Pausanias turned and muttered to himself, and at that instant Aristides approached.
"If it please you, Pausanias, Cimon and myself, the leaders of the Athenians, would crave a hearing upon certain matters."
"Your pardon, Pausanias," returned the Athenian, lowering his voice, and with a smile--"This is too crowded a council-hall; may we attend you on board your galley?"
"Not so," answered the Spartan haughtily; "the morning to affairs, the evening to recreation. We shall sail in the bay to see the moon rise, and if we indulge in consultations, it will be over our winecups. It is a good custom."
"It is a Persian one," said Cimon bluntly.
"It is permitted to us," returned the Spartan coldly, "to borrow from those we conquer. But enough of this. I have no secrets with the Athenians. No matter if the whole city hear what you would address to Pausanias."
"It is to complain," said Aristides with calm emphasis, but still in an undertone.
"Ay, I doubt it not: the Athenians are eloquent in grumbling."
"It was not found so at Plataea," returned Cimon.
"Son of Miltiades," said Pausanias loftily, "your wit outruns your experience. But my time is short. To the matter!"
"If you will have it so, I will speak," said Aristides, raising his voice. "Before your own Spartans, our comrades in arms, I proclaim our causes of complaint. Firstly, then, I demand release and compensation to seven Athenians, free-born and citizens, whom your orders have condemned to the unworthy punishment of standing all day in the open sun with the weight of iron anchors on their shoulders."
"The mutinous knaves!" exclaimed the Spartan. "They introduced into the camp the insolence of their own agora, and were publicly heard in the streets inveighing against myself as a favourer of the Persians."
"It was easy to confute the charge; it was tyrannical to punish words in men whose deeds had raised you to the command of Greece."
"_Their_ deeds! Ye Gods, give me patience! By the help of Juno the protectress it was this brain and this arm that--But I will not justify myself by imitating the Athenian fashion of wordy boasting. Pass on to your next complaint."
"You have placed slaves--yes, Helots--around the springs, to drive away with scourges the soldiers that come for water."