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+The Project Gutenberg EBook An Egyptian Princess,  by Georg Ebers, v6
+#17 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: An Egyptian Princess, Volume 6.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5455]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 7, 2002]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, BY EBERS, V6 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 2.
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 6.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The principal steward of the banquet went forward to meet the guests as
+they entered, and, assisted by other noble staff-bearers (chamberlains
+and masters of the ceremonies), led them to their appointed places.
+
+When they were all seated, a flourish of trumpets announced that the king
+was near.  As he entered the hall every one rose, and the multitude
+received him with a thundering shout of "Victory to the king!" again and
+again repeated.
+
+The way to his seat was marked by a purple Sardian carpet, only to be
+trodden by himself and Kassandane.  His blind mother, led by Croesus,
+went first and took her seat at the head of the table, on a throne
+somewhat higher than the golden chair for Cambyses, which stood by it.
+The king's lawful wives sat on his left hand; Nitetis next to him, then
+Atossa, and by her side the pale, plainly-dressed Phaedime; next to this
+last wife of Cambyses sat Boges, the eunuch.  Then came the high-priest
+Oropastes, some of the principal Magi, the satraps of various provinces
+(among them the Jew Belteshazzar), and a number of Persians, Medes and
+eunuchs, all holding high offices under the crown.
+
+Bartja sat at the king's right hand, and after him Croesus, Hystaspes,
+Gobryas, Araspes, and others of the Achaemenidae, according to their rank
+and age.  Of the concubines, the greater number sat at the foot of the
+table; some stood opposite to Cambyses, and enlivened the banquet by
+songs and music.  A number of eunuchs stood behind them, whose duty it
+was to see that they did not raise their eyes towards the men.
+
+Cambyses' first glance was bestowed on Nitetis; she sat by him in all the
+splendor and dignity of a queen, but looking very, very pale in her new
+purple robes.
+
+Their eyes met, and Cambyses felt that such a look could only come from
+one who loved him very dearly.  But his own love told him that something
+had troubled her.  There was a sad seriousness about her mouth, and a
+slight cloud, which only he could see, seemed to veil the usually calm,
+clear and cheerful expression of her eyes.  "I will ask her afterwards
+what has happened," thought he, "but it will not do to let my subjects see
+how much I love this girl."
+
+He kissed his mother, sister, brother and his nearest relations on the
+forehead--said a short prayer thanking the gods for their mercies and
+entreating a happy new year for himself and the Persians--named the
+immense sum he intended to present to his countrymen on this day, and
+then called on the staff bearers to bring the petitioners before his
+face, who hoped to obtain some reasonable request from the king on this
+day of grace.
+
+As every petitioner had been obliged to lay his request before the
+principal staff bearer the day before, in order to ascertain whether it
+was admissible, they all received satisfactory answers.  The petitions of
+the women had been enquired into by the eunuchs in the same manner, and
+they too were now conducted before their lord and master by Boges,
+Kassandane alone remaining seated.
+
+The long procession was opened by Nitetis and Atossa, and the two
+princesses were immediately followed by Phaedime and another beauty.  The
+latter was magnificently dressed and had been paired with Phaedime by
+Boges, in order to make the almost poverty-stricken simplicity of the
+fallen favorite more apparent.
+
+Intaphernes and Otanes looked as annoyed as Boges had expected, on seeing
+their grandchild and daughter so pale, and in such miserable array, in
+the midst of all this splendor and magnificence.
+
+Cambyses had had experience of Phaedime's former extravagance in matters
+of dress, and, when he saw her standing before him so plainly dressed and
+so pale, looked both angry and astonished.  His brow darkened, and as she
+bent low before him, he asked her in an angry and tyrannical tone: "What
+is the meaning of this beggarly dress at my table, on the day set apart
+in my honor?  Have you forgotten, that in our country it is the custom
+never to appear unadorned before the king?  Verily, if it were not my
+birthday, and if I did not owe you some consideration as the daughter of
+our dearest kinsman, I should order the eunuchs to take you back to the
+harem, that you might have time to think over your conduct in solitude."
+
+These words rendered the mortified woman's task much easier....  She
+began to weep loud and bitterly, raising her hands and eyes to her angry
+lord in such a beseeching manner that his anger was changed into
+compassion, and he raised her from the ground with the question: "Have
+you a petition to ask of me?"
+
+"What can I find to wish for, now that the sun of my life has withdrawn
+his light?"  was her faltering answer, hindered by sobs.
+
+Cambyses shrugged his shoulders, and asked again "Is there nothing then
+that you wish for?  I used to be able to dry your tears with presents;
+ask me for some golden comfort to-day."
+
+"Phaedime has nothing left to wish for now.  For whom can she put on
+jewels when her king, her husband, withdraws the light of his
+countenance?"
+
+"Then I can do nothing for you," exclaimed Cambyses, turning away angrily
+from the kneeling woman.  Boges had been quite right in advising Phaedime
+to paint herself with white, for underneath the pale color her cheeks
+were burning with shame and anger.  But, in spite of all, she controlled
+her passionate feelings, made the same deep obeisance to Nitetis as to
+the queen-mother, and allowed her tears to flow fast and freely in sight
+of all the Achaemenidae.
+
+Otanes and Intaphernes could scarcely suppress their indignation at
+seeing their daughter and grandchild thus humbled, and many an
+Achaemenidae looked on, feeling deep sympathy with the unhappy Phaedime
+and a hidden grudge against the favored, beautiful stranger.
+
+The formalities were at last at an end and the feast began.  Just before
+the king, in a golden basket, and gracefully bordered round with other
+fruits, lay a gigantic pomegranate, as large as a child's head.
+
+Cambyses noticed it now for the first time, examined its enormous size
+and rare beauty with the eye of a connoisseur, and said: "Who grew this
+wonderful pomegranate?"
+
+"Thy servant Oropastes," answered the chief of the Magi, with a low
+obeisance.  "For many years I have studied the art of gardening, and have
+ventured to lay this, the most beautiful fruit of my labors, at the feet
+of my king."
+
+"I owe you thanks," cried the king: "My friends, this pomegranate will
+assist me in the choice of a governor at home when we go out to war, for,
+by Mithras, the man who can cherish and foster a little tree so carefully
+will do greater things than these.  What a splendid fruit!  Surely it's
+like was never seen before.  I thank you again, Oropastes, and as the
+thanks of a king must never consist of empty words alone, I name you at
+once vicegerent of my entire kingdom, in case of war.  For we shall not
+dream away our time much longer in this idle rest, my friends.  A Persian
+gets low-spirited without the joys of war."
+
+A murmur of applause ran through the ranks of the Achaemenidae and fresh
+shouts of "Victory to the king" resounded through the hall.  Their anger
+on account of the humiliation of a woman was quickly forgotten; thoughts
+of coming battles, undying renown and conqueror's laurels to be won by
+deeds of arms, and recollections of their former mighty deeds raised the
+spirits of the revellers.
+
+The king himself was more moderate than usual to-day, but he encouraged
+his guests to drink, enjoying their noisy merriment and overflowing
+mirth; taking, however, far more pleasure still in the fascinating beauty
+of the Egyptian Princess, who sat at his side, paler than usual, and
+thoroughly exhausted by the exertions of the morning and the unaccustomed
+weight of the high tiara.  He had never felt so happy as on this day.
+What indeed could he wish for more than he already possessed?  Had not
+the gods given him every thing that a man could desire? and, over and
+above all this, had not they flung into his lap the precious gift of
+love?  His usual inflexibility seemed to have changed into benevolence,
+and his stern severity into good-nature, as he turned to his brother
+Bartja with the words: "Come brother, have you forgotten my promise?
+Don't you know that to-day you are sure of gaining the dearest wish of
+your heart from me?  That's right, drain the goblet, and take courage!
+but do not ask anything small, for I am in the mood to give largely to-
+day.  Ah, it is a secret! come nearer then.  I am really curious to know
+what the most fortunate youth in my entire kingdom can long for so much,
+that he blushes like a girl when his wish is spoken of."
+
+Bartja, whose cheeks were really glowing from agitation, bent his head
+close to his brother's ear, and whispered shortly the story of his love.
+Sappho's father had helped to defend his native town Phocaea against the
+hosts of Cyrus, and this fact the boy cleverly brought forward, speaking
+of the girl he loved as the daughter of a Greek warrior of noble birth.
+In so saying he spoke the truth, but at the same time he suppressed the
+facts that this very father had acquired great riches by mercantile
+undertakings.
+
+     [The Persians were forbidden by law to contract debts, because
+     debtors were necessarily led to say much that was untrue.  Herod. I.
+     For this reason they held all money transactions m contempt, such
+     occupations being also very uncongenial to their military tastes.
+     They despised commerce and abandoned it to the conquered nations.]
+
+He then told his brother how charming, cultivated and loving his Sappho
+was, and was just going to call on Croesus for a confirmation of his
+words, when Cambyses interrupted him by kissing his forehead and saying:
+"You need say no more, brother; do what your heart bids you.  I know the
+power of love too, and I will help you to gain our mother's consent."
+Bartja threw himself at his brother's feet, overcome with gratitude and
+joy, but Cambyses raised him kindly and, looking especially at Nitetis
+and Kassandane, exclaimed: "Listen, my dear ones, the stem of Cyrus is
+going to blossom afresh, for our brother Bartja has resolved to put an
+end to his single life, so displeasing to the gods.
+
+     [The Persians were commanded by their religion to marry, and the
+     unmarried were held up to ridicule.  Vendid.  IV.  Fargard.  130.
+     The highest duty of man was to create and promote life, and to have
+     many children was therefore considered praiseworthy.  Herod.  I.
+     136.]
+
+In a few days the young lover will leave us for your country, Nitetis,
+and will bring back another jewel from the shores of the Nile to our
+mountain home."
+
+"What is the matter, sister?"  cried Atossa, before her brother had
+finished speaking.  Nitetis had fainted, and Atossa was sprinkling her
+forehead with wine as she lay in her arms.
+
+"What was it?"  asked the blind Kassandane, when Nitetis had awakened to
+consciousness a few moments later.
+
+"The joy--the happiness--Tachot," faltered Nitetis.  Cambyses, as well as
+his sister, had sprung to the fainting girl's help.  When she had
+recovered consciousness, he asked her to take some wine to revive her
+completely, gave her the cup with his own hand, and then went on at the
+point at which he had left off in his account: "Bartja is going to your
+own country, my wife--to Naukratis on the Nile--to fetch thence the
+granddaughter of a certain Rhodopis, and daughter of a noble warrior, a
+native of the brave town of Phocaea, as his wife."
+
+"What was that?"  cried the blind queen-mother.
+
+"What is the matter with you?"  exclaimed Atossa again, in an anxious,
+almost reproachful tone.
+
+"Nitetis!"  cried Croesus admonishingly.  But the warning came too late;
+the cup which her royal lover had given her slipped from her hands and
+fell ringing on the floor.  All eyes were fixed on the king's features in
+anxious suspense.  He had sprung from his seat pale as death; his lips
+trembled and his fist was clenched.  Nitetis looked up at her lover
+imploringly, but he was afraid of meeting those wonderful, fascinating
+eyes, and turned his head away, saying in a hoarse voice: "Take the women
+back to their apartments, Boges.  I have seen enough of them--let us
+begin our drinking-bout--good-night, my mother; take care how you nourish
+vipers with your heart's blood.  Sleep well, Egyptian, and pray to the
+gods to give you a more equal power of dissembling your feelings.  To-
+morrow, my friends, we will go out hunting.  Here, cup-bearer, give me
+some wine! fill the large goblet, but taste it well--yes, well--for to-
+day I am afraid of poison; to-day for the first time.  Do you hear,
+Egyptian?  I am afraid of poison!  and every child knows--ah-ha--that all
+the poison, as well as the medicine comes from Egypt."
+
+Nitetis left the hall,--she hardly knew how,--more staggering than
+walking.  Boges accompanied her, telling the bearers to make haste.
+
+When they reached the hanging-gardens he gave her up to the care of the
+eunuch in attendance, and took his leave, not respectfully as usual, but
+chuckling, rubbing his hands, and speaking in an intimate and
+confidential tone: "Dream about the handsome Bartja and his Egyptian
+lady-love, my white Nile-kitten!  Haven't you any message for the
+beautiful boy, whose love-story frightened you so terribly?  Think a
+little.  Poor Boges will very gladly play the go-between; the poor
+despised Boges wishes you so well--the humble Boges will be so sorry when
+he sees the proud palm-tree from Sais cut down.  Boges is a prophet; he
+foretells you a speedy return home to Egypt, or a quiet bed in the black
+earth in Babylon, and the kind Boges wishes you a peaceful sleep.
+Farewell, my broken flower, my gay, bright viper, wounded by its own
+sting, my pretty fir-cone, fallen from the tall pine-tree!"
+
+"How dare you speak in this impudent manner?" said the indignant
+princess.
+
+"Thank you," answered the wretch, smiling.
+
+"I shall complain of your conduct," threatened Nitetis.
+
+"You are very amiable," answered Boges.  "Go out of my sight," she cried.
