.

"Amasis, the King of Egypt, has dared to make sport of you, the lord of
the world. That gentle girl was not his daughter, though she herself
believed that she was; she . . ."

"Impossible!"

"It would seem so, and yet I am speaking the simple truth. Amasis spun a
web of lies, in which he managed to entrap, not only the whole world, but
you too, my Sovereign. Nitetis, the most lovely creature ever born of
woman, was the daughter of a king, but not of the usurper Amasis. Hophra,
the rightful king of Egypt, was the father of this pearl among women. You
may well frown, my Sovereign. It is a cruel thing to be betrayed by one's
friends and allies."

Cambyses spurred his horse, and after a silence of some moments, kept by
Phanes purposely, that his words might make a deeper impression, cried,
"Tell me more! I wish to know everything."

"Hophra had been living twenty years in easy captivity in Sais after his
dethronement, when his wife, who had borne him three children and buried
them all, felt that she was about to give birth to a fourth. Hophra, in
his joy, determined to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the temple of
Pacht, the Egyptian goddess supposed to confer the blessing of children,
when, on his way thither, a former magnate of his court, named
Patarbemis, whom, in a fit of unjust anger, he had ignominiously
mutilated, fell upon him with a troop of slaves and massacred him. Amasis
had the unhappy widow brought to his palace at once, and assigned her an
apartment next to the one occupied by his own queen Ladice, who was also
expecting soon to give birth to a child. A girl was born to Hophra's
widow, but the mother died in the same hour, and two days later Ladice
bore a child also.--But I see we are in the court of the palace. If you
allow, I will have the report of the physician, by whom this imposture
was effected, read before you. Several of his notes have, by a remarkable
conjuncture of circumstances, which I will explain to you later, fallen
into my hands. A former high-priest of Heliopolis, Onuphis, is now living
in Babylon, and understands all the different styles of writing in use
among his countrymen. Nebenchari will, of course, refuse to help in
disclosing an imposture, which must inevitably lead to the ruin of his
country."

"In an hour I expect to see you here with the man you have just spoken
of. Croesus, Nebenchari, and all the Achaemenidae who were in Egypt, will
have to appear also. I must ha