lorn hope of being able to resist the
advance of its victorious enemies was depending there. And the
commanders of the Persian fleet, having driven the Greek squadrons in
the same manner from strait to strait and from sea to sea, saw the
discomfited galleys drawn up, in apparently their last place of refuge,
in the Bay of Salamis, and only waiting to be captured and destroyed.

In a word, every thing seemed ready for the decisive and final blow,
and Xerxes summoned a grand council of war on board one of the vessels
of the fleet as soon as he arrived at Phalerum, to decide upon the time
and manner of striking it.

The convening of this council was arranged, and the deliberations
themselves conducted, with great parade and ceremony. The princes of the
various nations represented in the army and in the fleet, and the
leading Persian officers and nobles, were summoned to attend it. It was
held on board one of the principal galleys, where great preparations had
been made for receiving so august an assemblage. A throne was provided
for the king, and seats for the various commanders according to their
respective ranks, and a conspicuous place was assigned to Artemisia, the
Carian queen, who, the reader will perhaps recollect, was described as
one of the prominent naval commanders, in the account given of the great
review at Doriscus. Mardonius appeared at the council as the king's
representative and the conductor of the deliberations, there being
required, according to the parliamentary etiquette of those days, in
such royal councils as these, a sort of mediator, to stand between the
king and his counselors, as if the monarch himself was on too sublime
an elevation of dignity and grandeur to be directly addressed even by
princes and nobles.

Accordingly, when the council was convened and the time arrived for
opening the deliberations, the king directed Mardonius to call upon the
commanders present, one by one, for their sentiments on the question
whether it were advisable or not to attack the Greek fleet at Salamis.
Mardonius did so. They all advised that the attack should be made,
urging severally various considerations to enforce their opinions, and
all evincing a great deal of zeal and ardor in the cause, and an
impatient desire that the great final conflict should come on.

When, however, it came to Artemisia's turn to speak, it appeared that
she was of a different sentiment from the rest. She commenced her speech
with