u been since I sent you off in
the winter to visit Asia?"

The man, who knew his master loved to do the lion's share of the talking,
answered instantly:--

"Sardis, Emesa, Babylon, Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana."

"_Eu!_ Your commission is well executed. Are all the rumours we hear from
the East well founded? Is Xerxes assembling an innumerable host?"

"Rumour does not tell half the truth. Not one tribe in Asia but is
required to send its fighting men. Two bridges of boats are being built
across the Hellespont. The king will have twelve hundred war triremes,
besides countless transports. The cavalry are being numbered by hundreds
of thousands, the infantry by millions. Such an army was never assembled
since Zeus conquered the Giants."

"A merry array!" Themistocles whistled an instant through his teeth; but,
never confounded, urged on his questions. "So be it. But is Xerxes the man
to command this host? He is no master of war like Darius his father."

"He is a creature for eunuchs and women; nevertheless his army will not
suffer."

"And wherefore?"

"Because Prince Mardonius, son of Gobryas, and brother-in-law of the king,
has the wisdom and valour of Cyrus and Darius together. Name him, and you
name the arch-foe of Hellas. He, not Xerxes, will be the true leader of
the host."

"You saw him, of course?"

"I did not. A Magian in Ecbatana told me a strange story. 'The Prince,'
said he, 'hates the details of camps; leaving the preparation to others,
he has gone to Greece to spy out the land he is to conquer.' "

"Impossible, you are dreaming!" The exclamation came not from Themistocles
but Democrates.

"I am not dreaming, worthy sir," returned Sicinnus, tartly; "the Magian
may have lied, but I sought the Prince in every city I visited; they
always told me, 'He is in another.' He was not at the king's court. He may
have gone to Egypt, to India, or to Arabia;--he _may_ likewise have gone to
Greece."

"These are serious tidings, Democrates," remarked Themistocles, with an
anxiety his voice seldom betrayed. "Sicinnus is right; the presence of
such a man as Mardonius in Hellas explains many things."

"I do not understand."

"Why, the lukewarmness of so many friends we had counted on, the
bickerings which arose among the Confederates when we met just now at the
Isthmus, the slackness of all Spartans save Leonidas in preparing for war,
the hesitancy of Corcyra in joining us. Thebes is Medizing, Crete is
Medizing,