Part 26 (1/2)
”What did you say to that?” said Callias.
”Well, the only one of these things that Seuthes really had in his possession was the daughter. I saw the young lady, handsome I will allow, and tall; but, oh, such a savage! As for the money, and the land, and the oxen, and the towns, walled and unwalled, we had to get them for him and then have our portion back. However, it seemed to me the best thing for the army to do, and I advised the men to that effect, and they agreed, only it was provided that we were never to march more than seven days' journey from the seacoast. We had all had enough of marches up the country. Then Seuthes gave us a feast by way of striking the bargain.
”It was a wonderful scene, and some day I must tell you all about it.
But I must own that for a time I felt as uncomfortable as ever I did in my life. After dinner when the bowl had pa.s.sed round two or three times, in came a Thracian leading a white horse. He took the bowl from the cup-bearer, and said, 'Here is a health to thee, King Seuthes. Let me give you this horse. Mounted on him thou shalt take whom thou wilt, and when thou retirest from the battle thou shalt dread no pursuer.' Then another gave a slave, and another some robes for the Queen, and a fourth a silver saucer and a finely embroidered carpet. All the while I was sitting in an agony, for I was in the place of honor, and had nothing to offer. However 'our lady of Athens,' who is the inspirer of clever devices, and, it may be Father Bacchus also, for I had drained two or three cups, helped me out of my difficulty. When the cup-bearer handed me the goblet, I rose and said, 'King Seuthes, I present you with myself and these my trusty comrades. With their help you will recover the lands that were your forefathers' and gain many new lands with them. Nor shall you win lands only, but horses many, and men many, and fair women also.'
Up got the King, at this, and we drained the cup together.
”Seuthes was not going to let the gra.s.s grow under his feet. When we left the banqueting tent--this was at sunset because we wanted to set the guards about our camp--the King, who, for all his potations, was as sober as a water-drinker, sent for the generals and said, 'My neighbors have not yet heard of this alliance of ours. Let us go and take them by surprise.' And so we did. We went that night and brought back booty enough to pay for our day's pay, I warrant you.
”Well, we went on fighting for Seuthes for two months till we had conquered the whole countryside for him. Then the conquered tribes flocked to him--give a Thracian plenty to eat and drink and good pay and he will fight in any quarrel--till he did not want any more. That perhaps was not to be wondered at, but, like the mean hound that he was, he tried to get out of paying us.
”Just at this moment when I thought that we should have to settle with the sword for judge, Sparta declared war against the Persians and wanted all the men she could get. So Thuisbron, their commander-in-chief, came over and engaged the men at the same rate of pay that Seuthes was giving or rather promising. We never got anything but a wretched fragment from the King.
”By this time I had had about enough of campaigning of this fas.h.i.+on. Not a drachma had I made. In fact I was poorer than when I set out. I had even to sell my favorite horse, but Thuisbron bought it back for me.
”Just at the last I had a stroke of luck. That is another story I must tell you some day. But fortunately we took prisoners a Persian n.o.ble with his wife and children, his horses and cattle and all that he had.
The next day I left the army, but before I went they gave me the pick of the beasts of all kinds. It was a handsome present, I can tell you.”
”So, on the whole,” said Callias, ”you came pretty well out of the business. You returned at least not poorer than you went, you have won for yourself a name which those who come after us will not, I take it, forget, and you helped, at least, to save the lives of many Greeks from peris.h.i.+ng shamefully by the hands of the barbarians. Are you not content?”
”Yes,” replied Xenophon, ”all the more content on account of one thing you have not mentioned. For this indeed pleases me in the matter that we Greeks have now found a way by which we may both go to the capital of the Persians and return therefrom. Verily, I sometimes wish we had not been so eager to retreat, but had stopped and made ourselves masters of the country of our enemies. Perhaps we were not strong enough; but, if I can see so far into the future, some one will do this hereafter, and Greece will be avenged of all that she has suffered at the hands of the barbarians.”
”The Master will be glad,” Callias went on after a pause.
The ”Master” of course was Socrates. Xenophon looked at the young man with some surprise.
”You seem very confident on this point. He indeed was always somewhat doubtful, and certainly there are great difficulties when you come to look into it a little more closely.”
”I really do not know what you mean,” answered Callias; ”you have seen him I suppose, for you have been in Athens several days and know what he thinks.”
For a few moments Xenophon stared at the speaker in utter perplexity.
Then a light broke in upon him. ”What,” he cried, ”you do not know? You have not heard?”
”Know what? Have heard what? You speak in riddles.”
”That he is dead.”
The young man covered his face with his hands. After a few minutes he recovered calmness enough to speak. ”No, indeed, I did not know it. I never thought of such a thing. He seemed so full of life and vigor. Yet he must have been an old man, not far from seventy I suppose, for he was more than forty at Delium.[84] Tell me of what did he die?”
”They killed him.”
”Killed him! Who killed him?”
”The people of Athens.”
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