for instead of the danger with which they threatened me, here comes an
unexpected happiness. Embrace me, my brother, and tell me the whole
story, that I may see whether I can help you to turn this hopeless dream,
as you call it, into a reality."

"You will remember that before our journey to Egypt, we went with the
entire court from Ecbatana to Susa. I was in command of the division of
the "Immortals" appointed to escort the carriages containing the king's
mother and sister, and his wives. In going through the narrow pass which
leads over the Orontes, the horses of your mother's carriage slipped.
The yoke to which the horses were harnessed broke from the pole, and the
heavy, four-wheeled carriage fell over the precipice without obstruction.

[There was a yoke at the end of the shaft of a Persian carriage,
which was fastened on to the backs of the horses and took the place
of our horse-collar and pole-chain.]

On seeing it disappear, we were horrified and spurred our horses to the
place as quickly as possible. We expected of course to see only
fragments of the carriages and the dead bodies of its inmates, but the
gods had taken them into their almighty protection, and there lay the
carriage, with broken wheels, in the arms of two gigantic cypresses which
had taken firm root in the fissures of the slate rocks, and whose dark
tops reached up to the edge of the carriage-road.

"As quick as thought I sprang from my horse and scrambled down one of the
cypresses. Your mother and sister stretched their arms to me, crying for
help. The danger was frightful, for the sides of the carriage had been
so shattered by the fall, that they threatened every moment to give way,
in which case those inside it must inevitably have fallen into the black,