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manner, overcoming the primates’ objections one by one. At last he resorted to rereading his letters of introduction. This time his title as secretary to the French ambassador made an impression on the primates, who once again retired to consult among themselves in secret. Within an hour Marcellus saw them returning, followed by Yorgos. They expressed great regret for the delays and for any appearance of ill will. Their excuse was their perpetual fear of the dragoman. Now they were ready to sell the count the statue after all.
    Marcellus accepted his victory calmly, even though just twenty-four hours earlier his task had seemed impossible. He told the primates he was very satisfied with their decision. To protect them from any reprisals, he gave them a letter for the dragoman, Prince Morousi, whom it happened that Marcellus knew well in Constantinople. They were the same age. During the previous few years they had spent long hours together sharing confidences while they hiked across the countryside andclimbed the walls of ancient cities. In his letter Marcellus told his old friend of the complete devotion of the primates toward him and how they had treated him, Marcellus, with great decency.
    He also addressed a letter to the French ambassador to ask that he protect the people of Melos if they should ever suffer harm because of the sale of the statue. He added that he had arrived on a warship and would have been within his rights to use force, but he had used reason rather than arms.
    Marcellus then paidYorgos 750 francs, the price the farmer had agreed upon with Oconomos, and gave another third, or 250 francs, to the primates. The sale was concluded on May 23, 1820.
    The next day a lifeboat from the
Estafette
commanded by Voutier set out to take the statue from the Russian ship. He and his complement of young officers and sailors were determined to take the statue by force if necessary. In fact, they were spoiling for a fight. But they were disappointed, since the Russian captain received them politely and had his own sailors help them load the statue onto their boat.
    Back at the
Estafette
, a hoist raised the statue from the lifeboat and lowered it gently onto the deck. At last Marcellus was able to see the thing he had worked so hard to buy. He was overcome with relief and admiration almost to the point of giddiness. He quotedHomer aloud before resorting to words of his own. “What superhuman beauty,” he rhapsodized. “What sweet majesty. What shape divine.”
    After some moments of awestruck gazing, he supervised as the pieces of the statue and the other finds from the niche were sewed into sacks of canvas. He put the bust in one sack and the lower part in another. In a third sack he wrapped the two herms and their inscribed bases, the bun of hair, a left foot, a fragment of an arm, and the hand holding an apple. The sacks were then placed on padding and tightly moored in the ship’s steerage.
    The next morning, May 25, the
Estafette
sailed away, but not before Marcellus had had time to indulge in what he called his“caprice.” He fulfilled his longing to see the girl in the painting who had been his real reason for coming toMelos.
The island girl Maritza
    O N M ELOS , where it was difficult to earn more than a subsistence living, the men often turned to doing business with pirates, and women became prostitutes. The men signed on to pirate vessels as sailors, or they worked as pilots guiding the pirates through the difficult passages between the islands. Sometimes these pirates were bold renegades, but just as often they were French corsairs or English privateers whose adventures were, in theory at least, sanctioned by their respective governments. Since the pirate ships used the harbor as a refuge, Melos developed a healthy economy in trading supplies needed for the ships and crews in return for pirate booty. Everything could be bought on the island, including a virgin bride.
    The reputation of the women of