ion 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 whi