+
+"I will obey your kind and gentle hints;" he answered softly, as if
+whispering words of love into her ear.  She started back in disgust and
+fear at these scornful words; she saw how full of terror they were for
+her, turned her back on him and went quickly into the house, but his
+voice rang after her: "Don't forget my lovely queen, think of me now and
+then; for everything that happens in the next few days will be a keepsake
+from the poor despised Boges."
+
+As soon as she had disappeared he changed his tone, and commanded the
+sentries in the severest and most tyrannical manner, to keep a strict
+watch over the hanging-gardens.  "Certain death," said he, "to whichever
+of you allows any one but myself to enter these gardens.  No one,
+remember--no one--and least of all messengers from the queen-mother,
+Atossa or any of the great people, may venture to set foot on these
+steps.  If Croesus or Oropastes should wish to speak to the Egyptian
+Princess, refuse them decidedly.  Do you understand?  I repeat it,
+whoever is begged or bribed into disobedience will not see the light of
+to-morrow's sun.  Nobody may enter these gardens without express
+permission from my own mouth.  I think you know me.  Here, take these
+gold staters, your work will be heavier now; but remember, I swear by
+Plithras not to spare one of you who is careless or disobedient."
+
+The men made a due obeisance and determined to obey; they knew that
+Boges' threats were never meant in joke, and fancied something great must
+be coming to pass, as the stingy eunuch never spent his staters without
+good reason.
+
+Boges was carried back to the banqueting-hall in the same litter, which
+had brought Nitetis away.
+
+The king's wives had left, but the concubines were all standing in their
+appointed place, singing their monotonous songs, though quite unheard by
+the uproarious men.
+
+The drinkers had already long forgotten the fainting woman.  The uproar
+and confusion rose with every fresh wine-cup.  They forgot the dignity of
+the place where they were assembled, and the presence of their mighty
+ruler.
+
+They shouted in their drunken joy; warriors embraced one another with a
+tenderness only excited by wine, here and there a novice was carried away
+in the arms of a pair of sturdy attendants, while an old hand at the work
+would seize a wine-jug instead of a goblet, and drain it at a draught
+amid the cheers of the lookers-on.
+
+The king sat on at the head of the table, pale as death, staring into the
+wine-cup as if unconscious of what was going on around hint.  But at the
+sight of his brother his fist clenched.
+
+He would neither speak to him, nor answer his questions.  The longer he
+sat there gazing into vacancy, the firmer became his conviction that
+Nitetis had deceived him,--that she had pretended to love him while her
+heart really belonged to Bartja.  How shamefully they had made sport of
+him!  How deeply rooted must have been the faithlessness of this clever
+hypocrite, if the mere news that his brother loved some one else could
+not only destroy all her powers of dissimulation, but actually deprive
+her of consciousness!
+
+When Nitetis left the hall, Otanes, the father of Phaedime had called
+out: "The Egyptian women seem to take great interest in the love-affairs
+of their brothers-in-law.  The Persian women are not so generous with
+their feelings; they keep them for their husbands."
+
+Cambyses was too proud to let it be seen that he had heard these words;
+like the ostrich, he feigned deafness and blindness in order not to seem
+aware of the looks and murmurs of his guests, which all went to prove
+that he had been deceived.
+
+Bartja could have had no share in her perfidy; she had loved this
+handsome youth, and perhaps all the more because she had not been able to
+hope for a return of her love.  If he had had the slightest suspicion of
+his brother, he would have killed him on the spot.  Bartja was certainly
+innocent of any share in the deception and in his brother's misery, but
+still he was the cause of all; so the old grudge, which had only just
+been allowed to slumber, woke again; and, as a relapse is always more
+dangerous than the original illness, the newly-roused anger was more
+violent than what he had formerly felt.
+
+He thought and thought, but he could not devise a fitting punishment for
+this false woman.  Her death would not content his vengeance, she must
+suffer something worse than mere death!
+
+Should he send her back to Egypt, disgraced and shamed?  Oh, no!  she
+loved her country, and she would be received by her parents with open
+arms.  Should he, after she had confessed her guilt, (for he was
+determined to force a confession from her) shut her up in a solitary
+dungeon?  or should he deliver her over to Boges, to be the servant of
+his concubines?  Yes! now he had hit upon the right punishment.  Thus the
+faithless creature should be disciplined, and the hypocrite, who had
+dared to make sport of him--the All-powerful--forced to atone for her
+crimes.
+
+Then he said to himself: "Bartja must not stay here; fire and water have
+more in common than we two--he always fortunate and happy, and I so
+miserable.  Some day or other his descendants will divide my treasures,
+and wear my crown; but as yet I am king, and I will show that I am."
+
+The thought of his proud, powerful position flashed through him like
+lightning.  He woke from his dreams into new life, flung his golden
+goblet far into the hall, so that the wine flew round like rain, and
+cried: "We have had enough of this idle talk and useless noise.  Let us
+hold a council of war, drunken as we are, and consider what answer we
+ought to give the Massagetae.  Hystaspes, you are the eldest, give us
+your opinion first."
+
+     [Herod. I. 134.  The Persians deliberated and resolved when they
+     were intoxicated, and when they were sober reconsidered their
+     determinations.  Tacitus tells the same of the old Germans.  Germ,
+     c. 22.]
+
+Hystaspes, the father of Darius, was an old man.  He answered: "It seems
+to me, that the messengers of this wandering tribe have left us no
+choice.  We cannot go to war against desert wastes; but as our host is
+already under arms and our swords have lain long in their scabbards, war
+we must have.  We only want a few good enemies, and I know no easier work
+than to make them."
+
+At these words the Persians broke into loud shouts of delight; but
+Croesus only waited till the noise had ceased to say: "Hystaspes, you and
+I are both old men; but you are a thorough Persian and fancy you can only
+be happy in battle and bloodshed.  You are now obliged to lean for
+support on the staff, which used to be the badge of your rank as
+commander, and yet you speak like a hot-blooded boy.  I agree with you
+that enemies are easy enough to find, but only fools go out to look for
+them.  The man who tries to make enemies is like a wretch who mutilates
+his own body.  If the enemies are there, let us go out to meet them like
+wise men who wish to look misfortune boldly in the face; but let us never
+try to begin an unjust war, hateful to the gods.  We will wait until
+wrong has been done us, and then go to victory or death, conscious that
+we have right on our side."
+
+The old man was interrupted by a low murmur of applause, drowned however
+quickly by cries of "Hystaspes is right!  let us look for an enemy!"
+
+It was now the turn of the envoy Prexaspes to speak, and he answered
+laughing: "Let us follow the advice of both these noble old men.  We will
+do as Croesus bids us and not go out to seek an enemy, but at the same
+time we will follow Hystaspes' advice by raising our claims and
+pronouncing every one our enemy, who does not cheerfully consent to
+become a member of the kingdom founded by our great father Cyrus.  For
+instance, we will ask the Indians if they would feel proud to obey your
+sceptre, Cambyses.  If they answer no, it is a sign that they do not love
+us, and whoever does not love us, must be our enemy."
+
+"That won't do," cried Zopyrus.  "We must have war at any price."
+
+"I vote for Croesus," said Gobryas.  "And I too," said the noble
+Artabazus.
+
+"We are for Hystaspes," shouted the warrior Araspes, the old Intaphernes,
+and some more of Cyrus's old companions-in-arms.
+
+"War we must have at any price," roared the general Megabyzus, the father
+of Zopyrus, striking the table so sharply with his heavy fist, that the
+golden vessels rang again, and some goblets even fell; "but not with the
+Massagetac--not with a flying foe."
+
+"There must be no war with the Massagetae," said the high-priest
+Oropastes.  "The gods themselves have avenged Cyrus's death upon them."
+
+Cambyses sat for some moments, quietly and coldly watching the
+unrestrained enthusiasm of his warriors, and then, rising from his seat,
+thundered out the words: "Silence, and listen to your king!"
+
+The words worked like magic on this multitude of drunken men.  Even those
+who were most under the influence of wine, listened to their king in a
+kind of unconscious obedience.  He lowered his voice and went on: "I did
+not ask whether you wished for peace or war--I know that every Persian
+prefers the labor of war to an inglorious idleness--but I wished to know
+what answer you would give the Massagetan warriors.  Do you consider that
+the soul of my father--of the man to whom you owe all your greatness--has
+been sufficiently avenged?"
+
+A dull murmur in the affirmative, interrupted by some violent voices in
+the negative, was the answer.  The king then asked a second question:
+"Shall we accept the conditions proposed by their envoys, and grant peace
+to this nation, already so scourged and desolated by the gods?"  To this
+they all agreed eagerly.
+
+"That is what I wished to know," continued Cambyses.  "To-morrow, when we
+are sober, we will follow the old custom and reconsider what has been
+resolved on during our intoxication.  Drink on, all of you, as long as
+the night lasts.  To-morrow, at the last crow of the sacred bird Parodar,
+I shall expect you to meet me for the chase, at the gate of the temple of
+Bel."
+
+So saying, the king left the hall, followed by a thundering "Victory to
+the king!"  Boges had slipped out quietly before him.  In the forecourt
+he found one of the gardener's boys from the hanging-gardens.
+
+"What do you want here?"  asked Boges.  "I have something for the prince
+Bartja."
+
+"For Bartja?  Has he asked your master to send him some seeds or slips?"
+
+The boy shook his sunburnt head and smiled roguishly.
+
+"Some one else sent you then?"  said Boges becoming more attentive.
+
+"Yes, some one else."
+
+"Ah! the Egyptian has sent a message to her brother-in-law?"
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"Nitetis spoke to me about it.  Here, give me what you have; I will give
+it to Bartja at once."
+
+"I was not to give it to any one but the prince himself."
+
+"Give it to me; it will be safer in my hands than in yours."
+
+"I dare not."
+
+"Obey me at once, or--"
+
+At this moment the king came up.  Boges thought a moment, and then called
+in a loud voice to the whip-bearers on duty at the palace-gate, to take
+the astonished boy up.
+
+"What is the matter here?"  asked Cambyses.
+
+"This fellow," answered the eunuch, "has had the audacity to make his way
+into the palace with a message from your consort Nitetis to Bartja."
+
+At sight of the king, the boy had fallen on his knees, touching the
+ground with his forehead.
+
+Cambyses looked at him and turned deadly pale.  Then, turning to the
+eunuch, he asked: "What does the Egyptian Princess wish from my brother?"
+
+"The boy declares that he has orders to give up what has been entrusted
+to him to no one but Bartja."  On hearing this the boy looked imploringly
+up at the king, and held out a little papyrus roll.
+
+Cambyses snatched it out of his hand, but the next moment stamped
+furiously on the ground at seeing that the letter was written in Greek,
+which he could not read.
+
+He collected himself, however, and, with an awful look, asked the boy who
+had given him the letter.  "The Egyptian lady's waiting-woman Mandane,"
+he answered; "the Magian's daughter."
+
+"For my brother Bartja?"
+
+"She said I was to give the letter to the handsome prince, before the
+banquet, with a greeting from her mistress Nitetis, and I was to tell him
+.  .  ."
+
+Here the king stamped so furiously, that the boy was frightened and could
+only stammer: "Before the banquet the prince was walking with you, so I
+could not speak to him, and now I am waiting for him here, for Mandane
+promised to give me a piece of gold if I did what she told me cleverly."
+
+"And that you have not done," thundered the king, fancying himself
+shamefully deceived.  "No, indeed you have not.  Here, guards, seize this
+fellow!"
+
+The boy begged and prayed, but all in vain; the whip-bearers seized
+him quick as thought, and Cambyses, who went off at once to his own
+apartments, was soon out of reach of his whining entreaties for mercy.
+
+Boges followed his master, rubbing his fat hands, and laughing quietly to
+himself.
+
+The king's attendants began their work of disrobing him, but he told them
+angrily to leave him at once.  As soon as they were gone, he called Boges
+and said in a low voice: "From this time forward the hanging-gardens and
+the Egyptian are under your control.  Watch her carefully!  If a single
+human being or a message reaches her without my knowledge, your life will
+be the forfeit."
+
+"But if Kassandane or Atossa should send to her?"
+
+"Turn the messengers away, and send word that every attempt to see or
+communicate with Nitetis will be regarded by me as a personal offence."
+
+"May I ask a favor for myself, O King?"
+
+"The time is not well chosen for asking favors."
+
+"I feel ill.  Permit some one else to take charge of the hanging-gardens
+for to-morrow only."
+
+"No!--now leave me."
+
+"I am in a burning fever and have lost consciousness three times during
+the day--if when I am in that state any one should  .  .  ."
+
+But who could take your place?"
+
+"The Lydian captain of the eunuchs, Kandaules.  He is true as gold, and
+inflexibly severe.  One day of rest would restore me to health.  Have
+mercy, O King!"
+
+"No one is so badly served as the king himself.  Kandaules may take your
+place to-morrow, but give hum the strictest orders, and say that the
+slightest neglect will put his life in danger.--Now depart."
+
+"Yet one word, my King: to-morrow night the rare blue lily in the
+hanging-gardens will open.  Hystaspes, Intaphernes, Gobyras, Croesus and
+Oropastes, the greatest horticulturists at your court, would very much
+like to see it.  May they be allowed to visit the gardens for a few
+minutes?  Kandaules shall see that they enter into no communication with
+the Egyptian."
