at her sons' deed and the people's praise, went to the statue of the
goddess and besought her to give them the best that could fall to
the lot of men. When her prayer was over and the sacrifice offered,
the youths fell asleep, and never woke again. They were dead.
Herod. I, 31. Cicero. Tuscul. I. 47.]

"If I have ever been dear to you, Cambyses--if my counsels have been of
any use, permit me as a last favor to say a few more words. Psamtik
knows the causes that rendered us foes to each other. Ye all, whose
esteem is worth so much to me, shall know them too. This man's father
placed me in his son's stead at the head of the troops which had been
sent to Cyprus. Where Psamtik had earned humiliation, I won success and
glory. I also became unintentionally acquainted with a secret, which
seriously endangered his chances of obtaining the crown; and lastly, I
prevented his carrying off a virtuous maiden from the house of her
grandmother, an aged woman, beloved and respected by all the Greeks.
These are the sins which he has never been able to forgive; these are the
grounds which led him to carry on war to the death with me directly I had
quitted his father's service. The struggle is decided now. My innocent
children have been murdered at thy command, and I have been pursued like
a wild beast. That has been thy revenge. But mine!--I have deprived
thee of thy throne and reduced thy people to bondage. Thy daughter I
have called my slave, thy son's death-warrant was pronounced by my lips,
and my eyes have seen the maiden whom thou persecutedst become the happy
wife of a brave man. Undone, sinking ever lower and lower, thou hast
watched me rise to be the richest and most powerful of my nation. In the
lowest depth of thine own misery--and this has been the most delicious
morsel of my vengeance--thou wast forced to see me--me, Phanes shedding
tears that could not be kept back, at the sight of thy misery. The man,
who is allowed to draw even one breath of life, after beholding his enemy