You 
 make strict terms with us, son of Hagnon. You 
 will ask an oath, I suppose. Well, you shall have 
 it. But let me tell you frankly, — you owe this 
 weight of influence chiefly to Alcibiades. Are you 
 •satisfied ? " 
 
 " If I could wholly trust you," I answered him, 
 " I should be more than satisfied. I should deem 
 myself the greatest benefactor Athens ever knew." 
 And in spite of my doubts, my hope mounted high. 
 
XXXIII. 
 
 r A Message 
 
 THE views of Antiphon as to moderation in 
 murder were not the same as mine. This 
 was soon apparent; yet he did restrain the 
 thirst for blood that was among us. Some harsh- 
 ness was necessary — I could not deny it ; the long 
 license of mob rule is not quelled by soft remon- 
 strance. Still, argument also was used, — one ar- 
 gument, for it was always the same : " How else 
 can the city be saved? " With this we met every 
 burst of angry protest ; and at last, when no an- 
 swer was found, the people, leaderless and daunted, 
 voted as we bade them. With tears and rage they 
 voted it, but so they voted. 
 
 We ruled in Athens : we, who had paid them 
 tribute and been pelted with their stones! we, who 
 had trembled before their informers, who had lain 
 in their prisons, who had seen the life-blood of our 
 kindred chilled with their hemlock ! I do not de- 
 fend what we did; but who can wonder that our 
 mood was not lamblike? 
 
 When our spirits were somewhat sated, " Now," 
 I said, " the Five Thousand ; you have had your 
 killing." 
 
 382 
 
G O R G O 383 
 
 " Not quite yet," said Antiphon, smoothly. 
 " We must have more leisure to make a good 
 choice; we must try them further." 
 
 So the killing went on; and I grieved to see 
 that the crop of sycophants was little reduced, for 
 the vilest of them joined us. All around me, " The 
 Spartans could do no worse," I heard the people 
 murmur. " And who are these ? and how many ? " 
 As I passed the streets, " Where is that Persian 
 gold?" came from unseen lips. "We behold it 
 not. And that Five Thousand? We see but four 
 hundred." 
 
 Then it was that a message came from Alci- 
 biades, hotly posted across the sea and with all 
 secrecy : — 
 
 To Theramenes, greeting: — 
 
 It is an ill greeting. I have lost her, son of 
 Hagnon, — and you will ever curse me. We were 
 parted in the storm. She would not go upon my 
 ship because of idle words, — but who can stay the 
 trickle of the tongue when honey is set before it? 
 By my father's soul, I swear it was less than jest; 
 yet she Homed upon me and turned away — and 
 Hagnon's son will curse me. I blame you not; it 
 was ill done, yet who could have thought it? The 
 thing chanced off Delos: she sleeps on seaweed, 
 doubtless, or gathers pearls; it was a storm to sink 
 the very isles. May Phersephatta be gentle to her 
 soul, for I am grieved, — and I know that you will 
 hate me. Yet take it not too hardly. They are but 
 
384 G O R G O 
 
 as the fish on our tables, which we taste but cherish 
 not; and the sea is full of sweet fishes. Yet be- 
 cause of her eyes you will hate me; I am more 
 pained at this than at anything that has befallen. 
 But this is not all, nor, I think, most important. 
 I have brought you, I fear, into some peril; but I 
 send you timely warning. Your Four Hundred are 
 doomed: the army will none of it, and, if you will 
 hear the truth, there is more of Athens here than 
 yonder. There are firebrands among us, and the 
 worst — nay, the best — is that young Thrasybulus 
 who, I think, was your schoolfellow. Take heed, 
 Theramenes: we are fairly crazed by the reports 
 we hear — true or false, we believe them all. For 
 here the wretched conspirators who sought to sub- 
 vert our democracy are down, — dead, fled, or 
 sworn anew with throat-cracking oaths. They de- 
 clare that I did not wholly keep faith with them, 
 Theramenes — but what could I do? Tissaphernes 
 was obstinate. Anyhow, they rose but to fall, and 
 you are like to fare no better; cut loose quickly, 
 Theramenes. We have even meditated sailing 
 against you, but from that our Alcibiades dissuaded 
 us. For I am restored to the bosom of democracy 
 now, Theramenes, and that torch of loyalty, your 
 friend Thrasybulus, was the mover of my recall. 
 He is really a youth of noble parts: we have chosen 
 ourselves new generals, and he and I are colleagues. 
 I still pay visits of state to Tissaphernes, but that is 
 only a matter of form; the dull Persian cannot see 
 that his interests are one with mine. But get out 
 
G O R G O 385 
 
 from" among those cracked vessels of venom, The- 
 ramenes, and come to us. We are now in the mood 
 to win victories, and Hagnon's son must be with 
 us. I am full of woe for her of the violet flashes; 
 but let not thy Gorgon turn thee to stone, Theram- 
 enes. 
 
 I sat like a stone indeed. As I read, all the cur- 
 rents of my soul were changed. Gorgo was dead ! I 
 did not hate Alcibiades: why should I hate him? 
 I had no more cause to love or hate anything. 
 Even his latest turn of treason I did not much 
 reprove; I was growing used to treason. It might 
 bring me peril, but what did it matter? What did 
 anything matter, if Gorgo was dead ? I would play 
 the part assigned me: I would do my best to free 
 my city from the tyranny I had helped to bring 
 upon it. -I realised now that it was for Gorgo most 
 of all that I had done this thing — and she was 
 dead. And I thought — with what bitterness — 
 of Socrates! I had sought her by the path of 
 broken oaths — how vainly ! And she herself — 
 she would not wed a traitor! Perhaps it was well 
 that she was dead. And with that thought the pas- 
 sion of hate came back to me: I hated Antiphon 
 and all his kind. Him I would punish; his work 
 I would undo, if possible. Surviving that, I would 
 rush through battle to my fate ; I would die a loyal 
 death — for Athens and Gorgo. 
 
 I had taken her pearls from the casket. " She 
 shall never again find me without her token," I 
 
386 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 had thought. But the casket had seemed too empty ; 
 and despite our sunken estate I had filled it with 
 jewels, that all might be ready against her coming. 
 And now — I would cast them into the sea that 
 she still might have them; and I hoped that even 
 the terrible Persephone would not deny them to 
 her. Of the Ephors, at least, she was free, and the 
 gloomy gods of the underworld could scarcely be 
 more grim, I thought. 
 
 I sought out Antiphon, resolved to make one 
 more trial of his good faith; that failing, to turn. 
 I found him pale, though cool; he had his own 
 messages. 
 
 " The army has gone against us," he said, 
 abruptly. " I know it. Or have you come to tell 
 me that Alcibiades has played us false? Blood of 
 Dionysus! I thought we had him fast; but the peo- 
 pie roll this way and that, like tossing water. They 
 are fickle even in folly." 
 
 " Name the Five Thousand : you have sworn it. 
 Until they are named they are nothing, and we 
 stand on emptiness." 
 
 " Enough of that nonsense. Your trick of popu- 
 larity will not serve. The phrase had a certain 
 value, but is dead." 
 
 "You are bent, then, on further killing?" 
 
 " I would kill my own son for party ends ; he who 
 heads a party must have no scruples. But, no : you 
 were right in that ; we have had excesses in violence. 
 It is like the hemlock : a little brings stillness ; too 
 much is cast forth with retchings. You are known 
 
G O R G O 387 
 
 in Sparta and have ties there," he said to me 
 suddenly. 
 
 " Do you mean — " 
 
 " I mean that when Athens is Spartan ground 
 we shall stand on substance. With Laconian pikes 
 on yonder Acropolis we shall need no Five Thou- 
 sand." 
 
 " And this you call saving Athens ! " 
 
 " Saving ourselves. Are you the fool of a word ? 
 Learn a lesson of wit from Alcibiades ; shall he out- 
 play us? Answer me: will you go?" 
 
 "Announcing what?" 
 
 "That the gates will open. That through us 
 they may rule all — Athens and Hellas." 
 
 This, then, was the issue of my hope! By such 
 a service I was to be remembered! Not yet. 
 
 " Come," he said, " your answer ? Do this, and 
 you share with the foremost; you shall outshine 
 Alcibiades. But the first step toward our betrayal 
 pitches you into the barathrum." 
 
 " The day was when I valued my life," I answered. 
 " But I must have breath; you must give me time." 
 
 " As you like," he said, turning. " I doubt you 
 will have breath long; but take your time." 
 
 I went, not to Sparta, but among the people; 
 also to the house of Aristocrates, deeming him a 
 sure friend. I found him no traitor to Athens ; and 
 while he went to others in places where I dared not 
 venture, I changed my captains and set at the gates 
 men I knew. The nameless voices sounding through 
 the streets cheered and blessed me now. I was 
 
388 G O R G O 
 
 warned of every danger ; I knew well that assassins 
 sought my life, but the whole city was my body- 
 guard. Then Eratosthenes, sent out by Antiphon 
 some time before to revolutionise the camps, came 
 back in hot haste from the Hellespont, fleeing on a 
 merchant bark. I met him at the dock; the mob 
 behind me shouted encouragement as I grasped his 
 hand. He stood in dismay, at a loss what this could 
 mean. 
 
 " Our case is hopeless," he said. " Every ship 
 on the coast is against us. The fleet will accept, the 
 Five Thousand, but the Four Hundred they exe- 
 crate. I was bold — bold, I tell you ; I did my best, 
 yet I barely escaped. Unless something is done, 
 and that quickly, they will be upon us. Where is 
 Antiphon ? What can we do ? " 
 
 I told him all. 
 
 " I am with you, Theramenes," he said, heartily. 
 " I am true to my party, but not to this length. Be- 
 sides, I have a life." And he joined us with all his 
 kinsmen. 
 
 Antiphon had not waited. His embassy was 
 already in Sparta, himself at its head. But the 
 Spartan is ever slow in council. 
 
 Meanwhile my former colleagues were not idle: 
 a mysterious fortress was rising on the water-front, 
 commanding the harbour. The people cried out. 
 
 "What do you think it means?" I asked them. 
 
 " Treason," they shouted. " Betrayal to Sparta." 
 
 And then — "Are you things without heart?" 
 I shouted back to them. " Are you nothing more 
 
G O R G O 389 
 
 than those stones ? If you think they mean treason, 
 fling them down. And if any would rob you of 
 your city, fling them down." 
 
 They were Athenians. The echo of their answer 
 rang along the walls; all the city heard it. They 
 ran to the shore, and the stones were scattered. 
 The Four Hundred, too, were scattered ; few dared 
 to linger on Attic soil. The people only asked a 
 leader — and I led them. 
 
 A Spartan fleet looked in at the harbour mouth, 
 but the guard-ships were manned and ready. Agis 
 knocked at the gates, but none opened. 
 
XXXIV. 
 
 We Three 
 
 AFTER the heat of this action had passed, I 
 sat pondering a long- while, and when I arose 
 these maxims were deeply graven on my 
 heart. It was stony enough to receive them now. 
 
 Fair play is not to be expected in the world as 
 it is. 
 
 We must take the world as it is. 
 
 Threatened is warned; strike while threats are 
 but voices. 
 
 The means that accomplish good are good ; faith 
 is not for the faithless. 
 
 I do not defend these precepts; but thus the 
 dagger-point had graven them within me, with 
 scars of the soul which time has not effaced. There 
 are higher standards, doubtless: I know that 
 Socrates walked by quite another rule; but I had 
 ceased to seek his counsels. " Wrong can never 
 be right," he was always saying, " and what else is 
 requiting injury with evil but a double wrong?" 
 But I thought, if the evil they do shall not be vis- 
 ited upon their heads, the world will be the king- 
 dom of the worst. The gods ? — I thought of 
 Apteryx with some approval : I could not see their 
 
 390 
 
G O R G O 391 
 
 handiwork about me. My mother had died in 
 agony. And Gorgo, so sweet and true — she was 
 dead. God-fearing Nicias had ruined Athens. The 
 easy treachery of Alcibiades prevailed. And An- 
 tiphon — who had foiled him? who but I? To 
 Antiphon I first applied my maxims. 
 
 Unsuspecting, he had returned from Sparta — to 
 fulfil his treason; we took him at the gate. The 
 shock he got was of the sort that sometimes drives 
 men mad, but his face showed no disorder or con- 
 cern. 
 
 " I demand a trial," he said, and that was all. 
 
 It was more than had been accorded to most 
 of his victims; but after he had lain in prison for 
 a proper length of time, we tried him in due form. 
 I myself appeared as his accuser. 
 
 " I think you are too hard with Antiphon," pro- 
 tested my father. 
 
 " As hard as the furnace-baked iron," I an- 
 swered, " and I hope of an edge that will cut." My 
 heart was like gall as I thought of those contemptu- 
 ous words, " I care nothing for Hagnon," and the 
 rest of it. I did not repeat them. Why fret my 
 father? Better to avenge him. 
 
 But before the court I was wary. I brought no 
 charge against Antiphon for his plot to subvert the 
 democracy: in that I had shared, however much 
 misled, and the people had sanctioned it, however 
 influenced. I said little of broken oaths and lying 
 promises ; for what could I prove ? I did not even 
 press the murders he had abetted; that I left to 
 
39 2 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 others. But for his attempt to betray the city to 
 her ancient enemy I demanded his life with all the 
 bitter eloquence of hate; and I had my will. 
 
 Yet he almost escaped me : his defence was mas- 
 terly; in the logic of falsehood he never had an 
 equal. He made truth improbable, and turned its 
 edge with a thousand evasions, like a Thracian in 
 sword-play. He was almost acquitted; he saw his 
 advantage and presumed upon it — too far. For 
 he turned on me: he drenched my name with all 
 the blood I had striven to save; he flung in my 
 face the vilest dregs of his own infamy. He for- 
 got himself: the spell was broken, the orator was 
 gone, and all saw him — a reared snake, spitting 
 venom. 
 
 " Come," I said, when at last he ended, " I con- 
 fess the rest also. It was I who went to Sparta — 
 I but seemed to be among you. It was I who was 
 taken at the gate, and Antiphon denounced me. I 
 will not add another word; the eloquence which 
 persuaded you to resign your rights is too strong 
 for me. You have heard ; you have seen ; you have 
 suffered. It is plain that some one ought to die. 
 Decide between us." 
 
 As when a well-aimed stone has snapped the neck, 
 the serpent's crest had fallen. Where the forked 
 tongue had quivered a pale face rose and strove to 
 speak, but they would hear no more. I felt no pity ; 
 yet another might have pitied. As he watched them 
 dropping their ballots in the urns, I knew that even 
 
G O R G O 393 
 
 then he was tasting the hemlock. Another day, 
 and Antiphon was but a hated memory. 
 
 Not long after, I broke the seals of a letter from 
 Thrasybulus. Thus spoke the wax: — 
 
 Greetings, Theramenes, and all that. Twice 
 within the year you have astonished me; there have 
 been days when I whetted my sword for you. Yet 
 I might have known; you are still the same. It 
 was the Five Thousand you wanted — and Alci- 
 biades. I do not quarrel with you for that; I think 
 myself we have been too lax. But when that wretch 
 Pisander told us you were urging on the daggers 
 along with Critias — who, I hear, has run away to 
 Thrace like the wolf he is — then, Theramenes, I 
 whetted my sword. It was Alcibiades who set me 
 right about you. My place was here — / have done 
 great things, Theramenes — but it is well that you 
 were in Athens. I cannot deal with those fellows, 
 — but you, somehow, always have the right word. 
 I was beside myself to believe Pisander in any- 
 thing; he, too, has fled, I learn. But of all that has 
 come to us, this latest is best: you have poured the 
 dumb hemlock on the tongue of Antiphon. Yet I 
 cannot credit it that we have heard the last 
 of him, Theramenes. The tongue that could per- 
 suade Athens to oligarchy will convince the very 
 shades of those he slaughtered; he will start a sedi- 
 tion in Hades', and send up ghosts to disturb our 
 peace at night. 
 
 But I have filled a whole leaf of my wax with 
 
394 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 idle words. We prosper, Theramenes; while the 
 Spartan jangles with the Persian and waits for slow 
 Phoenician ships, we are winning back our revenues. 
 Those Spartans have no wit to follow up advan- 
 tage; and Alcibiades, whose hand is everywhere, 
 is worth ten of Tissaphernes, — he is never at a 
 loss. And he is truly loyal now, Theramenes; I 
 have made it clear to him that it was not the people 
 who betrayed him. Come out to us, Theramenes ; 
 the people will grant you anything you ask. Alci- 
 biades also desires it; it is at his suggestion that 
 I write, for he says you hold hard feelings against 
 him about some matter of a woman. Now do not 
 be so foolish, Theramenes, as to let that weigh. 
 I know those things are provoking; but remember, 
 I never held any grudge against you on account 
 of Myrinna, though I shall always think you were 
 not quite fair with me. And you know Alcibiades; 
 one must put up with his ways. Let it go: come 
 and join us, Theramenes. 
 
 Myrinna! I cursed her very name; the mere 
 mention of it seemed an offence to Gorgo. But 
 what of her ? she was less than nothing ; I had not 
 thought of her for fifty moons. Thrasybulus re- 
 membered Myrinna ! it seemed absurd. But Gorgo ! 
 I would go to her soon, and find her — " even in 
 that darkness." Yet I must go by a brave path, 
 lest she scorn me. I would join my friends, and 
 live in action till I died. 
 
 So I asked for a ship ; they gave me twenty, but 
 
G O R G O 395 
 
 sent me first to gather money on the Thracian coast. 
 Here I learned that Critias was arming the serfs 
 of that region against their masters. I made small 
 collections, but skirted the shore, taking what I 
 could, and presently met Alcibiades in the Helles- 
 pont. There were tears enough at our meeting, for 
 the sight of him filled my soul with grief for Gorgo ; 
 I could not help but weep, while he both wept and 
 laughed, — it was so easy for him to do either. 
 But indeed, I found him in high spirits. He had just 
 won a victory off the Trojan plain, in full view- of 
 the heights of Ilium; and this had elated him out 
 of all reason, because it was a triumph in the very 
 footsteps of Achilles, whom he regarded as his pro- 
 totype and model. 
 
 " My revenge has been like his," he was fond 
 of explaining. " Such as we cannot be insulted 
 with impunity, but when the fit is past we make 
 good all and more. Even that treason of mine, as 
 you were pleased to call it, son of Hagnon, was no 
 other than his — except that I could never sit lout- 
 ishly within a tent, as he did. I account it no treach- 
 ery to strike at those who seek my life ; nor do you, 
 as our lamented Antiphon bears me witness. But 
 because of the violet sparkles that are quenched, 
 you may call me anything, Hagnonides," he would 
 conclude, regretfully. " It may well be that the 
 flavour would have cloyed; but now she will ever 
 be to you like the fragrance of untasted fruit." 
 
 " Say nothing more of Gorgo." So at last I 
 begged of him. 
 
396 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 He turned his eyes on me with a flush of sur- 
 prise. " You speak of her in tones like one who 
 prays; you take it much to heart. I would find 
 you a substitute more luscious than Olympian Hebe 
 — but have it as you will." 
 
 A few days later Thrasybulus joined us. He 
 shouted with joy when he saw us tog-ether. 
 
 " Now we shall win — we three ; I have always 
 said it. You have done this rightly, Theramenes, 
 and like yourself; now is no time to think of 
 women." 
 
 We pressed the Spartans hard, and set up tro- 
 phies. Then came a reverse. Alcibiades still paid 
 visits to Sardis — one too many. The satrap, fright- 
 ened by ominous whispers, laid his guest in chains; 
 for a month we mourned and waited. 
 
 " We have lost him," said Thrasybulus, " and 
 that is the worst loss yet. It is twenty to one they 
 have set him in the boat — an awful death, past all 
 telling — and Alcibiades ! Why would he tempt the 
 Mede?" 
 
 " He will escape," I insisted. " No chains can 
 hold him. He would escape from behind the gates 
 of Pluto, like Sisyphus." 
 
