The man halted breathless before the white-clad group that stood in the sunlight between the columns awaiting him.
"It is Cimon," Agias said. "What news dost thou bring—speak!"
"Alexander is before the walls of Thebes with his army!" the messenger panted.
"Whence came he?" Agias demanded.
"Out of the mountains of Thessaly—like a whirlwind!" Cimon replied. "Before men had time to learn of his approach, he was there."
"Like a whirlwind, you say?" Agias repeated, glancing at Clearchus.
"Like a whirlwind, indeed," the messenger replied, "and panic holds the city!"
"Thy question is answered, my son," said Agias, quietly.
Clearchus was amazed. He had believed that the words of the Pythia were to be taken in their literal sense, and he had resolved to consult Aristotle in the matter on his return to Athens. But when Agias called his attention to the reply of the messenger, who could have had no knowledge of the prophecy, he could not doubt that a metaphor had been intended. The plans of the young Macedonian monarch at once acquired a new and intense interest in his mind and he listened eagerly to Cimon's story.
"The Thebans are divided," said the messenger. "They know not whether to surrender their city and earn their pardon, or to give defiance to the young king. The last they had heard of him was that he had been slain in battle at Pelium by the blow of a club. You know already that the citizens rose when Phœnix and Prothytes came back from Athens and that they besieged the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea. Athens sent money and promised an army. The Bœotarchs ordered the walls to be made strong and a barricade to be built inside so that even if the walls should fall, they would still be able to defend themselves. Fugitives from Onchestris brought the first news that Alexander and his army were there. Even then the city would not believe it was the Hegemon himself, but maintained that it must be Antipater or the Lyncestian namesake of the king. For how, they asked, could the dead come to life?"