Part 30 (1/2)
”That we can easily discover, by putting him on trial,” said Phanes. ”Let him be brought into the palace-court to-morrow, and let the captives and the condemned be led past him. Then we shall see whether he is a man or a coward.”
”Be it so,” answered Cambyses. ”I will conceal myself and watch him un.o.bserved. You, Phanes, will accompany me, to tell me the name and rank of each of the captives.”
The next morning Phanes accompanied the king on to a balcony which ran round the great court of the palace-the court we have already described as being planted with trees. The listeners were hidden by a grove of flowering shrubs, but they could see every movement that took place, and hear every word that was spoken beneath them. They saw Psamtik, surrounded by a few of his former companions. He was leaning against a palm-tree, his eyes fixed gloomily on the ground, as his daughters entered the court. The daughter of Neithotep was with them, and some more young girls, all dressed as slaves; they were carrying pitchers of water. At sight of the king, they uttered such a loud cry of anguish as to wake him from his reverie. He looked up, recognized the miserable girls, and bowed his head lower than before; but only for a moment. Drawing himself up quickly, he asked his eldest daughter for whom she was carrying water. On hearing that she was forced to do the work of a slave for Phanes, he turned deadly pale, nodded his head, and cried to the girls, ”Go on.”
A few minutes later the captives were led into the court, with ropes round their necks, and bridles in their mouths.
[This statement of Herodotus (III. 14.) is confirmed by the monuments, on which we often see representations of captives being led along with ropes round their necks. What follows is taken entirely from the same pa.s.sage in Herodotus.]
At the head of the train was the little prince Necho. He stretched his hands out to his father, begging him to punish the bad foreigners who wanted to kill him. At this sight the Egyptians wept in their exceeding great misery; but Psamtik's eyes were dry. He bowed his tearless face nearly to the earth, and waved his child a last farewell.
After a short interval, the captives taken in Sais entered. Among them was Neithotep, the once powerful high-priest, clothed in rags and moving with difficulty by the help of a staff. At the entrance-gate he raised his eyes and caught sight of his former pupil Darius. Reckless of all the spectators around him, he went straight up to the young man, poured out the story of his need, besought his help, and ended by begging an alms. Darius complied at once, and by so doing, induced others of the Achaemenidae, who were standing by, to hail the old man jokingly and throw him little pieces of money, which he picked up laboriously and thankfully from the ground.
At this sight Psamtik wept aloud, and smote upon his forehead, calling on the name of his friend in a voice full of woe.
Cambyses was so astonished at this, that he came forward to the bal.u.s.trade of the veranda, and pus.h.i.+ng the flowers aside, exclaimed: ”Explain thyself, thou strange man; the misfortunes of a beggar, not even akin to thee, move thy compa.s.sion, but thou canst behold thy son on the way to execution and thy daughters in hopeless misery without shedding a tear, or uttering a lament!”
Psamtik looked up at his conqueror, and answered: ”The misfortunes of my own house, O son of Cyrus, are too great for tears; but I may be permitted to weep over the afflictions of a friend, fallen, in his old age, from the height of happiness and influence into the most miserable beggary.”
Cambyses' face expressed his approval, and on looking round he saw that his was not the only eye which was filled with tears. Croesus, Bartja, and all the Persians-nay, even Phanes himself, who had served as interpreter to the kings-were weeping aloud.
The proud conqueror was not displeased at these signs of sympathy, and turning to the Athenian: ”I think, my Greek friend” he said, ”we may consider our wrongs as avenged. Rise, Psamtik, and endeavor to imitate yonder n.o.ble old man, (pointing to Croesus) by accustoming yourself to your fate. Your father's fraud has been visited on you and your family. The crown, which I have wrested from you is the crown of which Amasis deprived my wife, my never-to-be-forgotten Nitetis. For her sake I began this war, and for her sake I grant you now the life of your son-she loved him. From this time forward you can live undisturbed at our court, eat at our table and share the privileges of our n.o.bles. Gyges, fetch the boy hither. He shall be brought up as you were, years ago, among the sons of the Achaemenidae.”
