The troops were exultant in their joy:  they shouted his praises, as “the conqueror of Pelusium” and the “best of the Achaemenidae.”

Their cries reached the king’s ears and made him very angry.  He knew he had been fighting at the risk of life, with real courage and the strength of a giant, and yet the day would have been lost if this boy had not presented him with the victory.  The brother who had embittered his days of happy love, was now to rob him of half his military glory.  Cambyses felt that he hated Bartja, and his fist clenched involuntarily as he saw the young hero looking so happy in the consciousness of his own well-earned success.

Phanes had been wounded and went to his tent; Aristomachus lay near him, dying.

“The oracle has deceived me, after all,” he murmured.  “I shall die without seeing my country again.”

“The oracle spoke the truth,” answered Phanes.  “Were not the last words of the Pythia?”

     ’Then shall the lingering boat to the beckoning meadows convey thee,
     Which to the wandering foot peace and a home will afford?’

“Can you misunderstand their meaning?  They speak of Charon’s lingering boat, which will convey you to your last home, to the one great resting-place for all wanderers—­the kingdom of Hades.”

“Yes, my friend, you are right there.  I am going to Hades.”

“And the Five have granted you, before death, what they so long refused, —­the return to Lacedaemon.  You ought to be thankful to the gods for granting you such sons and such vengeance on your enemies.  When my wound is healed, I shall go to Greece and tell your son that his father died a glorious death, and was carried to the grave on his shield, as beseems a hero.”

“Yes, do so, and give him my shield as a remembrance of his old father.  There is no need to exhort him to virtue.”

“When Psamtik is in our power, shall I tell him what share you had in his overthrow?”

“No; he saw me before he took to flight, and at the unexpected vision his bow fell from his hand.  This was taken by his friends as a signal for flight, and they turned their horses from the battle.”

“The gods ordain, that bad men shall be ruined by their own deeds.  Psamtik lost courage, for he must have believed that the very spirits of the lower world were fighting against him.”

“We mortals gave him quite enough to do.  The Persians fought well.  But the battle would have been lost without the guards and our troops.”

“Without doubt.”

“I thank thee, O Zeus Lacedaemonius.”

“You are praying?”

“I am praising the gods for allowing me to die at ease as to my country.  These heterogeneous masses can never be dangerous to Greece.  Ho, physician, when am I likely to die?”

The Milesian physician, who had accompanied the Greek troops to Egypt, pointed to the arrow-head sticking fast in his breast, and said with a sad smile, “You have only a few hours more to live.  If I were to draw the arrow from your wound, you would die at once.”