San. Rest? we're all here—
We've only left the scullion, to keep house.
Thra. (to Gnatho). Form them in line; my post is in the rear;
Thence will I give command, and rule the fight.
Gna. (half-aside to the others). Most admirable tactics!
we to the front;
He takes the rear-guard—to secure retreat.
Thra. It was the plan great Pyrrhus always practised.
Thais soon discovers, as she says, that the champion whom she has called in as her protector has more need of a protector himself—for he is a fair match for Thraso in cowardice. However, he plucks up spirit enough to threaten that gallant officer, from the safe vantage of an upper window, with all the terrors of Athenian law, if he ventures to lay a hand upon his sister Pamphila—a free-born woman of Athens, as he openly asserts her to be; and since Thraso, somewhat daunted by this double peril, confines his hostile operations to a battle of words, the lady and her party very naturally get the best of it. By the advice of Gnatho—who has also more appetite for dinners than for fighting—the Captain determines to await the surrender of his enemy, which Gnatho assures him will follow next day, and withdraws his army; reminding his lieutenant, the cook, that for him, as for all good soldiers, as there is a time to fight, so also
"There is a time to think of hearth and home;"
a sentiment which Sanga fully reciprocates—
"My heart has been in the stew-pan long ago;"