+
+"Kandaules must keep his eyes open, if he cares for his own life.--Go!"
+
+Boges made a deep obeisance and left the king's apartment.  He threw a
+few gold pieces to the slaves who bore the torches before him.  He was so
+very happy.  Every thing had succeeded beyond his expectations:--the fate
+of Nitetis was as good as decided, and he held the life of Kandaules, his
+hated colleague, in his own hands.
+
+Cambyses spent the night in pacing up and down his apartment.  By cock-
+crow he had decided that Nitetis should be forced to confess her guilt,
+and then be sent into the great harem to wait on the concubines.  Bartja,
+the destroyer of his happiness, should set off at once for Egypt, and on
+his return become the satrap of some distant provinces.  He did not wish
+to incur the guilt of a brother's murder, but he knew his own temper too
+well not to fear that in a moment of sudden anger, he might kill one he
+hated so much, and therefore wished to remove him out of the reach of his
+passion.
+
+Two hours after the sun had risen, Cambyses was riding on his fiery
+steed, far in front of a Countless train of followers armed with shields,
+swords, lances, bows and lassos, in pursuit of the game which was to be
+found in the immense preserves near Babylon, and was to be started from
+its lair by more than a thousand dogs.
+
+     [The same immense trains of followers of course accompanied the
+     kings on their hunting expeditions, as on their journeys.  As the
+     Persian nobility were very fond of hunting, their boys were taught
+     this sport at an early age.  According to Strabo, kings themselves
+     boasted of having been mighty hunters in the inscriptions on their
+     tombs.  A relief has been found m the ruins of Persepolis, on which
+     the king is strangling a lion with his right arm, but this is
+     supposed to have a historical, not a symbolical meaning.  Similar
+     representations occur on Assyrian monuments.  Izdubar strangling a
+     lion and fighting with a lion (relief at Khorsabad) is admirably
+     copied in Delitzsch's edition of G.  Smith's Chaldean Genesis.
+     Layard discovered some representations of hunting-scenes during his
+     excavations; as, for instance, stags and wild boars among the reeds;
+     and the Greeks often mention the immense troops of followers on
+     horse and foot who attended the kings of Persia when they went
+     hunting.  According to Xenophon, Cyrop. I.  2.  II. 4. every hunter
+     was obliged to be armed with a bow and arrows, two lances, sword and
+     shield.  In Firdusi's Book of Kings we read that the lasso was also
+     a favorite weapon.  Hawking was well known to the Persians more than
+     900 years ago.  Book of Kabus XVIII.  p.  495.  The boomerang was
+     used in catching birds as well by the Persians as by the ancient
+     Egyptians and the present savage tribes of New Holland.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The hunt was over.  Waggons full of game, amongst which were several
+enormous wild boars killed by the king's own hand, were driven home
+behind the sports men.  At the palace-gates the latter dispersed to their
+several abodes, in order to exchange the simple Persian leather hunting-
+costume for the splendid Median court-dress.
+
+In the course of the day's sport Cambyses had (with difficulty
+restraining his agitation) given his brother the seemingly kind order to
+start the next day for Egypt in order to fetch Sappho and accompany her
+to Persia.  At the same time he assigned him the revenues of Bactra,
+Rhagae and Sinope for the maintenance of his new household, and to his
+young wife, all the duties levied from her native town Phocaea, as pin-
+money.
+
+Bartja thanked his generous brother with undisguised warmth, but Cambyses
+remained cold as ice, uttered a few farewell words, and then, riding off
+in pursuit of a wild ass, turned his back upon him.
+
+On the way home from the chase the prince invited his bosom-friends
+Croesus, Darius, Zopyrus and Gyges to drink a parting-cup with him.
+
+Croesus promised to join them later, as he had promised to visit the blue
+lily at the rising of the Tistarstar.
+
+He had been to the hanging-gardens that morning early to visit Nitetis,
+but had been refused entrance by the guards, and the blue lily seemed now
+to offer him another chance of seeing and speaking to his beloved pupil.
+He wished for this very much, as he could not thoroughly understand her
+behavior the day before, and was uneasy at the strict watch set over her.
+
+The young Achaemenidae sat cheerfully talking together in the twilight in
+a shady bower in the royal gardens, cool fountains plashing round them.
+Araspes, a Persian of high rank, who had been one of Cyrus's friends, had
+joined them, and did full justice to the prince's excellent wine.
+
+"Fortunate Bartja!" cried the old bachelor, "going out to a golden
+country to fetch the woman you love; while I, miserable old fellow, am
+blamed by everybody, and totter to my grave without wife or children to
+weep for me and pray the gods to be merciful to my poor soul."
+
+"Why think of such things?"  cried Zopyrus, flourishing the wine-cup.
+"There's no woman so perfect that her husband does not, at least once a
+day, repent that he ever took a wife.  Be merry, old friend, and remember
+that it's all your own fault.  If you thought a wife would make you
+happy, why did not you do as I have done?  I am only twenty-two years old
+and have five stately wives and a troop of the most beautiful slaves in
+my house."
+
+Araspes smiled bitterly.
+
+"And what hinders you from marrying now?"  said Gyges.  "You are a match
+for many a younger man in appearance, strength, courage and perseverance.
+You are one of the king's nearest relations too--I tell you, Araspes, you
+might have twenty young and beautiful wives."
+
+"Look after your own affairs," answered Araspes.  "In your place, I
+certainly should not have waited to marry till I was thirty."
+
+"An oracle has forbidden my marrying."
+
+"Folly?  how can a sensible man care for what an oracle says?  It is only
+by dreams, that the gods announce the future to men.  I should have
+thought that your own father was example enough of the shameful way in
+which those lying priests deceive their best friends."
+
+"That is a matter which you do not understand, Araspes."
+
+"And never wish to, boy, for you only believe in oracles because you
+don't understand them, and in your short-sightedness call everything that
+is beyond your comprehension a miracle.  And you place more confidence in
+anything that seems to you miraculous, than in the plain simple truth
+that lies before your face.  An oracle deceived your father and plunged
+him into ruin, but the oracle is miraculous, and so you too, in perfect
+confidence, allow it to rob you of happiness!"
+
+"That is blasphemy, Araspes.  Are the gods to be blamed because we
+misunderstand their words?"
+
+"Certainly: for if they wished to benefit us they would give us, with the
+words, the necessary penetration for discovering their meaning.  What
+good does a beautiful speech do me, if it is in a foreign language that I
+do not understand?"
+
+"Leave off this useless discussion," said Darius, "and tell us instead,
+Araspes, how it is that, though you congratulate every man on becoming a
+bridegroom, you yourself have so long submitted to be blamed by the
+priests, slighted at all entertainments and festivals, and abused by the
+women, only because you choose to live and die a bachelor?"
+
+Araspes looked down thoughtfully, then shook himself, took a long draught
+from the wine-cup, and said, "I have my reasons, friends, but I cannot
+tell them now."
+
+"Tell them, tell them," was the answer.
+
+"No, children, I cannot, indeed I cannot.  This cup I drain to the health
+of the charming Sappho, and this second to your good fortune, my
+favorite, Darius."
+
+"Thanks, Araspes!"  exclaimed Bartja, joyfully raising his goblet to his
+lips.
+
+"You mean well, I know," muttered Darius, looking down gloomily.
+
+"What's this, you son of Hystaspes?"  cried the old man, looking more
+narrowly at the serious face of the youth.  "Dark looks like these don't
+sit well on a betrothed lover, who is to drink to the health of his
+dearest one.  Is not Gobryas' little daughter the noblest of all the
+young Persian girls after Atossa? and isn't she beautiful?"
+
+"Artystone has every talent and quality that a daughter of the
+Achaemenidae ought to possess," was Darius's answer, but his brow did not
+clear as he said the words.
+
+"Well, if you want more than that, you must be very hard to please."
+
+Darius raised his goblet and looked down into the wine.
+
+"The boy is in love, as sure as my name is Araspes!"  exclaimed the elder
+man.
+
+"What a set of foolish fellows you are," broke in Zopyrus at this
+exclamation.  "One of you has remained a bachelor in defiance of all
+Persian customs; another has been frightened out of marrying by an
+oracle; Bartja has determined to be content with only one wife; and
+Darius looks like a Destur chanting the funeral-service, because his
+father has told him to make himself happy with the most beautiful and
+aristocratic girl in Persia!"
+
+"Zopyrus is right," cried Araspes.  "Darius is ungrateful to fortune."
+
+Bartja meanwhile kept his eyes fixed on the friend, who was thus blamed
+by the others.  He saw that their jests annoyed him, and feeling his own
+great happiness doubly in that moment, pressed Darius's hand, saying:
+"I am so sorry that I cannot be present at your wedding.  By the time I
+come back, I hope you will be reconciled to your father's choice."
+
+"Perhaps," said Darius, "I may be able to show a second and even a third
+wife by that time."
+
+"Anahita" grant it!"  exclaimed Zopyrus.  "The Achaemenidae would soon
+become extinct, if every one were to follow such examples as Gyges and
+Araspes have set us.  And your one wife, Bartja, is really not worth
+talking about.  It is your duty to marry three wives at once, in order to
+keep up your father's family--the race of Cyrus."
+
+"I hate our custom of marrying many wives," answered Bartja.  "Through
+doing this, we make ourselves inferior to the women, for we expect them
+to remain faithful to us all our lives, and we, who are bound to respect
+truth and faithfulness above every thing else, swear inviolable love to
+one woman to-day, and to another to-morrow."
+
+"Nonsense!"  cried Zopyrus.  "I'd rather lose my tongue than tell a he to
+a man, but our wives are so awfully deceitful, that one has no choice but
+to pay them back in their own coin."
+
+"The Greek women are different," said Bartja, "because they are
+differently treated.  Sappho told me of one, I think her name was
+Penelope, who waited twenty years faithfully and lovingly for her
+husband, though every one believed he was dead, and she had fifty lovers
+a day at her house."
+
+"My wives would not wait so long for me," said Zopyrus laughing.  "To
+tell the truth, I don't think I should be sorry to find an empty house,
+if I came back after twenty years.  For then I could take some new wives
+into my harem, young and beautiful, instead of the unfaithful ones, who,
+besides, would have grown old.  But alas!  every woman does not find some
+one to run away with her, and our women would rather have an absent
+husband than none at all."
+
+"If your wives could hear what you are saying!"  said Araspes.
+
+"They would declare war with me at once, or, what is still worse,
+conclude a peace with one another."
+
+"How would that be worse?"
+
+"How? it is easy to see, that you have had no experience."
+
+"Then let us into the secrets of your married life."
+
+"With pleasure.  You can easily fancy, that five wives in one house do
+not live quite so peacefully as five doves in a cage; mine at least carry
+on an uninterrupted, mortal warfare.  But I have accustomed myself to
+that, and their sprightliness even amuses me.  A year ago, however, they
+came to terms with one another, and this day of peace was the most
+miserable in my life."
+
+"You are jesting."
+
+"No, indeed, I am quite in earnest.  The wretched eunuch who had to keep
+watch over the five, allowed them to see an old jewel-merchant from Tyre.
+Each of them chose a separate and expensive set of jewels.  When I came
+home Sudabe came up and begged for money to pay for these ornaments.  The
+things were too dear, and I refused.  Every one of the five then came and
+begged me separately for the money; I refused each of them point blank
+and went off to court.  When I came back, there were all my wives weeping
+side by side, embracing one another and calling each other fellow-
+sufferers.  These former enemies rose up against me with the most
+touching unanimity, and so overwhelmed me with revilings and threats that
+I left the room.  They closed their doors against me.  The next morning
+the lamentations of the evening before were continued.  I fled once more
+and went hunting with the king, and when I came back, tired, hungry and
+half-frozen--for it was in spring, we were already at Ecbatana, and the
+snow was lying an ell deep on the Orontes--there was no fire on the
+hearth and nothing to eat.  These noble creatures had entered into an
+alliance in order to punish me, had put out the fire, forbidden the cooks
+to do their duty and, which was worse than all--had kept the jewels!  No
+sooner had I ordered the slaves to make a fire and prepare food, than the
+impudent jewel-dealer appeared and demanded his money.  I refused again,
+passed another solitary night, and in the morning sacrificed ten talents
+for the sake of peace.  Since that time harmony and peace among my
+beloved wives seems to me as much to be feared as the evil Divs
+themselves, and I see their little quarrels with the greatest pleasure."
+
+"Poor Zopyrus!"  cried Bartja.
+
+"Why poor?"  asked this five-fold husband.  "I tell you I am much happier
+than you are.  My wives are young and charming, and when they grow old,
+what is to hinder me from taking others, still handsomer, and who, by the
+side of the faded beauties, will be doubly charming.  Ho! slave--bring
+some lamps.  The sun has gone down, and the wine loses all its flavor
+when the table is not brightly lighted."
+
+At this moment the voice of Darius, who had left the arbor and gone out
+into the garden, was heard calling: "Come and hear how beautifully the
+nightingale is singing."
+
+"By Mithras, you son of Hystaspes, you must be in love," interrupted
+Araspes.  "The flowery darts of love must have entered the heart of him,
+who leaves his wine to listen to the nightingale."
