He was a young

lies between truth and fiction. Messenian of the royal line, according to the report of his countrymen; but other Greeks, with a more unbounded admiration, related that the hero Pyrrhus*, son of Achilles, was his father. His valour, at least, did not disgrace his reputed parentage; and, though daring in extremity even to desperation, was not of that blind and foolish kind which hurries unprepared into action, and sacrifices a good cause to the vanity and temerity of its supporters. Before taking the

field, he secured the co-operation of Argos and Arcadia, to support and strengthen the eager spirit of his countrymen, and then, with a force entirely Messenian, attacked the Lacedæmonians at a place called Deræ. The event was doubtful; but that a conquered people should meet its masters in battle, and part from them on equal terms, was in itself equivalent to a victory. Aristomenes is said to have performed deeds beyond human prowess, and was rewarded by his grateful countrymen with a summons to the vacant throne. He declined the dignity, but accepted of the power under the title of commander-in-chief.

His next exploit was of a singular and romantic

* Pausanias merely says that the Greeks in general believed Pyrrhus to be his father. We have no doubt, from the context, that the hero is the person meant, though the passage has been otherwise interpreted. The practice of deifying eminent men prevailed in Greece at an early period, though apparently not in the age of Hesiod and Homer. Homer is fond indeed of dwelling on the superiority of the past; a superiority referred to the celestial descent of the heroes who then flourished; but he gives us no reason to think that divine honours were paid them. In later times, a patron hero was as necessary to a Grecian, as a patron saint formerly to a European city: and there are few names of eminence in the heroic age, in honour of which, temples have not been built, and sacred rites instituted. The twelve Athenian tribes had each its protecting hero: acus and his descendants were believed to preside over Ægina and Salamis. It is needless to multiply examples.

cast, such as would befit a knight of the court of Arthur, or Charlemagne, or the less fabulous, but scarce less romantic era of Froissart, better than it assorts with modern notions of a general's or a sovereign's duties. Considering it important to alarm the Spartans, and impress them with a formidable idea of his personal qualities, he traversed Laconia, and entered Sparta by night, which, in obedience to Lycurgus' precepts, was unwalled and unguarded, to suspend from the temple of Pallas a shield, inscribed Aristomenes from the Spartan spoils dedicates this to the goddess *." Violence

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* Probably this story is founded on the theft of the Palladium by night from Troy, by Ulysses and Diomed. A similar spirit of chivalrous daring, mingled with superstition, suggested a similar enterprize to Fernando Perez del Pulgar, surnamed of the exploits', when serving at the siege of Granada under Ferdinand of Castile. Who will stand by me,' said he, 'in an enterprise of desperate peril?' The christian cavaliers well knew the hairbrained valour of del Pulgar, yet not one hesitated to step forward. He chose fifteen companions, all men of powerful arm and dauntless heart. In the dead of the night he led them forth from the camp, and approached the city cautiously, until he arrived at a postern gate, which opened upon the Darro, and was guarded by foot soldiers. The guards, little thinking of such an unwonted and partial attack, were for the most part fast asleep. The gate was forced, and a confused and chance medley skirinish ensued. Fernando stopped not to take part in the affray. Putting spurs to his horse, he galloped furiously through the streets, striking fire out of the stones at every bound. Arrived at the principal mosque, he sprang from his horse, and kneeling at the portal, took possession of the edifice as a Christian chapel, dedicating it to the blessed Virgin. In testimony of the ceremony, he took a tablet, which he had brought with him, on which was inscribed, in large letters, Ave Maria, and nailed it to the door of the mosque with his dagger. This done, he remounted his steed, and galloped back to the gate. The alarm had been given, the city was in an uproar; soldiers were gathering from every direction. They were astonished at seeing a christian warrior speeding from the interior of the city. Fernando overturning some and cutting down others, rejoined his companions, who still maintained possession of the gate by dint of hard fight

