Before Peisandros left for Asia, he resorted to other devices to further his designs on the democracy, of which he had hitherto put himself forward as a firm supporter. He set the secret clubs in motion. The secret clubs in Athens, chiefly of the oligarchic faction, were of immense political importance. It was by them that the work of party intrigue was carried on. At no time in history, not even during the French Revolution, have secret clubs been better managed for this purpose than they were at this time in Athens, nor did they ever work together in more perfect order. While the democracy was unbroken and Athens flourished they dared not show themselves or their doings too openly. The time was now come for their hidden power to manifest itself. Their members need now hesitate at no crimes which might advance their political designs. Crimes might be done by them and be forever undiscovered, and so committed with impunity. Having set these secret societies to work, Peisandros left, with the ten deputies, for the court of Tissaphernes. Alkibiades had found the full length to which he could go with his friend the satrap, or, which was nearly the same thing, the amount of power the satrap had independently of the king. Stopping the pay of Spartan sailors was all very well: it saved the Persian’s purse. Keeping his master’s fleet in safety and idleness at Aspendos was better than furnishing it with its full complement of men and arms, and letting it be knocked about by the Athenian sailors. But an alliance out and out with Athens was different altogether. It meant parting with the Spartans finally, and all real chance of recovering dominion over the islands and coast towns of Ionia. The king was not under the spell of the favourite of Tissaphernes. He never would believe that the Athenians intended to give up a dominion they had bought at so great a cost and had exercised so long. Tissaphernes knew his master would decline the Athenian alliance, even when urged with the same arguments which his friend had used with so much force on him. So he was forced to tell his guest, with much regret, that there were difficulties in the way. But neither was Alkibiades willing that all the terms of the propounded treaty should be accepted. He distrusted Peisandros, and despised the wretched Phrynichos. He did not believe in an oligarchic government for Athens. Much as he longed to get back home again, he would not go there but with honour. Little as the people deserved his care and sympathy, he declined to inflict further punishment upon them. We shall see how—like another exile who, seventeen hundred years afterwards, rejected the desire of his soul, and refused to return to his beloved birthplace upon conditions which he deemed unworthy of him—he nobly refused the great object of his life, rather than obtain it to his country’s detriment. Such was the condition of affairs when Peisandros arrived for a second time at Magnesia with his ten colleagues.