Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/106

34 HISTORY OF GREECE. women whose visit was expected. The hour had nearly ar lived, and they were preparing to play their parts, when an unexpected messenger knocked at the door, summoning Charon instantly into the presence of the polemarchs. All within were thunderstruck with the summons, which seemed to imply that the plot had been divulged, perhaps by the timid Hipposthenidas. It was agreed among them that Charon must obey at once. Nevertheless, he himself, even in the perilous uncertainty which beset him, was most of all apprehensive lest the friends whom he had sheltered should suspect him of treachery towards themselves and their cause. Before departing, therefore, he sent for his only son, a youth of fifteen, and of conspicuous promsie in every way. This youth he placed in the hands of Pelopidas, as a hostage for his own fidelity. But Pelopidas and the rest, vehemently disclaiming all suspicion, entreated Charon to put his son away, out of the reach of that danger in which all were now involved. Charon, how- ever, could not be prevailed on to comply, and left his son among them to share the fate of the rest. He went into the presence of Archias and Philippus ; whom he found already half-intoxicated, but informed, by intelligence from Athens, that some plot, they knew not by whom, was afloat. They had sent for him to ques- tion him, as a known friend of the exiles ; but he had little diffi- culty, aided by the collusion of Phyllidas, in blinding the vague suspicions of drunken men, anxious only to resume their convivi- ality. 1 He was allowed to retire and rejoin his friends. Never- theless, soon after his departure, so many were the favorable chances which befel these improvident men, a fresh message was delivered to Archias the polemarch, from his namesake Ar- chias the Athenian Hierophant, giving an exact account of the names and scheme of the conspirators, which had become known 1 Xenophon does not mention this separate summons and visit of Charon to the polemarchs, nor anything about the scene with his son. He only notices Charon as having harbored the conspirators in his house, and seems oven to speak of 5iim as a person of little consequence irapu. Xapuvi TIVI, etc. (v, 4, 3). The anecdote is mentioned in both the compositions of Plutarch (De Gen. Socr. c. 28, p. 595 ; and Pelopidas, c. 9), and is too interesting to be omitted, being perfectly consistent with what we read in Xenophon ; though it hof perhaps somewhat of a theatrical air.