 Say anything you will: it shall some time and 
 in some way be fulfilled, — but not often so 
 promptly nor so according to intent. For while 
 we were speaking a great clamour arose, and who 
 else but Alcibiades dashed into camp, riding wildly 
 on a Persian horse and in Medish robes stained 
 with sweat. He leaped down, but did not pause 
 
G O R G O 397 
 
 to change his array — scarcely to greet his friends. 
 All the army was thronging forth and crowding 
 about him, and thus he addressed them. I had 
 never seen him so roused : — 
 
 " Do you wonder to see me? I, too, wonder, 
 — but enough of that. Expect nothing more of the 
 Persian but the clatter of arrows. His gold is 
 against you ; his horse is against you, and his ships ; 
 he is our foe from of old, and we from of old have 
 vanquished him. Are you murmuring still for your 
 pay? You shall earn it. You must battle by land 
 and sea, and batter walls ; their gold is yours when 
 you wrest it out of their citadels. From to-day it 
 is war, not words." 
 
 And under his leadership war was victory. We 
 lured the enemy's fleet forth from Cyzicus, swept 
 behind it through. the mist, drove it to shore, and 
 burned it on the beach. We fought with Phar- 
 nabazus and his horsemen in the surf, slew Spartan 
 Mindarus amid his wrecks, and routed all his pikes. 
 Then it was that the message meant for the Ephors 
 was read in Athens : " Our timbers are broken ; 
 our men are starving; we know not what to do." 
 
 For a time they could do nothing. The fir-trees 
 and ship-yards and golden darics of the Mede were 
 all at their service, but fleets are not built in a day. 
 While they hewed and hammered and calked, we 
 swept the Hellespont from sea to sea. Again the 
 passing grain-ships paid us tribute; the soldiers 
 were paid; the mouths of the poorest in Athens 
 
398 G O R G O 
 
 were full of bread. King Agis still sat on his hill- 
 top, but the citizens flouted at him from the walls. 
 The envoys of Sparta stood at our gates asking 
 peace, but such was our hope that we turned them 
 back. 
 
XXXV. 
 
 An Entry and an Exit 
 
 BUT for that one great sorrow of Gorgo's death, 
 these years would have been among the 
 sweetest of my life. Yet after the first keen 
 shock, I sometimes wondered that my grief was 
 not more bitter, — that I felt so little haste to die. 
 And at another thing I wondered : I never seemed 
 to feel her presence near me. I never saw her ghost 
 in any dream ; my sleeping spirit ranged the shad- 
 owland in vain. Awake, I could not think of her 
 otherwise than as when she dwelt in Sparta. 
 
 For more than three years had slipped into mem- 
 ory since I had read those dreadful words that told 
 me of her loss ; and every month had brought some 
 news of gain to Athens. The sea waves danced to 
 our pipes and caressed our prows with foamy kisses ; 
 the enemy lurked in land-locked harbours, or stole 
 watchfully from port to port. Even Byzantium had 
 fallen at last, and I had sat as its governor, levying 
 toll on its ever-flowing stream of laden ships. I 
 had now returned to the city and had met great 
 welcome. 
 
 The Five Thousand had justified my faith ; never 
 399 
 
4 oo G O R G O 
 
 was Athens happier than while they ruled. But 
 who can hold a just balance in democracy? My 
 plan had lapsed; I found the rabble in full domi- 
 nance again. Yet for the present all went well. 
 
 One morning all the city swayed toward the port ; 
 the fleet of Alcibiades was making in. He stood 
 on the deck as his ship neared the wharf, but drew 
 back from the ladder. I had never seen him so 
 nearly abashed. 
 
 " Come," I called — " hear how the people greet 
 you." 
 
 " Gods ! " he answered, " I can almost taste the 
 hemlock in the air. Here is its native soil." 
 
 But the people shouted loudly, declaring him the 
 saviour of Athens. One who stood near me at- 
 tempted to utter another name, but a sturdy old 
 cobbler smote him across the lips with much hearti- 
 ness. 
 
 " He is none such, hark you. I think you be no 
 good citizen to call him such, and corn at four for 
 the obol, that had gone above the even obol." 
 
 It was not in the heart of Alcibiades to' resist 
 their acclamations long. His colour came back ; he 
 descended the ladder with the air of a conqueror. 
 He swelled with pride and took a new view of him- 
 self as he marched to his home through a thunder 
 of plaudits, — flung sneers at old opponents as he 
 passed them, and began to sow promises broadcast 
 among his friends. Yet when he reached the door, 
 he stood still and almost wept. 
 
 " It has been eight years, Theramenes," he said, 
 
G O R G O 401 
 
 — " eight years and more, since I passed the thresh- 
 old." 
 
 The next day he made a marvellous speech before 
 the assembly, praising himself and denouncing his 
 enemies until I trembled for him. But the populace 
 applauded all and howled down every protesting 
 voice. They voted him a hundred ships; they 
 compelled the priests to fling into the sea the leaden 
 tablets scored with curses. 
 
 " I wish they had not done that," I said to Conon, 
 who was to be his lieutenant. " It seems like cast- 
 ing them into the lap of the gods for fulfilment." 
 
 " These things will always bear a double sense," 
 he answered. " We shall see." 
 
 If indeed there was anything in Athens that Alci- 
 biades feared, it was those priests of the mysteries ; 
 and when all was ready he held his forces a full 
 month to escort their procession across the plain 
 in defiance of the Spartans. Doubtless, too, it 
 pleased him to vex Agis. Meanwhile he rioted after 
 the old fashion; I could not restrain him. 
 
 " My very dissipations, splendid in their extrav- 
 agance, are a glory to Athens," he boasted. " Where 
 else in Hellas will you find an Alcibiades ? But it is 
 lucky for the city that I was not made manifold 
 
 — and lucky for me. I should kill myself off in 
 parcels in quarrels with myself, if there were more 
 of me. I myself could not tolerate such a fellow 
 
 — but see how they abase themselves before me." 
 " Have you heard who is now against you on the 
 
 coast?" I asked him. 
 
4 o2 G O R G O 
 
 "The young Persian? That princeling, Cyrus? 
 Yes, I know: he is pouring out his gold like a 
 boy, and is daft for Sparta; but if once I can get 
 words with him, that gold shall fall in my lap. 
 The winsome youth will be an easier bargain than 
 old Tissaphernes." 
 
 " Perhaps. But I mean Lysander." 
 
 " The new admiral ? Another raw hand : I shall 
 play with him. I wish you could be with me to 
 see." 
 
 " You will find him more crafty than Sisyphus, 
 and as savage as Cerberus, with a pride that ex- 
 ceeds your own." But I warned in vain. 
 
 " I remember him well. A fellow full of bluster, 
 yet beaten by words in his own city. Even you, The- 
 ramenes, are more than a match for Lysander." 
 
 " If our captain were not so jealous of his tro- 
 phies, I myself would deal with the bastard Spar- 
 tan," swaggered Antipholus; for he ever trailed 
 at the heel of his patron, — the flaunting flag of all 
 his vices. 
 
 And all the world knows the outcome. While 
 the general revelled on the shore, he left this 
 drunken pilot in full control. With stringent in- 
 junctions? Of course — but a child might have 
 known. The flushed fool must needs sail forth to 
 taunt Lysander; the lion leaped and rent the fleet. 
 Though the gods therein are just, it is little comfort 
 that fools perish in their folly. 
 
 Then the people turned on Alcibiades and stripped 
 him of command. It seems that every soul in 
 
G O R G O 403 
 
 Athens had known that it was hopeless to trust 
 Alcibiades. I pleaded, but only brought suspicion 
 on myself. Then came a letter, brief and scratched 
 in haste : — 
 
 Son of Hagnon, this run of the dice is played: 
 I have lost. I would curse the fellow, but he lies 
 in mud already. It is myself. True, defeat never 
 looks in my face — but what does it profit? So one 
 in Athens warned me; do you know, Hagnonides, 
 I never once went to him? I flee now to my castle 
 by the Hellespont. You shall hear from me yet. 
 I have learned facts of interest about this young 
 Cyrus, who is Lysander's paymaster. He who 
 rules at Sousa will wish to hear; you know the 
 story of Themistocles. Call me henceforth Themis- 
 tocles. 
 
 There is one thing yet. A certain Rhyzon is 
 living in Ephesus; I was on his trail when this 
 luck befell. And if Rhyzon — but why say more? 
 The gods have wrought some miracle. Come to 
 the coast when you may. 
 
 Rhyzon lived! My soul rang like a bell that is 
 struck. Yet I dared not hope; the gods are not 
 so good. And even if the wretched miser lived — 
 the rest was mere delusion! it could not be! And 
 still — however wild the dream, I must know the 
 utmost. I sought passage to Asia, but my father's 
 mortal illness stayed me; he laid his trembling 
 hands upon me and held me back. 
 
4°4 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 All praise to the Spartan law ! It served us well, 
 then and often. The year of Lysander's command 
 was out before he could work us further injury. 
 His weapon was ready, his arm almost lifted to 
 strike — and the laws of Sparta called him back. 
 He obeyed, — but first he flung his weapon in the 
 mud; he would not pass it cleanly to another. It 
 was only nature, but the gain was ours. 
 
 Yet I think his successor a greater man than 
 he v If ever Sparta had a hero, it was this Callicrat- 
 idas; I except not even Gorgo's father, Brasidas, 
 nor him who fell at Thermopylae. He it was who 
 scorned the contemptuous gold of Persia, — a 
 grudging stipend flung to Hellas for smiting her 
 own breast with brass. He it was who in his stern- 
 est need would make no fellow Greek a slave ; who, 
 had he lived, would have turned all spears against 
 the Mede. He was our enemy, and I wrought my 
 part to slay him; yet, as I view it now, his death 
 was no less loss to Athens than to Sparta. He 
 alone of the men of my time rose from loyalty to 
 city to loyalty to Hellas. 
 
 Lysander had made all hard for him, but gods 
 and men serve such as he when the spirit is mani- 
 fest. Hard usage but proved his metal; it rang 
 with eloquence and was edged with courage. Soon 
 he rode at the head of a fleet that claimed the violet 
 sea as its bride. So he warned us; our ships fled 
 before him, yet even flight saved few ; with a scanty 
 remnant, Conon was locked in the harbour of Myti- 
 lene. One panting trireme bore the news to Athens. 
 
G O R G O 405 
 
 We had lost Alcibiades, and already our case was 
 desperate. 
 
 Say what you will of Athens and democracy, 
 no other city ever had such power to rally; like 
 Alcibiades himself, she was best at the worst. Fac- 
 tion was forgotten now; our only feud was with 
 the enemy. Once more we asked our gods for gold, 
 and they gave until their shrines lay bare. The 
 plate from all our houses mingled in the melting- 
 pot; it was disgrace for any to eat or drink from 
 silver. 
 
 My father was dying, but he reared on his bed; 
 his eyes flashed in their sunken sockets, and the 
 lines of his face drew firm. " Hold nothing back," 
 he said, " save what is in your mother's casket. 
 Let all men see that Athens needs no traitor." 
 
 That casket and another I kept; Athena might 
 give her jewels, but I would not part with Gorgo's. 
 With the rest I did as my father bade; and while 
 the applause to his name was still echoing across 
 the market, he passed beyond the reach of any 
 voice. 
 
 Meanwhile the timbers in the yards were framing 
 themselves into ships as if Orpheus had played 
 to them. In thirty days a hundred triremes floated 
 in the harbour, and half as many more were gath- 
 ered from other ports. Then the prison doors were 
 thrown open ; no man who would fight for his city 
 any longer wore fetters. The slave who had 
 grasped his freedom with the oar sat by the knight 
 
406 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 who had leaped from his horse to the benches; 
 none was too rich or too poor, none too good or 
 too bad, to serve our need. I myself had command 
 of a trireme, built and equipped from my father's 
 estate. 
 
XXXVI. 
 
 The Greatest Battle Yet 
 
 " "l^T OW, Theramenes, it is once and all for 
 JL^ Athens. This is the greatest sea-fight 
 yet." So Thrasybulus shouted back across 
 the water from the line in front. 
 
 It was true; no eye that still drank light in 
 Hellas had ever seen the like. Almost three hun- 
 dred ships hung on the rolling swell in order of 
 battle, with a stormy avenue extending far between 
 their tossing beaks; oars and spears, not less than 
 fifty thousand souls were afloat upon their planks; 
 the opposing fronts were above twelve stades in 
 length. The advantage of numbers was ours by 
 a little, but the fleet of the enemy was much the 
 better manned and drilled : so w*ell did our generals 
 know it that they ranged us double on each flank, 
 while the foe, too confident, perhaps, but not with- 
 out good warrant, bore down in one long line of 
 outreaching fir and flashing prows. 
 
 For him who fights with triremes, motionless is 
 weaponless ; a moment more and we had overstayed 
 our time. Our captains ended their exhortations 
 shouting ; with a shriek of the pipes we bowed upon 
 
 407 
 
408 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 our oars and clutched the sea with triple banks, — 
 twenty strokes and the rams were crashing. What 
 followed none has ever truly told, nor ever may; 
 it was like the meeting of the tides in the straits by 
 Chalcis. 
 
 At first, indeed, we manoeuvred with some at- 
 tempt at concert; but in stubborn conflict amid a 
 rising tempest all order was soon confounded. We 
 struck as the waves would let us, now foiled, now 
 swooping to the blow with terrific violence. I saw 
 ships broken asunder by cleaving prows; others, 
 shattered together, I saw sinking with commingled 
 timbers, — and such was the fate of the galley 
 that bore the pennant of Callicratidas, staunch and 
 strong though it was, like the heart of him who 
 wielded it. 
 
 This ship was the swiftest in his fleet, manned 
 with his stoutest oars, and with his chosen comrades 
 on its deck; it had wrought us much harm. I first 
 perceived it on the summit of a billow, aiming at 
 one of our Samians ; I made toward them, but the 
 sea baffled me, — ■ my pilot was no Meletus. Again 
 the Spartan rose on a crest, — he himself at the 
 bow, a file of spears pressing behind him, ready to 
 board at the moment of touch. Down the green 
 slope they darted, but the Samian, much to my 
 amazement, never swerved; with a cry to the oars 
 she leaped like a water-snake, and met them with 
 a shock so full on the prow that both rams burst 
 inward, and the very cat-heads crashed together 
 through the splintering planks. The spears fell 
 
G O R G O 409 
 
 flat, like wheat before the sickle; the whole file 
 was flung headlong, five over the bulwarks, their 
 leader the foremost, — and the emerald flash of his 
 helmet, as it sunk and wavered in the swaying 
 waters, was the last that any ever saw of Callicrat- 
 idas. 
 
 I have wondered since what may have been his 
 thoughts as he thus lapsed down, sliding through 
 liquid fathoms of twilight gloom, ever deepening, 
 to darker night in the soundless gulfs below, — 
 over-rolled by all the tumult of storm and battle, 
 vanished and still in an instant ! They were not of 
 war, I fancy, nor of ships ; the scene was changed. 
 Indeed, it is much the same for us all when we sink 
 into darkness. The soul paints its own pictures : 
 perhaps he too had a Gorgo. 
 
 In that wild, bewildered conflict nothing seemed 
 certain; we conquered here, and were foundering 
 yonder. The whole field of the sea was full of 
 driving beaks and heaving wrecks ; the fight raged 
 to the offing: yet the odds were slowly turning in 
 our favour. The death of the admiral was noised 
 above the storm, shouted from deck to deck; the 
 enemy, dismayed, looked about them for their fleet, 
 and saw few ships, some already in flight. We also 
 gazed, and saw victory; we charged the more 
 fiercely, two and three against one. They were 
 fleeing now from all quarters, with our gathering 
 squadrons hot in chase; of twice three score that 
 had come against us, hardly two score saved their 
 keels. 
 
4io 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I started to follow, but my banks were crippled, 
 and the drift of pitching oars and timbers so im- 
 peded us that we made small headway. That was 
 not the worst: all along our course lay tilting 
 wrecks, with raft-like decks almost awash, off which 
 came cries to heaven which the wind snatched and 
 bore elsewhere; then, beneath some toppling wave, 
 the voices streamed in bubbles and the wind was 
 freighted with souls. To most of these I gave little 
 heed, — they were merciless enemies, paying the 
 forfeit of defeat; but we, too, had met losses, and 
 when the cries sounded in good Attic I could not pass 
 without pause. The risk was great, for the sea 
 was mounting; twice we struck down those whom 
 we sought to save, and barely escaped their fate; it 
 was only by bailing that we held afloat, but what 
 could be done by one crew from a drunken hulk we 
 did. 
 
 " These cries will presently echo in Athens," I 
 said to myself, as I listened. " A funeral victory, 
 this. They are fewer now ; I can do no more." 
 
 But a hoarse call rose from the water, close by 
 the stern : " God's fire-fork, lads, heave a rope ! 
 Quick, lads, for the love of Athens and the craft ! " 
 
 We dipped so low that I caught him by the arms 
 and dragged him inboard as we lifted. 
 
 " You ! " he gasped. " I am glad to owe you a 
 life." He sat on the deck, spitting water. " A flagon, 
 lad, and I shall owe you another. I have been in 
 the drench of Styx." 
 
 By luck I found what he wanted. " I shall get 
 
G O R G O 411 
 
 small good of it, lad," he said, sombrely, laying down 
 the empty leather. " Three days in the shop of 
 the Chalcidian will scarcely mellow the tides I have 
 gulped. Not since the casting away of* Odysseus, 
 lad, has any been so washed of wine and life. I 
 cannot conceive how those fishes endure it." 
 
 " Meletus," I cried, " the sight of you is wine 
 to me. Leave the fishes to their brine, and tell me 
 all." 
 
 " I have left them less of it than I would, lad," 
 he answered, with a faint leer, — " though it may 
 well chance that in this Pontus which I have en- 
 gulfed there is a due portion of fishes. But all is 
 this : for lack of better I sailed upon a meal-tub, 
 which proved a tub indeed, and a weary leg an ill 
 sweep for its steering; and when at length I had 
 swallowed such portion of the tempest as the gods 
 ordained, I was borne to your hand for rescue. 
 The rest, I have hope, will be a manner of ebbing 
 of the tide." 
 
 " But how were you wrecked — you, Meletus ? " 
 " How ? It is well asked, lad. It was a sheer 
 betrayal of good timbers, a treason, as it were, to 
 the craft, for which I am rightly crusted with salt. 
 Lad, I have swung the sweeps all my life, yet knew 
 not that the element on which we sail was so evil 
 and insistent of flavour." 
 
 " They shall find another flagon. Go on." 
 " Bid them keep the neck of it close strapped, lest 
 brine enter. Well, the fellow was making havoc, 
 and I thought, ' It is an ill deed, but the man is 
 
412 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 worth it.' I could not deal with him otherwise, 
 because of that Hermon, who was a very sufficient 
 pilot. He was of Megara, and I would rank him 
 above yonder Ariston, whose bones — " 
 
 " Peace to the pilots ! Of whom do you speak? " 
 
 " Of Hermon, whose bones — " 
 
 "No, but the other?" 
 
 " Rest by Styx. Yet I grant you that Hermon 
 had the better of me, for Styx, being of the nature 
 of a river and less brackish — " 
 
 " They shall mingle the wine." 
 
 " Nay, lad, I will mingle it," he cried, rising to 
 seize the flask. " I still can feel the fishes bump 
 within me, but I mend, and the sweeter liquid may 
 yet pervade the mass. It was of the admiral I was 
 speaking when you threatened me — him they call 
 Callicras, or some such gay-headed name. I ob- 
 served that he stood far to fore, with his legs wide 
 strided, thus — or it might be with something more 
 of steadiness, as not having drunk of brine. He 
 had forgot he was on the sea, it is likely — no 
 Spartan ever remembers. I had Samians, mark 
 you, and I deemed he was worth them all. I be- 
 trayed them, lad, most treasonably, striking keel 
 to keel, which none expected, and as we shut to- 
 gether it pleasured me to see him dive for it. Yet 
 Meletus, too, would have gone groping for purple 
 oysters but for the chance of the meal-tub, which 
 I hugged with more affection than I knew was in 
 my heart." 
 
 " And the Samians ? " 
 
G O R G O 413 
 
 " They gave me ill words, lad, as they foundered ; 
 but I bade them wait by Styx and I would get them 
 over. They will be impatient, I surmise, but it 
 was not my meaning to mislead them, for I had 
 then no better thought than to join them quite 
 hastily. If I am foresworn to them I might blame 
 you, lad, but the wine mends all; and if you will 
 pluck yon bath-master off the sweeps, I will bring 
 you to land, which is out of all likelihood as we 
 are pointing." 
 
 I gave him the sweeps. The sky was dark with 
 clouds and the fall of night. The whole field of 
 battle with its huddled wrack had drifted many 
 leagues, and we upon it. The broken hulks were 
 gone or silent. 
 
