| #### CHAPTER 101 |

| #### #### Now after Xerxes had sailed down the whole line and was gone ashore, he sent for Demaratus the son of Ariston, who had accompanied him in his march upon Greece, and bespake him thus: #### "Demaratus, it is my pleasure at this time to ask thee certain things which I wish to know. Thou art a Greek, and, as I hear from the other Greeks with whom I converse, no less than from thine own lips, thou art a native of a city which is not the meanest or the weakest in their land. Tell me, therefore, what thinkest thou? Will the Greeks lift a hand against us? Mine own judgment is, that even if all the Greeks and all the barbarians of the West were gathered together in one place, they would not be able to abide my onset, not being really of one mind. But I would fain know what thou thinkest hereon." #### Thus Xerxes questioned; and the other replied in his turn, - "O king! is it thy will that I give thee a true answer, or dost thou wish for a pleasant one?" #### Then the king bade him speak the plain truth, and promised that he would not on that account hold him in less favour than heretofore. ####  |