“Just one moment please,” said Ephialtes. “I will wait for Ariadne, or Persephone of Eleusis, to join me on the throne.”
He paused impressively, but Persephone did not move.
“What,” he cried in indignation, “Did you not promise to become my bride when Thermopylæ’s traitor would be revealed by me?”
Persephone walked slowly toward Ephialtes who stretched forth eager arms to receive her, but she stopped a few paces before him and on her face was an inscrutable smile.
“Not so fast, Ephialtes. I want the proof. You dare not make such a statement without sufficient evidence against him.”
Ephialtes was confused. He had not had enough time to make up false testimony, but he knew that his future happiness depended now upon how successfully he placed the blame of his guilt upon the innocent man before him.
“Hear me,” he said, “and I will tell you the circumstances.”
“Your testimony can avail naught, for my protector here is a native Persian who knows nothing of the mountain passes of Greece,” said Persephone in a voice that rang clearly as a bell through the great hall. A death-like stillness pervaded the cella; nought was heard but the sharp intake of Ephialtes’ breath, then from his lips there burst in stentorian tones: “If this be true, a Persian in our midst is as deserving of death as a traitor! Friends will you allow him even so much as to touch the Persephone of the Mysteries?”
At this Persephone became alarmed and feared lest in her ardent desire to defend her protector, she had only made matters worse. Zopyrus, seeing her agitated countenance, smiled reassuringly and raised his arm to command general attention. A few rabid revelers rushed forward to do violence to his person but were checked by a voice in the throng: “Hear him! No man should be condemned without being permitted to say a word in his own behalf.”
The furious denunciations of the intolerant ones subsided, and Zopyrus turned and walked slowly toward Ephialtes who gradually retreated before the compelling gaze of his antagonist, till he reached the throne upon which he sat, quite unconscious of what he did. Zopyrus’ demeanor changed instantly. He bowed low before the amazed man upon the throne and said with impressive solemnity: