i's form. Her life was made up of hypocrisy and deceit, and her
death shall prove that I know how to punish. Now leave me, for I must be
alone."

They had scarcely left the room, when he sprang up and paced backwards
and forwards like a madman, till the first crow of the sacred bird
Parodar. When the sun had risen, he threw himself on his bed again, and
fell into a sleep that was like a swoon.

Meanwhile Bartja had written Sappho a farewell letter, and was sitting
over the wine with his fellow-prisoners and their elder friend Araspes.
"Let us be merry," said Zopyrus, "for I believe it will soon be up with
all our merriment. I would lay my life, that we are all of us dead by
to-morrow. Pity that men haven't got more than one neck; if we'd two,
I would not mind wagering a gold piece or two on the chance of our
remaining alive."

"Zopyrus is quite right," said Araspes; "we will make merry and keep our
eyes open; who knows how soon they may be closed for ever?"

"No one need be sad who goes to his death as innocently as we do," said
Gyges. "Here, cup-bearer, fill my goblet!"

"Ah! Bartja and Darius!" cried Zopyrus, seeing the two speaking in a
low voice together, "there you are at your secrets again. Come to us and
pass the wine-cup. By Mithras, I can truly say I never wished for death,
but now I quite look forward to the black Azis, because he is going to
take us all together. Zopyrus would rather die with his friends, than
live without them."

"But the great point is to try and explain what has really happened,"
said Darius.

"It's all the same to me," said Zopyrus, "whether I die with or without
an explanation, so long as I know I am innocent and have not deserved
the punishment of perjury. Try and get us some golden goblets, Bischen;
the wine has no flavor out of these miserable brass mugs. Cambyses
surely would not wish us to suffer from poverty in our last hours,
though he does forbid our fathers and friends to visit us."

"It's not the metal that the cup is made of," said Bartja, "but the
wormwood of death, that gives the wine its bitter taste."

"No, really, you're quite out there," exclaimed Zopyrus. "Why I had
nearly forgotten that strangling generally causes death." As he said
this, he touched Gyges and whispered: "Be as cheerful as you can! don't
you see that it's very hard for Bartja to take leave of this world? What
were you saying, Darius?"

"That I thought Oropastes' idea the only admissible one,