efore they closed in unfriendly contact the arrows
of the Phoenician pelted over the _Nausicaae_ like hail. Rowers fell as they
sat on the upper benches; on the poop the _proreus_ lay with half his men.
Glaucon never counted how many missiles dinted his helmet and buckler. The
next instant the two ships were drifting without steerage-way. The
grappling-irons dashed down upon the Athenian, and simultaneously the
brown Phoenician boarders were scrambling like cats upon her decks.

"Swords, men!" called Themistocles, never less daunted than at the pinch,
"up and feed them with iron!"

Three times the Phoenicians poured as a flood over the _Nausicaae_. Three
times they were flung back with loss, but only to rage, call on their
gods, and return with tenfold fury. Glaucon had hurled one sheaf of
javelins, and tore loose another, eye and arm aiming, casting
mechanically. In the lulls he saw how wind and sea were sweeping the two
ships landward, until almost in arrow-shot of the rocky point where sat
Xerxes and his lords. He saw the king upon his ivory throne and all his
mighty men around him. He saw the scribes standing near with parchment and
papyrus, inscribing the names of this or that ship which did well or ill
in behalf of the lord of the Aryans. He saw the gaudy dresses of the
eunuchs, the litters, and from them peering forth the veiled women. Did
Artazostra think _now_ the Hellenes were mad fools to look her brother's
power in the face? From the shores of Attica and of Salamis, where the
myriads rejoiced or wept as the scattered battle changed, the cries were
rising, falling, like the throb of a tragic chorus,--a chorus of Titans,
with the actors gods.

"Another charge!" shouted Ameinias, through the din, "meet them briskly,
lads!"

Once more the hoarse Semitic war-shout, the dark-faced Asiatics dropping
upon the decks, the whir of javelins, the scream of dying men, the clash
of steel on steel. A frantic charge, but stoutly met. Themistocles was in
the thickest _melee_. With his own spear he dashed two Tyrians overboard,
as they sprang upon the poop. The band that had leaped down among the oar
benches were hewn in pieces by the seamen. The remnant of the attackers
recoiled in howls of despair. On the Phoenician's decks the Greeks saw the
officers laying the lash mercilessly across their men, but the
disheartened creatures did not stir. Now could be seen Ariamenes, the high
admiral himself, a giant warrior in his purp