d a short prayer thanking the gods for their mercies and
entreating a happy new year for himself and the Persians--named the
immense sum he intended to present to his countrymen on this day, and
then called on the staff bearers to bring the petitioners before his
face, who hoped to obtain some reasonable request from the king on this
day of grace.

As every petitioner had been obliged to lay his request before the
principal staff bearer the day before, in order to ascertain whether it
was admissible, they all received satisfactory answers. The petitions of
the women had been enquired into by the eunuchs in the same manner, and
they too were now conducted before their lord and master by Boges,
Kassandane alone remaining seated.

The long procession was opened by Nitetis and Atossa, and the two
princesses were immediately followed by Phaedime and another beauty. The
latter was magnificently dressed and had been paired with Phaedime by
Boges, in order to make the almost poverty-stricken simplicity of the
fallen favorite more apparent.

Intaphernes and Otanes looked as annoyed as Boges had expected, on seeing
their grandchild and daughter so pale, and in such miserable array, in
the midst of all this splendor and magnificence.

Cambyses had had experience of Phaedime's former extravagance in matters
of dress, and, when he saw her standing before him so plainly dressed and
so pale, looked both angry and astonished. His brow darkened, and as she
bent low before him, he asked her in an angry and tyrannical tone: "What
is the meaning of this beggarly dress at my table, on the day set apart
in my honor? Have you forgotten, that in our country it is the custom
never to appear unadorned before the king? Verily, if it were not my
birthday, and if I did not owe you some consideration as the daughter of
our dearest kinsman, I should order the eunuchs to take you back to the
harem, that you might have time to think over your conduct in solitude."

These words rendered the mortified woman's task much easier. . . . She began
to weep loud and bitterly, raising her hands and eyes to her angry lord
in such a beseeching manner that his anger was changed into compassion,
and he raised her from the ground with the question: "Have you a petition
to ask of me?"

"What can I find to wish for, now that the sun of my life has withdrawn
his light?" was her faltering answer, hindered by sobs.

Cambyses shrugged his shoulders, and asked again