+
+"You are right there, father," cried Bartja.  "Philomel, as the Greeks
+call our Gulgul, is the lovers' bird among all nations, for love has
+given her her beautiful song.  What beauty were you dreaming of, Darius,
+when you went out to listen to the nightingale?"
+
+"I was not dreaming of any," answered he.  "You know how fond I am of
+watching the stars, and the Tistar-star rose so splendidly to-night, that
+I left the wine to watch it.  The nightingales were singing so loudly to
+one another, that if I had not wished to hear them I must have stopped my
+ears."
+
+"You kept them wide open, however," said Araspes laughing.  "Your
+enraptured exclamation proved that."
+
+"Enough of this," cried Darius, to whom these jokes were getting
+wearisome.  "I really must beg you to leave off making allusions to
+matters, which I do not care to hear spoken of."
+
+"Imprudent fellow!"  whispered the older man; "now you really have
+betrayed yourself.  If you were not in love, you would have laughed
+instead of getting angry. Still I won't go on provoking you--tell me
+what you have just been reading in the stars."
+
+At these words Darius looked up again into the starry sky and fixed his
+eyes on a bright constellation hanging over the horizon.  Zopyrus watched
+him and called out to his friends, "Something important must be happening
+up there.  Darius, tell us what's going on in the heavens just now."
+
+"Nothing good," answered the other.  "Bartja, I have something to say to
+you alone."
+
+"Why to me alone?  Araspes always keeps his own counsel, and from the
+rest of you I never have any secrets."
+
+"Still--"
+
+"Speak out."
+
+"No, I wish you would come into the garden with me."
+
+Bartja nodded to the others, who were still sitting over their wine, laid
+his hand on Darius' shoulder and went out with him into the bright
+moonlight.  As soon as they were alone, Darius seized both his friend's
+hands, and said: "To-day is the third time that things have happened in
+the heavens, which bode no good for you.  Your evil star has approached
+your favorable constellation so nearly, that a mere novice in astrology
+could see some serious danger was at hand.  Be on your guard, Bartja, and
+start for Egypt to-day; the stars tell me that the danger is here on the
+Euphrates, not abroad."
+
+"Do you believe implicitly in the stars?"
+
+"Implicitly.  They never lie."
+
+"Then it would be folly to try and avoid what they have foretold."
+
+"Yes, no man can run away from his destiny; but that very destiny is like
+a fencing-master--his favorite pupils are those who have the courage and
+skill to parry his own blows.  Start for Egypt to-day, Bartja."
+
+"I cannot--I haven't taken leave of my mother and Atossa."
+
+"Send them a farewell message, and tell Croesus to explain the reason of
+your starting so quickly."
+
+"They would call me a coward."
+
+"It is cowardly to yield to any mortal, but to go out of the way of one's
+fate is wisdom."
+
+"You contradict yourself, Darius.  What would the fencing-master say to a
+runaway-pupil?"
+
+"He would rejoice in the stratagem, by which an isolated individual tried
+to escape a superior force."
+
+"But the superior force must conquer at last.--What would be the use of
+my trying to put off a danger which, you say yourself, cannot be averted?
+If my tooth aches, I have it drawn at once, instead of tormenting and
+making myself miserable for weeks by putting off the painful operation as
+a coward or a woman would, till the last moment.  I can await this coming
+danger bravely, and the sooner it comes the better, for then I shall have
+it behind me."
+
+"You do not know how serious it is."
+
+"Are you afraid for my life?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then tell me, what you are afraid of."
+
+"That Egyptian priest with whom I used to study the stars, once cast your
+horoscope with me.  He knew more about the heavens, than any man I ever
+saw.  I learnt a great deal from him, and I will not hide from you that
+even then he drew my attention to dangers that threaten you now."
+
+"And you did not tell me?"
+
+"Why should I have made you uneasy beforehand?  Now that your destiny is
+drawing near, I warn you."
+
+"Thank you,--I will be careful.  In former times I should not have
+listened to such a warning, but now that I love Sappho, I feel as if my
+life were not so much my own to do what I like with, as it used to be."
+
+"I understand this feeling  .  .  ."
+
+"You understand it?  Then Araspes was right?  You don't deny?"
+
+"A mere dream without any hope of fulfilment."
+
+"But what woman could refuse you?"
+
+"Refuse!"
+
+"I don't understand you.  Do you mean to say that you--the boldest
+sportsman, the strongest wrestler--the wisest of all the young Persians
+--that you, Darius, are afraid of a woman?"
+
+"Bartja, may I tell you more, than I would tell even to my own father?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I love the daughter of Cyrus, your sister and the king's, Atossa."
+
+"Have I understood you rightly?  you love Atossa?  Be praised for this,
+O ye pure Amescha cpenta!  Now I shall never believe in your stars again,
+for instead of the danger with which they threatened me, here comes an
+unexpected happiness.  Embrace me, my brother, and tell me the whole
+story, that I may see whether I can help you to turn this hopeless dream,
+as you call it, into a reality."
+
+"You will remember that before our journey to Egypt, we went with the
+entire court from Ecbatana to Susa.  I was in command of the division of
+the "Immortals" appointed to escort the carriages containing the king's
+mother and sister, and his wives.  In going through the narrow pass which
+leads over the Orontes, the horses of your mother's carriage slipped.
+The yoke to which the horses were harnessed broke from the pole, and the
+heavy, four-wheeled carriage fell over the precipice without obstruction.
+
+     [There was a yoke at the end of the shaft of a Persian carriage,
+     which was fastened on to the backs of the horses and took the place
+     of our horse-collar and pole-chain.]
+
+On seeing it disappear, we were horrified and spurred our horses to the
+place as quickly as possible.  We expected of course to see only
+fragments of the carriages and the dead bodies of its inmates, but the
+gods had taken them into their almighty protection, and there lay the
+carriage, with broken wheels, in the arms of two gigantic cypresses which
+had taken firm root in the fissures of the slate rocks, and whose dark
+tops reached up to the edge of the carriage-road.
+
+"As quick as thought I sprang from my horse and scrambled down one of the
+cypresses.  Your mother and sister stretched their arms to me, crying for
+help.  The danger was frightful, for the sides of the carriage had been
+so shattered by the fall, that they threatened every moment to give way,
+in which case those inside it must inevitably have fallen into the black,
+unfathomable abyss which looked like an abode for the gloomy Divs, and
+stretched his jaws wide to crush its beautiful victims.
+
+"I stood before the shattered carriage as it hung over the precipice
+ready to fall to pieces every moment, and then for the first time I met
+your sister's imploring look.  From that moment I loved her, but at the
+time I was much too intent on saving them, to think of anything else, and
+had no idea what had taken place within me.  I dragged the trembling
+women out of the carriage, and one minute later it rolled down the abyss
+crashing into a thousand pieces.  I am a strong man, but I confess that
+all my strength was required to keep myself and the two women from
+falling over the precipice until ropes were thrown to us from above.
+Atossa hung round my neck, and Kassandane lay on my breast, supported by
+my left arm; with the right I fastened the rope round my waist, we were
+drawn up, and I found myself a few minutes later on the high-road--your
+mother and sister were saved.
+
+"As soon as one of the Magi had bound up the wounds cut by the rope in my
+side, the king sent for me, gave me the chain I am now wearing and the
+revenues of an entire satrapy, and then took me to his mother and sister.
+They expressed their gratitude very warmly; Kassandane allowed me to kiss
+her forehead, and gave me all the jewels she had worn at the time of the
+accident, as a present for my future wife.  Atossa took a ring from her
+finger, put it on mine and kissed my hand in the warmth of her emotion--
+you know how eager and excitable she is.  Since that happy day--the
+happiest in my life--I have never seen your sister, till yesterday
+evening, when we sat opposite to each other at the banquet.  Our eyes
+met.  I saw nothing but Atossa, and I think she has not forgotten the man
+who saved her.  Kassandane .  .  ."
+
+"Oh, my mother would be delighted to have you for a son-in-law; I will
+answer for that.  As to the king, your father must apply to him; he is
+our uncle and has a right to ask the hand of Cyrus's daughter for his
+son."
+
+"But have you forgotten your father's dream?  You know that Cambyses has
+always looked on me with suspicion since that time."
+
+"Oh, that has been long forgotten.  My father dreamt before his death
+that you had wings, and was misled by the soothsayers into the fancy that
+you, though you were only eighteen then, would try to gain the crown.
+Cambyses thought of this dream too; but, when you saved my mother and
+sister, Croesus explained to him that this must have been its fulfilment,
+as no one but Darius or a winged eagle could possibly have possessed
+strength and dexterity enough to hang suspended over such an abyss."
+
+"Yes, and I remember too that these words did not please your brother.
+He chooses to be the only eagle in Persia; but Croesus does not spare his
+vanity--"
+
+"Where can Croesus be all this time?"
+
+"In the hanging-gardens.  My father and Gobryas have very likely detained
+him."
+
+Just at that moment the voice of Zopyrus was heard exclaiming, "Well, I
+call that polite!  Bartja invites us to a wine-party and leaves us
+sitting here without a host, while he talks secrets yonder."
+
+"We are coming, we are coming," answered Bartja.  Then taking the hand of
+Darius heartily, he said: "I am very glad that you love Atossa.  I shall
+stay here till the day after to-morrow, let the stars threaten me with
+all the dangers in the world.  To-morrow I will find out what Atossa
+feels, and when every thing is in the right track I shall go away, and
+leave my winged Darius to his own powers."
+
+So saying Bartja went back into the arbor, and his friend began to watch
+the stars again.  The longer he looked the sadder and more serious became
+his face, and when the Tistar-star set, he murmured, "Poor Bartja!"  His
+friends called him, and he was on the point of returning to them, when he
+caught sight of a new star, and began to examine its position carefully.
+His serious looks gave way to a triumphant smile, his tall figure seemed
+to grow taller still, he pressed his hand on his heart and whispered:
+"Use your pinions, winged Darius; your star will be on your side," and
+then returned to his friends.
+
+A few minutes after, Croesus came up to the arbor.  The youths sprang
+from their seats to welcome the old man, but when he saw Bartja's face by
+the bright moonlight, he stood as if transfixed by a flash of lightning.
+
+"What has happened, father?"  asked Gyges, seizing his hand anxiously.
+
+"Nothing, nothing," he stammered almost inaudibly, and pushing his son on
+one side, whispered in Bartja's ear: "Unhappy boy, you are still here?
+don't delay any longer,--fly at once! the whip-bearers are close at my
+heels, and I assure you that if you don't use the greatest speed, you
+will have to forfeit your double imprudence with your life."
+
+"But Croesus, I have .  .  ."
+
+"You have set at nought the law of the land and of the court, and, in
+appearance at least, have done great offence to your brother's honor...."
+
+"You are speaking .  .  ."
+
+"Fly, I tell you--fly at once; for if your visit to the hanging-gardens
+was ever so innocently meant, you are still in the greatest danger.  You
+know Cambyses' violent temper so well; how could you so wickedly disobey
+his express command?"
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"No excuses,--fly!  don't you know that, Cambyses has long been jealous
+of you, and that your visit to the Egyptian to-night .  .  ."
+
+"I have never once set foot in the hanging-gardens, since Nitetis has
+been here."
+
+"Don't add a lie to your offence, I .  .  ."
+
+"But I swear to you .  .  ."
+
+"Do you wish to turn a thoughtless act into a crime by adding the guilt
+of perjury?  The whip-bearers are coming, fly!"
+
+"I shall remain here, and abide by my oath."
+
+"You are infatuated!  It is not an hour ago since I myself, Hystaspes,
+and others of the Achaemenidae saw you in the hanging-gardens .  .  ."
+
+In his astonishment Bartja had, half involuntarily, allowed himself to be
+led away, but when he heard this he stood still, called his friends and
+said "Croesus says he met me an hour ago in the hanging-gardens, you know
+that since the sun set I have not been away from you.  Give your
+testimony, that in this case an evil Div must have made sport of our
+friend and his companions."
+
+"I swear to you, father," cried Gyges, "that Bartja has not left this
+garden for some hours."
+
+"And we confirm the same," added Araspes, Zopyrus and Darius with one
+voice.
+
+"You want to deceive me?"  said Croesus getting very angry, and looking
+at each of them reproachfully: "Do you fancy that I am blind or mad?  Do
+you think that your witness will outweigh the words of such men as
+Hystaspes, Gobryas, Artaphernes and the high priest, Oropastes?  In spite
+of all your false testimony, which no amount of friendship can justify,
+Bartja will have to die unless he flies at once."
+
+"May Angramainjus destroy me," said Araspes interrupting the old man, "if
+Bartja was in the hanging-gardens two hours ago!"  and Gyges added:
+
+"Don't call me your son any longer, if we have given false testimony."
+
+Darius was beginning to appeal to the eternal stars, but Bartja put an
+end to this confusion of voices by saying in a decided tone: "A division
+of the bodyguard is coming into the garden.  I am to be arrested; I
+cannot escape because I am innocent, and to fly would lay me open to
+suspicion.  By the soul of my father, the blind eyes of my mother, and
+the pure light of the sun, Croesus, I swear that I am not lying."