 " How many do you think have perished ? " I 
 asked, suddenly. 
 
 "Well, lad, accounting for enemies and slaves 
 and foreigners, not omitting the Samians — who 
 died in a good cause, mind you, though ungra- 
 ciously — all told, I would estimate — " 
 
 " Not those, but of our citizens — native born ? " 
 
 "Citizens? They are not so many as formerly; 
 all manner of two-legged things were on the 
 benches. But of those, rich and poor and such as 
 thrive by their wits, I would say upward of a thou- 
 sand." 
 
 "A thousand citizens, Meletus, lost from a 
 wasted city ! " 
 
 " The death of some of them will be a saving of 
 lives, lad." 
 
4H 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " No, Meletus, those are they who remain ; or, if 
 any such are beneath the sea, their shades will be 
 more deadly than ever were their tongues." 
 
 " I would think you have the right of it, lad." 
 
 " And we alone have sought to rescue them ! 
 Not another ship turned back." 
 
 " May the gods of fair weather blow on your 
 sails for it, lad; Meletus would else have died a 
 slow death by breaking on the tub. But as to there 
 being no others, though my eyes are yet bleared 
 with the swash, I seem to descry a hull to north- 
 ward with motion of its own. Cliffs of Cocytus, 
 lad! you lack direction. Yonder is southward." 
 
 It was long before I could make out anything, 
 but after a time I heard the plash and creak of oars, 
 and a trireme showed in the mist, laden with men. 
 
 " What ship ? " came a hail — and I knew the 
 voice. 
 
 " Soteria, of Athens," bawled Meletus. 
 
 " Are you calling for help ? " 
 
 " Meletus pilot, trierarch Theramenes," he con- 
 tinued, with a note of scorn. " Shall we take you 
 in tow? " 
 
 " Thrasybulus ! " I shouted. "The gods be 
 thanked that we both are here ! " And soon we 
 were standing by, as near as we dared bring the 
 oars. 
 
 " You, too, have been gleaning lives," he cried, 
 joyfully. " I might have known, for it is like you. 
 Yet I thought you had gone with the rest." 
 
 " Which way, Thrasybulus? " 
 
G O R G O 415 
 
 " Down, I almost hoped. In the chase, as I 
 feared. They are crazy, or worse, to make idle pur- 
 suit with this behind, — yet I myself ran with them 
 half a league before I thought to turn. We can do 
 no more, and ' which way ? ' is indeed the question. 
 Is that Meletus, who, they say, sunk Hermon ? " 
 
 " The very Meletus," broke in that much molli- 
 fied pilot, " and there is a question well answered. 
 It is all in the gift of direction. You were pointed 
 for Egypt, lad, whither I sail not, — but hold after 
 Meletus, and he will bring you in." 
 
 " Over Styx ? " I asked, doubtfully ; for such 
 was the present aspect. 
 
 " To the camp, lad. They have put to shore and 
 started fires, for I sense some waft of smoke." 
 
 So we started together, beating against the gale 
 with weary oars; but storm and fog and gloom 
 soon parted us, for we had no lights. With a lull 
 of the wind came rain, yet the roll of the sea did 
 not abate; I stood on the fore deck, full of dread, 
 vainly peering into the night. 
 
 Then something loomed like a blot on the dark- 
 ness, but as we crashed upon it Jove's sudden fire- 
 bolt lighted all. The deck of a foundered merchant- 
 man lay low, full of leaping shapes, — yet I seemed 
 to see but one. Night shut again, but even through 
 the crackling thunder I heard her cry : 
 
 " Theramnas ! " 
 
XXXVII. 
 
 r At Last 
 
 GORGO!" 
 There were other cries, no few, a rend- 
 ing of wood amid the roar of waves, and 
 over all the pealing thunder; yet our voices met 
 and kissed in the darkness, as if alone. I leaped 
 blindly, felt beneath me the shudder of planks, and, 
 as the sky again opened, darted forward. She 
 sprang into my arms, unseen : not an instant was 
 lost in words ; I staggered back to where our prow 
 was grinding, guided by sound. Still another flash 
 showed Meletus leaning from the bow, whither, 
 leaving his helpers, he had run at the shock; with 
 all my force I cast her into his receding arms by 
 its gleam, then leaped through night. My fingers 
 caught, slipped, yet held; I struggled up over the 
 bulwarks, and fell against Meletus. 
 
 " Gods! did you make it, lad? I have fast that 
 you sent me, but by the burning of Phlegethon, I 
 am blinded. It came up in my face like red fire 
 through the lightning; I winced, lad, but what 
 I found in my arms seemed soft and lovesome, like 
 a maid. Yet I doubt of the essence, lad, and would 
 
 416 
 
J CAST HER INTO 
 ■* HIS. RECEDING ARMS 
 
G O R G O 417 
 
 bid you have care what manner of being you take 
 from the sea by night. I have seen those little black 
 daemons running about the deck in late watches, 
 but I never before saw fire-sprite, and know not 
 what it portends." 
 
 " J°y>" I sa id, with a full heart. 
 
 " Theramnas," a soft voice murmured, " will 
 you not take this maid quickly and for always ? " 
 
 " Have it so if you will, lad," he said, with some 
 asperity, " but I doubt the manner of the essence ; 
 if it burns not may the fire-fork cleave to my tongue. 
 The voice it gives forth is like the sweet drip of 
 the flagon, but you have heard of those Sirens. I 
 have known of a good bark cracked in open sea 
 and fair weather on a witchery of floating rocks for 
 less." 
 
 " Oh, Theramnas ! " she cried, between laughing 
 and sobbing. 
 
 Again we ground against the wreck; with a 
 scramble about the prow dark forms rose and passed 
 us. 
 
 " We are taking on dead men in my view of it," 
 growled the pilot, " and I like not the breed." 
 
 " Back to your sweeps, and that quickly, or those 
 whom you left there may fulfil the worst without 
 aid of floating stones." 
 
 " And that is a timely word, lad. If those thala- 
 mites send us not to Acheron with unseasonable 
 ramming, they will head again for Egypt." He 
 sniffed and listened — " Yea, lad, it is so they are 
 pointing " — and ran sternward. 
 
4i8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I sat upon the deck with Gorgo in my arms. Rain 
 was still falling; the soft, warm drops beat in our 
 faces, mingled with dashes of spray, but we did 
 not heed. The lightning flashes, less frequent now, 
 showed but a narrow circle of black billows, yet 
 we scarcely saw even that ; our eyes were not on the 
 sea in those precious moments. But what need of 
 light? After all those years of waiting, of struggle 
 and peril and barriers that neither love nor courage 
 could surmount, Gorgo lay in my arms ; she whom 
 I had mourned as dead, my dream, the spirit my soul 
 had sought in vain, — she lay on my breast with 
 pulsing heart and warm arms locked about my neck, 
 breathing sighs of perfect rest. The rain! the 
 storm ! what of them ? Death itself ! what would 
 it matter? 
 
 " Nothing, Gorgo, nothing shall ever part us 
 now," I whispered. 
 
 " O boy " — she laughed, softly — "I am glad 
 you are not a boy, but a man. And that is because 
 I love you, all and all, and every morsel of me 
 ~and my very soul is to you. I did not truly love 
 before — or it seems so. I was almost afraid ; but 
 now — Theramnas " — and more than all her 
 breathless syllables the sinking of her cheek upon 
 my shoulder told me. 
 
 What / said she would know, but I know not. 
 It is what she said that lingers like remembered 
 music in my heart. I have loved the silence, that 
 I might listen to it. 
 
 " O Theramnas " — it scarcely seemed a sound, 
 
G O R G O 419 
 
 our souls were so near — : " it has been so terrible 
 without you, — more terrible than ever I can tell. 
 There is none that is good and true but you, The- 
 ramnas — whose bride this happy Gorgo is, and 
 whose glad wife she shall always be, so long as 
 there is any Gorgo anywhere. Do you see? I 
 can say it, and love to say it, now. And now you 
 might slay Lysander or any other — and Golas 
 shall shoot as you bid — only keep this Gorgo. She 
 has had a knife hid in her bosom, but she never 
 will need it now." And she loosed her arms for a 
 moment to fling it from her. 
 
 Then, after a long time spent in sweeter ques- 
 tionings, — 
 
 " Where is Rhyzon ? " I asked. For I thought of 
 him not unkindly in my joy. 
 
 She shrunk in my arms. " You shall not speak 
 of him, Theramnas. He was on that ship; I do 
 not know. I would almost wish he was drowned." 
 
 " Drowned, Gorgo ! " 
 
 " It would be better so. When men are grown so 
 wicked it is not good that they live; yet if he be 
 truly my father's brother, you cannot strike him 
 with your sword. For I think — he so loved gold 
 — oh, Theramnas ! I cannot. I will not have that 
 Rhyzon in this hour." 
 
 I felt a foam in my throat. " He shall hold an 
 accounting with the house of Hagnon, not of 
 silver." 
 
 " Yes," she said earnestly, " but not of blood, 
 neither. Boy, boy! the gods may kill him, but not 
 
420 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 you. I had kept that knife for Gorgo — but see! 
 she is here and all for you. Oh, thank the gods, 
 Theramnas! and speak no more of Rhyzon this 
 night." 
 
 At last the fires of the camp glinted and twinkled 
 through the surge, soon rising clear; we grounded 
 smoothly on the island beach, and stayed the stern 
 with anchors. The generals were sitting in coun- 
 cil; I had scarcely leaped to land when they sum- 
 moned me before them. It was hard, but I dared 
 not delay. Gorgo I left with Meletus, trusting no 
 other. 
 
 " Guard with your life, and drink as mildly as 
 you may," I exhorted him. 
 
 " There is a manner of rats in the hold," he said, 
 sulkily. 
 
 " See that you keep them there : let none go or 
 come. But above all, guard — " 
 
 " The fire-sprite? That spell is strong upon you, 
 lad. Well — I owe you a life — but I like not the 
 essence." 
 
 But Meletus too came under the spell when he 
 looked on Gorgo. " I was mistaken in the ele- 
 ment, lad," he exclaimed loudly. " It is of wine, 
 not fire — or it might be O'f that nectar wherewith 
 Father Jove, they say, is wont to steady his legs 
 when he would heave thunder, but I know not the 
 tang of it. Not but here is fire, too, — yet only 
 as of the wine, a sparkle, as it were, of sweet and 
 comfortable fieriness. I will guard her, lad, if it 
 brings me to the swimming of Phlegethon," 
 
G O R G O 421 
 
 I found the generals in angry debate. " It has 
 been a capital mistake," Diomedon was saying as I 
 approached. " You are all my witnesses that I 
 cried out against it and strove to call you back." 
 
 I paused in the shadow to listen. " It will be 
 a capital mistake for you, if you turn upon us," 
 retorted a wheezing voice. It was Erasinides — 
 whom I detested. If you have seen a toad you have 
 seen Erasinides. 
 
 " By this reckless, fruitless folly we have missed 
 the saving of I dare not think how many lives," 
 persisted Diomedon, " and I maintain that even 
 now — " 
 
 " Beware lest you prove to be the one we deputed 
 for that very purpose," sneered Erasinides. 
 
 " We might have done both had you heeded my 
 words as we gathered," blustered Thrasyllus. 
 " There were ships enough for chase and rescue 
 too." 
 
 " Perhaps we did heed that good advice," snuffled 
 the voice I hated. " Perhaps it was you we de- 
 puted. Friends, we have only to agree and make 
 a choice. I think we sent back Thrasyllus with 
 thirty ships, — or was it Diomedon ? " 
 
 " The god's curse upon you," gasped Thrasyllus, 
 " a common trierarch will serve if that is the turn, 
 — or a pair of them." 
 
 " A lie must at least be plausible," protested Dio- 
 medon. He also was pale. " As for me, gods and 
 men saw me, that I was. with the rest of you." 
 
 " Yes, we must be plausible," assented Erasinides. 
 
422 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " It is better, doubtless, to choose beyond our own 
 number, since we are at one. I think Theramenes 
 was not seen with us, — the very man. Thrasy- 
 bulus, too, turned back, — another. They were both 
 deputed with ample commission, but the storm 
 daunted them. They will plead the storm, of course, 
 before the people, but that is their own affair." 
 
 "Why not blame all on the storm? " exclaimed 
 young Pericles, eagerly. " Why mention names ? 
 We may say in our dispatches that the storm pre- 
 vented. It is enough, and this is dastardly." 
 
 At that I strode among them. " Dastardly it is," 
 I cried; "and dastardly it was to leave sinking 
 comrades. The lie is well devised, but its edge 
 shall be turned." 
 
 " Theramenes, we are rejoiced to see you," puffed 
 the swelling toad. " We feared you were lost. 
 You remember, doubtless, the strict injunction we 
 laid upon you, — to return in haste with three ships 
 out of each squadron? We trust you have obeyed 
 in every particular, lest we find it our unwilling 
 duty to report you. Did you rescue many ? " 
 
 " Enough to bear me witness," I answered, 
 shortly. 
 
 Consternation was in their faces. Young Pericles 
 leaped to his feet. " We shall lay the blame on 
 nothing else but the storm. Stand with us, The- 
 ramenes." 
 
 "Aye, meet a storm with a storm; two storms 
 will perhaps bring a calm. Stand with you? It is 
 
G O R G O 423 
 
 late thought of and suddenly suggested, — I will 
 reflect upon it at some leisure." 
 
 " Lies or truth, I will take no such chances before 
 a mad mob," exclaimed Protomachus. " It is to 
 throttle a she-wolf whining over dead whelps. I 
 am. straight for Thrace." And he left the assembly. 
 
 I also slipped away in the confusion, hastening 
 to my ship. The black sky had grown gray, but 
 the earth still lay in shadow and the camp-fires 
 smouldered low. 
 
 " She is safe, lad," Meletus greeted me, " and I 
 think it is but a lass when all is said, though, as 
 it were, flamesome beyond any; yet in my view 
 of it in some sort lacking in decorum, lad, for when 
 I sought to counsel with her — and soberly, mind 
 you — of this notable rashness of trusting to a 
 heady youth, she laughed out upon me, lad, like 
 one in wine." 
 
 " Push off and make speed with silent pipes," I 
 interrupted. " Steer for Athens, and let none pass 
 us." 
 
XXXVIII. 
 
 The Last Hiss of the Snake 
 
 AS the little islands sunk behind us we met 
 Thrasybulus slowly beating in; he had 
 wandered all night on the sea. When I told 
 him of that council on the beach, he wheeled his 
 ship. 
 
 "The scoundrels!" he broke forth. "Then I 
 am also for Athens, Theramenes. With the cargo 
 we bear I think we shall match them — we two." 
 We both sighed at the thought of a third. " We 
 must provision as we can at Psyra; I am deeply, 
 laden, and we are athirst and unfed." 
 
 " Yea, and let us have on some manner of lights," 
 called Meletus, " lest you weave another fish-net in 
 the darkness. Yet in my way of thinking, a pro- 
 fessing pilot who cannot follow guidance on a plain 
 course should sail on Charon's ferry." 
 
 But the mind of Thrasybulus still lingered on the 
 council, and his anger grew. " The scoundrels ! " 
 he again broke forth. " We were to be their scape- 
 goats, Theramenes — we who saved! Do you see? 
 We were to have their shame and drink their hem- 
 lock who strove to save while they sat about the 
 
 424 
 
G O R G O 425 
 
 fire and plotted this! Even Thrasyllus! Do you 
 know, Theramenes, I would have trusted that man 
 with my life?" 
 
 " In battle you well might," I answered, " but 
 not in council." 
 
 " A good democrat too ! We wrought together 
 hand in hand at Samos, Theramenes : I account him 
 now no better than an oligarch. And Diomedon — 
 so brave a soldier! " 
 
 " Yes, in the hot flush of the fight. But his heart 
 chilled at the hemlock." 
 
 " It is a chilly word, Theramenes ; yet sooner than 
 betray I would take the cup. But the dregs of an- 
 other's infamy I will not drain. The scoundrels! 
 oh, the scoundrels ! They shall have their own." 
 
 At Psyra I gave the seamen a portion of their 
 wages, and the rest three obols each to buy food. 
 While they were stripping the markets I sat beside 
 Gorgo, and drawing her pearls from my bosom 
 slipped them upon her wrist. " So I will bear them 
 with me henceforth," I said. 
 
 " Oh! and have you those? " she said, blushing. 
 
 " But why did you not ask me for them, Gorgo? " 
 
 " And indeed, Theramnas, you are seeking to 
 remind this, maid of a very foolish thing that she 
 would willingly forget altogether. Yet in Athens 
 she might, perhaps, have asked — in Hagnon's 
 house, and sitting thus beside you. For you told 
 her, Theramnas, on that foolish, dreadful day, that 
 her pearls were in Athens and there she should 
 have them." 
 
426 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " And so it was upon that day, and she shall have 
 them there, yet need not wait. For since that day 
 they have ever been with me, Gorgo, and never at 
 any hour would you have asked in vain." 
 
 " And is not this maid glad to see them ? Surely 
 you would not think that I did not ask because I 
 did not care, Theramnas. It was for very shame 
 that I did not ask ; and I shall ever be reminded by 
 them of that dark hut that is like an evil dream, and 
 the door you set up, all broken and rickety, to shut 
 away the badness of GorgO'. Yet you bore my pearls 
 — and in battle, Theramnas — or would you leave 
 them in your tent? For how ever could you carry 
 them — under your corselet, Theramnas ? " 
 
 " I wear no corselet on shipboard, but bear a 
 shield," I answered, quickly. " Now laugh, Gorgo, 
 if you will, for the laugh is sweet to hear and I 
 mind not. But as to what was spoken in the helot's 
 hut, may we not account that even and the counters 
 swept from the board and no more words ? " 
 
 " I would be the gainer, I think. Yet you swore 
 that day, Theramnas, more fearfully than any that 
 I ever heard, — unless it would be this wonderful 
 pilot you have, who has told me that by a certain 
 fire-fork you are a staunch comrade, and but for a 
 certain vexation of horses in your wine as sufficient 
 a seaman as ever pranced on pine save one, yet by 
 Sesostris and Isis in the matter of lasses a perilous 
 lad and rash of oaths. That, he said, was his view 
 of it. Is it so, Theramnas?" And we laughed 
 together. 
 
G O R G O 427 
 
 " See," she exclaimed, holding up her wrist, " that 
 is true which they say. The pearls are grown more 
 lustrous by sleeping close to the heart." 
 
 " But, Gorgo, where are the rest ? Even those 
 dimples of the ears are empty, and no Lycurgus near 
 to trouble you." 
 
 " He sold them from me, Theramnas, — the pearls 
 of my ears and all the jewels of my mother he sold 
 for darics and staters, and scarcely gave this Gorgo 
 bread. Yet some of the pearls "I gave those who 
 were to carry letters, which made him angry; and 
 I knew that he had stopped the letters, for you did 
 not come." 
 
 " Rhyzon denied you bread ! " 
 
 " And Gorgo herself he would have sold at last, 
 to Lysander. He had bargained for it, Theramnas ; 
 but I made him understand that Lysander would pay 
 him no gold for a dead Gorgo. Then, after Lysander 
 was gone, he said we would go to Athens, and you, 
 perhaps, would give him gold. And -I went so will- 
 ingly — but Theramnas, I think it was all a lie, 
 to draw me into the ship. For that ship was loaded 
 with slaves, and on it was a terrible, little old man, 
 all yellow and shrunk, with a turban wound low on 
 his forehead, — and I fear — oh ! Theramnas — I 
 feared — " 
 
 "A little yellow old man," I almost screamed, 
 "with a turban?" 
 
 But screams of another sort were rising from the 
 wharf, and above them the roar of Meletus : " God's 
 fork ! I have those rats, lad, two of them." 
 
428 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 I ran to the bow. Meletus held his captives by 
 the throat, one in each hand, shaking them as if they 
 were rats indeed. 
 
 " They were scuttling ashore, lad," he said, " and 
 one, I would surmise, I have had some previous deal- 
 ings with. For if that furled sail-cloth of his be 
 not a manner of stable for the nag Meletus gave 
 him off Leucadia, may the — " 
 
 " Bring them up," I commanded. " I know them, 
 both." 
 
 For one was Rhyzon, gaunt and sordid; as he 
 saw me standing by Gorgo, his jaw shook, but he 
 could not speak. 
 
 " Cast him in chains below," I said. " His reck- 
 oning comes later. As for that other — " 
 
 Meletus snatched away the turban : the branded 
 outline of a horse appeared in hideous mottle on 
 his brow. 
 
