said,

"O King, you have declared that I must die and as this is so, I will
kneel to you no more who soon shall sup at the table of Osiris, and
there be far greater than any king, going before him with clean hands.
Is it not your law that he who is condemned to die has first the right
to set out his case for the honour of his name?"

"It is," said the King, I think because he was curious to hear what I
had to say. "Speak on."

"O King, although my blood is as high as your own, of that I say
nothing, for at the wish of your satrap I came to the East from Egypt
as a hunter, to show you how we of Egypt kill lions and other beasts.
For three months I have waited in the royal city seeking admission to
the presence of the King, and in vain. At length I was bidden to this
hunt when I was about to depart to my own land, and being taunted by
your servants, entered the reeds with my slave, and there slew a lion.
Then it pleased you to thrust a wager upon me which I did not wish to
take, as to which of us would shoot the most lions; a wager as I now
understand you did not mean that I should win, whatever might be my
skill, since you thought I knew that I must shoot at nothing till you
had first shot and killed the beasts or scared them away.

"So I matched myself against you, as hunter against hunter, for in the
field, as before the gods, all are equal, not as a slave against a
king who is determined to avenge defeat by death. We were posted and
the lions came. I shot at those which appeared opposite to me, or upon
my side, leaving those that appeared opposite to you, or on your side
unshot at, as is the custom of hunters. My skill, or my fortune, was