"Ah! Bartja and Darius!" cried Zopyrus, seeing the two speaking in a
low voice together, "there you are at your secrets again. Come to us and
pass the wine-cup. By Mithras, I can truly say I never wished for death,
but now I quite look forward to the black Azis, because he is going to
take us all together. Zopyrus would rather die with his friends, than
live without them."

"But the great point is to try and explain what has really happened,"
said Darius.

"It's all the same to me," said Zopyrus, whether I die with or without an
explanation, so long as I know I am innocent and have not deserved the
punishment of perjury. Try and get us some golden goblets, Bischen; the
wine has no flavor out of these miserable brass mugs. Cambyses surely
would not wish us to suffer from poverty in our last hours, though he
does forbid our fathers and friends to visit us."

"It's not the metal that the cup is made of," said Bartja, "but the
wormwood of death, "that gives the wine its bitter taste."

"No, really, you're quite out there," exclaimed Zopyrus. "Why I had
nearly forgotten that strangling generally causes death." As he said
this, he touched Gyges and whispered: "Be as cheerful as you can! don't
you see that it's very hard for Bartja to take leave of this world? What
were you saying, Darius?"

"That I thought Oropastes' idea the only admissible one, that a Div had
taken the likeness of Bartja and visited the Egyptian in order to ruin
us."