--DRYDEN.
It was in vain that the unhappy Melians tried to argue the question
from a higher standpoint; in vain they warned the Athenians that they
themselves might one day stand before the bar of justice, and plead
for their existence. They were brought back relentlessly to the grim
alternative-submission, or extermination. At length this strange
controversy came to an end, and after one final hint, of fearful
significance, the Athenian envoys withdrew, leaving the Melians to
consider their answer. The brave islanders were not long in coming
to their decision: they would not, they said, consent to enslave a city
which had maintained its liberty for seven hundred years; they put
their trust in divine justice, and in their kinsmen the Spartans, and
were resolved to resist to the last.
On receiving this answer the Athenian commanders at once laid siege to
Melos, and the doomed city was soon closely blockaded by sea and land.
The Melians made a gallant defence, and twice succeeded in breaking
through the lines of the besiegers, and conveying supplies into the
town. But presently reinforcements arrived from Athens, and the
Melians were confined within their walls. All hope of succour from
Sparta had vanished, food began to fail, and treason was at work among
the garrison.
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