eatened to give
way to the agitation caused by the events of the last months. Burning
and shivering by turns, he was at last forced to lie down. While the
attendants were disrobing him, he remembered his brother's present,
had the box fetched and opened, and then desired to be left alone. The
Egyptian paintings on the outside of the box reminded him of Nitetis,
and then he asked himself what she would have said to his deed. Fever
had already begun, and his mind was wandering as he took the beautiful
wax bust out of the box. He stared in horror at the dull, immovable
eyes. The likeness was so perfect, and his judgment so weakened by wine
and fever, that he fancied himself the victim of some spell, and yet
could not turn his eyes from those dear features. Suddenly the eyes
seemed to move. He was seized with terror, and, in a kind of convulsion,
hurled what he thought had become a living head against the wall. The
hollow, brittle wax broke into a thousand fragments, and Cambyses sank
back on to his bed with a groan.

From that moment the fever increased. In his delirium the banished
Phanes appeared, singing a scornful Greek song and deriding him in
such infamous words, that his fists clenched with rage. Then he saw his
friend and adviser, Croesus, threatening him in the very same words of
warning, which he had used when Bartja had been sentenced to death
by his command on account of Nitetis: "Beware of shedding a brother's
blood; the smoke thereof will rise to heaven and become a cloud,
that must darken the days of the murderer, and at last cast down the
lightnings of heaven upon his head."

And in his delirious fancy this figure of speech became a reality. A
rain of blood streamed down upon him from dark clouds; his clothes and
hands were wet with the loathsome moisture. He went down to the Nile to
cleanse himself, and suddenly saw Nitetis coming towards him. She had
the same sweet smile with which Theodorus had modelled her. Enchanted
with this lovely vision, he fell down before her and took her hand, but
he had scarcely touched it, when drops of blood appeared at the tips of
her delicate fingers, and she turned away from him with every sign
of horror. He humbly implored her to forgive him and come back; she
remained inexorable. He grew angry, and threatened her, first with his
wrath, and then with awful punishments. At last, as she only answered
his threats by a low scornful laugh, he ventured to throw his dagger at
h