"Never!" exclaimed the whole assembly. Alcman gazed with a kind of calm and strange contempt on the flashing eyes, the fiery gestures of the throng, and then said, coldly,
"So then ye would fight for one man?"
"Ay, ay, that would we."
"But not for your own liberties, and those of your children unborn?"
There was a dead silence; but the taunt was felt, and its logic was already at work in many of these rugged breasts.
At this moment, the door was suddenly thrown open; and a Helot, in the dress worn by the attendants of the Regent, entered, breathless and panting.
"Alcman! the gods be praised you are here. Pausanias commands your presence. Lose not a moment. And you too, comrades, by Demeter, do you mean to spend whole days at your cups? Come to the citadel; ye may be wanted."
This was spoken to such of the Helots as belonged to the train of
Pausanias.
"Wanted—what for?" said one. "Pausanias gives us a holiday while he employs the sleek Egyptians."
"Who that serves Pausanias ever asks that question, or can foresee from one hour to another what he may be required to do?" returned the self-important messenger, with great contempt.