The Lydian was hastening to execute this delightful commission, but Phanes stopped him before he could reach the door, and placing himself proudly between the king and the trembling, thankful Psamtik, said: ”You would be going on a useless errand, n.o.ble Lydian. In defiance of your command, my Sovereign, but in virtue of the full powers you once gave me, I have ordered the grandson of Amasis to be the executioner's first victim. You have just heard the sound of a horn; that was the sign that the last heir to the Egyptian throne born on the sh.o.r.es of the Nile has been gathered to his fathers. I am aware of the fate I have to expect, Cambyses. I will not plead for a life whose end has been attained. Croesus, I understand your reproachful looks. You grieve for the murdered children. But life is such a web of wretchedness and disappointment, that I agree with your philosopher Solon in thinking those fortunate to whom, as in former days to Kleobis and Biton, the G.o.ds decree an early death.
[Croesus, after having shown Solon his treasures, asked him whom he held to be the most fortunate of men, hoping to hear his own name.
The sage first named Tellus, a famous citizen of Athens, and then the brothers Kleobis and Biton. These were two handsome youths, who had gained the prize for wrestling, and one day, when the draught- animals had not returned from the field, dragged their mother themselves to the distant temple, in presence of the people. The men of Argos praised the strength of the sons,-the women praised the mother who possessed these sons. She, transported with delight at her sons' deed and the people's praise, went to the statue of the G.o.ddess 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 so low, I hold to be happy as the G.o.ds 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.
CHAPTER XIII.
The waters of the Nile had begun to rise again. Two months had pa.s.sed away since Phanes' disappearance, and much had happened.
The very day on which he left Egypt, Sappho had given birth to a girl, and had so far regained strength since then under the care of her grandmother, as to be able to join in an excursion up the Nile, which Croesus had suggested should take place on the festival of the G.o.ddess Neith. Since the departure of Phanes, Cambyses' behavior had become so intolerable, that Bartja, with the permission of his brother, had taken Sappho to live in the royal palace at Memphis, in order to escape any painful collision. Rhodopis, at whose house Croesus and his son, Bartja, Darius and Zopyrus were constant guests, had agreed to join the party.
On the morning of the festival-day they started in a gorgeously decorated boat, from a point between thirty and forty miles below Memphis, favored by a good north-wind and urged rapidly forward by a large number of rowers.
A wooden roof or canopy, gilded and brightly painted, sheltered them from the sun. Croesus sat by Rhodopis, Theopompus the Milesian lay at her feet. Sappho was leaning against Bartja. Syloson, the brother of Polykrates, had made himself a comfortable resting-place next to Darius, who was looking thought fully into the water. Gyges and Zopyrus busied themselves in making wreaths for the women, from the flowers handed them by an Egyptian slave.
”It seems hardly possible,” said Bartja, ”that we can be rowing against the stream. The boat flies like a swallow.”
”This fresh north-wind brings us forward,” answered Theopompus. ”And then the Egyptian boatmen understand their work splendidly.”
”And row all the better just because we are sailing against the stream,” added Croesus. ”Resistance always brings out a man's best powers.”
”Yes,” said Rhodopis, ”sometimes we even make difficulties, if the river of life seems too smooth.”
”True,” answered Darius. ”A n.o.ble mind can never swim with the stream. In quiet inactivity all men are equal. We must be seen fighting, to be rightly estimated.”
”Such n.o.ble-minded champions must be very cautious, though,” said Rhodopis, ”lest they become contentious, and quarrelsome. Do you see those melons lying on the black soil yonder, like golden b.a.l.l.s? Not one would have come to perfection if the sower had been too lavish with his seed. The fruit would have been choked by too luxuriant tendrils and leaves. Man is born to struggle and to work, but in this, as in everything else, he must know how to be moderate if his efforts are to succeed. The art of true wisdom is to keep within limits.”
