so low, I hold to be happy as the gods themselves I have spoken."

He ceased, and pressed his hand on his wound. Cambyses gazed at him in
astonishment, stepped forward, and was just going to touch his girdle--
an action which would have been equivalent to the signing of a death-
warrant when his eye caught sight of the chain, which he himself had hung
round the Athenian's neck as a reward for the clever way in which he had
proved the innocence of Nitetis.

[The same sign was used by the last Darius to denote that his able
Greek general Memnon, who had offended him by his plainness of
speech, was doomed to death. As he was being led away, Memnon
exclaimed, in allusion to Alexander, who was then fast drawing near:
"Thy remorse will soon prove my worth; my avenger is not far off."
Droysen, Alex. d. Grosse, Diod. XVII. 30. Curtius III. 2.]

The sudden recollection of the woman he loved, and of the countless
services rendered him by Phanes, calmed his wrath his hand dropped. One
minute the severe ruler stood gazing lingeringly at his disobedient
friend; the next, moved by a sudden impulse, he raised his right hand
again, and pointed imperiously to the gate leading from the court.

Phanes bowed in silence, kissed the king's robe, and descended slowly
into the court. Psamtik watched him, quivering with excitement, sprang
towards the veranda, but before his lips could utter the curse which his
heart had prepared, he sank powerless on to the ground.

Cambyses beckoned to his followers to make immediate preparations for a
lion-hunt in the Libyan mountains.