ted him with his own
misfortunes, in losing, as he had done, years before, his own kingdom
of Lydia, and then accused him of having been the means, through his
foolish counsels, of leading his father, Cyrus, into the worst of the
difficulties which befell him toward the close of his life. At last,
becoming more and more enraged by the reaction upon himself of his own
angry utterance, he told Croesus that he had hated him for a long
time, and for a long time had wished to punish him; "and now," said
he, "you have given me an opportunity." So saying, he seized his bow,
and began to fit an arrow to the string. Croesus fled. Cambyses
ordered his attendants to pursue him, and when they had taken him, to
kill him. The officers knew that Cambyses would regret his rash and
reckless command as soon as his anger should have subsided, and so,
instead of slaying Croesus, they concealed him. A few days after,
when the tyrant began to express his remorse and sorrow at having
destroyed his venerable friend in the heat of passion, and to mourn
his death, they told him that Croesus was still alive. They had
ventured, they said, to save him, till they could ascertain whether it
was the king's real and deliberate determination that he must die. The
king was overjoyed to find Croesus still alive, but he would not
forgive those who had been instrumental in saving him. He ordered
every one of them to be executed.

Cambyses was the more reckless and desperate in these tyrannical
cruelties because he believed that he possessed a sort of charmed
life. He had consulted an oracle, it seems, in Media, in respect to
his prospects of life, and the oracle had informed him that he would
die at Ecbatane. Now Ecbatane was one of the three great capitals of
his empire, Susa and Babylon being the others. Ecbatane was the most
northerly of these cities, and the most remote from danger. Babylon
and Susa were the points where the great transactions of government
chiefly centered, while Ecbatane was more particularly the private
residence of the kings. It was their refuge in danger, their retreat
in sickness and age. In a word, Susa was their seat of government,
Babylon their great commercial emporium, but Ecbatane was their home.

And thus as the oracle, when Cambyses inquired in respect to the
circumstances of his death, had said that it was decreed by the fates
that he should die at Ecbatane, it meant, as he supposed, that he
should die in peace, in his