Shaking off his despondency, he began to reason with himself. ‘Of what avail is it,’ he said, ‘to lie here? The night creeps on apace. To-morrow the enemy will attack us, and there is not one of us who thinks of preparing for defence. All are lying prone, as if this were a time for inaction and giving way to despair. For what should I wait, or for whom? It is clear that I must help myself.’ With these words he sprang to his feet, and calling together the captains of the company of Proxenus, he proceeded to address them, saying, ‘I cannot sleep, and you in like manner are unable to close your eyes for thinking of the perilous situation in which we find ourselves. From the Great King we can look for nothing but fury and vengeance, for we came hither to unseat him from his throne. ‘Nevertheless it seems to me that our condition is not such that we should give way to despair, for the gods are angry with the Barbarians because they have broken the peace they swore to maintain. The gods will therefore be on our side. Moreover we can endure frost and heat better than the weakly Persians, and are in every way, thank the gods, made of better stuff. Let us therefore not delay, but at once put our hands to the work. On us everything depends, for the soldiers will follow our lead. If they see us wanting in courage they will be faint-hearted, but if we show ourselves ready for anything that may be in store for us, whether of toil or danger, and encourage a like spirit in our comrades, the soldiers will follow our example and be ashamed of their faint-heartedness.’ All the captains but one agreed with Xenophon, but there was one who thought otherwise, a certain Apollonides, who appeared by his speech to be a Bœotian. This man said that it was madness to dream of any other deliverance than that which they might hope to gain by throwing themselves upon the mercy of the Great King, and began to reckon up all the hardships that lay before them. But Xenophon cut him short. ‘Thou fool,’ he said, ‘thou hast eyes and ears, but canst neither see nor hear. When the King demanded our arms, and we refused to give them up and began to march away, was he not then most anxious to enter into a treaty with us? And is it not in consequence of having trusted in his promises that we have fallen into this present distress? Ye captains, this man has not the mind of a Hellene, he is a disgrace to our brave Hellas. Let us not endure him among us any longer, he is only fit to be among the camp-followers and carry the baggage.’ ‘In truth,’ said one of the captains, ‘Apollonides is no Bœotian, nor indeed a Hellene of any sort, but a Barbarian from Lydia. This you can tell by looking at his ears, which have been pierced.’ So indeed it proved, and Apollonides was turned away.