”Oh, if Cambyses could only hear you!” exclaimed Croesus. ”Instead of being contented with his immense conquests, and now thinking for the welfare of his subjects, he has all sorts of distant plans in his head. He wishes to conquer the entire world, and yet, since Phanes left, scarcely a day has pa.s.sed in which he has not been conquered himself by the Div of drunkenness.”
”Has his mother no influence over him?” asked Rhodopis. ”She is a n.o.ble woman.”
”She could not even move his resolution to marry Atossa, and was forced to be present at the marriage feast.”
”Poor Atossa!” murmured Sappho.
”She does not pa.s.s a very happy life as Queen of Persia,” answered Croesus; ”and her own naturally impetuous disposition makes it all the more difficult or her to live contentedly with this husband and mother; I am sorry to hear it said that Cambyses neglects her sadly, and treats her like a child. But the marriage does not seem to have astonished the Egyptians, as brothers and sisters often marry here.”
”In Persia too,” said Darius, putting on an appearance of the most perfect composure, ”marriages with very near relations are thought to be the best.”
”But to return to the king,” said Croesus, turning the conversation for Darius' sake. ”I can a.s.sure you, Rhodopis, that he may really be called a n.o.ble man. His violent and hasty deeds are repented of almost as soon as committed, and the resolution to be a just and merciful ruler has never forsaken him. At supper, for instance, lately, before his mind was clouded by the influence of wine, he asked us what the Persians thought of him in comparison with his father.”
”And what was the answer?” said Rhodopis. ”Intaphernes got us out of the trap cleverly enough,” answered Zopyrus, laughing. ”He exclaimed: 'We are of opinion that you deserve the preference, inasmuch as you have not only preserved intact the inheritance bequeathed you by Cyrus, but have extended his dominion beyond the seas by your conquest of Egypt.' This answer did not seem to please the king, however, and poor Intaphernes was not a little horrified to hear him strike his fist on the table and cry, 'Flatterer, miserable flatterer!' He then turned to Croesus and asked his opinion. Our wise friend answered at once: 'My opinion is that you have not attained to the greatness of your father; for,' added he in a pacifying tone, 'one thing is wanting to you-a son such as Cyrus bequeathed us in yourself.”
”First-rate, first-rate,” cried Rhodopis clapping her hands and laughing. ”An answer that would have done honor to the ready-witted Odysseus himself. And how did the king take your honeyed pill?”
”He was very much pleased, thanked Croesus, and called him his friend.”
”And I,” said Croesus taking up the conversation, ”used the favorable opportunity to dissuade him from the campaigns he has been planning against the long lived Ethiopians, the Ammonians and the Carthaginians. Of the first of these three nations we know scarcely anything but through fabulous tales; by attacking them we should lose much and gain little. The oasis of Ammon is scarcely accessible to a large army, on account of the desert by which it is surrounded; besides which, it seems to me sacrilegious to make war upon a G.o.d in the hope of obtaining possession of his treasures, whether we be his wors.h.i.+ppers or not. As to the Carthaginians, facts have already justified my predictions. Our fleet is manned princ.i.p.ally by Syrians and Phoenicians, and they have, as might be expected, refused to go to war against their brethren. Cambyses laughed at my reasons, and ended by swearing, when he was already somewhat intoxicated, that he could carry out difficult undertakings and subdue powerful nations, even without the help of Bartja and Phanes.”
”What could that allusion to you mean, my son?” asked Rhodopis.
”He won the battle of Pelusiam,” cried Zopyrus, before his friend could answer. ”He and no one else!”
”Yes,” added Croesus, ”and you might have been more prudent, and have remembered that it is a dangerous thing to excite the jealousy of a man like Cambyses. You all of you forget that his heart is sore, and that the slightest vexation pains him. He has lost the woman he really loved; his dearest friend is gone; and now you want to disparage the last thing in this world that he still cares for,-his military glory.”