s dear. Before the _Bozra_ had submitted to
her fate, she had led the _Nausicaae_ and her consort well down into the
southern AEgean. A little more and they would have lifted the shaggy
headlands of Crete. The route before the great trireme was a long one. Two
thousand stadia,(13) as the crow flies, sundered them from the Euripus,
the nearest point whence they could despatch a runner to Pausanias and
Aristeides; and what with the twistings around the scattered Cyclades the
route was one-fourth longer. But men had ceased reckoning distance. Their
hearts were in the flying oars, and at first the _Nausicaae_ ran leaping
across the waves as leaps the dolphin,--the long gleaming blades springing
like shuttles in the hands of the ready crew. They had taken from the
penteconter all her spare rowers, and to make the great ship bound over
the steel-gray deep was children's play. "We must save Hellas, and we
can!" That was the thought of all from Themistocles to the meanest
thranite.

So at the beginning when the task seemed light and hands were strong. The
breeze that had betrayed the _Bozra_ ever sank lower. Presently it died
altogether. The sails they set hung limp on the mast. The navarch had them
furled. The sea spread out before them, a glassy, leaden-coloured floor;
the waves roaring in their wake faded in a wide ripple far behind. To
hearten his men the _keleustes_ ceased his beating on the sounding-board,
and clapped lips to his pipe. The whole trireme chorussed the familiar
song together:--

"Fast and more fast
O'er the foam-spray we're passed.
And our creaking sails swell
To the swift-breathing blast,
For Poseidon's wild steeds
With their manifold feet,
Like a hundred white nymphs
On the blue sea-floor fleet.
And we wake as we go
Gray old Phorcys below,
Whilst on shell-clustered trumpets
The loud Tritons blow!
The loud Tritons blow!

"All of AEolus's train
Springing o'er the blue main
To our paeans reply
With their long, long refrain;
And the sea-folk upleap
From their dark weedy caves;
With a clear, briny laugh
They dance over the waves;
Now their mistress below,--
See bright Thetis go,
As she leads the mad revels,
While loud Tritons blow!
While loud Tritons blow!

"With the foam gliding white,
Where the light flash is bright.
We feel the live keel
Leaping on with delight;
And in melody wild
Men and Nereids and wind
Sing an