h a girdle of blue and white, the royal
colors of Persia. In this girdle gleamed a short, golden sword, its hilt
and scabbard thickly studded with opals and sky-blue turquoises. The
trousers were of the same rich material as the robe, fitting closely at
the ankle, and ending within a pair of short boots of light-blue leather.

The long, wide sleeves of his robe displayed a pair of vigorous arms,
adorned with many costly bracelets of gold and jewels; round his slender
neck and on his broad chest lay a golden chain.

Such was the youth who first sprang on shore. He was followed by Darius,
the son of Hystaspes, a young Persian of the blood royal, similar in
person to Bartja, and scarcely less gorgeously apparelled than he. The
third to disembark was an aged man with snow-white hair, in whose face
the gentle and kind expression of childhood was united, with the
intellect of a man, and the experience of old age. His dress consisted of
a long purple robe with sleeves, and the yellow boots worn by the
Lydians;--his whole appearance produced an impression of the greatest
modesty and a total absence of pretension.

[On account of these boots, which are constantly mentioned, Croesus
was named by the oracle "soft-footed."]

Yet this simple old man had been, but a few years before, the most envied
of his race and age; and even in our day at two thousand years' interval,
his name is used as a synonyme for the highest point of worldly riches
attainable by mankind. The old man to whom we are now introduced is no
other than Croesus, the dethroned king of Lydia, who was then living at
the court of Cambyses, as his friend and counsellor, and had accompanied
the young Bartja to Egypt, in the capacity of Mentor.

Croesus was followed by Prexaspes, the king's Ambassador, Zopyrus, the
son of Megabyzus, a Persian noble, the friend of Bartja and Darius; and,
lastly, by his own son, the slender, pale Gyges, who after having become
dumb in his fourth year through the fearful anguish he had suffered on
his father's account at the taking of Sardis, had now recovered the power
of speech.

Psamtik descended the steps to welcome the strangers. His austere, sallow
face endeavored to assume a smile. The high officials in his train bowed
down nearly to the ground, allowing their arms to hang loosely at their
sides. The Persians, crossing their hands on their breasts, cast
themselves on the earth before the heir to the Egyptian throne. When th