“What war?” asked the king, with the first smile that had been seen on his face for many days.

“We were only speaking in general of the possibility of such a thing,” answered Phanes carelessly; then, riding up to the king’s side, his voice took an impressive tone full of feeling, and looking earnestly into his face, he began:  “It is true, my Sovereign, that I was not born in this beautiful country as one of your subjects, nor can I boast of a long acquaintance with the most powerful of monarchs, but yet I cannot resist the presumptuous, perhaps criminal thought, that the gods at my birth appointed me to be your real friend.  It is not your rich gifts that have drawn me to you.  I did not need them, for I belong to the wealthier class of my countrymen, and I have no son,—­no heir,—­to whom I can bequeath my treasures.  Once I had a boy—­a beautiful, gentle child;—­but I was not going to speak of that,—­I . . .  Are you offended at my freedom of speech, my Sovereign?”

“What is there to offend me?” answered the king, who had never been spoken to in this manner before, and felt strongly attracted to the original foreigner.

“Till to-day I felt that your grief was too sacred to be disturbed, but now the time has come to rouse you from it and to make your heart glow once more.  You will have to hear what must be very painful to you.”

“There is nothing more now, that can grieve me.”

“What I am going to tell you will not give you pain; on the contrary, it will rouse your anger.”

“You make me curious.”

“You have been shamefully deceived; you and that lovely creature, who died such an early death a few days ago.”

Cambyses’ eyes flashed a demand for further information.

“Amasis, the King of Egypt, has dared to make sport of you, the lord of the world.  That gentle girl was not his daughter, though she herself believed that she was; she . . .”

“Impossible!”

“It would seem so, and yet I am speaking the simple truth.  Amasis spun a web of lies, in which he managed to entrap, not only the whole world, but you too, my Sovereign.  Nitetis, the most lovely creature ever born of woman, was the daughter of a king, but not of the usurper Amasis.  Hophra, the rightful king of Egypt, was the father of this pearl among women.  You may well frown, my Sovereign.  It is a cruel thing to be betrayed by one’s friends and allies.”

Cambyses spurred his horse, and after a silence of some moments, kept by Phanes purposely, that his words might make a deeper impression, cried, “Tell me more!  I wish to know everything.”