fforts to get through the pass, his fleet had been engaged in
a similar conflict with the squadrons of the Greeks, directly opposite
to him, twenty or thirty miles in the offing.

After the battle of Thermopylae was over, Xerxes sent for Demaratus, and
inquired of him how many more such soldiers there were in Greece as
Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans. Demaratus replied that he could
not say how many precisely there were in Greece, but that there were
eight thousand such in Sparta alone. Xerxes then asked the opinion of
Demaratus as to the course best to be pursued for making the conquest of
the country. This conversation was held in the presence of various
nobles and officers, among whom was the admiral of the fleet, who had
come, with the various other naval commanders, as was stated in the last
chapter, to view the battle-field.

Demaratus said that he did not think that the king could easily get
possession of the Peloponnesus by marching to it directly, so formidable
would be the opposition that he would encounter at the isthmus. There
was, however, he said, an island called Cythera, opposite to the
territories of Sparta, and not far from the shore, of which he thought
that the king could easily get possession, and which, once fully in his
power, might be made the base of future operations for the reduction of
the whole peninsula, as bodies of troops could be dispatched from it to
the main land in any numbers and at any time. He recommended, therefore,
that three hundred ships, with a proper complement of men, should be
detached from the fleet, and sent round at once to take possession of
that island.

To this plan the admiral of the fleet was totally opposed. It was
natural that he should be so, since the detaching of three hundred
ships for this enterprise would greatly weaken the force under his
command. It would leave the fleet, he told the king, a miserable
remnant, not superior to that of the enemy, for they had already lost
four hundred ships by storms. He thought it infinitely preferable that
the fleet and the army should advance together, the one by sea and the
other on the land, and complete their conquests as they went along. He
advised the king, too, to beware of Demaratus's advice. He was a Greek,
and, as such, his object was, the admiral believed, to betray and ruin
the expedition.

After hearing these conflicting opinions, the king decided to follow the
admiral's advice. "I will adopt your