Apparently the importance of the issue with which he was dealing turned him dizzy; he with difficulty grasped the idea that, trusting in the desperate hopes of exiles, these men were in some fashion about to attempt to overthrow the Lacedaemonian government in Thebes, and the power of Sparta.  He went quietly home, and sent one of his friends to Mellon and Pelopidas, bidding them put off their design for the present, to go back to Athens, and await a better opportunity.  Chlidon was the name of the messenger, and he hurriedly went to his own house, and, leading out his horse, asked for his bridle.  His wife was at her wit’s end, as she had it not to give him, but she said that she had lent it to a neighbour.  Hereupon there was a quarrel, and words of ill omen were used, for his wife said that she wished it might be a bad journey for him, and for those that sent him; so that Chlidon, having wasted a great part of the day in this squabble, and also drawing a bad augury from what had happened, gave up his journey altogether, and betook himself to something else.  So near was this greatest and most glorious of his adventures of missing its opportunity at its very outset.

IX.  Now Pelopidas and his party changed their clothes with country people, and separating, came into the city by different ways while it was still daylight.  There was a strong wind, and the weather was snowy, so that they were the less noticed, as most people had betaken themselves to their houses on account of the storm; but those who were in the plot met them as they entered, and brought them to Charon’s house.  With the exiles, they amounted to forty-eight in all.

As to their oppressors, Phillidas the secretary, who had been working with the exiles and knew all their plans, having long before invited Archias and his friends to a wine party to meet certain courtesans, intended to endeavour to hand them over to their assailants in as enervated and intoxicated a condition as possible.  However before they were very far gone in liquor a rumour was brought to their ears, which, although true, was without confirmation and very vague, to the effect that the exiles were concealed in the city.  Though Phillidas endeavoured to change the subject, still Archias sent one of his servants to Charon, ordering him to come instantly.  Now it was evening, and Pelopidas and his party were preparing themselves, in the house, and had already got their corslets on, and had girt on their swords.  Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door.  One of them ran out, and hearing the servant say that Charon had been sent for by the polemarchs, he in great trepidation brought the news to the rest.  At once it occurred to all that the plot had been betrayed, and that they all were lost, without even having done anything worthy of their courage.  Yet they agreed that Charon should comply with the summons and that he should unsuspiciously present himself before the Spartan chiefs.  He was a man of courage, and slow to lose