94 HISTORICAL TALES.

and that this son “would, like a rock, fall on the
kingly race and right the city of Corinth.”

The Bacchiade heard of this oracle, and likewise
knew of an earlier one that had the same signifi-
cance. Forwarned is forearmed. They remained
quiet, waiting until Aétion’s child should be born, and
proposing then to take steps for their own safety.

When, therefore, they heard that Labda had borne
a son, they sent ten of their followers to Petra (the
rock), where Aétion dwelt, with instructions to kill
the child. These assassins entered Aétion’s house,
and, with murder in their hearts, asked Labda, with
assumed friendliness, if they might see her child.
She, looking upon them as friends of her husband,
whom kindly feeling had brought thither, gladly
complied, and, bringing the infant, laid it in the arms
of one of the ruffianly band.

It had been agreed between them that whoever
first laid hold of the child should dash it to the ground.
But as the innocent intended victim lay in the mur-
derer’s arms, it smiled in his face so confidingly that
he had not the heart to do the treacherous deed.
He passed the child, therefore, on to another, who
passed it to a third, and so it went the rounds of the
ten, disarming them all by its happy and trusting
smile from performing the vile deed for which they
had come, In the end they handed the babe back
to its mother, and left the house.

Halting just outside the door, a hot dispute arose
between them, each blaming the others, and nine of
them severely accusing the one whose task it had
been to do the cruel deed. He defended himself,