They held out their hands. He kissed them. He saw tears on the long lashes of Roxana.
“Farewell,” spoke the women, simply.
“Farewell,” he answered. He turned from them. He knew they were re-entering the tent. He never saw the women again.
Mardonius accompanied him all the long way from the fount of Callirhoë to the sea-shore. Glaucon protested, but the bow-bearer would not hearken.
“You have saved my life, Athenian,” was his answer, “when you leave me now, it is forever.”
The moon was lifting above the gloomy mass of Hymettus and scattering all the Attic plain with her pale gold. The Acropolis Rock loomed high above them. Glaucon, looking upward, saw the moonlight flash on the spear point and shield of a soldier,—a Barbarian standing sentry on the ruined shrine of the Virgin Goddess. Once more the Alcmæonid was leaving Athens, but with very different thoughts than on that other night when he had fled at Phormio’s side. They quitted the desolate city and the sleeping camp. The last bars of day had long since dimmed in the west when before them loomed the hill of Munychia clustered also with tents, and beyond it the violet-black vista of the sea. A forest of masts crowded the havens, the fleet of the “Lord of the World” that was to complete his mastery with the returning sun. Mardonius did not lead Glaucon to the ports, but southward, where beyond the little point of Colias spread an open sandy beach. The night waves lapped softly. The wind had sunk to warm puffs from the southward. They heard the rattle of anchor-chains and tackle-blocks, but from far away. Beyond the vague promontory of Peiræus rose dark mountains and headlands, at their foot lay a sprinkling of lights.
“Salamis!” cried Glaucon, pointing. “Yonder are the ships of Hellas.”
Mardonius walked with him upon the shelving shore. A skiff, small but stanch, was ready with oars.
“What else will you?” asked the bow-bearer. “Gold?”
“Nothing. Yet take this.” Glaucon unclasped from his waist the golden belt Xerxes had bestowed at Sardis. “A Hellene I went forth, a Hellene I return.”