partment. He threw a
few gold pieces to the slaves who bore the torches before him. He was so
very happy. Every thing had succeeded beyond his expectations:--the fate
of Nitetis was as good as decided, and he held the life of Kandaules,
his hated colleague, in his own hands.

Cambyses spent the night in pacing up and down his apartment. By
cock-crow he had decided that Nitetis should be forced to confess her
guilt, and then be sent into the great harem to wait on the concubines.
Bartja, the destroyer of his happiness, should set off at once for
Egypt, and on his return become the satrap of some distant provinces. He
did not wish to incur the guilt of a brother's murder, but he knew his
own temper too well not to fear that in a moment of sudden anger, he
might kill one he hated so much, and therefore wished to remove him out
of the reach of his passion.

Two hours after the sun had risen, Cambyses was riding on his fiery
steed, far in front of a Countless train of followers armed with
shields, swords, lances, bows and lassos, in pursuit of the game which
was to be found in the immense preserves near Babylon, and was to be
started from its lair by more than a thousand dogs.

[The same immense trains of followers of course accompanied the
kings on their hunting expeditions, as on their journeys. As the
Persian nobility were very fond of hunting, their boys were taught
this sport at an early age. According to Strabo, kings themselves
boasted of having been mighty hunters in the inscriptions on their
tombs. A relief has been found in the ruins of Persepolis, on which
the king is strangling a lion with his right arm, but this is
supposed to have a historical, not a symbolical meaning. Similar
representations occur on Assyrian monuments. Izdubar strangling a
lion and fighting with a lion (relief at Khorsabad) is admirably
copied in Delitzsch's edition of G. Smith's Chaldean Genesis.
Layard discovered some representations of hunting-scenes during his
excavations; as, for instance, stags and wild boars among the reeds;
and the Greeks often mention the immense troops of followers on
horse and foot who attended the kings of Persia when they went
hunting. According to Xenophon, Cyrop. I. 2. II. 4. every hunter
was obliged to be armed with a bow and arrows, two lances, sword and
shield. In Firdusi's Book of Kings we read that the lasso was also
a favorite weapon. Hawking wa