ire to rest,
some movement alarmed her. It was Gyges going away. She saw him. She
instantly understood the case. She was overwhelmed with indignation
and shame. She, however, suppressed and concealed her emotions; she
spoke to Candaules in her usual tone of voice, and he, on his part,
secretly rejoiced in the adroit and successful manner in which his
little contrivance had been carried into execution.

The next morning Nyssia sent, by some of her confidential messengers,
for Gyges to come to her. He came, with some forebodings, perhaps, but
without any direct reason for believing that what he had done had been
discovered. Nyssia, however, informed him that she knew all, and that
either he or her husband must die. Gyges earnestly remonstrated
against this decision, and supplicated forgiveness. He explained the
circumstances under which the act had been performed, which seemed, at
least so far as he was concerned, to palliate the deed. The queen was,
however, fixed and decided. It was wholly inconsistent with her ideas
of womanly delicacy that there should be two living men who had both
been admitted to her bed-chamber. "The king," she said, "by what he
has done, has forfeited his claims to me and resigned me to you. If
you will kill him, seize his kingdom, and make me your wife, all shall
be well; otherwise you must prepare to die."

From this hard alternative, Gyges chose to assassinate the king,
and to make the lovely object before him his own. The excitement of
indignation and resentment which glowed upon her cheek, and with
which her bosom was heaving, made her more beautiful than ever.

"How shall our purpose be accomplished?" asked Gyges. "The deed," she
replied, "shall be perpetrated in the very place which was the scene
of the dishonor done to me. I will admit you into our bed-chamber in
my turn, and you shall kill Candaules in his bed."

When night came, Nyssia stationed Gyges again behind the same door
where the king had placed him. He had a dagger in his hand. He waited
there till Candaules was asleep. Then at a signal given him by the
queen, he entered, and stabbed the husband in his bed. He married
Nyssia, and possessed himself of the kingdom. After this, he and
his successors reigned for many years over the kingdom of Lydia,
constituting the dynasty of the Mermnadae, from which, in process of
time, King Croesus descended.

The successive sovereigns of this dynasty gradually extended the
Lydian power o