+
+"Am I to believe you, in spite of my own eyes which have never yet
+deceived me?  But I will, boy, for I love you.  I do not and I will not
+know whether you are innocent or guilty, but this I do know, you must
+fly, and fly at once.  You know Cambyses.  My carriage is waiting at the
+gate.  Don't spare the horses, save yourself even if you drive them to
+death.  The Soldiers seem to know what they have been sent to do; there
+can be no question that they delay so long only in order to give their
+favorite time to escape.  Fly, fly, or it is all over with you."
+
+Darius, too, pushed his friend forward, exclaiming: "Fly, Bartja, and
+remember the warning that the heavens themselves wrote in the stars for
+you."
+
+Bartja, however, stood silent, shook his handsome head, waved his friends
+back, and answered: "I never ran away yet, and I mean to hold my ground
+to-day.  Cowardice is worse than death in my opinion, and I would rather
+suffer wrong at the hands of others than disgrace myself.  There are the
+soldiers!  Well met, Bischen.  You've come to arrest me, haven't you?
+Wait one moment, till I have said good-bye to my friends."
+
+Bischen, the officer he spoke to, was one of Cyrus's old captains; he had
+given Bartja his first lessons in shooting and throwing the spear, had
+fought by his side in the war with the Tapuri, and loved him as if he
+were his own son.  He interrupted him, saying: "There is no need to take
+leave of your friends, for the king, who is raging like a madman, ordered
+me not only to arrest you, but every one else who might be with you."
+
+And then he added in a low voice: "The king is beside himself with rage
+and threatens to have your life.  You must fly.  My men will do what I
+tell them blindfold; they will not pursue you; and I am so old that it
+would be little loss to Persia, if my head were the price of my
+disobedience."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, my friend," said Bartja, giving him his hand; "but I
+cannot accept your offer, because I am innocent, and I know that though
+Cambyses is hasty, he is not unjust.  Come friends, I think the king will
+give us a hearing to-day, late as it is."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Two hours later Bartja and his friends were standing before the king.
+The gigantic man was seated on his golden throne; he was pale and his
+eyes looked sunken; two physicians stood waiting behind him with all
+kinds of instruments and vessels in their hands.  Cambyses had, only a
+few minutes before, recovered consciousness, after lying for more than an
+hour in one of those awful fits, so destructive both to mind and body,
+which we call epileptic.
+
+     [The dangerous disease to which Herodotus says Cambyses had been
+     subject from his birth, and which was called "sacred" by some, can
+     scarcely be other than epilepsy.  See Herod, III. 33.]
+
+Since Nitetis' arrival he had been free from this illness; but it had
+seized him to-day with fearful violence, owing to the overpowering mental
+excitement he had gone through.
+
+If he had met Bartja a few hours before, he would have killed him with
+his own hand; but though the epileptic fit had not subdued his anger it
+had at least so far quieted it, that he was in a condition to hear what
+was to be said on both sides.
+
+At the right hand of the throne stood Hystaspes, Darius's grey-haired
+father, Gobryas, his future father-in-law, the aged Intaphernes, the
+grandfather of that Phaedime whose place in the king's favor had been
+given to Nitetis, Oropastes the high-priest, Croesus, and behind them
+Boges, the chief of the eunuchs.  At its left Bartja, whose hands were
+heavily fettered, Araspes, Darius, Zopyrus and Gyges.  In the background
+stood some hundred officials and grandees.
+
+After a long silence Cambyses raised his eyes, fixed a withering look on
+his fettered brother, and said in a dull hollow voice: "High-priest, tell
+us what awaits the man who deceives his brother, dishonors and offends
+his king, and darkens his own heart by black lies."
+
+Oropastes came forward and answered: "As soon as such a one is proved
+guilty, a death full of torment awaits him in this world, and an awful
+sentence on the bridge Chinvat; for he has transgressed the highest
+commands, and, by committing three crimes, has forfeited the mercy of our
+law, which commands that his life shall be granted to the man who has
+sinned but once, even though he be only a slave."
+
+     [On the third day after death, at the rising of the bright sun, the
+     souls are conducted by the Divs to the bridge Chinvat, where they
+     are questioned as to their past lives and conduct.  Vendid.
+     Fargard. XIX. 93.  On that spot the two supernatural powers fight
+     for the soul.]
+
+"Then Bartja has deserved death.  Lead him away, guards, and strangle
+him!  Take him away!  Be silent, wretch! never will I listen to that
+smooth, hypocritical tongue again, or look at those treacherous eyes.
+They come from the Divs and delude every one with their wanton glances.
+Off with him, guards!"
+
+Bischen, the captain, came up to obey the order, but in the same moment
+Croesus threw himself at the king's feet, touched the floor with his
+forehead, raised his hands and cried: "May thy days and years bring
+nought but happiness and prosperity; may Auramazda pour down all the
+blessings of this life upon thee, and the Amescha cpenta be the guardians
+of thy throne!
+
+     [The Amescha cpenta, "holy immortal ones," maybe compared to the
+     archangels of the Hebrews.  They surround the throne of Auramazda
+     and symbolize the highest virtues.  Later we find their number fixed
+     at six.]
+
+Do not close thine ear to the words of the aged, but remember that thy
+father Cyrus appointed me to be thy counsellor.  Thou art about to slay
+thy brother; but I say unto thee, do not indulge anger; strive to control
+it.  It is the duty of kings and of the wise, not to act without due
+enquiry.  Beware of shedding a brother's blood; the smoke thereof will
+rise to heaven and become a cloud that must darken the days of the
+murderer, and at last cast down the lightnings of vengeance on his head.
+But I know that thou desirest justice, not murder.  Act then as those who
+have to pronounce a sentence, and hear both sides before deciding.  When
+this has been done, if the criminal is proved guilty and confesses his
+crime, the smoke of his blood will rise to heaven as a friendly shadow,
+instead of a darkening cloud, and thou wilt have earned the fame of a
+just judge instead of deserving the divine judgments."
+
+Cambyses listened in silence, made a sign to Bischen to retire, and
+commanded Boges to repeat his accusation.
+
+The eunuch made an obeisance, and began: "I was ill and obliged to leave
+the Egyptian and the Hanging-gardens in the care of my colleague
+Kandaules, who has paid for his negligence with his life.  Finding myself
+better towards evening, I went up to the hanging-gardens to see if
+everything was in order there, and also to look at the rare flower which
+was to blossom in the night.  The king, (Auramazda grant him victory!)
+had commanded that the Egyptian should be more strictly watched than
+usual, because she had dared to send the noble Bartja  .  .  ."
+
+"Be silent," interrupted the king, "and keep to the matter in hand."
+
+"Just as the Tistar-star was rising, I came into the garden, and staid
+some time there with these noble Achaemenidae, the high-priest and the
+king Croesus, looking at the blue lily, which was marvellously beautiful.
+I then called my colleague Kandaules and asked him, in the presence of
+these noble witnesses, if everything was in order.  He affirmed that this
+was the case and added, that he had just come from Nitetis, that she had
+wept the whole day, and neither tasted food nor drink.  Feeling anxious
+lest my noble mistress should become worse, I commissioned Kandaules to
+fetch a physician, and was just on the point of leaving the noble
+Achaemenidae, in order in person to ascertain my mistress's state of
+health, when I saw in the moon-light the figure of a man.  I was so ill
+and weak, that I could hardly stand and had no one near to help me,
+except the gardener.
+
+"My men were on guard at the different entrances, some distance from us.
+
+"I clapped my hands to call some of them, but, as they did not come, I
+went nearer to the house myself, under the protection of these noblemen.
+--The man was standing by the window of the Egyptian Princess's
+apartment, and uttered a low whistle when he heard us coming up.  Another
+figure appeared directly--clearly recognizable in the bright moonlight--
+sprang out of the sleeping-room window and came towards us with her
+companion.
+
+"I could hardly believe my eyes on discovering that the intruder was no
+other than the noble Bartja.  A fig-tree concealed us from the fugitives,
+but we could distinctly see them, as they passed us at a distance of not
+more than four steps.  While I was thinking whether I should be justified
+in arresting a son of Cyrus, Croesus called to Bartja, and the two
+figures suddenly disappeared behind a cypress.  No one but your brother
+himself can possibly explain the strange way in which he disappeared.  I
+went at once to search the house, and found the Egyptian lying
+unconscious on the couch in her sleeping-room."
+
+Every one listened to this story in the greatest suspense.  Cambyses
+ground his teeth and asked in a voice of great emotion: "Can you testify
+to the words of the eunuch, Hystaspes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why did you not lay hands on the offender?"
+
+"We are soldiers, not policemen."
+
+"Or rather you care for every knave more than for your king."
+
+"We honor our king, and abhor the criminal just as we formerly loved the
+innocent son of Cyrus."
+
+"Did you recognize Bartja distinctly?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you, Croesus, can you too give no other answer?"
+
+"No!  I fancied I saw your brother in the moonlight then, as clearly as I
+see him now; but I believe we must have been deceived by some remarkable
+likeness."  Boges grew pale at these words; Cambyses, however, shook his
+head as if the idea did not please him, and said: "Whom am I to believe
+then, if the eyes of my best warriors fail them? and who would wish to be
+a judge, if testimony such as yours is not to be considered valid?"
+
+"Evidence quite as weighty as ours, will prove that we must have been in
+error."
+
+"Will any one dare to give evidence in favor of such an outrageous
+criminal?"  asked Cambyses, springing up and stamping his foot.
+
+"We will,"  "I,"  "we," shouted Araspes, Darius, Gyges and Zopyrus with
+one voice.
+
+"Traitors, knaves!"  cried the king.  But as he caught sight of Croesus'
+warning eye fixed upon him, he lowered his voice, and said: "What have
+you to bring forward in favor of this fellow?  Take care what you say,
+and consider well what punishment awaits perjurers."
+
+"We know that well enough," said Araspes, "and yet we are ready to swear
+by Mithras, that we have not left Bartja or his garden one moment since
+we came back from hunting."
+
+"As for me," said Darius, "I, the son of Hystaspes, have especially
+convincing evidence to give in favor of your brother's innocence; I
+watched the rising of the Tistar-star with him; and this, according to
+Boges, was the very star that shone on his flight."
+
+Hystaspes gazed on his son in astonishment and doubt at hearing these
+words, and Cambyses turned a scrutinizing eye first on the one and then
+on the other party of these strange witnesses, who wished so much, and
+yet found it so impossible, to believe one another, himself unable to
+come to a decision.
+
+Bartja, who till now had remained perfectly silent, looking down sadly at
+his chained hands, took advantage of the silence to say, making at the
+same time a deep obeisance: "May I be allowed to speak a few words, my
+King?"
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"From our father we learnt to strive after that which was pure and good
+only; so up to this time my life has been unstained.  If you have ever
+known me take part in an evil deed, you have a right not to believe me,
+but if you find no fault in me then trust to what I say, and remember
+that a son of Cyrus would rather die than tell a lie.  I confess that no
+judge was ever placed in such a perplexing position.  The best men in
+your kingdom testify against one another, friend against friend, father
+against son.  But I tell you that were the entire Persian nation to rise
+up against you, and swear that Cambyses had committed this or that evil
+deed, and you were to say, 'I did not commit it,' I, Bartja, would give
+all  Persia the lie and exclaim, 'Ye are all false witnesses; sooner
+could the sea cast up fire than a son of Cyrus allow his mouth to deal in
+lies.'  No, Cambyses, you and I are so high-born that no one but yourself
+can bear evidence against me; and you can only be judged out of your own
+mouth."
+
+Cambyses' looks grew a little milder on hearing these words, and his
+brother went on: "So I swear to you by Mithras, and by all pure spirits,
+that I am innocent.  May my life become extinct and my race perish from
+off the earth, if I tell you a lie, when I say that I have not once set
+foot in the hanging-gardens since my return!"
+
+Bartja's voice was so firm and his tone so full of assurance, as he
+uttered this oath that Cambyses ordered his chains to be loosened, and,
+after a few moments' thought, said: "I should like to believe you, for I
+cannot bear to imagine you the worst and most abandoned of men.  To-
+morrow we will summon the astrologers, soothsayers and priests.  Perhaps
+they may be able to discover the truth.  Can you see any light in this
+darkness, Oropastes?"
+
+"Thy servant supposes, that a Div has taken upon him the form of Bartja,
+in order to ruin the king's brother and stain thine own royal soul with
+the blood of thy father's son."
+
+Cambyses and every one present nodded their assent to this proposition,
+and the king was just going to offer his hand to Bartja, when a staff-
+bearer came in and gave the king a dagger.  A eunuch had found it under
+the windows of Nitetis' sleeping-apartment.
+
+Cambyses examined the weapon carefully.  Its costly hilt was thickly set
+with rubies and turquoises.  As he looked he turned pale, and dashed the
+dagger on the ground before Bartja with such violence, that the stones
+fell out of their setting.
+
+"This is your dagger, you wretch!"  he shrieked, seized by the same
+violent passion as before.  "This very morning you used it to give the
+last thrust to the wild boar, that I had mortally wounded.  Croesus, you
+ought to know it too, for my father brought it from your treasure-house
+at Sardis.  At last you are really convicted, you liar!--you impostor!
