crowd, our altercation had caused a mob to collect, and, to give
weight to my argument, I pointed to limber-hamed Giton, drained dry, as
it were, and to myself, reduced almost to skin and bones by the raging
lust of that nymphomaniac harlot. So humiliated were our enemies by the
guffaws of the mob, that in gloomy ill-humor they beat a retreat to plot
revenge. As they perceived that we had prepossessed the mind of Lycurgus
in our favor, they decided to await his return, at his estate, in order
that they might wean him away from his misapprehension. As the
solemnities did not draw to a close until late at night, we could not
reach Lycurgus' country place, so he conducted us to a villa of his,
situated near the halfway point of the journey, and, leaving us to sleep
there until the next day, he set off for his estate for the purpose of
transacting some business. Upon his arrival, he found Lycas and
Tryphaena awaiting him, and they stated their case so diplomatically that
they prevailed upon him to deliver us into their hands. Lycurgus, cruel
by nature and incapable of keeping his word, was by this time striving to
hit upon the best method of betraying us, and to that end, he persuaded
Lycas to go for help, while he himself returned to the villa and had us
put under guard. To the villa he came, and greeted us with a scowl as
black as any Lycas himself had ever achieved, clenching his fists again
and again, he charged us with having lied about Lycas, and, turning
Ascyltos out, he gave orders that we were to be kept confined to the room
in which we had retired to rest. Nor would he hear a word in our
defense, from Ascyltos, but, taking the latter with him, he returned to
his estate, reiterating his orders relative to our confinement, which was
to last until his return. On the way back, Ascyltos vainly essayed to
break down Lycurgus' determination, but neither prayers nor caresses, nor
even tears could move him. Thereupon my "brother" conceived the design
of freeing us from our chains, and, antagonized by the stubbornness of
Lycurgus, he positively refused to sleep with him, and through this he
was in a better position to carry out the plan which he had thought out.
When the entire household was buried in its first sleep, Ascyltos loaded
our little packs upon his back and slipped out through a breach in the
wall, which he had previously noted, arriving at the villa with the dawn.
He gained entrance without opposition and