* * * * * * *

Xerxes left Sardis with the host amidst the same splendour with which he
had entered. Glaucon rode in the Life Guard, and saw royalty frequently,
for the king loved to meet handsome men. Once he held the stirrup as
Xerxes dismounted--an honour which provoked much envious grumbling.
Artazostra and Roxana travelled in their closed litters with the train of
women and eunuchs which followed every Persian army. Thus the myriads
rolled onward through Lydia and Mysia, drinking the rivers dry by their
numbers; and across the immortal plains of Troy passed that army which was
destined to do and suffer greater things than were wrought beside the
poet-sung Simois and Scamander, till at last they came to the Hellespont,
the green river seven furlongs wide, that sundered conquered Asia from the
Europe yet to be conquered.

Here were the two bridges of ships, more than three hundred in each, held
by giant cables, and which upbore a firm earthen road, protected by a high
bulwark, that the horses and camels might take no fright at the water.
Here, also, the fleet met them,--the armaments of the East, Phoenicians,
Cilicians, Egyptians, Cyprians,--more triremes and transports than had ever
before ridden upon the seas. And as he saw all this power, all directed by
one will, Glaucon grew even more despondent. How could puny, faction-rent
Hellas bear up against this might? Only when he looked on the myriads
passing, and saw how the captains swung long whips and cracked the lash
across the backs of their spearmen, as over driven cattle, did a little
comfort come. For he knew there was still a fire in Athens and Sparta, a
fire not in Susa nor in Babylon, which kindled free souls and free hands
to dare and do great things. "Whom will the high Zeus prosper when the
_slaves_ of Xerxes stand face to face with _men_?"

A proud thought,--but it ceased to comfort him, as all that afternoon he
stood near the marble throne of the "Lord of the World," whence Xerxes
overlooked his myriads while they filed by, watched the races of swift
triremes, and heard the proud assurances of his officers that "no king
since the beginning of time, not Thothmes of Egypt, not Sennacherib of
Assyria, not Cyrus nor Darius, had arrayed such hosts as his that day."

Then evening came. Glaucon was, after his wont, in the private pavilion of
Mardonius,--itself a palace walled with crimson tapestry in lieu of marble.
He sat silent and mood