ful head, and blushing for shame, raised
her kindly, kissed her forehead, gave her a gold bracelet, and then,
perceiving her letter on the ground, told her she wished to be alone.
Mandane ran, rather than walked, out of the room in her eagerness
to show the splendid present she had just received to the inferior
attendants and slaves; and Nitetis, her eyes glistening and her heart
beating with excess of happiness, threw herself on to the ivory chair
which stood before her dressing-table, uttered a short prayer of
thanksgiving to her favorite Egyptian goddess, the beautiful Hathor,
kissed the gold chain which Cambyses had given her after plunging into
the water for her ball, then her letter from home, and rendered almost
over-confident by her great happiness, began to unroll it, slowly
sinking back into the purple cushions as she did so and murmuring: "How
very, very happy I am! Poor letter, I am sure your writer never thought
Nitetis would leave you a quarter of an hour on the ground unread."

In this happy mood she began to read, but her face soon grew serious and
when she had finished, the letter fell once more to the ground.

Her eyes, whose proud glance had brought the waiting-maid to her feet,
were dimmed by tears; her head, carried so proudly but a few minutes
before, now lay on the jewels which covered the table. Tears rolled down
among the pearls and diamonds, as strange a contrast as the proud tiara
and its unhappy, fainting wearer.

The letter read as follows:

"Ladice the wife of Amasis and Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt, to her
daughter Nitetis, consort of the great King of Persia.

"It has not been our fault, my beloved daughter, that you have remained
so long without news from home. The trireme by which we sent our letters
for you to AEgae was detained by Samian ships of war, or rather pirate
vessels, and towed into the harbor of Astypalaea.

"Polykrates' presumption increases with the continual success of his
undertakings, and since his victory over the Lesbians and Milesians, who
endeavored to put a stop to his depredations, not a ship is safe from
the attacks of his pirate vessels.

"Pisistratus is dead," but his sons are friendly to Polykrates. Lygdamis
is under obligations to him, and cannot hold his own in Naxos without
Samian help. He has won over the Amphiktyonic council to his side by
presenting the Apollo of Delos with the neighboring island of Rhenea.
His fifty-oared vessels, requiring to