ne, the daughter of Pharnaspes,
who was a member of the royal family. By her he had issue two sons
and at least three daughters. The sons were Cambyses and Smerdis;
the daughters Atossa, Artystone, and one whose name is unknown to us.
Cassandane died before her husband, and was deeply mourned by him.
Shortly before his own death he took the precaution formally to settle
the succession. Leaving the general inheritance of his vast dominions to
his elder son, Cambyses, he declared it to be his will that the younger
should be entrusted with the actual government of several large and
important provinces. He thought by this plan to secure the well-being of
both the youths, never suspecting that he was in reality consigning
both to untimely ends, and even preparing the way for an extraordinary
revolution.

The ill effect of the unfortunate arrangement thus made appeared almost
immediately. Cambyses was scarcely settled upon the throne before he
grew jealous of his brother, and ordered him to be privately put to
death. His cruel orders were obeyed, and with so much secrecy that
neither the mode of the death, nor even the fact, was known to more than
a few. Smerdis was generally believed to be still alive; and thus an
opportunity was presented for personation--a form of imposture very
congenial to Orientals, and one which has often had very disastrous
consequences. We shall find in the sequel this opportunity embraced, and
results follow of a most stirring and exciting character.

It required time, however, to bring to maturity the fruits of the crime
so rashly committed. Cambyses, in the meanwhile, quite unconscious of
danger, turned his attention to military matters, and determined on
endeavoring to complete his father's scheme of conquest by the reduction
of Egypt. Desirous of obtaining a ground of quarrel less antiquated
than the alliance, a quarter of a century earlier, between Amasis and
Croesus, he demanded that a daughter of the Egyptian king should be sent
to him as a secondary wife. Amasis, too timid to refuse, sent a damsel
named Nitetis, who was not his daughter; and she, soon after her
arrival, made Cambyses acquainted with the fraud. A ground of quarrel
was thus secured, which might be put forward when it suited his purpose;
and meanwhile every nerve was being strained to prepare effectually
for the expedition. The difficulty of a war with Egypt lay in her
inaccessibility. She was protected on all sides by seas or