He led her into his room and shut the door. She could not tell whether he would punish her or not.
“Do you know what is meant by ‘treating with the Persian’?” he demanded.
“No.”
“It means to be his slave, to submit to his rule in ways that would ruin the freedom of Greece. We Greeks could meet in our Councils—oh, yes, we could meet! But the Councils would count for naught. The Great King’s word would be law. It would mean that we would be called out to fight the King’s battles, not our own—that he would take our young men to his court and make eunuchs of them, take our young girls for his concubines. Don’t you think that any state of Greece should prefer death to such a fate?”
“Yes, oh, yes,” she whispered with wide eyes. At last she was to know the truth.
“Yet this is the fate you tell me Argos prefers. I suppose,” he added whimsically, “you know all about the Council at the Isthmos of Corinth, from which I have just come.”
“No, nothing of that.”
“Then I will tell you. Athens, Sparta, and all the lesser states who want to defend our Hellas have sent representatives to this congress. They are making our plan of defence. They have sent envoys to all the doubtful states of Greece, begging them to join in the fight. Now, here, my child, is my grief and should be yours—these states, Argos, Crete, and others sent at once to our Pythia to ask whether or not they should enter the war. And in every case the oracles have been negative. It has been so when there was no need.
“You know, my child, that oracles are not always clear! Just as prayers to the gods are not always answered. And when the oracles are not clear, surely it is because the Son of Leto wishes us to use our own wisdom in the interpretation thereof.
“These oracles to Argos and Crete came forth in confused utterance and could have been interpreted into splendid words of courage to those states. We could have forced them to join the League.”