So enraged
did they all look, that Cadmus fully expected them to put the whole
world to the sword. How fortunate would it be for a great conqueror, if
he could get a bushel of the dragon's teeth to sow!
"Cadmus," said the same voice which he had before heard, "throw a stone
into the midst of the armed men."
So Cadmus seized a large stone, and, flinging it into the middle of the
earth army, saw it strike the breast-plate of a gigantic and
fierce-looking warrior. Immediately on feeling the blow, he seemed to
take it for granted that somebody had struck him; and, uplifting his
weapon, he smote his next neighbour a blow that cleft his helmet
asunder, and stretched him on the ground. In an instant, those nearest
the fallen warrior began to strike at one another with their swords and
stab with their spears. The confusion spread wider and wider. Each man
smote down his brother, and was himself smitten down before he had time
to exult in his victory. The trumpeters, all the while, blew their
blasts shriller and shriller; each soldier shouted a battle cry and
often fell with it on his lips. It was the strangest spectacle of
causeless wrath, and of mischief for no good end, that had ever been
witnessed; but, after all, it was neither more foolish nor more wicked
than a thousand battles that have since been fought, in which men have
slain their brothers with just as little reason as these children of the
dragon's teeth.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213