ell what sort of enemies
they had to deal with, urgently recommended that an assault should be
made that night, supposing that the Spartans would succeed in making
additional defenses if the attack were postponed until the morning.
Pyrrhus, however, was disposed not to make the attack until the
following day. He felt perfectly sure of his prize, and was,
accordingly, in no haste to seize it. He thought, it was said, that if
the attack were made in the night, the soldiers would plunder the
city, and thus he should lose a considerable part of the booty which
he hoped otherwise to secure for himself. He could control them better
in the daytime. He accordingly determined to remain in his camp,
without the city, during the night, and to advance to the assault in
the morning. So he ordered the tents to be pitched on the plain, and
sat quietly down.

In the mean time, great activity prevailed within the walls. The
senate was convened, and was engaged in debating and deciding the
various questions that necessarily arise in such an emergency. A plan
was proposed for removing the women from the city, in order to save
them from the terrible fate which would inevitably await them, should
the army of Pyrrhus be successful on the following day. It was thought
that they might go out secretly on the side opposite to that on which
Pyrrhus was encamped, and thence be conducted to the sea-shore, where
they might be conveyed in ships and galleys to the island of Crete,
which, as will appear from the map, was situated at no great distance
from the Spartan coast. By this means the mothers and daughters, it
was thought, would be saved, whatever might be the fate of the
husbands and brothers. The news that the senate were discussing such a
plan as this was soon spread abroad among the people. The women were
aroused to the most strenuous opposition against this plan. They
declared that they never would seek safety for themselves by going
away, and leaving their fathers, husbands, and brothers in such
danger. They commissioned one of their number, a princess named
Archidamia, to make known to the senate the views which they
entertained of this proposal. Archidamia went boldly into the
senate-chamber, with a drawn sword in her hand, and there arrested the
discussion in which the senators were engaged by demanding how they
could entertain such an opinion of the women of Sparta as to suppose
that they could survive the destruction of the city and