 " Cast him presently to the sharks." 
 
 " It is well conceived, lad. And while he waits 
 the coming of his kind the brine will cool his brow." 
 
 The base wretch cowered at my feet. " Oh, no! 
 oh, no! It shall be ransom, noble son of Hagnon. 
 Yes, it shall be a ransom of much gold, of the amber 
 gold, which shall much restore the noble master's 
 house." 
 
 " When the sharks have eaten you we will then 
 discuss the ransom if you like," I said. 
 
 " O Apollon ! O noble son of Apollon ! Surely the 
 noble prince of his country will spare the old mer- 
 chant who has suffered such a dreadful usage. He 
 
G O R G % O 429 
 
 will heed the good sophist ; he will not kill. He will 
 take the rich ransom. The old merchant has done 
 ill, but he has suffered such punishment." 
 
 " Pray to Bel, not to me." 
 
 " He is so far ; he is not of Greece. You shall 
 have Golas. The old merchant will restore to you 
 Golas. For he knows the place. Yes, Golas." 
 
 I paused at that, and looked hard in his face. 
 "You can restore to me Golas?" 
 
 " I swear by Bel, and by Apollon, and by Moloch. 
 You shall have him — Golas. But you must set 
 the poor old merchant free." 
 
 " Where is he, then ? I would not trust you a 
 handbreadth." 
 
 " I will not tell you that : I will not tell it on the 
 fire. But you shall take the old merchant to Athens, 
 and when you have sworn he will bring you to 
 Golas." 
 
 " I will swear sooner to rend you with torments 
 than free you, if you lead me merely to his bones." 
 
 " No, no! Not that — but alive. Not dead nor 
 spoiled, but a good slave. Why should the merchant 
 spoil a good slave? You will take Golas, and then 
 set the merchant free. You will swear — by Apol- 
 lon?" 
 
 " Cast the Syrian also in chains below, — and 
 clench well his irons. If his promise holds he shall 
 go, unharmed — by me." 
 
 It was late on the third day when we reached 
 Piraeus, for our galleys dragged and our banks were 
 ill-oared. We found the whole city rejoicing, for the 
 
430 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Paralus had already arrived, bringing the news of 
 victory. There was little else in the dispatches, — 
 some mention of the storm, less of wrecks, and none 
 whatever of me, as I soon made certain; for the 
 time, at least, the caution of young Pericles had pre- 
 vailed. Yet with the official letters others had come 
 of a different tenor. I felt myself assailed by hard 
 looks shot from gloomy eyes : of my friends some 
 avoided me; others spoke, but with deep reserve. 
 I was under suspicion; the toad had croaked; he 
 was having his way after all, — but in their open 
 dispatches they had chosen to be kind to me, for- 
 sooth! 
 
 " Oh ! this is dastardly," said Thrasybulus, echo- 
 ing the words of Pericles. " They have filled the 
 city with lying rumours." 
 
 At length I was called before the senate and put 
 under examination. The faces were flinty at first, 
 and the questionings harsh ; but I told the full truth, 
 bringing witnesses, and Thrasybulus stood by me, 
 sputtering with rage, loyal as a brother. The case 
 was dismissed : the senators gathered about me 
 in murmuring groups, grasping my hand, many 
 walking with me through the market. On the street 
 the change was no less ; the sad and bitter faces were 
 no fewer there, but the blight of their gaze was no 
 longer turned on me. Other voices had spoken; 
 the men who owed us life were spreading rumours 
 now. 
 
 I myself have been blamed for crafty courses. I 
 know it only too well — judge not yet. But the 
 
G O R G O 431 
 
 craft that is blood-splashed and soaked with lies is 
 a path of slime along a precipice. Not even he who 
 goes unwilling, with slow steps, may hold his feet 
 upon it, — that too I have learned. Diomedon was 
 to learn it; and Thrasyllus; even young Pericles. 
 Perhaps Socrates spoke true, and wrong is never 
 right. 
 
 The people met on the Pnyx, — an assembly full 
 of mourners and those in dreadful doubt. The 
 generals were summoned back. There was as yet no 
 turbulence : Thrasybulus spoke briefly ; I said not 
 a word. I went home to Gorgo. 
 
 "' See," she said, " we are even sitting together in 
 the house of Hagnon. And there are here no 
 Ephors. Yet I have no jewels but these." 
 
 " Wait a little," I answered. " Only my wife may 
 wear those jewels I shall give to -Gorgo." 
 
 " And gladly will I wait, Theramnas ; I did but 
 wish to be beautiful in your father's house. But I 
 would wish your wife the most beautiful of all, 
 Theramnas ; I will have no wife in Athens so beau- 
 tiful as she — that Ionian Gorgo, whom they drove 
 from Sparta — nor any so glad altogether. She 
 shall much surpass this maid." 
 
 " How ever can you be more beautiful, Gorgo? " 
 
 " You shall see," she cried, " you shall see, The- 
 ramnas." 
 
 Rhyzon I had loosed from his fetters, but held 
 him under strict guard. The Syrian still lay in 
 chains, flung in a dark store-room, groaning and 
 cursing as he rolled upon the floor, yet begging ab- 
 
432 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 jectly if any came near. I now had him out; he 
 could scarcely stand. 
 
 " Lead," I said, " and bring me to Golas." 
 
 " Oh, Bel ! " he chattered. " Not without oath — 
 not if the son of Apollon should crucify. He shall 
 swear by his own Apollon." 
 
 And Apollo — who had seen his deeds — I made 
 my witness. I swore that when he had fulfilled his 
 promise I would neither harm nor hinder further. 
 
 " We must have the oars — a six strong oars, for 
 it is far. And the noble Athenian will surely keep 
 his oath, else Apollon will greatly torment him. The 
 place — it is at the Laureion." 
 
 The mines ! But I assured him I would stand by 
 my oath. 
 
 I hired a boat and we coasted down ; it was nearly 
 noon when we landed at the dock, pressing in be- 
 tween the moored barges. The place was strongly 
 garrisoned, but the captain knew and passed me. 
 
 " The noble Athenian who has sworn an oath will 
 ask for Sosias," said the Syrian. " It will be neces- 
 sary to speak with Sosias. He is of Thrace ; he was 
 tasker of the slaves for Nicias — it is now his son." 
 
 The fellow was called, — a man built like a bull, 
 red-haired, with a flavour of raw wine about him. 
 He was surly at first, but the gleam of a daric mended 
 his aspect. 
 
 " You mean to pay ? For two minas you may have 
 any here. Their cost is a mina on the market, but I 
 must make good my count and have my profit. It is 
 a dog's task and a rotten lot; they last no better 
 
G O R G O 433 
 
 than a eaten of fish in the sun. Here since when, 
 say you ? By Deus, he will be but a carcass ; they 
 endure not so long. Strong, say you ? The smoke 
 of the smelt would blast Hercules; we change them 
 about, but the breath of the pit is not so much better. 
 Still, for this daric I will make search ; it is beside 
 the price, take notice, for the trouble is much and 
 the finding unlikely. I have under me above a 
 thousand — or had at the last numbering. The 
 name — it is no help. They have no names ; they 
 go by count. But we will have up the oldest of the 
 pack." 
 
 The Syrian whispered in his ear. " Him, mer- 
 chant? The silent one? Deus ! I had almost forgot 
 that one. He may yet be hacking ; he was so strong 
 that we kept him from the furnace for the pit. We 
 may find that one: if he were newer you should 
 scarcely have him for two minas; but he will be 
 a mere rag, and the word is passed." 
 
 So we climbed by a deep-rutted road into such 
 a region of death as I think was never elsewhere; 
 even in the sunless realm of Hades, there can be 
 no place more hideous. The whole mountain was 
 blasted as if by a curse — no weed was vile enough 
 to live amid such fumes as wafted there — and all 
 over its broken slopes were scattered the furnaces, 
 glowing below and reeking from their summits, 
 whose black breath was its desolation. These smoke 
 streams coiled and writhed in the air like dragons, 
 and were as rank with poison. 
 
 " But for this lift of the wind I would not venture 
 
434 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 up myself," remarked Sosias, looking about uneasily. 
 " If you see me take a run, hold close." 
 
 On all sides were branching paths, each leading 
 to a furnace or a pit ; for the pits were many, and 
 led — 
 
 " Near twenty stades into Hades' own country, 
 some of them," explained the Thracian. " They say 
 you can hear the boiling of Phlegethon in the 
 deepest." 
 
 We had paused before a perilous flight of stone 
 steps, leading steeply down into darkness. " Will 
 you go in, or wait? " he asked. 
 
 " We will go in." And I thrust the Syrian be- 
 fore me. 
 
 Sosias called : two weird creatures came up with 
 torches, their faces goat-like, with matted hair and 
 beard. We followed them through avenues of stone 
 and buttressed chambers, I dare not say how far, 
 amid shapes that might be ghost or daemon. 
 
 " O Bel, O Bel, have pity," groaned the Syrian. 
 " Thou shalt have captives ; thy altars shall drip." 
 
 At last we paused where the iron was ringing. 
 " They say he is here," said Sosias, pointing in at a 
 dusky opening. 
 
 " Golas ! " I called — " Golas ! " 
 
 The great bar that we had heard churning against 
 the rock clanged on the floor. A wild and naked 
 thing rushed forth like a spectre; it lay at my feet, 
 and I felt the rough cheek rubbing against the thongs 
 of my sandal. 
 
 " Speak, Golas. It is I." 
 
G O R G O 435 
 
 Sosias laughed. " He can ill do that ; the tongue 
 is cut. Nay, I did it not : what use ? So he came 
 to me." 
 
 " It is not a harm; it does not spoil," clamoured 
 the Syrian. " It is a good slave — yes, sound, and 
 still so strong; he will obey the better for the cut- 
 ting of the tongue." 
 
 I choked. Then, turning to Sosias, " Would you 
 trade for this Syrian? " 
 
 " Pan ! He is not worth bread." And again the 
 fellow laughed. 
 
 " Nor would I sell. It is but a jest. I am in 
 the humour for jesting, Syrian. Why do you sweat 
 so?" 
 
 " Apollon! There shall be no jest; it is an oath. 
 Will you have upon you the curse of Apollon ? " 
 
 " Not I. The oath shall be kept — to the very 
 letter, like the Syrian's promise." 
 
 " I think I smell sport," said Sosias. " But mind, 
 I must have the two minas. No jesting there; for 
 the rest, command me." 
 
 " Rise, Golas," I said. And — though it was a 
 strange thing for Hagnon's son to do — I put my 
 arms about his neck. He caught me up on his 
 shaggy breast, and in spite of remonstrance bore me 
 so all the way to the light ; while Sosias, I observed, 
 kept sharp watch on the Syrian. At length we were 
 again by the boat, and the master of the mines had 
 his pay. The Syrian quivered with hope and fear 
 and weakness ; his state was pitiable, — had he been 
 other than he was. 
 
436 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 "The good youth will keep his oath," he said, 
 from a parched throat. 
 
 " He will keep his oath — but no haste. Where 
 is the bow ? " 
 
 " I do not know that — I cannot tell. It was not 
 bargained." 
 
 " No : but you burnt it, perhaps, before the eyes 
 of him who stands speechless ? " 
 
 " The bow ? I do not know." His eyes wavered. 
 " Who would dare to deal with Golas while there 
 was yet the bow ? It is gone. The Syrian does not 
 know." 
 
 " The slave was a good archer ? " asked Sosias, 
 with interest. " It is shame to cast such in the 
 mines. If you wish me to take up that Syrian 
 beast — but at no price, mind — and I see he is 
 already branded — " 
 
 " May you burn in Moloch — yes, all. It is a 
 treachery; you will not keep the oath." 
 
 He flashed at me with a little dirk, long and .thin, 
 like a spindle. How he got it I cannot imagine, but. 
 I foiled him as if he had been a child with a straw. 
 
 " Foul offspring of Bel and Moloch," I cried, in 
 a voice which I could control no longer, " do you 
 think to lie and murder and betray, and still to bind 
 others by oaths, and by oaths to the gods to evade 
 the vengeance of gods and men ? I have sworn — 
 and much may it profit you! I will keep all oaths 
 and pay all debts — mark me, Syrian. Go ! the hour 
 is come, and I have sworn not to hinder. Do you 
 
G O R G O 437 
 
 understand me, Golas? The man goes free, and 
 you are free, — and I have sworn not to hinder." 
 
 The eyes of the slave sought mine, lifted in savage 
 exultation; the Syrian sunk in a helpless sweat of 
 terror ; from both throats issued a gurgle. 
 
 " Only not here," I said to Golas. 
 
 He crouched like a panther and leaped upon the 
 Syrian's neck, flung him over his shoulder, and in 
 such fashion bore him up the hill. Golas had waited 
 long. He had now no bow — but he had his hands : 
 how he used them was never asked and could never 
 be told. And so, no doubt, it was well to leave it 
 — untold ; for Golas was not a follower of Socrates, 
 nor even a Greek, but a barbarian. He was gone a 
 long while, and when he returned he again kissed 
 my feet. 
 
XXXIX. 
 
 A Voice from a Meal - Tub 
 
 THE assembly met; the generals stood before 
 the people. From the prison they came, and 
 stood with pallid cheeks and flinching eyes 
 before white-haired fathers grieving for their sons. 
 I noted that Erasinides was chewing on nothing 
 and working his throat ; the face of young Pericles 
 was like wetted linen. Would they dare to boast of 
 the victory before these? Or the storm — would 
 that serve? They looked down and met the gaze 
 of those whom others had drawn from its billowy 
 lips, — in whose ears still rang the cries of drown- 
 ing comrades. It was not a kindly gaze. 
 
 They were daunted; the low muttering roar of 
 that assembly was more daunting than any storm. 
 Battles must needs cost lives : it had seemed so easy 
 to explain, — on the little isles of Arginusae. Ly- 
 ing, too, seems so easy — yet may grow so deadly 
 hard. They had not fared happily before the senate ; 
 their words had been heard with impatience. The 
 senate, indeed, had commanded me to appear against 
 them, bringing my witnesses. 
 
 " You have made grave charges," I was admon- 
 ished. " We believe you, and have held these men 
 
 438 
 
G O R G- O 439 
 
 for trial; but you must bear us out. Besides, they 
 will certainly turn the blame on you, and you must 
 be ready." Thrasybulus was warned in like terms. 
 
 I told the main facts very simply. I would not 
 enlarge upon them; the mood of the people was 
 dangerous. Thrasybulus spoke more hotly, with a 
 convincing heartiness of anger. The assembly 
 surged, but there was still no outbreak. 
 
 After this the trick of magnanimity seemed 
 wisest. Erasinides answered first and gave them the 
 cue. They made no open charges, — these good 
 friends of mine; they had wished — they still wished 
 — to spare me. They contradicted me mildly: the 
 duty had indeed been assigned me, with ample 
 powers, but doubtless the storm was a sufficient 
 reason why I had done so little. Perhaps they had 
 been unfortunate in their choice, but I was accounted 
 a competent officer, and Thrasybulus no less. They 
 deemed our conduct fairly excusable, and there- 
 fore had not mentioned the matter in their dis- 
 patches. That, perhaps, was an error, — and they 
 looked at me reproachfully. Thus they spoke, each 
 in turn, all to the same effect and with an air of great 
 moderation. 
 
 It was a good play; there were really some who 
 believed them. Others clamoured for witnesses, — 
 and I sent up Meletus. He stood on the bema sway- 
 ing a little, his legs set rather wider than was need- 
 ful, surveying that sea of upturned faces as one 
 who would catch the drift of the weather, but per- 
 fectly cool. 
 
44° 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " What ? Meletus the poet ? " exclaimed a senator 
 when the name was announced. 
 
 " Well, my lad, it may be there is a manner of 
 poesy in piloting, as it were. The roll of a heavy 
 swell is most like those hexameters, I would say, and 
 the whine of the wind has a certain likeness to 
 the manner of reciting them by those rhapsodists. 
 Yes, lad, I would conceive it is somewhat of that 
 nature; for in my present view of it the jogging 
 push of the oars is much like the running of those 
 courses of speech to the tune of the pipes in the 
 theatre, and a storm at sea, I would think, is some- 
 thing after the fashion of their choruses. But, 
 mark you, I lay no positive claim to' the craft of 
 poesy, old lad — and you need not bring in the lyre 
 for Meletus," he concluded, eying him sharply. 
 
 " It is he who expounded the Gorgon's letter," 
 shouted the crowd. " Let us hear the pilot." And 
 some began to laugh, though others scowled. 
 
 " Peace," said the president. " Forbear your 
 harping, Meletus, and tell the people of the storm." 
 
 " Well, lads," he said, squaring about, " it blew 
 straight down from the Hellespont, and came mainly 
 in long rolls. But mark you, I had no fair view of 
 it. From the deck I accounted it no great storm 
 for a ship well manned and piloted — though I may 
 have spraddled a bit for better steadiness, as you may 
 see is my wont in uncertain weather; but on that 
 merchantman, as it were, of a meal-tub, spinning 
 about with no adequate steerage and a swash like 
 Phlegethon — " 
 
G O v R G O 441 
 
 " You w.ere saved on a meal-tub ? " 
 
 " Nay, lads, unless you would account that sal- 
 vation which Apollo did to Marsyas — to be skinned 
 alive and whipped with brine. I was saved from the 
 meal-tub, as I would judge the matter, by a hand-lift 
 of this staunch lad, whom I presently steered in, 
 with such others as he had taken up, to join the 
 generals at their wine. It was but one good turn 
 for another, — and a sharp turn, too, as he was 
 headed, — a good lad, mind you, though lacking 
 direction. But as for the storm, I thought it an ill 
 storm from the tub, yet found it much abated by a 
 hasty swallowing of the rougher part." 
 
 " But the wrecks — what of them? " 
 
 " Very little of them after I had parted with the 
 tub, lads. But while I was dancing the cordax on 
 that bucket, the hulks were dancing with me, — yet 
 not altogether so merrily. They lay awash with all 
 hands on deck, as the manner is on a wreck, heavy 
 freighted and spilling off cargo, more or less, at 
 each dip ; and the manner of speaking of those lads, 
 mark you, would have grieved Nicias. It was of the 
 generals they were speaking mainly, as I judged it, 
 and by the howling at Styx, it was not in the nature 
 of good discipline. I reproved them for it, lads, as 
 best I might between gulpings of that Lesbian brine; 
 from a better craft I think it likely I might have 
 found them more adequate terms, but my heart was 
 with them, lads, and they were mostly weeping. It 
 was they who had won the victory, in their own 
 conceit of it. They bade me tell you of these things 
 
442 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 in case the tub should prove seaworthy, but I had 
 little thought to see you then, and counselled them 
 to await me beside the fall of Phlegethon, where I 
 would join them, and the generals soon after, it was 
 likely, when a dip in that stream might do them 
 benefit, as coming chilled with the hemlock, — for 
 I made sure, lads, they would have the hemlock after 
 their wine. But as I now recall it, I would think 
 it possible I spoke in extremity of ill-humour; for 
 this word I gave them from a meal-tub, mind you, 
 with the swash of the sea in my throat, and a 
 manner of suddenness in the rise and fall of it not 
 favourable to considerateness of speech, and the cry 
 of those drowning lads in my ears as often as the 
 water ran out. I have thought since that it was in 
 a manner excusable, as they say, for I myself would 
 sooner have sat ashore drinking good wine and 
 devising with yon Erasinides to cast the blame on 
 others, than to be thus bobbing about and choking 
 the hold with such a dismaying swill of bilge, listen- 
 ing the while to words so ill of omen. Yet in my 
 present view those lads are still waiting yonder, and 
 I would not wonder if they were disappointed out of 
 all reason, for I could see they were mightily taken 
 with the notion of it. I would not like to be the one 
 to explain it to them, lads." 
 
 When he began to speak men were slapping each 
 other on the back and chuckling with mirth; the 
 silence now was portentous. The dusk was deepen- 
 ing fast, and with that and the gloom of their looks 
 they seemed an assembly of Nubians. Not an orator 
 
G O R G O 
 
 443 
 
 lifted his voice: those foundering wrecks were be- 
 fore all eyes, those despairing cries filled all ears, 
 the whisper of angry ghosts was in every heart. At 
 last — 
 
 " Let the senate prepare articles of impeachment," 
 said the president, " and determine the order of 
 trial, under approval of the next assembly. Is this 
 your will? " 
 
 So it was voted, as if with one voice; but for 
 three days nothing further could be done because 
 of the festival season. A dismal festival it proved 
 that year, — yet it was not so to me. 
 
