Nitetis submitted; she could not utter one word, not even when Boges called out as he was leaving the room:  “Make yourself happy in your cage, my little imprisoned bird.  They’ve just been telling your lord that a royal marten has been making merry in your dove-cote.  Farewell, and think of the poor tormented Boges in this tremendous heat, when you feel the cool damp earth.  Yes, my little bird, death teaches us to know our real friends, and so I won’t have you buried in a coarse linen sack, but in a soft silk shawl.  Farewell, my darling!”

The poor, heavily-afflicted girl trembled at these words, and when the eunuch was gone, begged Mandane to tell her what it all meant.  The girl, instructed by Boges, said that Bartja had stolen secretly into the hanging-gardens, and had been seen by several of the Achaemenidae as he was on the point of getting in at one of the windows.  The king had been told of his brother’s treachery, and people were afraid his jealousy might have fearful consequences.  The frivolous girl shed abundant tears of penitence while she was telling the story, and Nitetis, fancying this a proof of sincere love and sympathy, felt cheered.

When it was over, however, she looked down at her fetters in despair, and it was long before she could think of her dreadful position quietly.  Then she read her letter from home again, wrote the words, “I am innocent,” and told the sobbing girl to give the little note containing them to the king’s mother after her own death, together with her letter from home.  After doing this she passed a wakeful night which seemed as if it would never end.  She remembered that in her box of ointments there was a specific for improving the complexion, which, if swallowed in a sufficiently large quantity, would cause death.  She had this poison brought to her, and resolved calmly and deliberately, to take her own life directly the executioner should draw near.  From that moment she took pleasure in thinking of her last hour, and said to herself:  “It is true he causes my death; but he does it out of love.”  Then she thought she would write to him, and confess all her love.  He should not receive the letter until she was dead, that he might not think she had written it to save her life.  The hope that this strong, inflexible man might perhaps shed tears over her last words of love filled her with intense pleasure.

In spite of her heavy fetters, she managed to write the following words:  “Cambyses will not receive this letter until I am dead.  It is to tell him that I love him more than the gods, the world, yes, more than my own young life.  Kassandane and Atossa must think of me kindly.  They will see from my mother’s letter that I am innocent, and that it was only for my poor sister’s sake that I asked to see Bartja.  Boges has told me that my death has been resolved upon.  When the executioner approaches, I shall kill myself.  I commit this crime against myself, Cambyses, to save you from doing a disgraceful deed.”