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THE CRUEL TRIBUTE.

I. The Treaty.

Minos, king of Crete, had made war upon Athens.  He had come with a great fleet of ships and an army, and had burned the merchant vessels in the harbor, and had overrun all the country and the coast even to Megara, which lies to the west.  He had laid waste the fields and gardens round about Athens, had pitched his camp close to the walls, and had sent word to the Athenian rulers that on the morrow he would march into their city with fire and sword and would slay all their young men and would pull down all their houses, even to the Temple of Athena, which stood on the great hill above the town.  Then AEgeus, the king of Athens, with the twelve elders who were his helpers, went out to see King Minos and to treat with him.

“O mighty king,” they said, “what have we done that you should wish thus to destroy us from the earth?”

“O cowardly and shameless men,” answered King Minos, “why do you ask this foolish question, since you can but know the cause of my wrath?  I had an only son, Androgeos by name, and he was dearer to me than the hundred cities of Crete and the thousand islands of the sea over which I rule.  Three years ago he came hither to take part in the games which you held in honor of Athena, whose temple you have built on yonder hilltop.  You know how he overcame all your young men in the sports, and how your people honored him with song and dance and laurel crown.  But when your king, this same AEgeus who stands before me now, saw how everybody ran after him and praised his valor, he was filled with envy and laid plans to kill him.  Whether he caused armed men to waylay him on the road to Thebes, or whether as some say he sent him against a certain wild bull of your country to be slain by that beast, I know not; but you cannot deny that the young man’s life was taken from him through the plotting of this AEgeus.”

“But we do deny it—­we do deny it!” cried the elders.  “For at that very time our king was sojourning at Troezen on the other side of the Saronic Sea, and he knew nothing of the young prince’s death.  We ourselves managed the city’s affairs while he was abroad, and we know whereof we speak.  Androgeos was slain, not through the king’s orders but by the king’s nephews, who hoped to rouse your anger against AEgeus so that you would drive him from Athens and leave the kingdom to one of them.”

“Will you swear that what you tell me is true?” said Minos.

“We will swear it,” they said.

“Now then,” said Minos, “you shall hear my decree.  Athens has robbed me of my dearest treasure, a treasure that can never be restored to me; so, in return, I require from Athens, as tribute, that possession which is the dearest and most precious to her people; and it shall be destroyed cruelly as my son was destroyed.”

“The condition is hard,” said the elders, “but it is just.  What is the tribute which you require?”