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 referenc