and none of you understood a single word the others said, and then you
began singing in a way to make us laugh, and though you would not
listen to the singer you swore that it was right nobly sung, and then
each of you boasted of his own strength, and yet as soon as you got up
to dance, so far from keeping time to the measure, you could barely
keep your legs. And you seemed quite to have forgotten, grandfather,
that you were king, and your subjects that you were their sovereign.
Then at last I understood that you must be celebrating that 'free
speech' we hear of; at any rate, you were never silent for an
instant." [11] "Well, but, boy," said Astyages, "does your father
never lose his head when he drinks?" "Certainly not," said the boy.
"What happens then?" asked the king. "He quenches his thirst,"
answered Cyrus, "and that is all. No harm follows. You see, he has no
Sacas to mix his wine for him." "But, Cyrus," put in his mother, "why
are you so unkind to Sacas?" "Because I do so hate him," answered the
boy. "Time after time when I have wanted to go to my grandfather this
old villain has stopped me. Do please, grandfather, let me manage him
for three days." "And how would you set about it?" Astyages asked.
"Why," said the boy, "I will plant myself in the doorway just as he
does, and then when he wants to go in to breakfast I will say 'You
cannot have breakfast yet: HE is busy with some people,' and when he
comes for dinner I will say 'No dinner yet: HE is in his bath,' and as
he grows ravenous I will say 'Wait a little: HE is with the ladies of
the court,' until I have plagued and tormented him as he torments me,
keeping me away from you, grandfather, when I want to come." [12] Thus
the boy delighted his elders in the evening, and by day if he saw that
his grandfather or his uncle wanted anything, no one could forestall
him in getting it; indeed nothing seemed to give him greater pleasure
than to please them.