mpered Eulaeus sinking on his knees before the king.

"He confesses his crime!" cried Euergetes; he laid his hand on the
girdle of his weeping subordinate, and commanded Hierax to hand him over
without delay to the watch, and to have him hanged before all beholders
by the great gate of the citadel. Eulaeus tried to pray for mercy and
to speak, but the powerful officer, who hated the contemptible wretch,
dragged him up, and out of the room.

"You were quite right to lay your complaint before me," said Euergetes
while Eulaeus cries and howls were still audible on the stairs. "And you
see that I know how to punish those who dare to offend a guest."

"He has only met with the portion he has deserved for years," replied
Publius. "But now that we stand face to face, man to man, I must close
my account with you too. In your service and by your orders Eulaeus set
two assassins to lie in wait for me--"

"Publius Cornelius Scipio!" cried the king, interrupting his enemy in an
ominous tone; but the Roman went on, calmly and quietly:

"I am saying nothing that I cannot support by witnesses; and I have
truly set forth, in two letters, that king Euergetes during the past
night has attempted the life of an ambassador from Rome. One of these
despatches is addressed to my father, the other to Popilius Lamas, and
both are already on their way to Rome. I have given instructions that
they are to be opened if, in the course of three months reckoned from
the present date, I have not demanded them back. You see you must needs
make it convenient to protect my life, and to carry out whatever I may
require of you. If you obey my will in everything I may demand, all that
has happened this night shall remain a secret between you and me and
a third person, for whose silence I will be answerable; this I promise
you, and I never broke my word."

"Speak," said the king flinging himself on the couch, and plucking the
feathers from the fan Cleopatra had forgotten, while Publius went on
speaking.

"First I demand a free pardon for Philotas of Syracuse, 'relative of
the king,' and president of the body of the Chrematistes, his immediate
release, with his wife, from their forced labor, and their return from
the mines."

"They both are dead," said Euergetes, "my brother can vouch for it."

"Then I require you to have it declared by special decree that Philotas
was condemned unjustly, and that he is reinstated in all the dignities
he was deprived o