 " It is the Apaturia," I said to Gorgo. " Now, 
 all through Athens, the clans are numbered, and 
 kinsmen greet, and those of the same blood banquet 
 together. Now babes are christened, and every family 
 gathers to salute its own ; and now shall Gorgo be 
 wed, and made the mistress of my house." 
 
 And she said : " I have no kin, Theramnas, nor 
 country, nor anything but you, and am yours 
 altogether. And I bring no other dower, Theram- 
 nas, but all this Gorgo is she gives you utterly, for- 
 ever and forever ; and gladly will she call the gods 
 to witness of that truth in any hour that you would 
 wish her to." 
 
 " We have indeed few kin," I cried, " and worse 
 than none. But neither kin nor lack of kin shall 
 hold me from my joy another day, Gorgo — not 
 for another day, Gorgo." 
 
 And although the city was full of inauspicious 
 
444 G O R G O 
 
 voices, and a sob as of a rising storm was in 
 the streets, I forgot all else but joy and Gorgo. 
 
 No hour could be inauspicious that brought me 
 Gorgo. She came into my house as Aurora floats 
 over the threshold of night, — a rose-glow shining 
 with stars, blushing to brighter radiance, with a 
 sweetness like the morning wind that flows from 
 glens of bedded violets. It is idle to write such 
 words : to others they are meaningless, while to me 
 — no loveliness of earth or sky was worth compari- 
 son. A lover's words? Yes, truly — then and 
 always these words of mine are the words of Gorgo's 
 lover. But extravagant I cannot think them; you 
 who say it have never known Gorgo. 
 
 So the pledges sworn in Sparta were fulfilled in 
 Athens : the Ephors had spoken ; the Royal Archon 
 bit his lip but allowed the record. She was mine — 
 our warring cities both had sanctioned it — my very 
 wife in the sight of gods and men, and none had 
 said me nay. Not Rhyzon — he strove at first to 
 bargain, but when his shifty eyes met mine they 
 shrunk back into his head, and he stammered such 
 words as I bade him. 
 
 It was not a noisy wedding; this was no time 
 for the sounding of flutes. As I could not take her 
 from 1 her father's house, I led her from Athena's 
 temple, where she had prayed, as she alone could 
 pray, and left her bracelet of pearls at the shrine 
 of the goddess. 
 
 " It shall ever be sacred," she said, " and no other 
 shall wear it ; but she that had it was a silly maid, 
 
G O R G O 445 
 
 — and now that I am truly wife of Hagnon's son 
 I would wish that all that is upon me should be 
 from him, Theramnas. You shall be paid no price 
 for taking this Gorgo," she laughed, " but just her- 
 self ; and is it not enough, Theramnas? " 
 
 " It is more than Jove himself possesses," I an- 
 swered her. 
 
 And with that we passed from the dim splendour 
 of the temple into the shining light. 
 
 " Is it not glorious upon this hill ? " she said. " It 
 is now my Athens, Theramnas. You have given 
 me your city, Athenian boy, and Gorgo is no more 
 a banished maid, — the fairest city of the world you 
 have given for a kiss so long ago." 
 
 " I would give for Gorgo the fair world itself," I 
 whispered to her. And as we wended through the 
 sheen of marbles, men with sad, cruel faces paused 
 to gaze, and the hard lines softened a little. Thrasy- 
 bulus walked beside us, and Golas followed. 
 
 " O Golas," she had cried, " can you indeed no 
 more say Gorka ? " 
 
 But he fawned at her feet, and though tongueless 
 uttered her name and worship in every limb. When 
 the long stairway was reached, that led from the city 
 of the gods to the city of men, he would not let her 
 sandal press the common earth, but raised her in his 
 arms and bore her all the distance to our home. 
 We entered ; and Rhyzon, with nothing left of what 
 was Spartan in his aspect, again importunate because 
 he saw me happy, crept toward me from his huddle 
 
446 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 in the corner to plead anew for gold. He clutched 
 me round the knees, but I shook him off. 
 
 "A goatherd's hut upon the mountains, and a 
 single slave," I cried, "and a slave's allowance to 
 you both alike for sustenance. There shall you live 
 or die, and never shall a breath of you come near to 
 Gorgo. King Agis and his troopers will not trouble 
 you, I think — yet care not; should the hoofs of 
 their horses find you it is but an adder crushed. 
 You — you that would have sold your brother's 
 blood into a python's jaws for slimy darics, that 
 you might nurse them in your filth — utter not to 
 me another word of money or of mercy, lest I bid 
 Golas rend you on this floor. May the Pluton of 
 Darkness blast the foul shade within you. It shall 
 haunt the reeking marshes, glooming over the 
 buried gold-pots it may not finger, blighting with 
 curses such as come near." 
 
 He lay prone, yet lifted his head and answered 
 me with frothy imprecations; the Spartan in him 
 was not even then quite dead. I regarded him no 
 more than the sweepings of the ground on which he 
 grovelled, and the servants, dragging him out, made 
 such disposal of him as I had ordered. 
 
 " Indeed, I could almost weep for him," said 
 Gorgo, — " that man will find the poverty so hard 
 to bear. Yet I cannot truly weep for any cause 
 this day, Theramnas; and I am glad at heart that 
 he is gone forever." 
 
XL. 
 
 The Vengeance of the Shades 
 
 CURSE the old baldpate, pull him down ! " 
 " Yea ! yea ! Shall the people be balked 
 of their will ? " 
 
 "A dotard!" 
 
 " Canting hypocrite ! " 
 
 " His devil prompts him — he would rail to us 
 of virtue! " 
 
 " Nay, patience ! He will but tell us of cobblers ! " 
 
 " A foe to the people — ill words always ! " 
 
 " Away with him ! " 
 
 " To the prison ! " 
 
 " Yea — and the hemlock ! " 
 
 " As guilty as they ! " 
 
 "Let him share!" 
 
 " Down with him ! Down ! Down ! We will not 
 be balked!" 
 
 So roared the assembly, with a tumult as when 
 the storm chokes foaming in the narrow strait; 
 but he — he stood on the bema as tranquil as one 
 who views that tumult from the rocky shore. Soc- 
 rates — who else in all Athens could have borne it 
 so? 
 
 447 / 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
450 G O R G O 
 
 let him be included with them," The mob echoed 
 it ; the protesting voices were hushed. 
 
 So Socrates stood forth, — to put the vote, as 
 many thought. " I will do nothing contrary to the 
 law," he said. " This thing is unlawful." 
 
 Then it was that they bellowed with rage, while he 
 gazed upon them without a tremor and without 
 a frown. 
 
 " How dare you defy the people? " raved the 
 demagogue. " How dare you make this stand 
 alone?" 
 
 " I do not stand alone," he answered, in that mild 
 voice which found a path to every ear. " For with 
 me stand those of our ancestors who made these 
 laws, and all the good men who have sworn to keep 
 them, and the gods to whom they swore. Are these 
 I see more numerous than they, Callixenus, or better 
 worth regarding? Is it safer, think you, to defy 
 the gods, if they and the people unhappily should 
 differ? or did you think Callixenus could seem to 
 me so terrible that I would fear him rather than 
 the gods ? " 
 
 While he was speaking I pressed close to the bema ; 
 my faith in the gods, I must own, was less, and my 
 fear of the people greater. " Get about him quickly 
 and bear him back," I said to the senators. " Put 
 the vote yourselves, — what matter of a little further 
 illegality? Take him off before these wolves have 
 set their fangs in him — for they will yelp in vain ; 
 he is worth a score of such as the generals and all 
 the laws of Solon." 
 
G O R G O 451 
 
 It was not a time to be dainty of methods : we 
 gathered about him and dragged him away with 
 gentle force. He sighed, but made no futile resist- 
 ance. 
 
 While we were thus engaged the advocate of the 
 generals got possession of the bema; a cousin of 
 young Pericles was he, and a man of ability. At 
 first he stood silent, for the din was overmastering ; 
 but his aspect was gracious, and he waited patiently 
 until a sudden lull permitted speech. 
 
 " Men of Athens," he began, " we yield to your 
 will; the proposal from the senate shall be put to 
 vote, and we make no further question of illegality." 
 They calmed a little at that. " But hear also my 
 proposal," he continued, " and let both be put to 
 vote together." 
 
 Then he moved an amendment, — that the generals 
 be remanded to the courts to be tried with all the 
 rigour of the ancient law, but each separately, and 
 with regular pleadings. " Let my own cousin be the 
 first," he said. " I ask, not mercy — only justice." 
 They listened ; but I noted that their faces were un- 
 changed. It is not easy to reason with mourners; 
 yet he went on. He blamed the generals severely — 
 blamed them for undue kindness to me. It had 
 seemed hard to accuse a comrade in arms; they 
 had not fully realised the extent of my negligence. 
 It was a moment of confusion; they were flushed 
 with the victory ; they had not dreamed that I would 
 use their clemency to turn the blame on those who 
 sought to spare me. Even now they would not ac- 
 
452 G O R G O 
 
 cuse me harshly. His cousin had pleaded for me; 
 the storm was indeed 'some excuse ; all are not en- 
 dowed with equal courage. He himself, however, 
 felt less compunction ; he would not deny the dead 
 their due. But let no mistake be made; it would 
 be a matter of regret afterward. 
 
 Oh! was it not hard to bear? My heart knotted 
 within me as I listened. Yet he spoke with deep 
 earnestness, and I think believed his words; for all 
 that he knew was from his clients, and one was a 
 kinsman. He warmed as the speech went on. 
 "They who have led your ships to victory," he 
 ended, " whose only fault was excess of zeal and 
 thoughtless kindness to an undeserving friend, — 
 shall such as they perish by treachery in the city they 
 have saved, and not rather be crowned before you 
 as victors ? " 
 
 So spoke the orator to scowling brows, and none 
 of them was smoothed; he spoke, I think, some 
 words too many. Then Callixenus rushed forward 
 to champion the proposal of the senate; he had 
 drawn that document with his own important fingers, 
 and every term in it was dear to him. When he had 
 blustered away the most of his vocabulary, the 
 question was put, — but in a tricky fashion. The 
 people were bewildered ; some voted twice, and some 
 not at all. 
 
 " The amendment for trial before the courts has 
 prevailed," it was announced. 
 
 Again a roar of anger shook the very bema. " The 
 people have been deceived," shrieked Callixenus, 
 
G O R G O 453 
 
 white with rage. Yet no whiter than others — the 
 cry was appalling. " Who dares to cheat the 
 people? " 
 
 The chairman lifted his shaking arms for silence. 
 "There has been some error," he stammered; and 
 the question was stated, anew. 
 
 " Let all who favour trial before the courts raise 
 the right hand." 
 
 A few palms went up, but dropped quickly. 
 
 " And all who favour summary judgment by the 
 people." 
 
 The assembly waved with hands like a marsh full 
 of flags. While the urns were being set I mounted 
 the bema. 
 
 " Citizens," I said, " the mode of trial has been 
 determined; I speak not of that." 
 
 " Aye! " they shouted, " that is decided." 
 
 " But because these men have made me more in- 
 famous than any other who drinks Apollo's light, I 
 must speak." 
 
 " We believe them not, Theramenes," called many 
 voices. " Aye, lad ! Those poor ghosts that are 
 warming their cold shins by Phlegethon shall have 
 sport after all," called another, hoarsely. 
 
 " Peace to those shades : they whisper not of me. 
 Yet I would they might speak — for they too saw 
 me, what I did. You would hear from them the 
 same witness as from those who almost shared their 
 fate, yet owe life to the hand of the coward The- 
 ramenes — whom the generals would spare. But 
 
454 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 their tongues are still : the generals have spoken for 
 them — the generals ! " 
 
 " Nay, lads — I will speak for them if you mind 
 not the omen of ill words." But none laughed. 
 
 " Do you doubt that the generals heard them 
 aright? It was somewhat far to hear. Then hear 
 from me that was upon the spot the voices of the 
 living and the dead — nay, you have heard the liv- 
 ing ; I will speak for the dead alone. ' We lay low 
 in the sea,' they are saying — only you cannot 
 hear — ' and the brine was close to our lips. The 
 last we saw of earth was this Theramenes gathering 
 lives from the swelling waves, — Theramenes and 
 Thrasybulus. We had hoped they would reach us, 
 but they could not ; yet had the rest been like them, 
 not one among us would have slept that night in the 
 salty ooze.' These are the words they speak: I 
 swear it by the gods above, who saw, and by the 
 gods who listen to their murmuring ghosts below. 
 ' But,' they say, ' we saw nothing of Erasinides — 
 nor of Aristocrates — nor of Thrasyllus — nor of 
 any general of them all.' And who among living 
 men will tell you that he was saved by Erasinides ? " 
 I cried, — " by Erasinides, who grieves that The- 
 ramenes performed his unbidden task so ill, and 
 with one ship saved so few ! " 
 
 The deep-drawn breath of many throats was the 
 only sound. 
 
 " Yet they also offer you witnesses — their own 
 pilots! Their pilots, who with pallid faces tell you 
 the storm was too terrible for the saving of lives, . 
 
G O R G O 
 
 455 
 
 and with the next breath blame two ships for leaving 
 any unrescued ! ' We saw not these, either,' say 
 the dead. ' They were on the shore, with their 
 generals, while we were sinking.' And so say the 
 living, who found them there, drinking while com- 
 rades drowned. But the pilots think me at fault: 
 now as then, they are with the generals." 
 
 The voting-urns were already placed, but none 
 stirred. 
 
 " Will you, then, hear more? I grieve to say 
 more, for their advocate tells me they are my friends 
 — ■ and what they would have done had they been 
 enemies I fear to think. This is the climax of their 
 friendship. They say — these good friends of mine 
 and yours, whose brows should be wreathed for the 
 victory won by the dead — they say that they gave 
 me ships, and strict orders, and ample powers, these 
 men whose only fault is generosity! But when? 
 The dead, perhaps, do not know of that, but the 
 living will tell you. It was when I had left the 
 sea voiceless, and the storm had done its worst. 
 Then they called me before them, still wet, and 
 weary with the toil of saving. ' The very man,' 
 said my good friend Erasinides ; ' he has chosen the 
 task — let him have it.' Then it was that they is- 
 sued those undated orders, and offered ships with 
 a scoff, and planned a letter. Was it grace to me 
 that they flinched in the writing of it? Do I owe 
 them thanks that they faltered in their lies? 
 
 " Now go to the urns : yet remember this, that 
 they stand confessed. If I am guilty and they 
 
456 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 sought to shield me, they are traitors ; if they alone 
 are guilty, and sought by lies to you to impute their 
 guilt and shame to others, they are doubly traitors. 
 Go now to the urns, with the eyes of those you 
 cannot see upon you, and cast your ballots as you 
 will." 
 
 They voted in silence; a hush was upon them, 
 as of those that listen. Few there were who passed 
 on to the second urn. 
 
XLI. 
 
 A Last Talk with Socrates 
 
 A FEW days after this I had my last long 
 talk with Socrates. We spent, indeed, many 
 hours together, walking through shattered 
 sunshine and quivering shadow under the Academic 
 olives, whither I had lured him. Only for him 
 would I have lingered so long away from Gorgo; 
 but I loved him second to her alone, and the hum 
 of bees and the leafy fragrance were like childhood 
 to me, and sweet to my soul. Yet the tombs of the 
 Ceramicus, through which we had passed on our 
 way, had started our train of thought. The generals 
 will not be buried here, I had said in my heart ; and 
 to him — 
 
 " You blame me, Socrates, I know. And to me 
 what you did seems folly. We cannot agree in 
 this." 
 
 " We have never agreed in this," he said. And 
 our thoughts flew far back through lapsing years. 
 " You hold, like other men, that taking life is bet- 
 ter than to lose it ; so it seemed to the little son of 
 Hagnon when I bore him in my arms between those 
 walls, and so it seems to you to-day beneath this 
 grove: but to me it has never seemed so." 
 
 457 
 
458 G O R G O 
 
 " You blame me, Socrates. Because of Antiphon 
 and the generals, you think me murderous. That 
 Syrian, too, I have slain." 
 
 " The Syrian ! " He seemed startled. " Had that 
 evil thing been spared so long? I will not judge 
 between you and the Syrian, for his life was forfeit 
 by the laws of gods and men, and a bane to others 
 while it lasted. Nor do I think you murderous, 
 Theramenes, nor even cruel ; you love not blood nor 
 injustice. But ruthless of the lives that cross your 
 deeper purposes I fear you are. Beware, lest you 
 find it too easy to kill, and too hard to bring back 
 to life." 
 
 " How else can any play at games with living 
 pieces," I cried, " or hope to win in politics or war? 
 But you, too, Socrates, were ruthless, both with 
 the people and to yourself." 
 
 " Yes," he said, smiling, " and ruthless to the 
 generals most of all ; for if the truth must be con- 
 fessed, I thought them worthy of a harsher fate. 
 It was a great good fortune for the generals to 
 owe their death to lawlessness and rage; they died 
 the martyrs of a broken law who should have paid 
 its penalty. But so injustice frustrates its own 
 intent: the unjust death they died will be remem- 
 bered, and the justice of the death they should have 
 died will be forgotten. I would have been more 
 severe with the generals; I would even have sen- 
 tenced them to live on in their infamy. But you 
 joined with the rest in slaying them and doing them 
 honour." 
 
G O R G O 459 
 
 " Indeed, Socrates," I said, " your views are not 
 practical. Such manners as you teach might be 
 good in that good age called the golden, but are 
 ill suited to this evil time in which we live. For 
 my own part, when I am struck I must strike back, 
 as best I may with tongue or steel, even as my 
 ancestors have done before me." 
 
 "And did your ancestors do no wrong?" he 
 asked, — " so that for you it is enough to be like 
 them." 
 
 " Truly, Simonides was right," I cried. " It is 
 not possible for any man not to do evil." 
 
 " In politics, at least," said Socrates, " and if he 
 values life more than right." 
 
 "To be squared in every angle like the builder's 
 marble is not human," I persisted. " I will not 
 give my life to an idle ideal." 
 
 " You will give your life for Athens, Theram- 
 enes," he said very gently. " Your soul is truer 
 than your tongue — and this I have told you be- 
 fore." 
 
 "The end," I asked, — "is it now so near?" 
 And my heart was suddenly sad. 
 
 " I think it is not far away," he answered. 
 
 " Oh, Socrates ! " I exclaimed, earnestly, " I have 
 found her — Gorgo, whom the voice promised me. 
 She is now my own, my wife — and you tell me that 
 the end of all is near." 
 
 " Did you not find her," he said, " in the path 
 of duty? Still keep in the path of duty, and all 
 shall be well with you at last." 
 
4 6o G O R G O 
 
 " But Gorgo? I care nothing for the rest with- 
 out Gorgo." 
 
 " Though you should lose your Gorgo for a sea- 
 son, if that be true and of the soul itself which 
 binds you in one, the great circle of time will bring 
 her back to you." 
 
 " You believe it, Socrates? I shall see her again 
 — after death?" 
 
 " I believe it," he answered. 
 
 But I pondered upon my doom as the voice had 
 once spoken it — my doom, that was now so near — 
 and of all those weary cycles of waiting, and of 
 the brand of infamy upon my name. And my heart 
 wept within me, and my soul rebelled. 
 
 " Tell me, Socrates," I demanded, " can any man 
 do otherwise than as it is fated?" 
 
 " If he could," he answered, " it would not be 
 fated." 
 
 " Then," I said, " we but act our parts, and our 
 lives are but a tragedy written by fate; we but 
 seem to be punished, like the tyrant of a play, for 
 crimes that we feign to commit because it is so 
 written down for us. There is neither good nor 
 evil, nor joy nor pain, but only fate and feigning. 
 It is all a delusion that we truly do or suffer any- 
 thing, and Apteryx was right, and the gods are 
 useless." 
 
 Then he said, " You have been in Syracuse, The- 
 ramenes." 
 
 " It was fated so, I suppose: I could not choose." 
 
G O R G O 461 
 
 " And you have doubtless heard of Arethusa, 
 who from a maid became a fountain, as they say." 
 
 " I have heard the tale: what of that? " 
 
 " I am old, and perhaps grow dreamy and fanci- 
 ful. But let us suppose a strange thing. Let us 
 fancy Theramenes changed in that same fashion to 
 a fountain, yet still alive and conscious of his course, 
 and then consider how it would seem to him." 
 
