"

His mind was, however, not at ease after his brother had gone.
Jealousy and suspicion in respect to Smerdis perplexed his waking
thoughts and troubled his dreams. At length, one night, he thought he
saw Smerdis seated on a royal throne in Persia, his form expanded
supernaturally to such a prodigious size that he touched the heavens
with his head. The next day, Cambyses, supposing that the dream
portended danger that Smerdis would be one day in possession of the
throne, determined to put a final and perpetual end to all these
troubles and fears, and he sent for an officer of his court,
Prexaspes--the same whose son he shot through the heart with an arrow,
as described in the last chapter--and commanded him to proceed
immediately to Persia, and there to find Smerdis, and kill him. The
murder of Prexaspes's son, though related in the last chapter as an
illustration of Cambyses's character, did not actually take place till
after Prexaspes returned from this expedition.

Prexaspes went to Persia, and executed the orders of the king by the
assassination of Smerdis. There are different accounts of the mode
which he adopted for accomplishing his purpose. One is, that he
contrived some way to drown him in the sea; another, that he poisoned
him; and a third, that he killed him in the forests, when he was out
on a hunting excursion. At all events, the deed was done, and
Prexaspes went back to Cambyses, and reported to him that he had
nothing further to fear from his brother's ambition.

In the mean time, Cambyses went on from bad to worse in his
government, growing every day more despotic and tyrannical, and
abandoning himself to fits of cruelty and passion which became more
and more excessive and insane. At one time, on some slight
provocation, he ordered twelve distinguished noblemen of his court to
be buried alive. It is astonishing that there can be institutions and
arrangements in the social state which will give one man such an
ascendency over others that such commands can be obeyed. On another
occasion, Cambyses's sister and wife, who had mourned the death of her
brother Smerdis, ventured a reproach to Cambyses for having destroyed
him. She was sitting at table, with some plant or flower in her hand,
which she slowly picked to pieces, putting the fragments on the table.
She asked Cambyses whether he thought the flower looked fairest and
best in fragments, or in its original and natural integrity. "It
looked best, cer