Well, let them go if they must go; she, to her last ship, to her last timber, to her last man, to her last drachma, she would still fight, and, if the gods decreed it, she would die fighting. As long as her liberty should last and her democracy should remain, she would never lose her courage. That was a country to be proud of, a race to boast about. Did her great son far away in Lakedaimôn, while he was counselling, directing all the movements of her foes against her—did he ever in his heart feel a secret pride that he was sprung from her? Was his just wrath ever so little cooling, or did it still burn so fiercely that he could not see her glory? The Athenian Ekklesia decreed the creation of a new fleet, the suppression of every expense not actually necessary, the immediate fortification of Sounion, to prevent her corn supplies from being cut off by sea, as they had been by land. Aristokrates was sent to Chios, where the oligarchic party was expecting every day the arrival of the promised Spartan fleet. There he demanded assistance according to the terms of the treaty of Delos. They delayed him as long as they could, and until they began to despair of aid from Sparta. The democratic party at Chios, as in other places, still clung, though coldly, to the Athenian alliance. At last they provided seven triremes fully manned. With these Aristokrates hastened back to Athens. Adding them to some thirty others, which were all the Athenians could get together, they determined to stop, if possible, the joint fleet of Sparta and her allies from leaving Kenchreia. That fleet had got into the Saronic Gulf before the Athenian and Chian ships came up with them, but was then forced to take refuge in another Corinthian port. There the Athenians, having landed some of their hoplites, attacked the enemy by sea and land, slew many of them, including their admiral, and blockaded the whole fleet. On news of this disaster reaching Sparta, the new friends of Alkibiades were for giving up the expedition at once, and would have done so but for him. The oligarchic Lakedaimôn did not, at this period, prove itself so steadfast in misfortune as its democratic sister in Attika had done. But the determined spirit of Alkibiades moved amongst the Spartans indefatigably. It needed, indeed, all his energy and power of persuasion to keep them up to their engagements with the Persian Tissaphernes and with Chios. ‘Let me go off at once to Chios before news of the blockade of your fleet is known. They will trust me more than anyone. The picture I shall draw of the Athenian distress, and the readiness you will show by sending me to their assistance, will so encourage them in their revolt that this slight reverse on the Korinthian coast will not endanger our great plans.’