 " It is, indeed, a strange fancy, Socrates. But 
 we will suppose it so." 
 
 " Suppose, then, you were the spirit of yonder 
 fountain. Would you not leap up with joy because 
 of some power within you that prompted you to 
 leap, so that it would be your choice to leap in 
 the sun ? " 
 
 " It would seem so." 
 
 " And when you had leaped to your limit of 
 strength, you would fall back, like one weary, and 
 wish to rest in the quiet of the pool." 
 
 " I suppose so, Socrates." 
 
 " And in doing this you would act according to 
 your nature, as being a fountain, and nothing ex- 
 cept your own nature and the force within you 
 would compel you to it ; yet you could not do other- 
 wise." 
 
 " So it seems, in truth." 
 
 " And now observe the little rivulet that flows 
 from the fountain, and let your spirit flow within 
 it. Does it not say to itself, ' I will here run swift 
 and straight, because the slope is plain and easy,' 
 and does it not in this obey its own impulse and 
 
462 G O R G O 
 
 do its pleasure? But yonder it hesitates before a 
 rock, and ponders on which side to pass, and pres- 
 ently chooses the easier way because its mood is 
 soft and yielding; yet in another place, because it 
 is there more full of energy, it does not pause or 
 turn at all, but rushes upon the stones and breaks 
 over them. And both times, being alive, it would 
 think, ' I do my will, as nearly as my strength and 
 the rocks and the ground permit ; ' yet all the while, 
 how could it do otherwise, being what it is? And 
 so might not one who knew well its nature, and the 
 ground over which it must flow, know also what 
 course it would take, yet constrain it in nothing? " 
 
 " And is it so, Socrates, that the gods foresee 
 our fate, and even warn us with voices, yet have 
 not ordained it thus nor doomed us to that fate? " 
 
 " Can you doubt it, Theramenes ? Is not all that 
 is true of the spirit of the stream true also of the 
 soul that is within you? That, too, obeys its im- 
 pulse and does its will according to its strength, 
 and ever chooses its course according to> its nature, 
 yet being what it is cannot do otherwise than as it 
 does. For to do otherwise would be to violate its 
 own nature, and no longer to do its will. So, and 
 so only, the soul is subject to fate." 
 
 " Then," I said, " how can any give help or guid- 
 ance to another? " 
 
 " It would be little use," he answered, " if the 
 soul were forced. Yet another might well remove 
 obstacles, and clear the path and make it straight, 
 so that the rivulet will choose to follow it; and 
 
G O R G O 463 
 
 by adding to its waters he might swell the stream 
 and give it greater strength; or he might hinder 
 and choke it with sand or mud, as some make foul 
 the souls of others." 
 
 "Yet once — do you not remember, Socrates? 
 — you told me that no other could truly harm the 
 soul that in itself is good and pure." 
 
 " The waters of the soul may ever run clear and 
 sweet again," he said, " despite all the mud that 
 can be cast upon them, unless their own nature is 
 brackish and bitter, like the soul of Apteryx, as I 
 fear. A soul like his indeed lives in a world of phan- 
 toms, but all its delusions are in itself and not in 
 the things that are. Such a man as Apteryx walks 
 amid realities yet lives in dreams — ill dreams — 
 and his soul can never be awakened till the body 
 sleeps. I grieve for Apteryx." 
 
 " But the gods ? What of them, Socrates ? " 
 
 " Do you think, Theramenes, that in your body 
 there is a soul, which alone gives it life and keeps 
 it from dissolution, but that in all this universe, 
 so instinct with life and full of the shapings of 
 thought, there is no soul to dwell in it and make 
 use of all its forms as the soul within you uses the 
 body? Do you not know that without the soul, 
 which animates its every part, and which men call 
 God by many names, this strange and splendid uni- 
 verse would speedily dissolve into the mindless chaos 
 of its elements, even as the body falls to formless 
 dust when the soul has left it? " And as he spoke 
 these words, it seemed to me as if that very spirit 
 
464 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 were speaking by his lips. None other but Socrates, 
 of all I ever knew, could have spoken so. 
 
 " Do you think," he went on, " that your eye can 
 see to the limits of heaven, and your thoughts can 
 leap in an instant from Syracuse to Babylon or 
 from deep Tartarus to high Olympus, and yet that 
 the eye of God cannot see all in a single glance, 
 and his mind know all that is or was or ever shall 
 be? Know, too, that he lifts the souls of men, as 
 many as will look upon him, as the sun draws up 
 the waters from the earth; and that which rises 
 thus is but their purest essence, for the slime and the 
 salt and the bitterness are all left behind. Even 
 the soul of that unhappy Apteryx, when the evil 
 body that cases it has fallen away, may see this light 
 that shines down from heaven, and at last be sweet- 
 ened in its rays." 
 
 And so, all day, we talked of these and other 
 things, with the cry of the birds above us and the 
 spraying of the fountain spreading its whisper 
 around us. It was late, and the firmament hung 
 low with stars, when I went back to home and 
 Gorgo. And she met me jewelled like the drooping 
 sky. 
 
XLII. 
 
 A Sigh of the Wind 
 
 FOR Gorgo might wear her jewels now, — " all 
 of them, all day, and all the days," with none to 
 hinder. She arrayed herself in these, and 
 draped her loveliness in shimmering robes and filmy 
 tissues, with a bubble of girlish mirth and a joyous 
 eagerness, as of one who had long desired such out- 
 ward symbols of her beauty, and claimed them' as 
 her heritage, but had long been denied. 
 
 On the morning after our wedding I had poured 
 my mother's jewels in her lap; also those others of 
 newer fashion which I had made ready against her 
 coming, — for in the end I had not cast them in 
 the sea. 
 
 " And indeed, it is well that you did not do that 
 thing," she cried, when I told her. " Are they not 
 the most beautiful, — even beyond those of Ionia, 
 with which I angered — oh, Theramnas — : those 
 old men in Sparta ! " And we both laughed merrily 
 over the memory of that, for Sparta and its joyless 
 gloom seemed far away. 
 
 " But how dared you, Gorgo?" 
 
 " They were mine, Theramnas, from my mother, 
 465 
 
4 66 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 — my own mother's jewels; and I, too, had always 
 worn them, from a little girl. They teach that van- 
 ity very early in Ionia — for I know, Theramnas, 
 you think me vain; but truly, that is the better 
 way, if one is pretty and meant for jewels, and noth- 
 ing comes of waiting but the loss of beautiful days." 
 And a trace of the old defiance rang in her tone. 
 
 " Do you think me an Ephor of Sparta, Gorgo? 
 For my own part, I think it as right for a woman 
 to be vain as for a man to love her for it; and 
 surely you know that I love Gorgo from her dim- 
 pled ear to the toe that peeps from her sandal, — 
 and jewels, too, for her sake." 
 
 " Do you truly love me so," she said, demurely, 
 " and even the vanities for which I have been re- 
 proved? " 
 
 " Did ever Jove himself blame Hera for her van- 
 ity," I cried, " and not rather find his sombre spirit 
 brightened by it? And who but Gorgo wastes the 
 shining hours, with a lap full of jewels ? " 
 
 " Now that is very rightly said. And since you 
 have spoken so of Jove, I will indeed array myself 
 like Hera; and you shall love me the more, The- 
 ramnas, and be more faithful than Jove." 
 
 I laughed at the deftness of her swift, adorning 
 fingers. " Gorgo! Gorgo! How ever could I love 
 you the more or the less for jewels? Yet I like that 
 you love them." 
 
 "And how could I not? But surely, boy, you 
 like me the better so? " She turned toward me an 
 ear that blushed as red as coral as it trembled with 
 
GORGO 467 
 
 its jewel. " See," she said, " I have missed those 
 most of all; I am glad you remembered. They 
 say that all the Athenian women wear them, and I 
 would seem strange without those." 
 
 " O Goddess Gorka, you will ever seem strange, 
 for none is like you. Yet jewels are but the lamps 
 of beauty, Gorgo; they illumine, but they cannot 
 make it. They illumine ugliness no less ; they can- 
 not change it." 
 
 " Then," quoth she, tossing her head till the new- 
 found jewels, necklace and circles and coronet, 
 danced about her laughing face, " this Gorgo may 
 surely have her sparkling lamps, — and she was 
 right to defy the Ephors. Indeed I am vain, The- 
 ramnas, like Hera, and if I were not very, very sure, 
 perhaps I might be jealous, like her, too; but not 
 proud, nor ever solemn, like that goddess " — and 
 she laughed out, for mere gladness. 
 
 Then she made as if she would leave me, but 
 turned suddenly and stood before me like the starry 
 sky-queen in very truth, from Jove's own house. 
 "See!" she cried. "Is it not this Gorgo's right 
 to wear jewels? " And Lycurgus himself could not 
 have denied it to her in that hour. 
 
 " Golas could never have held that arrow strained 
 against my heart so long if he had seen me thus," 
 she exclaimed, triumphantly. And then, as if by 
 some swift magic, the abashing goddess was gone, 
 and Gorgo, sweet and humble, sat upon my knee, 
 an arm about my neck, a light hand caressing my 
 chin. 
 
4 68 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 "You great, slow-witted, sighing Jove," she 
 whispered, " is it not all for you, even if I were 
 that very Hera ? Nor need you look at me with such 
 a face of prayer, Theramnas : it is yours to love 
 this Gorgo, and keep her always, — it is not for you 
 to worship Gorka, like Golas. Poor Golas — that 
 is still Gorka's helot, yet never can speak those 
 words again ! But he has a comfort now ; I think 
 he would laugh aloud in some strange fashion if he 
 could. Have you seen him with his new bow, The- 
 ramnas? It is finished, and he smiles upon it and 
 strokes it like some wild thing that licks its cub. 
 You would scarcely know that bow from the old." 
 
 I had been to much trouble, seeking a bow for 
 Golas. I had laid before him the best that could 
 be bought, but they snapped in his hands like rushes ; 
 he flung down the fragments and looked at me 
 dumbly. We were both near despair, when there 
 came in one day a shipload of arms, gathered from 
 some far-off battle-field, — strange pieces of ar- 
 mour, mildewed and dinted, shields leaf-shaped and 
 made of hairy hides, curved swords with hacked 
 edges, bent spear-heads with only splinters cling- 
 ing in the socket, and pikes six cubits long but 
 headless. Upon one of these Golas pounced eagerly ; 
 he grinned with joy and kissed the wood. 
 
 " Why do you thus bring splinters and fagots 
 across the sea? " I asked of the trader. 
 
 " I know not," he answered. " These were flung 
 on with the rest — an ill bargain. Your slave is 
 
G O R G G 469 
 
 perhaps of that country, and the wood brings back 
 memories." 
 
 " It may be — and for my slave I will take the 
 stick at an obol. Trimmed, it will serve as a staff." 
 
 He scanned me curiously. " Two obols," he said, 
 " since it has come so far." 
 
 We bore it home; I could scarcely keep back 
 Golas from running. For days he sat in his lodge 
 scraping with flints; and when he had done, and 
 a cord of hard-twisted gut was upon it, the new 
 bow rang and sprung like the old. Then Golas, 
 I think, forgot that he had no> tongue. 
 
 I, too, rejoiced, for Golas with his bow was a 
 good companion in those days. I had many enemies 
 now, and they were such as have few scruples. 
 They had even got the upper hand in the senate, 
 and when the people elected me to the new board 
 of generals, the senators debarred me from office 
 on I know not what charges. I cared little — not 
 enough to make an answer; it was not my wish to 
 leave Athens. How often since have I thanked the 
 gods for this malice of my foes! The great crime 
 of the Hellespont, at least, none can charge against 
 me. And I could not have prevented it; had I 
 sailed I should have been outvoted and helpless 
 amid those traitors. I was spared — by those who 
 hated me. 
 
 But Golas, with bow and quiver, always followed 
 when I walked abroad with Gorgo. For we often 
 walked together, though many stared. I would not 
 keep her shut in dusky rooms like other wives ; she 
 
470 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 should not weave and spin away the precious hours 
 that still were left us, — a companion of slaves 
 and a plyer of the weary shuttle. She loved the 
 light, and no custom should bar her from it. 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried, one day, as we were passing 
 through the market, "it is she; it is that very 
 woman. I have seen her so often in dreams." She 
 herself had stopped abruptly. 
 
 My look went after hers, and I saw — Myrinna. 
 Yet it was not the Myrinna that I remembered. 
 She stood in the open square with a group of youths 
 about her, — a mad light in her eyes, and on her 
 face the hard, ugly smile of a woman who has made 
 her last bargain with the powers of evil, as she 
 glanced from Gorgo to me. Even Thrasybulus 
 could not have loved her thus. 
 
 " It is she — I have seen her in dreams," re- 
 peated Gorgo. " But I think now it does not matter 
 of her in the least, Theramnas." And she held fast 
 to my arm. 
 
 Golas, ever watchful of his Gorka, had strained 
 the bow, and his eyes questioned us. 
 
 " Nay, Golas," I said, " slack the string. Though 
 it indeed looks venomous, that thing yonder is quite 
 harmless now." 
 
 For so I thought — perhaps with some excess 
 of confidence, except as Socrates might have spoken 
 the words, with a meaning deeper than mine. Such 
 as Myrinna are never harmless long ; yet their hate 
 is better than their love, — though the two, in truth, 
 are one. But with Gorgo clinging thus upon my 
 
G O R G O 
 
 47i 
 
 arm, Myrinna was less than the flitting shadow of 
 a cloud. 
 
 So passed the days and the months; almost a 
 year had passed, — the happiest of all I ever knew 
 in Athens. The rains of winter had only brought 
 us flowers; the spring had brought the song of 
 birds; the season of harvest was near. 
 
 It was evening ; I sat with Gorgo under the vines 
 of the inner court, with only these and the stars 
 above us, for the night was warm. 
 
 " Do you remember," I was saying, " the warning 
 that once you spoke in Sparta, — r when you told me 
 that if ever you should come to> dwell in Athens the 
 city would not long be free? Yet I was not 
 affrighted, Gorgo, — and you are here, and Athens 
 still is free, and even Lysander flees before her 
 fleet." 
 
 " Is that Lysander again in Ionia ? " she asked, 
 with a jar of the voice as when a silver goblet is set 
 hard on the board. 
 
 " Yes — or rather he has now fled up the Helles- 
 pont, where he lies close, beneath protecting walls. 
 They call Aracus admiral, but Lysander rules all." 
 
 " He would indeed rule all," she answered. 
 
 " Listen ! " I cried. " Surely a storm is rising. 
 It is pleasant here, but we must now go to our 
 chambers. The hour is late; it is time to slumber." 
 
 The night-wind was blowing softly up from the 
 sea, but it came with a moan that neither sea nor 
 wind could utter, — low, uncertain, ebbing away to 
 
472 G O R G O 
 
 nothing in the ear, still sounding in the heart. It 
 seemed an echo of my earliest memories. 
 
 " It is like the voice of the plague. Gorgo ! it 
 is like the sound I heard, in this very place, when 
 I was but a child and Athens mourned her dead." 
 
 "It is like those voices of boding, Theramnas, 
 which sometimes the gods make to sound in the 
 sky. Oh, what can it mean — it seems so sad, The- 
 ramnas? " 
 
 Again it filled the air, swelling louder now, yet 
 wavering with the breeze that wafted it. 
 
 " Gorgo, it is from the port — some tidings — " 
 
 "Tidings! Like that!" 
 
 And even while we spoke it grew, — a mounting 
 cry of many voices, melted by distance into one 
 continuous wail. It came toward us like the noise 
 of sudden rain ; it moaned through the Long Walls ; 
 it resounded within the gates. Doors clashed; the 
 streets about us were full of footsteps and calling. 
 Then from a dirge it rang out articulate: 
 
 " Lysander has taken the fleet ; the war is ended ; 
 Athens is lost." 
 
XLIII. 
 
 My Promise to Gorgo 
 
 AD, it was just sheer treachery in my view 
 of it." 
 
 Meletus had steered in the Pwralus, which 
 brought the news; it had come alone. He stood 
 before me absolutely sober, his great face blanched 
 and traces of tears upon it ; his state was so unnat- 
 ural that I gave him wine at once. He drank, but 
 with little zest. 
 
 " Rank treason and sheer misdirection, lad," he 
 continued, after a heavy gulp at the flagon 1 . " That 
 man-eating Lysander — and may he drink of Phleg- 
 ethon — had all the gold of Sardis in his pouch ; 
 and with the cursed missteering of the villainy you 
 call politics at home it was enough. The city is 
 merely wrecked for lack of a sufficient pilot of those 
 tubby little voting-urns. Why did you not lay hold 
 of the sweeps, lad ? " 
 
 I could have given many reasons ; but I thought 
 of the reason — and was angry with myself and 
 her. For the moment Athens was all; my heart 
 had room for nothing else; Gorgo seemed Spartan 
 and a snare. 
 
 473 
 
474 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 " Lad," he went on, gloomily, " we had the ad- 
 vantage of ships; and he gathered us up like an 
 armful of oars. , We lay facing — the channel was 
 not above a fifteen stades, I would say — he with 
 wine and com behind, and we on a bare beach. He 
 would not come out and fight, mind you; he was 
 afraid, in our conceit of it. So, while we were 
 mostly abroad gathering in the rations, he bethought 
 himself to> come across and take us. He came with 
 a terrifying suddenness of action, lad, and I would 
 surmise he had been watching ; of nine score ships, 
 but ten of us were manned." 
 
 " Then all is at an end, Meletus. The last gold 
 is gone; temples and houses are empty. No more 
 keels will be laid; if they were, there are few left 
 fit to man the benches. But did none in all the fleet 
 cry out against this recklessness?" 
 
 " Well, lad, it might be there was more or less 
 speech of the fire-fork and other matters by one 
 observant of the rules of the craft. And that Alci- 
 biades — whom I would deem a very adequate com- 
 mander, were it not that his wine excites him out of 
 measure — he came down from his fortress to give 
 them good words; but they cast back at him with 
 unseaworthy fruit and ill answers. Conon, too, 
 upbraided with them and held himself ready — he 
 alone. But I thought him ova-timorous." 
 
 " Timorous ! how ? " 
 
 " Well, I would not speak hardly of him. As 
 we fled — the ten of us — we passed the beach 
 where their sea-sails lay drying; and he, being well 
 
G O R G O 475 
 
 counselled, put to shore and took them off, which 
 was the better for our chances, though not without 
 risk. There were near two> hundred ships behind, 
 lad, and they might well spare us a sufficient squad- 
 ron for some annoyance. But when I pressed that 
 young man to turn back against them he would 
 not. Yet I told him plainly it was our only hope. 
 ' Mark you,' I said to him, ' we have only to sink of 
 them, say ten each, and we shall then fight them 
 with some chance of winning.' But he would not, 
 and made off hastily for Cyprus — which I account 
 in a manner timid, yet blame him not. There was 
 scant prospect in it, lad, and it may be I was vexed 
 out of all soberness of judgment." 
 
 He had grown almost cheerful as he spoke of 
 this, but the glum look returned. " You are right, 
 lad. This is the end of it. We are caged : they will 
 presently block us by sea and land; the matter of 
 bread will soon settle it. We shall eat but little, and 
 at the end wash it down with a draught of Styx; 
 but by the Son of Jove's Thunder, I will drink the 
 wine while I may." And the flask went empty. 
 
 So Lysander came — without haste — driving in 
 upon us the fugitives from every quarter to make 
 our hunger the more. The sea was shut, and half 
 the ships that hung upon our coast had been our 
 own; Agis marched down from the hills and 
 watched our wall. At first our mood was wolfish; 
 we would listen to no terms ; we rent such as dared 
 suggest surrender. 
 
 " I myself felt within me something of that val- 
 
476 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 iancy while the jars were full," remarked Meletus, 
 " but this moderate diet of beans dealt out by count 
 promotes moderation in thinking." 
 
 At length, when the time seemed ripe, I went 
 before the people. " Send me to Lysander," I said, 
 " with power to treat." Then, as some began to 
 threaten — " You shall not be slain nor sold ; you 
 shall have peace and bread. Even the walls I hope 
 to save. I know the Spartan and have a plan." 
 
 " The plan — tell us the plan," demanded many. 
 
 " Did Lysander tell his plan on the Hellespont? " 
 I retorted, hardily. " To deal with him I must be 
 as free of hand." 
 