was not offered, and his object, therefore, must have been to win her favour, or at least to alarm the Spartans, lest their protecting deity should be wiled away. It is to be wished that we knew the result of this exploit, of which, unfortunately, no account re-mains. The year after the battle at Deræ, he again led his countrymen, supported by their allies, into battle, at a place called the Boar's Tomb, and if upon this occasion fortune favoured the rightful cause, it was again mainly owing to his personal exertions. Supported by a chosen band of eighty men, who gloried in the privilege of risking their lives by the side of Aristomenes, he attacked and broke in detail the choice infantry of Sparta, committing to others the task of routing a disordered enemy, himself ever present where they shewed the firmest front; till the Lacedæmonians forgot the precepts of their lawgiver in a hasty flight. Their disorder was complete, but the pursuit was early stopped, either by the prudence of Aristomenes, or the promptitude with which the Spartans availed themselves of local advantages. The latter is probably the real meaning of the following legend. There lay a wild pear-tree in the track of the retreating army; Theoclus, the Messenian seer, warned Aristomenes not to urge the pursuit beyond this tree, for that Castor and Pollux, the tutelary deities of Lacedæmon, were perched upon it. But Aristomenes thought as little of his friend's advice, as Hector of Polydamas's warning, ing, and they all made good their retreat to the camp. The Moors were at a loss to conjecture the meaning of this wild and apparently fruitless assault, but great was their exasperation, when, on the following day, they discovered the trophy of hardihood and prowess, the Ave Maria, thus elevated in the very centre of the city. The mosque, thus boldly sanctified by Fernando Perez del Pulgar, was eventually, after the capture of Granada, converted into a cathedral.-Washington Irving, Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, chap. 91,

not to attack the Grecian camp, and was still hard pressing upon the enemy, when suddenly his shield disappeared. The loss of this weapon was esteemed disgraceful, and therefore we can scarcely wonder that even Aristomenes, whose character stood above detraction, should have lost time in a fruitless search, which, if improved to the full, might have broken for ever the power of his country's oppressor. So great was the loss and dismay of Sparta, that the war was kept alive with difficulty, and that only through the influence acquired by Tyrtæus, who devoted his poetical talents to recruiting the courage and exasperating the hatred of the Lacedæmonians *.

The history of this man is somewhat singular. At the beginning of the war, the Lacedæmonians had been directed by the Delphic oracle to send to Athens for an adviser: they did so, and the city, unwilling either to aid in the aggrandizement of a rival, or to disobey the god, thought to extricate itself from the dilemma, by making choice of one Tyrtæus, an obscure schoolmaster, halt of one leg, and esteemed to be of mean ability. From the event, a Grecian would have argued in support of the favourite doctrine, that the decrees of fate were inevitable; for, to the unknown talents of one so lightly valued, did Sparta, upon this, and other occasions, owe the favourable issue of the war.

But the reader may be curious to know the fate of Aristomenes' shield. Applying at Delphi, he was informed that he would find it in the cave of Trophonius †, at Lebadeia, in Boeotia, where he after

The spirit-stirring strains, which are said to have produced so wonderful an effect, are the dullest longs and shorts that ever were coupled together, if they are the same which have reached us under Tyrtæus's name.

A celebrated oracle; those who entered the cave are commonly said never to have smiled again. It appears, however, from Pausanias, that this loss of the important faculty which is said to

wards dedicated it, "and I myself have seen it there *," adds Pausanias, lest any doubt should attach to a story which seems to border somewhat on the marvellous. How it came there, we are left to conjecture; and in these days of scepticism and research, may well envy the historian whose reader's incredulity was so easily overcome. But, with one or two brilliant exceptions, it was sufficient for the Greeks that a story passed current; they cared little to investigate probabilities, or enter upon long and intricate inquiries, which in modern times have been so successfully employed in disentangling the mingled web of truth and fiction. It is curious to mark the importance attached to this miraculous loss. Aristomenes thought it of sufficient consequence to render necessary an immedate journey to Delphi; for we find, that, returning from Lebadeia, he renewed the war with his recovered shield, which, therefore, must have been dedicated at a later period. At first he confined himself to predatory incursions. Returning from "driving a creagh," in Laconia, he was attacked and wounded, but repelled the assailants; and, on his recovery, projected an attack upon Sparta, which, under such a leader, might have been fatal to an distinguish men from brutes, was only temporary. The method of consulting the oracle was singular. The aspirant descended into a cave, where was a small crevice, into which he proceeded to insinuate himself feet foremost. So soon as he had got his knees in, the whole body was sucked forwards by an overpowering force, and after passing through the circuit of the mysteries, he was ejected, feet foremost, at the place where he had entered. *Cade. The elder of them, being put to nurse,

Was by a beggar-woman stolen away:

And, ignorant of his birth and parentage,
Became a bricklayer, when he came to age.
His son am I, deny it if you can.

Smith. Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive to this day to testify it; therefore deny it not. Henry VI. Part 2, Act 4, sc, 2.