In the midst of this religious zeal and fury a meeting of the Ekklesia was summoned to give its last instructions to the generals. For a time, while the concluding counsels were being taken, and the plan of the campaign settled,—and it was being arranged how, after succouring Egesta against its enemies, the people of Leontini should be restored, and how, when Syrakuse had been taken, its inhabitants should be sold as slaves,—the cloud which had hung over Athens for the last few days was almost dissipated. The Assembly was about to separate, having given full powers to their trusted generals to act, in all contingencies, as it might seem best to them for the good of Athens and her allies, when Pythonikos mounted the Tribune and demanded silence. ‘Athenians,’ cried he, ‘one of the men to whom you have given the care of this great armament, a general to whom you have confided the safety of your soldiers, your sailors, your ships, and perhaps the future of the State, is a profaner of the mysteries of Eleusis. I am here by my witnesses to prove it; do to me as to you seems good if I fail to establish this accusation.’ On minds already strung to the highest pitch by that other dire undiscovered sacrilege this charge fell like a thunderbolt. The Ekklesia was paralyzed, and sat in stupid silence. Pythonikos continued: ‘I will call before you one Andromachos, a slave, who, being himself uninitiated, will tell you how he saw the mysteries profaned, and on his oath before the gods declare it was Alkibiades himself who did it.’ The slave was called, but before he gave his evidence all who had not been initiated were ordered by the President to leave the Ekklesia, lest they might hear what it was not lawful for them to know about the holy mysteries. Andromachos related to those who stayed, scarce knowing what they listened to, in their horror and astonishment, all he pretended to have seen and heard—how, being in the house of Polytion, he had seen Alkibiades and Miletos and Nikiakles burlesque and parody the sacred rites. Alkibiades rose in indignation, denounced the charge as a conspiracy of certain oligarchs and of his personal enemies to deprive him of the command with which the people had invested him, and declared the base charge had been kept back till the last moment in order that he might not have an opportunity of meeting it before he sailed. He called upon them to judge him then and there, and not only to deprive him of his command, but decree that death he well deserved if this accusation should be proved against him.