+The Divs require no weapons, and such a dagger as this is not to be
+picked up everywhere.  Ah, ha!  you are feeling in your girdle!  You may
+well turn pale; your dagger is gone!"
+
+"Yes, it is gone.  I must have lost it, and some enemy .  .  ."
+
+"Seize him, Bischen, put on his fetters!  Take him to prison--the
+traitor, the perjurer!  He shall be strangled to-morrow.  Death is the
+penalty of perjury.  Your heads for theirs, you guards, if they escape.
+Not one word more will I hear; away with you, you perjured villains!
+Boges, go at once to the hanging-gardens and bring the Egyptian to me.
+Yet no, I won't see that serpent again.  It is very near dawn now, and at
+noon she shall be flogged through the streets.  Then I'll .  .  ."
+
+But here he was stopped by another fit of epilepsy, and sank down on to
+the marble floor in convulsions.  At this fearful moment Kassandane was
+led into the hall by the old general Megabyzus.  The news of what
+had happened had found its way to her solitary apartments, and,
+notwithstanding the hour, she had risen in order to try and discover the
+truth and warn her son against pronouncing a too hasty decision.  She
+believed firmly that Bartja and Nitetis were innocent, though she could
+not explain to herself what had happened.  Several times she had tried to
+put herself in communication with Nitetis, but without avail.  At last
+she had been herself to the hanging-gardens, but the guards had actually
+had the hardihood to refuse her admission.
+
+Croesus went at once to meet her, told her what had happened, suppressing
+as many painful details as possible, confirmed her in her belief of the
+innocence of the accused, and then took her to the bedside of the king.
+
+The convulsions had not lasted long this time.  He lay on his golden bed
+under purple silk coverlets, pale and exhausted.  His blind mother seated
+herself at his side, Croesus and Oropastes took their station at the foot
+of the bell, and in another part of the room, four physicians discussed
+the patient's condition in low whispers.
+
+     [It was natural, that medicine should be carefully studied among a
+     people who set such a high value upon life as did the Persians.
+     Pliny indeed, (XXX.  I.) maintains, that the whole of Zoroaster's
+     religion was founded on the science of medicine, and it is true that
+     there are a great many medical directions to be found in the Avesta.
+     In the Vendidad, Farg. VII. there is a detailed list of medical
+     fees.  "The physician shall treat a priest for a pious blessing or
+     spell, the master of a house for a small draught animal, etc., the
+     lord of a district for a team of four oxen.  If the physician cures
+     the mistress of the house, a female ass shall be his fee, etc.,
+     etc."  We read in the same Fargard, that the physician had to pass a
+     kind of examination.  If he had operated thrice successfully on bad
+     men, on whose bodies he had been permitted to try his skill, he was
+     pronounced "capable for ever."  If, on the other hand, three evil
+     Daevayacna (worshippers of the Divs) died under his hands, he was
+     pronounced "incapable of healing for evermore."]
+
+Kassandane was very gentle with her son; she begged him not to yield to
+passionate anger, and to remember what a sad effect every such outburst
+had on his health.
+
+"Yes, mother, you are right," answered the king, smiling bitterly; "I see
+that I must get rid of everything that rouses my anger.  The Egyptian
+must die, and my perfidious brother shall follow his mistress."
+
+Kassandane used all her eloquence to convince him of the innocence of the
+accused, and to pacify his anger, but neither prayers, tears, nor her
+motherly exhortations, could in the least alter his resolution to rid
+himself of these murderers of his happiness and peace.
+
+At last he interrupted her lamentations by saying: "I feel fearfully
+exhausted; I cannot bear these sobs and lamentations any longer.  Nitetis
+has been proved guilty.  A man was seen to leave her sleeping-apartment
+in the night, and that man was not a thief, but the handsomest man in
+Persia, and one to whom she had dared to send a letter yesterday
+evening."
+
+"Do you know the contents of that letter?"  asked Croesus, coming up to
+the bed.
+
+"No; it was written in Greek.  The faithless creature made use of
+characters, which no one at this court can read."
+
+"Will you permit me to translate the letter?"  Cambyses pointed to a
+small ivory box in which the ominous piece of writing lay, saying: "There
+it is; read it; but do not hide or alter a single word, for to-morrow I
+shall have it read over again by one of the merchants from Sinope."
+
+Croesus' hopes revived; he seemed to breathe again as he took the paper.
+But when he had read it over, his eyes filled with tears and he murmured:
+"The fable of Pandora is only too true; I dare not be angry any longer
+with those poets who have written severely against women.  Alas, they are
+all false and faithless!  O Kassandane, how the Gods deceive us! they
+grant us the gift of old age, only to strip us bare like trees in winter,
+and show us that all our fancied gold was dross and all our pleasant and
+refreshing drinks poison!"
+
+Kassandane wept aloud and tore her costly robes; but Cambyses clenched
+his fist while Croesus was reading the following words:
+
+"Nitetis, daughter of Amasis of Egypt, to Bartja, son of the great Cyrus:
+
+"I have something important to tell you; I can tell it to no one but
+yourself.  To-morrow I hope I shall meet you in your mother's apartments.
+It lies in your power to comfort a sad and loving heart, and to give it
+one happy moment before death.  I have a great deal to tell you, and some
+very sad news; I repeat that I must see you soon."
+
+The desperate laughter, which burst from her son cut his mother to the
+heart.  She stooped down and was going to kiss him, but Cambyses resisted
+her caresses, saying: "It is rather a doubtful honor, mother, to be one
+of your favorites.  Bartja did not wait to be sent for twice by that
+treacherous woman, and has disgraced himself by swearing falsely.  His
+friends, the flower of our young men, have covered themselves with
+indelible infamy for his sake; and through him, your best beloved
+daughter .  .  .  but no!  Bartja had no share in the corruption of that
+fiend in Peri's form.  Her life was made up of hypocrisy and deceit, and
+her death shall prove that I know how to punish.  Now leave me, for I
+must be alone."
+
+They had scarcely left the room, when he sprang up and paced backwards
+and forwards like a madman, till the first crow of the sacred bird
+Parodar.  When the sun had risen, he threw himself on his bed again, and
+fell into a sleep that was like a swoon.
+
+Meanwhile Bartja had written Sappho a farewell letter, and was sitting
+over the wine with his fellow-prisoners and their elder friend Araspes.
+"Let us be merry," said Zopyrus, "for I believe it will soon be up with
+all our merriment.  I would lay my life, that we are all of us dead by
+to-morrow.  Pity that men haven't got more than one neck; if we'd two,
+I would not mind wagering a gold piece or two on the chance of our
+remaining alive."
+
+"Zopyrus is quite right," said Araspes; "we will make merry and keep our
+eyes open; who knows how soon they may be closed for ever?"
+
+"No one need be sad who goes to his death as innocently as we do," said
+Gyges.  "Here, cup-bearer, fill my goblet!"
+
+"Ah!  Bartja and Darius!"  cried Zopyrus, seeing the two speaking in a
+low voice together, "there you are at your secrets again.  Come to us and
+pass the wine-cup.  By Mithras, I can truly say I never wished for death,
+but now I quite look forward to the black Azis, because he is going to
+take us all together.  Zopyrus would rather die with his friends, than
+live without them."
+
+"But the great point is to try and explain what has really happened,"
+said Darius.
+
+"It's all the same to me," said Zopyrus, whether I die with or without an
+explanation, so long as I know I am innocent and have not deserved the
+punishment of perjury.  Try and get us some golden goblets, Bischen; the
+wine has no flavor out of these miserable brass mugs.  Cambyses surely
+would not wish us to suffer from poverty in our last hours, though he
+does forbid our fathers and friends to visit us."
+
+"It's not the metal that the cup is made of," said Bartja, "but the
+wormwood of death, "that gives the wine its bitter taste."
+
+"No, really, you're quite  out  there," exclaimed Zopyrus.  "Why I had
+nearly forgotten that strangling generally causes death."  As he said
+this, he touched Gyges and whispered: "Be as cheerful as you can!  don't
+you see that it's very hard for Bartja to take leave of this world?  What
+were you saying, Darius?"
+
+"That I thought Oropastes' idea the only admissible one, that a Div had
+taken the likeness of Bartja and visited the Egyptian in order to ruin
+us."
+
+"Folly!  I don't believe in such things."
+
+"But don't you remember the legend of the Div, who took the beautiful
+form of a minstrel and appeared before king Kawus?"
+
+"Of course," cried Araspes.  "Cyrus had this legend so often recited at
+the banquets, that I know it by heart.
+
+"Kai Kawus hearkened to the words of the disguised Div and went to
+Masenderan, and was beaten there by the Divs and deprived of his
+eyesight."
+
+"But," broke in Darius, "Rustem, the great hero, came and conquered
+Erscheng and the other bad spirits, freed the captives and restored sight
+to the blind, by dropping the blood of the slaughtered Divs into their
+eyes.  And so it will be with us, my friends!  We shall be set free, and
+the eyes of Cambyses and of our blind and infatuated fathers will be
+opened to see our innocence.  Listen, Bischen; if we really should be
+executed, go to the Magi, the Chaldwans, and Nebenchari the Egyptian, and
+tell them they had better not study the stars any longer, for that those
+very stars had proved themselves liars and deceivers to Darius."
+
+"Yes," interrupted Araspes, "I always said that dreams were the only real
+prophecies.  Before Abradatas fell in the battle of Sardis, the peerless
+Panthea dreamt that she saw him pierced by a Lydian arrow."
+
+"You cruel fellow!"  exclaimed Zopyrus.  "Why do you remind us, that it
+is much more glorious to die in battle than to have our necks wrung off"
+
+"Quite right," answered the elder man; "I confess that I have seen many a
+death, which I should prefer to our own,--indeed to life itself.  Ah,
+boys, there was a time when things went better than they do now."
+
+"Tell us something about those times."
+
+"And tell us why you never married.  It won't matter to you in the next
+world, if we do let out your secret."
+
+"There's no secret; any of your own fathers could tell you what you want
+to hear from me.  Listen then.  When I was young, I used to amuse myself
+with women, but I laughed at the idea of love.  It occurred, however,
+that Panthea, the most beautiful of all women, fell into our hands, and
+Cyrus gave her into my charge, because I had always boasted that my heart
+was invulnerable.  I saw her everyday, and learnt, my friends, that love
+is stronger than a man's will.  However, she refused all my offers,
+induced Cyrus to remove me from my office near her, and to accept her
+husband Abradatas as an ally.  When her handsome husband went out to the
+war, this high-minded, faithful woman decked him out with all her own
+jewels and told him that the noble conduct of Cyrus, in treating her like
+a sister, when she was his captive, could only be repaid by the most
+devoted friendship and heroic courage.  Abradatas agreed with her, fought
+for Cyrus like a lion, and fell.  Panthea killed herself by his dead
+body.  Her servants, on hearing of this, put an end to their own lives
+too at the grave of this best of mistresses.  Cyrus shed tears over this
+noble pair, and had a stone set up to their memory, which you can see
+near Sardis.  On it are the simple words: 'To Panthea, Abradatas, and the
+most faithful of servants.'  You see, children, the man who had loved
+such a woman could never care for another."
+
+The young men listened in silence, and remained some time after Araspes
+had finished, without uttering a word.  At last Bartja raised his hands
+to heaven and cried: "O thou great Auramazda!  why dost thou not grant us
+a glorious end like Abradatas?  Why must we die a shameful death like
+murderers?"
+
+As he said this Croesus came in, fettered and led by whip-bearers.  The
+friends rushed to him with a storm of questions, and Bartja too went up
+to embrace the man who had been so long his tutor and guide.  But the old
+man's cheerful face was severe and serious, and his eyes, generally so
+mild, had a gloomy, almost threatening, expression.  He waved the prince
+coldly back, saying, in a voice which trembled with pain and reproach:
+"Let my hand go, you infatuated boy! you are not worth all the love I
+have hitherto felt for you.  You have deceived your brother in a fourfold
+manner, duped your friends, betrayed that poor child who is waiting for
+you in Naukratis, and poisoned the heart of Amasis' unhappy daughter."
+
+Bartja listened calmly till he heard the word "deceived"; then his hand
+clenched, and stamping his foot, he cried: "But for your age and
+infirmities, and the gratitude I owe you, old man, these slanderous words
+would be your last."
+
+Croesus beard this outbreak of just indignation unmoved, and answered:
+"This foolish rage proves that you and Cambyses have the same blood in
+your veins.  It would become you much better to repent of your crimes,
+and beg your old friend's forgiveness, instead of adding ingratitude to
+the unheard-of baseness of your other deeds."
+
+At these words Bartja's anger gave way.  His clenched hands sank down
+powerless at his side, and his cheeks became pale as death.
+
+These signs of sorrow softened the old man's indignation.  His love was
+strong enough to embrace the guilty as well as the innocent Bartja, and
+taking the young man's right hand in both his own, he looked at him as a
+father would who finds his son, wounded on the battle-field, and said:
+"Tell me, my poor, infatuated boy, how was it that your pure heart fell
+away so quickly to the evil powers?"
+
+Bartja shuddered.  The blood came back to his face, but these words cut
+him to the heart.  For the first time in his life his belief in the
+justice of the gods forsook him.
