, seeing that there was nothing else to be done, drew his
sword, cut off his brother's head, and escaped through the opening, not
forgetting to replace the stone behind him. He was only just in time, for
scarcely had he gained the cover of a clump of trees, when the soldiers of
the guard came running to the place and began to belabor the door. To
their surprise they found everything quiet and nothing displaced. They
examined the outside of the building thoroughly, and then, supposing that
they had been roused by a false alarm, they returned to the palace.

In the morning, Rhampsinitus paid his daily visit to the chamber, and
discovered the headless body in the trap. He was more puzzled than ever.
He examined the fastenings of the door and the whole of the chamber over
and over again, and no hole nor crevice could he find.

"Nevertheless," said he, "I have now bait for my trap. What can I do
better than set a thief to catch a thief?"

So he ordered the body to be hung from the outer wall of the chamber, and
placed sentinels to guard it, strictly charging them to bring before him
any one who showed pity or sorrow for the dead.

When the mother heard of her son's death and how the body had been
treated, she reproached Ladronius bitterly for his cowardice, and implored
him with many tears to bring back the body for proper burial. For the
Egyptians thought that unless a man's body were properly embalmed and
buried whole, he could have no life in the next world; so that it would be
a terrible misfortune if the head and the body were buried separately.
Ladronius attempted to comfort his mother, but did not dare to carry off
his brother's body so long as the sentinels were watching. In vain his
mother wept and entreated him, until at last her grief was turned to
anger, and she vowed that, if he did not obey her, she would go to the
king and tell him the whole story. Then Ladronius, seeing her so
determined, promised to do as she wished, and set his wits to work to
invent some means of carrying off the body without being caught by the
sentinels. At last he thought of a plan, which seemed to have some chance
of success. He hired two donkeys, and having bought some wineskins, which
were used in the place of bottles, he filled them with strong wine and
placed them on the donkeys' backs.

Thus equipped, and dressed up to look like an old merchant, he set out for
the place where his brother's body was suspended. When he drew near