"Meanwhile Kassandane's blindness had been cured, and this of course
tended not a little to disperse the king's melancholy.

"In short it was a very pleasant time, and I was just going to ask for
Atossa's hand in marriage, when Phanes went off to Arabia, and everything
was changed.

"No sooner had he turned his back on the gates of Babylon than all the
evil Divs seemed to have entered into the king. He went about, a moody,
silent man, speaking to no one; and to drown his melancholy would begin
drinking, even at an early hour in the morning, quantities of the
strongest Syrian wine. By the evening he was generally so intoxicated
that he had to be carried out of the hall, and would wake up the next
morning with headache and spasms. In the day-time he would wander about
as if looking for something, and in the night they often heard him
calling Nitetis. The physicians became very anxious about his health,
but when they sent him medicine he threw it away. It was quite right of
Croesus to say, as he did once 'Ye Magi and Chaldaeans! before trying to
cure a sick man we must discover the seat of his disease. Do you know it
in this case? No? Then I will tell you what ails the king. He has an
internal complaint and a wound. The former is called ennui, and the
latter is in his heart. The Athenian is a good remedy for the first, but
for the second I know of none; such wounds either scar over of
themselves, or the patient bleeds to death inwardly.'"

"I know of a remedy for the king though," exclaimed Otanes when he heard
these words. "We must persuade him to send for the women, or at least
for my daughter Phaedime, back from Susa. Love is good for dispersing
melancholy, and makes the blood flow faster." We acknowledged that he