Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/36

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28 DEMOSTHENES. fer to be searched, out of respect, as Theopompus writes, to the bride, who was witliin. Demosthenes resisted the inquisition, and proposed a decree to refer the business to the court of Areopagus, and to punish those whom that court should find guilty. But being himself one of the first whom the court con- demned, when he came to the bar, he was fined fifty talents, and committed to prison ; where, out of shame of the crime for which he was condemned, and through the weakness of his body, growing incapable of supporting the confinement, he made his escape, by the carelessness of some and by the connivance of others of the citizens. We are told, at least, that he had not fled far from the city, when, finding that he was pursued by some of those who had been his adversaries, he endeavored to hide him- self But when they called him by his name, and coming up nearer to him, desired he would accept from them some money which they had brought from home as a provision for his journey, and to that purpose only had followed him, when they entreated him to take courage, and to bear up against his misfortune, he burst out into much greater lamentation, saying, " But how is it possible to support myself xmder so heavy an afiiiction, since I leave a city in which I have such enemies, as in any other it is not easy to find friends." He did not show much fortitude in his banishment, spending his time for the most part in iEgina and Troezen, and, with tears in his eyes, looking towards the country of Attica. And there remain upon record some sayings of his, little re- sembling those sentiments of generosity and bravery which he used to express when he had the management of the commonwealth. For, as he was departing out of the city, it is reported, he lifted up his hands towards the Acropohs, and said, " Lady Minerva, how is it that