"No, I never related what had passed between us to any one save
my father. He was gentle for a Spartan, and he rested not till
Gylippus--so was the Helot named--obtained exemption from the black
list. He dared not, however, attribute his intercession to the true
cause. It happened, fortunately, that Gylippus was related to my own
foster-brother, Alcman, brother to my nurse; and Alcman is celebrated
in Sparta, not only for courage in war, but for arts in peace. He is
a poet, and his strains please the Dorian ear, for they are stern and
simple, and they breathe of war. Alcman's merits won forgiveness for
the offences of Gylippus. May the Gods be kind to his race!"

"Your Alcman seems one of no common intelligence, and your gentleness
to him does not astonish me, though it seems often to raise a frown on
the brows of your Spartans."

"We have lain on the same bosom," said Pausanias touchingly, "and
his mother was kinder to me than my own. You must know that to those
Helots who have been our foster-brothers, and whom we distinguish by
the name of Mothons, our stern law relaxes. They have no rights
of citizenship, it is true, but they cease to be slaves;[14] nay,
sometimes they attain not only to entire emancipation, but to
distinction. Alcman has bound his fate to mine. But to return,
Gongylus. I tell thee that it is not thy descriptions of pomp and
dominion that allure me, though I am not above the love of power,
neither is it thy glowing promises, though blood too wild for a Dorian
runs riot in my veins; but it is my deep loathing, my inexpressible
disgust for Sparta and her laws, my horror at the thought of wearing
away life in those sullen customs, amid that joyless round of tyrannic
duties, in my rapture at the hope of escape, of life in a land which
the eye of the Ephor never pierces; this it is, and this alone, O