rcenaries and our
native soldiery, between our own people and the strangers. The shepherd
and his flock are at variance; the wheels of the state machinery are
grinding one another and thus the state itself, into total ruin. This
once, father, though never again, I must speak out clearly what is
weighing on my heart. While engaged in contending with the priests, thou
hast seen with calmness the young might of Persia roll on from the East,
consuming the nations on its way, and, like a devouring monster, growing
more and more formidable from every fresh prey. Thine aid was not, as
thou hadst intended, given to the Lydians and Babylonians against the
enemy, but to the Greeks in the building of temples to their false gods.
At last resistance seemed hopeless; a whole hemisphere with its rulers
lay in submission at the feet of Persia; but even then the gods
willed Egypt a chance of deliverance. Cambyses desired thy daughter in
marriage. Thou, however, too weak to sacrifice thine own flesh and blood
for the good of all, hast substituted another maiden, not thine own
child, as an offering to the mighty monarch; and at the same time, in
thy soft-heartedness, wilt spare the life of a stranger in whose hand he
the fortunes of this realm, and who will assuredly work its ruin; unless
indeed, worn out by internal dissension, it perish even sooner from its
own weakness!"

Thus far Amasis had listened to these revilings of all he held dearest
in silence, though pale, and trembling with rage; but now he broke forth
in a voice, the trumpet-like sound of which pealed through the wide
hall: "Know'st thou not then, thou boasting and revengeful son of evil,
thou future destroyer of this ancient and glorious kingdom, know'st
thou not whose life must be the sacrifice, were not my children, and the
dynasty which I have founded, dearer to me than the welfare of the whole
realm? Thou, Psamtik, thou art the man, branded by the gods, feared by
men--the man to whose heart love and friendship are strangers, whose
face is never seen to smile, nor his soul known to feel compassion!
It is not, however, through thine own sin that thy nature is thus
unblessed, that all thine undertakings end unhappily. Give heed, for now
I am forced to relate what I had hoped long to keep secret from thine
ears. After dethroning my predecessor, I forced him to give me his
sister Tentcheta in marriage. She loved me; a year after marriage there
was promise of a child. During