. Smerdis was,
therefore, very careful to avoid being seen in private, by keeping
himself closely secluded. He shut himself up in the apartments of his
palace at Susa, within the citadel, and never invited the Persian
nobles to visit him there.

Among the other means of luxury and pleasure which Smerdis found in
the royal palaces, and which he appropriated to his own enjoyment,
were Cambyses's wives. In those times, Oriental princes and
potentates--as is, in fact, the case at the present day, in many
Oriental countries--possessed a great number of wives, who were bound
to them by different sorts of matrimonial ties, more or less
permanent, and bringing them into relations more or less intimate with
their husband and sovereign. These wives were in many respects in the
condition of slaves: in one particular they were especially so,
namely, that on the death of a sovereign they descended, like any
other property, to the heir, who added as many of them as he pleased
to his own seraglio. Until this was done, the unfortunate women were
shut up in close seclusion on the death of their lord, like mourners
who retire from the world when suffering any great and severe
bereavement.

The wives of Cambyses were appropriated by Smerdis to himself on his
taking possession of the throne and hearing of Cambyses's death. Among
them was Atossa, who has already been mentioned as the daughter of
Cyrus, and, of course, the sister of Cambyses as well as his wife. In
order to prevent these court ladies from being the means, in any way,
of discovering the imposture which he was practicing, the magian
continued to keep them all closely shut up in their several separate
apartments, only allowing a favored few to visit him, one by one, in
turn, while he prevented their having any communication with one
another.

The name of one of these ladies was Phaedyma. She was the daughter of a
Persian noble of the highest rank and influence, named Otanes. Otanes,
as well as some other nobles of the court, had observed and reflected
upon the extraordinary circumstances connected with the accession of
Smerdis to the throne, and the singular mode of life that he led in
secluding himself, in a manner so extraordinary for a Persian monarch,
from all intercourse with his nobles and his people. The suspicions of
Otanes and his associates were excited, but no one dared to
communicate his thoughts to the others. At length, however, Otanes,
who was a man of great