CHAPTER XXV
THE ACROPOLIS FLAMES
A few days only Xerxes and his host rested after the dear-bought triumph at Thermopylæ. An expedition sent to plunder Delphi returned discomfited—thanks, said common report, to Apollo himself, who broke off two mountain crags to crush the impious invaders. But no such miracle halted the march on Athens. Bœotia and her cities welcomed the king; Thespiæ and Platæa, which had stood fast for Hellas, were burned. The Peloponnesian army lingered at Corinth, busy with a wall across the Isthmus, instead of risking valorous battle.
“By the soul of my father,” the king had sworn, “I believe that after the lesson at Thermopylæ these madmen will not fight again!”
“By land they will not,” said Mardonius, always at his lord’s elbow, “by sea—it remains for your Eternity to discover.”
“Will they really dare to fight by sea?” asked Xerxes, hardly pleased at the suggestion.
“Omnipotence, you have slain Leonidas, but a second great enemy remains. While Themistocles lives, it is likely your slaves will have another opportunity to prove to you their devotion.”
“Ah, yes! A stubborn rogue, I hear. Well—if we must fight by sea, it shall be under my own eyes. My loyal [pg 269]Phœnician and Egyptian mariners did not do themselves full justice at Artemisium; they lacked the valour which comes from being in the presence of their king.”