 They shouted with anger; the very mention of 
 the Hellespont maddened them. 
 
 " If I tell my plan I have no plan," I insisted. 
 " Do you think there are no traitors here ? Do' you 
 not know that all is heard in yonder camp? It is 
 yours to choose; but unless you trust me wholly 
 I can do nothing." 
 
 "Is it not Theramenes?" called voices. "The 
 shrewdest planner in Athens! Who else can out- 
 plot the plotters? A true friend of the people! 
 He will save the walls." 
 
 " Do I not leave hostages among you ? " I cried. 
 
 " Aye! " they answered; for all Athens knew of 
 Gorgo. " Aye ! you shall go unquestioned. You 
 shall save the walls. We will trust Theramenes." 
 And though many still protested, I was sent — to 
 Lysander. With Athens in my hand I went before 
 Lysander, — and in that Athens was Gorgo. 
 
G O R G O 477 
 
 I had left her with Golas and Meletus ; these, at 
 least, I could trust, and I made all possible provision. 
 She cared little for jewels now; she had found 
 better. Despite the terror of the time she was very 
 happy, for I left her cooing soft Dorian lullabies 
 over our new-bonn babe. I had left hostages in- 
 deed. 
 
 So I made my way through the lines with flag 
 and trumpet, and stood in the presence of Lysander. 
 I found, not him I remembered, but a seasoned chief- 
 tain, hard and fierce, with more than Medish craft 
 and more than Spartan arrogance. A man to whom 
 cities were but counters on a draught-board, crime 
 but a move in the game, slaughter but the lifting 
 off of pieces ; a man who had made a Persian prince 
 his instrument and lavished revenues toi buy his 
 ends; an associate of the worst in Hellas, who 
 feared him and did his bidding as worse than they. 
 Greater than Sparta he deemed himself, and so he 
 seemed to others. My heart sunk ; my plans crum- 
 bled to powder. To him I must plead for Athens 
 — and for Gorgo. 
 
 Yet he met me with a measure of contemptuous 
 friendliness. " So it suits me," he said. " You are 
 the man of them all whom I would have come before 
 me thus." He laughed harshly. " It soothes a 
 slight stinging of the brow to see you bending, 
 Athenian. But come — I owe you thanks. To you 
 I paid fortune's forfeit — to you flung one worthless 
 bloom from a garden of weeds, — and all Hellas 
 quails before Lysander." 
 
478 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 He frowned so savagely that I blenched, yet saw 
 at once that his mood was merely playful — for 
 Lysander. I told my mission; I laid before him 
 my plans with all my art ; I begged hard for Gorgo 
 and Athens. 
 
 " Weary me with no more words of the girl," 
 he said, roughly. " That folly you plucked from 
 my path, and I wish you joy of it; the rest is 
 your own affair. Your city is mine. You have 
 paid a good price for your Gorgo." His eyes 
 blazed, and he sneered a smile. " As for your peo- 
 ple, save them, or some of them, if they will let 
 you; I care not. The change of government you 
 propose, in my interest as you say, is not yours to 
 offer but mine to dictate. Still, the scheme seems 
 well devised and suits my purpose; you shall be 
 my agent if you will do my bidding, and make what 
 you may of it. But the walls go flat ; I have sworn 
 it to fortune and vowed it to vengeance." 
 
 I entreated him; I almost clasped his knees. He 
 triumphed for a moment to see me so humbled, then 
 grew impatient. " Spare me the walls," I prayed 
 him, " spare me the walls, Lysander," as if he had 
 been an angry god. " The rest we may compass by 
 management, but unless the walls are spared I can- 
 not bring the people to submit. They will defy you 
 to the last." 
 
 " What is that to me? " he answered, coldly. 
 " My men are eager for the pillage; you know 
 what comes when a city falls by assault. It is your 
 own affair." 
 
G O R G O 479 
 
 And still I persisted, for I saw no other hope. 
 " They are mad ; they will sooner die than yield 
 the walls. And how will massacre serve your own 
 ends, Lysander ? You will have but a ruin of scat- 
 tered stone, where you might have held a subject 
 city." 
 
 " Gods of the black House of Hades ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " how dare you set your will against Ly- 
 sander thus ? Do you think I put to the knife three 
 thousand of your captive citizens upon the Helles- 
 pont, to scruple over the rest ? And yet — the blood 
 spilled yonder is enough. Hear me — this is the 
 utmost, and no other from Athens should have had 
 so much. The wall of your Upper Town I spare 
 you, so it be held for Lysander. That about Piraeus 
 falls, and of the part between ten stades. Did you 
 think I would leave you ports and walls, like spear 
 and shield, to turn against me? Urge me further 
 and I will drive this iron through your body. I 
 have spoken." 
 
 I knew well that the limit was reached: to ask 
 more was to lose all. When he saw me acceding, 
 his frown relaxed ; yet he went on with cruel words : 
 
 " Remember, if you let it come to storm and 
 massacre, your Gorgo will fare like others. But 
 observe, I would not have you lose her, lest the luck 
 turn. So use your cleverness; keep your country- 
 men from running upon my pike-heads, for then 
 nothing can save them. I will give you a hint. 
 Leave your madmen to their diet for a season ; an 
 empty stomach soon purges madness. Linger here 
 
480 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 for a change of the moon; or stay by Lysander's 
 detention — it will sound the better in Athens. See, 
 I would serve you, now that you bend to my will." 
 
 So I waited — I had little choice — through days 
 of anguish to me and the city I sought to save. 
 " Not yet," the hard Spartan said each morning. 
 And Gorgo? I was in torment. At last Meletus 
 came to me. 
 
 " How and why have you come? " I demanded. 
 " Tell me of Gorgo." 
 
 But his answer seemed evasive. " Well, lad, I 
 thought you might be wishing news from' within." 
 
 " Speak it out quickly." 
 
 " I came a rough course, mind you ; it was like 
 the bringing in of those horses through the surf. 
 At the first these lads here were for sending me back 
 to help on the famine; but when I had told them 
 it was I who sunk that Ariston and their Hermon, 
 and that you, to whom I came, had done them 
 damage scarcely less notable, then they let me pass. 
 They admired me, lad, and you too were lifted 
 in their estimation. They are more receptive than 
 I would have surmised, being Spartan." 
 
 " Meletus, I am bound on the wheel." 
 
 " We are all on the wheel, mark you, and our 
 joints are cracking. Doubtless you know your own 
 courses, lad, but I would call it a slow navigation. 
 I am sick with the tales I hear — sick, lad : I mean 
 Meletus. I mind not that some ate of rats by the 
 dock, — I myself have eaten of those vermin in 
 cases of wreckage. But have you heard of him that 
 
G O R G O 481 
 
 ate — god's fire- fork, lad, I would leave the relish 
 of it to old Cronus, and such as have divinity to 
 excuse it. Or of him who drew blood from his 
 wrist to convey it to his stomach? Why can they 
 not starve quietly, and have done? " 
 
 " But Gorgo? She is more to me than thousands. 
 The rest are but beasts, with teeth and a maw." 
 
 " Little use of either, lad, unless for discomfort. 
 Yet if it were mine to lay the courses, I would go 
 to that Gorgo. She has need of you, I would say ; 
 for since that little baby died — " 
 
 " My baby ! dead ! " 
 
 " She does little else but weep and call upon you. 
 It is not the lack of bread, mind you. That Golas 
 is more persuasive than any with tongues ; few can 
 argue with him. Yet he lays before her in vain 
 the bread that others die for; she but weeps and 
 calls, and there is the whole of it." 
 
 Lysander was conferring with certain of our ex- 
 iles when I burst in upon them. Critias sat beside 
 him, and the wine was flowing. 
 
 " I will wait no longer," I cried, — " not one 
 hour." 
 
 The Spartan looked up with a flush, but broke 
 into a laugh. " Go," he said. " It is time by what 
 I hear. They will listen now." 
 
 " Yes, Theramenes," put in Critias, " this is your 
 part of it. You must persuade them, or we shall 
 rule no city. I cannot smooth my tongue to such 
 practices; I am no hypocrite." 
 
482 G O R G O 
 
 " No," I said, " not even a hypocrite." And I 
 left them. 
 
 As I passed through the city, lean creatures 
 fawned upon me. " Is it peace? " they said. " Is 
 it peace? " But I looked neither right nor left, nor 
 answered, pressing on through all till I reached my 
 home. 
 
 " Oh, Theramnas ! " And whether her voice was 
 the more sad or glad is beyond my telling. " The- 
 ramnas, do you yet know?" It was a sob, but 
 sobbed with love no less than grief. 
 
 " I know." My eyes were dry, for tears were not 
 worth the shedding. 
 
 She lay on our wedding couch; she was pale, 
 as I never had seen her. She was not white like 
 the snow, for that is cold; she was white like a 
 sunlit cloud in heaven, — and somehow seemed as 
 far away. 
 
 " O boy," she whispered — and we were boy and 
 girl again, yet only for a moment — " you cannot 
 yet know all, I think." And my heart stopped. 
 
 " For now I cannot stay — O boy, I cannot stay 
 here any longer. And it is so sweet to be with you, 
 boy ; and I thought it would be for so long, — and 
 I cannot stay.*' 
 
 " Gorgo ! " I cried — in what voice I know not 
 — " you cannot leave me, Gorgo ! You are mine, 
 my own, to the end of time." 
 
 " Yes, yours," she murmured, " for always, and 
 wherever this Gorgo may be. But I am going, 
 somewhere, into the darkness ; I would love to stay, 
 
G O R G O 483 
 
 boy, and comfort you, but I cannot. And I don't 
 know where I am going, Theramnas — O boy, I 
 don't know — I don't know at all, nor what will 
 become of me, except that I will surely find my 
 baby — our own little baby, Theramnas. For he 
 needs his mother more than anything else — he 
 will cry, and I shall go to that place very quickly, 
 Theramnas." 
 
 May the gods forgive me if I was wrong : I loved 
 my baby, but I loved Gorgo more. 
 
 " But I think you will come to me soon — you 
 too, boy — into that great black somewhere — 
 where we lose ourselves. Yet it seems to me that 
 it will be ages of years before we are like this again." 
 For I held her in my arms, her cheek upon my 
 breast. 
 
 " And just as likely as not, when we meet again, 
 I shall not even know you — at first. You must 
 find me, boy, and tell me who I am — that I am 
 really Gorgo> — your Gorgo. It is your turn next 
 to find out, boy." 
 
 I was dumb — with the tongue I could not speak ; 
 but close in Gorgo's ear my heart was speaking. 
 
 " For it was I that found out first, this time," 
 she whispered, with the light quiver of a smile upon 
 her face. " Yes, I did, boy ; I just the same as 
 made love to you, there in Sparta — but the one that 
 knows first must tell the other. Do you promise 
 — to remember and to tell ? Quick, boy ! " 
 
 " I promise, Gorgo." 
 
484 G O R G O 
 
 " Yes — I heard it, Theramnas — but it seems so 
 far. Oh! I am going now. Hold me fast, boy, 
 — just as long as ever you can." 
 
 And with that whisper she breathed away the 
 unknown something we call life. 
 
XLIV. 
 
 The Viper's Sting 
 
 IT is not always that grief softens the spirit. I 
 felt that I had shed my last tears; my heart 
 was dry and hard. The last look of Gorg o had 
 made me stone, indeed. 
 
 My life, already scarred and soiled by the rough 
 encounters and corruptions of politics, was no more 
 a thing to cherish as it once had seemed, — a bat- 
 tered cup, full of the bitterness of hemlock, the 
 sooner drained the sooner ended. Perhaps it was 
 just as well : I was not dainty of it now. I could 
 use it to serve any ends without compunction; I 
 could even fling it away if occasion should arise. 
 The future? — there was no future. The gods? 
 
 — if they had taken from me Gorgo, speak not to 
 me of gods. If I still loved anything it was Athens, 
 
 — but of those who dwelt within it I loved none. 
 When I passed from its gates, in all that starving 
 city I left behind no soul more desperate; when I 
 reached the Spartan camp, I found hone more ruth- 
 less. 
 
 For they sent me back to make peace. There 
 was little question of terms. Ships and empire were 
 
 485 
 
4 86 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 gone already. Democracy, too, might go. The 
 walls were forgotten. Against the return of the 
 hated exiles a few cried out, but the voices of hunger 
 cried louder. Any peace that would bring bread! 
 
 " Good work, thus far," said Lysander, approv- 
 ingly. " This freedom from weakness and scruples 
 exceeds my expectation. You may yet be a great 
 man in Hellas." 
 
 I had still one purpose, — to save Athens from 
 destruction; of her citizens, some — not all. Fire- 
 brands must needs be quenched, or the whole city 
 would burn. I knew them well, these firebrands, 
 and wrote down the names. The sycophants, too 
 — why not be rid of some of them ? and I wrote 
 more ndmes. The traitors — my fingers shook with 
 eagerness to write them down — ,but they were 
 mostly of our own party, and so went on the other 
 scroll. Critias scowled with envy as he saw me 
 making up these lists, — for proscription and for 
 office; yet he was not denied his share, adding many 
 names to the former and a few to the last. It was 
 only when he named Thrasybulus for death that I 
 rebelled. 
 
 "We must cut off all the heads of hydra and 
 sear the neck," he retorted, angrily. " One such 
 hot-headed patriot of democracy may ruin our proj- 
 ect. He more than any other, unless it be his 
 advocate, overturned the well-laid schemes of Anti- 
 phon. I know of but one that better needs killing." 
 
 " Shall I do all and have my will in nothing," 
 I demanded of Lysander, " while this Critias sulks 
 
G O R G O 487 
 
 in your camp and marks my friends for death and 
 threatens me?" 
 
 " Critias," said the Spartan, " if you break out 
 thus again to mar our counsels, your own name goes 
 to the other scroll. What care I for your Antiphons 
 
 — or for Critias, either, unless you serve me ? The- 
 ramenes has done much and asked little; he shall 
 have his will as to this Thrasybulus. For the rest, 
 he who names an enemy shall have him, and the 
 friendship of another shall be no bar; but he who 
 starts discord among us dies, and little it matters 
 to Lysander." 
 
 " You have set a traitor among us," persisted 
 Critias, rashly. " This fellow always flinches and 
 always turns." 
 
 " Fool," cried the Spartan, " are your ears so 
 dull that I must make them deaf ? Mark this : The- 
 ramenes stands first among you, and is my chosen 
 agent unless he flinches. If he flinches, have your 
 will." 
 
 So it was I who bore back the terms of peace, 
 
 — a long scroll wound on a staff in the Spartan 
 fashion. Hard terms they were, but the city was 
 not to perish utterly ; and the people scarcely waited 
 to hear or to vote before they ran to meet the corn- 
 ships entering the harbour. 
 
 Then, when all was made ready, it was I who came 
 before that last assembly, — convened to vote itself 
 the very last. I did not mince matters — what 
 need? Lysander was with me; his spears were 
 about us; fate had fulfilled his vow. 
 
488 G O R G O 
 
 " You are met," I told them, " to end this empty- 
 farce of democracy." They clamoured at that, for 
 habit is strong. " This is idle," I said. " Do you 
 not know that your democracy is gone already? 
 And what but its folly has brought you to this 
 pass? You have listened long to demagogues and 
 traitors ; you must listen now to a conqueror. Can 
 you not see by what warrant I speak? " 
 
 Many were leaving the assembly, and of these 
 the informers took note. Such as remained were 
 silent. 
 
 " Thirty names," I went on, " will presently be 
 read. To those named you must entrust the city 
 and its government. What comes after rests with 
 them." 
 
 Again there was a sound of murmuring. Ly- 
 sander strode forth, and his spears pressed closer. 
 
 " Slaves," he began, " have I been merciful in 
 vain? Already the peace is forfeit, if I will it so, 
 and your lives no less. Are not those walls which 
 you swore to cast down still standing? Do you 
 think I will trust you further? Will you strain 
 my patience ? Do what you are bidden, or you will 
 have more need of burial urns than of urns for 
 ballots." 
 
 At that all tongues were still. The list was read, 
 the question put. There were many who did not 
 vote, but none made further opposition; and we, 
 whose names were entered on that roll of infamy, 
 marched down through sullen faces to the senate- 
 house. We did not heed their looks; the knights, 
 
G O R G O 489 
 
 who loved the rabble no better than we, were our 
 escort, and the pikes of Sparta were behind. 
 
 " Now," said Critias, " we must begin with the 
 pious rites of sacrifice. So only can we hope to 
 thrive." 
 
 " Yes," I answered, coldly, " those whose names 
 are on the secret list must die. It was so agreed, 
 and the most, I think, deserve it. Let us, then, slay 
 quickly and have done." 
 
 There was no lack of zeal in the slaying, for 
 Critias took charge of that. Yet the people looked 
 on calmly : it was less than they expected. Thus far 
 they rather wondered at our moderation, for they 
 knew well the character of those that fell. A harder 
 thing to bear was the pulling down of the walls; 
 yet this they did, though with reluctant hands, while 
 the victorious enemy stood by and chanted paeans 
 to the sounding pipes. When that was done Ly- 
 sander sailed from the harbour and Agis left our 
 fields. The people sighed with relief, and even 
 dared to hope. 
 
 Then it was that Myrinna came to me. " I do 
 so admire a born aristocrat," she said, in her sweet- 
 est tones, — "a born aristocrat, like you, Thera- 
 menion, and a man of force., I have always been 
 an aristocrat myself, in my heart, though I never 
 dared own it. You know very well how I have 
 always felt toward you, Theramenion ; I am very 
 frank in these matters with such as you. And now 
 there is nothing that need stand between us ; indeed, 
 I am very forgiving, Theramenion, where I am 
 
49Q 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 really interested, you know. Perhaps I shall have 
 some little favours to ask, which you can easily 
 grant while you are putting these people out of 
 the way, and then I shall forget all your coldness. 
 I knew that it could not last just as soon as I saw 
 her — that red Spartan girl. I think a fair, pale 
 cheek is much more elegant, — don't you ? Truly, 
 it would not have lasted long, even if she had not 
 died. But the gods be thanked — she is out of 
 the way at last, and that baby, too. You have still 
 those jewels she was wearing, haven't you, Thera- 
 menion? " 
 
 And with that she looked full in my face, with 
 much presuming in her upturned eyes. Then my 
 tongue found speech: I broke forth upon her with 
 words that I shall not repeat, — such as none for- 
 get and none forgive. She was pale enough now: 
 a bleached viper she seemed, as she wheeled with 
 a darting glance, full of venom. 
 
 " There are others," she said, " as mighty as 
 Theramenion, and wiser." 
 
 This incident did much to bring me to myself 
 again. To what had I been drifting? I hastened 
 home — to the door where Gorgo used to meet me 
 — and passed in, to silent halls and an empty cham- 
 ber. And there I flung myself upon our wedding 
 bed and wept as I think I never wept before, — 
 and much bitterness, I know, flowed out of my soul 
 with those tears. At the end it seemed as if Gorgo 
 had come bade to me; from that hour her spirit 
 was ever near me. She walked beside me even in 
 
G O R G O 
 
 49 1 
 
 the market, just as of old ; it was only when I went 
 among the Thirty that the sense of her presence 
 faded. In my dreams her face was ever gazing 
 into mine. And in those dreams I did not clearly 
 remember that she was dead, — yet something 
 within me knew, so that I feared and felt a bar, 
 and could not put my arms about her as I longed 
 to do. 
 
 In this mood it was that I went to Socrates. 
 Few were the words that passed between us, but 
 enough. 
 
 " Have I done wrong? " I asked him. " I know 
 — and you know — : that I have saved Athens ; yet 
 by a sort of treachery and cruel means. Was it 
 worth what it has cost? Have I done wrong?" 
 
 "I cannot tell," he said; "the voice is silent. 
 
 This I know: I myself could not have done it. 
 
 And this," he added, — " that it is now time for 
 
 you to do right — the things that are right beyond 
 
 , all doubt or question." 
 
 " I set so little value on my life," I said, " that 
 I may as well do right, — even in politics, and in 
 Athens." 
 
 He sighed. " What you have done has cost you 
 much, and will cost you more. Your soul, I think, 
 is not unstained. Yet as it seems to me — for the 
 voice, as I have said, is silent — you have done 
 better for Athens than a better man." 
 
 As I returned I came up behind Myrinna — walk- 
 ing slowly with Critias. " You don't know how 
 
492 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 clever he is," she was saying. " He will yet outwit 
 you." 
 
