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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight of Paris by Jacob Abbot. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain recording by Dion Jin's Salt
Lake City, Utah. The Retreat from Italy b c. Two
seventy six to seventy four. The force with which Pirus
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returned to Tarentum was very nearly as large as that
which he had taken away, but was composed of very
different materials. The Greeks from Epirus, whom he had brought
over with him in the first instance, from his native land,
had gradually disappeared from the ranks of his army. Many
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of them had been killed in battle, and still greater
numbers had been carried off by exposure and fatigue, and
by the thousand other casualties incident to such as Servius
as that in which they were engaged. Their places had
been supplied from time to time by new enlistments or
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by impressment and conscription. Of course, these new recruits were
not bound to their commander by any ties of attachment
or regard. They were mostly mercenaries, that is, men hired
to fight and willing to fight in any cause or
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for any commander, provided they would be paid in a word,
Pearis's fellow countrymen of Epirus had disappeared, and the ranks
of his army were filled up with unprincipled and destitute
wretches who felt no interest in his cause, no pride
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in his success, no concern for his honor. They adhered
to him only for the sake of the pay and
the indulgence of a soldier's life, and for their occasional
hopes of plunder. Besides the condition of his army, Pearis
found the situation of his affairs in other respects very critical.
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On his arrival at Tarentum, the Romans had made great
progress during his absence in subjugating the whole country to
their sway. Cities and towns which had been under his
dominion when he went to Sicily had been taken by
the Romans or had gone over to them of their
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own accord. The government which he had established at Tarentum
was thus curtailed of power and shut in in respect
to territory, and he felt himself compelled immediately to take
the field in order to recover his lost ground. He
adopted vigorous measures immediately to re force his army and
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to obtain the necessary supplies. His treasury was exhausted. In
order to replenish it, he dispatched ambassadors to his various
allies to borrow money. He knew, of course, that a
large portion of his army would abandon him immediately so
soon as they should find that he was unable to
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pay them. He was therefore quite uneasy for a time
in respect to the state of his finances, and he
instructed his ambassadors to press the urgency of his wants
upon his allies in a very earnest manner. He did not, however,
wait for the result of these measures, but immediately commenced
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active operations in the field. One of his first exploits
was the recapture of Locri, a city situated on the
southern shore of Italy. As will be seen by the map,
this city had been in his possession before he went
to Sicily, but it had gone over to the Romans
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during his absence. Locri was a very considerable town, and
the recovery of it from the Romans was considered quite
an important gain. The place derived its consequence in some
considerable degree from a celebrated temple which stood there. It
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was the temple of Prosperina, the goddess of Death. This
temple was magnificent in its structure, and it was enriched
with very costly and valuable treasures. It not only gave
distinction to the town in which it stood, but on
account of an extraordinary train of circumstances which occurred in
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connection with it, it became the occasion of one of
them most important incidents in Paris's history. Prosperina, as has
already been intimated, was the goddess of death. It is
very difficult for us at the present day to understand
and appreciate the conceptions which the Greeks and Romans in
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ancient times entertained of the supernatural beings which they worshiped,
Those strange creations in which we see historic truth, poetic fancy,
and a sublime superstition so singularly blended. To aid us
in rightly understanding this subject, we must remember that in
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those days the boundaries of what was known as actual
reality were very uncertain and vague. Only a very small
portion either of the visible world or of the domain
of science and philosophy, had then been explored, and in
the thoughts and conceptions of every man, the natural and
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the true passed by insensible gradations on every hand into
the monstrous and the supernatural, there being no principles of
any kind established in men's minds to mark the boundaries
where the true and the possible must end, and all
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beyond be impossible and absurd. The knowledge therefore that men,
derived from the observation of such truths and such objects
as were immediately around them, passed by insensible gradations into
the regions of fancy and romance, and all was believed together.
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They saw lions and elephants in the lands which were
near and which they knew, and they believed in the centers,
the mermaids, the hippogriffs, and the dragons which they imagined
inhabiting regions more remote. They saw heroes and chieftains in
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the plains and in the valleys below, and they had
no reason to disbelieve in the existence of gods and
demigods upon the summits of the blue and beautiful mountains above,
where for aught they knew, there might lie boundless territories
of verde and loveliness wholly inaccessible to man. In the
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same manner, beneath the earth, somewhere they knew not where
there lay, as they imagined extended regions, destined to receive
the spirits of the dead, with approaches leading to it
through mysterious grottos and caverns from above. Prosperina was the
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goddess of death and the queen of the these lower abodes.
