"How will the surrender be made?" Ariston asked.
"The king will order the fleets out of both harbors," the prince explained. "They will be destroyed, and care will be taken to leave the harbor entrances unguarded."
"Does Alexander know this?" Esmun demanded.
"Not yet," said the prince. "I am to go to him to-night with the chancellor to make him the offer."
"Then you have consented to it?" the priest said.
"I was not asked to consent," the prince replied bitterly. "You know that the king is not in the habit of consulting me."
"Yet he proposes to take your inheritance from you!" Esmun exclaimed. "If Baal intervenes, the city will be saved and you will be its king."
"Does the council know?" Ariston asked.
"It does not," Hur replied.
"There is only one course open to you," Esmun declared, roused as he had not been since the long struggle that ended in raising him above his rivals and placing him in a position that gave him almost as much power as the king himself. "Go with the chancellor, since to refuse now would arouse suspicion. Get proof of the king's treachery and lay it at once before the council and the generals. Azemilcus will be dealt with according to their will, and you will be made king in his stead. That you may leave to me if you can obtain the proof; but it must be strong."