+
+He called himself the victim of a cruel, inexorable fate, and felt like a
+bunted animal driven to its last gasp and hearing the dogs and sportsmen
+fast coming nearer.  He had a sensitive, childlike nature, which did not
+yet know how to meet the hard strokes of fate.  His body and his physical
+courage had been hardened against bodily and physical enemies; but his
+teachers had never told him how to meet a hard lot in life; for Cambyses
+and Bartja seemed destined only to drink out of the cup of happiness and
+joy.
+
+Zopyrus could not bear to see his friend in tears.  He reproached the old
+man angrily with being unjust and severe.  Gyges' looks were full of
+entreaty, and Araspes stationed himself between the old man and the
+youth, as if to ward off the blame of the elder from cutting deeper into
+the sad and grieved heart of the younger man.  Darius, however, after
+having watched them for some time, came up with quiet deliberation to
+Croesus, and said: "You continue to distress and offend one another, and
+yet the accused does not seem to know with what offence he is charged,
+nor will the accuser hearken to his defence.  Tell us, Croesus, by the
+friendship which has subsisted between us up to this clay, what has
+induced you to judge Bartja so harshly, when only a short time ago you
+believed in his innocence?"
+
+The old man told at once what Darius desired to know--that he had seen a
+letter, written in Nitetis' own hand, in which she made a direct
+confession of her love to Bartja and asked him to meet her alone.  The
+testimony of his own eyes and of the first men in the realm, nay, even
+the dagger found under Nitetis' windows, had not been able to convince
+him that his favorite was guilty; but this letter had gone like a burning
+flash into his heart and destroyed the last remnant of his belief in the
+virtue and purity of woman.
+
+"I left the king," he concluded, "perfectly convinced that a sinful
+intimacy must subsist between your friend and the Egyptian Princess,
+whose heart I had believed to be a mirror for goodness and beauty alone.
+Can you find fault with me for blaming him who so shamefully stained this
+clear mirror, and with it his own not less spotless soul?"
+
+"But how can I prove my innocence?"  cried Bartja, wringing his hands.
+"If you loved me you would believe me; if you really cared for me....."
+
+"My boy!  in trying to save your life only a few minutes ago, I forfeited
+my own.  When I heard that Cambyses had really resolved on your death, I
+hastened to him with a storm of entreaties; but these were of no avail,
+and then I was presumptuous enough to reproach him bitterly in his
+irritated state of mind.  The weak thread of his patience broke, and in a
+fearful passion he commanded the guards to behead me at once.  I was
+seized directly by Giv, one of the whip-bearers; but as the man is under
+obligations to me, he granted me my life until this morning, and promised
+to conceal the postponement of the execution.  I am glad, my sons, that I
+shall not outlive you, and shall die an innocent man by the side of the
+guilty."
+
+These last words roused another storm of contradiction.
+
+Again Darius remained calm and quiet in the midst of the tumult.  He
+repeated once more the story of the whole evening exactly, to prove that
+it was impossible Bartja could have committed the crime laid to his
+charge.  He then called on the accused himself to answer the charge of
+disloyalty and perfidy.  Bartja rejected the idea of an understanding
+with Nitetis in such short, decided, and convincing words, and confirmed
+his assertion with such a fearful oath, that Croesus' persuasion of his
+guilt first wavered, then vanished, and when Bartja had ended, he drew a
+deep breath, like a man delivered from a heavy burden, and clasped him in
+his arms.
+
+But with all their efforts they could come to no explanation of what had
+really happened.  In one thing, however, they were all agreed: that
+Nitetis loved Bartja and had written the letter with a wrong intention.
+
+"No one who saw her," cried Darius, "when Cambyses announced that Bartja
+had chosen a wife, could doubt for a moment that she was in love with
+him.  When she let the goblet fall, I heard Phaedime's father say that
+the Egyptian women seemed to take a great interest in the affairs of
+their brothers-in-law."
+
+While they were talking, the sun rose and shone pleasantly into the
+prisoners' room.
+
+Bartja murmured  Mithras means to make our parting difficult."
+
+"No," answered Croesus, "he only means to light us kindly on our way into
+eternity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The innocent originator of all this complicated misery had passed many a
+wretched hour since the birthday banquet.  Since those harsh words with
+which Cambyses had sent her from the hall, not the smallest fragment of
+news had reached her concerning either her angry lover, or his mother and
+sister.  Not a day had passed since her arrival in Babylon, that had not
+been spent with Kassandane and Atossa; but now, on her desiring to be
+carried to them, that she might explain her strange conduct, her new
+guard, Kandaules, forbade her abruptly to leave the house.  She had
+thought that a free and full account of the contents of her letter from
+home, would clear up all these misunderstandings.  She fancied she saw
+Cambyses holding out his hand as if to ask forgiveness for his hastiness
+and foolish jealousy.  And then a joyful feeling stole into her mind as
+she remembered a sentence she had once heard Ibykus say: "As fever
+attacks a strong man more violently than one of weaker constitution; so a
+heart that loves strongly and deeply can be far more awfully tormented by
+jealousy, than one which has been only superficially seized by passion."
+
+If this great connoisseur in love were right, Cambyses must love her
+passionately, or his jealousy could not have caught fire so quickly and
+fearfully.  Sad thoughts about her home, however, and dark forebodings of
+the future would mix with this confidence in Cambyses' love, and she
+could not shut them out.  Mid-day came, the sun stood high and burning in
+the sky, but no news came from those she loved so well; and a feverish
+restlessness seized her which increased as night came on.  In the
+twilight Boges came to her, and told her, with bitter scorn, that her
+letter to Bartja had come into the king's hands, and that the gardener's
+boy who brought it had been executed.  The tortured nerves of the
+princess could not resist this fresh blow, and before Boges left, he
+carried the poor girl senseless into her sleeping-room, the door of which
+he barred carefully.
+
+A few minutes later, two men, one old, the other young, came up through
+the trap-door which Boges had examined so carefully two days before.  The
+old man remained outside, crouching against the palace, wall; a hand was
+seen to beckon from the window: the youth obeyed the signal, swung
+himself over the ledge and into the room at a bound.  Then words of love
+were exchanged, the names Gaumata and Mandane whispered softly, kisses
+and vows given and received.  At last the old man clapped his hands.  The
+youth obeyed, kissed and embraced Nitetis' waiting-maid once more, jumped
+out of the window into the garden, hurried past the admirers of the blue
+lily who were just coming up, slipped with his companion into the trap-
+door which had been kept open, closed it carefully, and vanished.
+
+Mandane hurried to the room in which her mistress generally spent the
+evening.  She was well acquainted with her habits and knew that every
+evening, when the stars had risen, Nitetis was accustomed to go to the
+window looking towards the Euphrates, and spend hours gazing into the
+river and over the plain; and that at that time she never needed her
+attendance.  So she felt quite safe from fear of discovery in this
+quarter, and knowing she was under the protection of the chief of the
+eunuchs himself, could wait for her lover calmly.
+
+But scarcely had she discovered that her mistress had fainted, when she
+heard the garden filling with people, a confused sound of men's and
+eunuchs' voices, and the notes of the trumpet used to summon the
+sentries.  At first she was frightened and fancied her lover had been
+discovered, but Boges appearing and whispering: "He has escaped safely,"
+she at once ordered the other attendants, whom she had banished to the
+women's apartments during her rendezvous, and who now came flocking back,
+to carry their mistress into her sleeping-room, and then began using all
+the remedies she knew of, to restore her to consciousness.  Nitetis had
+scarcely opened her eyes when Boges came in, followed by two eunuchs,
+whom he ordered to load her delicate arms with fetters.
+
+Nitetis submitted; she could not utter one word, not even when Boges
+called out as he was leaving the room: "Make yourself happy in your cage,
+my little imprisoned bird.  They've just been telling your lord that a
+royal marten has been making merry in your dove-cote.  Farewell, and
+think of the poor tormented Boges in this tremendous heat, when you feel
+the cool damp earth.  Yes, my little bird, death teaches us to know our
+real friends, and so I won't have you buried in a coarse linen sack, but
+in a soft silk shawl.  Farewell, my darling!"
+
+The poor, heavily-afflicted girl trembled at these words, and when the
+eunuch was gone, begged Mandane to tell her what it all meant.  The girl,
+instructed by Boges, said that Bartja had stolen secretly into the
+hanging-gardens, and had been seen by several of the Achaemenidae as he
+was on the point of getting in at one of the windows.  The king had been
+told of his brother's treachery, and people were afraid his jealousy
+might have fearful consequences.  The frivolous girl shed abundant tears
+of penitence while she was telling the story, and Nitetis, fancying this
+a proof of sincere love and sympathy, felt cheered.
+
+When it was over, however, she looked down at her fetters in despair, and
+it was long before she could think of her dreadful position quietly.
+Then she read her letter from home again, wrote the words, "I am
+innocent," and told the sobbing girl to give the little note containing
+them to the king's mother after her own death, together with her letter
+from home.  After doing this she passed a wakeful night which seemed as
+if it would never end.  She remembered that in her box of ointments there
+was a specific for improving the complexion, which, if swallowed in a
+sufficiently large quantity, would cause death.  She had this poison
+brought to her, and resolved calmly and deliberately, to take her own
+life directly the executioner should draw near.  From that moment she
+took pleasure in thinking of her last hour, and said to herself: "It is
+true he causes my death; but he does it out of love."  Then she thought
+she would write to him, and confess all her love.  He should not receive
+the letter until she was dead, that he might not think she had written it
+to save her life.  The hope that this strong, inflexible man might
+perhaps shed tears over her last words of love filled her with intense
+pleasure.
+
+In spite of her heavy fetters, she managed to write the following words:
+"Cambyses will not receive this letter until I am dead.  It is to tell
+him that I love him more than the gods, the world, yes, more than my own
+young life.  Kassandane and Atossa must think of me kindly.  They will
+see from my mother's letter that I am innocent, and that it was only for
+my poor sister's sake that I asked to see Bartja.  Boges has told me that
+my death has been resolved upon.  When the executioner approaches, I
+shall kill myself.  I commit this crime against myself, Cambyses, to save
+you from doing a disgraceful deed."
+
+This note and her mother's she gave to the weeping Mandane, and begged
+her to give both to Cambyses when she was gone.  She then fell on her
+knees and prayed to the gods of her fathers to forgive her for her
+apostasy from them.
+
+Mandane begged her to remember her weakness and take some rest, but she
+answered: "I do not need any sleep, because, you know, I have such little
+waking-time still left me."
+
+As she went on praying and singing her old Egyptian hymns, her heart
+returned more and more to the gods of her fathers, whom she had denied
+after such a short struggle.  In almost all the prayers with which she
+was acquainted, there was a reference to the life after death.  In the
+nether world, the kingdom of Osiris, where the forty-two judges of the
+dead pronounce sentence on the worth of the soul after it has been
+weighed by the goddess of truth and Thoth, who holds the office of writer
+in heaven, she could hope to meet her dear ones again, but only in case
+her unjustified soul were not obliged to enter on the career of
+transmigration through the bodies of different animals, and her body,
+to whom the soul had been entrusted, remained in a state of preservation.
+This, "if" filled her with a feverish restlessness.  The doctrine that
+the well-being of the soul depended on the preservation of the earthly
+part of every human being left behind at death, had been impressed on her
+from childhood.  She believed in this error, which had built pyramids and
+excavated rocks, and trembled at the thought that, according to the
+Persian custom, her body would be thrown to the dogs and birds of prey,
+and so given up to the powers of destruction, that her soul must be
+deprived of every hope of eternal life.  Then the thought came to her,
+should she prove unfaithful to the gods of her fathers again, and once
+more fall down before these new spirits of light, who gave the dead body
+over to the elements and only judged the soul?  And so she raised her
+hands to the great and glorious sun, who with his golden sword-like rays
+was just dispersing the mists that hung over the Euphrates, and opened
+her lips to sing her newly-learnt hymns in praise of Mithras; but her
+voice failed her, instead of Mithras she could only see her own great Ra,
+the god she had so often worshipped in Egypt, and instead of a Magian
+hymn could only sing the one with which the Egyptian priests are
+accustomed to greet the rising sun.
+
+This hymn brought comfort with it, and as she gazed on the young light,
+the rays of which were not yet strong enough to dazzle her, she thought
+of her childhood, and the tears gathered in her eyes.  Then she looked
+down over the broad plain.  There was the Euphrates with his yellow waves
+looking so like the Nile; the many villages, just as in her own home,
+peeping out from among luxuriant cornfields and plantations of fig-trees.
+To the west lay the royal hunting-park; she could see its tall cypresses
+and nut-trees miles away in the distance.  The dew was glistening on
+every little leaf and blade of grass, and the birds sang deliciously in
+the shrubberies round her dwelling.  Now and then a gentle breath of wind
+arose, carrying the sweet scent of the roses across to her, and playing
+in the tops of the slender, graceful palms which grew in numbers on the
+banks of the river and in the fields around.