Various stories were told of her origin and history. The
one most characteristic and most minutely detailed, is this. She
was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. She was very beautiful,
and in order to protect her from the importunity of lovers,
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her mother sent her, under the care of an attendant
named Collegina, to a cavern in Sicily and concealed her there.
The mouth of the cavern was guarded by dragons. Pluto,
who was the god of the inferior regions, asked her
of Jupiter, her father for his wife. Jupiter consented and
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sent Venus to entice her out of her cavern that
Pluto might obtain her. Venus, attended by Minerva and Diana,
proceeded to the cavern where Prosperina was concealed. Goddesses contrived
some means to keep the dragons that guarded the cavern away,
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and then easily persuaded the maiden to come out to
take a walk. Prosperina was charmed with the verter and
beauty which she found around her on the surface of
the ground, strongly contrasted as they were with the gloom
and desolation of her cavern. She was attended by nymphs
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and zephyrs in her walk, and in their company she
rambled along, admiring the beauty and enjoying the fragrance of
the flowers. Some of the flowers which most attracted her attention,
were produced on the spot by the miraculous power of Jupiter,
who caused them to spring up in wonderful luxuriance and splendor,
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the more effectually to charm the senses of the maiden,
whom they were enticing at length. Suddenly, the earth opened
and Pluto appeared, coming up from below in a golden
chariot drawn by immortal steeds, and seizing Prosperina, he carried
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her down to his own abodes. Ciries, the mother of Prosperina,
was greatly distressed when she learned the fate of her daughter.
She immediately went to Jupiter and implored him to restore
Prosperina to the upper world. Jupiter, on the other hand,
urged Ceres to consent to her remaining as the wife
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of Pluto. The mother, however, would not yield, and finally,
her tears and entreaties so far prevailed over Jupiter as
to induce him to give permission to Ceres to bring
Prosperina back, provided that she had not tasted of any
food that grew in the region below. Series accordingly went
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in search of her daughter. She found, unfortunately that Prosperina,
in walking through the Elysian fields with Pluto, had incautiously
eaten a pomegranate, which she had taken from a tree
that was growing there. She was consequently precluded from availing
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herself of Jupiter's permission to return to Olympus. Finally, however,
Jupiter consented that she should divide her time between the
inferior and the superior regions, spending six months with Pluto
below and six months with her mother above. And she
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did so. Prosperina was looked upon by all mankind with
feelings of great veneration and awe as the goddess and
queen of death, and she was worshiped in many places
with solemn and imposing ceremonies. There was, moreover, in the
minds of men a certain mystical significancy in the mode
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of life which she led in, thus dividing her time
by regular alternations between the lower and upper worlds that
seemed to them to denote and typify the principle of vegetation,
which may be regarded as, in a certain sense alternately
a principle of life and death, inasmuch as for six
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months in the year it appears in the form of
living and growing plants, rising above the ground and covering
the earth with verter and beauty, and then for the
six months that remain it withdraws from the view and
exists only in the form of inert and apparently lifeless
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roots and seeds concealed in hidden recesses beneath the ground.
Prosperina was thus considered the type and emblem of vegetation,
and she was accordingly worshiped in some sense as the
goddess of resuscitation and life, as well as of death
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and the grave. One of the principal temples, which had
been built in honor of Prosperina, was situated, as has
already been said, at Locri, and ceremonials and festivals were
celebrated here at stated intervals with great pomp and parade.
This temple had become very wealthy, too, immense treasures having
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been collected in it, consisting of gold and silver vessels,
precious stones, and rich and splendid paraphernalia of every kind,
the gifts and offerings which had been made from time
to time by princes and kings who had ad the festivals.
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When Peirus had reconquered Locri from the Romans, and this temple,
with all its treasures, fell into his power, some of
his advisers suggested that, since he was in such urgent
need of money, and all his other plans for supplying
himself had hitherto failed, he should take possession of these treasures.
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They might, it was argued, be considered in some sense
as public property, and as the Locrians had revolted from
him in his absence, and now had been reconquered anew,
he was entitled to regard these riches as the spoils
of victory. Puris determined to follow this advice, he took
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possession of the richest and most valuable of the articles
which the temple contained, and putting them on board ships
which he sent to Locri for the purpose he undertook
to transport them to Tarentum. He intended to convert them
there into money in order to obtain funds to supply
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the wants of his army. The ships, however, on their
passage along the coast, encountered a terrible storm and were
nearly all wrecked and destroyed. The mariners who had navigated
the vessels were drowned, while yet the sacred treasures were saved,
and that too, as it would seem, by some supernatural agency,
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since the same surges which overwhelmed and destroyed the sacrilegious
ships and seamen washed the cases in which the holy
treasures had been packed up upon the beach, and there
the messengers of Peuris found them scattered among the rocks
and on the sand at various points along the shore.
