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"So I hear that the Samian captain, Uliades, has boasted at noon in the public baths." "A Samian! is it only a Samian who hath ventured to address to Sparta a complaint of her General?" "From what I could gather," replied Gongylus, "the complaint is more powerfully backed.
"How?" said he, with a slight hesitation in his tone. "Mean you to threaten me Me with carrying the busy tales of your disaffection to the Spartan government?" "Time will show. Farewell, Pausanias. We will detain you no longer from your pastime." "But," began Uliades. "Hush," said the Athenian, laying his hand on the Samian's shoulder. "We will confer anon."
"I will not be ungrateful, Uliades, if thou stand by my side against the Spartan." "Thou art, then, bent upon this perilous hazard?" "Bent on driving Pausanias from Byzantium, or into Hades yes." "Touch!" said Uliades, holding out his right hand. "By Cypris, but these girls dance like the daughters of Oceanus; every step undulates as a wave." Antagoras motioned to his cup-bearer.
"In this hour, when the fair face of Artemis recalls the old legends of Endymion, is it not permitted to man to remember that before the iron age came the golden, before war reigned love?" "Tush," said Uliades. "Time enough to think of love when we have satisfied vengeance. Let us summon our friends, and hold council on the Spartan's insults."
"Jest not, Pausanias; you will find me in earnest," answered Uliades, doggedly, and encouraged by the evident effect that his eloquence had produced upon the Spartans themselves. "I have met with a grievous wrong, and all Greece shall hear of it, if it be not redressed. My own brother, who at Mycale slew four Persians with his own hand, headed a detachment for forage.
Now would I give all the rest of my wealth to see among these girls one face that yet but for a moment could make me forget " "Forget what, or whom?" said Uliades; "not Cleonice?" "Man, man, wilt thou provoke me to strangle thee?" muttered Antagoras. Uliades edged himself away. "Ungrateful!" he cried. "What are a hundred Byzantine girls to one tried male friend?"
"Ah," grunted Uliades, "if, as men say, thou lovest a fair Byzantine, Aphrodite will have sharp work to cure thee of jealousy, unless she first makes thee blind." Antagoras smiled faintly, and the two Ionians moved on slowly and in silence.
Taking advantage of the position of the foe, the Mothon darted onward, and threading the rest of the party, disappeared through the neighbouring gates of the citadel. "You saw the insult?" said Uliades between his ground teeth as he recovered himself. "The master shall answer for the slave; and to me, too, who have forty slaves of my own at home!"
Upon which Uliades, the Samian, and Antagoras of Chios, conspiring together, ran in near Byzantium on Pausanias's galley, getting her between them as she was sailing before the rest.
In a large hall, with a marble fountain in the middle of it, the Greek captains awaited the coming of Pausanias. A low and muttered conversation was carried on amongst them, in small knots and groups, amidst which the voice of Uliades was heard the loudest. Suddenly the hum was hushed, for footsteps were heard without.
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