Now, a wind drove them off their course, and behind them came a pirate ship, and in front of them loomed the land.

"Is it Crete ?" they thought; "Crete, perhaps, and safety." But the oars flagged in the hands of the weary men, and the pirate gained.

Then Balaustion, springing to the altar by the mast, white, rosy, and uplifted, sang on high that song of AEschylus which saved at Salamis-- 'O sons of Greeks, go, set your country free, Free your wives, free your children, free the fanes O' the Gods, your fathers founded,--sepulchres They sleep in! Or save all, or all be lost.' The crew, impassioned by the girl, answered the song, and drove the boat on, "churning the black water white," till the land shone clear, and the wide town and the harbour, and lo, 'twas not Crete, but Syracuse, luckless fate! Out came a galley from the port.

"Who are you; Sparta's friend or foe ?" "Of Rhodes are we, Rhodes that has forsaken Athens!" "How, then, that song we heard?
All Athens was in that AEschylus.

Your boat is full of Athenians--back to the pirate; we want no Athenians here....