urned and twisted the foot with so much
violence, in their attempts to restore the bones to their proper
position, as greatly to increase the pain and the inflammation.
Darius spent a week in extreme and excruciating suffering. He could
not sleep day nor night, but tossed in continual restlessness and
anguish on his couch, made constantly worse instead of better by every
effort of his physicians to relieve him.

At length somebody informed him that there was a Greek physician among
the captives that came from Sardis, and recommended that Darius should
send for him. The king, in his impatience and pain, was ready for any
experiment which promised the least hope of relief, and he ordered
that Democedes should be immediately summoned. The officers
accordingly went to the prison and brought out the astonished captive,
without any notice or preparation, and conducted him, just as he was,
ragged and wretched, and shackled with iron fetters upon his feet,
into the presence of the king. The fetters which such captives wore
were intended to allow them to walk, slowly and with difficulty, while
they impeded the movements of the feet so as effectually to prevent
any long or rapid flight, or any escape at all from free pursuers.

Democedes, when questioned by Darius, denied at first that he
possessed any medical knowledge or skill. Darius was, however, not
deceived by these protestations. It was very customary, in those days
of royal tyranny, for those who possessed any thing valuable to
conceal the possession of it: concealment was often their only
protection. Darius, who was well aware of this tendency, did not
believe the assurances of Democedes, and in the irritation and
impatience caused by his pain, he ordered the captive to be taken out
and put to the torture, in order to make him confess that he was
really a physician.

Democedes yielded without waiting to be actually put to the test. He
acknowledged at once, for fear of the torture, that he had had some
experience in medical practice, and the sprained ankle was immediately
committed to his charge. On examining the case, he thought that the
harsh and violent operations which the Egyptian physicians had
attempted were not required. He treated the inflamed and swollen joint
in the gentlest manner. He made fomenting and emollient applications,
which soothed the pain, subdued the inflammation, and allayed the
restlessness and the fever. The royal sufferer became quiet and ca