fessed the
error, I should command to count out fifty blows of a stick to thee, so
that Thou shouldst remember that persons like me do not attack one man
with a crowd, or in the night-time."

Before the serene Istubar could finish the interpretation of this
speech, Sargon had crawled up to the prince and embraced his legs
earnestly.

"A great lord! a great king!" cried he. "Glory to Egypt, that has such
a ruler."

To this the prince answered,

"I will say more, Sargon. If an attack was made on thee yesterday, I
assure thee that no one of my courtiers made it. For I judge that a man
of such strength as Thou art must have broken more than one skull. But
my attendants are unharmed, every man of them."

"He has told truth, and spoken wisely," whispered Sargon to Istubar.

"But though," continued the prince, "this evil deed has happened, not
through my fault, or through that of my attendants, I feel bound to
decrease thy dissatisfaction with a city in which Thou wert met so
unworthily; hence I have visited thy bedchamber; hence I open to thee
thy house at all times, as often as them mayst wish to visit it, and I
beg thee to accept this small gift from me."

The prince drew forth from his tunic a chain set with rubies and
sapphires.

The gigantic Sargon shed tears; this moved the prince but did not
affect the indifference of Istubar. The priest saw that Sargon had
tears, joy, or anger, at call, as befitted the ambassador of a king
full of wisdom.

The viceroy sat a moment longer, and then took farewell of Sargon.
While going out, he thought that the Assyrians, though barbarians, were
not evil minded, since they knew how to respond to magnanimity.

Sargon was so touched that he gave order immediately to bring wine, and
he drank from midday till evening.

Some time after sunset the priest, Istubar, left Sargon's chamber for a
while; he returned soon, but through a concealed doorway. Behind him
appeared two men in dark mantles. When they had pushed their cowls
aside, Sargon recognized in one the high priest Mefres, in the other
Mentezufis the prophet.

"We bring thee, worthy ambassador, good news," said Mefres.

"May I be able to give you the like," cried the ambassador. "Be seated,
holy and worthy fathers. And though I have reddened eyes, speak to me
as if I were in perfect soberness; for when I am drunk my mind is
improved even. Is this not true, Istubar?"

"Speak on," said the Chaldean.

"Today," began Me