314 HISTORICAL TALES.

The Thracian soldiers, who followed Archias, began
to gibe at his cowardice on seeing this movement.
Archias went in, renewed his persuasions, and begged
him to rise, as there was no doubt that he would be
well treated. Demosthenes sat in silence until he
felt in his veins the working of the poison he had
sucked from the pen. Then he drew the cloak from
his face and looked at Archias with steady eyes.

“Now,” he said, “you can play the part of Creon
in the tragedy as soon as you like, and cast forth my
body unburied. But I, O gracious Poseidon, quit thy
temple while I yet live. Antipater and his Macedo-
nians have done what they could to pollute it.”

He walked towards the door, calling on those sur-
rounding to support his steps, which tottered with
weakness. He had just passed the altar of the god,
when, with a groan, he fell, and died in the presence
of his foes.

So died, when sixty-two years of age, the greatest
orator, and one of the greatest patriots and states-
men, of ancient times——a man whose fame as an
orator is as great as that of Homer as a poet, while
in foresight, judgment, and political skill he had not
his equal in the Greece of his day. Had Athens
possessed any of its old vitality he would certainly
have awakened it to a new career of glory. As it
was, even one as great as he was unable to give new
life to that corpse of a nation which his country had
become.