I beg you by all that is holy to listen to me; and if there be found any guilt in me, let me not leave this place till I have paid the penalty of my misdoing; but if my accusers are found guilty, treat them as they deserve.  I presume, sirs, you know where the sun rises and where he sets, and that he who would go to Hellas must needs journey towards the sunset; whereas he who seeks the land of the barbarian must contrariwise fix 6 his face towards the dawn.  Now is that a point in which a man might hope to cheat you?  Could any one make you believe that the sun rises here and sets there, or that he sets here and rises there?  And doubtless you know this too, that it is Boreas, the north wind, who bears the mariner out of Pontus towards Hellas, and the south wind inwards towards the Phasis, whence the saying—­

      “’When the North wind doth blow
        Home to Hellas we will go[1].’

[1] Whether this was a local saying or a proverb I cannot say.  The
    words have a poetical ring about them:  “When Borrhas blows, fair
    voyages to Hellas.”

“He would be a clever fellow who could befool you into embarking with a south wind blowing.  That sounds all very well, you think, only I may get you on board during a calm.  Granted, but I shall be on board my one ship, and you on board another hundred at least, and how am I to constrain you to voyage with me against your will, or by what cajolery shall I carry you off?  But I will imagine you so far befooled and bewitched by me, that I have got you to the Phasis; we proceed to disembark on dry land.  At last it will come out, that wherever you are, you are not in Hellas, and the inventor of the trick will be one sole man, and you who have been caught by it will number something like ten thousand with swords in your hands.  I do not know how a man could better ensure his own punishment than by embarking on such a policy with regards to himself and you.

“Nay, these tales are the invention of silly fellows who are jealous of the honour you bestow on me.  A most uncalled-for jealousy!  Do I hinder any of them from speaking any word of import in his power? of striking a blow in your behalf and his own, if that is his choice? or, finally, of keeping his eyes and ears open to secure your safety?  What is it?  In your choice of leaders do I stand in the way of any one, is that it?  Let him step forward, I yield him place; he shall be your general; only he must prove that he has your good at heart.

“For myself, I have done; but for yourselves, if any of you conceive 11 either that he himself could be the victim of a fraud, or that he could victimise any one else in such a thing as this, let him open his lips and explain to us how.  Take your time, but when you have sifted the matter to your hearts’ content, do not go away without suffering me to tell you of something which I see looming.  If it should burst upon us and prove in fact anything like what