"'Is that really your intention?' I said.—'It is indeed,' they answered.—'You may then,' I replied, 'have me as a companion in your voyage, if you will permit it; for I have occasion to go into Sicily, and in your course to Africa you must necessarily sail by that island.'—'You shall be heartily welcome,' they replied; 'for nothing but good can happen to us from the society of a sage, a Grecian, and, as we conjecture, a favourite of the gods.'—'I shall be very happy to accept your offer,' I said, 'if you will allow me one day for preparation.'—'Well,' said they, 'we will give you to-morrow; but do not fail in the evening to be by the water-side; for the night is favourable to our navigation; gentle breezes at that season blow from the land, and propel the ship quietly on her way.'
"I promised them to be there without fail at the time appointed, and exacted an oath from them that they would not sail before. And with this I left them, still employed in their pipes and dances, which they performed to the brisk notes of their music, something after the Assyrian fashion; now bounding lightly on high,[12] and now sinking to the ground on bended knees, and again whirling themselves round with rapidity, as if hurried on by the influence of the divinity. I found Chariclea admiring as they lay in her lap the presents which Charicles had made her; from her I went to Theagenes: I gave each of them instructions what they were to do, and returned to my apartment, solicitous and intent upon the prosecution of my design; which I did not long delay to put in execution. When it was midnight, and all the city was buried in sleep, a band of armed youths surrounded the habitation of Chariclea. Theagenes led on this amatory assault: his troop consisted of those who composed his train. With shouts, and clamour, and clashing their shields, to terrify any who might be within hearing, they broke into the house with lighted torches;[13] the door, which had on purpose been left slightly fastened, easily giving way to them. They seized and hurried away Chariclea, who was apprized of their design, and easily submitted to the seeming violence. They took with her a quantity of valuable stuff, which she indicated to them; and the moment they had left the house, they raised again their warlike shouts, clashed their shields, and with an awful noise marched through the city, to the unspeakable terror of the affrighted inhabitants; whose alarm was the greater, as they had chosen a still night for their purpose, and Parnassus resounded to the clang of their brazen bucklers. In this manner they passed through Delphi, frequently repeating to each other the name of Chariclea. As soon as they were out of the city, they galloped as fast as they could towards Mount Œta. Here the lovers, as had been agreed upon, withdrew themselves privately from the Thessalians, and fled to me. They fell at my feet, embraced my knees in great agitation, and called upon me to save them; Chariclea blushing, with downcast eyes, at the bold step she had taken. 'Preserve and protect,' said Theagenes, 'strangers, fugitives, and suppliants, who have given up everything that they may gain each other; slaves of chaste love; playthings of fortune; voluntary exiles, yet not despairing, but placing all their hopes of safety in you.' I was confused and affected with this address: tears would have been a relief to me; but I restrained myself, that I might not increase their apprehensions. I raised and comforted them; and bidding them hope everything which was fortunate, from a design undertaken under the direction of the gods, I told them I must go and look after what yet remained to be done for the execution of our project; and desiring them to stay where they were, and to take great care that they were not seen by any body, I prepared to leave them; but Chariclea caught hold of my garment, and detained me.
"'Father,' she cried, 'it will be treacherous and unjust in you to leave me already, and alone, under the care of Theagenes only. You do not consider how faithless a guardian a lover is, when his mistress is in his power, and no one present to impose respect upon him. He will with difficulty restrain himself, when he sees the object of his ardent desires defenceless before him; wherefore I insist upon your not leaving me, till I have exacted an oath from Theagenes, that he will not attempt to obtain any favours which I am not disposed to grant, till I arrive in my country, and am restored to my family; or, at least, if the gods should envy me that happiness, till I am by my own consent become his wife.'
"I was surprised yet pleased with what she said, and agreed entirely with her in her sentiments. I raised a flame upon the hearth in place of an altar, threw on a few grains of frankincense, and Theagenes took the oath, indignant at its being required of him, and that such an obligation should deprive him of showing voluntarily that respect to Chariclea, which he was already determined to show without any such compulsion. He should now, he said, have no merit in it; all the restraint he put upon himself would be imputed to the fear of perjury.[14] He swore, however, by the Pythian Apollo, by Diana, by Venus herself, and the Loves, that he would conform himself in every instance to the will of Chariclea. These and other solemn vows having been mutually taken under the auspices of the gods, I made what haste I could to Charicles.
