e senseless upon her fall,] and asked
her why she had thrown herself down; and gave her his oath, that if she
would speak the real truth, he would excuse her from punishment; but
that if she concealed any thing, he would have her body torn to pieces
by torments, and leave no part of it to be buried.

6. Upon this the woman paused a little, and then said, "Why do I spare
to speak of these grand secrets, now Pheroras is dead? that would only
tend to save Antipater, who is all our destruction. Hear then, O king,
and be thou, and God himself, who cannot be deceived, witnesses to the
truth of what I am going to say. When thou didst sit weeping by Pheroras
as he was dying," then it was that he called me to him, and said, "My dear
wife, I have been greatly mistaken as to the disposition of my brother
towards me, and have hated him that is so affectionate to me, and have
contrived to kill him who is in such disorder for me before I am dead.
As for myself, I receive the recompence of my impiety; but do thou bring
what poison was left with us by Antipater, and which thou keepest in
order to destroy him, and consume it immediately in the fire in my
sight, that I may not be liable to the avenger in the invisible world."
This I brought as he bid me, and emptied the greatest part of it into
the fire, but reserved a little of it for my own use against uncertain
futurity, and out of my fear of thee.

7. When she had said this, she brought the box, which had a small
quantity of this potion in it: but the king let her alone, and
transferred the tortures to Antiphilus's mother and brother; who both
confessed that Antiphilus brought the box out of Egypt, and that they
had received the potion from a brother of his, who was a physician at
Alexandria. Then did the ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus go round
all the palace, and became the inquisitors and discoverers of what could
not otherwise have been found out and brought such as were the freest
from suspicion to be examined; whereby it was discovered that Mariamne,
the high priest's daughter, was conscious of this plot; and her very
brothers, when they were tortured, declared it so to be. Whereupon
the king avenged this insolent attempt of the mother upon her son, and
blotted Herod, whom he had by her, out of his tretament, who had been
before named therein as successor to Antipater.

CHAPTER 31.

Antipater Is Convicted By Bathyllus; But He Still Returns
From Rome Withou