A slave of Zeuxippus had carried messages backwards and forwards, and had been intrusted with the management of the whole business.

From this man Pisistratus dreaded a discovery; and by that very dread forced him, against his will, to make one.

He sent a letter to Zeuxippus, desiring him to "put out of the way the slave who was privy to their crime; for he did not believe him as well qualified for the concealment of the fact as he was for the perpetration of it." He ordered the bearer of this letter to deliver it to Zeuxippus as soon as possible; but he, not finding an opportunity of meeting him, put it into the hands of the very slave in question, whom he believed to be the most faithful to his master of any; and added, that it came from Pisistratus respecting a matter of the utmost consequence to Zeuxippus.

Struck by consciousness of guilt, the slave after promising to deliver the letter, immediately opened it; and, on reading the contents, fled in a fright to Thebes and laid the information before the magistrate.

Zeuxippus, alarmed by the flight of his slave, withdrew to Athens, where he thought he might live in exile with greater safety.