+
+She had so often admired these beautiful trees, and compared them to
+dancing-girls, as she watched the wind seizing their heavy tops and
+swaying the slender stems backwards and forwards.  And she had often said
+to herself that here must be the home of the Phoenix, that wonderful bird
+from the land of palms, who, the priests said, came once in every five
+hundred years to the temple of Ra in Heliopolis and burnt himself in the
+sacred incense-flames, only to rise again from his own ashes more
+beautiful than before, and, after three days, to fly back again to his
+home in the East.  While she was thinking of this bird, and wishing that
+she too might rise again from the ashes of her unhappiness to a new and
+still more glorious joy, a large bird with brilliant plumage rose out of
+the dark cypresses, which concealed the palace of the man she loved and
+who had made her so miserable, and flew towards her.  It rose higher and
+higher, and at last settled on a palmtree close to her window.  She had
+never seen such a bird before, and thought it could not possibly be a
+usual one, for a little gold chain was fastened to its foot, and its tail
+seemed made of sunbeams instead of feathers.  It must be Benno, the bird
+of Ra!  She fell on her knees again and sang with deep reverence the
+ancient hymn to the Phoenix, never once turning her eyes from the
+brilliant bird.
+
+The bird listened to her singing, bending his little head with its waving
+plumes, wisely and inquisitively from side to side, and flew away
+directly she ceased.  Nitetis looked after him with a smile.  It was
+really only a bird of paradise that had broken the chain by which he had
+been fastened to a tree in the park, but to her he was the Phoenix.  A
+strange certainty of deliverance filled her heart; she thought the god Ra
+had sent the bird to her, and that as a happy spirit she should take that
+form.  So long as we are able to hope and wish, we can bear a great deal
+of sorrow; if the wished-for happiness does not come, anticipation is at
+least prolonged and has its own peculiar sweetness.  This feeling is of
+itself enough, and contains a kind of enjoyment which can take the place
+of reality.  Though she was so weary, yet she lay down on her couch with
+fresh hopes, and fell into a dreamless sleep almost against her will,
+without having touched the poison.
+
+The rising sun generally gives comfort to sad hearts who have passed the
+night in weeping, but to a guilty conscience, which longs for darkness,
+his pure light is an unwelcome guest.  While Nitetis slept, Mandane lay
+awake, tormented by fearful remorse.  How gladly she would have held back
+the sun which was bringing on the day of death to this kindest of
+mistresses, and have spent the rest of her own life in perpetual night,
+if only her yesterday's deed could but have been undone!
+
+The good-natured, thoughtless girl called herself a wretched murderess
+unceasingly, resolved again and again to confess the whole truth and so
+to save Nitetis; but love of life and fear of death gained the victory
+over her weak heart every time.  To confess was certain death, and she
+felt as if she had been made for life; she had so many hopes for the
+future, and the grave seemed so dreadful.  She thought she could perhaps
+have confessed the whole truth, if perpetual imprisonment had been all
+she had to fear; but death! no, she could not resolve on that.  And
+besides, would her confession really save the already condemned Nitetis?
+
+Had she not sent a message to Bartja herself by that unfortunate
+gardener's boy?  This secret correspondence had been discovered, and that
+was enough of itself to ruin Nitetis, even if she, Mandane, had done
+nothing in the matter.  We are never so clever as when we have to find
+excuses for our own sins.
+
+At sunrise, Mandane was kneeling by her mistress's couch, weeping
+bitterly and wondering that Nitetis could sleep so calmly.
+
+Boges, the eunuch, had passed a sleepless night too, but a very happy
+one.  His hated colleague, Kandaules, whom he had used as a substitute
+for himself, had been already executed, by the king's command, for
+negligence, and on the supposition that he had accepted a bribe; Nitetis
+was not only ruined, but certain to die a shameful death.  The influence
+of the king's mother had suffered a severe shock; and lastly, he had the
+pleasure of knowing, not only that he had outwitted every one and
+succeeded in all his plans, but that through his favorite Phaedime he
+might hope once more to become the all-powerful favorite of former days.
+That sentence of death had been pronounced on Croesus and the young
+heroes, was by no means an unwelcome thought either, as they might have
+been instrumental in bringing his intrigues to light.
+
+In the grey of the morning he left the king's apartment and went to
+Phaedime.  The proud Persian had taken no rest.  She was waiting for him
+with feverish anxiety, as a rumor of all that had happened had already
+reached the harem and penetrated to her apartments.  She was lying on a
+purple couch in her dressing-room; a thin silken chemise and yellow
+slippers thickly sown with turquoises and pearls composed her entire
+dress.  Twenty attendants were standing round her, but the moment she
+heard Boges she sent her slaves away, sprang up to meet him, and
+overwhelmed him with a stream of incoherent questions, all referring to
+her enemy Nitetis.
+
+"Gently, gently, my little bird," said Boges, laying his hand on her
+shoulder.  "If you can't make up your mind to be as quiet as a little
+mouse while I tell my story, and not to ask one question, you won't hear
+a syllable of it to-day.  Yes, indeed, my golden queen, I've so much to
+tell that I shall not have finished till to-morrow, if you are to
+interrupt me as often as you like.  Ah, my little lamb, and I've still so
+much to do to-day.  First I must be present at an Egyptian donkey-ride;
+secondly, I must witness an Egyptian execution  .  .  .  but I see I am
+anticipating my story; I must begin at the beginning.  I'll allow you to
+cry, laugh and scream for joy as much as you will, but you're forbidden
+to ask a single question until I have finished.  I think really I have
+deserved these caresses.  There, now I am quite at my ease, and can
+begin.  Once upon a time there was a great king in Persia, who had many
+wives, but he loved Phaedime better than the rest, and set her above all
+the others.  One day the thought struck him that he would ask for the
+hand of the King of Egypt's daughter in marriage, and he sent a great
+embassy to Sais, with his own brother to do the wooing for him--"
+
+"What nonsense!"  cried Phaedime impatiently; "I want to know what has
+happened now."
+
+"Patience, patience, my impetuous March wind.  If you interrupt me again,
+I shall go away and tell my story to the trees.  You really need not
+grudge me the pleasure of living my successes over again.  While I tell
+this story, I feel as happy as a sculptor when he puts down his hammer
+and gazes at his finished work."
+
+"No, no!"  said Phaedime, interrupting him again.  "I  cannot  listen
+now to what I know  quite well already.  I am dying of impatience, and
+every fresh report that the eunuchs and slave-girls bring makes it worse.
+I am in a perfect fever--I cannot wait.  Ask whatever else you like, only
+deliver me from this awful suspense.  Afterwards I will listen to you for
+days, if you wish."
+
+Boges' smile at these words was one of great satisfaction; he rubbed his
+hands and answered: "When I was a child I had no greater pleasure than to
+watch a fish writhing on the hook; now I have got you, my splendid golden
+carp, at the end of my line, and I can't let you go until I have sated
+myself on your impatience."
+
+Phaedime sprang up from the couch which she had shared with Boges,
+stamping her foot and behaving like a naughty child.  This seemed to
+amuse the eunuch immensely; he rubbed his hands again and again, laughed
+till the tears ran down over his fat cheeks, emptied many a goblet of
+wine to the health of the tortured beauty, and then went on with his
+tale: "It had not escaped me that Cambyses sent his brother (who had
+brought Nitetis from Egypt), out to the war with the Tapuri purely from
+jealousy.  That proud woman, who was to take no orders from me, seemed to
+care as little for the handsome, fair-haired boy as a Jew for pork, or an
+Egyptian for white beans.  But still I resolved to nourish the king's
+jealousy, and use it as a means of rendering this impudent creature
+harmless, as she seemed likely to succeed in supplanting us both in his
+favor.  It was long, however, before I could hit on a feasible plan.
+
+"At last the new-year's festival arrived and all the priests in the
+kingdom assembled at Babylon.  For eight days the city was full of
+rejoicing, feasting and merry-making.  At court it was just the same, and
+so I had very little time to think of my plans.  But just then, when I
+had hardly any hope of succeeding, the gracious Amescha cpenta sent a
+youth across my path, who seemed created by Angramainjus himself to suit
+my plan.  Gaumata, the brother of Oropastes, came to Babylon to be
+present at the great new-year's sacrifice.  I saw him first in his
+brother's house, whither I had been sent on a message from the king, and
+his likeness to Bartja was so wonderful, that I almost fancied I was
+looking at an apparition.  When I had finished my business with Oropastes
+the youth accompanied me to my carriage.  I showed no signs of
+astonishment at this remarkable likeness, treated him however, with
+immense civility, and begged him to pay me a visit.  He came the very
+same evening.  I sent for my best wine, pressed him to drink, and
+experienced, not for the first time, that the juice of the vine has one
+quality which outweighs all the rest: it can turn even a silent man into
+a chatter-box.  The youth confessed that the great attraction which had
+brought him to Babylon was, not the sacrifice, but a girl who held the
+office of upper attendant to the Egyptian Princess.  He said he had loved
+her since he was a child; but his ambitious brother had higher views for
+him, and in order to get the lovely Mandane out of his way, had procured
+her this situation.  At last he begged me to arrange an interview with
+her.  I listened good-naturedly, made a few difficulties, and at last
+asked him to come the next day and see how matters were going on.  He
+came, and I told him that it might be possible to manage it, but only if
+he would promise to do what I told him without a question.  He agreed to
+everything, returned to Rhagae at my wish, and did not come to Babylon
+again until yesterday, when he arrived secretly at my house, where I
+concealed him.  Meanwhile Bartja had returned from the war.  The great
+point now was to excite the king's jealousy again, and ruin the Egyptian
+at one blow.  I roused the indignation of your relations through your
+public humiliation, and so prepared the way for my plan.  Events were
+wonderfully in my favor.  You know how Nitetis behaved at the birthday
+banquet, but you do not know that that very evening she sent a gardener's
+boy to the palace with a note for Bartja.  The silly fellow managed to
+get caught and was executed that very night, by command of the king, who
+was almost mad with rage; and I took care that Nitetis should be as
+entirely cut off from all communication with her friends, as if she lived
+in the nest of the Simurg.  You know the rest."
+
+"But how did Gaumata escape?"
+
+"Through a trap-door, of which nobody knows but myself, and which stood
+wide open waiting for him.  Everything turned out marvellously; I even
+succeeded in getting hold of a dagger which Bartja had lost while
+hunting, and in laying it under Nitetis' window.  In order to get rid of
+the prince during these occurrences, and prevent him from meeting the
+king or any one else who might be important as a witness, I asked the
+Greek merchant Kolxus, who was then at Babylon with a cargo of Milesian
+cloth, and who is always willing to do me a favor, because I buy all the
+woollen stuffs required for the harem of him, to write a Greek letter,
+begging Bartja, in the name of her he loved best, to come alone to the
+first station outside the Euphrates gate at the rising of the Tistar-
+star.  But I had a misfortune with this letter, for the messenger managed
+the matter clumsily.  He declares that he delivered the letter to Bartja;
+but there can be no doubt that he gave it to some one else, probably to
+Gaumata, and I was not a little dismayed to hear that Bartja was sitting
+over the wine with his friends on that very evening.  Still what had been
+done could not be undone, and I knew that the witness of men like your
+father, Hystaslies, Croesus and Intaphernes, would far outweigh anything
+that Darius, Gyges and Araspes could say.  The former would testify
+against their friend, the latter for him.  And so at last everything went
+as I would have had it.  The young gentlemen are sentenced to death and
+Croesus, who as usual, presumed to speak impertinently to the king, will
+have lived his last hour by this time.  As to the Egyptian Princess, the
+secretary in chief has just been commanded to draw up the following
+order.  Now listen and rejoice, my little dove!  "'Nitetis, the
+adulterous daughter of the King of Egypt, shall be punished for her
+hideous crimes according to the extreme rigor of the law, thus: She shall
+be set astride upon an ass and led through the streets of Babylon; and
+all men shall see that Cambyses knows how to punish a king's daughter,
+as severely as his magistrates would punish the meanest beggar.
+
+--To Boges, chief of the eunuchs, is entrusted the execution of this
+order.
+
+By command of King Cambyses.  Ariabignes, chief of the Secretaries'
+
+"I had scarcely placed these lines in the sleeve of my robe, when the
+king's mother, with her garments rent, and led by Atossa, pressed hastily
+into the hall.  Weeping and lamentation followed; cries, reproaches,
+curses, entreaties and prayers; but the king remained firm, and I verily
+believe Kassandane and Atossa would have been sent after Croesus and
+Bartja into the other world, if fear of Cyrus's spirit had not prevented
+the son, even in this furious rage, from laying hands on his father's
+widow.  Kassandane, however, did not say one word for Nitetis.  She seems
+as fully convinced of her guilt as you and I can be.  Neither have we
+anything to fear from the enamored Gaumata.  I have hired three men to
+give him a cool bath in the Euphrates, before he gets back to Rhagae.
+Ah, ha!  the fishes and worms will have a jolly time!"
+
+Phaedime joined in Boges' laughter, bestowed on him all the flattering
+names which she had caught from his own smooth tongue, and in token of
+her gratitude, hung a heavy chain studded with jewels round his neck with
+her own beautiful arms.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Call everything that is beyond your comprehension a miracle
+Never so clever as when we have to find excuses for our own sins
+So long as we are able to hope and wish
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, BY EBERS, V6 ***
+
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