er portion of the night rejoicing in the
consciousness of a great happiness, yet also troubled by the difficult
task which he could not escape.

When the market place was filling, gray-haired Philippus visited him.

He desired before the examination, for which every preparation had been
made, to understand personally the relation of his dead comrade's son to
the defeated conspiracy, and he soon perceived that Hermon's presence at
the banquet was due solely to an unlucky accident or in consequence of
the Queen's desire to win him over to her plot.

Yet he was forced to advise the blind sculptor to leave Alexandria. The
suspicion that he had been associated with the conspirators was the more
difficult to refute, because his Uncle Archias had imprudently allowed
himself to be persuaded by Proclus and Arsinoe to lend the Queen large
sums, which had undoubtedly been used to promote her abominable plans.

Philippus also informed him that he had just come from Archias, whom he
had earnestly urged to fly as quickly as possible from the persecution
which was inevitable; for, secure as Hermon's uncle felt in his
innocence, the receipts for the large sums loaned by him, which had just
been found in Proclus's possession, would bear witness against him. Envy
and ill will would also have a share in this affair, and the usually
benevolent King knew no mercy where crime against his own person was
concerned. So Archias intended to leave the city on one of his own ships
that very day. Daphne, of course, would accompany him.

The prisoner listened in surprise and anxiety.

His uncle driven from his secure possessions to distant lands! Daphne
taken from him, he knew not whither nor for how long a time, after he had
just been assured of her great love! He himself on the way to expose
himself to the malice and mockery of the whole city!

His heart contracted painfully, and his solicitude about his uncle's fate
increased when Philippus informed him that the conspirators had been
arrested at the banquet and, headed by Amyntas, the Rhodian, Chrysippus,
and Proclus, had perished by the executioner's sword at sunrise.

The Queen, Althea, and the other ladies were already on the way to
Coptos, in Upper Egypt, whither the King had exiled them.

Ptolemy had intrusted the execution of this severe punishment to
Alexander's former comrade as the most trustworthy and discreet of his
subjects, but rejected, with angry curtness, Philippus's attemp