Georg Ebers - Ultimate Collection: 20+ Historical Novels & Short Stories. Georg Ebers
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led along with ropes round their necks. What follows is taken
entirely from the same passage in Herodotus.]
At the head of the train was the little prince Necho. He stretched his hands out to his father, begging him to punish the bad foreigners who wanted to kill him. At this sight the Egyptians wept in their exceeding great misery; but Psamtik’s eyes were dry. He bowed his tearless face nearly to the earth, and waved his child a last farewell.
After a short interval, the captives taken in Sais entered. Among them was Neithotep, the once powerful high-priest, clothed in rags and moving with difficulty by the help of a staff. At the entrance-gate he raised his eyes and caught sight of his former pupil Darius. Reckless of all the spectators around him, he went straight up to the young man, poured out the story of his need, besought his help, and ended by begging an alms. Darius complied at once, and by so doing, induced others of the Achaemenidae, who were standing by, to hail the old man jokingly and throw him little pieces of money, which he picked up laboriously and thankfully from the ground.
At this sight Psamtik wept aloud, and smote upon his forehead, calling on the name of his friend in a voice full of woe.
Cambyses was so astonished at this, that he came forward to the balustrade of the veranda, and pushing the flowers aside, exclaimed: “Explain thyself, thou strange man; the misfortunes of a beggar, not even akin to thee, move thy compassion, but thou canst behold thy son on the way to execution and thy daughters in hopeless misery without shedding a tear, or uttering a lament!”
Psamtik looked up at his conqueror, and answered: “The misfortunes of my own house, O son of Cyrus, are too great for tears; but I may be permitted to weep over the afflictions of a friend, fallen, in his old age, from the height of happiness and influence into the most miserable beggary.”
Cambyses’ face expressed his approval, and on looking round he saw that his was not the only eye which was filled with tears. Croesus, Bartja, and all the Persians-nay, even Phanes himself, who had served as interpreter to the kings-were weeping aloud.
The proud conqueror was not displeased at these signs of sympathy, and turning to the Athenian: “I think, my Greek friend” he said, “we may consider our wrongs as avenged. Rise, Psamtik, and endeavor to imitate yonder noble old man, (pointing to Croesus) by accustoming yourself to your fate. Your father’s fraud has been visited on you and your family. The crown, which I have wrested from you is the crown of which Amasis deprived my wife, my never-to-be-forgotten Nitetis. For her sake I began this war, and for her sake I grant you now the life of your son—she loved him. From this time forward you can live undisturbed at our court, eat at our table and share the privileges of our nobles. Gyges, fetch the boy hither. He shall be brought up as you were, years ago, among the sons of the Achaemenidae.”
The Lydian was hastening to execute this delightful commission, but Phanes stopped him before he could reach the door, and placing himself proudly between the king and the trembling, thankful Psamtik, said: “You would be going on a useless errand, noble Lydian. In defiance of your command, my Sovereign, but in virtue of the full powers you once gave me, I have ordered the grandson of Amasis to be the executioner’s first victim. You have just heard the sound of a horn; that was the sign that the last heir to the Egyptian throne born on the shores of the Nile has been gathered to his fathers. I am aware of the fate I have to expect, Cambyses. I will not plead for a life whose end has been attained. Croesus, I understand your reproachful looks. You grieve for the murdered children. But life is such a web of wretchedness and disappointment, that I agree with your philosopher Solon in thinking those fortunate to whom, as in former days to Kleobis and Biton, the gods decree an early death.
[Croesus, after having shown Solon his treasures, asked him whom he
held to be the most fortunate of men, hoping to hear his own name.
The sage first named Tellus, a famous citizen of Athens, and then
the brothers Kleobis and Biton. These were two handsome youths, who
had gained the prize for wrestling, and one day, when the draught-
animals had not returned from the field, dragged their mother
themselves to the distant temple, in presence of the people. The
men of Argos praised the strength of the sons,—the women praised
the mother who possessed these sons. She, transported with delight
at her sons’ deed and the people’s praise, went to the statue of the
goddess and besought her to give them the best that could fall to
the lot of men. When her prayer was over and the sacrifice offered,
the youths fell asleep, and never woke again. They were dead.
Herod. I, 31. Cicero. Tuscul. I. 47.]
“If I have ever been dear to you, Cambyses—if my counsels have been of any use, permit me as a last favor to say a few more words. Psamtik knows the causes that rendered us foes to each other. Ye all, whose esteem is worth so much to me, shall know them too. This man’s father placed me in his son’s stead at the head of the troops which had been sent to Cyprus. Where Psamtik had earned humiliation, I won success and glory. I also became unintentionally acquainted with a secret, which seriously endangered his chances of obtaining the crown; and lastly, I prevented his carrying off a virtuous maiden from the house of her grandmother, an aged woman, beloved and respected by all the Greeks. These are the sins which he has never been able to forgive; these are the grounds which led him to carry on war to the death with me directly I had quitted his father’s service. The struggle is decided now. My innocent children have been murdered at thy command, and I have been pursued like a wild beast. That has been thy revenge. But mine!—I have deprived thee of thy throne and reduced thy people to bondage. Thy daughter I have called my slave, thy son’s death-warrant was pronounced by my lips, and my eyes have seen the maiden whom thou persecutedst become the happy wife of a brave man. Undone, sinking ever lower and lower, thou hast watched me rise to be the richest and most powerful of my nation. In the lowest depth of thine own misery—and this has been the most delicious morsel of my vengeance—thou wast forced to see me—me, Phanes shedding tears that could not be kept back, at the sight of thy misery. The man, who is allowed to draw even one breath of life, after beholding his enemy so low, I hold to be happy as the gods themselves I have spoken.”
He ceased, and pressed his hand on his wound. Cambyses gazed at him in astonishment, stepped forward, and was just going to touch his girdle—an action which would have been equivalent to the signing of a death-warrant when his eye caught sight of the chain, which he himself had hung round the Athenian’s neck as a reward for the clever way in which he had proved the innocence of Nitetis.
[The same sign was used by the last Darius to denote that his able
Greek general Memnon, who had offended him by his plainness of
speech, was doomed to death. As he was being led away, Memnon
exclaimed, in allusion to Alexander, who was then fast drawing near:
“Thy remorse will soon prove my worth; my avenger is not far off.”
Droysen, Alex. d. Grosse, Diod. XVII. 30. Curtius III. 2.]
The sudden recollection of the woman he loved, and of the countless services rendered him by Phanes, calmed his wrath his hand dropped. One minute the severe ruler stood gazing lingeringly at his disobedient friend; the next, moved by a sudden impulse, he raised his right hand again, and pointed imperiously to the gate leading from the court.
Phanes bowed in silence, kissed the king’s robe, and descended slowly into the court. Psamtik watched him, quivering with excitement, sprang towards the veranda, but before his lips could utter the curse which his heart had prepared, he sank powerless on to the ground.
Cambyses beckoned to his followers to make immediate preparations for a lion-hunt in the Libyan mountains.
CHAPTER XIII.