Persian, that makes me (the words must out) a traitor to my country,
one who dreams of becoming a dependent on her foe."

"Nay," said Gongylus eagerly; for here Pausanias moved uneasily,
and the colour mounted to his brow. "Nay, speak not of dependence.
Consider the proposals that you can alone condescend to offer to
the great king. Can the conqueror of Plataea, with millions for his
subjects, hold himself dependent, even on the sovereign of the East?
How, hereafter, will the memories of our sterile Greece and your
rocky Sparta fade from your mind: or be remembered only as a state of
thraldom and bondage, which your riper manhood has outgrown!"

"I will try to think so, at least," said Pausanias gloomily. "And,
come what may, I am not one to recede. I have thrown my shield into
a fearful peril; but I will win it back or perish. Enough of this,
Gongylus. Night advances. I will attend the appointment you have made.
Take the boat, and within an hour I will meet you with the prisoners
at the spot agreed on, near the Temple of Aphrodite. All things are
prepared?"

"All," said Gongylus, rising, with a gleam of malignant joy on his
dark face. "I leave thee, kingly slave of the rocky Sparta, to prepare
the way for thee, as Satrap of half the East."

So saying he quitted the awning, and motioned three Egyptian sailors
who lay on the deck without. A boat was lowered, and the sound of its
oars woke Pausanias from the reverie into which the parting words of
the Eretrian had plunged his mind.