"

"That is as much as to say you are willing to accompany Cambyses' army
to Egypt?"

"Certainly I am; and when I see my enemies pining in disgrace and misery
I will cry unto them, 'Ah ha, ye cowards, the poor despised and exiled
physician, Nebenchari, has brought this wretchedness upon you!' Oh, my
books, my books! They made up to me for my lost wife and child. Hundreds
were to have learnt from them how to deliver the blind from the dark
night in which he lives, and to preserve to the seeing the sweetest
gift of the gods, the greatest beauty of the human countenance, the
receptacle of light, the seeing eye. Now that my books are burnt I have
lived in vain; the wretches have burnt me in burning my works. O my
books, my books!" And he sobbed aloud in his agony. Phanes came up and
took his band, saying: "The Egyptians have struck you, my friend, but
me they have maltreated and abused--thieves have broken into your
granaries, but my hearth and home have been burnt to ashes by
incendiaries. Do you know, man, what I have had to suffer at their
hands? In persecuting me, and driving me out of Egypt, they only did
what they had a right to do; by their law I was a condemned man; and I
could have forgiven all they did to me personally, for I loved Amasis,
as a man loves his friend. The wretch knew that, and yet he suffered
them to commit a monstrous, an incredible act--an act that a man's brain
refuses to take in. They stole like wolves by night into a helpless
woman's house--they seized my children, a girl and boy, the pride, the
joy and comfort of my homeless, wandering life. And how think you, did
they treat them? The girl they kept in confinement, on the pretext that
by so doing they should prevent me from betraying Egypt to Cambyses.
But the boy--my beautiful, gentle boy--my only son--has been murdered
by Psamtik's orders, and possibly with the knowledge of Amasis. My
heart was withered and shrunk with exile and sorrow, but I feel that it
expands--it beats more joyfully now that there is a hope of vengeance."

Nebenchari's sullen but burning glance met the flashing eye of the
Athenian as he finished his tale; he gave him his hand and said: "We are
allies."

The Greek clasped the offered hand and answered: "Our first point now is
to make sure of the king's favor."

"I will restore Kassandane's sight."

"Is that in your power?"

"The operation which removed Amasis' blindness was my own discovery.
Petammon stole it fro