The Spartan Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins
page 62 of 82 (75%)
page 62 of 82 (75%)
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by his side?"
"The Gods punish people who do not believe in them," said the other voice, "and we are the priests of the Gods. Should we not do all we can to bring such wicked men to justice?" "Yes, but," said Lampon, "the people adore Pericles. They would not believe evil of him. We must act carefully, lest we ourselves receive the blow that we aim at him." "I have found out that he went to the boat-race at the Piraeus this afternoon," answered the voice of the other priest, "and after that he goes to a banquet at the house of the rich Hipponicus, and will return late to his home. If we could waylay him and make him angry, he might say something blasphemous to us, not knowing we were priests. He might even offer us violence! Disrespect to a priest is disrespect to the Gods, and no man in Athens, not even Pericles, can insult the representatives of the Gods and live." "A good idea, truly, and worthy of the priest of Erechtheus," said the voice of Lampon. "We will doff our priestly robes and appear as men of the people. Pericles must not suspect who we are, or of course he will be too clever to allow himself to speak the insults we know only too well he would like to offer us as priests. We can each be witness for the other; and he cannot deny our report." If Daphne had not sneezed just at this moment, everything that happened after that would almost surely have been quite different. But she did |
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