Lys. My lords, what have you to report? Have the men arrived?
1st Court. For a week past they have been arriving at the rate of fifty a day. The ships anchor in due course. At dead of night, when everything is still, the merchandise is landed and conveyed well disguised to the great storehouses of Lamachus' palace, with good store of arms and provisions.
2nd Court. Yes, and by the day of the festival we shall have more than five hundred well-armed men within the walls, who, while the people are feasting, will bear down all opposing forces and open the gates to the larger body, who will lie concealed in the grain-ships in the harbour.
Lys. Does no one suspect, think you, as yet?
1st Court. Not a soul. The merchandise is landed at dead of night.
3rd Court. Does the Prince know?
Lys. Not yet, not a word. I can't trust him with his blind love for his wife.
3rd Court. What if he will not be of us?
Lys. Then he shall be put under hatches at once for Bosphorus, and may take his wife with him if he pleases.