wo magians whom
Cambyses had left in charge of the government had contrived to seize
the throne. He reminded Cambyses that the name of one of them was
Smerdis, and that probably that was the Smerdis who was usurping the
supreme command. Cambyses said that he was convinced that this
supposition was true. His dream, in which he had seen a vision of
Smerdis, with his head reaching to the heavens, referred, he had no
doubt, to the magian Smerdis, and not to his brother. He began
bitterly to reproach himself for having caused his innocent brother to
be put to death; but the remorse which he thus felt for his crime, in
assassinating an imaginary rival, soon gave way to rage and resentment
against the real usurper. He called for his horse, and began to mount
him in hot haste, to give immediate orders, and make immediate
preparations for marching to Susa.

As he bounded into the saddle, with his mind in this state of
reckless desperation, the sheath, by some accident or by some
carelessness caused by his headlong haste, fell from his sword, and
the naked point of the weapon pierced his thigh. The attendants took
him from his horse, and conveyed him again to his tent. The wound, on
examination, proved to be a very dangerous one, and the strong
passions, the vexation, the disappointment, the impotent rage, which
were agitating the mind of the patient, exerted an influence extremely
unfavorable to recovery. Cambyses, terrified at the prospect of death,
asked what was the name of the town where he was lying. They told him
it was Ecbatane.

He had never thought before of the possibility that there might be
some other Ecbatane besides his splendid royal retreat in Media; but
now, when he learned that was the name of the place where he was then
encamped, he felt sure that his hour was come, and he was overwhelmed
with remorse and despair.

He suffered, too, inconceivable pain and anguish from his wound. The
sword had pierced to the bone, and the inflammation which had
supervened was of the worst character. After some days, the acuteness
of the agony which he at first endured passed gradually away, though
the extent of the injury resulting from the wound was growing every
day greater and more hopeless. The sufferer lay, pale, emaciated, and
wretched, on his couch, his mind, in every interval of bodily agony,
filling up the void with the more dreadful sufferings of horror and
despair.

At length, on the twentieth day after his wou