with clean hands.
Is it not your law that he who is condemned to die has first the right
to set out his case for the honour of his name?"

"It is," said the King, I think because he was curious to hear what I
had to say. "Speak on."

"O King, although my blood is as high as your own, of that I say
nothing, for at the wish of your satrap I came to the East from Egypt as
a hunter, to show you how we of Egypt kill lions and other beasts. For
three months I have waited in the royal city seeking admission to the
presence of the King, and in vain. At length I was bidden to this hunt
when I was about to depart to my own land, and being taunted by your
servants, entered the reeds with my slave, and there slew a lion. Then
it pleased you to thrust a wager upon me which I did not wish to
take, as to which of us would shoot the most lions; a wager as I now
understand you did not mean that I should win, whatever might be my
skill, since you thought I knew that I must shoot at nothing till you
had first shot and killed the beasts or scared them away.

"So I matched myself against you, as hunter against hunter, for in the
field, as before the gods, all are equal, not as a slave against a king
who is determined to avenge defeat by death. We were posted and the
lions came. I shot at those which appeared opposite to me, or upon
my side, leaving those that appeared opposite to you, or on your side
unshot at, as is the custom of hunters. My skill, or my fortune, was
better than yours and I killed, whereas you missed or only wounded. In
the end a lioness sprang at you and I shot it lest it should kill you;
as could easily be proved by the arrow in its body. Now you say that I
must die because I have broken some laws of yours which men should
be ashamed to make, and to save your honour, pay me what I have won,
knowing that pearls and gold and slaves are of no value to a dying man
and can be taken back again. That is all the story.

"Yet I would add one word. You Easterns have two sayings which you teach
to your children; that they should learn to shoot with the bow, and to
tell the truth. O King, they are my last lessons to you. Learn to shoot
with the bow--which you cannot do, and to tell the truth which you have
not done. Now I have spoken and am ready to die and I thank you for
the patience with which you have heard my words, that, as the King does
_not_ live for ever, I hope one day to repeat to you more fully beyond
the grave."