forth early, dearest Prexaspes," spoke the Egyptian, throwing back
her veil, and even in the starlight he saw the anxious flash of her eyes,
"does the battle join so soon that you take so little sleep?"

"It joins early, lady," spoke Glaucon, his wits wandering. In the
intensity of his purpose he had not thought of the partings with the
people he must henceforth reckon foes. He was sorely beset, when Roxana
drew near and laid her hand upon his shoulder.

"Your Greeks will resist terribly," she spoke. "We women dread the battle
more than you. Yours is the fierce gladness of the combat, ours only the
waiting, the heavy tidings, the sorrow. Therefore Artazostra and I could
not sleep, but have been watching together. You will of course be near
Mardonius my brother. You will guard him from all danger. Leonidas will
resist fearfully when at bay. Ah! what is this?"

In pressing closer she had discovered the Athenian wore no cuirass.

"You will not risk the battle without armour?" was her cry.

"I shall not need it, lady," answered he, and only half conscious what he
did, stretched forth as if to put her away. Roxana shrank back, grieved
and wondering, but Artazostra seized his arm quickly.

"What is this, Prexaspes? All is not well. Your manner is strange!"

He shook her off, almost savagely.

"Call me not Prexaspes," he cried, not in Persian, but in Greek. "I am
Glaucon of Athens; as Glaucon I must live, as Glaucon die. No man--not
though he desire it--can disown the land that bore him. And if I dreamed I
was a Persian, I wake to find myself a Greek. Therefore forget me forever.
I go to my own!"

"Prexaspes, my lover,"--Roxana, strong in fear and passion, clung about his
girdle, while again Artazostra seized him,--"last night I was in your arms.
Last night you kissed me. Are we not to be happy together? What is this
you say?"

He stood one instant silent, then shook himself and put them both aside
with a marvellous ease.

"Forget my name," he commanded. "If I have given you sorrow, I repent it.
I go to my own. Go you to yours. My place is with Leonidas--to save him, or
more like to die with him! Farewell!"

He sprang away from them. He saw Roxana sink upon the ground. He heard
Artazostra calling to the horse-boys and the eunuchs,--perhaps she bade
them to pursue. Once he looked back, but never twice. He knew the
watchwords, and all the sentries let him pass by freely. With a feverish
stride he traced the avenues