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Thirty days elapsed before the sentence passed on Socrates could be carried into effect. Every year the Athenians sent a vessel on a pilgrimage to Delos, in memory of the preservation of their city in the days of Theseus; and from the moment that the priest of Apollo crowned the vessel before it left the harbour, to the hour of its return, there intervened a holy season, during which the city might be polluted by no executions. Now it happened that the vessel sailed on the day that Socrates was condemned, and his execution was accordingly deferred for a month.

His friends daily assembled in his prison, and the long hours were passed in conversation on the usual subjects. One morning Crito comes earlier than usual—when it is hardly light—and finds Socrates calmly sleeping. "Why have you come at this unusual time?" asks Socrates on waking. "I bring sad news," is the reply; "the sacred vessel has been seen off Cape Sunium on its way home, and will reach Athens by to-morrow." But Socrates is prepared for this. He has seen in a vision of the night the likeness of a woman, fair and comely, clothed in white raiment, who called to him and said—"O Socrates, the third day hence to Pthia thou shalt go." He is inclined to believe that the dream will prove true, and that on the third day he will be dead.

Then Crito earnestly implores him to use the little time that is left in making his escape. Neither friends nor money will be wanting: the jailer can be bribed,