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Was greatly terrified at this disaster. He conceived that it
was a judgment of Heaven inflicted upon him through the
influence and agency of Prosperina, as a punishment for his
impious presumption in despoiling her shrine. He carefully collected all
that the sea had saved and sent everything back to Locri.
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He instituted solemn services there in honor of Prosperina. To
express his penitence for his faults, and to give a
still more decisive proof of his desire to appease her anger,
he put to death the counselors who had advised him
to take the treasures. Notwithstanding all these attempts to atone
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for his offense, Peirus could not dispel from his mind
the gloomy impression which had been made upon it by
the idea that he had incurred the direct displeasure of heaven.
He did not believe that the anger of Prosperina was
ever fully appeased, and whenever misfortunes and calamities befell him
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in his subsequent career, he attributed them to the displeasure
of the goddess of Death, who, as he believed, followed
him everywhere and was intent on effecting his ruin. It
was now late in the season, and the military operations,
both of Peeris and of the Romans, were in a
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great measure suspended until spring. Pearus spent the interval in
making arrangements for taking the field as soon as the
winter should be over. He had, however, many difficulties to
contend with his financial embarrassment, still continued. His efforts to
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procure funds were only very partially successful. The people, too,
in all the region about Tarentum, were he found wholly
alienated from him. They had not forgiven him for having
left them to go to Sicily, and in consequence of
this abandonment of their cause, they had lost much of
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their confidence in him as their protector, while everything like
enthusiasm in his service was wholly gone. Through these and
other causes, he encountered innumerable impediments in executing his plans,
and his mind was harassed with continual disappointment and anxiety. Such, however,
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was still his resolution and energy that when the season
arrived for taking the field, he had a considerable force
in readiness, and he marched out of Tarentum at the
head of it to go and meet the Romans. The Romans. Thems,
on the other hand, had raised a very large force
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and had sent it forward in two divisions under the
command of the two consuls. These two divisions took different routes,
one passing to the north through the province of Samnium
and the other to the south through Lucania, both, however,
leading toward Tarentum. Pirus divided his forces also into two parts.
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One body of troops he sent northwardly into Samnium to
meet the northern division of the Roman army, while with
the other he advanced himself by the more southern route
to meet the Roman consul who was coming through Lucania.
The name of this consul was Curius Dentatus. Pirus advanced
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into Lucania. The Roman general, when he found that his
enemy was coming, thought it most to send for the
other division of his army, namely the one which was
marching through Semnium, and to wait until it should arrive
before giving Piris battle. He accordingly dispatched the necessary orders
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to Lynculus, who commanded the northern division, and in the
meantime entrenched himself in a strong encampment at a place
called Beneventum. Pirus entered Lucania and advanced toward Beneventum, and
after ascertaining the state of the case in respect to
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the situation of the camp and the plans of Curious,
he paused at some distance from the Roman position in
order to consider what it was best for him to do.
He finally came to the conclusion that it was very
important that his conflict with the Romans under curious should
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take place before Lynchillus should arrive to reinforce them, and
so he determined to advance rapidly and fall upon and
surprise them in their intrenchments before they were aware of
his approach. This plan he accordingly attempted to execute. He
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advanced in the ordinary manner and by the public roads
of the country, until he began to draw nearer to Beneventum.
At the close of the day, he encamped as usual,
But instead of waiting in his camp until the following
day and then marching on in his accustomed manner, he
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procured guides to lead his troops around by a circuitous
path among the mountains, with a view of coming down
suddenly and unexpectedly upon the camp of the Romans from
the hills very early in the morning. An immense number
of torches were provided to furnish light for the soldiers
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in traversing the dark forests and gloomy ravines through which
their pathway lay. Notwithstanding all the precautions which had been taken,
the difficulties of the route were so great that the
progress of the troops was very much impeded. The track
was everywhere encumbered with bushes, rocks, fallen trees, and swampy
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tructs of ground, so that the soldiers made weigh very slowly.
Great numbers of the torches failed in the course of
the night, some getting extinguished by accident and others going
out from exhaustion of fuel. By these means, great numbers
of the troops were left in the dark, and, after
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groping about for a time in devious and uncertain paths,
became hopelessly lost in the forest. Notwithstanding all these difficulties
and discouragements, however, the main body of the army pressed
resolutely on, and just about daybreak the van came out
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upon the heights above the Roman encampment. As soon as
a sufficient number were assembled, they were at once marshaled
in battle array, and descending from the mountains, they made
a furious onset upon the entrenchments of the enemy. The
Romans were taken wholly by surprise, and their camp became
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immediately a scene of the wildest confusion. The men started
up everywhere out of their sleep and seized their arms.
