"Is your brother younger or older than yourself?"

"I was the eldest of the family; my brother, the youngest, was the joy of
my father's old age."

"Did you ever notice a remarkable likeness between him and one of my
relations?"

"Yes, my King. Gaumata is so like your brother Bartja, that in the
school for priests at Rhagae, where he still is, he was always called
"the prince."

"Has he been at Babylon very lately?"

"He was here for the last time at the New Year's festival."

"Are you speaking the truth?"

"The sin of lying would be doubly punishable in one who wears my robes,
and holds my office."

The king's face flushed with anger at this answer and he exclaimed:
"Nevertheless you are lying; Gaumata was here yesterday evening. You
may well tremble."

"My life belongs to the king, whose are all things; nevertheless I swear
--the high-priest-by the most high God, whom I have served faithfully for
thirty years, that I know nothing of my brother's presence in Babylon
yesterday."