In this dire extremity, when the strongest spirits were crushed with
misery, one voice was heard, which still spoke of hope. It was the
voice of Nicias, who, when all others faltered, rose to a pitch of
heroism which he had never shown before. Bowed as he was with care,
and wasted by disease, he braced himself with more than human energy,
and moved with light step from rank to rank, exhorting that stricken
multitude in words of power. "Comrades," he said, "even now there is
no need to despair. Others have been saved before now from calamities
yet deeper than ours. You see in what state I am, cast down from the
summit of human prosperity, and condemned, in my age and weakness, to
share the hardships of the humblest soldier among you,--I, who was
ever constant in the service of the gods, and punctual in the
performance of every social duty. Yet have I not lost faith in the
righteousness of heaven, nor should you give up all for lost, if by
any act of yours you have fallen under the scourge of divine
vengeance. There is mercy, as well as justice, among the gods, and we,
in sinking thus low, have become the proper objects of their
compassion. Think too what firm ground of confidence we have, in the
shields and spears of so many thousand warriors.
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