Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/280

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS Thebes, then was he chosen our ambassador; but when he had proceeded as far as Cithæron he turned and ran back to Athens. Thus has he proved equally worthless, both in peace and in war. But what is most provoking, you refused to give him up to justice; nor would you suffer him to be tried in the general council of the Greeks; and if that be true which is reported, he has now repaid your indulgence by an act of direct treason; for the mariners of the Parhalian galley, and the ambassadors sent to Alexander, report (and with great appearance of truth) that there is one Aristion, a Platæan, the son of Aristobulus, the apothecary (if any of you know the man). This youth, who was distinguished by the beauty of his person, lived a long time in the house of Demosthenes; how he was there employed, or to what purposes he served, is a matter of doubt, and which it might not be decent to explain particularly: and, as I am informed, he afterward contrived (as his birth and course of life were a secret to the world) to insinuate himself into the favor of Alexander, with whom he lived with some intimacy. This man Demosthenes employed to deliver letters to Alexander, which served in some sort to dispel his fears, and effected his reconciliation with the prince, which he labored to confirm by the most abandoned flattery.

And now observe how exactly this account agrees with the facts which I allege against him; for if Demosthenes had been sincere in his