the whole world,
but you too, my Sovereign. Nitetis, the most lovely creature ever born
of woman, was the daughter of a king, but not of the usurper Amasis.
Hophra, the rightful king of Egypt, was the father of this pearl among
women. You may well frown, my Sovereign. It is a cruel thing to be
betrayed by one's friends and allies."

Cambyses spurred his horse, and after a silence of some moments, kept by
Phanes purposely, that his words might make a deeper impression, cried,
"Tell me more! I wish to know everything."

"Hophra had been living twenty years in easy captivity in Sais after his
dethronement, when his wife, who had borne him three children and buried
them all, felt that she was about to give birth to a fourth. Hophra, in
his joy, determined to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the temple
of Pacht, the Egyptian goddess supposed to confer the blessing of
children, when, on his way thither, a former magnate of his court,
named Patarbemis, whom, in a fit of unjust anger, he had ignominiously
mutilated, fell upon him with a troop of slaves and massacred him.
Amasis had the unhappy widow brought to his palace at once, and assigned
her an apartment next to the one occupied by his own queen Ladice, who
was also expecting soon to give birth to a child. A girl was born to
Hophra's widow, but the mother died in the same hour, and two days later
Ladice bore a child also.--But I see we are in the court of the palace.
If you allow, I will have the report of the physician, by whom this
imposture was effected, read before you. Several of his notes have, by
a remarkable conjuncture of circumstances, which I will explain to
you later, fallen into my hands. A former high-priest of Heliopolis,
Onuphis, is now living in Babylon, and understands all the different
styles of writing in use among his countrymen. Nebenchari will, of
course, refuse to help in disclosing an imposture, which must inevitably
lead to the ruin of his country."

"In an hour I expect to see you here with the man you have just spoken
of. Croesus, Nebenchari, and all the Achaemenidae who were in Egypt,
will have to appear also. I must have certainty before I can act, and
your testimony alone is not sufficient, because I know from Amasis, that
you have cause to feel a grudge against his house."

At the time appointed all were assembled before the king in obedience to
his command.

Onuphis, the former high-priest, was an old man of eighty. A pair of
lar