n 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 t