They were soon in a situation to make a very
effectual resistance to the attack of their enemies. They first
beat the assailants back from the points where they were
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endeavoring to gain admission, and then, encouraged by their seclines success,
they sallied forth from their entrenchments and became a sailance.
In their turn. The Greeks were soon overpowered and forced
to retire altogether from the ground. A great many were killed,
and some elephants which Paris had contrived by some means
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to bring up to the spot, were taken. The Romans were,
of course greatly elated at this victory. In fact, so
much was curious, gratified, and pleased with this success, and
so great was the confidence with which it inspired him,
that he determined to wait no longer for lunchless, but
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to march out at once and give Piris battle. He
accordingly brought forth his troops and drew them up on
a plain near his encampment, posting them in such a
way as to gain a certain advantage for himself in
the nature of the ground which he had chosen. While yet,
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since there was nothing but the open field between himself
and his enemy, the movement was of fair and regular
challenge to battle. Pearis accepted this challenge by bringing up
his forces to the field and the conflict began. As
soon as the combatants were fairly engaged, one of the
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wings of Peirras's army began to give way. The other wing,
on the contrary, which was the one that Peirus himself
personally commanded, was victorious. Peirus himself led his soldiers on,
and he inspired them with so much strength and energy
by his own reckless daring, that all those portions of
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the Roman army which were opposed to them were beaten
and driven back into the camp. This success, however, was
not wholly owing to the personal prowess of Paris. It
was due in a great measure to the power of
the elephants, for they fought in that part of the field.
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As the Romans were almost wholly unaccustomed to the warfare
of elephants, they knew not how to resist them, and
the huge beasts bore down all before them wherever they moved.
In this crisis, Curious ordered a fresh body of troops
to advance. It was a core of reserve which he
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had stationed near the camp, under orders to hold themselves
in readiness there to come forward and act at any
moment and at any part of the field, wherever their
services might be required. These troops were now summoned to
advance and attack the elephants. They accordingly came rushing on,
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brandishing their swords in one hand and bearing burning torches
with which they had been provided for the occasion in
the other. The torches they threw at the elephants as
soon as they came near, in order to terrify them
and make them unmanageable. And then with their swords they
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attacked the keepers and drivers of the beasts, and the
men who fought in connection with them. The success of
this onset was so great that the elephants soon became unmanageable.
They even broke into the phalanx and threw the ranks
of it into confusion, overturning and trampling upon the men,
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and falling themselves upon the slain under the wounds which
the spears inflicted upon them. A remarkable incident is said
to have occurred in the midst of this scene of
confusion and terror, which strikingly illustrates the strength of the
maternal instinct even among brutes. It happened that there was
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a young elephant and also its mother, in the same
division of Pearis's army. The former, though young, was sufficiently
grown to serve as an elephant of war, and as
it happened, its post on the field of battle was
not very far from that of its mother. In the
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course of the battle, the young elephant was wounded, and
it uttered immediately a piercing cry of pain and terror.
The mother heard the cry and recognized the voice that
uttered it through all the din and uproar of the battle,
she immediately became wholly ungovernable, and breaking away from the
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control of her keepers, she rushed forward, trampling down everything
in her way to rescue and protect her offspring. This
incident occurred at the commencement of the attack which the
Roman reserve made upon the elephants, and contributed very essentially
to the panic and confusion which followed. In the end,
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Peirus was entirely defeated. He was compelled to abandon his
camp and to retire toward Tarentum. The Romans immediately advanced,
flushed with victory and carrying all before them. Pearis retreated
faster and faster, his numbers continually diminishing as he fled,
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until at last, when he reached Tarentum, he had only
a few horsemen in his train. He sent off the
most urgent requests to his friends and allies in Greece
to furnish him aid. The help, however, did not come,
and Pearis, in order to keep the small remnant that
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still adhered to him together, resorted to the desperate expedient
of forging letters from his friends promising speedy and abundant supplies,
and showing these letters to his officers to prevent them
from being wholly discouraged and abandoning his cause. This miserable contrivance, however,
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even if successful, could only afford a momentary relief, Pearis
soon found that all hope and possibility of retrieving his
fortunes in Italy had entirely disappeared, and that no alternative
was left to him but to abandon the ground. So,
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pretending to wonder why his allies did not send forward
the succors which they had promised in their letters, and
saying that since they were so dilatory and remiss, he
must go himself and bring them, but promising that he
would immediately return, he set sail from Tarentum, and, crossing
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the sea, went home to his own dear kingdom. He
arrived safely in epirus after an absence of six years.
End of chapter eight