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royal conspirator started and breathed hard.

      "It is the signal," he muttered; "they wait me. Cleonice," he said aloud, and with much earnestness in his voice, "I had hoped, ere we parted, to have drawn from your lips those assurances which would give me energy for the present and hope in the future. Ah, turn not from me because my speech is plain and my manner rugged. What, Cleonice, what if I could defy the laws of Sparta; what if, instead of that gloomy soil, I could bear thee to lands where heaven and man alike smile benignant on love? Might I not hope then?"

      "Do nothing to sully your fame."

      "Is it, then, dear to thee?"

      "It is a part of thee," said Cleonice falteringly; and as if she had said too much, she covered her face with her hands.

      Emboldened by this emotion, the Spartan gave way to his passion and his joy. He clasped her in his arms—his first embrace—and kissed, with wild fervour, the crimsoned forehead, the veiling hands. Then, as he tore himself away, he cast his right arm aloft.

      "O Hercules!" he cried, in solemn and kindling adjuration, "my ancestor and my divine guardian, it was not by confining thy labours to one spot of earth, that thou wert borne from thy throne of fire to the seats of the Gods. Like thee I will spread the influence of my arms to nations whoso glory shall be my name; and as thy sons, my fathers, expelled from Sparta, returned thither with sword and spear to defeat usurpers and to found the long dynasty of the Heracleids, even so may it be mine to visit that dread abode of torturers and spies, and to build up in the halls of the Atridae a power worthier of the lineage of the demigod. Again the signal! Fear not, Cleonice, I will not tarnish my fame, but I will exchange the envy of abhorring rivals for the obedience of a world. One kiss more! Farewell!"

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      1

      The late Lord Lytton, in his unpublished autobiographical memoirs, describing his contemporaries at Cambridge, speaks of Dr. Kennedy as "a young giant of learning."—L.

      2

      Moore's "Life and Letters of Lord Byron," p. 723.

      3

      Plutarch, "Life of Cimon."

      4

      "Harold."

1

The late Lord Lytton, in his unpublished autobiographical memoirs, describing his contemporaries at Cambridge, speaks of Dr. Kennedy as "a young giant of learning."—L.

2

Moore's "Life and Letters of Lord Byron," p. 723.

3

Plutarch, "Life of Cimon."

4

"Harold."

5

Gibbon, ch. 17.

6

"The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period the denomination of the Golden Horn. The curve which it describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or, as it should seem, with more propriety to that of an ox."—Gib. c. 17; Strab. 1. x.

7

Ion apud Plut.

8

Herod. ix. 82.

9

Plut. in Vit. Arist.

10

Leader of ten men.

11

Plat. Leg. i. p. 633. See also Müller's Dorians, vol. ii. p. 41.

12

Pueros puberos—neque prius in urbem redire quam viri facti essent.—Justin, iii. 3.

13

When Themistocles sought to extort tribute from the Andrians, he said, "I bring with me two powerful gods—Persuasion and Force." "And on our side," was the answer, "are two deities not less powerful—Poverty and Despair!"

14

The appellation of Mothons was not confined to the Helots who claimed the connection of foster-brothers, but was given also to household slaves.

15

No Spartan served as a sailor, or indeed condescended to any trade or calling, but that of war.

16

Pind. Isth. v. (vi.) 73.

17

Paus. Lac. x.

18

Ib., c. xviii.

19

"The Byzantine dialect was in the time of Philip, as we know from the decree in Demosthenes, rich in Dorisms."—Müller on the Doric Dialect.

20

Fighting-cocks were fed with garlic, to make them more fierce. The learned reader will remember how Theorus advised Dicaeopolis to keep clear of the Thracians with garlic in their mouths.—See the Acharnians of Aristoph.

21

Garlands were twined round the neck, or placed upon the bosom (Greek: upothumiades). See the quotations from Alcaeus, Sappho, and Anacreon in Athenaeus, book xiii. c. 17.

22

So said Thucydides of the Spartans, many years afterwards. "They give evidence of honour among themselves, but with respect to others, they consider honourable whatever pleases them, and just whatever is to their advantage."—See Thucyd. lib. v.

23

Herod, ix.