When the Ethiopians approached, and observed Bagoas, from his features, to be a eunuch, and incapable of resistance, and the others unarmed and in chains, but of extraordinary grace and beauty, they inquired who they were. They made use of an Egyptian interpreter, whom they carried with them, who understood besides a little Persian, concluding that the prisoners spoke one or other of these tongues; for experience had taught them that a body detached as spies and scouts ought always to have some one with them who naturally speaks or understands the language of the country which they are sent to reconnoitre. Theagenes, who, from his long residence in the land, had acquired something of the Egyptian tongue, replied, that the eunuch was one of the chief officers of the Persian viceroy; that he himself and Chariclea were Grecians by birth, taken prisoners, first by the Persians, and now voluntary captives to the Ethiopians, as they hoped, under better auspices. The enemy determined to spare their lives, and to deliver them, as the first fruits of victory, to their sovereign, looking upon them as amongst the most valuable possessions of the satrap; eunuchs are reckoned as the eyes and ears of a Persian court, having neither children nor connexions to turn aside their fidelity, they are wholly attached to the person and service of their master;[17] their young prisoners, too, appeared to them to be the most beautiful persons they had ever seen, and promised to be conspicuous ornaments to the royal household. They mounted them, therefore, upon horses, and carried them along with them, though the accident of Bagoas, and the fetters of the others, prevented their travelling very fast. Here, then, was a kind of prologue to another drama:--just before they were prisoners in a foreign land, and on the verge of being brought out to a public and ignominious execution; now they were being carried, or rather escorted, though in captive guise, by those destined, ere long, to be their subjects. Such was their present situation. [Footnote 1: See Book II. and Book III.] [Footnote 2: μηχαναῖς τειχoμάχοις.] [Footnote 3: ὧν ἐις τὴν σύλληψιν ἐμὲ κληρονόμον ὁ πατὴρ κατελέλοιπεν.] [Footnote 4: .... "Nihil est audacius illis Deprensis; iram atque animos a crimine sumunt." Juv. VI. 284. ] [Footnote 5: "Hoc volo, sic jubeo, stat pro ratione voluntas." Juv. VI. 223. ] [Footnote 6: "ὀφθαλμὸς φιλίας πρόξενος· καὶ τὸ σύνηθες τῆς κοινωνίας." Achilles Tatius, Β. i. ] [Footnote 7: oὕτως ὑπτίως προσιοῦσα.] [Footnote 8: "Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quæ Ipse sibi tradit spectator."---Hor. A. P. 180. ] [Footnote 9: