Toxaris; Or, Friendship (58-60)

We considered our circumstances and what we should do, utterly without resources in a foreign country, and my opinion was that we had better thrust our swords between our ribs then and there and die, rather than submit to be shamefully destroyed by hunger and thirst. But Sisinnes tried to encourage me, and implored me to do nothing of the sort, for he had a plan by which we should get food enough. And for the nonce he took to carrying wood from the harbor, and returned with provisions bought with his wages. But early next morning, as he was walking about the market-place, he saw a kind of procession, as he said, of noble and beautiful youths. They were enlisted to fight in single combat for pay, and the contest was to come off in three days. He made full inquiries about them, and then came to me and said, "Don't call yourself poor any longer, Toxaris, for in three days I shall prove you rich."

That was all he told me, and we managed to eke out a wretched existence in the interval.

but he took the armor and put it all on except the helmet. This he did not wear, but fought bareheaded. The first thing that happened was that he was wounded, cut under the knee with a curved sword, so that the blood ran plentifully. I was already dead in advance with fear. But, watching his adversary, who came on too boldly, he struck him on the breast and drove home so that he went down in an instant between Sisinnes's feet.