 " Not he," answered the other, — "a dreamer — 
 a weaver of words; yet dangerous, I admit. He 
 shall steal no marches here. I will goad him into 
 rashness through Thrasybulus, first." 
 
 " He, too, was once my admirer," she said, " but 
 you may have him, Critias, if it serves your pur- 
 pose." 
 
 They both startled as I passed them. Critias 
 sneered; Myrinna laughed, and eyed me with a 
 cold, deliberate malice of revenge. There was little 
 passion in it, — only an unforgiving remembrance 
 of injury. 
 
 I did not dally with life-freighted moments. I 
 went straight to the house of Thrasybulus, and by 
 great good chance found him in. 
 
 " You must flee from Athens to-night," I told 
 him. " If not, expect the daggers of Critias. I 
 cannot prevent; if at midnight they find you here, ■ 
 you are lost." 
 
 He looked long in my face. " Do you run no 
 risk in this?" he asked. 
 
 " I do not know. I do not care. I speak true. 
 Make haste." 
 
 " Theramenes," he said, slowly, " you have many 
 times put me in doubt. Your ways are hard for 
 me to follow ; I have sometimes thought you worst 
 of all those scoundrels. But this rings true; and 
 to-night I could almost believe that you are the 
 
G O R G O 493 
 
 deepest patriot of us all. I am sure you run much 
 risk ; but if you come to any harm by that Critias, 
 I will avenge you or die for it. Farewell, old school- 
 mate." And we pressed each other's hands for the 
 last time. 
 
XLV. 
 
 "Even in That Darkness" 
 
 NEVER had I known Critias so open and 
 friendly as he seemed on the following day. 
 I really thought him anxious to make amends 
 and heal the breach of our factions ; for as things 
 were shaping themselves we each had partisans, and 
 both knew that for us dissension meant destruction. 
 
 " Come," he said, " we are too few to quarrel, 
 and our common enemies too many; we are on 
 one ship and must keep in stroke. No doubt you 
 overheard me yesterday ; well, I am glad of it, even 
 if you warned Thrasybulus, as I suspect. I am 
 glad he escaped; I was wrong to seek his life, for 
 we all three were schoolmates together. That life 
 in Thrace has spoiled my temper, I fear; they are 
 a wild lot yonder. We learn to adjust our disputes 
 with a slash of the knife, and doubtless lift the dag- 
 ger too easily." 
 
 " I wish no quarrel," I answered, " but it is time 
 to put our rule on a sounder basis and not repeat 
 the deadly errors of the Four Hundred." 
 
 " Exactly," he said, smiling, " and I wish to 
 talk these matters over with you. We will have no 
 
 494 
 
E SHOUTED HARSHLY 
 
G O R G O 495 
 
 misunderstandings after to-day. Ride out with me 
 to Phylse. I think that fort needs a stronger guard, 
 for there are rumours of trouble from Thebes. We 
 will look the place over together; but the main thing 
 is, I wish to talk with you in private." 
 
 So I went, trusting little but fearing less. We 
 rode unarmed and unattended. He held me in close 
 argument all the way, and reproached himself re- 
 peatedly. " See how a plain talk settles all," he was 
 saying as we mounted the pass. " We shall soon be 
 rid of Our differences now. I was more dull than 
 my horse to put faith in such as Myrinna ; but she 
 told me a fine tale of treachery that you had con- 
 fessed to her — and I believed her ! " 
 
 This mention of the horse put an odd fancy into 
 my mind : I knew horses. " The treachery is 
 yours," I exclaimed, facing him suddenly. 
 
 His eye met mine — his features never quivered ; 
 but the horse leaped as if struck. 
 
 " Curse the brute," he cried; and his cheek flushed 
 now. " You jest : but one would think she had felt 
 the spur." 
 
 " A good jest, that struck home," I answered. 
 " She felt the spur that stung her master. Never 
 ride a horse, Critias, when you would keep secrets." 
 And I wheeled. 
 
 He shouted harshly, in a barbarous tongue. 
 From the thickets above started forth a band of 
 Thracians with long knives, but I rode for my 
 life and reached the city safe. 
 
 After that, though neither he nor I made mention 
 
496 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 of this episode, there was open feud between us, 
 and it grew like the turbid streams which swelled 
 and widened under the autumn sky. The shorten- 
 ing days were full of strife and peril; for another 
 summer had come to Gorgo dead, and again it was 
 clouding to winter. Thrasybulus had surely sent 
 some message back from Thebes, for the people 
 whispered of me; but the more the many showed 
 their love, the more was I distrusted by the few, 
 whose will was the only law. Soon I was both 
 feared and hated by most of them. Yet even among 
 the few I had my friends, — more than dared speak, 
 for the terror of Critias and his Thracian daggers 
 was upon them all. I alone did not fear him — 
 because I no longer feared anything. Besides, cour- 
 age is largely a question of knowing what to do, 
 and for me all doubts were resolved. 
 
 " For many among your ancestors have died a 
 good death for Athens; speak a brave word, boy; 
 and die boldly." Thus my grandfather's best words 
 came back to me. Far away they seemed, sounding 
 as from the hollow of a tomb, but I heard them dis- 
 tinctly. " Not even for Theramnas would I wed 
 a traitor," said another sweeter voice. That too 
 came from far, out of the shadows ; ' but I never 
 would disappoint her trust. And after these came 
 other tones that seemed nearer, slow and steady: 
 "You will yet fulfil you fate, Theramenes; your 
 death will be better than your life." So it should 
 be. 
 
 Lysander's utmost threat was now accomplished : 
 
G O R G O 497 
 
 his spears were planted on our very Acropolis. 
 Critias had demanded them, and Lysander — who 
 already deemed my enemy the better tool — had 
 granted them gladly; a horde of Laconian merce- 
 naries tented beneath Athena's lifted lance. Some 
 day the daughter of Jove might strike; but my 
 eyes were not to see it. 
 
 " Now," said Critias, " we are secure." And he 
 glanced toward me. " The few can rule only by 
 force. What fool among you thinks otherwise? 
 But these foreign spears must be well paid and kept 
 in humour. We must have money." 
 
 So they flattered and fondled the coarse captain 
 of the garrison until he would do anything. Money 
 or lives — Callibius must needs be humoured. 
 Young Autolycus, the wrestler, had once given him 
 the trip ; for that, he himself got a fall from which 
 he did not rise, — and the brutal Spartan strutted 
 about the sacred hill, drunk with wine ancj revenge 
 and glory. 
 
 Money must be had; but the city was bare and 
 drained of gold. They were griping it now wher- 
 ever they saw its gleam, from friend or foe, and 
 wealth became a deadly blessing. The son of Nicias 
 lay crushed by the silver of his mines ; Leon found 
 no space for a grave in those broad fields that 
 doomed him ; the golden shrine did not protect the 
 priest who clung to it. When they entered a house 
 for a seizure, they' plucked the jewels off the women 
 like soldiers sacking a hostile town. 
 
 Against all this I had cried aloud in passionate 
 
49 8 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 protest, but I cried in vain and alone. Yet not 
 quite alone: for Socrates still spoke his mind be- 
 neath the porches just as he was wont, in keen, 
 plain, homely terms that rumour carried beyond the 
 walls, — where they rose to a thunder of threaten- 
 ing voices, and echoed back to us. He was soon 
 enjoined to silence, but answered smiling, talking 
 to Critias and Charicles as to any others, though 
 they foamed at the lips. When they sputtered 
 threats and bade him connive at murder by arresting 
 Leon of Salamis, he turned on his heel and left 
 them. We alone, he and I, spoke out with breath 
 unbated; but already a murmur like the rumble 
 of a torrent filled the air. 
 
 " You have but dammed a river with corpses ; 
 the waters are gathering; make an outlet, or they 
 will burst all barriers." 
 
 So I warned, and in one demand I prevailed : 
 three thousand were listed as citizens. 
 
 " It is not enough," I urged. " What magic in 
 three thousand? Let all be citizens who fight with 
 horse or shield ; give the city to its defenders. So 
 I said before; so I say now and always." 
 
 " Aye," answered Critias, " so you said before : 
 we have reason to remember. But what befell 
 before shall not chance again. I will not yet return 
 to Thrace." 
 
 "You have never left Thrace," I retorted. 
 " Athens is Thrace since Critias entered it. We 
 will all dwell in Thrace through you." 
 
 But, plead as I would, three thousand and no 
 
G O R G O 499 
 
 more were enrolled; nor was anything bettered by 
 this, for whatever good might have come of it 
 Critias turned to evil. Those on the roll had gained 
 no right but to serve our will and share our crimes; 
 the rest were stripped of their arms and outlawed 
 altogether. 
 
 They huddled in Piraeus as they could, but 
 scattered fast across the border. Thebes swarmed 
 with them; their bitterest enemies gave shelter: 
 while we — even in Sparta our names were a scoff. 
 Only Lysander commended us — all-powerful still, 
 but hated no less than we. 
 
 Lysander! His boasted forfeit would serve no 
 longer ; already his fortune hung at the turn. Fate 
 stood ready to break her thread, — then, from Ec- 
 batana to Gades, all fortunes would change; the 
 world would enter on new courses. Sparta would 
 wane; Hellas would wane; Persia would fall in 
 ruins. The words of Socrates, with the language 
 that he spoke, would go to the ends of the earth, 
 more enduring than the nations; a greater than 
 Socrates would come. Of this I have merely read 
 — after the lapse of centuries; I know of it no 
 more than you. For when fate reached out her 
 hand to break the thread, the fibre that snapped first 
 was mine. 
 
 Other things I have read in history, that touched 
 me more nearly. Long had I waited to learn of 
 them; strange it seems beyond belief. How Ly- 
 sander stumbled; how Thrasybulus led back Ath- 
 ens to her own, and avenged me; how Critias fell 
 
500 G O R G O 
 
 by the arrow of Golas. Nay — the last I did not 
 read ; it was only written that he fell — but I know. 
 He was found dead after the battle, — transfixed 
 with an arrow that had riven through shield-plates 
 and breast-plate, ribs and heart. With strange feel- 
 ings have I read what was written — and between 
 the lines what never was written. 
 
 Thus came the end at last. Critias rose in our 
 council. His heavy jaw was set, his face was sod- 
 den, but his eyes sparkled with malice. " Some of 
 you," he began, " are wont to frown upon me." 
 And he gave me his usual glance. " But to-day I 
 have something to propose which I hope will please 
 you." 
 
 We listened — some eagerly, some with dread. 
 
 " We have done much for the public," he went 
 on, smoothly. His speech had been carefully 
 conned. " We have suffered much for our staunch- 
 ness — except one, perhaps. But I hold no grudges. 
 We must have no divisions; we will have none. 
 He shall share." 
 
 Then I knew his aim, but not yet what shaft he 
 had chosen. 
 
 " We have sacrificed much in the past — except 
 that one, and he shall share. Why should we serve 
 the public only? Why should the hungry Spartan 
 alone have gold? I propose that we deal more 
 justly with ourselves." 
 
 I knew that most of our number had done them- 
 selves no injustice — where money was concerned. 
 
G O R G O 501 
 
 But these were they who listened most intently, 
 with conscious faces and applauding smiles. 
 
 " You approve : I can see it plainly. Well, those 
 who were citizens have little left; what they had 
 has been spent to counteract their own folly, and 
 we are still unrewarded, unless by the satisfaction 
 of our acts. But the alien metics are many and 
 rich. They love us no better than others ; we have 
 good grounds. I have made up a list of them; 
 we will each choose one, and add two or three of 
 the poorer for an answer to fools. For of course 
 it is all done for the public good — like the rest," 
 he concluded. And again he looked toward me. 
 
 " You propose to me to choose an innocent man 
 to be murdered for my purse? " I demanded, hotly. 
 
 " Oh, well," he said, " that is a matter of phras- 
 ing. I suggest for you Lysias, the writer; to put 
 out of the way a sophist is a good deed, you must 
 admit. I would add our old Socrates for one of 
 the poorer, — only the question is now of metics ; 
 he can come later. I am giving you one of the 
 best. This Lysias is rich and has stored gold; and 
 I know of no ranker advocate of democracy among 
 all the metics. See, I have written it down for 
 you." And he held up his tablets. 
 
 " Strike my name from the list," I cried. " I 
 will none of it." 
 
 He started, as if with a sudden thought. " Do 
 you insist?" he said. "It shall be done." 
 
 " I, too, refuse," exclaimed Eratosthenes, as I 
 turned to go. " This is the worst yet, — infamous." 
 
502 
 
 G O R G O 
 
 Critias glared at him with eyes of Thrace. 
 " Take thought," he said. " He who will not share 
 our infamy, as you call it, is not of us. Shall I 
 blot off your name? " 
 
 The man turned pale. " Gods of hell," he mut- 
 tered, " I suppose I must go with the rest." 
 
 I dreamed that night a sombre dream. I was 
 acting the part of Palamedes in " The Witness " 
 of Agathon. The dream ended in thick darkness. 
 I arose with that cloud still about me : I seemed not 
 to have waked. I called Golas. 
 
 " My faithful slave," I said, " you have ears, at 
 least, and a hand; never but once have you failed 
 me. Now listen closely, and obey. I go again to 
 meet Critias, — him you saw with Myrinna, whom 
 you once would have shot, but I checked you. I 
 shall hold back your arrows no more, I think. If 
 I come not at evening, find Meletus; he will under- 
 stand. With him make haste over the border — to 
 Thebes — and there seek out Thrasybulus. Give 
 him this ring as a token. To him attach yourself 
 — he will gladly receive you. Follow him as you 
 have followed me, and serve him well." 
 
 And Golas clasped my feet and wept upon them; 
 but his soul had long been mine and knew no other 
 thought than to obey. So I left him — forever — 
 and went forth to the senate-house. The Thirty 
 were in their places; the full senate was on the 
 benches. I needed no telling what it meant ; I had 
 scarcely reached my seat when Critias stood up to 
 denounce me. 
 
G O R G O 
 
 503 
 
 " A traitor of old," he cried, " and now again 
 a traitor : none can trust him. He incites to deeds 
 which only violence can compass, yet shrinks from 
 violence, and at the crisis ever shifts. An easy 
 ' slipper ' he, as even the mob have called him, — 
 a loose fit for either foot, and quickly shuffled off. 
 Our courses are not politic, he informs us. Of pol- 
 icy he has much to say. One policy alone he com- 
 prehends, — to buy safety and new glory with the 
 lives of friends. That we shall now prevent." 
 
 This and much more he recited before them, 
 lashing my name with stinging words of studied 
 hate; all the best and the worst of my life he turned 
 against me, — truth and falsehood, so mingled that 
 truth was made falser than lies. I will not repeat 
 what he said ; it has been repeated too often. Xeno- 
 phon — who loved neither him nor me — has re- 
 corded it after a fashion; and Lysias has added 
 worse — Lysias, to keep from the stain of whose 
 blood I died! 
 
 Nor will I rehearse my answer: all that I have 
 written is my answer. Yet I would not have you 
 think it rightly recorded. Young Xenophon — 
 who heard me not — has but given me words of his 
 own; he was vain of his pen, and such is ever the 
 custom of those who write history. I was pleading 
 before them for honour, not for life; I used no idle 
 sophistries upon that day, but spoke aloud as one 
 speaks within his soul. I will leave untold the 
 greater part; but thus I ended my last defence 
 
504 G O R G O 
 
 among men, my final appeal for justice to my 
 name: 
 
 " Faithless he calls me — he, the Thracian! But 
 I answer your thoughts, not his words. I would 
 be faithful to the few if they would be faithful to 
 Athens; I would be constant to the many if they 
 could be constant to themselves. But when some 
 are traitors — like him who calls me traitor — and 
 the rest are the fools and tools of traitors, what 
 other than what I have done could I do? I could 
 not do as Critias has done: I have not dwelt in 
 Thrace; the honour code of Critias is new to me. 
 
 " He calls me the ' slipper ' — Critias ! He — 
 the iron boot of the torture-chamber — denounces 
 me as the ' slipper.' And I accept it. Gladly would 
 I be called the ' slipper ' if I might give the bruised 
 foot of Athens rest. Some ease she might find in 
 the ' slipper.' 
 
 " A betrayer of friends? No friend of mine, no 
 friend of Athens, ever came to harm by me. Are 
 they my friends who, to cap a carnival of murder, 
 seek my life? like Antiphon? like Critias? Is it 
 treason to differ with Critias? I know well it is 
 death, but is it treason? 
 
 " Do you call it oligarchy, — this tyranny of 
 Critias? Do you not all see that he has himself 
 subverted the oligarchy? Or is he a friend to oli- 
 garchy who has robbed it of all friends, forced it 
 to crime, doomed it to overthrow? Is he your 
 friend who has roused all Hellas against you, and 
 am I, who strove to avert it, your enemy ? He is not 
 
G O R G O 505 
 
 your friend, but your master, and well you know 
 it. A short, steep path to ruin is this Critias, who 
 calls me a betrayer. 
 
 " I ha^e offended you : but you will only con- 
 demn me to death, exactly the same as if I had 
 pleased you." And I glanced at the Thracians who 
 stood behind, with swaggering looks and daggers 
 ill concealed. " You will vote as Critias bids, on 
 these open tables under his eye. But be it my glory 
 or my shame, this I know, and all of you know it: 
 I have saved my city, though I gave it over to you, 
 and even to your oligarchy I have been more true 
 than any other." 
 
 So I ended, fearlessly, expecting death. But they 
 — after a breathless moment of silence the whole 
 senate broke forth in applause; with one voice they 
 applauded. So near was I to victory — even within 
 that Thracian dagger-circle! My colleagues sprang 
 to their feet — in alarm — in hope. Critias paled, 
 but leaped to the platform. The daggers pressed 
 closer. 
 
 " There are times," he said, in a voice that shook 
 with rage, " when it becomes the duty of a presi- 
 dent who knows his business, seeing his friends 
 deceived, to judge for them. This I shall do to-day; 
 nor, indeed, will these whom you see around us 
 endure it that such a manifest traitor escape. Under 
 our present laws, it is true, none whose names are 
 there enrolled " — and he pointed to the list of the 
 Three Thousand on the wall — " none of those can 
 be condemned without your sanction; others may 
 
5 o6 G O R G O 
 
 die by the will of the Thirty. I blot the name of 
 Theramenes from that list. He is condemned. Let 
 the Eleven do their duty." 
 
 There was a cry; then a hush. I sprang to the 
 altar — yet smiled in my heart as I did it. An 
 altar as a bulwark against Critias! Words were 
 as impotent — a fence of air against steel — but I 
 would not spare my breath while I had it. 
 
 " Will you go like beasts to the slaughter? " I 
 called, loudly. " Is any name less easily blotted 
 than mine? Will you give your throats to the knife 
 like bulls herded for the sacrifice, and look unmoved 
 on the death of others while you wait your turn? " 
 
 But the only sound was the rasp of daggers slip- 
 ping from the sheath. Satyrus dragged me roughly 
 from the altar, and from the hall, still calling. 
 
 " Swallow your tongue," he .exclaimed, with a 
 curse, as he led me through the street. " Be silent, 
 or you will fare the worse." 
 
 " Shall I fare the better for silence? " I laughed. 
 " Will silence here save me from silence yonder? " 
 And I used my voice as I chose. 
 
 The way was short ; I soon stood in .the prison 
 gloom. The cup was ready, and I drained it with 
 a smile. 
 
 " It is less bitter than many I have tasted," I 
 said. " As sweet a draught to the gentle Critias : " 
 and I flung the last drops, as in cottabos, against the 
 prison door. The note rang true. Then I laid 
 myself down, as they bade me, and screened my face 
 for death. 
 
G O R G O 507 
 
 And there the old, almost forgotten question 
 asked itself: What is it that happens? Well, I 
 thought, I shall find out now. And soon I felt my 
 soul sinking into the infinite as a water-drop melts 
 in the sea : the prison, the hard ground on which I 
 rested, had passed from me; I was quite alone — 
 falling, floating, I could not tell — in unknown 
 spaces empty of light or sound. Then Gorgo came 
 to me, luminous out of the vacancy, reaching toward 
 me with both her arms. And the last I remem- 
 ber is this : her sweet face vanished back into dark- 
 ness; whereupon there fell before me a shower of 
 rose petals, which shone like little flames of soft 
 sunset light; I was swooning with their fragrance; 
 and as the last spark fluttered down, 'I too was lost 
 in the dark. 
 
 For twenty centuries I slept. 
 
 THE END.