tum soon presented a very busy scene. The work of
building and repairing ships--of fabricating sails and rigging--of
constructing and arming galleys--of disciplining and training
crews--of laying in stores of food and of implements of war, went on
with great activity, and engaged universal attention. The Tarentines
themselves stood by, while all these preparations were going on,
rather as spectators of the scene than as active participants. Pyrrhus
had taken the absolute command of their city and government, and was
exercising supreme power, as if he were the acknowledged sovereign of
the country. He had been invited to come over from his own kingdom to
_help_ the Tarentines, not to _govern_ them; but he had seized the
sovereign power, justifying the seizure, as is usual with military men
under similar circumstances, by the necessity of the case. "There must
be order and submission to authority in the city," he said, "or we
can make no progress in subduing our enemies." The Tarentines had thus
been induced to submit to his assumption of power, convinced, perhaps,
partly by his reasoning, and, at all events, silenced by the display
of force by which it was accompanied; and they had consoled themselves
under a condition of things which they could not prevent, by
considering that it was better to yield to a temporary foreign
domination, than to be wholly overwhelmed, as there was every
probability, before Pyrrhus came to them, that they would be, by their
domestic foes.

When, however, they found that Pyrrhus was intending to withdraw from
them, and to go to Sicily, without having really effected their
deliverance from the danger which threatened them, they at first
remonstrated against the design. They wished him to remain and finish
the work which he had begun. The Romans had been checked, but they had
not been subdued. Pyrrhus ought not, they said, to go away and leave
them until their independence and freedom had been fully established.
They remonstrated with him against his design, but their remonstrances
proved wholly unavailing.

When at length the Tarentines found that Pyrrhus was determined to go
to Sicily, they then desired that he should withdraw his troops from
their country altogether, and leave them to themselves. This, however,
Pyrrhus refused to do. He had no intention of relinquishing the power
which he had acquired in Italy, and he accordingly began to make
preparations for leaving a strong garrison in