“Hophra had been living twenty years in easy captivity in Sais after his dethronement, when his wife, who had borne him three children and buried them all, felt that she was about to give birth to a fourth.  Hophra, in his joy, determined to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the temple of Pacht, the Egyptian goddess supposed to confer the blessing of children, when, on his way thither, a former magnate of his court, named Patarbemis, whom, in a fit of unjust anger, he had ignominiously mutilated, fell upon him with a troop of slaves and massacred him.  Amasis had the unhappy widow brought to his palace at once, and assigned her an apartment next to the one occupied by his own queen Ladice, who was also expecting soon to give birth to a child.  A girl was born to Hophra’s widow, but the mother died in the same hour, and two days later Ladice bore a child also.—­But I see we are in the court of the palace.  If you allow, I will have the report of the physician, by whom this imposture was effected, read before you.  Several of his notes have, by a remarkable conjuncture of circumstances, which I will explain to you later, fallen into my hands.  A former high-priest of Heliopolis, Onuphis, is now living in Babylon, and understands all the different styles of writing in use among his countrymen.  Nebenchari will, of course, refuse to help in disclosing an imposture, which must inevitably lead to the ruin of his country.”

“In an hour I expect to see you here with the man you have just spoken of.  Croesus, Nebenchari, and all the Achaemenidae who were in Egypt, will have to appear also.  I must have certainty before I can act, and your testimony alone is not sufficient, because I know from Amasis, that you have cause to feel a grudge against his house.”

At the time appointed all were assembled before the king in obedience to his command.

Onuphis, the former high-priest, was an old man of eighty.  A pair of large, clear, intelligent, grey eyes looked out of a head so worn and wasted, as to be more like a mere skull than the head of a living man.  He held a large papyrus-roll in his gaunt hand, and was seated in an easy chair, as his paralyzed limbs did not allow of his standing, even in the king’s presence.  His dress was snow-white, as beseemed a priest, but there were patches and rents to be seen here and there.  His figure might perhaps once have been tall and slender, but it was now so bent and shrunk by age, privation and suffering, as to look unnatural and dwarfish, in comparison with the size of his head.

Nebenchari, who revered Onuphis, not only as a high-priest deeply initiated in the most solemn mysteries, but also on account of his great age, stood by his side and arranged his cushions.  At his left stood Phanes, and then Croesus, Darius and Prexaspes.

The king sat upon his throne.  His face was dark and stern as he broke the silence with the following words:—­“This noble Greek, who, I am inclined to believe, is my friend, has brought me strange tidings.  He says that I have been basely deceived by Amasis, that my deceased wife was not his, but his predecessor’s daughter.”