ere there were no houses,
so that all the crews went off to Sestos, or in search of villages
inland, to buy provisions. The very same thing happened the next day.
The challenge was not accepted by the Spartans, and the Athenians thought
them afraid, grew more careless, and went further away from their ships.
But on the hills above stood the little castle of Alkibiades, who could
look down on the strait, see both fleets, and perceive that the Spartans
sent swift galleys out each day to steal after the Athenians, so that
they would be quite sure to take advantage of their foolish security. He
could not bear to see his fellow-citizens ruining themselves, and came
down to warn them and beg them to move into Sestos, where they would have
the harbour to shelter them and the city behind them; but the generals
scoffed at him, and bade him remember that they were commanders now, not
he, and he went back to his castle, knowing only too well what would
happen.

Till the fifth day all went on as before, but then Lysander ordered his
watching galley to hoist a shield as a signal as soon as the Athenians
had all gone off to roam the country in search of food, and then he
spread out his fleet to its utmost width, and came rowing out with his
180 ships to fall upon the deserted Athenians. Not one general was at
his post, except Konon, and he, with the eight galleys he could man in
haste, sailed out in all haste--not to fight, for that was of no use, but
to escape. Almost every vessel was found empty by the Spartans, taken or
burnt, and then all the men were sought one by one as they were scattered
over the country, except the few who were near enough to take refuge in
the fort of Alkibiades. Out of the eight ships that got away, one went
straight to Athens to carry the dreadful news; but Konon took the other
seven with him to the island of Cyprus, thinking that thus he could do
better for his country than share the ruin that now must come upon her.

It was night when the solitary ship reached the Piraeus with the dreadful
tidings; but they seemed to rush through the city, for everywhere there
broke out a sound of weeping and wailing for husbands, fathers, brothers,
and kinsmen lost, and men met together in the market-places to mourn and
consult what could be done next. None went to rest that night; but the
fleet was gone, and all their best men with it, and Lysander was coming
down on Athens, putting down all her friends in the i