"I found his house full of tumult and grief, his servants having already informed him of the rape of his daughter; his friends flocking round him with useless consolation, and equally useless advice; himself in tears, and totally at a loss what to do. I called out with a loud voice, 'Knaves that you are, how long will you stand here stupid and undetermined, as if your misfortunes had taken away your senses? Why do you not arm instantly, pursue and take the ravishers, and revenge the injuries you have received?' 'It will be to no purpose,' replied Charicles, in a languid tone; 'I see that all this is come upon me by the wrath of heaven; the gods foretold to me that I should be deprived of what I held most dear, since the time that I entered unseasonably into the temple, and saw what it was not lawful for me to behold.[15] Yet there is no reason why we should not contend, in this instance, even against a calamity, though sent by the deities, if we knew whom we have to pursue, and who have brought this misfortune upon us.' 'We do know them,' said I; 'it is Theagenes, whom you made so much of and introduced to me, and his companions. Perhaps you may find some of them still about the city, who may have loitered here this evening. Arise, therefore, and call the people to council.'
"What I desired was done: the magistrates sent the herald about, to convoke an assembly by the sound of trumpet. The people presently came together, and a night meeting was held in the theatre. Charicles drew tears of compassion from all, when he appeared in the midst in mourning garments, with dust upon his face and head, and thus began:
"'Delphians, you may perhaps imagine that I have called together this meeting, and am now addressing it solely on account of my own great calamities; but that is not entirely the case. I suffer indeed what is worse than death. I am left deserted, afflicted by the gods, my house desolate, and deprived of that sweet conversation which I preferred to all the pleasures in the world; yet hope, and the self-conceit common to us, still sustains me, and promises me that I shall again recover my daughter. But I am moved with indignation at the affront which has been offered to the city, which I hope to see punished even before my own wrongs are redressed, unless the Thessalian striplings have taken away from us our free spirit, and just regard for our country and its gods; for what can be more shameful than that a few youths, dancers forsooth, and followers of an embassy, should trample under their feet the laws and authority of the first city in Greece, and should ravish from: the temple of Apollo its chiefest ornament, Chariclea, alas! the delight of my eyes; How obstinate and implacable towards me has been the anger of the gods! The life of my own daughter, as you know, was extinguished with the light of her nuptial torches. Grief for her death brought her mother soon to the grave, and drove me from my country; but, when I found Chariclea, I felt myself consoled; she became my life, the hope of succession in my family, my sweet anchor, I may say, my only comfort. Of all these this sudden storm has bereft me, and that at the most unlucky time possible, as if I were to be the scorn and sport of fate, just when preparations were making for her marriage, and you were all informed of it.'
"While he was speaking, and indulging himself in lamentations, the chief magistrate Hegesias interrupted and stopped him. 'Let Charicles, fellow-citizens,' said he, 'lament hereafter at his leisure; but let not us be so hurried away, and affected by concern for his misfortunes, as to neglect opportunity, which in all things is of great moment, and particularly in military affairs.[16] There is some hope that we may overtake the ravishers if we follow them instantly, for the delay which must take place on our part will naturally make them less speedy in their march: but if we spend our time in womanish bewailings, and by our delays give them an opportunity to escape, what remains but that we shall become a common laughing-stock, the laughing-stock of youths, whom the moment we have taken we should nail to so many crosses, and render their names, and even their families, infamous? This we may easily effect, if we endeavour to rouse the indignation of their countrymen against them, and interdict their descendants, and as many of themselves as may happen to escape, from ever being present at this annual ceremonial and sacrifice to the Manes of their hero; the expense of which we defray out of our public treasury.' The people approved what he advised, and ratified it by their decree. 'Enact, also,' said he, 'if you please, that the priestess shall never in future appear to the armed runners; for, as I conjecture, it was the sight of her at that time which inflamed Theagenes, and excited in him the impious design of carrying her off; it is desirable, therefore, to guard against anything which may give occasion to such an attempt for the time to come.'
"When this also was unanimously agreed to, Hegesias gave the signal to march, the trumpet sounded, the theatre was abandoned for war, and there was a general rush from the assembly for the fight. Not only the robust and mature followed him, but children and youths likewise, supplying with their zeal the place of age; women, also, with a spirit superior to their strength, snatching what arms they could meet with, tried in vain to keep up with them, and, by the fruitless attempt, were obliged to confess the weakness of their sex. You might see old men struggling with their age, their mind dragging on their body, and indignant at their physical weakness, because of the vigour of their minds. The whole city, in short, felt so deeply the loss of Chariclea, that, without waiting for day, and moved by a common impulse, it poured forth in pursuit of her ravishers."