and resistance on the part of the men, and screaming on the part of the women, the prisoners one and all capitulated, and put their names to the papyri they were commanded to sign; and away went a boat dancing over the waves to Puteoli to cash the money orders, after which the captives would be set ashore at Baiae. Last of the wretches brought before Demetrius came Phaon. The freedman had been roughly handled; across his brow a great welt had risen where a pirate had struck him with a rope's end. His arms were pinioned behind his back. He was perfectly pale, and his eyes wandered from one person to another as if vainly seeking some intercessor. "_Euge! Kyrios_[170]" cried the pirate chief, "you indeed seem to enjoy our hospitality but ill." [170] Your Highness. Phaon fell on his knees. "I am a poor man," he began to whimper. "I have no means of paying a ransom. My patron is not here to protect or rescue me. I have nothing to plunder. _Mu! mu!_ set me free, most noble pirate! Oh! most excellent prince, what have I done, that you should bear a grudge against me?" "Get up, fellow," snapped Demetrius; "I'm not one of those crocodile-headed Egyptian gods that they grovel before in the Nile country. My cousin Agias here says he knows you. Now answer--are you a Greek?" "I am an Athenian born." "Don't you think I can smell your Doric accent by that broad alpha? You are a Sicilian, I'll be bound!" Phaon made a motion of sorrowful assent. "_Phui!_" continued Demetrius, "tell me, Agias, is this the creature that tried to murder Quintus Drusus?" Agias nodded. "A fit minister for such a man as I imagine the son of Lucius Domitius to be. Eurybiades, take off that fellow's bands; he is not worth one stroke of the sword." "The captain will not spare the knave!" remonstrated the sanguinary lieutenant. "What I have said, I have said," retorted the other; then, when Phaon's arms hung free, "See, on the strength of our fellowship in our both being Greeks, I have set you at large!" Phaon again sank to his knees to proffer thanks. "Hold!" cried Demetrius, with a menacing gesture. "Don't waste your gratitude. Greek you pretend to be, more the shame! Such as you it is that have brought Hellas under the heel of the oppressor; such as you have made the word of a Hellene almost valueless in the Roman courts, so that juries have to be warned to consider us all liars; such as you have dragged down into the pit many an honest man; ay, myself too!" Phaon left off his thanks and began again to supplicate. "Stop whining, hound!" roared Demetrius; "haven't I said you are free? Free, but on one condition!" "Anything, anything, my lord," professed the freedman, "money, service--" "On this condition," and a broad, wicked smile over-spread the face of the pirate, "that you quit this ship instantly!" "Gladly, gladly, merciful sir!" commenced Phaon again; "where is the boat?"