THE RESCUE OF THEBES. 249

ready. The Senate was helpless. Ismenias was
seized and conveyed to Sparta, where he was basely
put to death. The other senators hurried home, glad
to escape with their lives. Three hundred of them
left the city in haste, and made their way as exiles
to Athens. The other citizens, whose wives and
daughters were in Spartan hands, felt obliged to
submit. “Order reigned” in Thebes; such was the
message which Leontiades bore to Sparta.

Thus it was that Sparta gained possession of one
of her greatest opponents. Leontiades and his fel-
lows, backed by a Spartan general, ruled the city
harshly. The rich were robbed, the prisons were
filled, many more citizens fled into exile. Thebes
was in the condition of a conquered city; the people,
helpless and indignant, waited impatiently the slow
revolution of the wheel of destiny which should once
more set them free.

As for the exiles at Athens, they sought in vain to
obtain Athenian aid to recover their city from the
foe. Athens was by no means in love with Sparta,
but peace had been declared, and all they could agree
to do was to give the fugitives a place of refuge. Hvi-
dently the city, which had been won by treason, was
not to be recovered by open war. If set free at all it
must be by secret measures. And with this intent a
conspiracy was formed between the leaders of the ex-
iles and certain citizens of Thebes for the overthrow
of Leontiades and his colleagues and the expulsion of
the Spartan garrison from the citadel. And this it
was that brought the seven men to Thebes,—seven
exiles, armed with hidden daggers, with which they