no regular education in that art. In his practice he
evinced so much medical skill, or, at least, exercised so much
adroitness in leading people to believe that he possessed it, as to
give him very soon a wide and exalted reputation. The people of AEgina
appointed him their physician, and assigned him a large salary for
his services in attending upon the sick throughout the island. This
was the usual practice in those days. A town, or an island, or any
circumscribed district of country, would appoint a physician as a
public officer, who was to devote his attention, at a fixed annual
salary, to any cases of sickness which might arise in the community,
wherever his services were needed, precisely as physicians serve in
hospitals and public institutions in modern times.

Democedes remained at AEgina two years, during which time his celebrity
increased and extended more and more, until, at length, he received an
appointment from the city of Athens, with the offer of a greatly
increased salary. He accepted the appointment, and remained in Athens
one year, when he received still more advantageous offers from
Polycrates, the king of Samos, whose history was given so fully in the
last chapter.

Democedes remained for some time in the court of Polycrates, where he
was raised to the highest distinction, and loaded with many honors. He
was a member of the household of the king, enjoyed his confidence in a
high degree, and attended him, personally, on all his expeditions. At
last, when Polycrates went to Sardis, as is related in the last
chapter, to receive the treasures of Oretes, and concert with him the
plans for their proposed campaigns, Democedes accompanied him as
usual; and when Polycrates was slain, and his attendants and followers
were made captive by Oretes, the unfortunate physician was among the
number. By this reverse, he found that he had suddenly fallen from
affluence, ease, and honor, to the condition of a neglected and
wretched captive in the hands of a malignant and merciless tyrant.

Democedes pined in this confinement for a long time; when, at length,
Oretes himself was killed by the order of Darius, it might have been
expected that the hour of his deliverance had arrived. But it was not
so; his condition was, in fact, made worse, and not better by it; for
Bagaeus, the commissioner of Darius, instead of inquiring into the
circumstances relating to the various members of Oretes's family, and
redressing the wr